Twelve students from ED308: Social Studies Literacies spent the fall semester exploring civic engagement through a partnership with Mural Arts Philadelphia, participating in civic engagement for themselves and gaining hands-on experience they can later bring into their own elementary classrooms.

Led by Professor of Education Dr. Ellen Skilton, these students in this course participated in a multi-part project in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. The collaboration included attending a Weavers Way Co-op business meeting to hear community input on a planned mural, touring existing murals in Germantown, meeting with Joseph Iacona, director of the Mural Arts Institute, and taking part in a Mural Arts simulation.

The project was designed to mirror the kinds of civic learning experiences students will one day create for their own students. In ED308, students examine the National Council for the Social Studies’ C3 Framework, which emphasizes inquiry and civic engagement beginning in the earliest grades.

“Seeing beautiful murals in person and learning about their significance to the community and partner organizations was a special experience. Our tour guide took time at each stop to explain how the art was meaningful to the Germantown community, its history, and identity,” said Early Childhood Education major Christina McCauley ’27. “Murals don’t just happen. They are the result of an important collaborative process and are deeply meaningful to the community. Each mural reflects the community it is in, its history, its culture, and its voices. Walking through Philadelphia, murals no longer feel the same to me. Now they carry a deeper meaning than they used to.”

The Mural Arts simulation utilized the “Level Up! Imagine, Reflect and Collaborate” deck of cards, which features murals and prompts to guide discussions around civic engagement. Students worked in groups of three and assumed the roles of artist, community member, and institutional partner, designing a hypothetical community art project while negotiating priorities and perspectives to better understand the collaborative process behind public art.

“Because of the emphasis on experiential learning, it was important that students have a chance to engage with each other in the processes of community art-making, as well as being participant observers in the process with Weavers Way and Mural Arts,” Skilton said. “These Level Up cards were a way for us to do this as a class after our engagement with Weaver’s Way Co-op, murals, and Mural Arts in Germantown.”

The C3 Framework for Social Studies Education aims to help students see themselves as active citizens with the ability to impact their communities from the start of their schooling. 

“It’s very important for pre-service teachers to have a lived experience of learning through civic engagement (and inquiry) in this course for themselves as (young) adults and so that they can create similar kinds of experiences for their future students,” added Skilton. “It can’t be hypothetical or just intellectual; they need to feel the pull of meaningful civic engagement themselves if they want to recreate that spark for their young students when they are teachers. Arcadia creates many powerful experiential opportunities for students through study abroad, internships, and practica, but course-based civic engagement projects and even simulations like Level Up can be robust High Impact Practices for our students.”

McCauley added, “This course and the collaboration with Mural Arts taught me about the value of meaningful curriculum and experiences for my future students. In my classroom, I will be more intentional about designing lessons and civic engagement projects that connect to students’ neighborhoods, cultures, and experiences, making learning more relevant and engaging.”