African Americans and Community Engagement in Higher Education: Community Service, Service-Learning, and Community-Based Research

by Evans, Stephanie Y.; Taylor, Colette M.; Dunlap, Michelle R.; Miller, Demond S.

• ISBN13: 9781438428741
• ISBN10: 143842874X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-09-10
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

This book discusses race and its roles in university-community partnerships. The contributors take a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and multiregional approach that allows students, agency staff, community constituents, faculty, and campus administrators an opportunity to reflect on and redefine what impact African American identity--in the academy and in the community--has on various forms of community engagement. From historic concepts of "race uplift" to contemporary debates about racialized perceptions of need, they argue that African American identity plays a significant role. In representing best practices, recommendations, personal insight, and informed warnings about building sustainable and mutually beneficial relationships, the contributors provide a cogent platform from which to encourage the difficult and much-needed inclusion of race in dialogues of national service and community engagement.

Author Biography

Stephanie Y. Evans is Associate Professor of African American Studies and Women's Studies at the University of Florida and the author of Black Women in the Ivory Tower, 1850-1954: An Intellectual History. Colette M. Taylor is Assistant Professor of Higher Education at Texas Tech University. Michelle R. Dunlap is Professor and Chair of Human Development at Connecticut College and the author of Reaching Out to Children and Families: Students Model Effective Community Service. DeMond S. Miller is Professor of Sociology at Rowan University and the coauthor (with Jason David Rivera) of Hurricane Katrina and the Redefinition of Landscape.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	p. ix
Preface: Using History, Experience, and Theory to Balance Relationships in Community Engagement	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xxi
Introduction: Characteristics of Engagement: Communicated Experiences of Race, Universities, and Communities	p. 1
Community Service, Volunteerism, and Engagement	p. 11
The Community Folk Art Center: A University and Community Creative Collaboration	p. 17
An African American Health Care Experience: An Academic Medical Center and Its Interdisciplinary Practice	p. 29
African American College Students and Volunteerism: Attitudes toward Mentoring at a Title I School	p. 41
Prejudice, Pitfalls, and Promise: Experiences in Community Service in a Historically Black University	p. 53
Community Service-Learning	p. 67
Can the Village Educate the Prospective Teacher?: Reflections on Multicultural Service-Learning in African American Communities	p. 71
Sowing Seeds of Success: Gardening as a Method of Increasing Academic Self-Efficacy and Retention among African American Students	p. 89
A Service or a Commitment?: A Black Man Teaching Service-Learning at a Predominantly White Institution	p. 105
Racial Identity and the Ethics of Service-Learning as Pedagogy	p. 119
"We'll Understand It Better By and By": A Three-Dimensional Approach to Teaching Race through Community Engagement	p. 135
Community-Based Research	p. 149
Black Like Me: Navigating Race, Gender, Research, and Community	p. 157
A Partnership with the African American Church: IMPPACT and S.P.I.C.E.S. For Life	p. 173
"I Have Three Strikes Against Me": Narratives of Plight and Efficacy among Older African American Homeless Women and Their Implications for Engaged Inquiry	p. 189
A Culturally Competent Community-Based Research Approach with African American Neighborhoods: Critical Components and Examples	p. 205
Community Engagement and Collaborations in Community-Based Research: The Road to Project Butterfly	p. 225
Final Word: African Americans and Community Engagement: The Challenge and Opportunity for Higher Education	p. 241
List of Contributors	p. 249
Index	p. 255
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