Community Engaged Learning: Fostering Mutually Beneficial Partnerships for a Just Future

Introduction

Community Engaged Learning (CEL) represents a transformative approach to education, one that extends beyond the traditional classroom setting to embrace collaborative partnerships with communities. It's a method of educating for a more just, participatory, creative, and liberatory future, and in which both engagement with communities and the learning experience are equally focused. This article will explore the definition of CEL, its core components, benefits, and its significance within higher education.

Defining Community Engaged Learning

There are many different approaches and definitions of Community Engaged Learning. CEL is an educational approach that combines meaningful community engagement with instruction and reflection to enhance the learning experience, foster mutually beneficial partnerships, and strengthen local communities. It is a way that we educate for equity-focused change on campuses and in communities. It moves beyond traditional service-learning models to emphasize reciprocity, shared responsibility, and the co-creation of knowledge.

Key Components of CEL

Community-engaged learning projects and programs can look very different, but they all share four important criteria. These elements ensure that CEL experiences are meaningful, impactful, and beneficial for all participants:

Engagement: Engagement components meet community-identified priorities (needs or goals identified by or with community partners). Community partners have power to shape or inform projects and processes.
Mutuality: Mutuality refers to an interdependence or shared interest, purpose, or benefit between two or more collaborators. This principle underscores the importance of reciprocal relationships where both the community and the students/faculty benefit from the partnership.
Preparation: Students learn about the community they will be working with and develop skills to build constructive relationships and bridge cultural differences. Adequate preparation is crucial for students to understand the community's context, needs, and assets.
Reflection: Using guiding questions, journaling, group discussion or other methods, students critically reflect on the meaning of their experiences and what they’ve learned. Reflection is essential for students to connect their experiences to their academic learning and to develop a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them.

Benefits of Community Engaged Learning

When done right, community-engaged learning is a win for everyone involved.

For Communities: Communities see positive change on issues that matter most to them. CEL provides communities with access to university resources, expertise, and manpower to address pressing issues and achieve community-identified goals.
For Students: Taking CEL designated courses helps students become civic-minded graduates. Students develop civic habits, civic skills, and civic values. CEL enhances student learning by providing real-world application of classroom knowledge, fostering critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills. It also promotes civic responsibility, empathy, and a commitment to social justice.
For Faculty: Faculty infuse their teaching and research with diverse perspectives and ways of knowing. CEL provides faculty with opportunities to connect their teaching and research to real-world issues, engage with diverse perspectives, and contribute to the betterment of society.

Community-Engaged Scholarship (CES)

Community-engaged scholarship (CES) is a broad term defined by many scholars and institutions. At its core, CES can be defined as an intentional approach to designing curricular opportunities with a central focus on collaboration between the University and the community. This type of scholarship emphasizes the collaborative nature of research and knowledge creation, where community members are active participants in the research process. CES aims to produce knowledge that is relevant, useful, and contributes to positive social change.

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Community Learning Opportunities (CLOs)

Currently, the University recognizes and supports various community learning opportunities (CLOs), such as CEL, internships, and practicum experiences. However, CLOs such as internships and practicums may include engagement elements but do not fully align with the best practices and core components of critical community engagement or CEL.

The Role of Higher Education Institutions

Higher education institutions play a crucial role in fostering and supporting community engagement.

Campus Compact: Campus Compact is a national nonprofit organization. We are the largest and oldest higher education association dedicated to higher education civic and community engagement.
Carnegie Elective Classifications: Carnegie Elective Classifications are recognitions earned by institutions that have made extraordinary commitments to their public purpose. Institutions apply for recognition from the Carnegie Foundation through a particular Elective Classification theme and make extraordinary commitments to that theme.
Imagining America: The Imagining America consortium (IA) brings together scholars, artists, designers, humanists, and organizers to imagine, study, and enact a more just and liberatory ‘America’ and world. Our goal is to work collaboratively to build strong university-community partnerships anchored in the rigor of scholarship and designed to help build community capacity.
IARSLCE: IARSLCE is an international organization whose expressed primary purpose is to cultivate, encourage, and present research across all engagement forms and educational levels.

Implementing CEL on Campus

Several strategies can be employed to effectively integrate CEL into the curriculum and campus culture:

Faculty Support: The Center for Community Engagement supports individual faculty and academic units at all stages of community-engaged curriculum development and implementation, and can help connect instructors with community organizations that are interested in partnering on courses and research projects. Providing faculty with resources, training, and mentorship is essential for successful CEL implementation.
Course Designations: engaged learning (CEL) in the schedule of classes. is beneficial for you and your students. Taking CEL designated courses helps students become civic-minded graduates. habits, civic skills, and civic values. for both new CEL designations and 5-year reviews of CEL designated courses. are reviewed according to criteria described in the rubric below. world settings to address unmet societal needs. Like Gen Ed Designations, CEL Designations are reviewed every 5 years. best practices are utilized campus-wide. collection of student artifacts for CEL Learning Outcomes assessment.
Community Partnerships: Exchange institutional resources and knowledge with the community or communities that you engage with. Building strong, reciprocal relationships with community organizations is paramount.
Recognition and Incentives: Using the course suffix for community-engaged courses helps ensure UCLA can recognize and champion the many faculty who teach such courses.

Challenges and Considerations

Despite its numerous benefits, CEL also presents certain challenges:

Time Commitment: Developing and implementing CEL experiences requires significant time and effort from faculty, students, and community partners.
Resource Constraints: Adequate funding, staffing, and infrastructure are necessary to support CEL initiatives.
Power Dynamics: It is crucial to address potential power imbalances between the university and the community to ensure equitable partnerships.
Assessment: Effectively assessing the impact of CEL on student learning and community outcomes can be complex.

The Future of Community Engaged Learning

As community engagement in higher education progresses, so does our language and understanding. The 2026 Carnegie Community Engagement Classified campuses have been announced. After the 2026 cycle is completed, we will shift to a 3-year application cycle, with the next application taking place in 2029. Although 2026-27 data may be available, not all campuses will have been able to assess and make sense of that data.

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