The Center for Engaged Learning, Teaching, and Scholarship (CELTS) team is made up of practitioner-scholars who not only teach and facilitate programs, but also research and write scholarly pieces to build the field of experiential education, community-based learning, and high-impact learning practices. From the framing of practitioner-scholarship, the scholarship of engagement, and the scholarship of teaching and learning, the CELTS team of educators has published extensively to contribute to new knowledge connecting theory and practice around pedagogy. Some examples of the publications of the CELTS team include:
Dr. Patrick M. Green and Dr. Susan Haarman served as Guest Editors of Metropolitan Universities Journal’s special issues on Place-Based Pedagogy (February of 2023) and published an article on place-based pedagogy:
The emergence of this special issue of Metropolitan Universities journal, “The Pedagogy of Place-Based Initiatives and Anchor Institutions,” stems from developing, teaching, and evaluating courses and pedagogical programs at urban/metropolitan institutions. This issue is rooted in scholarly practice and focuses on the intersection of place-based initiatives and pedagogy. It interrogates how place-based initiatives such as hyper-local community-based learning and anchor frameworks impact teaching and learning in the classroom. This framing article for this special issue captures the themes and broader questions that emerged from the articles while proposing a line of inquiry to engage the readers with the special issue focus. Our line of inquiry throughout this special issue is whether a distinct pedagogy emerges from place-based initiatives such as anchor institution approaches and hyper-local community-based learning. We begin by interrogating how place-based initiatives such as anchor institution approaches and highly intentional partnership work do not guarantee a change in classroom instruction and may fail to impact pedagogy long-term. We provide examples of service-learning within our local professional context and draw from themes that emerged from the scholarly articles in this issue. We also noted the intersection of place, institution, and systemic context. We offer a framework for a pedagogy of place with committed approaches to these place-based intersections as we have experienced them in our practice and emerging from the issue’s scholarly articles.
An Engagement of Hope: A Framework and Equity-Centered Theory of Action for Community Engagement
Green, P.M., Bergen, D.J., Stewart, C.P., & Nayve, C. (2021). An Engagement of Hope: A Framework and Equity-Centered Theory of Action for Community Engagement. Metropolitan Universities, 32(2), 129-157.
Building upon the proposed concept of an engagement of hope (Green, Stewart, Bergen, & Nayve, 2020) emerging from the exploration of faith-based approaches to community engagement, the authors delve into collaborative inquiry and critical reflection to construct a framework and equity-centered theory of action for community engagement. Drawing from the work of faith-based community organizations and institutions of higher education, and through the lens of a practitioner-scholar framework, the authors present a scholarly approach to collaborative inquiry and exploration into an engagement of hope, responding to the current context of higher education. The development of the engagement of hope conceptual framework emerged with core approaches to community engagement, responding to the current context and seeking to move the field of community engagement to address this context. The five themes that scaffold the conceptual framework are explicated, including challenging unjust structures, the common good, collaborative courage, community-centered, and individual goodness. The implications of this framework and theory of change are discussed as well as a call to re-center relationships in the community engagement field.
Modeling Pedagogy: Portfolios at the Intersections of Teaching and Learning
Tate, Brody C., and Patrick M. Green. AAEEBL ePortfolio Review, vol. 4, no. 1, 2020, pp. 19–27.
review our learning portfolio (ePortfolio) platform and programs in order to improve upon the teaching and learning experiences of our students, faculty, and staff. The purpose of this internal review process was to assess our current platform and initiate conversations about ePortfolios and pedagogy. In the process, we wanted to engage in dialogue around the vision for the future of ePortfolio utilization. How do we harness these current learning opportunities provided by the ePortfolio program and leverage strong educational changes to pedagogy while tethering to the threefold purposes of student learning, teaching, and learning strategies, and the assessment of learning? This article explores a pedagogical model for student learning focused on electronic portfolios through the program evaluation process.
Green, P.M., Stewart, C.P., Bergen, D.J. & Nayve, C. (2020). Faith and Community Engagement at Anchor Institutions: Exploring the Intersection and Turning toward an Engagement of Hope. Metropolitan Universities, 31(3), 3-21.
The core element from our initial inquiry was focused on the role of faith and how faith shifts community engagement. To delve into this line of inquiry and prepare for the submission review process, we worked to identify our own positionality as scholar-practitioners, to explore our own intersections of faith and professionals, and to articulate a scholarly approach for this exploratory study leading to the emergent design of this special issue.'
Green, Patrick M. (2021) "Making Explicit Connections between Experiential Learning and Justice: New Approaches to Teaching and Learning through an Imagination for Justice," Experiential Learning & Teaching in Higher Education: Vol. 4 : No. 2 , Article 5.
Beyond simply being a form of active learning, experiential learning, in its many iterations, has been promoted as a philosophy, a community development model, a theory, a professional skill training opportunity, a global education and civic development approach, and a pedagogical strategy that leads to deep, high impact learning. Indeed, experiential learning has become increasingly specialized in the last several decades with the evolution of numerous sub-fields, such as study abroad and global immersion programs, outdoor education programs, community-based learning (both domestic and global service-learning), internship and work-integrated learning, undergraduate research experiences, and a myriad of other high-impact learning programs. The field of experiential education is vast and deep due to this variety of sub-fields. Upon exploring experiential learning and teaching in the context of higher education, several common themes emerge, but one relatively underdeveloped theme has bubbled up to the surface repeatedly in the past two decades: the theme of justice.
Remixing Approaches to Experiential Learning, Design, and Assessment
Heinrich, W. F., & Green, P. M. (2020). Remixing Approaches to Experiential Learning, Design, and Assessment. Journal of Experiential Education, 43(2), 205–223.
Experiential learning approaches applied in classrooms are often disconnected from theory and loosely connected in classroom practice. Given critiques of experiential learning, there is a significant need for process learning theory with a practice-driven model. Scholars have only begun to explore the enhanced learning that often emerges from educative experiences designed with the fullness of experiential learning theory—designing with context, meaning-making, and assessment equal to the learning. hrough the lens of scholar-practitioner reflective inquiry, we propose a remixed approach to designing experiential learning. By shifting approaches to experiential education (EE), experiential educators benefit from planning with intentional design, instruction, learning, and assessment. We chose to interrogate our practice and conduct a methodological investigation to explore our questions through a blend of qualitative approaches, including collaborative and narrative inquiry, scholarly personal narrative, and transpersonal research. We explore approaches to process theory of learning and other influences on experiential learning. A shift in approaches in experiential education will benefit educators and students, specifically by attending to holistic design, instruction, assessment, and learning with context in mind. We remix familiar components of known theories to highlight a unique experiential teaching and learning mind-set. We commence with a discussion of the remixed framework of the Design–Instruction–Assessment–Learning (DIAL) model that promotes high-quality experiences for learners and instructors.
Democratic Community as a Public of Others: Combating Failed Citizenship in Refugees
Haarman, Susan (2021) "Democratic Community as a Public of Others: Combating Failed Citizenship in Refugees," Experiential Learning & Teaching in Higher Education: Vol. 4 : No. 2 , Article 19.
Fadi1 was a surgeon for 15 years before he and his family were resettled from Syria to Chicago. Since arriving here, he’s been able to take work as CNA in a nursing home and has been trying to figure out what of his education may be able to transfer so that he can enroll in nursing school. His wife, formerly a CPA, has had more success with gig economy jobs, but her choppy English has led to several failed interviews for full time work. “She’s absolutely fluent in French, but alas we did not arrive there,” (Haarman, 2020). His daughter has been adjusting well, partially because her English has been improving fast, but her failing grades in history courses (of a country she did not grow up in) meant she was not tracked into other AP courses and likely will not be eligible for some scholarships, as there is little time to turn her GPA around before she will graduate from high school next year. Conversations with their neighbors have been awkward since they called the police to Fadi’s apartment, claiming their Eid celebration was too loud. “They tell me I am so blessed to be here,” Fadi shared with a smirk. “I tell them being alive is good and end the conversation.”
An Examination of Alternative Break Trips and Whiteness in Jesuit Higher Education
Haarman, Susan, and Selak, Annie (2021). An Examination of Alternative Break Trips and Whiteness in Jesuit Higher Education. Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal, 10(2), 138-149.
Alternative break trips punctuate life on Jesuit college campuses, acting as experiences of conversion and putting faith into action. The Universal Apostolic Preferences of “walking with the excluded” and “accompanying the youth” come together in the practice of alternative break programs. However, these trips often operate through the position of whiteness. In this paper, we examine alternative service trips through the lens of whiteness. Too often, predominately white groups insert themselves into non-white contexts and assert themselves as owners of the space. Practices of white university students instrumentalizing experiences of service as agents in their own conversion displace the agency of others, resulting in a lack of solidarity and a shallow experience of walking with the excluded. While walking with the excluded is an important preference to enact, it must not be done in the posture of “inverted hospitality.” Accompanying the youth entails challenging structures of whiteness and privilege. We propose best practices for accompanying the youth through resisting cultures of whiteness and instead moving towards solidarity.
