Advancing Community Engagement Scholarship as a Teaching and Learning Strategy in Higher Education

Introduction

Institutions of higher learning, universities in particular, are knowledge creators and disseminators in the knowledge age, also referred to as the information age (Castell, 2017). Universities as key constitutors of national and economic development are, therefore, charged with the responsibility to seek creative and innovative pathways through which to pursue their core business of teaching, research, and community engagement. For example, in the United States, the most commonly used definition of community engagement is the one provided by the Carnegie Foundation in their elective Community Engagement Classification Application, where community engagement was describes as:

Higher education thus plays a decisive role in preparing students for the work environment and also to educate society through re-skilling and training (Marwala, 2020). Community engagement is one of the core functions of higher education along with teaching and research (Shawa, 2020; Tshishonga, 2020). Thus, community service, service learning, and community engagement are associational terms and encompass a variety of meanings and activities, occurring at different levels of engagement (Stoecker, 2016). In the literature, community engagement may be the umbrella term with both community service and service-learning potentially being considered forms of community engagement. While emphasis is on extending university expertise, community service may also include simple to achieve aspects, such as opening up its facilities for use by the community (Tshishonga, 2020). University exercises its social responsibility to enable communities to attain substantial value from embedded universities when society and the university are linked together and tackle realities of today and development needs (Dipholo, 2014).

This chapter argues that community engagement is key towards generating knowledge that can be used for teaching and learning purposes. This chapter, therefore, argues that community engagement or service learning as a pedagogical strategy and the knowledge generated through community engagement can enrich teaching and learning (Robinson & Green, 2011). Tshishonga (2021) views universities as part of higher education sector and are therefore mandated to develop human capital and creating critical environment upon which university community and surrounding communities become partners in knowledge generation and dissemination. Mattes and Luescher-Mamashela (2012) argue that, education is one of the key mechanisms for the development of the skills required for competitiveness in a global economy. Additionally higher education is also expected to make its contribution for active citizenship and sustainable development, as well as skilling and educating society at large (Wells & Edwards, 2015). Academics are, therefore, called upon to develop or enhance community engagement practices linked to “engaged teaching and learning” (Bender, 2008, p. 86) through, service-learning programmes and community service. This, however, has placed enormous pressure on academics to be responsive to external needs and interests, based on direct social and cultural outcomes (Bender, 2008).