35.011 - Strategic Communications for the Public Good: Multimodal Paths Toward an Asset-Based Understanding of Public Schools

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

For the last several decades, anything “public,” including public education, has been unfairly framed as universally bad, inefficient and a bureaucratic relic of a bygone era. We know that for public institutions to thrive, there must be strong support for what they do as well as care for those they serve. Without this support and care, they will cease to exist. Research reveals that as nations become more racially, ethnically and culturally diverse, support for public institutions declines as long-time residents are less likely to support robust social services for “others.” Thus, it is clear that the best way to foster support for institutions that serve the public is to garner support for the “public good. As the “public” of public education changes and becomes more racially, ethnically and culturally diverse in the U.S., support for the public good will only flourish when people appreciate the knowledge and wisdom grounded in all cultures.

This session focuses on the ways researchers can utilize multiple modes of communication to better communicate what is important about public education and why the public should care about its success. We do this in two ways:
1. An action research project, the Public Good, in which we work directly with schools in gentrifying areas of New York City to strategically communicate the goodness of each school prior to the gentrification so that the students of color whose families have lived in these communities for a long time were not seen as “deficit” while the Whites students coming in were seen as assets. Thus, we conduct research on each school to redefine messaging through the creation and strategic distribution of information about these schools via brochures, videos, pamphlets, powerpoints and other forms of messaging. Importantly, we connect what is happening at these schools to what we know the research says about what is good for children, their families, and the community.
2. A major film project by an award-winning documentary film producer that highlights the policies and practices that have been implemented in the last 30 years, especially the growing emphasis on standardized testing, that counter what education research says children need to flourish and learn while perpetuating inequality and undermining public education.

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chair

• Amy Stuart Wells, Teachers College, Columbia University

Participants

• Abbey Keener, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Dianne Delima, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Siettah Parks, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Leana Cabral, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Stanley Nelson, Firelight Media

• Lisa Binns, Firelight Media

Presenter

• Diana K Cordova-Cobo, Teachers College, Columbia University