How to Facilitate Community-Engaged Learning

How to Facilitate Community-Engaged Learning is an edited volume that offers a clear, practical roadmap for anyone involved in creating, teaching, or supporting community-engaged learning classes. The book began with a workshop at the American Sociological Association's Annual Meeting, which prompted an invitation from the publisher to me to write a book about community-engaged learning. I then asked previous collaborators to join the editorial team; hence the equal editorship for the first and second author.

Designed as a manual, the book introduces the issues such as including ethical concerns, logistics, classroom integration, assessment, and positionality that those involved in creating, teaching, and supporting community-engaged learning classes must consider.

How to Facilitate Community-Engaged Learning also makes the case that community-engaged learning is a powerful antidote to the panic AI has caused in education. By prioritizing authentic human interaction, including awkward moments, humility, and trust-building, it offers an approach AI cannot replicate. The book helps instructors move beyond passive learning strategies and facilitate the kinds of transformative learning experiences that students value most.

Sample chapters include:

(2) A practical glossary of community-engagement concepts

(3) Logistics of community-engaged learning classes

(5) Social identities and community-engaged learning

(8) International community partnerships

(9) Community engagement and classroom lectures and assignments

(11) Evaluation strategies for community-engaged learning

Edward Elgar Publishing Amazon

Praise for How to Facilitate Community-Engaged Learning

"Practical without being reductive, principled without being preachy, this is the guide faculty need to move community engaged learning from aspiration to embedded practice, and to make the case for it inside their institutions."
Sanda Balaban, Executive Director, Project Pericles

"A powerful contribution to the field, this guide centers diverse voices and lived experience while offering practical tools for advancing higher education’s civic mission. It equips faculty and staff with actionable strategies to design community-engaged learning that is reciprocal, inclusive, and grounded in real community impact."
Bobbie Laur, President, Campus Compact