News — February 11, 2025
Engaged Scholars: Eric Anderman
February 2025
Engaged Scholars is a series highlighting Ohio State faculty who have made an impact in our communities through their community-engaged research and teaching.
Eric M. Anderman
Professor, Educational Psychology
Department of Educational Studies, College of Education and Human Ecology
Since I arrived at Ohio State in 2007, I have been actively and deeply engaged in working with public schools, as well as with community partners who support public education. My research focuses on academic motivation, and I strongly believe that to truly better the academic lives of students, my research needs to be embedded within schools - the primary places where learning occurs. In all of my research, I have ensured that the projects are partnerships, so that the schools derive real and tangible benefits from collaborating with The Ohio State University. These have included projects in which we have partnered with schools and various organizations (a) to provide comprehensive health education to thousands of early adolescents, (b) to develop curricula that encourage students to see how historical events are directly tied to present-day events, and (c) to examine the rates and root causes of violence perpetrated against education personnel.
Why is it important to engage the community in your research and teaching?
As a land-grant institution, this is what we are supposed to be doing! We can't always just go into community settings and just "do" research; we need to ensure that our work is enhancing the lives of our residents. I have seen repeatedly that engaged scholarship of this nature leads to enduring partnerships that go well beyond the life of any one research project.
What led you to the path of engaged scholarship? How did you get started?
There are two primary events that led me onto this path. First, I was fortunate to have worked with mentors in graduate school who engaged us as doctoral students in this kind of work. As soon as I arrived in my graduate program, I was immersed in school settings, where I learned all of the ins and outs of how to do this kind of work. I was particularly fortunate to have had mentors who engaged us as graduate students in the entire process of community engaged work (i.e., conceptualizing an idea, reaching out to community partners to establish a relationship, etc.). I learned early on the importance of ensuring community partners that a partnership with the university would truly be a "partnership," and that they would derive palpable benefits from work with us. The second reason dates back to when I was a high school teacher (prior to graduate school). The principal of my school "told" us that we were going to participate in a research project, and made us devote time to the project. The project was never really explained to us, and as teachers, we could not see how our students were benefiting at all from our involvement in the project. That experience motivated me to ensure that I would not be that kind of researcher, and that I would always work to ensure that research partnerships were beneficial to any potential partners.
How has your scholarship benefited from engaging with community partners?
My research has benefited tremendously from these partnerships. Education research is sometimes criticized for being decontextual. Some education research is seen as being conducted by researchers who do not really know what goes on in schools. Having been a teacher in public schools before I became a researcher, I personally understood the complexity and many "moving parts" in schools. This kind of research is messy in the sense that the daily lives of students and educators at times prevent us as researchers from following our protocols ... we have to adjust to the flow of school life. But over time one learns to build that into the research, making our findings both more reflective of actual schools, and more applicable to policymakers and practitioners.
What has been a highlight of your community engagement experience?
A particular highlight has been a multi-year partnership with Nationwide Children's Hospital (NCH) and central Ohio schools. Through a collaborative grant from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Population Affairs, we worked with NCH for several years to provide and evaluate a comprehensive skills-based sex education program for thousands of 7th and 8th graders. Many adolescents in the U.S. do not receive evidence-based programs of this nature until they are in the 9th grade, when about one-third of students have already engaged in risky sexual behaviors. This innovative partnership allowed us to present age-appropriate, medically accurate information and strategies to early adolescents, so that they would hopefully have a tool-kit of strategies that they could call upon to avoid engaging in potentially risky situations that might lead to unintended pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases.
What advice would you give to faculty and students who are interested in engaging the community in their scholarship?
First, I would say that while community-engaged scholarship may seem overwhelming and intimidating, it is quite do-able, so don't avoid doing it just because it is hard work. Second, find a mentor who is already doing this kind of work, and learn from those who are already doing it. There is an art to establishing mutually beneficial partnerships with community partners, but it is not complicated once you learn how to do it. There are many of us doing this, and most engaged scholars are eager and willing to share our own experiences with others who want to engage in this type of work.
Sample Engaged Scholarship
Allsop, Y., Black, A., & Anderman, E. M. (2023). Why do people do sex? An analysis of middle school students anonymous questions about sexual health. Sex Education, 119. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2023.2217760
Allsop, Y., Saxbe, S., Abbott, V., Ha, S. Y., Irwin, M. K., Liu, X., Martinez Calvit, A. I., Sheng, Y., Tilak, S., Van Petten, L., & Anderman, E. M. (2023). Leveraging community partnerships: Conversion of a sexual health curriculum as a virtual teaching tool for middle schoolers. Middle School Journal, 54(2), 616. https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2022.2163217<
Anderman, E.M., Espelage, D.L., Reddy, L.A., McMahon, S.D., Martinez, A., Lane, K.L., Reynolds, C., & Paul, N. (2018). Teachers reactions to experiences of violence: An attributional analysis. Social Psychology of Education: An International Journal, 21(3), 621-653. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-018-9438-x
Anderman, E.M., Cupp, P.K., Lane, D.R., Zimmerman, R., Gray, D., & OConnell A. (2011). Classroom goal structures and HIV/pregnancy prevention education in rural high school health classrooms. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21, 904-922.
Anderman, E.M., Maehr, M.L., & Midgley, C. (1999). Declining motivation after the transition to middle school: Schools can make a difference. Journal of Research and Development in Education. 32, 131-147./p>