Social Action and InnerCity High School Students: Collective Action as a Required Class

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Social Action and Inner-City High School
Students Collective Action as a Required Class

• Schools require students to learn skills to
  empower them as individuals, but not skills to
  empower them as collectives.
• Research on youth organizing focuses almost
  entirely on out-of-school efforts conducted with
  self-selected students.

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What is Public Achievement?

• Engages high school students in public work to
  foster community change and democratic
  citizenship.
• Developed by Harry Boyte and colleagues at
  University of Minnesota
• Activities usually take place after-school
• Students meet once a week with college student
  coach.

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What is Public Achievement? II

• Past PA efforts have
• Rebuilt playgrounds.
• Contested school and city policies.
• Created dramas about current issues.
• Efforts in the past that threatened the status
  quo of schools have been expelled.

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What is PA? III

• Draws from theories of community organizing and
  community development.
• Less conflictual in its presentation than most
  out-of-school youth organizing efforts.
• Nonetheless, the basic model resembles that of
  youth organizers

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PA vs. Service Learning

• Service Learning
• Generally serves the less fortunate (clients)
• Usually a helping rather than collaborative
  social action model
• While a few advanced efforts engage in
  collaborative research or community
  development service learning rarely confronts
  inequality and oppression directly.

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Public Achievement Charter High School (PACHS)

• Founded in 2004
• Approx. Enrollments
• Year 0 (2004) 66 students, grades 9-10
• Year 1 (2005) 80 students, grades 9-11
• Year 2 (2006) 100 students, grades 9-12
• Student Body Characteristics
• 90 African American Students
• 85 Free and Reduced Lunch
• 1/3 Special Education2nd Highest in District.

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PACHS Pedagogy

• School was founded by PA organization in part to
  provide in-school context for PA activities.
• PA participation required to graduate.
• No formal classes.
• Students learn through individually designed
  projects.
• Every student has a computer.

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Why is Unique School Like PACHS Relevant More
Broadly?

• Only non-traditional schools like PACHS are
  likely embrace social action as a required part
  of their curriculum.
• PACHSs student characteristics are reflective of
  other schools in impoverished inner-city
  districts.
• Few students joined school out of desire to
  participate in social action. Most were signed
  up by parents.

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Data Collection

• All group sessions were audiotaped if students
  gave permission
• Fieldnotes were written up from audiotapes, with
  individually identifiable contributions removed.
• Focus of study is on groups as collective units
  and not on growth of individual students.
• No data was collected that didnt emerge from
  ongoing teaching activities (e.g., no individual
  interviews with students).

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History of the PA Research Project

• In the first year (Year 0 2004) Schutz was given
  permission to observe PA in PACHS
• Given the challenges the school faced during its
  first year, Schutz decided not to do any formal
  research.
• Schutz volunteered in different capacities at the
  school, visiting one day a week.

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End of Year 0 Evaluation

• At the end of Year 0, Schutz interviewed seven
  PA groups.
• PACHS students showed little knowledge
• of what they were supposed to be learning
• of what they were supposed to accomplish in PA
  besides helping the community.

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End of Year 0 Evaluation II

• Some groups hadnt moved to any action.
• Completed Actions in 2004 Included
• a one-day cleanup at the lake and
• a mural to beautify PACHS
• Actions were not linked to any coherent
  understanding of a social change or power

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Hypothesis Limitations of Year 0

• Schutz hypothesized that PA had failed to teach
  students coherent lessons about social action
  because coaches failed
• To teach students social action concepts and
  skills
• To help students understand how particular
  actions might actually affect the causes of
  oppression.

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Year 1 (2005) Research Project

• Schutz agreed to recruit graduate students to
  coach and collect data on PA groups
• During Year 1, Schutz and 10 graduate students
  coached 10 different groups of 6-7 HS students.
• Researchers coached for Fall semester, and
  analyzed data together during Spring semester

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Summer Preparation for Year 1 PACHS Faculty

• Schutz met throughout the summer with PACHS
  faculty to
• Frame process for individual student projects
• Link individual project procedures to procedures
  for developing PA projects
• Determine which key concepts from PA were most
  important for students to learn at the beginning

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A Streamlined Model of PA

• Schutz and the faculty agreed that the
  established PA model was too complex.
• The group ranked the importance of key concepts
  and created a graphic organizer.
• The group focused on one key ability
• Determining cause and effect relationships
  through a bubble map process.

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Original PA List of Core Concepts

• Public Work
• Politics
• Citizenship
• Democracy
• Freedom

• Free Spaces
• Interests
• Diversity
• Power
• Accountability/
• Responsibility

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Focusing on a Few Concepts
Democracy
Power
Interests (self-interest)
Diversity
Accountability/ Responsibility
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Key Conceptual Tool Bubble Map
Boring Teachers
Low Test Scores
TRUANCY
Cant Go to College
Lack of Funding
Staying Up Too Late
Police Give Fines
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Preparation for Year 1 UWM Graduate Students

• Schutz met 5 times during the summer with
  graduate student coaches. Workshops focused on
• Strategies and theories of community organizing
• Discussions of the conceptual tools and concepts
  developed with PACHS faculty
• Preparation for first meetings with students

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Pedagogical Goals for Year 1

• To more closely follow the recommended PA process
  of analysis and research prior to action focusing
  students on
• The CAUSES of social challenges and
• The WORKINGS of systems of power.

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Pedagogical Goals for Year 1

• Coaches were encouraged to
• SLOW student movement to action
• Facilitate student RESEARCH through weekly
  assignments
• Provide tools to analyze RELATIONSHIPS between
  cause and effect.

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Start of Year 1 1-2 Hour All-School
Workshops/Discussions

• What is PA?
• What is Community? What Would You Like to Change
  in Your Community?
• Introduction to Bubble Maps (Cause/Effect).
• Discuss Causes and Effects of Specific
  Issues.
• Topics Convention Brainstorm Topics. Each
  Student Ranks Interest.

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How did the Workshops Go?

• PACHS facilitators struggled in all-school
  sessions to keep student attention.
• Practice sessions with bubble-map went well, but
  success was limited otherwise.
• The Topics Convention, was rushed
• Students were tired and resistant
• Resulting topics were broad and vague e.g.,
  Foster Care, Police Brutality, Teen Pregnancy.

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What Happened in PA Groups?I. Finding a Topic.

• Students arrived with little understanding of
  what PA was supposed to be.
• Weeks were spent talking about vague and broad
  topics with little movement.
• Students sometimes declared they didnt like
  their topic but refused to change.
• Early excitement turned to frustration.
• Sense of Hopelessness Emerged Among Students (and
  Coaches).
• What can a small group of kids really do?

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II. Learning Concepts and Skills

• A focus on concepts and skills was largely
  abandoned in the struggle to find coherent
  topics.
• The bubble map tool often just made topics more
  complicated and difficult to deal with.

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III. Completing Work

• Assignments (homework) were almost never
  completed
• EVEN THOUGH
• Students Showed Capacity for Sophisticated
  Analyses of Power and Community.
• AND
• Significant work was often done during meetings
  if a project was decided on.

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IV. What Did Groups Accomplish?

• Only about half of the groups completed any
  coherent project at all.
• Completed and planned projects
• Looked like service learning
• Embodied little analysis of power.
• Projects Bake sale, mentoring children, poster
  with a safe-sex slogan, a job board, a bracelet
  brochure on police brutality

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Regrouping What Went Wrong?

• I. Coach Roles Caught Between Facilitation and
  Direction
• Groups either floated or were overly driven by
  coaches. (See Kirchner, in press)
• II. Coaches and Students Felt Hopeless
• How can a small group of high school students
  have an authentic impact on oppression?

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I. Rethinking Coach Student Roles

• Coaches needed to find a better balance between
  facilitator and director roles.
• With students, we needed to honor
• Their extensive local knowledge
• Their sophisticated analyses of social power
• Their distaste for school learning (e.g.,
  textual research and homework.)
• Their preference for active and oral learning

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II. Rethinking Topic/Project Selection

• 1. Students needed more time to understand and
  commit to different topics prior to entry into PA
  groups.
• 2. Students and coaches needed doable options
  from the beginning to avoid directionless
  dialogue and hopelessness.

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III. Plans to Support PA Groups

• Add weekly seminar at PACHS attended by all
  students to introduce students to history,
  concepts, and skills of organizing
• Link each PA project to an existing community
  organization for resources, project support,
  collaboration, and community base.

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The Catch-22 of Hopelessness

• If people feel they dont have the power to
  change a bad situation, then they do not think
  about it.
• Why start figuring out how you are going to
  spend a million dollars if you do not have a
  million dollars . . . ?
• Only when change seems possible do people
  begin to think and ask questions about how to
  make the changes.
• --Saul Alinsky (1977, p. 105)

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General Youth Organizing/PA Model OUT OF
SCHOOL/NOT REQUIRED/ALL STUDENTS
Student Topic Research Skill Develop
Specific Project Power Analysis

• Topic
• Core Concepts

Plan
Action
General Model Topic Conceptual ? Research ?
Planning
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Evolution of PA Model IN SCHOOL/REQUIRED/INNER
CITY
Student Local Knowledge Coach Provided
Information Interactive Data Collection
(Interviews/Tours)
Doable Project
Plan Move to Action
Note that the focus here is on action, with
conceptual issues emerging through ongoing
engagement.
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Year 2 Changes Workshops

• Focused pre-PA workshops entirely on topic
  selection with
• An introductory presentation about other students
  engaging in actions (videos)
• Topic brainstorming sessions
• An Action Fair where students attended
  presentations about pre-selected projects with
  doable efforts.

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Year 2 Changes Relations with Organizations,
Coach Roles, and Weekly Seminar

• Pursued relationships with community
  organizations to support student projects
• Focused summer workshops with coaches on
  discussions of coach roles
• Planned weekly seminar on history and concepts of
  social action for all students at PACHS.

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I. What Happened In Year 2? (6 Groups)

• Students arrived in groups with better sense of
  why they were coming to PA
• Much less directionless dialogue in groups
• Groups moved more quickly to interactive data
  collection (surveys, interviews, tours)
• Planned weekly seminar did not happen.

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II. What Happened in Year 2?

• Students remained much more engaged in projects
  with higher attendance.
• Support from outside organizations was limited
  and often lacking.
• All groups adapted their projects from the plan
  they were originally provided (they took
  ownership).

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III. What Happened in Year 2?

• Projects looked less like service learning
• Voter registration project
• Discussion with police and on radio show about
  youth issues
• A mural project to express youth desires for
  social change Liberty for All but Not for Us?
• Video/Skit to show other youth how to interact
  with police
• A presentation of survey data to another school
  about why students dont come to school (truancy)

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Key Issue PA at PACHS is Still Pre-Political

• Student Projects at PACHS Lack Two Key Aspects
  of Authentic Power Organizing
• Recruitment of constituents and allies for
  collective power
• Development of ongoing organization/group with
  identity to carry reputation and developing
  power.
• NOTE The PA manual stresses the importance of
  1, and out of school youth organizing seems
  usually to include at least 1 and often 2.

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Plans for Year 3

• Move out into community settings more quickly,
  even if not directly related to specific topic
  (tours, interviews, etc.) to spark student
  interest and ideas.
• Add weekly seminar at PACHS on history, skills,
  and concepts of organizing
• Examine ways to link projects to constituencies.

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Youth Organizing Manuals With Topic
Conceptual ? Research ? Planning Model

• Checkoway, B. (1996). Young People Creating
  Community Change.
• Dingerson, L. Hoy, S. H. (2001). Co/Motion
  Guide to Youth-led Social Change.
• Harmony VISTA. (2005). Empowering Youth for
  School and Community Change.
• Hildreth, R. et. al. (1998). Building Worlds,
  Transforming Lives, Making History A Guide to
  Public Achievement.
• Lewis, B. (1998) The Kids Guide to Social
  Action.
• Youth on Board. (2004). Steps to Organize and
  Advocate for Change.