First, civically engaged courses and projects value interdisciplinarity and the new modes of inquiry that emerge when students and scholars confront questions from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Secondly, they place collaboration between universities and communities at the center of the academic enterprise. They showcase how collaboration itself generates new questions and becomes an incubator of new knowledge. Finally, collaborative learning promotes diversity by introducing students and faculty to a multiplicity of perspectives, both locally and globally.
These partnerships set the stage for informed discussion and deliberation, thereby promoting an education for citizenship and civic responsibility.
STRATEGIES:
- Foster stronger connections between UM and the larger South Florida community
- Coordinate existing University-wide efforts that promote community partnerships
- Embed experiential learning more fully into the curriculum
- Develop new courses in which community-based partnerships are central to course learning outcomes
- Enhance existing courses by integrating community engagement into course curriculum
- Work with the Butler Center for Volunteer Service and Leadership Development to promote community service among students and link those experiences to experiential learning
- Create new initiatives that bring multiple schools and disciplines together to work on shared community-based projects
