The Educational Equity Partnership Project: University-School Collaboration in Equity-Oriented Professional Development

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Division K Roundtable Session 5

Abstract

This study focuses on the efforts of university educators and 44 teachers in 32 Title 1 schools in the nation’s sixth largest school district located in South Florida, in the implementation of a three-year, five-module (each 6-8 weeks long) equity-oriented professional development project. Drawing on data from the first three modules, the analysis informed by the principles of critical multicultural education yields results that represent four dimensions of critical consciousness facilitated through the project: understanding key concepts; recognizing systemic inequities; critical reflections on biases; awareness of participants’ own agency. The partnership between teachers and university educators has also facilitated awareness of difficulties in school-wide implementation, given particular institutional cultures that make this daunting for teachers to take on alone.

Authors

• Dilys Schoorman, Florida Atlantic University

• Iris Minor, Florida Atlantic University

• Jay Sohn, Broward County School District

• Kimberly Foster