Successful remote schools: what are they?

Successful remote schools: what are they?

• 1.
  Successful remote schools.What are they? Remote Education Systems project Broome, 29 July 2015
• 2.
  Introduction • Success, whatis it? • What does the literature say about successful education? • What do remote school respondents say it is? • How should it be taught? • What are the implications for systems? 2
• 3.
  Generalisations about remoteeducation • Problematic, intractable (Wilson 2014) • Difficult to manage and resource (Ladwig and Sarra 2010) • Failing (Hughes and Hughes 2012) • Falls short of targets and benchmarks (ACER 2013, Atelier 2012) So to address this we look for • ‘What works’ (What Works: The Work Program 2012) • Closing gaps (FaHCSIA 2013) • Overcoming disadvantage (SCRGSP 2014) • Removing obstacles (O’Keefe, Only and Angus 2012) 3
• 4.
  How the dominantdiscourse frames success • Successful learning • Melbourne Declaration (2008) • National Education Agreement (2012) • Measurement framework (2012) • Successful teaching • Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (2010) • Successful systems • ‘Raising productivity is a key focus of COAG’s agenda…education and training are critical’ (COAG 2012) • Students First (DET 2015) • Influence of international comparisons (Jenson 2012, COAG Reform Council 2013) 4
• 5.
  RES project Aim •To find out how remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities can get the best benefit from the teaching and learning happening in and out of schools. Research questions • What is education for and what can/should it achieve? • What defines ‘success’ from the remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander standpoint? • How does teaching need to change to achieve ‘success’? • What would an effective education system in remote Australia look like? 5
• 6.
  RES Project datasources • Publicly available datasets (my school and Census) • Community surveys in 10 remote communities • Observations from site visits in 3 jurisdictions (WA, SA, NT) • Engagement of over 200 remote education stakeholders in research processes (20 Thinking Outside The Tank sessions) • Dare to Lead Snapshots in 31 Very Remote schools • Reading of the relevant research literature • 6 Post-graduate research projects in progress 6
• 7.
  Descriptions of successin the RES data 7 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Parent involvement and role models in child's education Academic outcomes Community engagement Attendance Learning outside school Children choose to engage Place and space First language literacy Meeting student needs Post school transition Governance and decision making Strong Completion and retention Health and wellbeing determinants Recruitment and induction No word for success Early childhood Failure Year 12 completion Number of references Response Non-remote (n=445) Remote Aboriginal (n=295)
• 8.
  Teaching to success 8 0%2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% Health and wellbeing at school Local language Aboriginal teachers Relationships ESL and multi-lingual learning Teacher qualities Contextualised curriculum Culturally responsive Pedagogy Both-ways and two way Contextually responsive High expectations Classroom management School leadership Professional learning Assessment and Progress Experience Informal learning opportunities Time Whole of school practices Unsuitable teaching Per cent of references within group Response Non-remote (n=753) Remote Aboriginal (n=299)
• 9.
  System responses 9 0% 2%4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% Parent and community power Community developmental and community responses to… Partnerships Secondary education Workforce development Inspiration and aspiration Boarding National frameworks and international benchmarks Reconciliation, race, equity and aboriginality Resourcing Attendance Employment strategies and conditions Coordinated response Curriculum Early childhood Political, policy context Measurable outcomes and NAPLAN Other structural possibilites Philosophy of education Responding to mobility Health and wellbeing system response Evidence How should it not respond Is it capable of responding Poverty and Socio-economic status Scaleability and sustainability Per cent of references within group Response Non-remote (n=787) Remote Aboriginal (n=134)
• 10.
  Positive outcomes whenschools employ locals 10 Figure 1. Ratio of non-teaching to teaching staff, very remote schools with >80% Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander students, 2008-2014 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 0-.5 .51-1 1.01-1.5 1.51-2 2.01-2.5 >2.5 Averageschoolattendancerate Ratio of non-teaching to teaching staff Source: Analysis from My School data
• 11.
  Implications for measuresof successful remote schooling Attendance and academic outcomes are identified by remote respondents, but there is little connection between these measures and system responses or teaching responses. ‘Parent involvement and role models in education’ could be seen as a measure of success in its own right or as a precursor to other measures of success. There are ample references in the broader literature about the important role of communities in schools. 11
• 12.
  How could youmeasure parent and community involvement? • Is there a school council with community representation? • Does the school have parent-teacher days/events? How many attend? • Is there a school policy that actively pursues employment of local educators? How many have been employed as a result? • Do parents meet with teachers? What proportion of parents have contact? • Are community members involved in extra-curricular activities? • Are community members employed at the school? • What practices are in place in the school to build relationships between local and non-local staff? • Do parents or community members help with reading to children? • Is there local adaptation of curriculum? • Are community members involved in recruitment of new staff? • Are teachers competent with local languages? • Do teachers and non-local staff engage with organisations outside of school? 12
• 13.
  System and teachingresponses Workforce development issues include employment, support and training of local community members to work in remote schools, training and recruitment of new teachers, and professional development and systemic support of existing staff. Parent and community empowerment means putting structures in place that allow local decision making, inclusion of contextually and culturally relevant content in curricula: ‘red dirt curriculum’ Putting these structures in place is not a kind of magic bullet that will fix the perceived problems of remote education. We believe though, that they will contribute to the kind of success that is desired by remote community members. 13
• 14.
  Conclusions • Our findingsrun counter to the views of success that are promoted by the dominant national discourse • Codified measures of successful outcomes vs parent involvement • To achieve community views of success: • Giving power to parents and communities • Building local and non-local workforce capacity • Successful teaching: • set of qualities and skills will be found in the collaborative efforts of local and non-local staff, • a contextualised curriculum and in two-way approaches • building on and respect local languages and cultures. 14
• 15.
  Suggested readings Guenther, J.,Milgate, G., O'Beirne, P., & Osborne, S. (2014). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander aspirations and expectations of schooling in very remote Australian schools. Paper presented at the AARE Conference Proceedings, Queensland University of Technology Kelvin Grove Campus, Brisbane. http://www.aare.edu.au/data/publications/2014//data/2014_Conference/Full_ papers/GUENTHER_14.pdf Osborne, S., & Guenther, J. (2013). Red Dirt Thinking on Aspiration and Success. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 42(Special Issue 02), 88-99. doi:10.1017/jie.2013.17 Guenther, J., Disbray, S., & Osborne, S. (2014). Digging up the (red) dirt on education: one shovel at a time. Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues (Special Edition), 17(4), 40-56. 15
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  Questions for discussion 1.If we conceive success differently, does it matter that the ‘other’ view of success might not be achieved? 2. If we pursued remote understandings of success, what might be the implications? What would likely follow? 3. Is it possible to hold two different views of success in balance? 4. Given the inevitability of change, should we also expect remote views of success to change? 5. Supposing a young person achieves the ‘other’ view of success, where does that leave their relationship with community? 6. What are the costs of a successful education for a young person living in a remote community? 16
• 17.
  More about RES http://crc-rep.com/remote-education-systems JohnGuenther 0412 125 661 [email protected] 17