“I Always Try to Make a Change”: Transformative Partnerships Between Schools and Communities

• In Event: Participatory Practices and Pedagogies: Reimagining the Curriculum for Communities of Learning

Abstract

In “'I Always Try to Make a Change'": Transformative Partnerships Between Schools and Communities,” presenter #1 discusses her ethnographic case study of a cross-class, critical service-learning project at a large, Midwestern urban high school. The youth, their teacher, and their community partners have been involved in a five-year long critical service-learning project, which has afforded opportunities for the youth and their teacher to engage in reading and writing across classroom and community spaces, attend and present at local and national conferences to talk about academic achievement and community-based learning, and to investigate issues of difference, equity and access. The “case” within this project was the engagement of four diverse youth—two freshmen, a sophomore and a senior—who labeled themselves the “Creation Team,” a leadership group within the project. The researcher explored three questions: 1. What happens when students, their teacher, and their community partner participate in a critical service-learning project; 2. What learning opportunities and forms of participation emerge in a critical service-learning project and how are they taken up by the students; 3. What is the role of literacy in these learning opportunities and forms of participation?

Theoretical Frame
In order to explore the literacy, learning and participation within this critical service-learning project, the researcher considered the intersection of three theoretical frames: 1. New Literacy Studies which focuses on literacy practices and events within contextualized and situated spaces (e.g., Barton, 1991; Blackburn & Clark, 2007; Gee, 2000; Street, 2000) ; 2. Critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970; hooks, 1994; Shor, 1993; Shor & Freire, 1987; Wink, 2004) as a way to think about the “critical” within critical service-learning as well as the discourses and texts that become available to students when engaged in exploration of community-based issues; and 3. Sociocultural theories on learning, particularly Lave and Wenger’s (1993) communities of practice, as a conceptual framing for the generative networks established between students, their teacher and their community partners.

Methodology and Data Sources
In an interest to look closely at the experiences of these youth, their teacher, and their community partner, the researcher designed an ethnographic case study. In order to capture the perspectives of the people in this study, the researcher’s methods consisted of participant observations, one-hour, semi-structured interviews of teachers, students and community partners, field notes, and artifacts (i.e. teacher handouts, texts, student journals).

Significance
Butin (2003) noted that while there is evidence that learning occurs within service-learning projects, there is a dearth of research documenting how the learning actually occurs within these projects. Similarly, there are few studies that explore the nature of literacy practices within these projects and how literacy is used as a tool, but also a social practice to question, critique and understand relationships between school and community, with community being broadly defined. While cognitive and sociocultural theories of learning and literacy abound, their application within the context of a service-learning project is lacking. The study connects these bodies of literature, exposing underlying theoretical tenets in critical service-learning, while also identifying implications for student-centered, engaged pedagogies.

Author

• Emily Annette Nemeth, Denison University