Academics in Action!

A Model for Community-Engaged Research, Teaching, and Service

Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, Bernadette Doykos, Nina C. Martin, Allison McGuire, Sandra L. Barnes, Sandra L. Barnes

• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780823268818
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Higher Education

The academy is often described as an ivory tower, isolated from the community surrounding it. Presenting the theory, vision, and implementation of a socially engaged program for the Department of Human and Organizational Development (HOD) in Peabody's College of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University, Academics in Action! describes a more integrated model wherein students and faculty work with communities, learn from them, and bring to bear findings from theory and research to generate solutions to community problems.Offering examples of community-engaged theory, scholarship, teaching, and action, Academics in Action! describes the nuanced structures that foster and support their development within a research university. Theory and action span multiple ecological levels from individuals and small groups to organizations and social structures. The communities of engagement range from local neighborhoods and schools to arenas of national policy and international development.Reflecting the unique perspectives of research faculty, practitioners, and graduate students, Academics in Action! documents a specific philosophy of education that fosters and supports engagement; the potentially transformative nature of academic work for students, faculty, and the broader society; and some of the implications and challenges of action-oriented efforts in light of dynamics such as income inequality, racism, and global capitalism. This edited volume chronicles teaching, research, and community action that influences both inside and outside the classroom as well as presents dimensions of a participatory model that set such efforts into action.

Part I: Theories, Frameworks, and Twenty-First Century Deweyism

Although valuable for the sake of scholarly inquiry, academicians are increasingly challenged to make their research applicable and accessible outside the classroom. Moreover, more institutions of higher learning are realizing the untapped sources of knowledge in the public domain. Educational and social reform involves combining the potential and acumen found in both academic and public spaces to solve problems. This practice of collaborative capacity building is a hallmark feature of John Dewey (1916, 1927/1954, 1938). This premise reflects an indomitable approach for instruction and thoughtful inquiry. Several imperatives frame this understanding: (1) theoretical and praxis are not mutually exclusive domains but rather can and should inform each other; (2) theory can provide intellectual momentum to transport scholarship beyond journal outlets, classroom chalkboards, and school assignments; (3) familiarity with various theoretical frameworks expands our ability to understand and potentially address social problems; (4) an increasingly multicultural society requires us to acquire new skills and methods of engagement; and (5) individuals should question explanations and solutions that are not informed by some thoughtful, broader view of social issues. Together, these imperatives mean that intellectual scaffolding must be expected and encouraged to more effectively engage in academic work that is action- and community-oriented, practical, and culturally sensitive.

Informing theory with practice is not a new phenomenon; Dewey also espoused this approach (Dewey, 1916, 1927/1954, 1938). In the present volume, we endeavor to use Dewey’s principles of participatory democracy, lifelong learning, and experiential and constructivist learning, and extend his ideology by adopting and adapting it to respond to students’ developmental needs as classroom learners and global citizens and to tackle both chronic and new social challenges in communities. “Extending Deweyism” means acknowledging the timeless value of his broad tenets as well as being willing to modify them for best use in a society that is now international in its economic, political, cultural, and social scope. Reductionism and simplistic approaches, explanations, and decisions will no longer suffice. Researchers, teachers, practitioners, and students alike must be able to acquire, understand, and employ an array of skills, ideas, and paradigms to successfully negotiate society as global citizens.

Part I of this volume examines two theoretical frameworks that broadly inform the intellectual focus in the department of Human and Organizational Development (HOD) and, we contend, should be considered when attempting action-oriented research, teaching, and service. Each model emphasizes the importance of theory that intentionally engages praxis to promote individual, group, and community betterment. Each chapter presents fundamental assumptions associated with reflexive academic work that has strong implications outside the ivory tower and illustrates the relationship between the intangible world of thoughts, ideas, and meaning-making and the tangible realities of human development, human interactions, conflict, and community. The chapters challenge readers to become critical thinkers to develop synergy around various theoretical paradigms that can be employed to transform academics into action; they also lay the foundation for subsequent examples of the contemporary usage of Deweyism. Moreover, the theories described in these chapters undergird and inform the empirical studies in Part II as well as the departmental structures and processes detailed in Part III of this volume.

In Chapter 1, “John Dewey, Participatory Democracy, and University-Community Partnerships,” Deweyism is positioned as a paradigmatic lens to guide human development, teaching, and learning practices, as well as university-community engagement. This chapter provides a unique perspective on the possibilities associated with community-based work that thoughtfully reflects theory and practice.1 According to its authors, effective university-community partnerships are historically undergirded by the philosophy of John Dewey. Moreover, the authors make a strong case that a quest for lifelong learning should permeate academe and the larger society. The chapter details Dewey’s premise that citizens are interested and capable of actively participating in processes to address issues for the common good. Embracing this premise means that intellectual approaches tied to action research, problem-based learning, participatory research, and service learning become effective tools in educating and challenging society members toward proactive community engagement. The chapter provides the broad theoretical framework for the entire volume as well as key dimensions of Deweyism that are adopted and adapted in subsequent chapters.

Chapter 2, “The Ethical Foundations of Human and Organizational Development Programs: The Ethics of Human Development and Community Across the Curriculum,” illustrates the importance of ethical practices in teaching, research, and community service. According to these writers,2 professional ethics should permeate the efforts of students, researchers, practitioners, and anyone who embraces social justice tenets. Just as Deweyism informs HOD, so do aspirations for moral professional practices that focus on human betterment. Like Dewey, the writers of this chapter contend that interventions and programs intended to enhance society and contribute to the common good must be ethically centered. This chapter also describes approaches to counter unhealthy power dynamics, both individual and systemic, in favor of power that fuels collaboration and community. For the authors, practitioners, by definition, are ethically centered persons trained to foster individual, group, and community development. Such persons are self-reflective, culturally sensitive, intellectually prepared, and psychologically and emotionally willing to meet the task of community engagement head on! According to this theoretical framework, participating in efforts to benefit the common good will require personal traits such as courage, honesty, caring, community-mindedness, and a justice-orientation—all informed by the professional and practical training to make sound decisions. And during this lifelong process, the ethics of human development become contemporary expressions of Dewey in real time.

Both chapters in this section are theoretical in nature. They document several ideologies historic to HOD and that we believe to be critical at the foundation of any academic enterprise that is committed to social justice in research and action. They also suggest the existence and necessity of other departmental frames of reference expected in an interdisciplinary space. Yet neither chapter positions theory as a panacea or suggests that a paradigmatic focus alone constitutes academics in action. Instead, both illustrate how theory and practice must inform each other for community engagement for the common good to occur. The theoretical lenses for participatory work that are described in Part I speak to the centrality of: interdisciplinary inquiry; values that engender community action and self-reflection; multicultural appreciation; on-going intellectual and professional development; relationship-building between community partners and academe; and ultimately, proactive engagement to achieve transformation for individuals, groups, organizations, and society at large.

References

Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Dewey, J. (1927/1954). The public and its problems. Chicago: The Swallow Press.

Dewey, J. (1938). Education and experience. New York: Touchstone, Simon & Schuster.

1. The lead author, Robert Innes, is one of the HOD founders and a longtime Dewey advocate.

2. The lead author, Paul Dokecki, was one of the initial members of HOD and central to the development of its PhD program, Community Research in Action (CRA).

1 John Dewey, Participatory Democracy, and University-Community Partnerships

ROBERT INNES, LEIGH GILCHRIST, SUSAN FRIEDMAN, AND KRISTEN TOMPKINS

… if I were asked to name the most needed of all reforms in the spirit of education, I should say: “Cease conceiving of education as mere preparation for life, and make it the full meaning of the present life.”

—John Dewey, 1893

It is no longer the case that historically marginalized groups are simply excluded from good schools, jobs, neighborhoods, and the like. Rather, the terms of their inclusion—the rules that regulate their participation—have grown in importance.

—Patricia Hill Collins, 2009

Introduction

Occupy Wall Street Live-Streams Chicago March (Associated Press 2013)

Tea Party Plans to Abandon GOP Stars (ABSNews.com 2013)

Occupy Wall Street Protestors Regroup After Eviction (The Guardian 2013)

“Five Years Later, an Evolving Tea Party Movement Wades into the 2014 Elections” (Fox News 2013)

The preceding headlines were taken from recent news reports about two contemporary examples of participatory democracy. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the Occupy Wall Street or Tea Party movements,1 they represent examples of grassroots collective responses to societal change and concerns. Moreover, they inform the current chapter on the nature and scope of historic forms of participatory democracy and their implications for university-community partnerships. This chapter focuses on the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of universities as they endeavor to accomplish three global missions: teaching and learning, research and scholarship, and service to communities and society. It also considers some of the challenges universities face as they try to achieve synergy across these three missions and explores approaches to accomplish this broad objective based on the legacy of John Dewey. Additionally, the potential barriers to reaching this goal are contextualized within broader questions about the viability of participatory democracy, communicative action, and dialogic communication in a multicultural, post-modern society. We posit that the foundation for the rationale for many models for achieving productive university-community partnerships (for example, problem-based learning, action research, service learning, and participatory research) map back to the philosophy of John Dewey.

Dewey’s Philosophy as the Foundation for Higher Education Reform

Consistent with his role as one of the three founders of the school of philosophy known as American Pragmatism (with Charles Peirce and William James), John Dewey’s (1859–1952) philosophy has been useful as a guide to the development of theory and practice in a broad range of academic fields such as education, political science, psychology, and the arts. He was a political activist who lent his support to a range of progressive causes such as women’s suffrage and world peace. He sustained a lifelong commitment to addressing a broad range of societal problems through active participation in both educational and social reform. Dewey’s commitment to education reform and active involvement in addressing local community and societal problems began with his establishment of a laboratory school at The University of Chicago to test his theories of learning. This commitment continued throughout his 70-year career, especially in efforts to bring the spheres of academic and public life into active dialogue for cooperative problem solving.

Participatory Democracy

In the early twentieth century, Dewey wrote The Public and Its Problems (1927/1954) to respond to critics who questioned the efficacy of participatory democracy. He “had faith in the capacity of human beings for intelligent judgment and action if proper conditions are furnished” (Dewey, 1939, p. 2). Yet Dewey recognized a problem highlighted by his chief critic, Walter Lippmann (1925/1993), that is all too familiar in the political climate in the twenty-first century: that “powerful special interests” actively manipulate public opinion to their own ends. Lippmann’s solution was to create an elite technocracy made up of objective experts, specialists, and government bureaucrats. In contrast, Dewey advocated for the improvement of education to expand the capacity of people in face-to-face communities to engage in meaningful dialogue and problem solving. The core of Dewey’s democratic ideal was to foster productive communication that would help communities reach consensus solutions for the common good. A basic principle of participatory democracy as expressed in The Public and Its Problems is that “all those who are affected by social institutions must have a share in producing and managing them” (Dewey, 1927/1954, pp. 15–16). For Dewey (1916), “democracy is more than a fo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Half Title
• Introduction
• Part I: Theories, Frameworks, and Twenty-First Century Deweyism
• Part II: Implications and Responses: Academics in Action!
• Part III: Academic Structures That Foster Synergy, Collaboration, and Courses
• Conclusion: Academics in Action—Bridging Principles and Practice!
• About the Editors
• Index