Creating a script for the unscripted future

Creating a script for the unscripted future

Article Type: Commentaries From: International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Volume 17, Issue 1

This special issue of the International Journal of Organizational Analysis focuses on the “unscripted future” – a shared future that is unpredictable and dynamic. This future – and the demand for service-learning and/or engagement as strategies to help script this future – will be one that is shaped by both known and unknown consequences of global, technological and economic change.

If we accept the premise that service-learning and engagement strategies will help to provide guidance to acknowledge and embrace this new future, then the questions that face us as we anticipate this future relate to how we will best position ourselves in higher education to navigate and move forward. Our past scripts prepared us for what we have done; our anticipation of the future can at best prepare us for what we might encounter. We are left, then, to consider how strategies of service-learning and community engagement might best help to position the academy to face this future.

First, we must be clear what we are talking about. The literature on service-learning is growing continually, but the reality remains that this is a descriptor of a very powerful teaching and learning strategy that helps to connect students with real-world issue identification and resolution – but stops there. The discourse on community engagement (and there are multiple terms that can be applied) sets up a broader framework that outlines a future that includes teaching and learning strategies but also community-based collaborative research, various kinds of work-based learning opportunities, and other collaborations that bring higher education and community representatives into partnerships that provide the organizational framework from which to collaborate and address important issues.

Second, we must understand motivation – particularly as we embark on an unscripted future. Why are we doing this? What are the different driving forces for students, faculty, institutional leaders, community leaders, and community members? They are not the same. Understanding motivations and drivers will help us to better plot our course in order to navigate the unscripted future and take into account the realities of motivations for tenure and promotion as compared to competitive grades as compared to genuine collaborations that will result in real-world problem solving.

Third, we can only navigate the unscripted future if we have a sense of where we are going and where we want to end up – or if we are willing to embark upon an adventure of uncertainty. Uncertainty is not usually the path for students of faculty in higher education, and the navigation of the path generally is marked by milestones that can be anticipated. Such is not the case of most community engagement, where the realities of life often intrude – usually unexpectedly – upon carefully planned trajectories of work and learning.

Thus, our task – and our challenge – is to figure out how to navigate, successfully, this pathway. Strategies such as community engagement and service-learning can be helpful, but must be contextualized in a broader frame that allows for the various certainties and uncertainties, and ultimately achieves the desired outcomes for all stakeholders.

Sherril B. GelmonPortland State University, Portland, Oregon, USA

About the author

Sherril B. Gelmon (DrPH, University of Michigan) is Professor of Public Health at Portland State University, and Senior Consultant with Community-Campus Partnerships for Health. She is the Founding Chair of the International Association for Research on Service-learning and Community Engagement. She is a frequent presenter and author on topics related to community engagement, faculty roles and rewards, and educational assessment. She serves on the Editorial Boards of the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, the Journal of Community Engagement in Higher Education, the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, and Quality Management Journal. Sherril B. Gelmon can be contacted at: gelmons@pdx.edu