A Learning Journey through a Heart-Centered Book

A Review of Wilson, P. A. (2019). The Heart of Community Engagement: Practitioner Stories from across the Globe. Routledge.

Authors

  • Wendy Allen University of Colorado Denver
  • Lori Ryan University of Colorado Denver

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v1i2.1099

Keywords:

community engagement, community-based action research, community change practitioner, deep democracy, liberatory pedagogy

Abstract

As faculty for a graduate program in early childhood leadership, we co-designed a course on community-based action research around Patricia Wilson’s book, The Heart of Community Engagement: Practitioner Stories from Across the Globe. In this review we share how it mirrored our own deepening sense of community engagement practices, and how our students engaged with this unique text on their individual and collective learning journeys. We share highlights from the text that reinforced our sense of liberatory pedagogy.  Wilson’s  personal  stories, as well as the stories of community-engaged practitioners across the globe , invite all of us to create our own purpose and intentions for the evolving path of facilitating change within ourselves and with others.    

Author Biography

Lori Ryan, University of Colorado Denver

Lori Ryan PhD, is Co-Director of the Early Childhood Leadership Program and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Denver’s School of Education and Human Development. Lori centers her work within  early childhood contexts and educational leadership environments, with a commitment to equitable and inclusive practices that promote, in partnership with early childhood communities, a strong image of children, families and professionals as co-constructors of their own learning stories. Within each unique context Lori’s teaching, research, and coaching is focused on building the capacity of her students, early childhood professionals and the children with whom they work. 

References

Freire, P. (2015). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Bloomsbury Academic.

hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge.

Scharmer, O. (2018). The essentials of Theory U: Core principles and applications. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Wilson, P.A. (2019). The heart of community engagement: Practitioner stories from across the globe. Routledge.

Front cover image by Jean-Baptiste Bonvalot, drawn in Procreate on an iPad, 2021. The drawing includes thick, vertical black lines that vary in width, overlaying many small dots that are connected by fine lines, also overlaying a loose grid at the bottom, with two concentric circles around a dot on the right. The black lines floats over a yellow ocher wash, on top of a pale gray background.

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Published

2021-11-30

How to Cite

Allen, W., & Ryan, L. . (2021). A Learning Journey through a Heart-Centered Book: A Review of Wilson, P. A. (2019). The Heart of Community Engagement: Practitioner Stories from across the Globe. Routledge. Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change, 1(2), 95–100. https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v1i2.1099

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 2 (2021): Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change

Section

Book Review

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Wendy Allen, Lori Ryan

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.