Co-Creating a Progressive School: The Power of the Group

Abstract

Drawing on the past and current practices of a group of educators that just celebrated its 40th year as a progressive elementary school in a suburban public school system, the article begins by considering the role that various groups have played in sustaining the school‘s success for over four decades. These groups include a long-term university partnership, practitioners of whole language, and parents. Then, after describing the critical role of two important group created documents, the Ten Principles of Progressive Education and a triangular graphic depicting the Curriculum of Progressive Education, the authors describe the relationship of how the power of these groups have used the documents to intentionally stay centered as well as move them ―off balance‖ in order to continue to evolve and strengthen their progressive education practices. Finally, the article shares two classroom examples where teachers use the group and the documents to conduct authentic curriculum classroom studies

Keywords

• progressive elementary schools, collaborative inquiry, integrated curriculum, educational partnerships