Community Engagement | Dr Ferreira van Leer

Engaged Learning

A core pedagogical approach I use is experiential learning. Whether service-learning or incorporating active learning techniques into my courses, I ask students to utilize their experience as part of their learning process. When possible, I collaborate with local schools or organizations to build mutually beneficial partnerships that can provide learning opportunities for students. This ranges from small assignments, such as letter writing with local 6th graders, or signature projects where students develop and implement projects that utilize empirical research to address a community-identified need. I build in scaffolded reflection into the courses to help students build connections between course content and these experiences.

Fieldwork Coordinator, Child & Adolescent Development program, Sac State

From 2019-2023 I was the Fieldwork Coordinator for the Child & Adolescent Development program at Sacramento State. In this role, I supported students, faculty, and community partners in community-engaged learning. Each semester the program had approximately 450 undergraduate students in service-learning courses placed across over 40 community partners, from schools to community non-profits. As Fieldwork Coordinator I supported instructors and community partners in meeting our student learning objectives and partner-identified needs through the service-learning placements. This includes training new service-learning instructors, bringing instructors together semesterly to address areas of growth, sending regular communications to our community partners, and troubleshooting issues as they arise throughout the semester. Alongside those regular functions, the role has required addressing larger concerns. Coordinating across multiple course sections and service-learning sites requires balancing concerns of academic freedom while ensuring consistency in meeting course expectations from both community partners and students. Moreover, it is integral that our partners have a shared understanding and shared commitment to student learning objectives. To this end, I have developed site supervisor guidelines, systematized communication between the program and partners, and have conducted site visits to discuss the important role that our partners play in supporting students’ learning.

I often collaborate directly with communities as part of my scholarship. This means centering the concerns of communities directly in research projects or working alongside communities to foster scholarship that can be used to positively impact their wellbeing. Across my projects I work to develop products that are accessible and sharable so that they can be used by those communities I partner with. Below are some examples of past engaged scholarship:

Utilized community-based research to testified at Boston City Council in support of “An Ordinance Establishing Language and Communications Access for City Services,” in May 2016 which would establish a citywide language access policy.

Engaged 15 Latinx undergraduate students in a photovoice project exploring how their "Hispanic Serving Institution" (a federal designation for universities) could better support their student success. Presented findings to university stakeholders. Together with staff and administrators we've identified university policies and practices that can be adapted given the undergraduate co-researcher's findings.

As a co-evaluator, I guided a participatory evaluation process that built the capacity of NIAAS staff in developing and organizing an evaluation as well as analyzing findings and incorporating them into their subsequent work.

Engaged Scholarship

Professional Development

Co-Facilitator, 2022-2023, Sac State

Faculty Learning Community: Cultivating Community Engaged Faculty, Staff, & Students

Alongside three other colleagues we facilitated a year-long Faculty Learning Community on how faculty can build community-engaged learning courses with local preschool-12 schools. Worked to develop new materials for faculty interested in cultivating community-engaged learning pedagogy and partnering with schools.

Co-Facilitator, 2023, Sac State

Lunch & Learn Workshop: Developing a collaborative anchor lens: Avoiding the dangers of a deficit approach to partnering with communities

Led an 1.5-hour workshop with Dr. Erin Rose Ellison on community engagement approaches that can be utilized through Sac State's University Anchor Initiative. Presentation and discussion with over 45 faculty, administrators & staff on strengths- and desire - based frameworks & building institutional capacity.

Co-Facilitator, 2021-2022, Sac State

Faculty Learning Community: Cultivating Community Engaged Faculty, Staff, & Students

Co-faciltiated this Faculty Learning Community with colleagues from the Community Engagement Center. Over the 2021-2022 academic year we met to introduce Sac State faculty and staff participants to community-engaged learning and research and the larger anchor institution initiative. In my role I specifically explored how we can engage the anchor university initiative from an anti-racist and decolonial lens.