Ed Foundations first blog post: JANE

Jane’s first year teaching has been difficult and not as effective as she hoped. As a result, she’s tired, stressed, badly discouraged, and needs to cultivate a sustainable and “transformative teaching practice” (Churchill, 34) to be able to continue. She should ask herself the provocation TO WHOM AM I ACCOUNTABLE? Clearly, she has obligations here to herself, who is burning out, to her students, who aren’t learning as well as they could, their families, who are sometimes hostile, and of course to the school, the government, and all the usual stakeholders.

She will have to clarify some of the compelling factors within and outside her classroom that could be affecting her students’ learning. According the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s National Inquiry into Rural and Remote Education (2000),

Access to education is compromised by ill-health, disability, poverty, isolation, high mobility and transience, natural events such as floods and even heavy rain. It is denied by remoteness coupled with the language and cultural inappropriateness of the instruction on

offer for hundreds of Indigenous children. (2)

In the sense that “accessibility” encompasses ability to physically get into the classroom, affordability and a reasonable degree of appropriateness, Jane must be accountable for improving her remote students’ access to learning.

Because of her personal background in a “nice suburb” with two professional parents, Jane’s school experience was probably substantially different from that of her current students. She probably had all of her basic needs met, didn’t have to travel a great distance to get to school, and it’s likely that her professional parents placed a high value on her education and were generally supportive of her studies. Examining some of the research into rural schools in her area would illuminate for Jane some of the issues that might be affecting her students and their families—what are the road conditions and costs of travel for her students? How far do they have to travel to get to school?

The form of transport, the amount of time taken for travel and the cost involved can all have a significant impact on school education. Many children in rural and remote parts of Australia travel to and from school in extreme conditions due to distance, road quality and climate.  (HREOC, 5)

Along with transport, other difficulties remote students may face include extreme climate, lack of internet access or even reliable electricity at home (HREOC). These could be powerful influences on a student’s wellbeing, energy levels and preparedness, and on the family’s ability to support the student.

In addition to studying the research, Jane is in a position to “negotiate a path” (Churchill, 35) between the school and the parents. Perhaps if she pursued a substantive conversation with some of the parents in her new school, she might identify some causes of the hostility she observes, and perhaps even see it soften if the families feel their needs are being heard and met. Can families be invited to participate more in the school? Perhaps greater transparency would improve relations.

Another inevitable question for Jane is, how relevant is the curriculum to the students in that rural school? Are there Indigenous students in her class? Are there language and cultural barriers between them and the curriculum? How does she perceive the general wellbeing of her students? Jane might find creative ways to make her teaching more fundamentally student-centered, adjusting the content and generally focusing on students learning rather than the teacher teaching (which must be very challenging to new, self-conscious teachers, getting easier with experience). Then perhaps her wish to “control” the students would lose some of its imperative; she will actually begin answering the provocation, HOW WILL I CONTROL MY STUDENTS? in ways that develop her students’ learning better.

Put simply, if teachers meet the basic needs of children (from material needs for food and shelter to less tangible needs such as respect and being valued), their behaviour is unlikely to be problematic (Lawson & Petersen 1972, as quoted in Churchill, 56).

By pursuing a greater, more holistic understanding of her students’ lives beyond the classroom, she will be doing more to make them feel respected and valued, taking important steps toward meeting some their basic needs, reducing problematic behavior in class, and helping them learn.

Week 2 Task PPLE

• To what extent do you think that Steve convincingly demonstrated, in the lecture, his assertion that theory can make us better teachers?

I think we can assume that Steve was using some theory even as a beginning teacher, but perhaps an understanding of the theory that individuals behave differently alone and in groups might have helped him respond more effectively to Nick. If Steve had recognized early that Nick's way of dealing with his sense that he wasn't good enough to do what was asked of him was to make jokes and disrupt Steve's plans for the class, he might have been able to change things by developing a stronger one-on-one dialogue with Nick about how he thought the class was going, what was working and not working, etc.

• What did you notice and what did you wonder as you read your chosen section of the Krause article?

I noticed how much research is done into education, on just about every imaginable level. I was impressed that we have all this information available to help us improve our practice, but I was wondered if there would be lots of pressures from all sides to prioritise the issues that are on everyone else's agenda. I guess this is where a critical perspective comes in and we have to figure out how to incorporate this unceasing tide of new information and somehow also remember to ask What kind of teacher do I want to be?

• In the lecture, Steve described five different models of classroom management. (Krause describes three.) If you had to choose one of these five to study in depth (and to become something of an expert on), which one would it be? And why?

Interactivist model. I like the good communication practices that were associated with it in the article: using I-statements, dealing with a situation in the present, etc. I also like the acknowledgment of the emotional life of the student. I think that how a person feels has an enormous influence on everything he or she thinks and does (perhaps especially in adolescents). In some respects feelings are private; I believe that teachers should take only an appropriate interest in their students' inner emotional lives, but that said, communicating with people in a way that's open and warm and acknowledges the whole person can have amazing results, not just in a classroom, but in life in general.

• What thoughts did you have as you listened to Steve’s story about Nick, the boy in the Year 7 English class? To what extent did this story contribute to your developing understanding of how to promote effective learning environments?

 I love these classroom stories--it's like peeking through a hole in the fence and getting an eyeful of the other side. That sticky-tape story knocked the wind out of me, with the force of the sudden connection, and yet it wasn't sudden at all, but painstakingly built. The vitality felt in that moment reminds of me E.M. Forster--"Only connect!" (And actually, there's more of that quotation that resonates with what we're doing here as learning teachers: "Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer." (from Howards End))

So I guess I would hope that in my classroom, I'll remember some key points of the theories we're learning and have them so clearly understood and easy to grab in my mind that I can apply them quickly and effectively. We're going to be making a poster in Phil's class that I think should help with the remembering part.