The leadership of engagement between university and community: conceptualizing leadership in community engagement in higher education

The growing research interest in community engagement in higher education calls for the investigation of the relational and cultural dynamics within the university-community relationship using various academic lenses and by exploring alternative epistemological approaches. Thus, the study conceptualizes this relationship through the lens of leadership and by using the methodology of autoethnography. Applying an iterative reflective process of sense-making composed of conversation, memoing and article-writing, the study yielded a conceptual framework composed of four thematic dimensions, namely:(1) contextual condition that is characterized by the duality of operational milieu between university and community from which (2) managerial roles were defined consisting of advocacy, strategic visioning and space-brokering, which are, in turn, sustained through (3) an attitude towards outcome and power and (4) deepened and sustained the spirituality of the leader.