Research team studies reinvention of historic school

 A team of researchers at Virginia Tech is studying how a historic former Black elementary and middle school in Pulaski is reimagining itself. 

The team at the Institute for Policy and Governance is exploring how renovations to the former Calfee Training School on Magnox Drive will help the community move forward while also preserving the institution’s past. Work currently is underway at the new Calfee Cultural and Community Center on the site, which will house a children’s learning center, event space, a community kitchen, a museum, and more. 

The researchers plan to publish two research papers summarizing their findings and assist the cultural center in telling the story of its past.

“This project has given us a special opportunity to learn more about how a community has addressed systemic social discrimination and nonetheless managed to encourage its youth to embrace hope and imagine a better future,” said Max Stephenson Jr., director of the institute and principal investigator for the project. 

The former Calfee Training School educated Black children in Pulaski from 1894-1966. The school was underfunded for years leading up to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that desegregated the nation’s public schools. It closed when Pulaski Public Schools implemented that decision. 

The Calfee Center team, which includes some Calfee school alumni, is renovating the facility in phases. Phase one, which opened in late September, features the Harmon Learning Center for children. It is named for Chauncey Harmon, a former principal at Calfee who filed a lawsuit that played a significant role in the development of the Brown case. Phase two, for which fundraising continues, will include a community kitchen, school archive and museum, event space, and an outdoor play area. 

There are a number of Virginia Tech alumni and students who have been involved in the renovation work as well.

The research began when Brad Stephens, a Ph.D. student in the planning, governance, and globalization program and a graduate assistant with the institute, met Jill Williams, who is co-executive director of the Calfee Center, through a member of his dissertation committee. 

Stephenson was interested in working with the Calfee group. Their shared interest culminated in the research project. 

Stephenson and institute Research Associate Neda Moayerian serve as principal investigators for the project, alongside Stephens as its lead graduate assistant. The institute team conducted interviews with Calfee alumni and teachers and current members of the center’s governing board this past spring. They explored how Calfee alumni and faculty conceived the school’s role historically and whether the current efforts to reimagine that space have echoed or diverged from its original values and vision.  

The researchers plan to publish two articles based on their work. The first, “Revisiting the social role of radical imagination amidst widespread democratic erosion,” is currently under review with an academic journal. The second piece will examine the Calfee group’s initiative as an example of democratic agency and efficacy. 

Moayerian said the school had an impact despite the restrictions of the era in which it existed.

“Calfee’s teachers and the broader Black community in the Pulaski, Virginia, area sought to encourage students’ imaginations at the school to challenge boundaries and advocate for human dignity and equality, despite the socially oppressive laws and norms in place when the training institute operated,” Moayerian said.

This project produced tremendous opportunity for both parties. For the institute, it enables researchers to learn from Calfee about how historically Black schools built their imaginative capacities and how their current creative processes are built on democratic principles. The Calfee leadership team will include the institute’s interviews in the center's archives and museum.

Williams said she appreciates the institute team’s interest in Calfee. 

“I’ve been impressed with Max, Neda, and Brad’s understanding of the work we are doing and the transformative potential of the project,” Williams said. “It has been helpful to our board in helping us think more broadly on how these efforts are connected beyond our community.” 

Stephens said the Calfee group has been a compelling partner.

“We have been privileged to watch the exciting progress made by the Calfee group during the past several years as they seek to reimagine the historic school building,” Stephens said. "We have deeply appreciated their willingness to share their story with us.”