Community-Engaged Learning at Portland State University

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.

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:

• Collaborative experiences that employ a social justice orientation that guides student-community partner engagement. 
• Length of engagement. Some students may work on one project over the course of several weeks or even throughout multiple terms, while other CEL students 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, enhancing their efficiency and visibility, while 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.

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, influencing 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 within 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 & the wider community, CEL is an accountability mechanism for the funding and other public supports we receive.

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:

Check in with one of the many professional associations and conferences producing timely research on community-engaged pedagogies: