The unseen community engagement professional: a heuristic inquiry of community engagement professionals at higher education associations

This heuristic phenomenological inquiry explores the lived experiences of individuals who self-identify as community engagement professionals but work outside higher education institutions, specifically at higher education associations. This study utilized Meyerson & Scully’s (1995) tempered radical’s framework coupled with the CEP boundary spanning behaviors construct (Sandmann et al., 2014; Weerts & Sandmann, 2010) to examine the experiences of six community engagement professionals. These individuals participated in a single 90-minute, semi-structured interview focused on the following research questions: • What knowledge, skills, and experiences are relevant to the work of community engagement professionals. • How did they find their professional pathway to their current position? • What motivated them to pursue a position connected to the field of community engagement at their organization? • Why do they continue to work as a community engagement professional at a nonhigher education institution? The data analyzation followed a modified heuristic phenomenology process (Moustakas, 1990) guided by Cresswell and Poth’s (2013) data analysis spiral. Analysis revealed eight codes spread across three themes. The three central themes were: Tempered Radicals’ Mindset, Being a CEP, and Challenges Experienced. Some of the findings, such as their alignment with a tempered radicals positionality and affinity for people-centered work, are similar to their campus-based community engagement professional counterparts. Other aspects like their feelings of isolation and macro-level systems thinking, are unique to their context. This study is one of the first to focus on association-based community engagement professionals and the results provide a path to adult educators as to how they can further support these professionals. Targeted professional development opportunities for association-based community engagement professionals to develop strategic planning and systems level and change management skills has the potential to provide much needed growth. Communities of practice can support connection among this population. However, for long-lasting change to occur, greater research on this emerging population is needed.