Fit or foil? Aligning principles of community engagement and pedagogical best practices through community engaged learning and SOTL
This presentation will highlight the foundational principles of community engaged scholarship (CES) and illustrate ways in which these principles both guide and are challenged in community engaged learning (CEL) and in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL). Examples of CEL used in a large first year undergraduate course as well as in 4th year seminar courses will be provided. Research on some of the benefits and challenges of CEL for community partners, students, teaching assistants and faculty will be reviewed as well as Dr. Morton’s preliminary research findings related to a new model of CEL called “Community Focused Learning”. Examples of other SOTL projects connected with the University of Guelph will also be highlighted. Experiences and insights from conference participants will be sought via questions about how to balance and align principles of CES (i.e. community identified need, mutual benefit & reciprocity, social change) pedagogical best practices (i.e. Constructive Alignment, High Impact Practices, Authentic Assessment) and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Bio:
Dr. Mavis Morton, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and a Faculty Affiliate with the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) at the University of Guelph. She is a community engaged scholar and has worked for 25 years with rural and urban community partners on issues related to violence against women and their children and other social justice issues. Other areas of interest and focus include feminist criminology, criminal justice and social policy, feminist participatory action research (FPAR), community based participatory research (CBPR), the scholarship of teaching and learning and community-engaged learning (CEL). She integrates CEL into all of her junior and senior undergraduate courses. For this work she received the UGFA Distinguished Professor Award for Innovation in Teaching in 2014.
