Community-School Relationships for Culturally Sustaining Teaching and Learning

• In Event: Teaching and Learning in Community Schools

Abstract

This paper presentation provides an overview of the literature on community pedagogical practices that are conducted through partnerships between local organizations and community schools that foster dialogic relationships to advance opportunities to learn. The paper draws on community school literature that highlights community sustaining practices to explain how community schools create liberatory learning environments. Community schools are well positioned to address opportunity gaps by integrating community members into the classroom, facilitating learning outside of the classroom, and aligning school and community resources (Biag & Castrechini, 2016; Fehrer & Leos-Urbel, 2016; Sanders, 2018). This may create learning experiences that are culturally sustaining (Paris & Alim, 2017), which are relevant to students’ lives and their communities. Community schools provide resources such as such as mental health services and restorative justice that benefit both teachers and students (Battistich, Solomon, Watson, & Schaps, 1997; Pais et al., 2019). In addition, a collaborative professional learning environment that takes up an understanding of the cultural background and political histories of the communities they serve can support teachers in improving their practice(Podolsky, Kini, Bishop, & Darling-Hammond, 2016). For teachers to support students in historically underserved communities, they must understand the political economy and bureaucratic structure of the schools, and the community and social service support networks available (Oakes, Franke, Quartz, & Rogers, 2002).

Community schools have potential to build sustaining pedagogies through community-engaged learning opportunities in and outside of the classroom (Khalifa, Gooden, & Davis, 2016). Teaching practices that draw on students’ previous knowledge, cultural backgrounds, and real-world issues teach cultural pride and builds the democratic leadership of students (Aronson & Laughter, 2016; Sanders et al., 2018). As community members are included in collaborative planning and teaching, instruction can build on community knowledge through project based learning that addresses community issues (Sanders, Galindo, & Allen, 2018). In this way, community schools can enhance a teachers’ ability to teach well (Sanders et al., 2018), and turn learning into a social process that involve adults in students’ lives outside of school (Pais et al., in press; Richardson, 2009; Sanders, 2016). Learning opportunities that draw on students’ preexisting interests, culture, and real-world experiences can make the curriculum more meaningful and better engage students (National Research Council, 2003).

One example of such learning is Participatory Action Research (PAR). PAR is a pedagogical approach is based on Freire’s critical praxis and stems from the principles of critical pedagogy of examining relations of power and positionality within dominant structures. PAR engages community members to take action to resolve a local issue, generating knowledge that is culturally relevant and connected to people’s lived experiences (Jacquez et al, 2012). PAR can be used in classrooms to engage students as active participants in their own learning. Cammarota & Fine (2008) note that traditionally, “education is something students do--instead of being done to them--to address the injustices that limit possibilities for them, their families, and communities” (p. 10). PAR provides a framework that lends opportunity for young people to participate in an enriching and inquiry-based learning process that leads to action to address issues within the community.

Author

• Hui-Ling S. Malone, Michigan State University