Tina M. Ellsworth and Toni Gates center their article around stories of Black joy, agency, and resistance of Black Kansas Citians. Ellsworth and Gates' collaboration demonstrates how educators can effectively construct partnerships between schools and grassroots organizations. The authors of this piece will guide educators in ways to find local…

Team teaching can be a valuable means of enabling cross-disciplinary collaboration, interdisciplinary study, and pedagogical innovation, but the logistical and intellectual challenges can seem too daunting to overcome. Here, we share the story of how four faculty members from professional writing, communications, and computing sciences developed a…

In order to confront lower than average completion rates in New York City and to provide a strong economic and civic foundation for Staten Island, the borough's three institutions of higher education, College of Staten Island/City University of New York, St. John's University, and Wagner College, have brought together their high school and…

The Kettering Foundation is a nonprofit, operating foundation rooted in the American tradition of cooperative research. The foundation seeks to identify and address the challenges to making democracy work as it should through interrelated program areas that focus on citizens, communities, and institutions. Each issue of this annual newsletter…

"A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy's Future," commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education, was published by the Association of American Colleges and Universities in 2012. Representing the work of the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (2012), the report builds a strong case for higher…

Although civic purposes are implicit in the mission statements of higher education institutions, American colleges and universities have not always embraced public engagement initiatives. This paper explores how the recent emergence of the engaged campus movement has helped move public engagement initiatives from the margins to the mainstream by…

Civic engagement has become an essential learning goal for institutions throughout higher education. Communication scholars employ various pedagogical tools to foster civic engagement. For instance, service learning has been shown to increase political and community engagement in courses such as family communication and public relations. Teachers…

Evidence has emerged that the civic engagement movement in US higher education may not be fulfilling its transformative potential, having lost sight of its core democratic purposes. Civic engagement conceptualised only in terms of activity and place--programmes in communities--may be easily accommodated to prevailing technocratic practices. For…

Today, the U.S. Department of Education joins the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, the American Commonwealth Partnership, and the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools in a new national call to action to infuse and enhance civic learning and democratic engagement for all students throughout the American…

Tennessee State University has a rich history of public service and civic engagement--thus the motto "Think, Work, Serve." Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University has grown dramatically from a small college to two campuses. We actively engage in adhering to the cornerstone of the land-grant universities: teaching, research, and outreach. Our…

A new form of scholarship, the scholarship of engagement, is emerging as a distinct set of practices within the general movement toward civic renewal in American higher education. This essay defines the core aspects of the scholarship of engagement and creates a taxonomy of five forms of engaged scholarship. Using a problem-driven, pluralistic…

Citizen participation and community education are critical to encouraging attractive and sustainable growth. The Alliance for Quality Growth (AQG), housed at the University of Georgia, was formed to increase awareness and understanding of the wide variety of planning and growth management tools available, including the charrette, a proven…

This model is designed to develop problem-solving skills and to involve diverse groups of people in seeking solutions to real problems of concern to them. It can be used in a simulated situation, such as a college classroom, for teaching systematic approaches to problem-solving, or it can be used by an agency or institution that wants to broaden…

Describes how English teachers can help students to "read" their world and become responsible and responsive citizens through community service projects which structure opportunities for students to engage in literacy struggles in the real world. (PRA)

This article features Project 540, a national civic education program directly engaging high-schoolers in the democratic process. Project 540 is a dynamic and moving initiative that brings students full-circle to produce civic action plans based on what their school and community have to offer. The author emphasizes that civic participation based…