This paper enquires into the internal logics and outcomes of a key educational retention policy mandate within South Australia's (SA) 14 year social inclusion (SI) policy agenda, with subsequent recommendations offered to improve schooling engagement and life opportunities for 'at-risk' young people post-school. We argue that the last 14 years of social inclusion policy in SA has been highly successful in re-engaging and retaining more 'at-risk' young people in various forms of secondary schooling, but that this increase in retention has not been matched by a similar increase in educational attainment (successful school completion). As a consequence, we contend that the SA SI policy lens should be turned toward the possibilities of conventional secondary schools to learn from various alternative schooling programs and redesign themselves in more socially just ways to keep more young people positively engaged and successful in schooling. Whilst SI policy with its engagement in learning intent has succeeded in keeping a larger percentage of 'at-risk' young people engaged in negotiated learning programs beyond the 'school fence', we argue that with reduced teacher involvement and constrained curricula offerings in these negotiated learning programs, the policy approach inadvertently minimises their chances of successful school completion. We conclude by offering findings from recent research demonstrating more hopeful ways to improve school completion for 'at-risk' young people inside non-conventional secondary schools, articulated by seven SA secondary school principals courageously pursuing 'doing schooling differently' agendas.
In English language classrooms across the globe, the goals and methods of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are firm policy priorities. CLT prioritises the language used by native speakers and makes oral language competence a primary goal. This paper reports on a study of English language teaching at three national universities in China where recent policy reforms have taken up CLT and prioritised listening and speaking over reading. This study investigates the attitudes of teachers and students towards the policy and their views on English language teaching. While generally supportive of the goal of improving oral language competence, concerns are raised about the policy in terms of the context in which the learning takes place and the kind of English young professionals need for their future work, concerns that are supported in the literature. The article argues that, in countries like China where English functions as a foreign language, written English needs to remain a priority for English education of future professionals who must participate in a global English context for the exchange of ideas about their work.
This paper discusses the pedagogical aspect of using multiple learning strategies to teach Hong Kong school teachers mixed methods research. The authors examine the implications of blending traditional teaching and more innovative learning strategies with online platforms, small group work, peer interaction, and role plays to increase student comprehension and execution of mixed methods research. The authors illustrate how blended learning pedagogy can be integrated into a mixed methods research course, how these in-service teaching-students' learning outcomes can be improved, and how blended learning could benefit them in their own daily teaching practice. Implications for teaching in-service teaching students in Hong Kong are addressed.
There is a common consensus that students learn best through participation in rich and challenging classroom discourse. The aim of this study is to explore whether students viewed as weak by their teachers can productively participate in classroom discourse in literacy lessons. We used micro-ethnographic discourse analysis to analyze video recordings from literacy lessons at a Czech lower secondary school. We focused on two low-expectancy students, who participated in the classroom discourse in different ways. While the first one was passive and unproductive, the second one participated in productive interactions and autonomously helped to construct knowledge in the classroom. Our analysis shows that a student's way of participation in the classroom is influenced by their teacher's behaviour. We examine the relationship between the teacher's expectations and their behaviour so as to show that this relationship is stronger if the teacher focuses on the qualities of a student and weaker if the teacher focuses on their curricular aims.
As a white educator in New Zealand I am haunted by my past and in turn haunt others. This is one response to Derrida’s directive ‘Speak to the Ghost’.
This study examines the changed and persistent characteristics of mathematics lesson structures, focuses, and activities that Chinese middle school teachers developed under the influences of mathematics teaching reform and the existing contexts of teaching. Drawing on lesson description and interview data, it found that most participants changed their lessons by infiltrating the ideas and activities as envisioned by the reform curriculum into their traditional lesson structure without revamping their lessons. Such an infiltrative approach to reforming their mathematics teaching supports the assumption that the nature of mathematics teaching is culturally scripted. Consequently, teaching change is inevitably gradual and incremental shaped by the existing curriculum, assessment, and teaching contexts in which teaching practices are situated.
In my poetry I often write autobiographically, always searching again and again for what lies behind the taken-for-granted, always hoping to be startled by the unfamiliar in the familiar.
At a time when national and international high-stakes testing has assumed such prominence, one might begin to wonder about the status of teacher judgement when assessing and reporting on children's knowledge and skills against the descriptors specified in curriculum standards. Were standardised test results congruent with the judgements that teachers make when reporting on students' achievement, concern about how one type of judgement might compare with another would perhaps be unwarranted. This article draws on research that has investigated whether standardised assessments in the state of Victoria, Australia are actually comparable with teacher's judgements about their students' work to illustrate that discrepancies do exist. These results have been interpreted within an analytical framework that derives from Aristotle's (350BC/2000) distinction between three types of knowledge, namely epistemic, technical and phronetic knowledge.
Early childhood educators' own experiences of being listened to and of developing their own voice is likely to give them insight into what it means to be a listener in professional practice. Universities, students and staff can learn much from incorporating processes to encourage pre-service teaching students to engage in dialogue with lecturers and their peers about learning and teaching in a way that contributes to the program, while building student and staff capacity (Martin & Russell 2005). Using a self-study approach (Russell 1998), the author described and interrogated her journey as a listening educator, and the processes she and other staff teaching in early childhood programs used to engage students in dialogue about their programs. Key ideas from relevant literature were used in this process (Clark 2005; Freire 1975; Moss 2008; Rinaldi 2006). The aim of the study was to investigate the author's own practices of listening to student voices to inform her teaching, building a foundation for personal, professional and program improvement. Four challenges are identified: considering power relations, understanding the terms listening and voice, handling the content of feedback, and making the process dialogic. Ideas are proposed for improving the feedback processes using participatory methods (Seale 2010).
Don’t Eat the Raw Vegetables is a monologue adapted from the research-based theatre script Homa Bay Memories (Lea, 2013). Drawing on journals, photographs, and memories I developed the monologue to explore a moment of intercultural learning while on a teaching practicum in Kenya in 2004. In this article I share the monologue and a critical commentary discussing three insights into research-based theatre as a methodology gained through the process: 1) the impact of physicalizing research, 2) the opportunity to return to an experience armed with new theoretical understandings, and 3) the potential of the methodology to bring to light and express the fluidity of narratives and experiences.
Over the last few decades, performed research has emerged as a dynamic methodological approach where artist/scholars experiment with using performance to inquire and mobilize new knowledge. This article includes the autobiographical monologue Brothers as well as a critical reflection on the development and performance of the piece. The creation of the monologue incorporated a reflexive drama-based process to generate, analyze, and disseminate pivotal moments in the lives of the two brothers. Photo-albums, letters, journals, newspaper clippings, along with social media, provided data and stimuli. A discussion about the collaborative approach to writing and rehearsing the piece is included, as well as how performing the monologue in a theatre space during an academic conference shed new light on this approach to educational research.
The tragic reality is that more people today are succumbing to various forms of eating disorders. This article focuses on the experiences of enduring an eating disorder through a dramatic monologue followed by a critical reflection. The monologue is based on personal experiences with the disorder and provides an inner reflective voice through various events. This is followed by a discussion on the writing process, collaboration and presentation, and a brief discussion on research-based theatre. The purpose of this article is to add a voice to the disorder. Research-based theatre can provide a deeper layer of understanding about the complexities of an eating disorder and offer solace to those who are suffering and /or to those who have survived.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of negotiation in a science classroom, specifically how teachers can improve their students' ability to construct a scientific claim by focusing on their students' knowledge and how it changes throughout the unit. The paper will attempt to define key aspects of negotiation, the students' role in negotiation, the teacher's role in promoting negotiation, and how negotiation can potentially increase the opportunity for conceptual change in students. Negotiation will be discussed as a notion of assimilation, accommodation, and a relationship of construction and critique.
This article explores the author's experiences performing the monologue Gallop Apace over an extended period of time using a/r/tographical enquiry and autophenomenological questioning. Through this process understandings about the significance of using the monologue as a form of personal interrogation and the implications of using monologues as a tool for reflexive development with pre-service teachers are discussed.
A national curriculum for all students suggests curriculum design that can make a difference in academic opportunity for the 15-20% of the Australian school population verified with a disability (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations [DEEWR] 2013). The Australian Curriculum from its inception has been challenged for how it caters for the needs of students with disabilities. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) claim responsibility for designing the intended curriculum however responsibility for the enacted curriculum has been delegated to states and territories. It has been argued that how one teaches cannot be separated from what is being taught and learnt (Lusted 1989) with curriculum defined as what teachers enact in their classroom (Boomer 1991, 1999). It is timely to explore the Australian curricula in light of pedagogical justice, particularly for students with disabilities. In thinking about these issues, this paper argues that the capabilities approach of Amartya Sen (1985) and Martha Nussbaum (2003) provides a powerful theoretical framework for advancing curricula and pedagogical justice for students with disabilities. Nussbaum's ten Central Human Capabilities are used as a lens to assess how the learning needs of students with disabilities are being met in relation to the literacy capability of the Australian Curriculum. These case studies analyse two teacher perspectives of their interpretation and understanding of the literacy capability across both special education and mainstream school settings located in Adelaide, South Australia. The paper concludes by proposing ways in which the Australian Curriculum can better ensure that education contributes to developing some or all of Nussbaum's 10 central human capabilities: life; bodily health; bodily integrity; senses, imagination and thought; emotions; practical reasoning; affiliation; other species; play; and control over one's emotions. These need to be developed at least up to a threshold level for students with disabilities and ultimately advance pedagogies for their inclusion in a national curriculum.
Pedagogical practices are central to teachers' work, and in the spaces of schooling bear a potential to impact on students. This impact is particularly significant for students attending schools where low socioeconomic factors prevail, as these students rely heavily on formal schooling for their educational resources. Interrelationships between pedagogical practices, senior-secondary physical education curriculum, and the learning experienced by students from a school located in an area of socio-economic disadvantage are explored in this paper. The specific focus is action research conducted by a physical education teacher and university academics, which investigated pedagogical redesign for a 'skill acquisition unit'. Of key interest are pedagogical practices that sought to scaffold the acquisition and application of scientific literacies, which are fundamental to academic success in senior secondary physical education. Findings reveal high levels of student engagement, successful utilisation of scientific literacies specific to motor-skill acquisition and application of new learning to life-world situations. We argue that pedagogical practices that breach the divide between student life-world knowledge and powerful or specialised knowledge can disrupt default modes of teaching theoretical concepts in physical education, which marginalise and exclude students from low-socio-economic backgrounds.
This edition of Journal of Educational Enquiry (JEE) brings together six authors to examine and share reflections on performing and creating monologues in the context of classroom research, conferences, and theatres for general audiences. What are common, as well as distinct, phases one goes through when preparing a monologue for performance? When reflecting upon performed monologues, what insights can emerge for the arts-based researcher, or the actor who teaches, or the teacher who acts? How might a monologue performance about learning or teaching inform artistic, research, and pedagogical practices? This issue explores these questions with six articles by scholars from across Canada and Australia; each offering critical discourse on what it means to perform research. The origins of each monologue as it relates to its performer differ from one to the next; nonetheless, all of them are about the transformative act of performing narrative.
This article is based on my recent work as an ethnodramatist where I have been exploring the benefits of repurposing existing performed research texts for new audiences. I have found that a sense of audience and its requirements primarily dictate the modifications that need to be made to the original ethnodramatic text. Other important considerations that inform the repurposing process include who will perform the text and in what context the performance will take place. The script on which this article is based is a monologue I wrote and performed to teacher candidates. It is about 'Colin', a drama teacher candidate. His story first appeared in an educational ethnography I wrote for my doctoral studies.
This essay offers reflective practitioner insights into an applied theatre peace education project performed in and around Victoria BC in 2007 and 2008. The essay consists of three reflections: The first offers a narrative overview of the project and production, including the post-show conversations with student audiences that were carried out in-role; the second is in poetic form that invites deeper levels of understanding and response to a lived performance event; the third and final reflection surveys performative writing as an effective and affective means to write about performed research or other kinds of performances such as applied theatre.
This paper reports research in Finland into how pre-service teachers' experiences of using Second Life in a course about sex education, and how projections about the use of virtual environments like Second Life in their future teaching at primary level, contributed to the development of their proto-TPACK (Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge). Data collected consist of empathy-based stories and reflective discussions. Results suggest that despite challenges with the technology, the pre-service teachers offered insightful reflections on their use of Second Life in learning from the perspective of the different components of the TPACK frame, especially technological knowledge and technological pedagogical knowledge. However, the experience of using Second Life did little to extend their content knowledge (of sex education).
