Education Reflections: Discovering Community in Proctor

At this year’s Discovering Community Summer Institute for Educators, the Discovering Community team were fortunate to be joined by Proctor High School educator Linda McCuen. In this post, Linda reflects on the implementation of her collaborative ethnography project and what her students learned in asking their community “What does it mean to be an American?”

“Initially, I planned to have students in groups of three to go out into the community and do on-site interviews, take photos, and return to the school with their raw material to edit with Soundtrap and WeVideo. This wouldn’t work with administration expectations because per their request, I needed students to be thoroughly supervised at all sites by a school-approved supervisor. Therefore, even Trish and Mary weren’t allowed to assist in supervision (and neither could parent volunteers). This proved problematic for the original conception of the project. Thus, I had to modify my vision to meet school demands. (…)

Overall, it has been a good educational experience for my students. (…) They enjoyed interviewing community members, and the community members enjoyed interacting with the students. I plan to have students write reflective pieces about their experiences, so I believe I will learn even more about what this project meant to them in the future. 

Additionally, the Vermont Folklife Presentations (an ethnography explanation and technology introduction as well as a model interview) added to student understanding and worked to pique their interests in the project. The students particularly like watching their Global Studies teacher sit in the “hot seat” and learn a bit more about him during Trish’s model interview.

I’d like to do a similar project with my American Literature students next year. (…) In short, it was exciting to embark on this collaboration with the Vermont Folklife Center; yet, it was a bit eye-opening (a reality check indeed) to see several obstacles present themselves along the way. I wish school structures could be more flexible, but I wholeheartedly understand liability concerns that restrict our choices.”

We are grateful for Linda’s reflections regarding the challenges that educators are faced with when designing experiential learning curricula in public schools. With the integration of Act 77 and “Flexible Pathways” into Vermont’s schools, our hope is that Discovering Community can serve as an ally to teachers who strive to create new pathways in community-based learning. Discovering Community looks forward to further dialogue with teachers on this very important topic highlighted in Linda’s reflection. Thank you Linda for your thoughtful work!