Community engagement education in academic health centers, colleges, and universities

Abstract

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Teaching Community Engagement Through an Anti-Racism Lens: Lessons Learned From a Pilot Micro Course in Public Health and Health Care

“…Our course was unique in being offered as a micro-course at a major public university's School of Public Health, focused on the rationale, principles, methods and challenges involved in community engagement practice more broadly but, as noted, doing so through an anti-racism lens. The course's pedagogical framework thus included classic CE principles, for example, starting with the community's issues and concerns and maintaining community ownership and control (Doubeni et al, 2022). Additionally, however, while many CE courses now also emphasize the importance of teaching about the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH), we believe that the particularly strong focus of our course on structural racism and viewing health and social issues through a prism that privileges the key role of racial discrimination and inequities, added important depth to such analysis.…”

“…With the exception of the substantial literature on academic-service learning (Brooks et al, 2019), however, we found relatively sparse attention specifically to the pedagogy of community engagement. Important exceptions include Doubeni et al (2022) article offering a useful pedagogical framework to support curriculum development for CE in research, education, and clinical care in academic health centers and universities and Levin et al's (2021) review of best practices in CE by schools and programs in public health. Levin and co-authors describe facilitators of successful academic efforts, including leadership, infrastructure, and culture, as well as challenges, including mistrust by community members, power dynamics, and unequal sharing of credit.…”

“…As Doubeni et al (2022) note, courses in dynamic areas such as CE often are usefully framed not within static models, but rather through relevant core principles. In addition to those introduced above and frequently used in courses on community building and CBPR (e.g., starting where the people are and maintaining community ownership and control) these included having a shared vision for the partnership, and emphasizing such values as respect and trust; identifying and building community strengths, being flexible, and committing for the long haul.…”

“…Although interest in and writing about CE dates to the 1960s, CE theory, pedagogy, research and practice, particularly related to public health and health care, has more recently been a focus of attention in the literature (Derreth et al, 2021; Doubeni et al, 2022; Glanz, 2017; Michener et al, 2020; Montgomery & Johnson, 2015; Wallerstein et al, 2020).…”

Rochester Healthy Community Partnership: Then and now

“…Best practices for pedagogy around community engagement includes four phases: preparation, action, reflection, and evaluation. These experiences require strong community partners as co-facilitators, a longitudinal trusting relationship between community and academic partners, and careful moderation of reflection/evaluation that centers community context ( 20 ). These on-the-ground experiences can be informed or supplemented by existing CBPR curricula ( 21 ).…”