Third-Order Changes in Policing Through Critical Pedagogy: Implications From a Participatory Action Research Study

• In Event: Community Policing, Educational Institutions, and Third-Order Change: The Promise of Interinstitutional Partnerships

Abstract

In December 2014, a federal task force convened to develop pragmatic recommendations for improving community-police relations nationwide. Responding to this, educational researchers and a police-oriented Career and Technical Education (CTE) program formed a partnership that engaged cadets in a Participatory Action Research (PAR) study. This project asked future police officers to explore what community policing should be in an increasingly diverse country, as well as the types of training and education police officers might need to fulfill such a possibility. In this paper, we offer a model for university-police partnerships founded on creating a new vision of community policing, while acknowledging the complexities of such work and the challenges inherent in a police training context. We report initial findings, and explore two central questions: How might implementing modes and processes of social inquiry impact police training? And further, how might the challenges present in implementing such pedagogical strategies in a police setting provide learning conditions that can act to embolden, and not inhibit, personal and professional growth?

We argue that implementing PAR as a pedagogical tool in law enforcement training can help create a more socially just model of policing. Conducted in conjunction with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), we analyze findings from a 15-week PAR study, comprised of 53 cadets aged 17-19. We describe the successes and struggles encountered as these future LAPD officers “engage(d) problematic situations in unjust arrangements” (Glaude, 2011) by “study(ing) their own social contexts (and) understand(ing) how to improve conditions and bring about greater equity” (Akom, Ginwright, & Cammarota, 2008). We offer analysis of pedagogical strategies that proved to be effective, such as Critical Media Literacy and Autobiography, and describe how these strategies helped students reflect upon their own lived experiences, knowledge, and ideologies. Essential to this process is recognizing the constraints of working within a quasi-militaristic setting--including, but not limited to, ongoing dialogues with program-wide deficit thinking and internalized oppressions. We maintain that by training future officers to examine the causes of social inequalities, PAR fills a need for police departments to recruit and train a diverse police force.

This study provides scholarly and social significance across multiple levels. On a participant level, students gained an investigative skill set and engaged in a process of critical inquiry that increased their sense of job readiness, as well as their understanding of how to improve community-police relations. On a programmatic level, our findings offer guidance for police training programs to increase officers’ capacity in working with communities that historically lack trust with police. On a broader level, we offer insights for some of the most pressing issues facing our nation–the effectiveness of increased police diversity, and reengineering of community policing overall. The vision of police training offered here holds the promise of bringing about what Oakes et al. (1998) call “third-order changes”--”fundamental changes which seek to reform core normative beliefs about race, class, intelligence and educability.” This study offers a necessary step towards such changes for community policing nationwide.

Authors

• Rebecca Colina Neri, University of California - Los Angeles

• Anthony A Berryman, University of California - Los Angeles