Bridging educational communities to creatively explore social justice topics through film and dance

Abstract

This school-university partnership collaborative project was student-centered andfocused on supporting learning goals for three different groups of students through knowledgesharing and translating theory into practice. Students from three levels of education (high school, undergraduate, and graduate students) engaged in a multi-semester, integrated arts project that culminated in the performance of film and dance representations of social justice topics in education. The project engaged the community through the public performance and connected school, university and the community to advocate for social justice and the arts. We share the student learning outcomes from this project to demonstrate that the school-university partnership can provide valid pedagogical support for the collaborators. The mutual non-hierarchicalrelationship between the partners was the key to the success of the collaboration.