Although many public schools in the United States are located in rural areas, the literature on rural youth is extremely limited, and the literature on rural youth with disabilities is practically absent. The purpose of this study was to gather the perspectives of community partners regarding rural school-community partnerships and provide an…

The textile industry surged in late nineteenth-century South Carolina, quickly becoming the primary source of revenue and employment in the Northwestern, "Upstate" area of the state. The influx of industry created new job opportunities for Upstate rural farmers and sharecroppers who previously were engaged in agrarian pursuits. In order…

The author critiques both major camps in the current debates about teacher education for their lack of attention to the role of local communities in preparing teachers. The current work at the University of Washington, Seattle, to engage local community members as mentors of teacher candidates is highlighted.

Globalization has made the market in India very competitive. The lower segment of the workforce is under tremendous pressure to improve their productivity to sustain in the market. Being one of the important stakeholders, universities can play a very significant role in transferring knowledge created by them under their social responsibility. The…

This article examines the character of older adult education provision in two universities at opposite ends of the globe. The universities of Waikato (New Zealand) and Strathclyde (Scotland) are analysed in terms of specific domains: funding, curriculum and provision, older people's participation and university-community relationships. These two…

Mental health needs among children in the United States have significant consequences for children and their families, as well as the schools that serve them. This qualitative study evaluated the second year of an innovative school-based mental health project that created a multi-system partnership between an urban school district, a public mental…

A significant and growing number of universities across the country are pursuing the agenda of public and civic engagement and giving serious consideration to resultant faculty roles. Along with new university commitment come new definitions of scholarship, including the scholarship of engagement. The scholarship of engagement continues to emerge…

This special issue of "Leadership and Policy in Schools" expands knowledge about family-school-community engagement by exploring who is involved in education, in what ways, and for what purposes. This issue critically examines school-community partnerships that work to improve democratic decision-making, support public education,…

In this article, we advance an approach to design research that is organized around a commitment to transforming the educational and social circumstances of members of non-dominant communities as a means of promoting social equity and learning. We refer to this approach as social design experimentation. The goals of social design experiments…

This case study describes the campus context and process for successfully including community engagement language into promotion and tenure policies at Virginia Commonwealth University, a high research, urban public university. The paper also describes barriers our campus faced during the promotion and tenure policy revision process, especially…

Local history projects allow undergraduate students to engage with their surrounding community and forge relationships between universities and museums. By assigning work that requires input from both students and the museums, these projects help create collaborative partnerships as students leave campus to conduct research, participate in and…

Much of the literature on service-learning discusses issues related to faculty, students, and community partners. However, there is little research on issues related to academic staff. In this project, through a series of meetings and workshops, change lab methodology was used to analyze the barriers to staff members' involvement in…

Concerns regarding professional preparation among practitioners and academics in the parks, recreation, and leisure profession demand real examples of people working together for the good of their overall community. Such reciprocal collaboration (two-way interaction from academics to practice and from practice to academics) has started to take…

Educational institutions must obtain revenue streams in addition to federal and state funding in order to provide students with a quality college experience. Student-athletes who participate in civic engagement efforts may entice the community members to reciprocate by supporting the athletic department through a variety of methods including: game…

This article examines the nature of, and need for, evaluation of community-engaged university teaching and research. The research was conducted as part of a larger project aimed at improving institutional understanding of how to best support community-engaged university people. We interviewed 25 community-engaged colleagues, and used a general…