Using Group-Level Assessment to Amplify Student Voice in a Summer Academic Enrichment Program for Adolescents

• In Event: Participatory Research as Democratic Pedagogy: Using Group-Level Assessment for Planning, Learning, and Meaning Making

Abstract

Purposes
This paper describes how we (sixth-grade students, two undergraduate teaching fellows, and an instructional coach) used the participatory action research method “group-level assessment” (GLA) (Vaughn & Lohmueller, 2014) during our six-week summer academic enrichment program at Breakthrough Cincinnati. We share our perspectives on the development, implementation, and impact of using this democratic framework to co-shape our curriculum and instruction, enhance deep learning, and inform decision-making within our program.
Theoretical Framework
Drawing upon concepts of democratic education (Dewey, 1916) and critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970/1993), our use of the GLA stemmed from our core program belief in student voice and agency. Rooting ourselves in socially just research methodologies, the GLA facilitates ways to privilege the voice of those previously marginalized by research through the employment of an epistemology grounded in the co-construction of meaning and the desire for social change (Vaughn & Lohmueller, 2014). Through our theoretical lens, we seek to create space that fosters and values all voices in our teaching, learning, and research, while challenging traditional power structures to develop a more democratic community among our programming staff and students at Breakthrough Cincinnati.
Modes of Inquiry
During the six-week summer program, 32 sixth-graders, two undergraduate student teachers, and an instructional coach collaborated in a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project to investigate issues of central interest to the students (Sabo, 2004). The participatory method of GLA facilitated the development of an important community issue to the students and helped design actionable change to address the community need. Following the participatory coding of the GLA prompts, the students identified police brutality and gun violence as important issues facing their community. The YPAR project resulted in students organizing a letter writing campaign to their local police department and a community forum.
Data Sources
Data sources included the GLA prompts and responses from the students; teaching fellows’ reflective journaling; and students’ verbal and written reflections about their experience with the GLA process and YPAR project.
Results
Using the GLA resulted in our students expressing a sense of empowerment in co-constructing a curriculum that supported students’ interests and concerns within their community. Concurrently, our student teachers shared that learning how to use the GLA method during the summer program proved to be a useful professional development experience to nurture democratic curriculum planning and meaning-making in their own educational settings. Furthermore, the success of using GLA to democratize our summer program and enhance student voice has lead our Breakthrough Cincinnati community to using GLA repeatedly to gain insight into the perspectives, needs, and concerns of our students and their families, staff, and student teachers.
Scholarly Significance
This YPAR project extends the ways in which participatory methodology can specifically help student teachers and young people foster democracy within a summer academic enrichment program for adolescents from traditionally marginalized communities. By inviting student voice into the curriculum and program planning process, GLA supports the creation of a student interest driven responsive and socially just pedagogy, further extending critical pedagogy scholarship (Freire, 1970/1993) and experiential learning (Dewey, 1916).

Authors

• Allison JoAnn Lester, University of Cincinnati

• Diana Lalata, Breakthrough Cincinnati

• Devin Hatcher, Breakthrough Collaborative