1st Edition
Envisioning Public Scholarship for Our Time Models for Higher Education Researchers
This book proposes a new paradigm of public scholarship for our time, one that shifts from the notion of the public intellectual to the model of the engaged scholar.The editors’ premise is that the work of public scholarship should be driven by a commitment to supporting a diverse democracy and promoting equity and social justice. The contributors to this volume present models that eschew the top-down framing of policy to advocate for practice that drives bottom-up change by arming the widest range of stakeholders -- especially members of marginalized communities -- with relevant research.They demonstrate how public scholarship in higher education can increase its impact on practice and policy and compellingly argue that public scholarship should be recognized as normative practice for all scholars and indeed integrated into the curriculum of graduate courses.The chapters describe multiple types of public scholarship and different strategies that move beyond informing policymakers, faculty, and administrators to engage publics such as students and parents, media, the general public, and particularly groups that may have had little or no access to research. Examples include partnering with a community agency to design a research project and disseminate results; writing for practitioner or policy venues and magazines outside the traditional academic journals; serving on boards for national groups that impact decisions related to your area of research; and the use of social media.Whether scholar, director of graduate education, or graduate student of higher education, this book opens up a new vision of how research can inform practice that promotes the public good.
Foreword by Lorelle L. Espinosa Part One. Context for Public Scholarship 1. Defining the Evolving Concept of Public Scholarship—Adrianna Kezar, Yianna Drivalas, and Joseph A. Kitchen 2. The Many Faces of Public Scholarship. Opportunities, Lessons Learned, and Challenges Encountered From the Journey of a Public Scholar—Adrianna Kezar 3. Cultivating Ethical Mindfulness. Using an Activity Theory Framework to Address Ethical Dilemmas in Public Scholarship—Cecile H. Sam and Jarrett T. Gupton Part Two. Approaches to Public Scholarship 4. Legal Arenas and Public Scholarship—Sylvia Hurtado 5. Black Data Matter. Connecting Education Research to the Movement for Black Lives—Charles H. F. Davis III, Shaun R. Harper and Wilmon A. Christian III 6. The Remaking of My Research Practice. From Creating Knowledge to Creating Equity-Minded Competence—Estela Mara Bensimon 7. Legislative White Papers. Connecting Research and Policy in Nevada—Kim Nehls, Oscar Espinoza-Parra, Holly Schneider, Travis Tyler, and Elena Nourrie 8. Involvement in National Movements. Working Closely With Students—Amalia Dache-Gerbino 9. Where Scholarship and Practice Meet. Perspectives From Cooperative Extension—Casey D. Mull, Jenna B. Daniel, and Jenny Jordan 10. Using Social Media as Public Scholarship—Constance Iloh 11. Art and the Academy. How Arts-Based Research Can Support Public Scholarship—Yianna Drivalas and Adrianna Kezar Part Three. Encouraging and Learning Public Scholarship 12. Reenvisioning Graduate and Early Career Socialization to Encourage Public Scholarship—Michael Lanford and William G. Tierney 13. Modeling, Mentoring, and Pedagogy. Cultivating Public Scholars—Angela Clark-Taylor, Molly Sarubbi, Judy Marquez Kiyama, and Stephanie J. Waterman 14. Public Scholarship Across Faculty Career Stages—Jamie Lester and David Horton Jr. 15. Preparing Higher Education Scholars to Engage in Public Scholarship Inside the Beltway. Crossing Cultures, Building Bridges—Lesley McBain 16. Public Scholarship. An Invitation, a Final Example, and a Summary of Key Themes—Adrianna Kezar, Zoe Corwin, Joseph A. Kitchen, and Yianna Drivalas Editors and Contributors Index
Biography
Adrianna Kezar is a professor of higher education at the University of Southern California and codirector of the Pullias Center for Higher Education. Kezar is a national expert of student success, equity and diversity, the changing faculty, change, governance, and leadership in higher education. Kezar is well published with 18 books and monographs, more than 100 journal articles, and more than 100 book chapters and reports. Recent books include Envisioning the Faculty of the 21st Century (Rutgers University Press, 2016), How Colleges Change (Routledge, 2013), Enhancing Campus Capacity for Leadership (Stanford Press, 2011) and Organizing for Collaboration (Jossey-Bass, 2009). She is the project director for the Delphi Project on the changing faculty and student success and was just awarded a grant from the Teagle Foundation for institutions that better support faculty and create new faculty models. Yianna Drivalas is a PhD student at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education. Prior to graduate school, Drivalas studied creative writing and theater and taught at the community college and high school levels. She is a research associate at the university’s Race and Equity Center under the advisement of Shaun R. Harper. Her dissertation work examines White male faculty consciousness and contributions to departmental climate, with a specific focus on race and gender. Joseph A. Kitchen is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational and Psychological Studies at the University of Miami. He is also a Research Associate at the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California. He was previously a postdoctoral scholar at the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California, and a postdoctoral fellow at the Science Education Department at Harvard University. Dr. Kitchen conducts quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research and his research agend
Envisioning Public Scholarship for Our Time: Models for Higher Education Researchers is an excellent resource for Ed.D. program faculty and administrators who are committed to developing scholarly practitioners. Doctoral students will benefit from having this book as required reading in their initial research course as it describes the value of scholarship and the significant impact various forms of public scholarship can make in terms of social justice and equity. Kezar et al. (2018) promote activism by sharing numerous examples of public scholarship, including their own, and outlining several paths for how researchers can engage in public scholarship to impact policy and practice in higher education.
Overall, Envisioning Public Scholarship for Our Time: Models for Higher Education Researchers is an inspiring fresh look at how scholars can use their talents for the greater good. It challenges faculty, administrators, and students to become an activist through public scholarship. The rich, meaningful examples shared throughout the book are sure to provide readers with many suggestions and ideas about how to engage in public scholarship. Two areas that were addressed, but need further attention, are how can colleges and universities modify reward structures so that public scholarship is highly valued, and what strategies will assist faculty and students who face challenges when shifting toward a more public scholarship framework. I would strongly recommend that faculty use this as a primary text in the first research course in doctoral programs, especially programs committed to the scholarly practitioner framework.
Impacting Education: Journal on Transforming Professional Practice
In Envisioning Public Scholarship, scholars offer accounts of why and how our social science research can be conducted for the democratic good. In the spirit of John Dewey’s democratic ethics, scholars in these pages organize and operationalize democratic equity as both means and ends of research. “Public scholarship” is not the old century’s call for educating policy makers. Rather, this clarion’s call is a millennial one—research as democratic activism, boldly presented and timely, indeed.
Ana Martinez-Aleman, Professor, Lynch School of Education
Boston College
"As educators, this book reminds us of our shared responsibility to contribute, and more importantly, to be in service to the public good. Every emerging and current scholar should read this book with this question in mind: How will my work embody the definition of public scholarship as connected to a diverse democracy, equity, and an avenue for social justice? The answer has the potential to reshape how we conduct research and how we prepare future scholars."
Tia McNair, Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Student Success
Association of American Colleges & Universities
"Kezar, Drivalas, and Kitchen’s Envisioning Public Scholarship is an extremely helpful and timely book. As scholars consider strategies to translate research and scholarship for policymakers and local/national communities, Envisioning, is a long overdue resource. Each contributor’s perspective deepens readers’ consideration of how research can be more accessible to diverse audiences within and beyond the academy. Envisioning, is integral for helping to concretize the idea of higher education as a public good."
Lori D. Patton, Professor, Higher Education and Student Affairs
Indiana University School of Education
"Envisioning Public Scholarship encourages scholars to engage the urgent problems of the communities in which they live, not simply by offering expertise, but also by cultivating authentic relationships, reciprocal learning, and improved writing and communication skills. The complexity and contradictions of community life make public scholarship difficult, but this book persuasively argues that it is both essential for social progress and a pathway to a more meaningful and consequential scholarly life."
Paul E. Lingenfelter, President Emeritus, State Higher Education Executive Officers. Author of: “Proof,” Policy, and Practice: Understanding the Role of Evidence in Improving Education
"Envisioning Public Scholarship for Our Time: Models for Higher Education Researchers, edited by Adrianna Kezar, Yianna Drivalas, and Joseph A. Kitchen, is a timely and important contribution. It updates how higher education and social science researchers can meaningfully inform and participate in national and community issues and policies. This sentiment is averred in the Foreword and throughout the volume in light of the historical and emerging societal issues and the tenuous influence of research-based knowledge among decision makers.
Envisioning Public Scholarship for Our Time: Models for Higher Education Researchers is an engaging, varied, and interesting read. As you read each chapter, the autobiography and first-hand accounts of the authors make the stories and elaborations of public scholarship quite lively and relatable. The sheer variability of each chapter is definitely a strength of this volume. Another strength throughout the chapters is the willingness of the authors to explicitly state that engaging in public scholarship is not easy, often not supported by the structures of higher education, and may leave one feeling vulnerable. Some of this vulnerability is because most of the authors were not trained explicitly for public scholarship but instead had to learn on the ground and by reflecting on their missteps along the way.
The engaging nature of the volume and the explicit details on the methods and avenues of public scholarship make this book ideal for a number of purposes. These include but are not limited to graduate courses in theory, methods, and substantive higher education issues, as well as faculty workshops and development programs. More informally, this volume can add to a faculty member’s understanding of the ways in which their traditional responsibilities can be construed and executed."
Teachers College Record
