“Community Thinking Spaces”: Exploring the Openings and Possibilities of a School-Based Intergenerational Community of Practice

Author

Lucy A. Robins, The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkFollow

Date of Degree

9-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Urban Education

Advisor

Ariana Mangual Figueroa

Committee Members

Beth Ferholt

Sherry Deckman

Subject Categories

Educational Methods | Other Education | Other Teacher Education and Professional Development | Secondary Education

Keywords

Intergenerational, Communities of Practice, Progressive Education, Acompañamiento, YPAR

Abstract

This exploratory case study examines the possibilities of creating generative, collaborative, intergenerational learning communities within a traditional public 6-12 school in the United States, as an antidote to the ideologies of adultism, systems of whiteness, and settler colonial logics. The study is situated within a single public school site, where I have been a science teacher and teacher leader for the past eight years. The school, which self-identifies as a “progressive” public school, serves to reify the history of schools as sites for control through what I term a “we know best” ideology. This ideology serves to dismiss and devalue the knowledge and experience of students and adults who seek to push the school towards its “progressive” ideals.

During the 2022-2023 school year, I conducted a two-part guided inquiry within the school site. In the fall of 2022, I taught an experimental elective for seniors using Youth Participatory Action Research as a framework. In the spring of 2023, I convened a group of twelve co-participants - including students, teachers, and a school social worker - weekly to collectively discuss the strengths and challenges of their school community and imagine possible ways of transforming the school. This dissertation explores the learning that emerged from both the pilot study and the subsequent intergenerational inquiry group, through the lens of Black feminist theory, acompañamiento, and pedagogies of coalition.

Unlike the youth-driven methodologies of “youth voice” initiatives and even Youth Participatory Action Research, which often reinforce the adultism and youth/adult binary of the “we know best” framework, I discuss how intergenerational learning communities offer an alternative path towards building collaborative knowledge across differences in schools. Our collective analysis of the transcripts from my initial conversations with each participant, our weekly inquiry group sessions, our reflections, and my own reflective memos over the course of the study reveal a deeper understanding of the hypocrisies embedded in the school and the obstacles to disrupting the “we know best” framework. In particular, I trace how “performative listening,” “defensive misunderstanding,” and urgency culture stymie the potential collaboration of adults and young people in schools. By carefully attending to the ways we engaged with and related to each other in our inquiry group, I lift up how epistemic curiosity, purposeful vulnerability, and moving at the speed of trust all serve as potential antidotes to these obstacles.

I close the dissertation by highlighting the implications of our work on the possibilities of bringing intergenerational learning communities into other school spaces. In particular, I argue that such spaces change how we listen to each other, serve as critical sites of experiential triangulation, help us to get to the root of problems, provide alternative pathways to address those problems, and ultimately, allow us to be more fully human in each others’ presence.

Recommended Citation

Robins, Lucy A., "“Community Thinking Spaces”: Exploring the Openings and Possibilities of a School-Based Intergenerational Community of Practice" (2024). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6005