Urban reform’s forgotten stakeholders: Examining the mobilizing of inner-city communities in the formation & operation of a community-based education program

As urban community voices are often missing from conversations surrounding education policy and school reform, a central component in the schooling equation is being overlooked. To this effect, my dissertation research examines an instance of place-based community organizing embodied in an out-of-school time STEM education program, Adventures in Science Education (AISE), located in Philadelphia, PA. The question that drives my ethnographic examination is, how do human and physical resources, from an often segregated urban landscape, come together to inform the implementation of community-based enrichment programs? My research site fosters collaborative work amongst local actors from various community groups who have forged an alliance in response to limited educational opportunities afforded to local black youth. AISE, programming predicated upon a dynamic university-community partnership, reflects resources often overlooked in the city’s urban landscape that can be mobilized to enhance students’ academic achievements. Unpacking the complexities embedded in this partnership can support efforts to unearth more of the networks and capital available in urban spaces to support youth’s access to scientific knowledge, interactive curricular models, local scientists (in particular scientists of color), and their own abilities to problematize the world around them through their critical engagement with it. One of this dissertation’s central contributions is the examination and presentation of urban community groups’ meaning-making and mobilizing practices, as they are collectives often lost in the education policy arena as well as the community engagement literature grounding this project. This dissertation analyzes an instance of reciprocal engagement. Knowledge, as capital, transferring from both university and community actors to produce a community program that offers rewarding academic and social opportunities.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Policy Studies

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2020

Author dc:creator

• Riddick, Shana Nicole

Contributors dc:contributor

• Anderson, James D
• Dyson, Anne H
• Brown , Ruth N
• Stovall, David O
• Trent, William D.

• university-community partnership
• critical ethnography

Statement dc:rights

• © 2019 Shana Riddick

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/106473

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/106473