UCLA

This action research study investigated the collaborative process of teachers developing a single-sex intervention for street-life oriented Black and Latino males. Traditional schooling efforts have largely failed to address the needs of Black and Latino males who are street-life oriented, thus this population remains among the most underserved and over-disciplined in our school system (Conchas & Vigil, 2010; Payne, Starks, & Gibson, 2009). Although a litany of national and local efforts have been enacted to close the achievement gap, they have failed to boost the educational outcomes of street-life oriented Black and Latino boys. This study examined the process by which a diverse set of teachers collaborated as a community of practice to address this difficult problem at their own school site.

The action research team collected survey and interview data to explore the challenges and successes of existing support systems at their urban public high school. Their aim was to discover any gaps in support that could be filled with a new intervention. The team was surprised to discover that none of the intervention systems at their site are specifically designed for street-life oriented youth despite a widespread belief that at least one of the available interventions is. In lieu of developing a new intervention that would address the school’s areas of weakness, the team recommended that school leaders explore ways to partner with existing interventions to strategically support their population of street-life oriented youth that was being overlooked.

The process by which the team conducted its action research was reliant on an essential element of freedom for teachers to direct and mutually engage in their own collaboration. Participants reported feeling a sense of community and trust that allowed them to work through disagreements and share accountability. As compared to other teacher collaboration at their site, participants felt that this collaboration was more effective and that it better reflected their ideal of what teacher collaboration should look like. The study ultimately demonstrates that if given space to drive their own collaboration, a team of teachers can purposefully address a problem at their own site as engaged agents of change.