Title of the project: Collaborative Knowledge Communities: Incorporating Arts-based Storytelling for Fostering Sense of Belonging in Adolescent Newcomers
- Description of the project:
Serving adolescent newcomer students is both fulfilling and daunting work. The total number of immigrant children in Wisconsin in 2008 was 23,678 (Immigrants in Wisconsin, 2020). According to the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, the number of middle and high school students has risen and continues to rise since 2014. Teaching adolescent newcomers presents unique challenges. One necessary component for academic success is a sense of belonging (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Torres-Olave, B. M., Torrez, M. A., Ferguson, K., Bedford, A., Castillo-Lavergne, C. M., Robles, K., & Chang, A., 2021). As ESL teacher shortages continue throughout the state, ESL practitioners are doing more, with fewer resources. Our goal is to work with practicing teachers to support and improve the newcomer educational experience at the secondary level throughout the state by leveraging and making visible the assets and resources these youth bring with them to our schools and communities (DeCapau, 2016). To meet this goal, we will form a knowledge community (Roland, 2014; Seaman, 2008) to engage with practicing teachers of newcomer students in resource sharing, collaboration across contexts, and exploring the potential of integrating storytelling through the arts in order to foster radically inclusive and welcoming communities.
Teachers working with middle and high school newcomer students in CESA 2, CESA 10, and CESA 7 will partner together in collaborative knowledge communities. During the first stages of the project, teachers will come together in person for a community-building day in the summer to share specifics of their teaching contexts, identify inquiry foci, and imagine future possibilities they would like to explore as a knowledge community. The teachers will, with the support of UW teaching faculty, create a framework for monthly virtual meetings that will take place in the 2023-24 school year.
If you are an artist who would like to express interest in collaborating, fill out the interest survey here!