Engaged Scholarship in Tenure and Promotion: Autoethnographic Insights from the Fault Lines of a Shifting Landscape

Abstract

Preand posttenure faculty face immense pressure to meet professional expectations and requirements from their colleagues and disciplines. Faculty involved in communitycampus engagement (CCE) for social change face additional demands to maintain relationships and continue their interventions. We present a collective autoethnography from a Canadian context reflecting on experiences as CCE faculty at various stages of tenure and promotion (T&P). We draw from our efforts working together on a panCanadian CCE research project, Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE). From these experiences, we identify tensions within T&P processes and argue the need for highly contextualized narratives when faculty present their collaborative efforts, research processes with community partners, and community impact in their multiple faculty roles. From these kinds of narratives, the intraand interinstitutional gaps, connections and spaces become clearer, especially for tenured and increasingly senior faculty, to support culture change at the institutional level, thereby increasing the value and recognition of CCE.