Distributing leadership for initiating university-community engagement

Facilitating community engagement in education is promoted and emphasised as an investment strategy (Garlick 2000). However, the responsibility for facilitating university-community engagement rests upon university personnel to initiate collaborations with the community. This paper describes and analyses leadership processes for initiating community engagement with the new Queensland University of Technology campus at Caboolture. Data collection and analysis involved observation of practices, and coding interviews, minutes of meetings, and written correspondence with a wide range of participants (i.e., senior QUT staff, lecturers, preservice teachers, principals, school executives and teachers, and other community members). Results indicated that leadership processes involved: (1) articulating visionary directions, (2) communication for instigating change processes, (3) motivating potential key stakeholders, (4) promoting collaboration and team effort, and (5) distributing leadership. This study highlighted the impact of creating positive working environments for developing collaborative partnerships. However, new campuses need to shape university goals to suit individual contexts, which will require considerable input from key stakeholders. Initiating community engagement requires university personnel to connect key stakeholders, and the distribution of leadership will be essential in order to sustain university-community collaborations. Engagement of communities with universities is an investment strategy (Garlick 2000), and collaboration between a university and its wider community has become central for developing a more just and civil society (Butcher, McFadden, & McMeniman 2003). This collaboration is fundamental for establishing social capital, which is “at the forefront of the attributes required by communities to generate viability in the global economy” (Garlick 2003, 2). Social capital refers to “certain social attributes of a community that provide it with ‘wealth’ over and above that residing in its human capital, natural resources, and physical and financial assets” (Kilpatrick 2003, 2). Kilpatrick claims there appears to be a relationship between the development of social capital and learning. Indeed, the literature emphasises the importance of developing learning communities, which aims at addressing its needs through partnerships in order to cultivate social capital (Kilpatrick, Barrett, & Jones 2003). Learning communities may create social cohesion, capacity building and economic development (Kilpatrick et al. 2003). There are features that assist the development of learning communities. For example, the combination of geographical locations, common interests, and community needs may contribute to forming collaborative partnerships. Importantly, community