Abstract
The question of why we should promote engaged learning is often answered with reference to the broader civic mission of the public university. Without doubt, normative imperatives to enhance the world in which we are living should and do underlie the drive toward engaged learning. We might, however, also want to recognise a reason to promote engaged learning that emerges from a less disinterested perspective, one that locates it at the heart of the research mission of the university. In other words, it is possible to understand engaged learning as a process that both mirrors and contributes to many of the methods by which academics are conducting research today. Engaged learning, from this perspective, is neither ‘service’ nor simply pedagogic innovation, but is a mode of teaching and learning that distinctively models and reflects contemporary research practices and, as such, it is an approach that is particularly important for research intensive universities.
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Acknowledgments
This chapter is based on our ongoing work as Leadership Fellow (Facer) and Post-doctoral researcher (Enright) on the ARHC/RCUK funded Connected Communities Programme. The Connected Communities programme aims to build new insights into community by funding and encouraging academic research with, by and for communities. Running since 2010, the project has to date funded over 300 projects, involved over 400 academics and 650 community collaborators, working in fields ranging from dementia, to creative economy, to cultural heritage. The participants in these projects are an ongoing source of inspiration and challenge in the debates over the future of the university. See www.connected-communities.org
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Facer, K., Enright, B. (2017). A Question of Purpose: Engaged Learning and the Research Mission of the University. In: Sachs, J., Clark, L. (eds) Learning Through Community Engagement. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0999-0_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0999-0_4
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