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55 Toward a Social Justice-Centered Engaged Scholarship: A Public and a Private Good Tony Chambers and Bryan Gopaul Throughout the history of higher education in the United States, there has been an ongoing debate about the role of higher education’s contribution to a “just” society. In spite of the high participation rate in U.S. higher education, college goers still represent a relatively small number/percentage of the U.S. population. Further, if we consider the number of higher education graduates and those within certain population demographic groups (i.e., low income, students of color, first generation, etc.), the relative proportion of those acquiring the full benefit of a college education dwindles even further. Questions central to the debate include: How does one come to understand what is socially just, or what is a public or private good? How does the relative exclusive nature of higher education, specifically elite colleges and universities, go with their claim of being a public good and promoters of a “just” society? Is access, without completion, considered socially just? Are all public goods socially just? Can a private good be socially just? Is it even higher education’s responsibility to promote a public good or social justice? The guiding belief of this chapter is that the endgame for an engaged scholarship is the “just” recognition, analysis, and resolution of socially unjust conditions. Our fundamental position in this chapter is that scholarship that is void of a conscious social justice intent may be scholarship, but it is not engaged scholarship. Stated another way, we believe that all engaged scholarship is directed at the recognition, analysis, and resolution of socially unjust conditions. Within this chapter, as we struggle to respond to some of the central questions in the “higher education for social justice” debate within a framework of engaged scholarship , there are first several important concepts and practices that need to be examined. This chapter follows with an overview and interrogation of the issues and concepts central to the social justice dynamics of engaged scholarship in higher education; gives a brief critique of T O N Y C H A M B E R S A N D B R Y A N G O P A U L 56 efforts in higher education to promote and practice a social justice-centered engaged scholarship ; and concludes with our sense of emerging patterns and concerns that need to be addressed in order to advance engaged scholarship from a social justice perspective. Public and Private Good The terms “public” and “good” represent important constructs that institutional leaders and supporters, as well as critics and opponents, use to frame the discourse about the role of higher education in a democratic society. Knowing the possible interpretations of these powerful constructs should assist institutional leaders, supporters, and public decision makers in setting an informed course of action for institutions of higher education. Additionally, social commentators, communities and others who are keen on framing higher education’s efforts as contributions to social justice will have defined matrices to better gauge an institution’s rhetoric against its impact. As well, knowing the possible interpretations of constructs central to the social purposes of higher education will provide scholars and their community partners will a clearer sense of the goals and expectations of their engagement with one another. Generally, the “public good” referred to the betterment of individuals and society. The public good was served when better-educated citizens advanced both their own lives and the standards of living within the communities. By advancing civilization and helping to drive economic development , higher education served the public good. . . . (Longanecker, 2005, p 57) The Public Good is an aspiration, a vision and destination of a “better state” that we can know in common that we cannot know alone. (Chambers & Gopaul, 2008) The preceding quotes position the notion of “public good” as a collective or social process that impacts more than just those directly engaged in the specific public good activity. This notion is captured by the Latin phrase “non nobis solum,” which is loosely translated as “not for ourselves alone” (Shapiro, 2005). Public good is also seen as a set of behaviors, outcomes, and aspirations. For an institution, service, or product to be a public good, it does not necessarily have to be provided by the “public,” meaning provided by the government. Conceivably, public goods can be supplied by the private sector and private goods—by the public sector. According to Samuelson (1954), pure public goods...

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