CHAPTER 1: DEFINING COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT in the TECHNICAL WRITING CLASSROOM

Community engaged pedagogy is a teaching method technical and professional writing (TPW) professors use to support student mastery of course learning objectives. Community engaged pedagogies are unique and exciting opportunities to apply classroom learning in support of nonprofit, municipal, and grassroots community organizations. Community engagement is practiced across academic curricular settings, including research (called community-based research, or CBR) or community engaged learning (CEL). Community engaged pedagogies have been practiced for decades across all sorts of disciplines and courses. This chapter provides context and history about community engagement practices, with particular emphasis on CEL and CBR in technical and professional writing.

Community engaged learning is a proven strategy for learning in technical communication courses. In this course, we prioritize community engagement with nonprofit, grassroots, and government organizations for several reasons: our campus’s orientation towards its community, our collective emphasis on positive community impact, and what we know about how community engaged learning opportunities improves student learning.

After reading this chapter, you will be able to answer the following questions:

• What is community engaged pedagogy?
• How does community engaged learning relate to technical writing?
• Why is community engagement important to WSU in particular?
• Define key terms including: capacity building, direct service, infrastructure, learners, partners, reciprocity