Because community-engaged scholarship (CES) is a broad topic with many facets, terms abound. The TPMR Toolkit team has built out matrices of key terms and definitions, particularly within the context of the 91探花. Terms below are organized into thematic groups.
The thematic groups include, first, broader umbrella terms that reflect an overarching ethos of engagement; then terms describing how people work together (types of collaboration); how new knowledge is generated through engagement (research methodologies); and how academic research interfaces with the broader public. While not exhaustive, this list was compiled to bring greater clarity and precision to terminology that is often associated with CES.聽Each term is organized into three parts:
- The first, 鈥淲hat is it?鈥� provides a definition based on a desk review of literature, drawing from 91探花documents, peer institutions, and/or reputable organizations.
- The second, 鈥淗ow do you do it?鈥� offers examples of how that definition is enacted through scholarly and academic activities, along with illustrative forms of evidence. Such evidence may include inquiry and research activities, scholarly outputs and dissemination, innovation through development, assessment and iterative refinement, reflective practice and documentation of impact, leadership and collaborative roles within research teams, funding and institutional recognition, teaching, mentorship, and capacity building, and evaluation and documentation.
- Finally, “Where can you learn more?” lists seminal publications and other resources related to the term.
Thematic Group 1: Broader Terms
This group includes foundational categories that frame how faculty work is understood, organized, and evaluated within academic institutions. These terms describe broad domains of activity鈥攅ngagement, service, scholarship, and global collaboration鈥攖hat cut across research, teaching, and institutional responsibility. They are often invoked in Promotion and Tenure discussions but can be inconsistently interpreted or conflated.聽Explore Broader Terms
Thematic Group 2: How People Work Together (Types of Collaboration)
This group defines distinct modes of collaboration, describing how knowledge is organized, integrated, and produced across individuals, disciplines, and sectors. Although these terms are often used interchangeably in academic settings, they represent meaningfully different levels of integration, co-production, and structural coordination. Explore How People Work Together
Thematic Group 3: How New Knowledge is Generated through Engagement (Research Methodologies)
This group includes methodologies and scholarly approaches that generate new knowledge through collaboration, engagement, and real-world application. Unlike the 鈥淏roader Terms鈥� group (which defines domains of academic work) and the 鈥淭ypes of Collaboration鈥� group (which defines how people work together), this group focuses on how knowledge itself is produced 鈥� particularly when inquiry is relational, applied, iterative, or publicly oriented. Explore How New Knowledge is Generated through Engagement
Thematic Group 4: How Academic Research Interfaces with the Broader Public (Outward-Facing Scholarship and Knowledge Mobilization)
This group describes how academic knowledge moves beyond the university into the broader public sphere. Where the previous group focused on how knowledge is generated through engagement with people outside of academia, this group focuses on how research is translated, implemented, disseminated, implemented, and oriented toward public benefit. Explore How Academic Research Interfaces with the Broader Public