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Community Development Education: Convergent Approaches to Community Well-Being

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Abstract

Over the last few decades, the community development field has grown substantially, creating a need for further professional training. Today, there are approximately fifty graduate and undergraduate community development programs across the United States housed in various departments from architecture to business administration, underscoring that the challenges of communities require a holistic view of complex urban issues that go beyond the borders of a single discipline or community context. As part of a three-year research initiative to investigate community development in higher education in the U.S., a symposium focused on Community Development Education was held in Detroit in 2019 bringing together a diverse group of community development educators from over twenty universities to share knowledge, best practices, and innovative ideas for teaching and learning. Important questions emerged from the symposium about the future of community development education. For example, what societal issues are informing the community development field? What knowledge is required of community developers? How can community development education address both? This article responds to these questions and identifies convergent approaches among community development educators. These include growing attention to interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary methods, community level responses that require collaboration and engagement, and the co-production of knowledge between educators and the communities they serve. Through a discussion of these approaches, this article seeks to foster dialogue among community development educators around common foci and underscore that community development education is a foundation for enhancing community well-being.

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Acknowledgments

USDA/NIFA Higher Education Challenge Grant “Building Capacity and Diffusing Innovation in Community Development Education”.

Funding

This study was funded by the Department of Agriculture (USDA)/NIFA Higher Education Challenge Grant (Grant #2017–70003-26381).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Architecture and Community Development, University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit, MI, USA

    Virginia Stanard

  2. Urban Design, Department of Human Ecology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Michael Rios

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  1. Virginia Stanard
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Correspondence to Virginia Stanard.

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Stanard, V., Rios, M. Community Development Education: Convergent Approaches to Community Well-Being. Int. Journal of Com. WB 4, 143–159 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42413-021-00128-4

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