Detracking the Path to Justice: A Collaborative Framework for Global Citizenship Education

• In Event: 49.038 - Critical Global Citizenship: Education for Global Understanding and Local Justice

Abstract

Education is often framed as a tool for supporting “excellence” by preparing students to compete in the global marketplace. This belief is reflected in the structure of schools, which “track” and sort students based on their prescribed ability level. While this may seem like a meritocratic structure, in practice tracking reflects and reinforces social inequalities in the United States, with poor and minority students dramatically overrepresented in the lowest tracks (Oakes, 2005).

Within this context, it is more important than ever than ever to advocate for an education model that promotes social justice. Through our university-high school course, we have conceptualized global citizenship education as a model for promoting social justice (Schattle, 2009). Rather than separating students by perceived ability or academic experience, this course allowed university and high school students from a range of socioeconomic and educational backgrounds to learn side-by-side about human rights issues around the world. It therefore served as one of the only “detracked” courses in many of the students’ educational experiences.

In designing our study of this course, we have hoped to capture students’ and teachers’ own experiences of the course as well as their reflections on untracked learning. Moreover, by involving both undergraduate and high school students in every stage of project, we have built on the methodological insights of engaged research, which strives to conduct collaborative “scholarship in the service of social struggles” (Hale, 2008, p. 2).

This presentation will explore these goals by:
• reviewing literature on ability grouping as it relates to global citizenship education;
• offering a narrative analysis of students’ and teachers’ perspectives on ability grouping as participants in a detracked university-high school course; and
• arguing that global citizenship education can support social justice by employing a multi-level framework that challenges socially-constructed concepts of ability and expertise.

In discussing the role of ability grouping in global citizenship education, this presentation will build on both critical and interpretivist traditions in qualitative research. This includes critical theories on emancipatory education (Freire, 1970) and ability grouping (Oakes, 2005), as well as interpretivist theories on the importance of individual perspectives (Taylor, 1987).

This study used a case study design that builds on the tradition of narrative analysis (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990; Daiute, 2013). Data includes one-on-one interviews, focus groups, field notes, and journals collected as part of a two-year study. Interviews and focus groups were transcribed and then analyzed using “grounded theory,” allowing the themes of the paper to emerge from participants’ own perspectives (Glaser, 2011). A research team of graduate, undergraduate, and high school students and teachers designed and executed this study, which was approved by our institution’s IRB board.

Our research on this course has shown how individuals involved in the course conceptualize their own ability to collaborate with individuals from different educational and social backgrounds in support of social justice. This study therefore contributes to the literature on detracked models of social justice and global citizenship education.

Author

• Lauren Stark, University of Virginia