Enrich Teaching & Learning Through Community Collaboration & Real-World Impact

VOICES supports a spectrum of community-engaged learning activities, with an emphasis on community collaborations. We define community-engaged pedagogies as having an: explicit focus where the design and enactment of the curriculum are underpinned with a rationale which invokes—to varying extents—concepts such as active citizenship, democracy, social justice, community and civic engagement, while simultaneously advancing the goal of student learning.3

Community-engaged pedagogies offer a dynamic way to enrich teaching, deepen student engagement, and connect academic content with real-world impact. They foster more interactive and applied learning environments, encouraging students to take greater ownership of their education. Faculty often find renewed inspiration in their teaching through collaboration with community partners, gaining fresh perspectives and opportunities for interdisciplinary projects.

Learning ABOUT Community

Foundational discipline topics and skills are connected to concrete applications in the community

Examples:

  • Debating local issues
  • Taking a tour
  • Inviting a guest speaker

Learning THROUGH Community

Activities have value beyond student success in the classroom

Examples:

  • Writing a Letter to the Editor
  • Creating a PSA
  • Organizing a campaign

Learning WITH Community

Authentic experiences that build social capital, community membership, and sense of belonging

Examples:

  • Community-based learning

"Community-based learning has completely reinvigorated my teaching. It’s been an absolute joy to witness students’ confidence and interest expand as the project has unfolded. I truly appreciate that community-based learning is focused on authentic partnership, mutual beneficiaries, and reflection."
KatherineKottaras
“The best part of incorporating community-based learning is hearing my students feel empowered by the experience of connecting with the larger community. This was a great opportunity for students to showcase their existing skills and gave me the opportunity as an educator to get creative!” 
FrancesChaboya
““Being part of this community-based learning project was one of the best teaching—and learning—experiences of my career. I felt like the ‘ah-ha’ moments just never stopped—experiencing the dynamic collaborations with our community partner, hearing the stories of the small business owners, and witnessing students build their confidence to use English in the real world and actively participate in their local communities.” 
CarolynCorrie
“Community-based learning provided an opportunity for students to make a meaningful connection between the fundamentals of physiology and social change at a local level. The best part of this project was teaching students how scientific knowledge and evidence can inform public policy and community initiatives.”
RichardLie
"Pedagogy and curriculum are the spaces in which we tinker to build the world we hope to see, the means through which we labor to 'inspire and to foster a collective imagination about how to make the world a more human dwelling place' (Ginwright, 2008, p. 14)."

- Tania D. Mitchell & Mark Latta1