"Exploring local civic citizenship surrounding the ""¡Huntington Park no se vende!"" campaign on Paseo Boricua in Chicago"

Citizenship is fundamentally defined by praxis--i.e., engagement in local and diverse forms of civic practices--rather than by a legal status tied to the nation-state (Tully, 2008). This dissertation research examined the participatory democracy practices of a community activist group that was organizing to resist gentrification in a Puerto Rican community in Chicago to see how citizenship can be contextualized as praxis in a particular setting. In order to preserve their community and its Puerto Rican cultural heritage and identity in the face of gentrification, young activists involved themselves in various community issues, ranging across political, cultural, and educational domains, as well as specific anti-gentrification work. Noticeably, they involved local teenagers in community events and in the process of information production and distribution, helping them to learn about important community issues, as well as Puerto Rican history and culture, which had not been taught in local public schools. Such intergenerational and holistic educational endeavors not only produced new young leaders to carry on the mission of social change, but in fact created a pipeline of community leadership. This exemplified the ecology of civic learning, which has long been absent from citizenship education in most schools. Further research is needed to restore the civic practices that “exist in everyday relationships long before institutionalization” (Tully, 2008, p. 31) in the current discourse of citizenship education. Community Activism is often classified as radical, unconventional, and inappropriate for the classroom, despite its important inspiration to citizenship education. Questioning who defines what is radical and why would be the starting point for revolutionizing citizenship education.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Secondary & Continuing Educ

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2012

Author dc:creator

• Nam, Chaebong

Contributors dc:contributor

• Noffke, Susan E.
• Johnston-Parsons, Marilyn A.
• Peters, Michael A.
• Bishop, Ann Peterson
• Bruce, Bertram C.

• Community Activism
• Gentrification
• Participatory Democracy
• Citizenship Education
• Ecology of Civic learning

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2012 Chaebong Nam

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/30930

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/30930