Engaged Scholarship in IS Research

Engaged scholarship (Van de Ven 2007) offers a grand opportunity to address key challenges within the Information Systems (IS) discipline in a novel and constructive way. To explore this opportunity, we adapt the principles of engaged scholarship and apply them to analyze Scandinavian IS research through the lens of Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems (SJIS). We consider the Scandinavian tradition based on review papers in SJIS; we review all research papers published in SJIS over the past 20 years; finally, we discuss the possible role of engaged scholarship in shaping the future of Scandinavian IS research. We conclude with implications of engaged scholarship for IS research and practice in general

Unusual conversations: A reflection on the mechanics of internationally engaged public scholarship

This article analyses the civic engagement pathways of researchers from the Asia-Pacific and the United States in an effort to see how the principles of what American  scholars consider publicly engaged research and creative practice are being enacted in research sites across the globe. The purpose of this ongoing project is to focus on finding ways of connecting American scholars with a network of higher education and research institutions that hold a commitment and passion for social responsibility and civic engagement as it impacts education, research and service for community development overseas. The narrative includes the voices and perspectives of colleagues dedicated to engaged scholarship from across the new region in which I work (the Asia-Pacific), alongside the voices of some of Imagining America’s (IA) 2014 National Conference participants. These conversations serve as a critical reflection on the mechanics of doing public scholarship overseas and frame a new model of internationally engaged scholarship.Keywords: Internationally engaged public scholarship, unusual conversation

Academic Scholars, Practicing Professionals, and Engaged Scholarship: A Content Analysis of Collaborative and Informed Research in Tourism Journals

This study examines the existence of engaged scholarship through a content analysis of 442 articles published in tourism journals. The importance of the analysis is based on arguments from the literature that research quality improves when academic scholars and practicing professionals collaborate. However, confirmation that engaged scholarship is taking place is a necessary first step before one can evaluate and compare the quality of the research. The results of the analysis reveal that engaged scholarship is modestly practiced. Collaborative research represents approximately 10 percent of the total while informed research represents about 22 percent (for external funding) and 9 percent (for access to data and other support). Now that the presence of engaged scholarship has been confirmed, future investigations should examine whether or not such engagement results in higher quality research. If so, it will have potentially important implications for both scholarship and practice

Engaged scholarship: encouraging interactionism in entrepreneurship and small-to-medium enterprise (SME) research

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce a multi-layered theoretical framework to enable engaged scholarship to develop as a practice in entrepreneurship and small business research. To do so, it illuminates the salient features of engaged scholarship, collaborative learning and actor-network theory (ANT). Design/methodology/approach: The paper follows a narrative or traditional literature review design. Specifically, it adopts a thematic approach for summarising and synthesising a body of literature on engaged scholarship, collaborative learning and ANT with the view to develop a new multi-layered theoretical framework. Findings: Applying the theory of engaged scholarship to pivot entrepreneurship/SME research provides scholars with an opportunity to unlock the theory vs practice paradox. Moreover, engaged scholarship offers valuable instructions for encouraging interactionism between entrepreneurship researchers and practitioners as well as reconcile their polarised views. Co-production and co-creation of knowledge addresses the concerns often raised by the practitioner community regarding the relevance and applicability of academic research to practice. Practical implications: The proposed multi-layered framework provides entrepreneurship researchers, and the practitioner community with a taxonomy to use to encourage a joint approach to research. Developing deep partnerships between academics and practitioners can produce outcomes that satisfy the twin imperatives of scholarship that can be of high quality as well as a value to society. Originality/value: The paper advances the theory and practice of engaged scholarship in new ways that are not common in entrepreneurship/SME research. This enables engaged scholarship to develop as a practice in entrepreneurship and small firms’ research. Through applying the proposed multi-layered framework in research, academics can deliver fully developed solutions for practical problems. The framework is useful in the theory vs practice and entrepreneurship researchers vs practitioner debates

Democratising the knowledge commons: The shared goals of open and community-engaged scholarship

Community-engaged scholarship is at a transitional moment, seeking to effect cultural change in academic and research institutions, which will expand the concept of scholarship to encompass the methodologies and definitions of scholarship embodied in community-university research and engagement. Open scholarship is similarly employed in transforming scholarship to broaden its scope, influence and impact beyond traditional modes of academic practice. Written from the perspective of practitioners of open access publishing, this article explores the development and current state of the open movement and considers intersections and opportunities for collaboration with community-engaged scholarship. </jats:p

Keyword: Action

My keyword today is action. No, it’s not about Meaghan Morris the action hero! But it&nbsp;is&nbsp;about Meaghan Morris as a woman of action. It is also about Meaghan’s work on action cinema and cultural research as engaged scholarship in action

The Interpersonal Skills of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Insights From Collaborators Working at the University of Saskatchewan’s Community Engagement Office

Perhaps more clearly than other research approaches, community-based research or engaged scholarship involves both technical skills of research expertise and scientific rigor as well as interpersonal skills of relationship building, effective communication, and moral ways of being. In an academic age concerned with scientific precision, cognitive skills, quantification, and reliable measurements, the interpersonal skills required for research—and particularly community-based research and engaged scholarship—demand growing importance and resources in contemporary discourse and practice. Focused around the University of Saskatchewan’s Community Engagement Office located in the inner city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the authors draw on over 50 years of collective experience to offer critical reflections on the notion of interpersonal skills in community-engaged scholarship that manifest particularly in place-based contexts of Indigenous community partnerships. Overall, we argue that discourse and practice involving community-engaged scholarship must pay attention to the notion of interpersonal skills in various aspects and across multiple dimensions and disciplines. This approach is crucial to ensure that research is done effectively and ethically, that good quality data are produced from such research, that subtle, systematic forms of micro-aggression and oppression are minimized, and that community voices and knowledge have a meaningful and significant place in scholarship activities

Engaged scholarship at land-grant institutions: Factors affecting faculty participation

At a time when universities and their faculty are called to work in partnership with partners to address important societal issues, engaged scholarship has become an important movement in higher education. This research examines the perceptions of tenured and tenure-eligible faculty members at land-grant institutions and describes how disciplinary differences influence faculty members\u27 expression of and likelihood to practice engaged scholarship; work with community partners; and how they perceive engaged scholarship is recognized and rewarded by their institutions. A stratified random sample of tenure-track faculty members from all 1862 land-grant institutions was surveyed via the Internet and data were analyzed using ANOVA, crosstabulations, and t-tests to examine differences based on discipline, gender, and academic rank. Academic discipline, at least in broad categorical terms, does influence the extent to which faculty report their involvement in engaged scholarship activities and how they perceive rewards for it. Faculty that work in the applied academic disciplines such as engineering, agriculture, social work, and youth development not only reported working more in engaged scholarship, but also were more likely to report they felt this was engrained into their work as scholars. Having mentors and colleagues, as well as concrete examples of how work with community can be scholarly seems to be an important component to encouraging engaged scholarship. In addition, these disciplines, particularly faculty from the applied/soft disciplines, such as education and social work, indicated that they had appropriate, peer-review outlets for their engaged scholarship work, making it much easier for them to be rewarded for community engaged scholarship. Women in this study reported working in engaged scholarship more often than men, but all respondents, regardless of gender, expressed concerns about rewards and the amount of time required. Faculty rank also influenced how rewards and benefits to their career were perceived. No significant differences were found between the ranks in reporting whether or not they had been involved in engaged scholarship. Surprisingly assistant professors worked just as often in engaged scholarship as tenured faculty

Faculty perspectives on rewards and incentives for community-engaged work: A multinational exploratory study

Universities around the world are grappling with the challenge of how to best recognise and support community-engaged teaching, research and scholarship. The status quo reveals two major problems: many faculty members express the sentiment that such work is often discounted, and there is a dearth of available information on faculty perspectives at non-US, especially non-Western, institutions. Understanding faculty needs and perceptions may help institutions improve reward systems and community research and engagement. Also, filling the information gap between the Global North and Global South may help policy-makers and educators make higher education more civically engaged and socially responsible. As a global coalition of universities moving beyond the ivory tower, the Talloires Network (TN) is uniquely positioned to provide support for and conduct research on community-engaged work. To better understand engaged faculty attitudes about rewards and incentives, TN launched a pilot survey involving 14 institutions in 11 countries. All of these institutions are members of TN, an international association of 368 institutions in 77 countries committed to strengthening civic engagement. Thirty-eight respondents were chosen based on diverse recruiting requirements. This exploratory study highlights some common opinions about what kind of faculty work is encouraged; whether institutional policies regarding engaged work exist; and how community-engaged work is perceived by colleagues. More importantly, this study contributes to the design and administration of larger surveys on community-engaged work

IT Management in Local Government: Engaged Problem Formulation

The use of information technology (IT) is increasingly important for local governments (municipalities) in adhering to their responsibilities for providing services to citizens and this requires effective IT management. We present an engaged scholarship approach to formulating the IT management problems with local government – not for local government. We define such engaged problem formulation as joint learning and definition of a contemporary and complex problem by researchers and those who experience and know the problem. This engaged problem formulation process was carried out as an initiation of action research and design science research activities at multiple levels in Danish municipalities. In this paper we present the IT management problems identified in our study and discuss the engaged problem formulation process in relation to engaged scholarship and implications for action research and design science research activities