City as Our Campus: The Motivation behind Teachers' Use of Communities as Curricula

Abstract

Recognizing that the purpose of education is to prepare students to be functioning and contributing members of society, it is essential for schools to provide a systematic way to strengthen and develop students' civic literacy. The purpose of this research study is to determine why faculty at an independent school use a community partnership called City As Our Campus (CAOC) in order to accomplish this experiential goal. The CAOC program provides experiences for students to develop civic literacy skills and to learn how to read their communities as a text. The CAOC program incorporates participatory learning as an instructional practice to actively engage students in their understanding of course content. The success of the CAOC program is dependent on teacher motivation and their commitment to writing and creating a curriculum that ties the school to community partners. Knowing that the CAOC programs are only as successful as the individuals who create them, I am intrigued in wanting to know more about the educators who create such curricula. What is the motivation behind their decisions to use community partnerships as part of their instructional practice and curricula? This study will focus on the following question: Why do teachers use community partnerships in their curricula? This qualitative study began in the winter of 2011 and lasted six weeks. 17 faculty and 5 administrators from multiple divisions were interviewed over the course of six weeks. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone [phone]. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]