Can Community Schools Be a Source of Democracy and Liberation? Critical Perspectives From Four Cities

Session Type: Working Group Roundtable

Abstract

In this roundtable session, authors who are members of Institute for Educational Leadership’s Community Schools Research Practice Network advance the network's emerging research agenda by examining community school initiatives across cities using critical frameworks. Looking at Hartford, CT, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York, each paper examines the local context of community schools on the ground to understand how community schools are defined and enacted, how they are different from neoliberal reforms, who they serve and benefit, and to whom they are accountable. Collectively, the papers explore the degree to which community schools offer possibility in creating schools as democratic and liberatory spaces given the local social, political, cultural, and historical context and how that has impacted implementation efforts.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 5: Inquiry, Transformation, and Communities

Chair

• Zakiyah Ansari

Papers

• Transformative Accountability: Organizing for Community Schools in Philadelphia - Kristen P. Goessling, The Pennsylvania State University - Brandywine

• Clients or Partners: The Challenge to Engage Families in Baltimore's Community Schools - Jessica Shiller, Towson University

• Community-School Partnerships as Racial Projects: Examining Belonging for Newcomer Migrant Youth in Urban Education - Sophia Rodriguez, University of Maryland - College Park

• Saviorism or Equity? How Community Schools and Service Providers Navigate Questions of Racial Inequity - Julia A. Daniel, University of Colorado - Boulder