The 2026 North Carolina Campus Engagement PACE conference was hosted by Elon University on Feb. 11.
Mathew Gendle, director of Project Pericles and professor of psychology, and Amanda Tapler, associate director of Project Pericles and associate teaching professor of public health, co-led a community conversation at the 2026 North Carolina Campus Engagement PACE conference, hosted by Elon University on Feb. 11.
Titled “Disrupting power structures to promote equity in community-based learning,” this conversation championed ways in which relational power dynamics between academic institutions and community partners can be equitably reformed. This session was guided by two overarching questions: 1) How might we engender robust self-examination around the question of whether academic programs are operating in equitable or paternalistic ways? and 2) What can academic practitioners do to break down barriers to true equity in community partnerships and meaningfully enhance equity in program design, execution, and evaluation?
Best practice models in community-based learning, such as Fair Trade Learning, emphasize that academic practitioners must equitably co-create programs with community partners. While many practitioners agree with these aspirational standards, bringing them to life poses challenges. Communities that have been historically subject to colonialism and exploitation may not feel empowered to lead. Community partners may not consider it possible to co-create because of deeply rooted assumptions that academic institutions lead and community partners follow.
Academic programs often approach partners to seek their approval for complete/nearly complete memorandums of understanding, project plans, and course syllabi. This can happen intentionally or be the product of assumptions about the default way of doing things. Such approaches do not display equitable co-design through collaboration. Embedded and presumed imbalances in power dynamics that exist between academic institutions and community partners need to be acknowledged and comprehensively explored. Partnership outcomes must focus on mutual benefit instead of primarily privileging student benefits and outcomes. And the senior leadership and counsel’s offices of academic institutions must understand that it is healthy to cede significant components of control over partnerships while, at the same time, doing everything required to keep students and community partners safe.