Many academic departments are making efforts to increase faculty and student community engagement as part of a movement to revitalize the civic function of higher education. A case study of the development of a public sociology program provides examples of steps that can be taken to involve educators and students in communities in multifaceted…

This article discusses the creation of space and time for feminist approaches in higher education in the context of shifting community and employment relations and the restructuring of higher education space-time. It draws on the reflections of three feminist academics concerning aspects of their work biographies in two very different higher…

Describes a college course which uses field studies to examine communities and small urban places. The course is designed for undergraduate students with little or no field experience and is offered as an intensive two-week session between semesters. (RM)

Guided design involves an instructor in developing a problem that students are expected to solve and then leading them, step by step, through the problem to its solution. This teaching method was used to help students explore how individuals, small groups, and then larger numbers of people in larger areas interact to form the Muncie (Indiana)…

This article outlines a conceptual framework for a high school or college level unit on local history and demonstrates use of the framework through a case study of Whitehall, Georgia. Information is presented on planning the unit, selecting a community, teaching methods, collecting data, and identifying likely sources of information on community…

To teach community health assessment to nursing students, videotaped segments of real community situations were incorporated in an interactive simulation program that leads students through the processes of data collection and evaluation. (SK)

Reviews a community training program for undergraduate students at a small liberal arts college in Alton, Illinois. The program involves students in a community work placement, a community studies course, and work study experience in a small industrial town near the college. (Author/DB)

Uses a class exercise that tests the folk wisdom concerning small-town friendliness. Students are assigned to express random friendliness to strangers so they can determine whether friendlier responses are elicited in small towns or large cities. (KO)

Describes a Community Analysis course that gives students an opportunity to apply urban theory through direct community engagement. Notes course objectives and organization (as a condensed special topic to allow travel, or within the regular semester). Identifies benefits/risks of community experiential learning for instructors and students.…

Describes a set of community-problem assignments for upper-level undergraduate public policy courses which require students to connect public policy analysis and scholarly research to a specific policy problem in a community. Analyzes student evaluations of the assignments and suggests modifications to fit different curriculum needs. (Author/DB)

Describes a university undergraduate course in community studies which was taught through an historical, geographical, and sociological approach using primary sources and research techniques. (KC)

Describes an instructional model used at the University of North Carolina in an introductory international politics course. This module is designed to promote greater international awareness and a sense of the ways that external forces affect the students' daily lives in their community. Identifies problems confronting the curriculum planner. (KO)

How fiction is used in a college-level political science seminar to teach about democratic decision making and U.S. politics is described. The fiction used is clustered around the following topics: community-level decisions, limits to consensus, group values and politics, acquiring elected offices and trying to keep them, and public bureaucracies.…

Briefly discusses projects in local history from elementary to graduate level. Suggests that projects can serve as a springboard for broader study and a building block for an appreciation of United States History and western civilization. (Author/KC)

Explains how studying a floodplain can help students analyze the interactions between humans and the physical environment. Analyzes data from two cities in California to demonstrate that housing prices did not rebound after a flood. (GG)