Exploring Community-Engaged Scholarship: Insights and Questions for HRD

Abstract

The Problem: Higher education, including human resource development (HRD) programs, faces increasing public scrutiny for being out of touch with issues and concerns facing local and global communities by guarding limited conceptualizations of scholarship. In response, colleges and universities are identifying ways to bridge the academy (higher education) with the community-at-large and looking to its faculty to weave community concerns into scholarship through means such as community-engaged scholarship (CES). While the literature on and application of CES is robust in other disciplines, it remains less widely discussed in HRD. The Solution: HRD scholar-practitioners have expertise in learning, leadership, organizational culture, and change, which could benefit the larger community, but also faculty and their work. Some HRD scholar-practitioners may already be practicing CES; yet, there is limited understanding of CES within HRD despite shared values and principles, including what may be blocking community-engaged efforts. To jumpstart the discussion, this article provides an overview of CES, identifying questions and issues for HRD scholar-practitioners to consider as part of a call to action to inform and advance the practice of and scholarship on CES. The Stakeholders: This article has relevance for all who seek direct and indirect ways to collaborate, integrate knowledge across disciplines and contexts (including the community at large, field of HRD, and academicians), address community concerns, and translate knowledge to serve the broader good.