Building Reflective, Contemplative, and Evaluative Practice Within Disparate Education Institutions

Abstract

Although high school graduation rates have increased in recent years, youth under- and unemployment continue to plague low-income communities in the Bronx, New York City, and throughout the United States. My capstone project will share findings on HERE to HERE—an organization that brings together youth, secondary and post-secondary schools, foundations, and employers to enhance individual and family well-being and economic development in the Bronx—and the City University of New York. HERE to HERE also supports institutions and youth to expand and strengthen work-based learning opportunities and institutions to create pathways to family-sustaining careers. HERE to HERE was incubated through a unique partnership between DreamYard and Big Picture Learning with support from the James and Judith K. Dimon Foundation (the Foundation). Staff and leadership from each organization shared motivations and reached consensus about what they wanted to accomplish, but in their urgency to reach their goals, they were unable to allocate time to reflect, contemplate, or evaluate their day-to-day work. I led two initiatives to build reflective practices at the Foundation and among CUNY team members. This capstone will share how the initiatives encouraged the organizations to become more reflective, contemplative and evaluative. It will also share how the disparate authorizing environments affected change within the organizations. While leading initiatives across the organization, my task, in two radically different environments, was to encourage both sets of organizations to reflect as they executed ambitious agendas. Staff and leadership had to create new practices and procedures and work to change culture after co-constructing a shared agenda and plan of action. At the Foundation, leadership supported purposeful contemplation and showed staff that it too would practice reflection, contemplation, and evaluation. At CUNY, central leadership strengthened its partnership with the Foundation, supported a citywide apprenticeship program, and nurtured reflective practices among CUNY Central and faculty in the program.