Surveying Graduate Student Education and SLCE

Abstract: Recent shifts in higher education – including requirements for institutions to demonstrate “engagement,” institutions seeking increased graduate student enrollment, as well as the rise of the “Community Engagement Professional” – demand attention to the ways that institutions prepare graduate students for service-learning and community engagement (SLCE). This Collaborative Research Roundtable will 1) review the landscape of existing SLCE training opportunities for graduate students, 2) describe preliminary research on students' perspectives about the incentives for, and barriers to, community engagement work at the graduate level, and 3) seek input from participants about the design and scope of a collaborative research project aimed at better understanding the various factors (institutional, disciplinary, professional, etc.) that contribute to greater engagement by graduate students. Our goal is to create a repository of findings that can inform future research and practice in graduate SLCE and to develop a set of best practices for training that is in line with graduate students’ professional needs.

Narrative: Several recent and important shifts in higher education demand attention to the ways that institutions approach graduate education. First, funding and accrediting bodies are requiring increased accountability by colleges and universities to demonstrate “engagement” with communities (e.g., Planning Accreditation Board) and the “broader impacts” of research (e.g., National Science Foundation). Second, fewer tenure-track jobs mean that graduate students should be better prepared for careers outside of academia.

At the same time, the SLCE field is undergoing some significant ideological changes. For example, in contrast to its pedagogical beginnings, SLCE is now widely understood as an academic discipline in its own right (Butin, 2010), and institutionalized by powerful national indicators such as the Elective Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement (Driscoll & Sandmann, 2019). These changes are evidenced by the rise of the "Community Engagement Professional" (Dostilio, 2017), a relatively recent label used to describe a diverse group of individuals regardless of their disciplinary training and type of employment. Despite these changes, there are relatively few formal educational pathways into the field of SLCE for graduate students (Matthews, Karls, Doberneck & Springer, 2015; Harris, 2017).

Thus, a broad exploration into graduate students' experiences with community engagement and training opportunities in SLCE is both timely and fitting. We propose a collaborative research project to examine these opportunities at both the individual (graduate students) and institutional (universities, professional/academic associations) levels. Our goals: first, we aim to explore and catalog existing graduate-level training opportunities in SLCE; second, we plan to survey graduate students about their awareness of, interest in, and academic/professional need for those opportunities. As support for graduate SLCE varies widely in academia, our sample will be wide-ranging, taking into account the stark differences across and within institutions, disciplines, departments, and programs.

The objective is to better understand the various factors (institutional, disciplinary, professional, etc.) that contribute to greater engagement by graduate students in community-based activities, including the reasons why some students engage in SLCE and others do not. Ultimately, our hope is to identify incentives for, and barriers to, graduate student participation in community engagement work and to develop a set of best practices aligned in line with graduate students’ professional needs.

Conceptual Frameworks

While the impacts of SLCE on undergraduate education are well-documented (see e.g., Brownell & Swaner, 2010; Kilgo, Sheets, & Pascarella, 2015; Kuh, 2008; NSSE, 2007), far less attention has been paid to the integration of SLCE in graduate education. Although graduate programs -- particularly those in professional schools -- have long required internships and practica, relatively few offer structured opportunities for local community engagement (research/service), guided critical reflection, or training in service-learning pedagogy or practice. Indeed, students often experience the transition to graduate school as a “withdrawal from public and community service that was a vital part of their undergraduate years” (Stanton & Wagner, 2010, p. 412).

In 2017, two of the authors conducted an informal cross-disciplinary survey of graduate students at our R1 institution to determine students’ knowledge of and interest in SLCE (Harris & Bernstein, 2017). Norms governing graduate programs at research universities tend to laud research as the gold standard, while public service and practical training are often discouraged–except as they inform professional practice (Goodhue, 2017). Our preliminary survey findings largely confirmed the strength of these norms. The culture of particular disciplines and departments, as well as the perceived expectations for students at different levels of graduate education, seemed to play an important role in shaping students’ interests and expectations – but exactly how was unclear (Harris & Bernstein, 2017; Bernstein-Sierra & Harris, 2018).

Given increased competition for faculty jobs and the weakening of tenure (AAUP, 2016), there is a growing need for graduate students to be exposed to new knowledge beyond the academy. However, few research universities have adapted to the current realities of their graduate students, the majority of whom will find professional homes outside of academia.

Though an R1 provided the initial context for this work, the lens for our current project is much broader. The emergence of SLCE as a distinct field within higher education suggests the need for disciplinary training in any and all institutional types (Butin, 2010). A hodgepodge of graduate-level courses, certificates, portfolios, and credentialing programs exist, but many are aimed at those already working in the field. There are few graduate-level, degree-granting programs, or higher education professional preparation programs with courses or concentrations, designed to prepare future SLCE professionals.

Scholarly Significance

This project will build on and address some of the pressing research questions that have been posed about graduate SLCE (Harris, 2017; Harris & Howard, 2017), for example: how do the experiences and goals of engaged graduate students – and the programmatic structures best suited to supporting them – vary across different institutional contexts, disciplines, and degree programs? How might SLCE help to de-silo graduate education, and where do (and should) graduate SLCE training opportunities “live”?

Given the recent shifts in the SLCE field, there is both a need and an opportunity to ensure the adequate preparation of community-engaged professionals through expanded and accessible graduate-level programs. Our goal is to support a nascent grassroots movement in the SLCE field to change the ways that graduate students are socialized to have a civic mindset and trained to become community engaged professionals. Ultimately, we hope that this collaborative research project contributes to changing perceptions and approaches to graduate education.

Plans:

10-15 minutes: Introductions of all attendees

20 minutes: Overview of the proposed project – discussion of preliminary research on how disciplines and graduate programs are preparing civic-minded graduate students/professionals.

25-30 minutes: Moderated discussion among participants to identify relevant research questions and plans for a collaborative research project.

Keywords:

Graduate education, SLCE training, community engagement professionals

Ethical concerns:

Once the research plan is determined, the team will submit the proposed project to the lead university's Institutional Review Board, adding partners as needed and sharing materials for submission at other institutions. The research team will include graduate students, whose perspectives and lived experiences are vital to the success of the project.