Participatory Action Research to Cultivate Civically Engaged Teacher Leaders (RPA Pilot / Seed Project)

When it comes to the civic health and informed, empathetic civic participation in our communities, there is a lot of room for growth. Several factors contribute to today's lackluster state of civic participation, fueled largely by intersecting systems of racialized oppression and exclusion that have shaped access to public education and institutions. Even in contemporary times, the discipline of social studies (the primary home for civics teaching and learning) is given minimal instructional time in elementary schools—and civic requirements are inconsistent at the secondary level. Further exacerbating the challenge is the evolving nature of what it means to civically participate in today’s digital age. Fortunately, the potential of public school teachers to prepare young people for informed, robust civic participation remains a powerful lever for change.  Situated in this problem space, this study seeks to prepare the next generation of civic teacher leaders in the Commonwealth. To do so, we propose to leverage our formerly funded UNITE project entitled Preparation of Pre-service Elementary Teachers for Democratic Teaching and Learning, where we learned that pre-service teachers need more support, dialogic preparation, and empowerment if they are to bring routine, authentic, and digitally mindful civic learning into elementary classrooms. It is imperative that we build on our learnings and momentum this year to better understand the challenges and opportunities that pre-service teachers see in integrating civic education and information literacy into their instructional practices. As future teachers, it is necessary that they are empowered to not only be and become civic actors, but also teacher leaders within their school communities. Using community-based, participatory action research, this proposal supports the study and facilitation of a professional learning community (PLC) focused on co-designing high-quality civic educational practices and resources, inclusive of critical information and media literacy for elementary spaces.