Understanding Contemporary University-Community Connections

Social Workers Writing for Publication: The Story of a Practice and Academic Partnership

“…Decisions about authorship and copyright require early resolution with coauthors and publishers, ensuring that practitioner authors are properly credited for their writing. Fisher et al (2004) have stressed the need for mindfulness about the complex power relations between academic and community settings, and the tendency for the academy to silence less powerful voices. The nature of this particular critical best practice writing genre, which explicitly privileges the voice of the practitioner, probably helped to counteract some of these potentially difficult power dynamics.…”

Institutional processes to determine community engagement impact : a collective case study.

“…Fisher et al (2004) position these historical tensions within the question of whether a university's central purpose is to serve as "an ivory tower removed from local parochialism or a learning experience engaged directly with the world" (p. 17). Context thus involves navigating the higher education and community milieus, which often carry different sets of expectations and incentives that drive behavior (Ferman & Hill, 2004;Nichols et al, 2015).…”

“…Community engagement efforts must contend with the unique characteristics of the higher education institution, which include its hierarchical, formal, and insular nature (Fisher et al, 2004;Strier, 2014). Tracking, documenting, and assessing the impact of community engagement is difficult as a result, subject to variability and fluidity among the siloed units.…”

“…The universities also share a mixed history with the communities in which they are located. Respondents across all institutions conveyed different stories of how their university participated in the historical positivist, exclusionary stance Fisher et al (2004) characterized as "an ivory tower removed from local parochialism" (p. 17). Scholars describe this historical shift from more removed, protected knowledge-generating activities to more integrated, co-created activities as picking up momentum in the late 20th century Ward & Wolf-Wendel, 2000).…”

“…Heeding Boyer's call to renew the work of the academy (1990), and to more intentionally connect the resources described by the Kellogg Commission (1999) to the most pressing needs within society, community engagement has gained traction in the last thirty years (Harkavy, 2016). Partnerships designed to mutually benefit higher education and local communities have become an emerging strategy to more effectively pursue education and development efforts (Eddy, 2010;Fisher, Fabricant, & Simmons, 2004;Kezar, 2005). These partnerships vary widely in purpose and design.…”