Working-Class Solidarity and Critical Consciousness in Educational Organizing: An Ethnographic Study of the New Bedford Coalition to Save Our Schools

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Reimagining K-12 Teaching in Anti-DEI Times (Table 6)

Abstract

Educational organizing offers a powerful alternative to education reform. This study aimed to understand how teachers in a coalition of educators, students, parents, elected officials, and community members organized for systemic school change. Using a critical, feminist, activist ethnographic approach, six participants were studied through field observations, interviews, and artifacts over six months. Data collection included a demographic survey, field observations, and interview questions. Research focused on how educator-members organized for change and what experiences fostered their critical consciousness. Coding methods included Descriptive, Values, and Emotion Coding. This article argues that NBCSOS’s community-based organizing promotes working-class solidarity, critical consciousness, and power, offering a framework for improving public education.

Author

• Cynthia Roy, Bristol Plymouth Regional Technical School