Chapter 18: Community-University Partnerships As Socially Just Leadership Education

Higher education in the United States has wrestled with its embodiment of the public good for quite some time. Although higher education’s historic origins support a commitment to educate students to benefit the public good (Boyer, 1990; Volpe White & Guthrie, 2017), scholars still contest its fulfillment of this charter (Kezar, 2004). Community engagement is one way higher education works toward its public good purpose. Within the context of leadership education, developing leaders is part of higher education’s public good purpose (Chunoo & Osteen, 2016; Guthrie & Jenkins, 2018).

Community engagement’s formula is effective if not simple in theory: colleges and universities send students into the community for hands-on experiences and reflection, and students are transformed as leaders and thoughtful citizens, while communities benefit from students’ involvement. Yet, in the quest for equity, community engagement research and practice must encompass holistic partnerships between colleges and community partners. As such, socially just leadership educators rethink traditional frameworks of community engagement and advance emerging research which positions critical community engagement as a more equitable and systems-oriented approach (Volpe White, 2018).