A Year of Public Learning and Democratic Action: The Community Committee for Educational Equity

• In Event: 79.040 - Making Things Happen: Interdisciplinary Research That Builds Strategic Connections With Community

Abstract

Background & Rationale
Even in ostensibly progressive communities, school inequity and class segregation still exist (Brantlinger 1984; Brantlinger 2003). How might these issues be grappled with productively, publicly and democratically toward positive change, in conjunction with a diverse array of community stakeholders? This paper outlines democratically-designed public events over one year engaging parents, teachers, and community members.
Perspective
Community-engaged participatory action research enlists those who are most affected by a community issue to research and analyze that issue, in collaboration with researchers (Kemmis 2006). Issues of locally enacted social justice and school equity are particularly complex and often multifaceted. Organizing this research-action collaborative was driven broadly by a concern about inequitable school resources across a mid-sized district in a Midwest college town.
Methods
Researchers are members of a local Public Education Organization (PEO). Working with a small group of concerned community members, we created a Community Committee on Educational Equity affiliated with the PEO. The intent was to leverage networks while gaining support for organizing around issues of school disparities.
As an educational exercise (Freire, 1970; Souto-Manning, 2010) community book clubs read and discussed “Dividing Classes: How the Middle Class Negotiates and Rationalizes School Advantage” by Ellen Brantlinger for 9 months. Book club meetings held in the public library gave us an opportunity to discuss chapters but also community issues. Discussions were often framed using protocols for fostering deeper, productive conversations (National School Reform Faculty, 2018). Discussions were audio-recorded and we compiled field notes/minutes after each meeting to track emerging ideas for action.
In addition to book clubs, events included arts-based project to engage elementary students thinking about activism and schools in their community, a Community Conversation event, and a spring School Equity Symposium. All were documented with field notes and artifacts. Discussion protocols were used at each event to lead participants through collaborative engagement focused on group action.
Data
Data includes audio-recorded community-led book club sessions September 2016-May 2017, promotional/organizational Facebook page, groupthink posters generated by participants at the Community Conversation event; minutes from action committee meetings summer-fall 2017.
Results & Implications
Broad action themes that emerged from discussions included ideas for multimodal storytelling via (1) “friendly” research marketing and awareness-raising, (2) initiating cross-school partnerships, (3) alternative funding options, (4) creative parent engagement across schools, (5) school board reform, (6) district administrator collaboration.
Action Committees formed after book clubs narrowed focus to three areas: (1) redistricting school board seats, (2) gathering/sharing research on inequity (3) building strategic partnerships. However, these action plans were met with a call to temper the mostly white, middle-income activists’ involvement with renewed efforts toward acting as allies with marginalized lower income and/or community members of color (Stoudt, Fox, & Fine, 2012). Next steps could only take place with continued relationship-building/listening with those community stakeholders.
This unfolding project has potential for continued impact on the landscape of educational inequity in our town. Our case study offers useful lessons from community actors who are organizing for solutions to the unequal, segregated systems that result from unequal resources in the community.

Authors

• Christy Wessel-Powell, Purdue University

• Regina Marie Weir, Indiana University