Envisioning Beyond Community - Community Organizing and Education Planning Across Neighborhoods (Poster 15)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Friday 11:45am
  In Invited Poster Session: AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research Poster Session

Abstract

In an era of expanded school choice, districts and community organizations face unique challenges in developing new schools. This dissertation focuses on the dynamics surrounding a proposal for a new neighborhood high school intended to serve a diverse set of communities in Chicago. This chapter considers a variety of community meetings that district officials and community leaders designed to foster public deliberation on the proposal. By comparatively analyzing public meetings held by several different organizations, I show that design choices shaped the composition of participants, participants’ orientation toward the community at large, and public discourse with important implications for sensemaking across lines of social difference. I argue that community engagement strategies critically inform the direction of efforts to promote equity.

Author

• Andrew Frangos, University of Chicago