We’re Talking About Process: The Primacy of Relationship and Epistemology in Defining Community-engaged Scholarship in Promotion and Tenure Policy

This study examines how community-engaged scholarship (CES) was defined and described in promotion and tenure policies at a community-engaged, high research activity university in the United States. Examining 67 policies across university, unit and department levels, findings show meaningful variability with regards to whether and how CES was defined or described. Analysis categorizes the types of descriptions used as outputs, outcomes, and/or processes related to or enacting CES. We address the importance of not just naming, but fully describing the core values of CES. We discuss the importance of describing the ways that presence of relationships and approaches to epistemology influence scholarly process and scholarship; and, the importance of continuing to explicate the interconnectivity and distinctions between CES and diversity, equity, inclusion, and epistemic justice.