Community-Engaged Teaching and Learning in Philadelphia's Chinatown

Catalog description

This course will be an inquiry into community engaged teaching and learning (in K - 12 schools, out of school learning contexts, community spaces, youth centered spaces) and integrating critical pedagogies and participatory forms of research. The essential questions that will guide the course will include: With an increased mobilization of community organizing and activism throughout Philadelphia and beyond, how might we co-cultivate learning experiences and invitations that honor what students and families bring into their learning? As we are positioned in varying institutional and neighborhood contexts, how might we engage with these socio-political issues that directly impact their communities and schools? Throughout the course, we will explore various educational theories and theoretical frameworks on how to engage communities, and consider their pedagogical possibilities and implications. We will investigate how power and privilege shape our experiences, and the communities in which we live, and how intersecting issues of race, gender, class, language, and other identities play a pivotal role in our education.