Chapter 7: Promoting Civic Learning Through a Distributed Partnership Model Grounded in Story and Music: A Case of The Willesden Project

In the age of TikTok, polarized social discourse, and an uncertain future following the COVID-19 pandemic, how can we use lessons of the past to promote students’ civic engagement? Though specifics change over time, dynamic approaches to civic education are needed to help students better understand their place in the world. In this chapter, we describe the development of a distributed partnership model that leverages testimonies of genocide survivors and music to ground students’ capacity building for civic engagement in historical context while inviting them to reflect on their own lives and consider how that historical context may inform their future actions. We begin by detailing the development of the Willesden READS Program, a multilayered partnership comprised of a central hub of university and organizational partners that expanded into geographic partnerships with local school and community partners to deliver educational content and programming for K-12 students. We illustrate how differing structures of individual partnerships influence group dynamics and program implementation. Next, we describe how a model for an effective partnership prospered through the constraints of the pandemic. The model in action surfaced important insights: (a) identification of critical infrastructure needs; (b) the importance of adapting to the local environment; and (c) the primacy of well-constructed, relevant, and compelling content. Finally, we examine how the insights from our partnership relate to university-school-community partnerships and civic education more broadly, including a discussion of the role of testimony, story, and music in education that promotes democratic values.