Experiential Learning: Conferences as a Tool to Develop Students’ Understanding of Community-Engaged Research

Maria Zaharatos, Carolyn Taylor Meyer () and Julian Hernandez-Webster
Additional contact information
Maria Zaharatos: Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Graduate School of Middlebury College, Monterey, CA 93940, USA
Carolyn Taylor Meyer: Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Graduate School of Middlebury College, Monterey, CA 93940, USA
Julian Hernandez-Webster: Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Graduate School of Middlebury College, Monterey, CA 93940, USA

Social Sciences, 2023, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-18

Abstract: The purpose of this paper of practice is to explore the use of a “Conference as Curriculum” model to develop student understanding of critical approaches and challenges and opportunities in the field of community-engaged research (CER). Two higher education institutions in California’s Monterey County sent 22 students to the “All-In: Co-Creating Knowledge for Justice” Conference in Santa Cruz, California USA in October 2022. The undergraduate and graduate students were funded through their academic institutions and accompanied by faculty and staff working on community-engaged research. Participation in the conference involved a pre- and post-conference convening to prepare students for the conference and then guide students through reflections on their learning and future work. The experiential learning activities offered in conjunction with the students’ conference attendance were designed to: (1) foster students’ connection to the community and each other; (2) develop students’ understanding of community-engaged research; and (3) build students’ professional acumen through attending a professional conference. Two authors of this article share their experience as student attendees at the conference. The student vignettes provide insight on the authors’ learning experiences and offer design implications for the use of cohort conference attendance as an experiential learning activity. The article presents a conference experiential learning model that could be replicated and modified by other higher education institutions. We also place the project within a greater inter-institutional initiative to build a model for community-driven collaborations that seeks to address challenges surrounding higher education engagement with local nonprofits and governments.

Keywords: conference as curriculum; experiential learning; community-engaged research; university–community collaborations; critical participatory action research; higher education institutional collaboration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/6/352/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/6/352/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:6:p:352-:d:1170390

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().