Civic Agency and Political Engagement: Community Engagement’s Enduring Influence

What is the Long-Term, Real-World Value of CBL? Assessing Impact from the Perspective of Former Students

“…Given our (a) desire to contribute to the development of relevant research practices and findings in the field, (b) similar theoretical and practical commitments between our own CBL practices and those of Mitchell et al (2019), and (c) similarities and differences between the design of their programs and our own courses, we chose to largely model our study after theirs while integrating questions on deep learning from Nelson Laird et al (2008). In particular, we were interested in exploring how our CBL courses yielded deep learning that built students' civic and professional capacities.…”

“…While they also find that alumni were consistently and intentionally incorporating their civic identities and values into their lives and workplaces, they find a tension between alumni's desire to be engaged in civic and community issues and their personal and professional responsibilities. Their study included surveys, focus groups, and indepth interviews with almost 400 alumni 5 or more years post-graduation (Mitchell et al, 2019). 3 While survey analysis showed a commitment to civic engagement, interviews and focus groups revealed alumni felt challenged to find time and space to engage and wished they were directly involved in civic and political activities (see also Mitchell et al, 2019).…”

“…Their study included surveys, focus groups, and indepth interviews with almost 400 alumni 5 or more years post-graduation (Mitchell et al, 2019). 3 While survey analysis showed a commitment to civic engagement, interviews and focus groups revealed alumni felt challenged to find time and space to engage and wished they were directly involved in civic and political activities (see also Mitchell et al, 2019). Their findings indicate such programs foster significant individual awareness and a desire for broad civic engagement but that barriers related to time and reach make formal engagement in civic spheres post-graduation challenging (Battistoni & Mitchell, 2018).…”

In Their Words: What Undergraduate Sociology Students Say about Community-Engaged Learning

“…These insights are enhanced and confirmed when students are required to write reflectively about their experiences. Eyler (2002) writes that "the growing knowledge base in the learning sciences supports the importance of carefully planning reflection to incorporate activities before, during, and after community service" (p. 521; see also Mitchell et al 2015). Incorporating reflection into the CEL experience helps students develop critical research skills and become more thoughtful sociologists.…”

“…The rise of experiential learning initiatives, like community-engaged or service learning courses, attempts to give students real-world experiences to connect our classrooms with our communities (Holbrook and Chen 2017;Nichols 2017:318). Research confirms how these courses increase students' understanding of course content (Atkinson and Hunt 2008;Mayer et al 2019) and their connection to the community (Graizbord 2019;Gullion and Ellis 2014;Nkhoma 2020;Siza 2019), but little is known about what students say about community-engaged learning (CEL) courses (Mitchell et al 2015). What follows is an attempt to address this limitation.…”