Independent voices, social insight, and action: An analysis of a social action project

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Abstract

Social action projects provide opportunities for students to practice civic skills by learning about pressing social issues and taking action to address them. So to explore the texture of such projects, this paper illustrates how the pedagogy guiding them can support students to experience their agency as individuals, develop their knowledge of their broader social contexts, and provide opportunities for action. While the value of a relationship between individual agency, social knowledge, and action are richly described in theoretical texts, this paper shows how such principles are extended in one social action project that unfolded in an eighth grade class. Through the use of qualitative methods, I documented and analyzed the project. I share my analysis so to bring teachers and students' lived experiences with social action projects to light. The paper concludes with recommendations for educators when envisioning and enacting social action projects.

Introduction

Social action projects provide opportunities for students to speak out on social issues that matter to them such as hunger, global warming, and gentrification. Historically located within the Social Studies content-area, such civic projects position students as active citizens as they look critically at identified issues and take action around them (Wade & Saxe, 1996). Their civic work can be seen as involving two central processes: students use their individual voices to forward their interests and concerns and acknowledge the complex social context in which social problems manifest and are countered. This paper brings attention to pedagogy that forwards both individual participation and social insight and suggests how together the processes foster opportunities for political action. I ultimately seek to answer the following questions, through an analysis of one eighth grade project entitled the “social justice writing assignment”: (1) How did the social action project unfold? (2) How did the social action project provide opportunities for students to act as empowered individuals while recognizing their broader social contexts? (3) What forms of action were possible through the social action project?

At the heart of this paper is a curiosity about how teachers foster youth civic participation given students' unique individualities as well as the importance of their engagement with the larger society. Dewey (1897) expressed a similar interest, as he called on educators to maintain a dual interest in childrens' independent “powers” as well as their “social relationships”:

In order to know what a power really is we must know what its end, use, or function is, and this we cannot know save as we conceive of the individual as active in social relationships. But, on the other hand, the only possible adjustment which we can give to the child under existing conditions is that which arises through putting him in complete possession of all his powers (p. 5–6).

Here, individuals emerge as individuals-in-context and advance their ideas while acknowledging the network of relationships that inform and receive them. This principle asks teachers to uplift students' ownership over their abilities and create opportunities for them to be of use in a community. The social justice writing assignment suggests how this principle can be put into effect through social action curriculum enactment.

The analysis of the social justice writing assignment is significant in that it presents a textured picture of enacted civic education promoting youth civic engagement. This addresses a number of gaps in the literature on civic education. First, the majority of the research on school-based enlightened political engagement, or thoughtful civic action, is “theoretical and philosophical,” emphasizing what should be done rather than what is being done and how (Parker, 2003, p. 45). Second, when the work of teachers is considered, the research primarily describes the outcomes of social action without presenting pictures of how these results are attained (Butin, 2003). Reflecting the paucity of scholarship on lived civic experiences, teachers may state that they are interested in “teaching towards social change” or “in the name of social justice,” yet, such phrases carry vague meanings (Wade, 2004). This research can clarify and concretize ways to consider teaching for a better world, and in turn provide a stimulus for action (Lincoln & Guba, 2003).

Furthermore, focusing on enacted pedagogy highlights the complexity of social action curriculum enactment in a way that can then foster multifaceted civic pedagogy. Specifically, this paper will illustrate how a social action project can place balanced attention on the students as individuals and in social contexts. In theory, an enlightened form of citizenship emerges when citizens express their independent subjectivities in reference to broader sociohistorical contexts (Parker, 2003), yet in order for this type of participation to be scaffolded in classrooms, case studies spotlighting such multipart instruction are needed to extend the theory and illustrate how it takes shape in lived experiences. “Living through classroom life with teachers and children in detail-rich case studies potentially stretches educators' experience in ‘naturalistic’ ways beyond their own educational histories” (Dyson & Genishi, 2005, p. 131). The pedagogy of one teacher, Scott Rosner, will be broken down and then analyzed for what different instructional moves offer to this end. Ultimately, I bring attention to this type of teaching and learning “guided by the shadowed outline of a dream of a world less conditioned by misery, suffering, and the politics of deceit” (Kincheloe & McLaren, 2003, p. 472), as I discuss one class where students critically considered sources of suffering and did something about them.

Section snippets

Understanding social action

An analysis of social action pedagogy is fruitfully grounded in an understanding of theoretical models of citizenship and enacted social action pedagogy. This literature review touches on both areas, ultimately arguing that social action projects can be venues for the sharpening of students' individual voices, the building of their social insight, and the instigation of their civic action.

Methods

The case portrayed in this article stems from a larger multi-case study. I used qualitative methods to collect observational case studies (Bogdan & Biklen, 2003) and analyze the “local particulars” (Dyson & Genishi, 2005, p. 3) of social action projects promoting youth civic engagement. This methodology is grounded in the assumption that there is value in studying a “concrete instantiation of a theorized phenomenon” (Dyson & Genishi, 2005, p. 116), in this case youth civic engagement. Through

The social justice writing assignment

The social justice writing assignment included opportunities for student research and independent decision-making, and concluded with an assembly at which the students presented messages for change to their classmates and teachers. Below, I review these key aspects of the enacted pedagogy and also spotlight the responses of two students – Cara and Eva.

Reflections on the social justice writing assignment

Scott and the students' work stands as a model of fruitful civic participation in schools, and it can also be questioned for the ways in which it might have been different. In its own way, the social justice writing assignment positioned the students as effective civic actors prepared to use independent power, as idealized in a “theory of just individuals,” in a way that acknowledges a broader social context, as idealized in a “theory of just societies,” and take action accordingly (Parker, 2003

Recommendations

To conclude the paper, I review three recommendations for teachers that draw from the experiences of Scott and his students during the social justice writing assignment. Here, I aim to share some implications of this work for educators, suggesting ways that they can apply the lessons learned in Scott's classroom to other contexts where civic education projects are enacted.

Conclusion

Students are citizens here and now. Converse to this understanding, civic education is commonly advanced so to prepare students for civic life, not involve them in civic life (Biesta, 2007). Yet, youth can be fully involved as agents, actors promoting pointed messages for social change. Specifically, if robust citizenship includes opportunities for people to make reasoned decisions as individuals as well as opportunities to critically consider the social structures around them, these processes

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