Me, You, Us: An Approach to Foster Critical Classroom Communities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58197/zhz5ek23Keywords:
experiential education, classroom community, equity, facilitation, critical pedagogyAbstract
This exploratory and introductory paper discusses a community building approach grounded in experiential education and informed by public health models—particularly the Social Ecological Model and population based approaches. Me, You, Us seeks to operationalize experiential education within classrooms in ways that are more intentional, just, and systemic. By identifying overlapping principles and leveraging facilitation approaches such as Me, You, Us, this work demonstrates how critical, reflexive praxis can emerge at the intersection of experiential education and public health to foster engaged and equity-based classroom environments. The result is a structured, values driven approach educators can utilize to engage complex social issues through collaborative learning environments.
References
Bettez, S. C. (2011). Building critical communities amid the uncertainty of social justice pedagogy in the graduate classroom. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 33(1), 76–106. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2011.550191
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1992). Ecological systems theory. Jessica Kingsley.
Delpit, L. (1988). The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people’s children. Harvard Educational Review, 58(3), 280–298.
Dewey, J. (1972). Democracy and education. Free Press. (Original work published 1916)
Fox, K. (2008). Rethinking experience: What do we mean by this word ‘experience’? Journal of Experiential Education, 31(1), 36-54.
Goodman, J., & Kuzmic, J. (1997). Bringing democracy to teacher education: Faculty experiences of pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 67(1), 79–118.
Itin, C. M. (1999). Reasserting the philosophy of experiential education as a vehicle for change in the 21st century. Journal of Experiential Education, 22(2), 91–98.
Jones, C. P., Jones, C. Y., Perry, G. S., Barclay, G., & Jones, C. A. (2009). Addressing the social determinants of children’s health: A cliff analogy. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 20(4), 1–12.
Joplin, L. (1981). On defining experiential education. Journal of Experiential Education, 4(1), 17–20.
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice Hall.
McLaren, L., McIntyre, L., & Kirkpatrick, S. (2010). Rose’s population strategy of prevention need not increase social inequalities in health. International Journal of Epidemiology, 39(2), 372–377.
McLeroy, K. R., Bibeau, D., Steckler, A., & Glanz, K. (1988). An ecological perspective on health promotion programs. Health Education Quarterly, 15(4), 351–377.
Roberts, J. W. (2016). Experiential education in the college context: What it is, how it works, and why it matters. Routledge.
Rose, J. & Paisley, K. (2012). White privilege in experiential education: A critical reflection. Leisure Sciences 34(2), 136-154.
Rose, G. (1985). Sick individuals and sick populations. International Journal of Epidemiology, 14(1), 32–38.
Sallis, J. F., Owen, N., & Fisher, E. B. (2008). Ecological models of health behavior. In K. Glanz, B. K. Rimer, & K. Viswanath (Eds.), Health behavior and health education: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 465–485). Jossey-Bass.
Small, E., & Varker, F. (2023). Critical experiential education: Re-Imagining teaching and learning. Experiential Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 6(1), 86–92.
Small, E. & Varker, F. (2021). Critical experiential education: Integrating critical pedagogy, social justice education, and experiential education to re-imagine teaching and learning (Publication No. 28775828) [Doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina Greensboro]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
Warren, K., Roberts, N.S., Breunig, M., Alvarez, M.A.G. (2014). Social justice in outdoor experiential education: A state of knowledge review. Journal of Experiential Education 37(1), 89-103.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Journal of Classroom Practices
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
