University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations Dissertations and Theses 12-20-2002 When Urban Education Meets Community Activism: A Case of Student Empowerment in New Orleans Lisa Richardson University of New Orleans Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td Recommended Citation Richardson, Lisa, "When Urban Education Meets Community Activism: A Case of Student Empowerment in New Orleans" (2002). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 13. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/13 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by ScholarWorks@UNO with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WHEN URBAN EDUCATION MEETS COMMUNITY ACTIVISM: A CASE OF STUDENT EMPOWERMENT IN NEW ORLEANS A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of New Orleans in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Studies By Lisa J. Richardson B.A., Loyola College, 1992 M.S., Georgia State University, 1995 December 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………….iii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...iv Preface……………………………………………………………………………………..v 1. Urban Education and the Politics of Community……………………………………..1 2. Creating a Community of Learners…………………………………………………..25 3. Learning the Language of Empowerment …………………………………………...54 4. Producing New Knowledge………………………………………………………...104 5. Youth Media and Community Building……………………………………………144 6. Conclusion: The Need Embedded for Social Action………………………………195 References……………………………………………………………………………...235 Vita……………………………………………………………………………………..256 ii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.a Applying Learning to Neighborhood Problems 64 Figure 3.b The Cycle of Action Research 67 Figure 3.c Education for Human Development 79 Figure 4.a Writing of the Community 132 Figure 4.b Uses of Participatory Action Research 142 Figure 6.a The Model of Embedded Social Action 225 iii ABSTRACT This is an ethnographic study of urban education and community development in the city of New Orleans. In New Orleans, as in all American cities, the public schools are at the center of local politics and the policies that affect community life. Institutions of public education have come under fire for failing to prepare youth to compete in the global economy. This is particularly true in urban communities, where schools serve a higher proportion of students of color facing greater incidences of poverty, underemployment and economic distress. As education policymakers and business leaders look to improve education, many of the solutions put forth to reform schools focus on meeting state standards and instituting high stakes testing. A group of educators, community activists, artists, and young people in New Orleans have taken a different approach. By combining classroom learning with social action, the individual and collective empowerment of students serves as the focus of Students at the Center, a program designed by a writing teacher and his students, that operates within the public school system. Through community-based study on environmental, public health, neighborhood development issues, young people in the Students at the Center program begin to see the learning process, and the product of their education as tools for equitable social change through research, writing, youth media, and social action. This research examines the ways that taking part in community collaborations that emphasize local history, a sense of place, and the struggle for social justice affects students, teachers and residents as they strive to make education accountable to community concerns. iv PREFACE Public schools are under a societal microscope. Every community in the nation is affected by the pressure to raise the standards of public education to meet the mandates of state policy and the American ethos for excellence. In political arenas everyone from would-be county commissioners to presidential candidates talk about improving public schools and the need to better educate today’s youth. But in cities with large school systems, strained economies, and ethnically diverse populations, the challenge of providing adequate public education is a complex combination of planning, implementation and politics at the community level. It is in this context that urban publics struggle over education policy amidst competing social ideologies, normative standards for schooling, and the pragmatic dilemmas of rebuilding distressed communities. In recent years, scholars from a range of disciplines have begun to study the intersection of public education policies with city regimes, state politics and national economic trends. In urban communities the discussion of public schooling also probes issues such as the importance of culturally relevant curricula, creating effective mechanisms for inclusive decision-making, and the politics of educating black and brown youth for participation in society. At its core the debate over public education is a struggle over the vision of democracy and empowerment—the potential for individual empowerment that comes through academic learning and development—and demonstration of collective power that comes through the political action of community members as they create their own vehicles for social change. As the national public v agenda becomes more focused on school reform, different forms of political action are being put into play be diverse stakeholders in the education debate. This research explores an alternative method for engaging students and community members in the process of democracy, in and out of school; through a case study conducted in the city of New Orleans among educators and community activists working in public schools and their neighborhoods. The focal point is the story of a school-based program called Students at the Center that was created by teachers and students to build academic skills by applying classroom learning to community issues. The larger scope of this study is an examination of the linkages between collaborative initiatives, local networks and broad-based coalitions of youth, activists, educators, artists and business partners. This case offers an example of the ways in which grassroots action can cultivate effective school-community partnerships and spearhead an inclusive movement for community change. A few fundamental points should be made here about the use of the terms community and democracy throughout this study as they relate to urban education. Social scientists have long contested the definition of the term community and its multiple meanings. Definitions of community range from place-based social collectives to extended networks of households and families (Stack, 1974) to common social traits defined by history, identity, or attachment (Suttles, 1972). My use of the term community will focus less on the narrow geographic location of local stakeholders in New Orleans, than the participatory role that they choose to play in the collaborations, community networks and cross-sector coalitions that they created. It is important to situate the activities of the participants in their neighborhoods, their city and the larger social fabric vi in which they operate, to fully explore the model of community development that is presented here. By purposively linking these domains of action, residents, parents, teachers and young people formed various communities of interest that they defined and enacted through school and neighborhood coalitions. In so doing, they fused theories of democratic education with mechanisms for social transformation Secondly, the issue of democracy and democratic education employed in this study is borrowed from Paulo Freire and his progeny of libratory education theorists. This approach envisions active learning, community connections, and critical reflection as a basis for pedagogy that is aimed at changing the oppressive conditions in society that are reproduced in varied public institutions, particularly schools. In this analysis the role of political action is of the utmost importance. Often, the political mechanisms at work in the public debate over urban schools highlight the divisive nature of any discussion of educational reform. Competing ideals for appropriate means of school-community partnerships and the practical challenges of financing, managing, and monitoring school improvement initiatives are among the many issues that education reformers must address. This study begins with the assumption that public education can and should be a tool for liberation, particularly in distressed communities. Here, my use of the concept of democracy points to a vehicle for liberation that evolves from a process that mobilizes various community actors in a problem-solving effort. In its simplest form, democratic theory as described by Alexis de Tocqueville (p. 67,1957) stresses the sanctity of the individual such that, “everyone is the