Opportunity Landscaping: Equitizing Access to Healthy Learning Lifestyles Through the Collective Reimagining and Use of Civic Spaces, Policies, and Resources

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

The communities in which we live and learn are the product of historical decisions about race and ethnicity made by politicians, elected officials, and others with power and money. For example, in Chicago, during the Great Migration, the Chicago Real Estate Board set up a committee that determined where Black residents could and could not live. This redlining funneled money and resources away from areas identified as "bad investments," which were communities that were non-white, and toward white communities deemed to be a "better investment." In the 1970s, desegregation mandates resulted in new magnet and selective enrollment schools open to anyone but required young people to travel far from their homes to attend. Today, boundaries such as Wards and neighborhood school districts, continue to be drawn and redrawn—sometimes with good intentions—in ways that fracture communities' imprints and continue today's modes of being, creating an inequitable present that is not authentic to the needs and desires of the communities in those places.

In this session, Dr. Nichole Pinkard will put forth, the concept of Opportunity Landscape as a sociotechnical approach to working with civic and community leaders to develop, implement, and codify an integrated place-based model for geospatially equitizing access to learning opportunities that can power community-wide engagement in healthy learning and living lifestyles. In her presentation, Dr. Pinkard will explore how by using historical geospatial modeling of the allocation of learning resources (e.g., parks, libraries, schools, community centers) and related programming can support communities in owning their “truth” of how the historical impact of redlining, green-lining, and school desegregation continues to disproportionally afford and constrain access to the essential learning and leisure opportunities necessary to sustain long-term healthy learning and leisure lifestyles for families, especially those living in previously Redlined communities.

Following Dr. Pinkard’s introduction of opportunity landscaping framework, a panel of five critical stakeholders will be convened to ground the framework in the daily realities of equitizing access to STEAM learning opportunities for youth living in historically under resourced communities. Each Stakeholder will provide a five-minute overview of their work and its connection to the opportunity landscape framework. Following the introduction, Yolanda Majors, will lead a discussion with the stakeholders

After the panel, Carol Lee, past president of AERA and lifetime Chicago resident, educator, researcher, parent, and activist will give a 10-minute reflection on the opportunity landscaping framework as an exemplar of a systemic approach to community engaged research practice partnerships with a focus on the opportunity to deepen our understanding of community by layering our work together.

Sub Unit

• Spotlight on Chicago and the Region

Chair

• Nichole D. Pinkard, Northwestern University

Papers

• My Chi My Future: Moving From a City-Wide to a Community-Focused Approach to Landscaping - Sybil Madison-Boyd, Digital Youth Network

• STEAMbassadors: Expanding Community College Students' STEM Interests and Identities Through a Year-Round STEAM Workforce Initiative - Shawn L. Jackson, City Colleges of Chicago - Truman College

• MAPSCorps: Empowering Youth as Community Data Analysts to Reimage and Enact Healthy Hyperlocal Communities - Nia Abdullah

Discussant

• Carol D. Lee, Northwestern University

Moderator

• Yolanda J. Majors, Hurston Institute for Learning & Development