(Re)imagining Graduate Education Professional Development Spaces for Community-Engaged Practitioner-Scholars

This basic, exploratory qualitative dissertation study (Van Schyndel, 2022) examined professional identity development of communityengaged practitioner-scholars through their participation in a U.S.- based community engagement professional association’s graduate student fellowship program. Semistructured interviews with 15 program alumni revealed six common themes grouped into two sections. “The people” focused on participants’ backgrounds and ways of work, and “the setting” focused on participants’ experiences of tension within the academy and their development of new conceptualizations, new relationships, and new practices through the fellowship program. Findings suggested that program participation was critical to not only their ongoing professional identity development as communityengaged practitioner-scholars, but also their ability to persist through graduation in the face of challenging higher education environments. Professional associations can provide an alternate setting to what graduate students may experience inside the academy, especially by offering programs designed with principles of relationship-building, community, wellness, and inclusion. Additional recommendations and implications for practice are included.