Core Competencies for the Community-Engaged Scholar

This session presents 14 core competencies needed to succeed as a community-engaged scholar, illustrates how they can be incorporated into faculty development programs, and offers strategies for moving from novice to expert in each of the competencies. This sessions also draws on the experience of the Faculty Engaged Scholars Program at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, directed by the presenter Dr. Blanchard, as an example of a competency-based faculty development program that has demonstrated successful teaching/learning strategies and outcomes.

CES may begin at any point in one's academic career and it is possible to foster professional development through the acquisition of knowledge, skills and experience. This session uses an adapted Dreyfus model of skill acquisition in faculty development, ranging from novice to expert. These levels do not necessarily correlate to one's academic rank, but rather they provide a framework specific to experience with CES. At each developmental stage, a community-engaged scholar is expected to demonstrate a set of competencies. Competencies are linked with skills in each developmental stage and are cumulative. Whether one's “novice” stage occurs mid-career or in graduate school, each developing community-engaged scholar will likely share similar values and attitudes about community and scholarship, and his/her respective CES skills can be developed along a similar continuum of learning.