ABSTRACT
In the 2015–2016 school year, the author students and the author took part in the Astor Educators Initiative, a transformational professional learning community at the Met. The initiative was supported by a grant from the Brooke Astor Fund, and it aimed to connect educators from New York City public schools that serve student populations traditionally underserved by US schools, which in the author case meant English language learners and immigrant-origin youth. Beyond understanding the US political system and formal pathways of civic engagement, the author wanted his students to participate in debate and dialogue and to self-advocate by raising their voices in matters important to them and their communities. The four core principles of a pedagogy of multiliteracies situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice ran through all aspects of their program in the museum. The focus was an intersection of socioeconomic class and gender in the U.S.
