Re-visiting scholarly community engagement in the contemporary research assessment environments of Australasian universities
Jan Duke
Social Workers' Registration Board; Graduate School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
Cheryle Moss
Nursing, Research and Practice Development, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University, Frankston VIC
PP: 30 - 41
Abstract
Restructuring of university environments to meet funding requirements based on research performance presents challenges internationally to nursing and other allied health groups.
These funding models generate more emphasis on the scholarship of discovery than on the scholarship of integration, the scholarship of application, and the scholarship of sharing knowledge. Yet achievement of health advances by these disciplines is unlikely to emerge through laboratory-based research. They are more likely to emerge through scholarly research activities which involve partnerships between universities and communities. Current emphases on research assessment and quantum measurements are particularly associated with the scholarship of discovery, and thus raise concerns that such pressures may lead universities and other organisations away from community engagement.
In response to these issues, the importance of linking scholarship and communities, furthering mechanisms to legitimise scholarly community engagement, and reducing barriers to this in the context of the contemporary university research environments are argued. Boyer's model of scholarship (that the work of universities centres around four areas of scholarship: discovery, integration, application and sharing knowledge) highlights these tensions.
It is suggested that by revisiting Boyer's model and considering the ways in which it may generate possibilities for scholarly community engagement, university schools of nursing in the contemporary research assessment environment could find ways to balance the forms of scholarship by which social good can be advanced.
Keywords
scholarship of engagement, nursing, research quantum, university scholarship, community engagement
References
Abbot A (1991) Professionalism and the future of librarianship. Library Trends 46(3): 430-443.
Amen M (2001) The power of institutions and agents: Sources of failed university-community collaboration. Metropolitan Universities 12(4): 30-50.
Ansley F and Gaventa J (1997) Researching for democracy and democratizing research. Change 29: 6-53.
Anthony D (2005) The nursing research assessment exercise 2001: An analysis. Clinical Effectiveness in Nursing 9: 4-12.
Barker D (2004) The scholarship of engagement: A taxonomy of emerging practices. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement 9(2): 123-137.
Boyer E (1990) Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press/The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Boyer E (1996) The scholarship of engagement. Journal of Public Service and Outreach 1(1): 1-20.
Braxton JM, Luckey W and Helland P (2002) Institutionalising a broader view of scholarship through Boyer's four domains. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report, Vol. 29, No. 2. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/John Wiley.
Bringle R, Games R and Malloy E (Eds) (1999) College and universities as citizens. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Calleson D, Jordan C and Seifer D (2005) Community-engaged scholarship: Is faculty work in communities a true academic enterprise? Academic Medicine 80(4): 317-321.
Calleson D, Seifer S and Maurana C (2002) Forces affecting the community involvement of AHCs: Perspectives of institutional and faculty leaders. Academic Medicine 77: 72-81.
Commission on Community-Engaged Scholarship (2005) Linking scholarship and communities: Report of the Commission on Community-Engaged Scholarship in the health professions. Seattle: Author.
Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (2007) Celebrating a decade of impact. Seattle: Author.
Cope G and Leatherwood M (2001) Maintaining a culture of engagement: Challenges and opportunities in an evolving institution. Metropolitan Universities 12(4): 80-92.
Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery (ANZ)/Centre for Health Initiatives, University of Wollongong (2007) Development of a ranking tool for refereed journals in which Australian and New Zealand nursing and midwifery researchers publish their work. Final report.
Curtis B and Matthewman S (2005) The managed university: The PBRF, its impacts and staff attitudes. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations 30(2): 1-17.
Duke J, McBride-Henry K, Walsh K and Foureur M (2009) The expectations of two New Zealand health services of the role of clinical chairs in nursing and midwifery. Contemporary Nurse 31(2): 129-141.
Fear F (1994) Background papers to university outreach at Michigan State University: Extend knowledge to serve society. East Lansing MI: Office of the Provost for University Outreach.
Fear F, Creamer NG, Pirog R, Block D and Redmond L (2004) Higher education-community partnerships: The politics of engagement. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement 9(2): 139-156.
Finkelstein MA (2001a) Linking research and outreach: The center for engaged scholarship. Metropolitan Universities 12(4): 9-17.
Finkelstein MA (2001b) Toward a unified view of scholarship: Eliminating distinctions between traditional and engaged work. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement 6: 35-44.
Glassick C, Huber M and Maeroff G (1997) Scholarship assessed: Evaluation of the professoriate. Special report of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
Jacoby R (1987) The last intellectuals: American culture in the age of academe. New York: Basic Books.
James V and Clark JM (2007) Benchmarking research development in nursing: Curran's competitive advantage as a framework for excellence. Journal of Research in Nursing 12: 269-287.
Klay W, Brower R and Williams B (2001) A community-oriented model of academic professionalism. Metropolitan Universities 12(3): 14-24.
Luker K (2007) Assessing the quality of research: A challenge for nursing, Nursing Inquiry 14(1): 1.
McDonald WM (Ed) (2002) Creating campus community: In search of Ernest Boyer's Legacy. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.
McDonald WM, Bacon JL, Brown CE, Carter AW, Littleton RA, Moore BL et al (2000) Collaboration and community: Boyer's guiding principles. Washington DC: National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.
Ramaley J (2001) Why do we engage in engagement? Metropolitan Universities 12(3): 13-20.
Richardson W (2004) A shared legacy of engagement. Battle Creek MI: Kellogg Foundation. Accessed 11 January 2005 at http://www.wkkf.org/Knowlegdebase/Pubs/RenderRes.aspx?CID=0&1D=3794.
Rosaen C, Foster-Fishman P and Fear F (2001) The citizen scholar: Joining voices and values in the engagement interface. Metropolitan Universities 12(4): 10-29.
Sandmann L, Foster-Fishman P, Penny G, Lloyd J, Rahue W and Rosaen C (2000) Managing critical tensions: How to strengthen the scholarship component of outreach. Change 32(1): 45-52.
Schön D (1995) The new scholarship requires a new epistemology. Change 27(6): 26-35.
Seifer S and Calleson D (2004) Health professional faculty perspectives on community based research: Implications for policy and practice. Journal of Interprofessional Care 18(4): 416-427.
Silka L (1999) Paradoxes of partnerships: Reflections on university-community collaborations. Research in Politics and Society 7: 335-359.
Strand K (2000) Community-based research as pedagogy. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning 7: 85-96.
Strand K, Marullo S, Cutforth N, Stoecker R and Donohue P (2003) Community-based research and higher education: Principles and practices. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Taskforce on the Scholarship of Engagement (2001) Report of the Taskforce on the Scholarship of Engagement. Chicago: University of Illinois.
Watson R, McKenna H and Thompson DR (2007) What does the Cooksey report hold for nursing research in the UK? Nurse Education in Practice 7: 121-122.
eContent Home
