Beyond the Classroom Wall: Community Engagement Instruction

Abstract

This study (n=11) examined active community-school collaborative classes using sociocultural constructivistapproaches over an academic year in an early childhood institute. A semi-formal interview was conducted todescribing how the early childhood teachers and community members worked collaboratively to develop communityengagement activities in a constructivist manner for an early childhood instruction. The guiding research questionssought to explore both teachers and community members’ perspectives regarding integrating community activitieswithin the early childhood curriculum. Results from the qualitative data of perspectives of past experiences,collaboration between the school and its community, interaction with the school teachers/community officials, andattitudes toward into collaborative community/school activities, were examined and analyzed based on groundedtheory. Both school and community emphasized school-community collaborative engagement to enhance and extendexisting classroom practice. Findings suggest teachers’ positive teaching impacts resulted from involvement, instantfeedback, and productive teaching resources with the community engagement. Findings also suggest community’spositive impacts resulted from active engagement, community-school relationship, and contribution in communityactivities. By providing collaborative community engagement activities and embedding community contribution ininstruction, young children may be better to maximize their learning development and optimize their levels ofcompetency. Activities for community integration in the early childhood learning are discussed.