I am, I am becoming: how community engagement changed our learning, teaching, and leadership

Abstract

We explore the development of community-engaged scholars and practitioners through two distinct lenses: faculty who facilitate engaged learning processes and student-practitioners who are enacting these processes in their work. We use an auto-ethnographic technique, our own stories, to describe the will (motivation) and capacity (knowledge) gained through community engagement. More importantly, we provide vivid accounts of marked differences in our teaching, learning, and leadership. As a result, we have become activists in our craft as practitioners and scholars.

Keywords:

• Engaged scholarship
• principal preparation
• faculty development
• community engagement
• auto-ethnography

Notes

1. Narratives have been used as a methodology and have proven valuable when one’s own experience is the unit of analysis. The narratives became a tool that helped us to focus and reflect on the student experience (Abbey et al., 1997; Bruner, 1988; Chase, 2005; Denzin, 1994; Polkinghorne, 1988). In essence, the narratives helped us ‘recall … strong metaphors, vivid characters, unusual phrasings, and the hold back on interpretation [which] invite the reader to emotionally “relive” the events of the author’ (Sparks, 1988, p. 1).

2. A Community Learning Exchange is a gathering of community members focused on both assets the community possesses as well as issues that need attention. Members are inclusive of people from different viewpoints and agendas as well as a mix of youth and elders. The Community Learning Exchange was born out of a W.K. Kellogg Foundation national initiative called the Kellogg Leadership for Community Change (KLCC). Started in 2002, the goal of KLCC was to redefine leadership development to be more inclusive of a broad spectrum of the community (Benham, Militello, Elissetche, Oliver, & Ortiz, 2007; Benham, Militello, & Halladay, 2005). Working in 11 communities across the country, KLCC generated local and national networks of like-minded people focused on community development efforts. The CLE applies specific strategies or pedagogies that honor local context and people (Guajardo et al., 2015). Since 2008 more than 15 national CLEs have taken place. Additionally, numerous local CLEs have been implemented based on the national model.