Middle School Classroom Activism
Middle School Classroom Activism Case Study
Adam York and Ben Kirshner’s “How Positioning Shapes Opportunities for Student Agency in Schools” discusses positioning, the ways in which one’s environment and the idea of one’s role in that environment determine how one acts. York and Kirshner explain that “School level positioning emerges from narratives about what it means to be a student in a particular school and reflects both the ways in which adults talk about students and the ways in which the material constraints of the school create or limit opportunities for involvement” (York & Kirshner, 2015, p. 106). In other words, the ways that teachers and other adults in schools address students is directly related to their participation within the school space. If students are positioned as people who exclusively receive knowledge and whose ideas or opinions are not valuable, they are not able to speak about or implement changes within the school. However, if students are positioned as integral participants of the school environment whose input is respected, they are able to work alongside teachers and other adults at their schools to enact change. York and Kirshner examine classes at two schools that predominantly serve racially-minoritized students, highlighting examples of both types of positioning. I will discuss the positively-positioned class, Ms. French’s 7th-grade language arts class at Central School.
Seventh Grade Language Arts Class
Ms. French employed action civics as a teaching strategy in her 7th-grade language arts class when she assigned her students a Critical Civic Inquiry (CCI) Project. York and Kirshner explain that CCI is a process in which “Students from historically marginalized groups reflect on their experiences in schools, identify a common problem experienced by members of the group, study it systematically, and develop strategies to address the problem in partnership with adult school personnel” (York & Kirshner, 2015, p. 107). Ms. French’s students chose to address the problem of school bullying. They conducted their research using interviews, surveys, and observations, and the project resulted in a dialogue between the students, the principal, and the assistant principal to discuss bullying prevention strategies (York & Kirshner, 2015, p. 110). To guide students in this process, Ms. French incorporated relevant readings and writing prompts into her students’ coursework. In addition, she positioned the students as changemakers. The work of Ms. French and other adults at school to support students with both words and actions made the students’ work possible. York and Kirshner note, “Being positioned as both researchers (through teacher talk) and change agents (by administrators willing to engage in dialogue), the students had a clearer sense of the path they might follow to impact the school environment. It also contributed to a sense of belonging in the classroom as well as a shared responsibility toward project work” (York & Kirshner, 2015, p. 114). By demonstrating confidence in the students’ abilities and conveying to them that their role as students is an active rather than passive role, Ms. French and the school administrators fostered student activism within the school space. Without these considerations, students would not have had the same level of success in identifying the issue of bullying at their school and developing a plan with their school’s administration to solve the issue.