After reading the book Citizen
Teachers and the Quest for a Democratic Society, consider the ways in which
this allows you to consider your role as a citizen teacher (or citizen social
worker). How are we as educators (or social workers) citizen first? How do we
recognize the centrality of being part of our schools (institutions), local,
state, national, or international communities?
Since people are situated
differently (some people have been teaching for a while, some people are in
transition, and some people are in a different field), I want to offer a couple
choices for this final assignment.
Length: Envision this as a
4-6 double-spaced page paper with a 12 point font.
Description of the Assignment:
Every assignment will have the following sections:
How do you conceive of the idea of being a citizen teacher
(citizen social worker)?
–
Make sure you provide your understanding of the
concept and what this might mean for you.
–
Connect this to the particular assignment you
have selected below.
–
2 paragraphs
What is community organizing and how might this help you
build stronger schools/ communities?
–
Be as concrete as possible as to what this means
and what this might look like.
–
Connect this to the particular assignment you
have selected below.
–
2 paragraphs
Possible assignments (please
choose one of the following): See page numbers for book.
1. Individual
meetings (pp. 41-42) with 2 parents OR 2 teachers with ideas for follow up
house meetings (pp. 60-61) (see book index for other references)
a.
Individual meetings are conversations of no more
than 30 minutes.
b.
Rather than interviews, these are conversations
which allow us to understand people’s hopes, values, fears, and the commitments
people have. These should not be abstract conversations but rather focus on
stories.
c.
Write up the two individual meetings. Who are
the folks? What matters to folks? Why?
d.
Based on these individual meetings, what
questions would you use to facilitate a house meeting?
2. Parent
engagement (pp. 58-59) framework
a.
Look at definition of parent engagement.
b.
How would you engage the principal in
conversation? What are the principal’s commitments? What rationale would you
offer in terms of how parent engagement may be beneficial to the school?
c.
How does your school allow parents to take on
leadership? Is there a site council?
d.
How might you find ways to invite parents to
share what they need and hope for?
In the book, the school used as
Success for All model where the school had a
parent
involvement team?
3. Response
to issues that impact educators’ (social work) work (see Contemporary Issues
you reported on and Chs. 1 and 2)
a.
Identify the issue you are addressing. Feel free
to revamp Contemporary Issues assignment.
b.
How does this issue impact educators, schools,
or communities?
c.
What organizations are working on this issue?
(e.g. teachers’ unions, GLSEN, March for Our Lives)
d.
How might you organize educators (social
workers) around this issue with lobbying?
Bibliography:
Please include any sources you
used including book for class, news articles, etc.
Use APA 7th edition to
cite sources.
