Andrew Furco

Andrew Furco headshot

Andrew Furco, Ph.D.
University of Minnesota, co-principal investigator

The focus of the First in the World initiative is to enhance the educational success of underrepresented students. Community engagement practices have been found to enhance students’ motivation for learning, their sense of self-efficacy and empowerment, and their overall investments in the tasks at hand. These are factors that are correlated with high levels of student achievement. If community engagement can be used as a way to get students more motivated, get them more invested in learning, and enhance their sense of efficacy, this in turn might put them in a better position to enhance their overall educational success. Because of strong interest in the role of community engagement in schooling, Professor Furco sees the First in the World grant as an opportunity to test this hypothesis and identify which particular practices (if any) from across a broad range of community engagement programs involved in this grant program tend to promote higher levels of educational success, especially for participating underrepresented and under-served student populations.

Background

Andrew Furco is associate professor of higher education in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, where he also serves as the institution’s Associate Vice President for Public Engagement. He arrived at the University of Minnesota in 2008 from the University of California, Berkeley. His interests focus on the measurement and assessment of constructivist teaching, authentic learning, and experiential education as they pertain to the nexus between community engagement and the civic purposes of education. He exams these issues in the contexts of school reform, educational leadership, program evaluation, character and values education, teacher education, prosocial youth development, and student civic and career development. His work spans K-12 and higher education and is rooted in national (U.S.) and international contexts. His publications include the books, Service-Learning: The Essence of the Pedagogy and Service-Learning through a Multidisciplinary Lens (co-edited with S. Billig) as well as numerous journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports. He is recipient of the 2003 Outstanding Research Award (from the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement), the 2006 Researcher of the Year Award (from the National Society for Experiential Education, and the 2012 Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award (from the National Campus Compact).

Research & teaching experience

  • Has led more than 30 studies that have examined the role of service-learning and community engagement in K-12 and higher education, both in the U.S. and abroad;
  • Teaches courses on experiential learning, public purposes of education, urban school leadership, educational policy, and research methods
  • Is the Co-Editor of the International Journal for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (peer-reviewed) and Associate Editor for Research for the Journal of Higher Education and Outreach (peer-reviewed)
  • For 14 years, served as director the Service-Learning Research and Development Center at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also on the Graduate School of Education faculty