US: First edition of community engagement journal

The inaugural edition of The Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education has been published by the Center for Public Service and Community Engagement at Indiana State University in the US. It is an online refereed journal that investigates community engagement and community-based learning perspectives, research and practice.

"The journal aims to establish and maintain a review of the literature of both research and practice. It also provides a forum for dialogue, providing a vehicle for critical reflection and analysis of different approaches," said its editor, Nancy Rogers, associate vice president for public service and community engagement at Indiana State.

The Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education publishes accounts of research focusing on the US and on practical and theoretical insights and understanding in higher education and across a variety of disciplines and professions, it said in a statement. "There is a focus on case studies emphasising community engagement and engaged learning practices, methodology and teaching methods."

In its inaugural edition there is article on the design and implementation of a service learning course in pharmacy at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville; a review of a DePaul University community service and service learning project to reduce sexually transmitted infections in a largely immigrant Hispanic and African-American community in Chicago; and a report about creating opportunity out of catastrophe by developing pre-service learning opportunities at a magnet school in post-Katrina New Orleans for education majors at Louisiana State University.

Other articles, the statement said, focus on a Sam Houston State University blueprint for creating an off-campus counselling clinic for students in eight suburban school districts; Gustavus Adolphus College's replacement of its public speaking course with a public discourse class as a foundational communication course; an evaluation of the impact of seed money grants in stimulating community-based research and service learning at the University of South Florida; and a review of community partner perceptions of community engagement experiences for Bethel University nursing students.

* The Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education is edited and published by the Center for Public Service and Community Engagement in conjunction with Indiana Campus Compact.

* Nancy Rogers can be contacted at: nancy.rogers@indstate.edu