Ira Harkavy

The role of universities in advancing citizenship and social justice in the 21st century

This article makes the following claims: (1) the goal for universities should be to contribute significantly to developing and sustaining democratic schools, communities, and societies; (2) by working to realize that goal, democratic-minded academics can powerfully help American higher education in particular, and American schooling in general, return to their core mission – effectively educating students to be democratic, creative, caring, constructive citizens of a democratic society. To support those claims, the author provides an historical and contemporary case to illustrate that a democratic mission is the core mission of American higher education. He also identifies Platonization, commodification, and, ‘disciplinary ethnocentrism, tribalism, guildism’, as major obstacles that have helped prevent higher education from realizing its democratic mission. Drawing on two decades of experience he and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania have had developing university–community–school partnerships, he proposes a strategy that involves colleges and universities working to solve universal problems (e.g. poverty, inadequate schooling, substandard health care) that are manifested in their local communities. Highlighting the global reach of the university civic responsibility movement, he concludes by calling on democratic-minded academics to work to create university-assisted community schools as a powerful way to help develop democratic students (K-16) and to contribute to the development of democratic schools, universities and societies.

An Implementation Revolution as a Strategy for Fulfilling the Democratic Promise of University-Community Partnerships: Penn-West Philadelphia as an Experiment in Progress:

In this article, the authors argue that the academic-practitioner divide is largely a product of the Platonic false dualism between “superior” pure theory and “inferior” applied practice. The authors call for a Dewey-inspired implementation revolution to build local democratic neighborly communities as a means for advancing academic-practitioner collaboration, fulfilling America’s democratic promise, and overcoming the influence of Plato’s aristocratic philosophy on American higher education. The authors describe the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Community Partnerships’work with public schools as an experiment in progress designed to advance academic-practitioner collaboration and a “democratic devolution revolution.” Academically based community service learning and research and communal participatory action research are highlighted as particularly useful approaches for improving scholarship and communities and forging democratic, mutually beneficial, and mutually respectful university-school-community partnerships.

Pursuing Franklin's dream: Philosophical and historical roots of service-learning.

Two decades ago service-learning as an innovation lingered on the periphery of the academy. Today, service-learning has spread across American higher education. Few educational innovations have achieved such relatively rapid success. This article describes the historical and philosophical underpinnings of service-learning. It notes some of the significant debates that have occurred among its practitioners. The authors draw from experience at their university, the University of Pennsylvania, to describe the importance of connecting service-learning to the core educational and civic missions of a college or university, as well as to provide a case study of how that connection might be made.

Putting Down Roots in the Groves of Academe: The Challenges of Institutionalizing Service-Learning

Service-learning, by almost any measure, has been an enormously successful academic innovation (Stanton, Giles, and Cruz 1999). A mere two decades ago Campus Compact was founded by three university presidents intent on making service an integral part of their students’ experiences and aspiring someday to have 100 college and university presidents as members. Today, more than 900 presidents and their institutions have joined and 30 state offices provide training and technical assistance to students, faculty, and administrators in the areas of service-learning and civic engagement.1

University-school-community partnerships for youth development and democratic renewal.

Democratic partnerships of universities, schools, and an array of neighborhood and community organizations are the most promising means of improving the lives of our nations young people. Over the past two decades, many colleges and universities have been experiencing a renaissance in engagement activities. Universities, once ivory towers, have increasingly come to recognize that their destinies are inextricably linked with their communities. Authentic democratic partnerships have three characteristics: they are devised to achieve democratic purposes, the collective work is advanced through inclusive and democratic processes, and the product these partnerships produce benefits all participants and results in a strengthening of the democratic practices within the community.

Communal Participatory Action Research as a Strategy for Improving Universities and the Social Sciences: Penn's Work with the West Philadelphia Improvement Corps as a Case Study

As the 20th century closes, a key question is: What can the social sciences do to help solve the problems of our society and world? The authors identify the principal causes of the crisis in the university and the social sciences to be intellectual fragmentation and a structural contradiction that is built into the American research university. They then propose a radical reorientation of American universities toward helping solve real-world problems—particularly those in a universitys local community. The authors suggest that such an orientation can be achieved through communal participatory action research projects designed to help change society. This research strategy, they argue, will significantly advance both general knowledge and human welfare. The article explores, in detail, a communal participatory action research project initiated at the University of Pennsylvania and draws conclusions from this case study that might be applied in other research projects.

The Promise of University-Assisted Community Schools to Transform American Schooling: A Report From the Field, 1985–2012

This article explores the university-assisted community school approach as it has been developed at the University of Pennsylvania with its school and community partners in West Philadelphia since 1985, as well as adapted nationally. The approach is grounded in John Deweys theory that the neighborhood school can function as the core neighborhood institution that provides comprehensive services, galvanizes other community institutions and groups, and helps solve the myriad problems schools and community confront in a rapidly changing world. Building on Deweys ideas, the authors argue that all colleges and universities should make solving the problem of the American schooling system a very high institutional priority; their contributions to its solution should count heavily both in assessing their institutional performance (by themselves and others) and be a critical factor when responding to their requests for renewed or increased resources and financial support. Providing concrete examples from over 20 years of work in West Philadelphia, as well as from initiatives across the country, this article explores the potential of developing university-assisted community schools as an effective approach for school reform, pre-Kindergarten through higher education.

Academically-Based Community Service and University-Assisted Community Schools as Complementary Approaches for Advancing, Learning, Teaching, Research and Service: The University of Pennsylvania as a Case Study in Progress

The service-learning movement has nearly arrived.1 Witness this volume, the 18 volume series on service-learning and the disciplines, the extraordinary growth of Campus Compact from 12 member institutions in 1985 to nearly 800 colleges and universities in 2000, and the focus on service-learning by influential national higher education associations such as the American Council on Education, Association of American Colleges and Universities, National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, and American Association for Higher Education. Although relatively silent on service-learning, the prestigious Association of American Universities, an organization of 61 American and two Canadian research universities, has recently focused on issues of community service and university-community relationships.2

Engaging Urban Universities as Anchor Institutions for Health Equity

The article explores how urban universities can be anchor institutions for health equity. Particular focus is given to conditions in states including Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Ohio. Additional topics discussed include gentrification, the engagement of universities with their surrounding communities, and efforts taking place at the University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers University.

The History and Development of a Partnership Approach to Improve Schools, Communities and Universities

The compelling, important, and innovative idea of “university-assisted community schools” originated at the University of Pennsylvania. Today it is an advanced, international exemplar. The main ideas merit attention and scale-up. For example, universities and other higher education institutions located in challenging urban neighborhoods and rural places have important resources to offer local children, families, communities, schools, and neighborhood organizations, starting with their talented faculty and highly energetic and creative students. These resources position these higher education institutions to serve as anchors and hubs for the kinds of complex, multi-faceted innovations needed to improve community outcomes, as well as mutually beneficial outcomes for the higher education institutions doing this important work. Starting in the mid 1980s, the leader-authors of this chapter and their school and community partners seized this idea and then rolled up their sleeves to make it happen. For example, they pioneered and scaled-up important innovations such as academically-based community service—where professors teach their courses in local community schools and other community settings—while also demonstrating how higher education institutions and leaders of research universities in particular can become transformational agents for beneficial social change. This chapter describes the journey toward this advanced exemplar, including the development of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, the growth of the international network of university-assisted community schools, and the several awards that nominate this model as an international exemplar.