The reawakening of the Indigenous Gamilaraay language in northern inland New South Wales, Australia involves righting two centuries of prohibition and mistreatment after invasion by English-speaking settlers. Gamilaraay is no longer used as an everyday language in the community, although it has strong emblematic value for the Gamilaraay community.…

Extension program participants tell story after story of the impact of Cooperative Extension on their lives, their families, and their businesses. Despite huge amounts of qualitative data, very little quantitative data exist showing the aggregated public value of Extension programs--especially across program areas. The lack of data leaves…

Based on semi-structured interviews with Tibetan teachers in Qinghai Province in Northwest China, this article explores how the teachers, who hold subject positions as pedagogical professionals and local intellectual elites, understand the value and implications of education for Tibetan people, and how they navigate their profession in the local…

Engaging communities through research-based participatory evaluation and learning methods can be rewarding for both a community and Extension. A case study of a community tourism development program evaluation shows how participatory evaluation and learning can be mutually reinforcing activities. Many communities value the opportunity to reflect…

The paper discusses design thinking as a conceptual framework and methodological approach for fostering discussion and facilitating ideas that promote diversity and inclusion. We provide a theoretical overview of design thinking and related approaches to then discuss our case study, a workshop on inclusive community development that brought…

The objective of Nigerian universities among others, and very important too, is to relate their activities to the social, cultural and economic needs of the people of Nigeria. This presupposes that the Nigerian society expects the universities to continuously adjust curriculum, teaching, and research to meet the needs of society. More than five…

The purpose of this paper was to investigate first year students' lived experiences of the Third Trimester Field Practical Programme at selected communities in the Upper West Region of Ghana. Convenience sampling method was used to select and put students into focus groups. Focus group interview was then used to collect data from the students.…

Village tourism is a type of tourism which integrates nature, culture, education, and the active participation of the local. It is intended to improve the community's prosperity. This model aligns with the Community Economy (CE) concept which advocates for people's well-being. This paper aims to describe the ways in which village tourism is…

Mushroom production is a small-scale business unit in rural areas. The Life Long Learning for Farmers (L3F) Programme aims to enhance the socio-economic conditions for them, increasing their access to and use of knowledge and technology. This study evaluates the outcomes of the L3F Programme at the community level. Data were collected through a…

Urban policymakers, city officials, and community residents utilize neighborhood revitalization initiatives to establish safe and empowered neighborhoods. In 2016, leaders in Columbus, Ohio, launched a neighborhood revitalization effort designed to improve safety, access to opportunities, and economic development in the historically underserved…

The purpose of this case study was to examine the success factors of a leadership development program using action learning for self-governance members in the city of Bucheon in Korea, as well as the distinctive features of action learning for community development in comparison with action learning for business. To that end, we conducted 22…

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of active community-building in a classroom with culturally linguistically economically diverse (CLED) gifted learners in a semirural school district who underachieve. The central research question was, How does actively building classroom community interact with CLED gifted learners who…

Purpose: Although the value of community capacity building is widely accepted within scholarly literature, these initiatives thus far appear to have achieved very little impact in the achievement of community development aspirations. This paper aims to increase knowledge regarding specific priority areas which when targeted will result in more…

This reflective, autoethnographic piece provides some insights into our involvement with a program that promotes a value-driven approach to community development work. As a 'conversation' between a lecturer and a graduate, or Educator of Informal Educators and Informal Educator, we discuss the process of teaching and learning about values within…

In John Dewey's educational framework, the process and product are inseparable; achieving democratic ends cannot result from undemocratic means. For him, the full humanization of people depended not upon externally imposed curriculum and management systems, but rather on responding to the intrinsic needs, interests, and powers of the individual to…