Street Design as Social Justice: Advancing Community Voice Through an Intergenerational Multilingual Community of Practice (Poster 8)

• In Event: University-Community Engagement as a Strategy for Dismantling Racial Injustice and Co-Constructing Educational Possibilities

Abstract

Current civic education research presents a shared understanding that high-quality civic education includes learning through rather than about civic participation through civic inquiry and action (Shapiro & Brown, 2018). Studies suggest this approach has positive impacts on academic engagement (Cohen et al, 2021), civic self-efficacy (Ballard et al, 2016; Lecompte et al, 2020), and the ability to identify the root causes of social issues (Ballard et al, 2016; Blevins et al, 2018). Yet, research on civic education within minoritized communities cautions that this process can backfire unless students are able to acknowledge discriminatory or inequitable experiences with civic institutions (Ginwright et al, 2004; Clay & Rubin, 2019). This has led to calls for a “lived civics” approach to civic education that begins with centering youth experiences with civic institutions as a starting point for civic education and engagement (Cohen et al, 2018), and the integration of critical inquiry and critical action as necessary components for minoritized youth (Diemer et al, 2021; Seider et al, 2023).

Using a participatory action research approach (McIntyre, 2007), we collaborated with middle and high school students and faculty in a bilingual charter school serving focused on serving first generation immigrant students and with staff from the local city government (e.g. Department of Transportation) to examine what would make their community more sustainable (per UN Sustainable Development Goals) and to provide insight into what it means to co-design empowering civic learning opportunities for their community.

Thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2012) of field notes, interviews, and student focus groups revealed three themes. First, we saw an evolving and multi-situated perspective on their local environment. As students critically analyzed their built environment (e.g. street design) they began to see the issue as one of social justice, as in the case of a student who queried why their school was on a fast road when others are not. At the same time, students with more recent experiences living or staying in their or their families' country of origin pointed to the greater safety in their current environment. Second, as students learned about new concepts in urban planning, we saw the interplay of building on and expanding linguistic capital as an important element of the process. Members of our community of practice gained new English or Spanish vocabulary as well as urban planning vocabulary to establish a shared description of the local environment. Finally, while the project began with a focus on youth (8th grade) students and their civic empowerment, the school model for serving the community of recent immigrant, Spanish speaking, mixed-status and mixed-income students included a wide range of ages, with K-12 including adult learners. Over the course of multiple rounds of this participatory action research within the school, the importance of intergenerational learning in an ongoing community of practice became apparent.

This study provides additional considerations for the construction of effective civic education for students of varied immigration status and linguistic capital and adds complexity to the notion of supporting “youth” civic engagement as a separate constituency.

Authors

• Ellen Middaugh, San Jose State University

• Laura Vega Hernandez, San Jose State University

• Amrita Deo, San Jose State University

• Yesenia Diaz, San Jose State University