Watershed School was recently recognized as an exemplar school in an article about community-centered education by Emily Leibtag, Ed.D. An author and education thought leader, Emily has supported the development of learner-centered education practices for decades. She currently serves as Senior Partner for Systems Transformation at Education Reimagined. Read her piece highlighting the importance of community in education and the schools and programs working to prioritize place-based education.
Examples of Environments Prioritizing Community
-- by Emily Leibtag, Ed.D.
This is an excerpt from an article—On Community—that originally appeared in Education Reimagined's Voyager Weekly, February 8, 2022.
For many learner-centered environments, their cultivation of community is intrinsically tied to their intentional unpacking of the importance of place and the physical environment. This means when you look at these environments, you see that they’ve tapped into the physical community in meaningful ways with internships, community service, and place-based exploration, as well as created wide-ranging opportunities for young people to learn virtually. However, this is more than just getting young people out of a school building context; it enables learners to unpack both who they are and how place, both physical and virtual, have influenced their lives and what influence they might have on their environment today and in the future.
Learners actively consider what it means to feel belonging and to critically consider those places where we are told or made to feel like we don’t belong. Learners develop critical consciousness, examining their own identity and belonging in community.
As Friere states in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, “Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world (p. 34).” Through these explorations and analyses, we often come to find community, connection, and belonging.
Take CapX, a program based in Washington, DC, which provides learners community-based experiences at the local museums and parks that otherwise are reserved typically for twice-a-year field trips. Often through projects, learners deepen their understanding of real-world issues and topics in their own backyard and connect with local experts and mentors at field sites like The Smithsonian Museums. Learners reflect on their sense of belonging, identity, and relationships within places and spaces in the community.
Or we can look to Amp Lab, a program launching this fall in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It is a partnership with the local Boys & Girls Club, the school district, and a career pathway center. The program’s goal is to support high school and middle school learners to explore interests and connect them with industry mentors and opportunities in the Fort Wayne community (see here for an interview with Riley Johnson who is spearheading this initiative). Having young people build roots in and see the vibrancy and opportunity in their hometown is an important goal of many learner-centered environments (like Iowa BIG), where issues of talent drain are putting community’s economic and social vitality at risk.
Looking further West, Watershed, a school in Boulder, Colorado, works to engage learners in a range of place-based activities. Deepening their sense of belonging in community tied to place is core to everything they do. Their philosophy states it plainly: “Watershed was founded on the best learning and teaching research, a commitment to focusing on our student’s futures, and a dedication to serving the human and ecological communities within and beyond the walls of the school. This is why we describe our program as research-based, future-focused, and community-centered.”
And, going to California, Círculos, located in Santa Ana, centers place and community in how learners discover projects of interest. The learning community comes together in a circle in physical places around the community where they are partnering with an organization or individual to address an issue, project, or challenge. Learners often decide on issues they want to address and learn about. During 2020, amongst other community-focused efforts, they engaged in virtual circles to continue to connect with one another. To demonstrate their learning, learners engage in defenses of learning and work towards competencies. Check out their Community Connected Research Journal.
We can’t forget Big Picture Learning with their campuses around the world, which have for decades prioritized community and getting learners out into their worlds for internships, projects, and deeply meaningful experiences. Leaving to Learn is central to what they are all about.
Finally, the Native American Community Academy (NACA) in Albuquerque, New Mexico is a “thriving and dynamic community where students, educators, families, and Native community leaders come together, creating a place for students to grow, become leaders, and prepare to excel in both college and life in general.” Community, one of their core values, is integral to how they engage with one another, as is their commitment to honor the land and the wisdom of their ancestors and elders in their physical community. Indigenous Farm Hub is one of several community partners that learners engage with to strengthen language, culture, and a sense of belonging through growing food with and for their broader community.
Across these environments, there is a common element—they are all moving outside of the physical limitations of a school building into the physical community in meaningful, intentional ways. This engagement of place as a source for building community has been integral to how communities have operated in the past and still do to this day. While certainly not new, this focus does present new opportunities as we imagine what’s possible moving forward.
Read more by Emily here.
Education Reimagined’s mission is to make learner-centered education available to each and every child in the country, inclusive of race, background, and circumstance. In service of this mission, Education Reimagined offers a transformational vision to galvanize the country. They partner with visionary leaders to imagine, invent, and bring to life the new systems and conditions necessary to enable a learner-centered, socially just future for education to spread and thrive. Explore more at education-reimagined.org.
