This study is an examination of first grade students’ participation in Book Club at a high achieving, high poverty urban primary school in Detroit. In spite of the school’s high performing record, teachers are constrained by having to adhere closely to the pacing guide and the exclusive use of curriculum literature to preserve the school’s high achieving status. Irrelevant curriculum materials surrounding the themes “Keep Trying” and “Being Afraid” led to a teacher and researcher collaboration to use relatable supplemental texts. An examination of peer-led discussion groups demonstrated deep comprehension and students’ ability to mediate personal connections and multiple perspectives.
This community-based participatory research study examined the perspectives of parent participants in an organized parent network in Detroit seeking the best school options for their children entering Kindergarten within city boundaries. Their residency and school choices have emerged against the grain of public schools that have racially charged histories and decades of residential mobility trends. Examined are ways in which the parent network researched, collaborated, and made informed public, private, and charter school choices. Through the lens of Freire’s concept of praxis, interviews documented parents’ perspectives during the inception year for fulfilling school and community linkages and roles in improving city schools and enhanced knowledge of traits of successful schools that inform expectations for curriculum, school culture, and impressions of school visits.
In this study, a researcher investigated how teachers can negotiate their practice to engage high-needs students whose life experiences are not reflected in the curriculum, without compromising administrative demands for standardized curriculum and pacing. A fourth-grade teacher in a high-achieving, high-poverty urban primary school in Detroit adhered to paced curriculum, but supplemented it with a Book Club Plus curriculum that included peer-led discourse, collaborative efforts, and deeper construction of meaning with relatable texts. A teacher-and-researcher collaboration supplemented texts about the Great Migration by including students’ cultural and historical heritage. An examination of varying peer-led discussion group modes and reading logs revealed students reclaiming their voices as they mediated personal and cultural linkages with the literature. Recommendations are made for supporting teachers’ autonomy in engaging learners, and for teaching fewer selections, thereby promoting deeper reflection and student engagement, while fulfilling curriculum requirements.
This study chronicles the historical divisions of race and class between Detroit and its suburban neighbor as an explanation for current tensions in the communities and schools. This analysis poses implications for educational apartheid and stark disparities between urban and suburban boundaries and consequent discomfort among practitioners when urban children enroll in suburban schools. Ultimately, changing demography in historically affluent suburbs presents an argument for culturally responsive teacher preparation.
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