University Community Partnerships for Transformative Education

This open access edited volume reports on a unique network of innovative in-school and out-of-school programs, University-Community Links. By drawing lessons from authors’ collective and local histories, this volume helps to re-imagine educational practices, policies, and programs. This open access edited volume reports on a unique network of university-community partnerships (UC Links) that connect university faculty and students with young people in diverse communities around the world. Chapters describe programs in California, Utah, Germany, Italy, Spain, Uganda, and Uruguay. We craft stories of transformative models of education and show what is possible when we bridge educational research and practice. Drawing on our collective and local histories, we offer strategies for re-imagining education by co-creating learning environments that are innovative, collaborative, democratic, equity-oriented, and fun. Mara Welsh Mahmood is Executive Director of University-Community Links (UC Links) in the Berkeley School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, USA and has been involved with UC Links since its inception in 1996. Marjorie Elaine (formerly Marjorie Elaine Faulstich Orellana) is Professor in the School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA and has studied the learning of children and undergraduates in UC Links programs since 2009. John Cano is Associate Director of University-Community Links (UC Links) in the Berkeley School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley. He studies student engagement; online education; digital citizenship; intercultural education; and informal learning in-school and in after-school settings. This open access edited volume reports on a unique network of innovative in-school and out-of-school programs, University-Community Links. UC Links connects university faculty and students with young people and their families in diverse communities around the world. Chapters in this volume describe programs in the United States (California) as well as Germany, Italy, Spain, Uganda, and Uruguay. Together, authors craft stories of transformative models of education and what is possible when we bridge educational research and practice. Chapters offer strategies for co-creating learning environments that are innovative, collaborative, democratic, equity-oriented, and fun. By drawing lessons from authors’ collective and local histories, this volume helps to re-imagine educational practices, policies, and programs.