Abstract
The city of Flint, Michigan switched its water source in April, 2014, and, to reduce costs, anti-corrosion agents were omitted from water treatment. Consequently, lead leached into pipes, contaminating the water supply and exposing Flint’s children to lead well beyond safety standards. The event became known as the Water Crisis, and now dominates Flint’s public image. This paper portrays a project that arose out of one community response to the situation in Flint, the provision of quality child-care to families living in the affected areas by the University of Michigan-Flint. As part of this effort, a group of Early Childhood faculty and center head teachers participated in a Teaching Circle (Hutchings in Making teaching community property, American Association of Higher Education, Washington, DC, 1996), in which we read and studied the book, Reggio tutta: A guide to the city by the children (Reggio Children, Reggio Emilia, 2000) and teachers were inspired to share questions with their classes. Our analysis of the Teaching Circle and those projects uses children’s perspectives and interpretations of campus and the city to focus on the beauty and resourcefulness of the Flint community. Seeing the city of Flint through the children’s eyes is a remarkably joyful and uplifting experience.
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Notes
All children’s names included are pseudonyms.
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Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge support for this work in the form of a Marion Wright Teaching Circle Grant from the Thompson Center for Teaching and Learning at University of Michigan-Flint, and from the head teachers, teachers and children of the School of Education and Human Services Early Childhood Development Programs.
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Dorfman, A.B., Kenney, C.K. Flint, Michigan Through Children's Eyes: Using a Teaching Circle and Projects to Re-envision a City. Early Childhood Educ J 48, 573–584 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-020-01031-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-020-01031-x