Transcript Social Action and Inner-City High School Students:

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.
What is “Public
Achievement”?
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Engages high school students in “public
work” to foster community change and
democratic citizenship.
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Developed by Harry Boyte and colleagues at
University of Minnesota
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Activities usually take place after-school
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Students meet once a week with college
student coach.
What is Public Achievement? II
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Past PA efforts have
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Rebuilt playgrounds.
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Contested school and city policies.
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Created dramas about current issues.
Efforts in the past that threatened the status
quo of schools have been expelled.
What is PA? III

Draws from theories of community organizing
and community development.
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Less conflictual in its presentation than most
out-of-school youth organizing efforts.

Nonetheless, the basic model resembles that
of youth organizers
PA vs. Service Learning
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Service Learning

Generally serves the less fortunate (“clients”)
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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.
Public Achievement Charter High
School (PACHS)
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Founded in 2004
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Approx. Enrollments
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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
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90% African American Students
85% Free and Reduced Lunch
1/3 “Special Education”—2nd Highest in District.
PACHS Pedagogy
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School was founded by PA organization in
part to provide in-school context for PA
activities.
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PA participation required to graduate.
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No formal classes.
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Students learn through individually designed
projects.
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Every student has a computer.
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.

PACHS’s 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.
Data Collection
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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 didn’t emerge from
ongoing teaching activities (e.g., no individual
interviews with students).
History of the PA Research Project
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In the first year (Year 0: 2004) Schutz was
given permission to observe PA in PACHS
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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.
End of Year 0 Evaluation
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At the end of Year 0, Schutz interviewed
seven PA groups.
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PACHS students showed little knowledge
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of what they were supposed to be learning
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of what they were supposed to accomplish in PA
besides “helping the community.”
End of Year 0 Evaluation II
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Some groups hadn’t moved to any action.
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Completed Actions in 2004 Included
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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
Hypothesis: Limitations of Year 0
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Schutz hypothesized that PA had failed to
teach students coherent lessons about social
action because coaches failed
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To teach students social action concepts and
skills
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To help students understand how particular
“actions” might actually affect the causes of
oppression.
Year 1 (2005) Research Project
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Schutz agreed to recruit graduate students to
coach and collect data on PA groups
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During Year 1, Schutz and 10 graduate
students coached 10 different groups of 6-7
HS students.
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Researchers coached for Fall semester, and
analyzed data together during Spring
semester
Summer Preparation for Year 1:
PACHS Faculty
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Schutz met throughout the summer with
PACHS faculty to
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Frame process for individual student projects
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Link individual project procedures to procedures
for developing PA projects
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Determine which key concepts from PA were most
important for students to learn at the beginning
A Streamlined Model of PA
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Schutz and the faculty agreed that the
established PA model was too complex.
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The group ranked the importance of key
concepts and created a graphic organizer.
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The group focused on one key ability
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Determining cause and effect relationships
through a “bubble map” process.
Original PA List of Core
Concepts
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Public Work
Politics
Citizenship
Democracy
Freedom
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Free Spaces
Interests
Diversity
Power
Accountability/
Responsibility
Focusing on a Few Concepts
Democracy
Power
Interests
(self-interest)
Diversity
Accountability/
Responsibility
Key Conceptual Tool:
Bubble Map
Boring Teachers
Lack of Funding
Staying Up
Too Late
Low Test Scores
TRUANCY
Can’t Go
to College
Police Give Fines
Preparation for Year 1: UWM
Graduate Students
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Schutz met 5 times during the summer with
graduate student coaches. Workshops
focused on
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Strategies and theories of community organizing
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Discussions of the conceptual tools and concepts
developed with PACHS faculty
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Preparation for first meetings with students
Pedagogical Goals for Year 1
To more closely follow the recommended
PA process of analysis and research prior to
action focusing students on
1.
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The CAUSES of social challenges and
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The WORKINGS of systems of power.
Pedagogical Goals for Year 1
Coaches were encouraged to
2.
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SLOW student movement to action
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Facilitate student RESEARCH through weekly
assignments
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Provide tools to analyze RELATIONSHIPS
between cause and effect.
Start of Year 1: 1-2 Hour AllSchool Workshops/Discussions
1.
What is PA?
2.
What is Community? What Would You Like to
Change in Your Community?
3.
Introduction to Bubble Maps (Cause/Effect).
4.
5.
Discuss “Causes” and “Effects” of Specific
Issues.
Topics Convention: Brainstorm Topics. Each
Student Ranks Interest.
How did the Workshops Go?
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PACHS facilitators struggled in all-school
sessions to keep student attention.
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Practice sessions with bubble-map went well,
but success was limited otherwise.
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The Topics Convention, was rushed

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Students were tired and resistant
Resulting topics were broad and vague: e.g.,
Foster Care, Police Brutality, Teen Pregnancy.
What Happened in PA Groups?
I. Finding a Topic.
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Students arrived with little understanding of
what PA was supposed to be.
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Weeks were spent talking about vague and
broad topics with little movement.
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Students sometimes declared they didn’t like
their topic but refused to change.
Early excitement turned to frustration.
Sense of Hopelessness Emerged Among
Students (and Coaches).
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What can a small group of kids really do?
II. Learning Concepts and
Skills
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A focus on concepts and skills was largely
abandoned in the struggle to find coherent
topics.
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The bubble map tool often just made topics
more complicated and difficult to deal with.
III. Completing “Work”
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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.
IV. What Did Groups Accomplish?
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Only about half of the groups completed any
coherent project at all.
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Completed and planned projects
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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
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?
I. Rethinking Coach & Student Roles
1.
Coaches needed to find a better balance
between facilitator and director roles.
2.
With students, we needed to honor
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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
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.
III. Plans to Support PA
Groups
1.
Add weekly seminar at PACHS attended by
all students to introduce students to history,
concepts, and skills of organizing
2.
Link each PA project to an existing
community organization for resources,
project support, collaboration, and
community base.
The Catch-22 of Hopelessness
If people feel they don’t 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)
General Youth Organizing/PA Model
OUT OF SCHOOL/
NOT REQUIRED/ALL STUDENTS
Topic
+
“Core”
Concepts
Student Topic
Research
+
Skill Develop
Specific
Project
+
Power Analysis
Action
Plan
General Model:
“Topic + Conceptual  Research  Planning”
Evolution of PA Model
IN SCHOOL/REQUIRED/INNER CITY
Doable
Project
Student Local Knowledge
+
Coach Provided
Information
+
Interactive Data Collection
(Interviews/Tours)
Plan
Move to Action
Note that the focus here is on action, with conceptual issues
emerging through ongoing engagement.
Year 2 Changes: Workshops
Focused pre-PA workshops entirely on topic
selection with
1.

An introductory presentation about other
students engaging in actions (videos)
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Topic brainstorming sessions

An ”Action Fair” where students attended
presentations about pre-selected projects with
“doable” efforts.
Year 2 Changes: Relations with
Organizations, Coach Roles, and
Weekly Seminar
2.
Pursued relationships with community
organizations to support student projects
3.
Focused summer workshops with coaches
on discussions of coach roles
4.
Planned weekly seminar on history and
concepts of social action for all students at
PACHS.
Students: Experts & Leaders
Coach: Positive Authority
RULES
Clear expectations of 
group and coach
Their Rules 
Boundaries for Safety
Options, not directives
Clear expectations of group
and coach
Help Ss enforce their rules
IDEAS
Questions not answers 
 Summarize/reframe
Ss ideas for them
WORK
Ss take responsibility 
Accountability to group,
not only coach 
Provide resources
“Jump starting”
(when group starts to falter)
A conversational style 
(speaking “with” not “at”)
Give and receive respect
(address disrespect)
I. What Happened In Year 2?
(6 Groups)
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Students arrived in groups with better sense
of why they were coming to PA
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Much less directionless dialogue in groups
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Groups moved more quickly to interactive
data collection (surveys, interviews, tours)
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Planned weekly seminar did not happen.
II. What Happened in Year 2?
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Students remained much more engaged in
projects with higher attendance.
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Support from outside organizations was
limited and often lacking.

All groups adapted their projects from the
plan they were originally provided (they took
ownership).
III. What Happened in Year 2?
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Projects looked less like service learning:
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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 don’t come to school
(truancy)
Key Issue:
PA at PACHS is Still Pre-Political
Student Projects at PACHS Lack Two Key
Aspects of Authentic Power Organizing
1.
Recruitment of constituents and allies for
collective power
2.
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.
Plans for Year 3
1.
Move out into community settings more
quickly, even if not directly related to specific
topic (tours, interviews, etc.) to spark student
interest and ideas.
2.
Add weekly seminar at PACHS on history,
skills, and concepts of organizing
3.
Examine ways to link projects to
constituencies.
Youth Organizing Manuals With
“Topic + Conceptual 
Research  Planning” Model
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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 Kid’s Guide to Social Action.
Youth on Board. (2004). Steps to Organize and Advocate for
Change.