Chapter 11: Considerations for Community Engagement in Complex Times

Community engagement is widely known as a pedagogical tool to develop students’ leadership capacity (Dugan, 2006; Wagner & Pigza, 2016). The Carnegie Foundation’s Classification for Community Engagement defines community engagement as “collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity” (Public Purpose Institute, 2021, para. 7). Explicit within this definition are the concepts of mutual benefit and reciprocity, meaning community engagement should benefit communities and students (Mitchell, 2008). Community engagement experiences are not immune to the historical, political, or current events relevant in a particular community at any given time. As an instrument of leadership learning pedagogy, leadership educators must structure community engagement with current events in mind; students’ experiences do not occur devoid of what is happening in their home communities nor the communities in which community engagement occurs. Emerging attention on community engagement situates community conditions, tensions, and opportunities at the forefront of its development and practice.