Reducing Borders

Working with a high school counselor and social studies teacher, Phelan and her colleagues (Phelan & Davidson, 1994; Phelan, Davidson, & Yu, 1998) developed a group investigation project for twelve heterogeneous juniors. Although the original purpose of the project was for the researchers to get feedback on their research findings and on their preliminary Students' Multiple Worlds Model, they found the project led to students becoming more aware of cultural borders in their lives and in the lives of their peers.

The project involved seven hour-long sessions. In the first five sessions students read and discussed short versions of eight cases developed from the study (see Phelan, Davidson, & Yu, 1998, for the full cases). In the final two sessions the adults presented the Students' Multiple Worlds Model and asked the students to discuss it in light of studies they had read and their own experiences. Through the group discussions, students came to see their own experiences, assumptions, values and beliefs better, to understand and empathize with the experiences of their peers, and to begin to examine unequal power relationships in their various worlds. Phelan and Davidson (1994) believed that student learning could have been increased had that been the explicit focus of their efforts. However, they reported that one difficulty they had in the sessions was that "students lacked the background necessary to formulate, without assistance, questions about social and structural factors that limit access and perpetuate inequalities in their school and in the broader society" (Phelan, Davidson, & Yu, 1998, p. 207).

Building on this experience and seeking to address the difficulty they encountered, the researchers worked with a high school English teacher to develop a curriculum that included historical and literary materials to highlight peoples' experiences of borders and boundaries across time and context. Using the Students' Multiple Worlds Model as a framework, the students read and discussed literature in which characters encounter various kinds of borders as well as cases from the researchers' (Phelan, Davidson, & Yu, 1998) book. Phelan, Davidson and Yu (1998) concluded that "by using historical and literary materials, we find that students gave more sophisticated and complex understandings of the social and structural origins of borders and boundaries and are thus able to reflect more thoughtfully not only on their own lives but on the lives of diverse peers as well" (p. 208).

Relevant CIP Cultural Question

3.5.1 Home, Peer & School Cultures