A Credit-Bearing Programmatic Approach to Community-Based Learning at a Metropolitan University: The UALR Speech Communication Department

Abstract

Purpose

The chapter focuses on how engaging undergraduate and graduate students at a metropolitan university through community-based experiential learning can help them make a difference in their personal relationships, in their workplaces and in their communities.

Methodology/approach

The chapter explores the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Department of Speech Communication’s integrated approach to undergraduate and graduate curriculum that focuses on four types of casing complex problems and making positive, ethical recommendations to make a difference. Specifically, the chapter explores how problem-based learning; service-learning; narrative ethnography; and research projects can be used as meaningful ways to case complex communication issues and to make ethical, theory-informed recommendations to not only do no harm but also affect positive change and promote social justice in students’ personal relationships, organizations, and communities.

Practical implications

Lessons learned from the programmatic approach are shared that include building a theoretical base for students to draw from, integrating case approaches into the curriculum, and engaging resistance and failure. Chapter recommendations promote using theory as a lever for learning, building meaningful relationships with stakeholders, and adopting a process orientation that embraces failure.

Originality/value

The chapter offers a review of four undergraduate courses and four graduate courses, with explicit applications of the four case approaches. Additionally, learning objectives, major assignment descriptions, and assessment approaches are detailed for each course.

Citation

McIntyre, K. and Fuller, R. (2016), "A Credit-Bearing Programmatic Approach to Community-Based Learning at a Metropolitan University: The UALR Speech Communication Department", Wankel, L.A. and Wankel, C. (Ed.) Integrating Curricular and Co-Curricular Endeavors to Enhance Student Outcomes, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 165-194. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78635-064-020161008