Community-engaged learning (CEL), also known as community-based learning or service-learning, is central to how Portland State embodies its motto, “Let Knowledge Serve the City.” As a public university founded in Vanport, OR and now located in the heart of downtown Portland, our history, present and future are bound to the Portland metro area and the community at large. This article discusses considerations for integrating CEL into your own classes as well as highlighting the work currently being done at on our campus.
What is Community-Engaged Learning (CEL)?
Community-engaged learning involves collaboration among community partners, students, and faculty/staff for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge, experiences, and resources. According to the PSU Faculty Senate-approved description for academic courses bearing the CEL tag, it is important that CEL courses:
include community-engaged experiences that are central to course outcomes and goals (for all participants)
ask students to reflect critically on their community engagement.
Some other key components often included in CEL courses and co-curricular programs could also include:
Social justice orientation. Collaborative experiences that employ a social justice orientation that guides student-community partner engagement.
Length of engagement. Some CEL students may work on one project over the course of several weeks or even throughout multiple terms while others might participate in a variety of CEL experiences within a course or co-curricular program. Length of engagement time is often a primary measure, and sometimes requirement, of CEL courses and programs.
Impact and benefit to community partners. Short-term engagements can assist grassroots organizations with tasks like mailings, facility upkeep, and event support, all of which enhance their efficiency and visibility. In contrast, long-term engagements might contribute to organizational capacity building, workforce development, and fundraising efforts.
The depth of CEL collaboration can vary widely. Newer collaborations might start out with a single guest speaker or site visit while more mature partnerships could employ collaborative course design (faculty, community partner and/or students participating in curriculum design, implementation and evaluation), community-based participatory action research, and more significant time commitments at the partner site. Per the above examples, CEL can also take place both on and off campus.
Why CEL?
For decades, PSU students, faculty, and staff have utilized CEL to augment student success. Students can benefit from CEL pedagogies that make direct connections between course content and their academic, professional, and other personal interests. The impact of CEL extends beyond individual courses or academic years and influences alumni well into their professional and civic lives. When CEL utilizes a social justice orientation, it can be aligned with PSU’s ongoing commitment to and pursuit of racial justice, equity, and environmental sustainability.
In alignment with PSU’s commitment to serving the city and other communities, CEL courses and programs foster mutually beneficial and generative efforts that build on community assets and address pressing place-based interests/needs. Since most PSU graduates stay in the Portland Metro area upon graduation, CEL also serves as an avenue for alumni engagement. Many current community partners include PSU alumni among their staff, some of whom originally connected with their employers via PSU’s CEL efforts.
Lastly, as a public institution funded to meet the interests and needs of the Portland area, the State of Oregon, and the wider community, CEL is an accountability mechanism for the funding and other public supports we receive.
How does CEL happen at PSU?
PSU’s strong commitment to CEL is evident through University Studies and the Senior Capstone program, ensuring nearly every undergraduate engages in CEL before graduation. Beyond that, a number of graduate, professional, and other programs also embed their curricular and co-curricular work within meaningful community-connected initiatives and organizations. The examples below illustrate the many ways PSU community members are engaging in CEL:
The College of the Arts partners with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. School Museum of Contemporary Art (KSMoCA). KSMoCA connects public school students, teachers, administrators, and staff, PSU students (graduate and undergraduate), and PSU faculty with internationally renowned contemporary artists through collaborative workshops, exhibitions, artist lectures and site-specific commissions.
Students learn about museum practice and careers in the arts by participating as curators, preparators, artists, gallerists, writers, and docents. KSMoCA reimagines the way museums, public schools, and universities can affect people, culture, and perspectives by creating radical intersections for sharing resources across organizations. Programs are developed collaboratively with Dr. MLK Jr. School community, PSU students, and a team of supporting artists.
The Student Community Engagement Center (SCEC) at PSU employs a critical service-learning framework, which enables students to collaborate on meaningful projects with local nonprofits. SCEC offers a variety of educational equity, environmental stewardship, and economic justice projects as well as other supports and resources.
For more than 50 years, interdisciplinary groups of PSU students have served as camp counselors who build relationships with and support the experiences of campers with disabilities while exploring intercultural communication strategies and the inter-professional, collaborative nature of the nonprofit sector. About 25 years ago, the University Studies Senior Capstone Course at Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp was implemented. The capstone incorporates academic course content and rigorous reflection supporting the four UNST goals (Communication; Critical Thinking; Diversity, Equity and Social Justice; and Ethics, Agency and Community).
Zapoura Newton-Calvert’s Social Justice in K-12 Education Capstone is an online community-interdependent course partnered with Reading Is Resistance, Teaching for Change, and Libraries for Liberation.
School of Social Work undergraduate and graduate students dedicate 400-500 hours during the academic year to educationally focused, professionally supervised practica. Students develop competence in social work skills and professional values in community-based organizations in support of the community partners’ mission. They engage in responsive practices that address the pressing needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized individuals, families, groups, and communities.
Speech and Hearing Sciences graduate students complete clinical practicum experiences that support services in local schools and provide needed expertise, such as the Bilingual Spanish Assessment Clinic, which conducts evaluations in Spanish and English for children who have been referred for special education.
College of Educationteacher candidates complete year-long practicum (student teaching) experiences in K-12 school settings.
Putting Community-Engaged Learning into Practice
Are you interested in integrating community projects and partnerships into your teaching?
Meet Current Community Partners at PSU
Identify one of PSU’s existing community partners whose goals align with your course. You can begin looking for opportunities to expand or deepen partnerships by reviewing current partners on the following PSU pages:
Take time to understand potential partners’ contexts, including their history, goals, and collaborators, while sharing key information about PSU’s academic structure to lay the groundwork for a successful and sustained partnership.
You may also explore some of the following resources for continued learning about community-engaged learning:
Community Engagement Toolkit
The Community Engagement Toolkit helps students explore the importance of engaging within the community and how to find meaningful connections. The Faculty and Facilitator Guide for this toolkit includes ideas on how to utilize this tool kit within the classroom environment.
Community-Based Learning Project Information Sheet
The Community-Based Learning Project Information Sheet is a useful tool for planning community-based projects or experiences. It includes some guiding questions to help you gather and track project information.
Stay Current with Community-Engaged Pedagogy
Check in with one of the many professional associations and conferences producing timely research on community-engaged pedagogies: