The Imperative of Contextual Cognizance: Preservice Teachers and Community Engagement in the Schools and Communities Project‪.‬

Teachers working with students and families in 21st century America face unprecedented challenges. Amidst the context of welfare reform and No Child Left Behind, the United States' child poverty rate continues to increase (UNICEF, 2005), and the achievement gap has reached new thresholds (Ferguson, 2007). Teachers are charged with meeting state standards and often attempting to meet students' basic needs, while institutions of higher education struggle to prepare preservice teachers for a new, tenuous, and shifting educational landscape. The preparation of teachers in light of changing national demographics demands creative approaches to effectively enhance a belief in the capacity of all children to learn. As such, efforts to effectively engage preservice teachers in the communities in which children develop offer critical opportunities to challenge preconceptions and present new realities. These experiences, then, facilitate a construction of meaning unlikely to be found in the traditional on-campus experience, as students encounter individuals and perspectives that differ from those in which they were previously grounded (Hytten & Warren, 2003).