The Civic Literacy Project: Future Teachers and Fifth Graders' Co-Inquiry Into Trump's Border Wall

• In Event: Designing Field-Based Learning for Connectedness During Times of Disconnect and Crisis

Abstract

This paper is an examination of two future teachers’ experiences while developing curriculum with a small group of 5th graders during their inquiry project about the Border Wall. First, I describe the Civic Literacy Project (CLP), a non-traditional volunteer field experience for preservice teachers who are mentored by university and classroom teachers. Next, I describe and interpret how Sadiq, a Somali Muslim multilingual immigrant and Gabrielle, a white liberal English speaker thought about and experienced the complexities of the project against the backdrop of scripted lesson plans, high stakes surveillance and evaluations of future teachers. Finally, I theorize how experiences like CLP where future teachers co-create curriculum with students are humanizing and crucial to our anti-racist work in teacher education.

Author

• Audrey Lensmire, Augsburg University