Community-University Relationships in Environmental Engineering Service-Learning Courses: Social Network Vectors and Modalities of Communication

Hannah Cooke; Rebecca Campbell-Montalvo; Todd Campbell; Chester Arnold; Maria Chrysochoou; Byung-Yeol Park; Peter C. Diplock

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Community Engagement Division 1 - Empowering Students and Strengthening Community Relationships
Tagged Division: Community Engagement Division (COMMENG)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 13
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--43258
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/43258
Download Count: 72

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Paper Authors

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Hannah Cooke University of Connecticut

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Hannah Cooke is a doctoral student in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Science Education at the University of Connecticut. Her research interests include critical, antiracist science teaching that works to dismantle systems of oppression. Currently, she is a research assistant on the DRK12 project COVID Connects Us: Nurturing Novice Teachers’ Justice Science Teaching Identities, which uses design-based research to develop justice-centered ambitious science teaching practices with in-service science teachers. She also works on NSF projects that aim to improve equity in undergraduate STEM education, especially for students with LGBTQ+ identities. In addition, she is working in the Education Leadership department exploring student activism around issues of racial equity. Her former role as a high school science teacher and facilitator of the school’s Green Team led her to grapple with the role science educators play in advancing environmental justice. She holds a MA in Curriculum and Instruction and a BS in Biological Sciences from the University of Connecticut.

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Rebecca Campbell-Montalvo University of Connecticut

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Dr. Rebecca Campbell-Montalvo is a cultural anthropologist who focuses on understanding how a range of people (including women, historically excluded racial/ethnic groups, and LGBTQIA+ students) are served in undergraduate STEM contexts, with an emphasis on engineering and biology. She is a postdoctoral research associate in the Neag School of Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Connecticut. In addition, Campbell-Montalvo is Co-PI on a $500,000 NSF grant that seeks to improve inclusion in biology education and biology education research through the Inclusive Environments and Metrics in Biology Education and Research network. Prior to her current role, Dr. Campbell-Montalvo was the Program Assistant for the National Institute of Health’s Maximizing Access to Research Careers Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research program in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of South Florida. Her new book, The Latinization of Indigenous Students, comes out spring 2023 with Lexington Books.

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Maria Chrysochoou is a Professor and Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Connecticut. She obtained her BS in Physics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, her MS in Environmental Engineering at Technis

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Byung-Yeol Park University of Connecticut

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Peter C. Diplock

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Abstract

Community-University Relationships in Environmental Engineering Service-Learning Courses: Social Network Vectors and Modalities of Communication Abstract Purpose The service-learning program, Project Local (anonym), seeks to benefit communities and educate students in engineering and STEM service-learning courses in three areas: brownfields, stormwater, and climate change [9]. People in local municipal government known as “community liaisons” connect universities and communities. Emerging from the field of social capital, ‘social networks’ include relationships of people and access to useful resources available through them [17]. ‘Sociocentric’ models of social networks look at configurations of relationships between people in a network, as opposed to ‘egocentric’ models, which have a focal individual. We ground our analysis of Project Local in such sociocentric social network theory. This exploratory study aims to offer a process of inquiry building (i.e., method of study) to understand the mechanisms through which community liaisons come to engage with university-community partnerships as well as offer a glimpse of the case at Project Local. Indeed, the approach and results presented may serve as a starting point to consider how such programs become connected to the community, and how recruitment may be augmented using bolstered networks to broaden access to underserved areas.

Methods We surveyed community liaisons (n=12) who helped contribute to the previous ~100 student projects in the five years that the project had been underway. All liaisons (N=~30) were invited to take the survey via email sent from a Project Local instructor or the study’s project manager. The survey adapted Lin’s [19] position generator instrument wherein respondents were asked about ties to people in identified social positions (e.g., professor, STEM professional, municipal employee). Descriptive statistics were employed on closed-ended items, while thematic analysis was used on open-ended responses using a codebook based on the research question, survey items, and data itself [20]. Finally, a sociogram was crafted based on the social network data to illustrate the network connections.

Conclusions Our results showed that the social networks of liaisons were dense, that is they were connected to the university via the partnership through several vectors (individuals and programs) at the university, organizational, and governmental level, with the ties often knowing each other. In addition, the social networks were quite homophilous, with many white, men, and upper-class members. At the same time, liaisons become connected to Project Local through various mechanisms (e.g., word of mouth, email listservs), but these initial connections were buttressed by existing relationships. Finally, liaisons reported on the multiple outcomes of the Project Local student projects, including receipt of EPA grants and recommendation for stormwater management practice changes and more. This study gives insight into the range of network configurations and access modalities through which community liaisons connected to Project Local and offers a mode of study for future work.

Citation
Format

Cooke, H., & Campbell-Montalvo, R., & Campbell, T., & Arnold, C., & Chrysochoou, M., & Park, B., & Diplock, P. C. (2023, June), Community-University Relationships in Environmental Engineering Service-Learning Courses: Social Network Vectors and Modalities of Communication Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43258

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Community-University Relationships in Environmental Engineering Service-Learning Courses: Social Network Vectors and Modalities of Communication
 
Abstract
Purpose
The service-learning program, Project Local (anonym), seeks to benefit communities and educate students in engineering and STEM service-learning courses in three areas: brownfields, stormwater, and climate change [9]. People in local municipal government known as “community liaisons” connect universities and communities. 
Emerging from the field of social capital, ‘social networks’ include relationships of people and access to useful resources available through them [17]. ‘Sociocentric’ models of social networks look at configurations of relationships between people in a network, as opposed to ‘egocentric’ models, which have a focal individual. We ground our analysis of Project Local in such sociocentric social network theory.
This exploratory study aims to offer a process of inquiry building (i.e., method of study) to understand the mechanisms through which community liaisons come to engage with university-community partnerships as well as offer a glimpse of the case at Project Local. Indeed, the approach and results presented may serve as a starting point to consider how such programs become connected to the community, and how recruitment may be augmented using bolstered networks to broaden access to underserved areas.

Methods
We surveyed community liaisons (n=12) who helped contribute to the previous ~100 student projects in the five years that the project had been underway. All liaisons (N=~30) were invited to take the survey via email sent from a Project Local instructor or the study’s project manager. The survey adapted Lin’s [19] position generator instrument wherein respondents were asked about ties to people in identified social positions (e.g., professor, STEM professional, municipal employee). Descriptive statistics were employed on closed-ended items, while thematic analysis was used on open-ended responses using a codebook based on the research question, survey items, and data itself [20]. Finally, a sociogram was crafted based on the social network data to illustrate the network connections.

Conclusions
Our results showed that the social networks of liaisons were dense, that is they were connected to the university via the partnership through several vectors (individuals and programs) at the university, organizational, and governmental level, with the ties often knowing each other. In addition, the social networks were quite homophilous, with many white, men, and upper-class members. At the same time, liaisons become connected to Project Local through various mechanisms (e.g., word of mouth, email listservs), but these initial connections were buttressed by existing relationships. Finally, liaisons reported on the multiple outcomes of the Project Local student projects, including receipt of EPA grants and recommendation for stormwater management practice changes and more. This study gives insight into the range of network configurations and access modalities through which community liaisons connected to Project Local and offers a mode of study for future work. 
AU  - Hannah Cooke
AU  - Rebecca Campbell-Montalvo
AU  - Todd Campbell
AU  - Chester Arnold
AU  - Maria Chrysochoou
AU  - Byung-Yeol Park
AU  - Peter C. Diplock
CY  - Baltimore , Maryland
DA  - 2023/06/25
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Community-University Relationships in Environmental Engineering Service-Learning Courses: Social Network Vectors and Modalities of Communication
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/43258
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--43258
ER  -