Engaged Scholarship: (Re) Focusing on Our Mission

Abstract

Although the mission statements of most comprehensive teaching institutions of higher education include serving as a resource for the global and local community, the tenure and promotion process typically does not recognize these community partnerships as research endeavors, even when the nature of the work is firmly grounded in sound empirical practice. This paper shares the process a faculty task force undertook to gain consensus and incorporate language on engaged scholarship within the College’s personnel document. The process took four years and included five steps: (a) establish a definition of engaged scholarship grounded in scholarly literature, (b) gather practice-oriented information regarding best practices as well as faculty perceptions of engaged scholarship practice, (c) create policy language for department personnel documents, (d) generate consensus among faculty for the policy language, and (g) submit final documents to the University Personnel committee for approval. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for policy and practice.