Taking time to capture and describe the impact of your service-learning (SL) and community-engaged learning (CEL) can be a valuable tool in advancing your career. We’ve compiled some tips for you.
All Colleges at Boise State ask faculty to self-reflect on their teaching, research, and service, but reporting formats and department priorities vary widely. A group of faculty met at a Service-Learning (SL) roundtable to hear the strategies of Dr. Sasha Wang, Professor of Mathematics, for making a case for her SL in Faculty 180. Below are some of the ideas shared at that roundtable.
Elevate your SL on Faculty 180 through your narrative.
Connect your work with institutional mission and goals.
- Describe how your SL or Community Engaged Learning (CEL) work ties to your college’s mission by demonstrating community engagement, expanding experiential learning, and embedding career education.
- Frame your SL/CEL as one way to triangulate critical student outcomes: educating students, cultivating workforce skills, and preparing for their career.
- Investigate in advance what your department and your chair value. If they value community engagement, emphasize that; if not, focus more on teaching.
Focus on your SL teaching achievements:
- Share student feedback. Use student quotes from your students’ reflections in your narrative.
- Share community partner feedback. Invite them to comment on the impact of your partnership; make this a regular topic when you check-in with them during the semester and debrief with them after the semester.
- Cite well-established theory that provides evidence that SL is an effective way to teach.
Highlight your SL/CEL as service to the department and the community.
- Your public recognition cultivates department recognition to the community (this is a kind of department service).
- All the time you spend collaborating with community partners (in planning and implementing SL projects) could be highlighted as “service” (this may vary by department).
Share your SL/CEL successes publicly
- Highlight your successes (and your efforts) in a brief Update story, then send it to your college communication director. Colleges like to re-share stories that show community impact.
- Collaborate with your community partner to write a brief story about your partnership for their newsletter.
- Contact the Center for Teaching and Learning and ask about venues for sharing your SL achievements (poster exhibitions, roundtable discussions, and conferences). Add these events to your Faculty 180.
In summary, showcase the transformative work you are doing for your students and communities, and describe how your efforts support the goals of your department and institution.
Thanks to Dr. Wang for her insights on ways to make SL/CEL more visible in Faculty 180.
Contact Kara Brascia, the Director of Service-Learning for related tips, including:
- Connecting your service-learning with your research and publishing
- Planning for your next faculty review: gathering data to highlight your service-learning teaching
- Making your work known by talking with your faculty peers about service-learning
For more information, contact KaraBrascia@boisestate.edu