Chang, E. (2019). Bridging an engagement gap: towards equitable, community-based technology leadership practice. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 22(5), 536–554. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2018.1492504
Summary: Ethan Chang argues that too much of the current research on unequal access to technology in the classroom revolves around the idea that technology is solely important for student’s future financial success and bridging the “achievement gap”. He explains that this creates an unfair monetizing of underprivileged student’s education which ignores the possibilities technology presents for student-community representation and ultimately attempts to prepare students for passive participation in our unequal economic system rather than give them the tools and outlets to change this system (abstract). Chang believes that technology in the classroom should be taught centered around its capacity for engaging students in civic and community affairs in order to gain digital literacy rather than just digital skills. He also advocates for using technology in the classroom to showcase and utilize the student’s and community’s unique “cultural assets.” In short, Chang ultimately wants to highlight that the goal of many of his colleagues of bringing technology into the underprivileged classroom in order to fulfill “‘achievement’ aims,” within the classroom only, is a deficit ideology that limits the potential for technology leadership in the classroom to help address community and systemic inequities that are the root of the broad issue of unequal access to technology in the first place (section two). His main place of inspiration for this equitable view on technology in the classroom from a research group based in Oakland, CA, which he called InnovateEquity, who aim to use technology to “foster equitable educational and community changes.”
Through his work in gathering research on the qualities an equity and advocacy based leader exemplifies, such as, “framing disparities and action…construction and enactment of leadership… [creating] an inquiry culture…connecting with external partners… [and] collaborating with families and communities”, Chang developed a plan for researching and measuring how Innovate Equity utilizes these leadership qualities in their approach to building a community and education improvement vision in downtown Oakland (section three).
Chang’s first observation was InnovateEquity’s close consideration for the historical and cultural strengths of Oakland in order to preserve its “soul” in the new equitable improvement plan. The organization used community advocates and field research to gather the most pressing concerns facing the community and brainstorm equitable solutions. They combined their quantitative data with observations and analysis to create an online platform that tracked the assets of Oakland called CommunitiTech. Chang notes that while this platform helped them make sense of their findings, it was not the epicenter of InnovateEquity’s plan of action- this remained largely in face to face collaboration and communication with community leaders. InnovateEquity placed a major emphasis on gaining a diverse set of stakeholders to participate in the process of creating the new vision for Downtown Oakland that included every previously marginalized group in the area. They also focused on importance of building relational trust with these community members in order to create long lasting connections (section four).
While the concerns and goals decided by the community leaders weren’t directly related to education (gentrification, healthcare, youth spaces, and law enforcement reform), they all seriously affect “educational reform policy” (section five).
This case study should be helpful in my research because it opened my eyes to the way leaders can go about sourcing information and creating solutions using technology in equitable and culturally conscious ways. This relates to teaching because I believe technology in the classroom should always be purposeful and meet an equitable goal, and this study shows me ways to develop effective strategies that connect my students with civic engagement and opportunities through the tools afforded by digital literacy. Through reading this, I learned about the importance of protesting and refraining from the ideas that technology serves a single purpose in schools to prepare students for the workplace. The study also illuminated to me the importance for recognizing the complex ways in which community issues and educational inequities are interconnected. I want to further use this study and others to explore the ways that educators can positively influence and impact their communities both inside and outside of the school and classroom.
CPM200 