Pillar 4: Partnerships With Universities, Organizations y La Comunidad

• In Event: Building and Sustaining una Escuela Bilingüe: Pillars as Anchors of Practice

Abstract

Objectives: The pillar that focuses on partnerships with universities, organizations y la comunidad, demonstrates that a school does not exist in isolation, but rather that it can both benefit from and contribute to organizations in the community and beyond. Since its inception, Entre Mundos has maintained deep partnerships with local universities to support bilingual student teachers and recruit new bilingual teachers and staff. Over ten years, partnerships have developed beyond the university to include arts organizations, healthy eating, gardening and community support. Entre Mundos has also partnered with other schools in our district to support school-to-school learning based on teacher inquiry and student engagement. Partnerships ensure schools build bridges with the community for reciprocal opportunities and support.

Theoretical Framework: School partnerships stems from the research of professional development schools (Polly, 2014) and community schools (Fullan & Quinn, 2016). As an institution, a school can be the lab site for developing future teachers as it provides the opportunity for hosting teachers to develop as leaders. Further, opening up Entre Mundos to researchers provides the opportunity for praxis to occur naturally by having the researcher collaborate with the teachers (Frazier et al., 2015).

Modes of Inquiry & Data Sources: The data from this pillar comes from the collaborative reflections of the members of the school, surrounding community and university researchers who have taken part in varied partnerships. Through self-study the collaborators reflected upon their experiences working together on projects at the school and in the community as well as the impact it has had on each (Attard, 2020). They identified the challenges to working in different arenas as well as the spaces for change that collaboration opens up, especially within a bilingual school that is part of a diverse and gentrifying community.

Results: By considering a variety of partnerships that come from working with student teachers, university researchers, arts, and community organizations, as well as other schools, we see how a multilingual/multicultural school can become a full learning community that benefits from these relationships as it contributes to deepening the opportunities and resources that exist within the surrounding neighborhood. Because the community is an extension of the school, partnerships with local organizations that focus on immigration, supporting community members affected by drug dependency, and engaging in local arts and wellness organizations, provides extended opportunities for the school and can inversely support the organizations themselves.

Examples of these partnerships include our commitment to future bilingual teachers, collaborative research considering translanguaging practices, students' linguistic choices and development within play, as well as learning differences within a multilingual setting. Most recent partnerships focus on collaborations with surrounding schools considering student engagement following the pandemic through a district-wide initiative.

Significance of the Study: Carefully considering how partnerships are developed, maintained and expanded shows that when a multicultural school opens themselves up to looking outward, the experiences within the school only go deeper. Entre Mundos, as a dual language bilingual school, benefits and can contribute deeply through partnership with the multilingual community where it is situated.

Author

• Victoria K. Hunt, New York City Public Schools