Barker Institute Learning in Practice 2023

Learning in Practice Volume 7 Number 1 December 2023

Honor Non Honores

Mission An Anglican community inspiring every learner every experience every day

Vision To be a leader in Christian education that is characterised by a global vision that inspires hope

Values Commitment Compassion Courage Integrity Respect

We acknowledge the Dharug, Darkinjung, Wonnarua and Yolŋu peoples who are the traditional custodians of the land on which Barker College, Darkinjung Barker, Ngarralingayil Barker and Dhupuma Barker stand.

We pay respect to the Elders past, present and emerging of the Dharug, Darkinjung, Wonnarua and Yolŋu nations and extend that respect to other Indigenous people within the Barker College community.

Editors Dr Matthew Hill Dr Timothy Scott

Editorial Assistant Susan Layton

The Barker Institute

About the Barker Institute

About the Learning in Practice Journal

• The Barker Institute exists to use the rich intellectual resources of Barker College to facilitate learning and growth through the School and the wider community.

As a leader in Christian education, Barker College aims to both demonstrate and inform best practice. This journal was developed to showcase a range of initiatives and research projects from across the School. It explains the rationale behind innovations in practice and archives pivotal developments in Barker’s academic, co-curricular and pastoral realms.

• As a research centre the Barker Institute conducts education research and offers consultancy services to individuals, departments, and leaders in the school to assist decision making and reviews using research methods bespoke to the Barker context.

• As a publication house the Barker Institute provides and facilitates dissemination opportunities for staff, students, academics and community members to share their work in various forms internally and externally in journals and at conferences and events.

• As a learning hub the Barker Institute enables professional learning and support for staff in schools, especially associated with research activities. Students, teachers and community members come together as learners at Barker Institute events.

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From the Head of Barker College

Education is experiencing an accelerating pace of change in thinking, teaching, and learning that requires schools to embrace ambiguity more than ever before.

I am thankful for the way in which the Barker Institute helps us do that; supporting our school community with research that enables us to wrestle intellectually with uncertainty, helping to transform what we discover into action so we can navigate the unknowns of the contemporary age successfully.

This is the seventh edition of Learning in Practice and the diversity of topics in this year’s journal allows us to celebrate the learning and teaching that takes place at Barker, at the same time as demonstrating the focus on and capacity for best practice amongst our staff. Thought leadership in the fields of Character Education and Refugee Education sit alongside reflections on practice to do with generative Artificial Intelligence, student giftedness and student wellbeing.

Additional insights come from studies pursued by teachers in various disciplines, including English literature, Agriculture, and Music, further underscoring the richness of the contributions present in this publication.

I draw your attention to the annual article from our ongoing longitudinal study, the Barker Journey. Now in its fifth year, the Barker Institute’s flagship project continues to chronicle how students in the present generation perceive schooling.

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A unique and exciting endeavour, this year’s work reflects on the story of students starting secondary school with nurturing learning relationships emerging as a key theme from what the students shared. The School’s entry into Humanitarian Education in 2023 strengthens our existing work with Indigenous Education as we examine ways in which an Independent School such as Barker can make a national and even global contribution to educational practice across a range of settings.

I commend this edition of Learning in Practice to you and warmly invite you to be in touch with the Barker Institute for further conversation about the educational research that is taking place at Barker College and how that work is contributing to excellence in teaching practice and learning.

Phillip Heath AM Head of Barker College

From the Editors

Many of the ongoing whole school projects which the Barker Institute has continued to support in 2023 through its active, schoolbased educational research find a voice in this year’s edition of Learning in Practice.

The seventh volume is more than just a home to considered reflections on pedagogy or a forum through which dialogue for the benefit of professional learning and development takes place. This year’s edition of Learning in Practice has welcomed staff contributions that have had an impact on educational thinking and practice both here in Australia and abroad. Scott’s paper outlining key considerations in refugee education is a much-abridged version of a larger work published by the Barker Institute earlier this year, which deliberately coincided with the same time as the School moved into a new field of Humanitarian Education. Gibson’s work on Character Education comes from Barker developing an intentional focus in this area and at a time where Barker has actively embraced being a Round Square school.

Articles for this year’s Learning in Practice were received from across the School. Some, such as Young, Pitkin and Scott, Mifsud, Corderoy and Liseo, and Low reflected on key aspects of the learning and teaching that takes place at Barker and linked their reflections to academic literature more broadly. Others, such as Felsman, Watson, Graham, and Howard drew inspiration from further studies they are undertaking. Matters, Eastman, Longney and Wells presented research and reflections on practice in Gifted and Talented education. Such breadth and depth of knowledge and expertise is enriching.

like to go to school as a Year 7 student. Their narratives of what learning, teaching, and schooling in the 21st century is like, mixed in with experiencing social and academic changes in the world around them, revealed a desire for nurturing learning relationships.

They showed us how they are changing into more independent learners while maintaining a community-oriented approach to learning. They revealed a willingness to embrace productive challenges, and that their perception of learning as a relational endeavour persists driven by their belief that it will aid in adapting to change, confronting challenges, and preparing for future learning.

We were excited for the Barker Journey students as they started secondary school.

It was a privilege to listen to these young men and women as they shared what it is

Dr Matthew Hill Director, Barker Institute

The Barker Institute is delighted to serve the School, and the wider community, through the educational research we conduct ourselves and facilitate in others. There is much to celebrate in this year’s journal and we hope that you will find it both useful and informative. We echo the invitation of Phillip Heath AM, Head of Barker College, to be in touch with us about the educational research taking place at Barker.

Dr Timothy Scott Research Fellow, Barker Institute

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Contents From the Director, Barker Institute

A Year in Review: The Barker Institute in 2023 1 Dr Matthew Hill

The Barker Journey: Reporting on the fifth year of our decade long longitudinal study The Barker Journey – Year 7, 2023 Nurturing Learning Relationships Dr Timothy Scott and Dr Matthew Hill

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Research and Relections on Practice Characteristics of Effective Character Education Peter Gibson

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Confidence and support for all Mathematics students in a co-educational context Amy Young

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Three comments on a whole school approach to refugee education 61 Dr Timothy Scott

Buildings Before Blueprints: A metaphorical exploration of digital ecosystems 69 in modern education Dr Andrew Mifsud Balancing Innovation and Responsibility: Challenges in developing a framework for ethical AI integration in education Gabi Corderoy and Stephen Liseo

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Nurturing Cultural Responsiveness: A snapshot of professional learning initiatives 83 improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students Lucy Pitkin and Dr Timothy Scott Mirroring the White Fragility of the Reader in ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ Marcus Felsman

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The Impact of School Sports Programs on Student Wellbeing Adam Watson

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We need to talk: Why Agriculture needs to say more about the global issues it can help alleiviate Scott Graham

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The embodied pedagogy: Preliminary personal reflection of incorporating the Alexander Technique in string teaching Sheau-Fang Low

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The Power of Paws: Dog-Assisted Wellbeing Interventions on Student 125 Motivation and Engagement in the School Setting Yvonne Howard

Research and Relections on Practice: Gifted and Talented An overview of Giftedness: transforming potential through responsive teaching Susanna Matters

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Who, what, why, how? Four questions all teachers should ask about gifted education Amanda Eastman

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Students are unlikely to advocate for themselves: Reshaping Stage 4 for English to differentiate for gifted students Greg Longney and Charlotte Wells

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Research and Reflections on Practice: Supplementary Volume Towards a pedagogy for radical hope: Developing a whole school approach to refugee education Dr Timothy Scott

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About the Authors 167

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From the Director Barker Institute

A year in review: The Barker Institute in 2023 Dr Matthew Hill Director, Barker Institute

Abs t r act As part of a thriving school community, the Barker Institute has continued to evolve to provide bespoke research and review to guide policy and programs. However, the intellectual resources behind the Barker Institute are not localised to a research office, rather they are distributed across our school community. Staff, students, and community members have all been contributors to this process with the Barker Institute supporting, centralising and sharing the thinking and learning. Through various research projects, events, publications and networking, the Barker institute has continued to achieve its vision in 2023.

F u n c t i on an d p u r p os e In previous generations, many considered it was knowledge that set apart teachers in schools and universities. Now everyone has unlimited access to information. The best communicators have already explained every concept on YouTube or in a TED Talk. In 2023 we now ask questions, seek clarification, and dialogue with artificial intelligence programs on any topic imaginable. Some believe a teacher’s utility diminished. Is this the end of the locally-based, human teacher?

The future of education lies not in distinguishing the teacher from the student but from blurring the lines between the two. Taking a lesson from universities, it’s not only the students who are learning, but schools must be whole institutions of learning where teachers also learn, grow, and develop. Students are invited into this learning community as full participants alongside their teachers who are simply more experienced learners.

The Barker Institute is at the forefront of education through promoting learning for whole communities of students, staff (teaching and non-teaching), parents, and our counterparts from other schools. The Barker Institute is the tool for which the rich intellectual resources within Barker College are utilised to facilitate learning and growth through the School and the wider community. This has been achieved through two key functions in 2023 including: 1.

driving educational research and review to support strategy and improvement, and

2. developing, celebrating and disseminating expert thinking within and beyond the School.

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D r i v i n g e d u c a t i o n a l r es e a r c h a n d r e v i e w t o s u p p o r t s t r a t e g y a n d i m p r o v e m e n t B a r k e r I n s t i t u t e R e s e a r c h A g e nd a 2023 was the second year of our first official Barker Institute Research Agenda featuring five research domains alongside the flagship Barker Journey project. These domains (Coeducation, Indigenous Education, Character & Enterprise Education, Intercultural Education, and Future & Innovation) were chosen through a consultation process with stakeholders in the school and designed to be relevant to our context at the same time as engaging with nationally and globally significant areas of interest and opportunity. For example, the impact of coeducation is topical, and Barker as a long-term coeducational school, with a recent (2018-2022) transition to full coeducation will unapologetically research, review, and implement all manner of teaching strategies and programs to ensure that the needs of all students are met. This document was always meant to be developed further and discussions are currently underway for an updated Barker Institute Research Agenda which will align and direct research thinking in the school through 2024-2025.

K e y 20 23 proj e cts

F l a g sh ip P r o je c t – T h e B a r ke r J o u r n e y We are now officially halfway through the Barker Journey study, a decade-long longitudinal study following a cohort of students who started in a fully coeducational Year 3 at Barker College (2019), and their peers who have joined them in subsequent intakes.

Even before commencing interviews and large-scale surveying with Year 7 2023, this year has involved substantial dissemination of the first four years of the journey through the Barker College Junior School, Years 3-6. This commenced with the publication of a summary report in last year’s Learning in Practice (Hill and Scott, 2022), and a number of community and conference presentations. It has been a privilege to tell the story of these young men and women, now in Year 7.

Fundamental to this project is the amplification of student voice, and unapologetically so.

We even asked the question to the audience at one recent conference, “What would the pros and cons of also collecting teacher and parent comments be?”. To us, it is the students’ stories, in their own words, that provide such a unique insight into education at this present time. From that, along with comparisons to relevant academic literature there have been various fascinating findings from the challenge during COVID-19 lockdowns when the (then Year 5) students longed for non-digital interactions even as digital natives, to the growing independence in Year 7. Alongside such findings there has been a constant undercurrent that “learning is social”, partly because the relationships form a social safety net providing resilience for future learning or life challenges. You can read more of these present findings in the article in this edition of the Journal, The Barker Journey – Year 7, 2023: Nurturing Learning Relationships.

A noteworthy opportunity to present on the Barker Journey project was when this research was taken globally by Barker Institute Research Fellow Dr Timothy Scott at the Educational Collaborative for International Schools Leadership Conference in Düsseldorf, Germany. We have been grateful for the feedback and ongoing conversations about the

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role and practice of school-based educational research, and in preparation for similar studies to take place internationally.

Ongoing feedback is being provided to key academic and pastoral leaders in the school, informing policies and decisions. Dissemination of the results from Year 7, and interviews with the then Year 8 students will continue in 2024.

R e f u g e e e d u c a t io n In a world marked by diverse personal, national and global challenges, one the most pressing challenges we face in Australia is the education of refugee children and youth.

From the vision and direction of Head of Barker College, Phillip Heath AM, and under the leadership of the Director of Humanitarian Programs, Ms Julia West, Barker is engaging head-on with this issue through provision of a Barker education for some of those who may need it most.

Alongside this project, the Barker Institute through Research Fellow Dr Timothy Scott has been connecting literature with practice. There are countless examples of this, including hosting a powerful event with guest speaker Patricia Garcia AO, humanitarian and human rights advocate, but most notably through authoring and publishing an academic literature review entitled Towards a pedagogy of radical hope: Developing a whole school approach to refugee education. The paper emphasises the importance of a whole-school approach that values, but also goes beyond academic instruction. It considers the trauma that many refugee students have endured and the transitions they face in adapting to new cultures. Additionally, it recognises the critical role of language in empowering these students to access education and engage with their peers. I am immensely proud to be sharing such an important contribution from Dr Timothy Scott with both our school and wider educational communities. You can read an abridged version in this copy of the journal (Three comments on a whole-school approach to refugee education), or view the full article online.

C h a r a c t e r & E n t e r p r ise e d u c a t io n Fostering and developing character traits that equip individuals to impact and change their world is increasingly valued, as is the provision of opportunities to engage in practical experiences that ensure learning is not just theoretical but also genuinely experiential. This opportunity is being seized by Barker, as an outworking of its commitment to the Christian faith, to investigate further how schools can best position themselves to provide learning opportunities for students to acquire and strengthen virtues, values and the competencies that will help them make wise choices for a wellrounded life and a thriving society.

Various staff have been involved in research-thinking around the development of character and competency. The Barker Institute has also been directly involved in planning and review of targeted character and enterprise education opportunities in the secondary school. This is a growing space, both at Barker and across the country, so I commend the blogs and articles from Barker’s Dean of Character Education, Mr Peter

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Gibson, including his contribution to this year’s Journal Characteristics of Effective Character Education.

M a t he m a t ic s E d u c a t io n Working alongside the Barker Institute in 2023 was Mathematics teacher and researcher, Ms Amy Young. Combining academic excellence, with inclusive education, in the context of the secondary coeducation Mathematics classroom, Young’s research has involved large-scale surveys, individual interviews, focus groups and two interventions. These have been to better understand student perceptions of themselves and the Mathematics classroom, and to ensure that every student feels capable and supported in Mathematics.

The backdrop of this area of research is international literature that warns of the detrimental impacts of a lack of confidence in the classroom. To ensure this is minimized in our context, various strategies have been trialled and reported on to impact learning and Barker, and hopefully also in other similar Australian contexts. Trials, discussion, and dissemination will continue in 2024. You can read a progress report in her article Confidence and support for all mathematics students in a co-educational context.

L if t @ B a r ke r In partnership with Dr Darren Morton, creator of The Lift Project (www.theliftproject.global), Barker’s wellbeing leaders adapted the research and evidencebased, internationally recognised, wellbeing program to link in with the various curricular and cocurricular activities that support personal growth at Barker. Under the leadership of Mrs Lisa Chalmers, Director of Health and Wellbeing, and Mrs Elizabeth Pritchard, Coordinator of Student Wellbeing, along with the Chaplaincy staff, including Rev Pete Tong who produced new bespoke Barker content, Lift@Barker was available to staff, students and parents throughout 2023. Review is ongoing, in collaboration with Avondale University, to ensure maximum benefit for Barker, and to share the story with other schools and communities.

S taff re se arc h The Barker Institute provides ongoing research and review support for several projects in the school, and is producing various other outputs through staff conducting research relevant to the school in their own discipline. These staff volunteer their time, some as higher-degree research students, others as those simply invested in making positive changes through applying the research processes to their work. Samples of their output are included in this year’s journal, and we look forward to showcasing their work more in the coming years.

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D e v e l op i n g , c e l e b r a t i n g a n d d i s s e mi n a ti n g e x p e r t t h in k in g w i th i n a nd b eyon d t h e s c h ool E ve nts Various academic, wellbeing, and topical events were held connecting expertise with approximately 2400 expert (and emerging) learners across all events in 2023.

Lift@Barker was launched publicly in early Term 1. Dr Darren Morton of Avondale University, creator of The Lift Project, shared an introduction to the program. Another key wellbeing was on “Raising Respect” with nationally recognised expert in child and teen online sexualised behaviour, Dr Marshall Ballantine-Jones.

Two exceptional past students returned to Barker College in Term 3 at highly popular events. Both former school captains and World Debating Award winners, Bo Seo (“Making Good Arguments”) and Dr Nat Ware (“Social Impact Economics and Entrepreneurship”) shared their stories.

Three academic events were held in 2023. First was the annual “Year 7 Study Habits Workshop” where Leslie Hall was filled with students and parents workshopping how to develop effective study patterns for Secondary School with Dr Matthew Hill. Barker’s Gifted and Talented Coordinator, Susanna Matters, presented on “The Diverse Faces of Giftedness at Barker” inviting ten Barker staff members to share how their programs supported an area of giftedness. Finally, a “Science Week Celebration” was held in Term 3 with tinkering workshops, demonstrations, and an exciting keynote from Laureate Professor Veena Sahajwalla.

Building on previous years, the annual Science Extension Public Lectures and Showcase was held in Term 4. Teachers and parents from Barker and NSW schools (from Bowral to Nelson Bay) joined for a mini-conference where Barker Year 12 projects were on display.

These posters are now available on the Barker Institute website alongside the fifth edition of our own publication Scientific Research in Schools.

The Barker Institute was proud to support Barker’s ongoing commitment to alternative models of education including those serving Indigenous and Refugee communities. A Term 2 event on “Truth Telling” featured two Indigenous survivors of the notorious Kinchella Boys’ Home. In the lead up to the referendum on “The Voice”, Julian Leeser, MP (Federal Member for Berowra, the electorate in which Barker is situated) came to explain the process and his position on the issue. Finally, Barker’s new initiative in Refugee Education was on display at a Term 4 event with Patricia Garcia AO on “International Human Rights Under Pressure, What Can Barker Do?” Pu b l i c ati ons The two ongoing publications of the Barker Institute have continued to be released in 2023. This article appears in the 7th edition of Learning in Practice, the Barker Institute Journal. Similarly, the 5th edition of Scientific Research in Schools (the student Science Education Research Journal) is available on the Barker Institute website. Both Journals now serve as a popular repository for students and staff seeking research results and Barker Institute Learning in Practice 2023 • 5

references on particular issues, and those seeking inspiration for their own research.

Through 2023, it has been a joy to connect external thinkers with internal authors and watch the fruitful discussions and collaborations take place.

There were also four new opportunities for publication in 2023, each supported by the Barker Institute website which itself was launched in Term 1 of this year.

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The first was shorter news articles on topical or timely issues, or a mechanism to provide a brief research update in a shorter form than a formal Journal article.

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Another was the public accessibility of Noteworthy, Barker’s student and staff Literary Journal. This is a long-standing Journal (14 editions) printed and distributed to staff and students at Barker run by the English department and current editor Mrs Karina Ware, and the recent editions including 2023 publication.

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Through hosting a student science research showcase in early Term 4, Barker’s Science Extension Students prepared conference poster presentations that were displayed for staff and students of Barker and other schools to investigate for themselves. This also served as a celebration of the student research work for them and their families. The posters are available online alongside the Journal Scientific Research in Schools as another means of disseminating expert thinking in a more accessible format.

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The first supplementary volume of this Journal Learning in Practice was released with Dr Timothy Scott’s monograph on Inspiring radical hope. This opens the format for unique contributions to research to be disseminated outside the usual timeline of the annual journal. This was launched in a timely manner as a stand-alone article at the Term 4 event on Refugee Education and is already gaining recognition on its own.

Co nfe re nc e s and g ath e ri ng s Research is a community pursuit, and with the vision of the Barker Institute extending beyond Barker, it is important that the Barker Institute is engaging in national and international communities of close-to-practice research. Staff researchers have presented at conferences and meetings too numerous to list, but special mention should be made to ongoing research engagement pursuits such as the Interschool Journal Club, the national Research Invested Schools network including the national gathering at Matthew Flinders Anglican College and St Andrews Anglican College on the Sunshine Coast, a growing international collaboration of Research Invested Schools, Navigating School-University Research Partnerships forum, research and innovation meetings hosted by the Educational Collaborative for International Schools, and as a Visiting Scholar at Leysin American School in Switzerland. I wish to thank all my counterparts in various schools for their generosity in hosting and facilitating such events, and the invitation for the Barker Institute’s involvement and contributions.

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Look i n g t o 2024 Stra te g i c pu rs u i t o f e s s e nti a l pro j e c ts fo r Ba rk e r a nd be yo nd Each of the strategic projects will be taken to the next level in 2024. Even with the success of the publication of Towards a Pedagogy of Radical Hope, the journey is only beginning for Barker and Australian Schools in these spaces. The Barker Institute and Barker staff researchers will continue to inform, innovate and review to ensure maximum impact and to influence the national conversation.

Specific for the first half of 2024 will be to provide the next instalment of the Barker Institute Research Agenda. Similar in form to the previous agenda, with updated strategic focus. Refugee Education, and Character & Enterprise Education are sure to feature.

N a t i o n a l a n d g l ob a l p a r t n e r s h i p s Traditional boundaries keeping institutions, races, and nationalities apart are becoming redundant. Earlier this year, the Djirikitj Firebirds, a robotics team of Indigenous students from our most remote School, Dhupuma Barker in North-East Arnhem Land, qualified for and attended the World Robotics Championships in Dallas, Texas. Research collaborations are also transcending the divides between school and university, private and public school, rival schools, and even internationally – we continue to be a part of breaking down each of these divides through partnership. We will welcome the national Research Invested Schools network annual gathering to Sydney with a portion of that gathering to be held at Barker College. We will continue to develop global collaboration through a network of international research invested schools, and provide ongoing consulting for researchers and school leaders seeking to implement similar projects, programs or institutes in their context.

E v e n t s p r o g r a m f e a t u r i n g i n t e r n a l a n d e x t e r n a l e x p e r t i s e , i n c l udi n g n e w m e di u m s o f d i ss e m i n a t i o n An exciting program of events is coming together for 2024. New topics, alongside the regular popular offerings, will be available to students, staff, parents and the wider community. These events feature both internal and external experts. Next year will include opportunities for staff researchers to publicly share their findings. While two years ago all events went online during ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, and 2023 returned to fully faceto-face events, a combination of learning opportunities will be offered in 2024. In-person events will continue to be a priority, however various webinars, recordings, and even podcasts will be available to ensure all can benefit from learning opportunities.

I n c r e a s e d s h a r i n g o f B a r k e r r es e a r c h In addition to the next installments of Learning in Practice, Scientific Research in Schools, and Noteworthy, the Barker Institute is continuing to explore other research thinking that can contribute to knowledge and positive decisions in and beyond the school. Students are regularly producing pieces of work designed to impact the world but often only seen in a classroom context. Year 12 student research essays, Year 9-10 Global Studies projects, Middle School special interest projects, and Year 6 PYP exhibition investigations are all

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The Barker Journey Reporting on the fifth year of our decade long longitudinal study Barker Institute Learning in Practice 2023 • 9

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The Barker Journey – Year 7, 2023 Nurturing Learning Relationships Dr Timothy Scott Research Fellow, Barker Institute Dr Matthew Hill Director, Barker Institute

Abs t r act This paper presents the results of the fifth year of the Barker Journey project, tracking a group of students on their ten-year educational journey culminating with Year 12 in 2028. Now in Year 7, some of these students first participated in this research in Year 3 as the first coeducational year group in Years 3-6 at Barker, some others joined the Junior School later, and many moving from other schools to commence Secondary School at Barker in 2023. Consistent with previous publications on this project (Eastman and Hill, 2019, 2020; Scott and Hill, 2021, 2022) summarised in Hill and Scott (2022), a combination of interviews and surveys were used to amplify student voice to address the question of what this generation of students desires and experiences of a 21st Century education. After presenting the results in students’ own words, the article explores three key findings including that the students are growing more independent as learners but remain community oriented, that they are willing to engage in productive struggle, and that they continue to see learning as relational, partly because they perceive it will help them adapt to change, challenge and prepare them for future learning. This collectively contributes to the overarching theme for Year 7 in 2023 of seeking and developing nurturing learning relationships.

I n t r od u c t i on The fifth year of the Barker Journey study marked a significant milestone: entry to secondary school. For the Barker Journey cohort, this meant two things. Firstly, a transition from Year 6 to Year 7. The students experienced, as was the case with those that joined them from other schools, a change in the learning, teaching, and schooling environment. No longer were students anchored in one classroom for the duration of the school day or had only one or two teachers from start to finish. Now, the Barker Journey cohort, and their peers, found themselves in a world where classrooms and teachers changed every 55 minutes, the campus was much larger, learning opportunities broadened, and the people were far Both authors contributed to the article’s conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Timothy Scott and Matthew Hill. The authors would like to thank Susan Layton, acknowledging her role in preparing and collating data that has informed this article. The first draft of this manuscript was written by Timothy Scott and both authors commented on the preceding versions of the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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greater in number. The second impact of this change from primary to secondary was an increase in the number of students in the year group. This meant a change in its social dynamics. Throughout face-to-face interviews, and in responses to a whole year group survey, references to meeting new people and making new friends were high on the list of positives experienced in 2023. Changes to the way in which social groups interacted were also regularly mentioned. The perspectives on learning the Barker Journey cohort bring to the present study is informed by such changes. The themes of belonging and identity are also present. However, as the study continued throughout the year, a deeper narrative became more visible and that narrative was about learning relationships that nurture.

The first four years of the Barker Journey study, as the study followed the students through Years 3-6 of the Barker College Junior School, are well documented through annual reviews (Eastman and Hill, 2019, 2020; Scott and Hill, 2021, 2022) and summarised in a comprehensive report (Hill and Scott, 2022). The purpose of this paper is to focus on the students now in Year 7 and the perspective the students of this year group bring to learning.

It approaches this task by outlining the methodology that underpinned this year’s study before presenting a summary of this year’s results in the words of the Year 7 students. Their perspective on learning, teaching and schooling is at the heart of this ongoing longitudinal study, making that particular section of the paper and important one from which the key findings are drawn and discussed. There were three key findings from this year’s study: 1.

Students are more independent as learners but remain community minded.

2. Students are (willingly) engaged in productive struggle.

3. Students continue to see learning as social, particularly because in perceiving it that way helps them to adapt to change and prepare for future learning.

M et h od ol ogy …young people have unique perspectives on learning, teaching and schooling; that their insights warrant not only the attention but also the responses of adults; and that they should be afforded opportunities to actively shape their education.

Cook-Sather (2006), p.360.

Listening to student voice is at the heart of this project’s methodology. This aligns with an increasing emphasis on amplifying student voice in recent years. Cook-Sather’s introductory comment to this section provides an insight into why this trend exists. The relationship between the educator and educated is a partnership where each party has something to offer, and it makes sense for the learning and teaching process to recognise this. The present research project, then, seeks to make sense of the student narrative, with a particular focus this year on the experience of commencing secondary school. It endorses students as holding relevant and unique insights into the learning and teaching that they experience, which, as Cook-Sather (2006, pp. 359–360) provides opportunity for them to be informing how learning and teaching take place.

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P r i n c i p l e s o f G r o u n d ed Th e o r y The 2023 study continued to apply the principles of grounded theory to collected data. The primary objective of this year’s study remained addressing the question of how the current generation of students perceives learning and their expectations for their school experience.

Grounded theory, a method introduced by Glaser and Strauss in 1967, emphasises the emergence of hypotheses from collected data rather than imposing predefined hypotheses before data collection. This approach is particularly well-suited for the ongoing Barker Journey study, the focus of which is a cohort of students, whose defining traits and characteristics are only beginning to emerge (McCrindle, Fell and Buckerfield, 2021). By commencing with the students' perspectives on teaching, learning and schooling, we ensure that their voices are not only heard but also comprehended (cf. Cook-Sather, 2006). This approach allows the development of theories and practices for the advancement of education in a manner that authentically meets the needs of this cohort of students, without starting with preconceived notions, concepts, or theoretical frameworks and trying to fit the students' insights into them.

G ath e ri ng i nfo rmati o n i n 20 23 Data collection followed the same format as previous years. The same group of 30 students from preceding years participated in semi-structured interviews as available. Consistent with previous milestone years, the first year of secondary school presented an opportunity to also survey all Year 7 students to learn about the broader context in which the Barker Journey cohort finds themselves. It should be noted that the composition of the year group changed as Year 7 is a significant enrolment intake point in the school; the year group doubled in size. Points of comparison with primary school experiences, therefore, need to be understood in this context. Where anonymous survey responses are cited that refer, for example, to the difference in technology use, this needs to be understood in the broader setting of a year group whose constituents are drawn from multiple schools other than Barker College Junior School. In 2023, interviews were conducted after all of Year 7 were surveyed. In all, 29 students were interviewed. 317 students completed the survey (94% of Year 7), which had been distributed electronically via Teams and responded to online during class time. In the survey, students were asked to score their overall impressions of Barker on a 1-5 scale. Questions relating to words that would best describe the ideal Barker student and words that would best describe Barker were asked alongside questions about which of the school’s values were seen most in action during Year 7. Students were also asked how learning was different in Year 7 compared to that which they experienced when in primary school. Students were also asked what they will value most from their time while attending Barker Middle School (Years 7-9).

Semi-structured interviews consisted of seven questions pertaining to the students’ Barker Journey so far in 2023. The interviews were conducted face-to-face. Questions related to highlights and challenges of 2023, and the extent to which students regarded 2023 as different from 2022. Students were asked to reflect on how they had overcome challenges they identified. They were also asked to explain more fully why they chose the words they had identified in the survey to describe Barker as a school and the words they had selected to describe the ideal Barker student. Interviews also explored the expectations students had for their time at Barker Middle School (Year 7-9).

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T h e 2 0 2 3 Y e a r 7 B a r k e r J o u r n e y : p r e s e n t i n g t h e r e s ul t s i n t h e i r o w n w o r d s Across the globe children from the age of ten to fourteen encounter the move from primary to secondary school. The school transition is the first of many steps towards adulthood and can be a difficult period for children to adjust to, especially when children are more familiar with the primary school environment which can often provide a more nurturing and collective environment than the secondary school. With puberty occurring at the same time as the school transition, developmental changes can further complicate relationships with families and teachers/schools. Social aspects of the transition can become significantly more important for children while families and teachers are predominately focused upon academic attainment, resulting in conflicting agendas.

Harris and Nowland (2021), p.57.

Change features at the centre of this year’s study. It is a familiar theme for students’ narratives at this point in their schooling journey. Harris and Nowland’s comment from their article on the impact of transitions from primary to secondary schooling highlights several reasons as to why this is the case. In this year’s study, the Barker Journey cohort referred to the differences between primary and secondary school, the changes in relationships with friends, family members and teachers, as well as the ongoing importance of belonging for the start of secondary schooling to be considered a success (cf. Hanewald, 2013; Korpershoek et al., 2020). The importance of a sense of belonging as students move from primary school to secondary school, and the impact this can have on students’ academic attainment and social development is echoed in many studies (cf. Roeser, Midgley and Urdan, 1996; Anderman and Anderman, 1999; Archambault et al., 2009; Neel and Fuligni, 2013). The Barker Journey cohort provided further insights into what some of these studies discussed.

B e i n g a s t ud e n t i n 2 0 2 3 The significance of change experienced by the Barker Journey cohort positioned the theme of being a student in 2023 at the centre of their stories. Words such as ‘caring’, ‘friendly’ and ‘supportive’ appeared in students’ descriptions indicating the importance of a schooling environment being safe and nurturing. Having to adapt to change perhaps accounts for why these terms appeared regularly in responses to do with describing the ideal Barker student in three words (Figure 1). If they see the ideal Barker student as ‘caring’, ‘friendly’ and ‘supportive’ this means view the students as key contributors to the dynamics of the school environment.

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Figure 1: Visual representation of student responses to describing the ideal Barker student in three words.

Students that were interviewed were asked to explain which of the three words they chose to describe the ideal student was the most important to them and why that word was chosen. One student described Barker as a caring place. The rationale behind such a description was: They [other students] care... when I get stressed out they make sure that I'm ok.

Everyone's always looking out for everyone.... more than just the teachers... my friends check on me…

It's just like always looking out for everyone and it's caring.

Student 1G Another student commented on how the school had demonstrated a sense of community by helping students navigate the transition from primary to secondary school, in this case referring particularly to the teachers.

I think it was more the support I had with other people because it wasn't anything that I really did for myself, but it was people around me like teachers and especially telling me that it was going to be OK in the end, and that I just have to keep being kind to others and keep being myself, because then it will come around… …And I think they, the teachers and the whole school in general, … they when you have a problem or something that you're sad [they’re] very understanding and they like take you in and talk about it and make you feel that they can help you fix the problem.

Student 4G

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K in d n e ss a n d c o m p a ssio n c o n t in u e t o b e p a r a m o u n t The consensus among Barker Journey cohort remains the same as in previous years: Kindness and compassion are the most important traits for an ideal student (see: Hill and Scott, 2022, pp. 14–15) . The students emphasised the importance of being friendly, caring, and compassionate towards others.

Helpful and hard working are very important but kind is probably … that's the best thing … like even though it's important to people around us. Being kind is like the most rewarding.

Student 3G Being kind is seen as the foundation for other positive qualities and behaviors, such as helping, inclusivity, and being a good friend.

I think because it's important to, no matter like how you feel about someone or what you're going through, you have to make sure you have an open mind to other people and make sure that your mood and how you're feeling doesn't affect them cos that could also make them sad and you want to support them. And by meaning like inclusive and caring, you help them and they could be going through stuff too. And instead of taking it out on there and everyone being sad by the end of it, help someone at the end of the day and helping someone, I feel like that was that makes you happy.

Student 4G This student went further and said that showing kindness makes you feel good and makes the other person feel good. Awareness of the effect of one’s actions or mindset is observable elsewhere. One student stated that “if you are kind you are naturally helpful to others” (Student 8B). Kindness is a fundamental trait that connects to positive behaviour.

R e sp e c t a n d p o sit iv it y m a t t e r Respectful behaviour and a positive attitude are highly valued by the Barker Journey cohort.

One student saw respect as a binding concept: …it sort of encompasses kindness as well. When you’re like respecting others like that wouldn’t mean like being mean to them… And you also need to be respect to like teachers and like authority figures. I feel that is really important to do in life.

Student 9G Respect for teachers, peers, and authority figures is seen as essential. One student saw being respectful was important because if respect was not shown then respect will not be received (Student 3B). Positivity was mentioned as a key trait that students believe contributes to a healthy and productive school environment. Being positive, respectful, kind and friendly were often interconnected in student responses.

I think to me although being smart and respectful is really important, I think kindness is really important. I think kindness is like the most important thing because we see people and live with people each day. So, being kind is also sort of like respectful. We need to be kind to others, and they need to be kind for us.

Student 12G

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A c a d e m ic e x c e l le n c e is a c kn o w l e d g e d a s a n im p o r t a n t p a r t o f b e in g a st u d e n t Many students expressed a desire to grow academically, particularly in subjects like Mathematics and Science. Student 16B shared a keenness to learn as much as possible about subjects offered in Year 7. Students also mentioned a curiosity about new subjects and electives, indicating a willingness to explore and learn. The students placed an importance on their academic growth during these years. For example I will value teaching and learning. Because I want to be able to get the most out of the Middle School and not be saying like once I get to year 10 saying, I wish I'd done more.

Student 3B Not only is academic growth and exploration both reflected by this student but so too is an emerging understanding relating to the need to be investing effort and positive, productive struggle towards learning.

While academic excellence and intelligence were acknowledged as important, they were not the only priority for these students. Being smart was seen as valuable, but it was often balanced with qualities like kindness and compassion. The students believe that a wellrounded student should excel academically but also be emotionally and socially intelligent.

Student 15G connected being an academic student with being a kind student, stating that one without the other was not a good combination. Having the two linked ensures that you are able “to sustain yourself in life” (Student 15G). One student stated that it was important to be smart but there was no point in being smart if that intelligence was not going to be put to good use in fighting for causes. (Student 6B). The student went so far as to suggest that more money should be required of each student as part of their donation on charitable mufti days (where students do not need to wear the usual uniform as a fundraising activity).

S o c i a l a n d p e r s o n a l d e v e l op m e n t Several students mentioned the importance of making new friends, getting to know their peers better, and building positive relationships. Additionally, there was an emphasis on personal growth and development, including becoming more independent and learning how to deal with emotions. Students recognised that Middle School is not just about academics but also about growing as individuals. For example: I want to challenge myself and get out of my comfort zone. … I’ve got to do the things that I find difficult more.

Student 6B Another student saw Middle School as… …a great time to be comfortable with your friends in school and have a good wellbeing so that you're more prepared for all the stress in your HSC later on.

Student 15B Student 12G specifically stated that a goal of being in Middle School was to become more independent and be able to look back in Year 10 and see that personal development and growth in independence.

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The importance of friendships and social interactions was clearly seen. Students mentioned Teen Ranch (a residential camp for Year 7 students early in Term 1), praising the structured activities, opportunities to make friends, and the freedom they enjoyed. One student wished the camp was longer (Student 1B). The camp provided a chance for bonding with others from their House group, and activities like the waterslide and giant swing were particularly enjoyable. Student 6B made specific comments about each of these experiences. Another student stated the camp was enjoyable because: “You got to meet new people and make new friends. There was lots of fun things to do” (Student 16G). Music Camp was also mentioned in this context (Student 7B). These camps, in addition to the different classes that students experience each day, in contrast to the frequency of classes experienced in primary school, underscore the importance to the Barker Journey cohort of making new friends and deepening existing friendships. They appreciated the opportunities to meet new people, both within their House and through various activities such as dance, music, and sports. The experience of “being new” to Barker was a highlight of the year but it was cast as a social experience, with one student responding to the question about highlights from the year being… …settling into high school and coming into Year 7, making new friends, meeting new people in general and finding out new subjects.

Student 17G As much as it was a positive for students in 2023, making new friends was a point of concern for some. For example, Student 4G recalled: At the beginning of the year I was especially trying hard to make friends and stuff, to see where I belonged because Year 7 is such a big change and you lose the friends that you had…you just have to adapt to that… I found it really challenging to find where I belong, and I found it hard to be happy. It was just so hard because there’s such a change. But over time teachers and my parents and even my friends, now, they helped me understand that it will happen and you will just have to be patient.

Student 4G In this comment, Student 4G demonstrated exploration of how to overcome such challenges. They further went on to say that it took half a term to a term before these challenges were resolved. The support received from teachers, parents, and friends were critical in this.

Year 7 was also viewed as an opportunity to engage in a gentle ‘social reset’. Students reported seeing their first year of secondary school as an opportunity to form new friendships and to get to know their classmates more deeply. This was observed as a marked difference to what was experienced in primary school (Student survey response 27).

Academic and personal growth was also reported by the Barker Journey cohort as a positive for 2023. They noted improvements in grades, the enjoyment of specific subjects, such as mathematics and science, and the availability of co-curricular activities like robotics, chess, and drama club. One student commented “my grades are probably better than I thought they were going to be” (Student 6G). Additionally, they appreciated the freedom to explore new interests and the feeling of responsibility that comes with secondary school.

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E x p e r ie n c in g c ha n g e s in t he l e a r n in g e n v ir o n m e n t In Year 7, students reported significant changes in their learning experiences compared to what they had in Year 6. The transition to secondary school brought about increased academic rigour, a more serious learning environment, and a higher frequency of assessments. It is within this context that it was observed that students were able to identify more clearly than in previous years approaches or strategies used to cope with challenges associated with adapting to a new learning environment. One student commented that in Year 7 they teach you to grow up” (Student survey response 88). Another commented: This year it is a lot more serious when it comes to learning and there are a lot more assessments than in the junior school.

Student survey response 9 Despite the perceived strictness of teachers, students acknowledge their responsiveness and commitment to facilitating understanding in the classroom.

The teachers are stricter, but they help me learn more. Teachers actually take their time to explain what we are talking about in class, making our lessons really interesting.

Students survey response 107 The academic curriculum was appreciated for its breadth and diversity, with students appreciating the exposure to various subjects and challenging topics. One student commented remarked: "I have learnt a lot of new things this year”. (Student survey response 101).

We look at lots of different topics and we are challenged in different ways.

Student survey response 90 Beyond the classroom, students noted that activities like sports training and organisational skills became more challenging. This linking of in-class and co-curricular opportunities emphasised how learning is perceived by a Year 7 student as holistic in nature. Sports, camps, and robotics featured highly in surveyed and interviewed student comment hinting at the value attached to practical experiences outside the classroom. There was an awareness of the importance of hands-on learning, to balance what happens in the classroom. For example: Personally, I love sport and I love playing basketball and doing all these things outside of school but I also really value academics and so I want to make sure that I am not putting too much pressure on myself and stuff that I can’t do it anymore. I want to make sure I enjoy what I am doing and that I get a mix of things.

Student 4G This suggests that students are looking for a well-rounded educational experience that goes beyond traditional classroom learning.

The method of content delivery was also noticeably different. Technology integration in the classroom was a significant shift. Students emphasised a more advanced and technologycentred learning experience with laptops playing a larger role in their education. One student explained: “Learning has been more advanced and more related to technology for

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me” (Student survey response 32). Another student pointed out: “We use our laptops more often” (Student survey response 287) with another commenting that “We mainly learn on our laptops” (Students survey response 138).

Independence was a recurring theme, with students highlighting their understanding of the expectation to be more self-reliant, even if they had a brother or sister already in secondary school. This was an anticipation the Barker Journey cohort cast for Year 7 when they were in Year 6, as was having to navigate a larger campus (cf. Scott and Hill, 2022). Independence was not limited to being able to get from one venue within the school to another but was extended to academic responsibilities and effective time management. For example: Year 7 has been different to what I experienced last year by having more responsibility of your time and work with needing to be more independent.

Student survey response 108 Demonstrating this independence was something Year 7 students felt resulted in their being treated more maturely and that they were valued more by those around them. This included members of staff who had specific pastoral care responsibilities for students, such as the Heads of House.

Barker has been different to primary because of the heads of house they give me someone to talk to that values my opinion rather than in primary school I would be keeping things to myself when they really bother me.

Student survey response 51 When students were asked about the challenges they felt they had experienced during 2023, they referred regularly to adjusting to an increased workload, more advanced subjects, and the pressure of assessments and tests. For example, Student 7B stated: Last year in like Year 6 and primary we school we didn’t really get many assessments.

So, I guess just preparing and getting used to studying and all that… [The assessments in the Junior School] weren’t as serious.

Student 7B Students indicated that they have learnt to manage their time better, seek help from teachers, and utilise various study techniques to overcome these challenges. Student 9G stated that learning how to prepare earlier for assessments and tests was helpful. Part of that adaptation was being prepared to speak about workloads and the impact they were having. Student 6G commented that managing the change in workload improved after speaking with their parents. Student 7B sought advice from his parents and his older brother and sister.

Finding their way around the campus, adhering to new routines, and adapting to the increased expectations were challenges associated with adapting to a new learning environment. For example, students commented on the sharp increase in instances of homework. …in Junior School all the classes gave you homework on a Monday and by next the Monday you had to finish your homework. But for Year 7, it’s like on Monday,

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Wednesday, like Tuesday we’ve got Science and Thursday we have English. So, you have to be organised and remember that yourself.

Student 12G However, they also mentioned that with time, support from teachers and peers, and a positive attitude, they were able to successfully transition and overcome these initial hurdles.

Student 12G went onto comment how some of the school’s initiatives via its Connect Group pastoral care program have been helpful for developing the skills needed to navigate Year 7’s expectations successfully. Asking friends for help was also an important strategy (Student 14G).

B ei n g at sc ho o l i n 20 23 Valuing Middle School (Years 7-9) Year 7 students were also asked to consider what they would value most from their time at Barker Middle School (Years 7-9). Students were asked to select one of the following four statements: 

Quality teaching and learning I will receive.



Focus on my wellbeing and the provision of a safe learning environment.



Balanced education (a mix of what happens in the classroom and outside of the classroom).



I will have spent at least three years growing into and becoming a part of the Barker community.

Figure 2 What Year 7 2023 will value most from their time in Year 7-9.

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A quarter of the surveyed students shared they would most value the quality teaching and learning that they will receive over the next three years. For example, one student commented, when asked about the difference between school this year and school last year: “The quality of teachers and facilities” (Student survey response 1).

It is very different because my old teachers just used to give me worksheets but the teachers at Barker help.

Student survey response 40 Also: The learning I experienced in Year 7 was a lot different to the learning I experienced in Year 6 and below. My Year 7 lessons are much more hands-on, and I am learning new skills in a variety of different subjects.

Student survey response 44 Students recognised that teachers were specialists in their subject (Student survey response 59).

13% most valued a focus on their wellbeing and the provision of a safe learning environment.

This may be accounted for by a recognition of an increase in the intensity of work in Year 7 compared to that of Year 6. Several students who selected this option identified work being “a lot more full on” (Student survey response 158) or that Year 7 had meant a change in lifestyle (Student survey response 192), indicating a potential concern with how to successfully navigate schooling over the next couple of years.

18% of surveyed students liked the idea that they would be identified as part of the Barker Middle School community. Students who selected this option often referred to how they had settled into life in the Middle School or made good friends when asked what one or more positives had been experienced at Barker in 2023. Interestingly, students from the Barker Junior School and those coming in from other schools were excited by this at the same rate.

Just under half of the surveyed students indicated that they were excited about the balanced education offered by the Middle School. This is something that students noted takes place in the classroom: It is a lot more balanced in subjects and you learn many different things on different days.

Student survey response 94 One student who selected “Balanced Education (a mix of what goes in the classroom and outside the classroom)”, when asked about the differences between this year’s learning experiences and last year’s learning experiences, focused on the broader choices for sport and co-curricular activities (Survey student response 167). This is something regularly referenced in survey results relating to the question about highlights experienced in 2023.

Perhaps what is most interesting from the responses to the question of what they will most value from their time in Middle School (Figure 2) is that there is a diversity and spread

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across the four possible responses. Students have their own view of the purposes of education, and to diminish the focus on any of these areas would detrimentally impact the learning opportunities for this group, and perhaps any group of students. Rather than ensuring that the chosen desires of students are met, it is the combination of quality teaching and learning, a focus on wellbeing and a supportive environment, a balance of in and beyond the classroom, and community and collective identity building that meets their needs. Academics without community and identity, or balance without support make for a poor substitute for a modern educational experience. Ironically, the specific choices reflect the vision of these students valuing relationally nurturing, holistic education.

V a l u e s o n d is p l a y i n 2 0 2 3 Surveyed students were also asked to select which of the school values they have seen in action. There are five school values: compassion, commitment, respect, integrity, and courage. Figure 3 visually represents how the students responded to this question including the most popular answers of ‘Commitment’ and ‘Courage’.

Figure 3: Pie chart reflecting student perception of Barker values in action in Year 7, 2023.

Students were also asked to provide a specific example of a time when someone showed their selected value. Commitment was often related to participation in co-curricular activities, understanding it as being a part of a team: I injured my ankle at training and still came to support my team.

Student survey response 62 One student linked the idea of Commitment to Integrity, reflecting on how a friend had the choice of missing a music rehearsal but chose not to go any “even though she sometimes doesn’t like it very much” (Student survey response 171). Students did link Commitment to the classroom too.

My friends have been committed to finishing their homework not because they want to avoid study hall but because they want to improve.

Student survey response 141

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Student survey response 141 shows how students understand Commitment as related to the completion of a task or activity for the sake of improvement, not in response to a punitive consequence such as a Study Hall being issued to them by a teacher. Some students connected commitment to helping others.

In DT we were doing coding my friend was struggling on the same step as me so we worked together and we both passed the step.

Student survey response 74 On the demonstration of the value of Compassion, one student recalled: One lunchtime I planned to buy lunch at the school canteen, only to realise I had forgotten my ID card and money. When my friends noticed I had no lunch, they all offered me some of their own lunch and one of them even offered to loan me her card so I could buy lunch.

Student survey response 44 Another student stated: People helping each other in times of need, whether subject wise or friendships and including people into their groups.

Student survey response 180 Students also noted when they believed Compassion had been demonstrated by teachers, either to themselves directly or others in their classes. One response commented: One of the students in my class fell asleep, and instead of responding angrily, the teacher showed genuine concern and checked the student was alright.

Student survey response 173 Students identified instances of Courage, visible when they saw “people stepping up to do things that other people wouldn’t do” (Student survey response 111). For example: People, in my classes, are willing to explore and share their beliefs and information in front of the class consistently as we work together to learn.

Student survey response 144 Also: I was going to do the Spelling Bee but then I had stage fright. But my friends encouraged me and then I tried!

Student survey response 239 Integrity was demonstrated in social, academic and co-curricular contexts. For example: Someone was running a race and was coming first, and he saw someone fall over, so he went over to help instead of finishing the race in first place.

Student survey response 182

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Behaviour characterised by integrity was also readily noted by surveyed students. For example: When someone was talking to the teacher and apologizing for talking or disrupting the class.

Student survey response 256 Respect was associated with valuing another person for who that person was and what that person was bringing to the classroom, the co-curricular activity or social setting. Sometimes this was through simply greeting another student or a teacher or thanking another student or a teacher for something that had been done. For example: I saw someone say thank you to their coach and said the really appreciate what they do.

Student survey response 61 Surveyed students who selected Respect as the most practiced value also often interpreted Respect to be that which makes people help each other. Respect is that which makes people noticed, particularly when in need. For example: When I had a task and I didn't know what the teacher meant someone showed me what to do.

Student survey response 253

K ey fi n di n g s Belonging emerged as a key theme in the 2022 study (Scott and Hill, 2022), which was undertaken as the Barker Journey cohort left primary school. It remained central to their thinking about this year’s learning, teaching, and schooling experiences. As these students transitioned from primary to secondary school, they not only navigated academic changes but also experienced shifts in the social and emotional landscape through which they travel.

The 2023 Barker Journey saw repeated references to making new friends and to getting to know classmates on a deeper level. There was discussion of building connections in diverse social environments alongside mixed feelings of uncertainty and excitement in light of navigating these new relationships and social structures. Appropriate responses to the social changes they experience at school, it was noted that the Barker Journey cohort exhibited an emergent understanding and appreciation of how supportive relationships can have an impact on their emotional well-being. This contributes to the development of the Year 7 Barker Journey cohort’s emotional intelligence, which in turn saw growing independence fostered in the context of being a part of a new community.

F i n d i n g 1 : S t u d e n t s a r e m o r e i nd e p e n d e n t a s l e a r n e r s b u t r e m a i n c o m m u n i t y o r i e n t e d The Barker Journey cohort embraced increased independence while simultaneously desiring a sense of belonging to a community. This is in the broader context of their peers expressing a desire to deepen their connections with the Barker community during their Middle School experience (see Figure 2). Autonomy and a sense of community coexist harmoniously in the minds of the Year 7 students, without any discernible conflict or contradiction. They reported

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enjoying a sense of growing independence and responsibility as learners. The Barker Journey cohort, and their peers, spoke favourably about meeting the expectations of learning in secondary school, such as showing the responsibility of completing homework or preparing for assessments in a timely manner. As students become more independent in their learning, they develop the skills to take initiative, set goals, and manage their academic responsibilities. Student 8G stated that one expectation in this regard was how “we have to be like more responsible with how we use time” when it came to getting used to, and preparing for, assessments – something experienced differently in secondary school compared to primary school. Students recognised, however, that even in their pursuit of independence, collaboration, support, and a sense of belonging are to be valued. This helps to account for why changes in friendship groups featured highly in discussions about the positives and negatives of this school year. The Barker Journey cohort demonstrated a developing understanding that it is through community that students learn: You can meet new people, and there's a lot of opportunities. And then you can learn more…a lot of my friends have invited me to, like, different clubs. And you can learn new things Student 14G Students recounted that the successful adaptation to the new learning environment that allowed them to express independence took place through relying on others who made them feel “personally accepted, respected, included and supported … in the school social environment” (Allen et al., 2018, p. 2).

The Barker Journey cohort’s reflections that led to the finding of ‘independent yet community oriented’ echoed the findings from last year’s study (cf. Scott and Hill, 2022) and were consistent with broader educational research on the importance of belonging in school students (for example: Allen and Bowles, 2012; Allen et al., 2018; Korpershoek et al., 2020). In a meta-analysis on individual and social level factors that influence school belonging, Allen et. al. (2018) observed a confirmation in the literature that an orientation towards community contributes positively to the sense of belonging experienced by students. In turn this promotes good academic performance, prosocial behaviours and psychological wellbeing (for example: Lonczak et al., 2002; Demanet and Van Houtte, 2012; Jose, Ryan and Pryor, 2012; Sari, 2012). In their overview of belonging and its importance in schools, for instance, Allen and Bowles (2012) said of the significance of belonging in the context of social adjustments for students: a sense of school belonging significantly predicted academic outcomes, influencing motivation, effort, and low absenteeism. This finding is supported by previous research which has shown that feelings of connectedness to school can lead to more positive attitudes towards learning and, specifically, academic self-efficacy.

Allen and Bowles (2012), p.111.

In being connected to the school, Allen and Bowles (2012) posited students are more likely to be internally motivated, personally invested and positively inclined towards learning. This was observed in face-to-face interviews with the Barker Journey cohort about their experiences to do with successfully navigating the move from primary to middle school:

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Yeah, I think it was more the support I had with other people because it wasn't anything that I really did for myself, but it was people around me like teachers and especially telling me that it was going to be OK in the end, and that I just have to keep being kind to others and keep being myself, because then it will come around.

Student 4G Student 4G’s words serve as an indication that the importance of community extends further than just a learning and teaching context. The words speak to something broader. They offer a compelling testament to the enduring influence of a supportive community, shaping not only academic trajectories but also fostering a culture of kindness, authenticity and care.

The same could be said of Student 8G, who focused on the word ‘caring’ when asked what three words best describe Barker. This was because: all teachers and peers always there to support you. Recently my mum is [away overseas] and teachers and friends have always been there to help and comfort.

Student 8G Here, Student 8G experienced a sense of belonging within a community that offered stability through compassionate support. This community not only provided guidance but also helped navigate the intricate mix of emotions arising from shifts in family dynamics amid broader changes in the learning, teaching, and schooling environment—a typically perceived stabilising influence. Being a part of a community is important for this generation of students for reasons of wellbeing and pastoral care as much as it is for the benefit of academics.

F i n d i n g 2: S t u d e n t s a r e w i l l i n g l y e n g a g e d i n p r o d u c t i v e s t r u g g l e Many educational reform efforts have focused on increasing rigor in curricula and instruction, but if they do not also address resilience in the face of these more challenging standards, then making such improvements may be less effective than hoped. Our research and that of our colleagues show that if students can be redirected to see intellectual ability as something that can be developed over time with effort, good strategies, and help from others, then they are more resilient when they encounter the rigorous learning opportunities presented to them.

Yeager and Dweck (2012), p.306.

Yeager and Dweck’s review of research demonstrating the impact of students’ mindsets on their resilience in the face of academic and social challenges complements Finding 2. They express their findings, and that of their colleagues, to highlight the importance of the role of educators in facilitating the development of intellectual abilities. Yeager and Dweck (2012) discussed how students who believe, or are taught, that intellectual abilities are qualities that can be developed over time “with effort, good strategies, and help from others” (p.306) tend to show higher achievement across challenging contexts, such as school transitions or difficult mathematics classes. The Barker Journey cohort expressed a willingness to develop intellectually as they saw resilience as a desirable outcome. This willingness is consistent with the Barker Journey cohort’s wider context. When the entire year group was surveyed, most respondents (79%) indicated they believed, over the course of their Year 7-9 Middle School journey, they would most value either a balanced education in and beyond the classroom (44%) or the quality teaching and learning they would receive (25%) (see Figure

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2). The combination of the two are seen as important in fostering resilience empowering students with the fortitude to make the most of the learning opportunities presented to them. Yeager and Dweck (2012) sits alongside Finding 2, then, because where Yeager and Dweck apply an academic, scholarly lens to the development of intellectual rigour and the reasons for educators to foster strong habits of mind in students, the Barker Journey cohort expressed in their own words an intrinsic motivation to develop what they saw as a desirable trait to have.

The development of this ‘intellectual fortitude’, a concept coined here in the belief that it conveys both capacity and resilience, appears to stem from how learning, teaching and schooling is being conceptualised by this generation of students. In practical terms, students appear to understand the need to balance the expectations of subjects they study, homework, co-curricular activities, and new experiences because all these elements are seen to contribute equally to what meaningful education is seen to be in their eyes. In his book about the purpose of education systems and how young people can be motivated to learn at school and be best inclined to learn throughout their adult lives, Bentley (1999) questioned what made an effective education system. He argued that there were two crucial tests to determine efficacy: how well students could apply what they had learnt in situations beyond the bounds of their formal educational experience, and how well they were prepared to continue to learn and solve problems through the rest of their lives. …education must be both broader and deeper. Broader, because it must include a wider range of learning experience, experience of roles and situations which mirror those we value in society. Deeper, because it must nurture a greater understanding in young people: understanding of themselves, their motivations and goals in life, and of the subjects and disciplines they study.

Bentley (1999), p.1 The Barker Journey cohort reflected this sentiment, understanding the need for a wide range of learning experiences derived from inside and outside of the classroom; they want an education that is far more than something with only an academic focus. This continues on from what was observed in last year’s study where students articulated that, for them, learning takes place in diverse contexts (Scott and Hill, 2022, pp. 56–57). In response to a question about the expectations for learning in Middle School in the coming years, for example, Student 4G expressed hope for a breadth of learning that would take place in the classroom and on the sports field at the same time as being able to learn about other people, how to work with emotions, and generally improve as an individual. When asked about the importance of co-curricular or extra-curricular activities, another student explained: I think it’s important for later in life…[You learn] key skills. Like something you can learn from robotics is teamwork.

Student 8B Such comments are in step with what has been observed more broadly in the Australian context; that actively participating in a range of activities in and outside of the class has a positive impact on a student’s personal development (Blomfield and Barber, 2010, pp. 114– 115; also see: Holland and Andre, 1987; Cooper et al., 1999; Eccles and Barber, 1999; Videon,

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2002; Eccles et al., 2003; Darling, Caldwell and Smith, 2005; Fredricks and Eccles, 2008).

Furthermore, the students themselves know and identify this readily. In the case of Student 8B, because Robotics entailed working in teams on complex problems that sought to resolve questions to do with things like coding, mechanics and build structures, Robotics was seen as just as valuable as more traditional subjects such as Geography, Mathematics or PDHPE. Throughout the face-to-face interviews a consistent theme emerged: an openness and enthusiasm on the part of the Barker Journey cohort to harmonise the learning opportunities of the classroom with those experienced outside the classroom. Students acknowledged that each would take effort, and integrating the two as a holistic learning experience would take deliberate investment, but that having both working together was preferred because it meant a more personalised, meaningful learning experience. Student 3B was motivated by seeking to avoid reaching Year 10 with regrets about not making the most of time in the Middle School. Student 8G referenced balancing commitments to music and sport alongside doing well academically. Some students put forward an approach that focused on mental health and wellbeing, identifying these as priorities that when addressed would positively contribute to better learning in the future. Their comments echo secondary literature elsewhere on student perspectives on the importance of mental health and wellbeing (for example: Backman et al., 2012). This observed desire to develop resilience and a growth mindset suggests the interviewed students are willing to engage with challenges and difficulties integral to their educational journey because these are beneficial for intellectual and skill development. In short, this is productive struggle. Now, the concept of productive struggle is often discussed in the context of mathematics education (Warshauer, 2015a, 2015b; Lynch, Hunt and Lewis, 2018; Afitu and Bini, 2021). In his paper on the place of grit, persistence and perseverance for learning mathematics with understanding, for example, DiNapoli (2023) conceives productive struggle as a process that supports the development of conceptual understandings.

In the context of working on a challenging mathematical task, when learners enact a productive disposition, they are aware of obstacles that they encounter when solving problems, develop ideas about their options for navigating these obstacles, and also exercise a willingness or desire to keep trying despite inevitable setbacks.

DiNapoli (2023), p.2 What DiNapoli has outlined here describes what can be readily and best applied to students seeking to make use of all the available learning opportunities afforded to them. Adopting a productive disposition, which the Barker Journey cohort appears willing to do, situates them to think reflexively about self-management and organisation, about balancing expectations to do with workloads or new approaches to assessment and testing, and learning how to navigate changes to their social contexts. The students see it as encouraging the necessary resilience and perseverance to get what they want out of the learning, teaching, and schooling they experience. They also viewed productive struggle as a collaborative activity, as something that they did not have to do on their own.

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F i n d i n g 3 : S t u d e n t s c o n t i n u e t o s e e l e a r n i n g a s r el a t i o n a l , p a r t i c u l a r l y b e c a u s e p e r c e i v i n g i t th a t w a y h e l p s t h e m t o a d a p t t o c h a n g e a n d p r e pa r e f o r f u t u r e l e a r n i n g A recurring finding in the Barker Journey project has been the extent to which learning is regarded as relational by the Barker Journey cohort and their peers (cf. Scott and Hill, 2021, 2022; Hill and Scott, 2022). For this generation of students, everything is viewed through a lens of interaction; being a part of a community of learning is vital, so much so that almost a fifth of surveyed Year 7 students most value the simple fact that they get to grow into a Barker community over the next three years (Figure 2). There is an academic context for this finding. Some of the literature that provides this academic context has looked at peer relationships alongside the importance of positive student-teacher relationships (Ryan and Patrick, 2001; Bernstein-Yamashiro and Noam, 2013; Ryan and Shin, 2018). Other recent contributions focus on the role of school context on student motivation and cognition, drawing on classroom-based examples and observations regarding student interpersonal relationships (for example: Witmer, 2005; Wentzel and Ramani, 2016; Jones, 2022). The impact of student relationships with each other on student academic performance and development of cognitive skills has also been an avenue of research (Wentzel and Caldwell, 1997; Ryan, 2001; Wentzel, Barry and Caldwell, 2004; Kutnick and Kington, 2005; Wentzel, Jablansky and Scalise, 2018; Wanders et al., 2020). Some research has also looked at the influence of negative peer experiences on schooling (Reavis, Donohue and Upchurch, 2015).

This year’s interviews saw a greater focus emerge in students’ responses on why they conceptualised learning, teaching, and schooling experiences through personal relationships. From their point of view, social interactions helped them feel better prepared for change and better prepared for future learning. The frequent recurrence of the terms “friends” or “friend” – totaling 26 instances across 27 interviews – highlighted the ongoing, central position of friendships in students’ narratives about their educational journey (cf.

Bernstein-Yamashiro and Noam, 2013). Notably, students associated friends with crucial emotional support, emphasising the role of these relationships in providing comfort and assistance during challenging moments. For instance, one student articulated: “They care... when I get stressed out they make sure that I'm ok. Everyone's always looking out for everyone.... more than just the teachers... my friends check on me.” (Student 1G). The multifaceted nature of friendships was evident as students navigated the complexities of secondary school life, with the formation of new connections and the expansion of friend groups considered essential components of their educational journeys. According to one student, the first Year 7 residential camp was pivotal: “[Teen Ranch] really helped me bond with my house. We had to do certain challenges and spend time together” (Student 3G).

Moreover, the impact of friends extended into academic spheres, with students expressing that supportive peer relationships positively influenced the quality of teaching and learning.

The concept of friends was interwoven with their academic experiences, such as collaborative studying and mutual encouragement to navigate the challenges of assessments. The value placed on kindness and positive interpersonal dynamics emerged as crucial aspects of the friendships they formed, contributing not only to emotional wellbeing but also to the overall sense of community within the school. The coming together of academic and socio-emotional facets of schooling, conveyed to us by the students through their use of relational or interpersonal terms, is important in establishing a

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conducive environment that helps students contend with change and future learning (cf.

Bernstein-Yamashiro and Noam, 2013; Allen et al., 2018).

There is a further reason for Finding 3, learning is relational, to be a positive one. Literature with a focus on the future of learning and the future of work directs attention to collaboration and communication as key competencies that students should possess (for example: Bentley, 1999; Trilling and Fadel, 2009; Trilling, Fadel and Bialik, 2015; OECD, 2018; Thornhill-Miller et al., 2023). That the Barker Journey cohort, and their peers, have a clear preference for the intertwining of formal and informal collaboration and social interaction throughout all learning experiences might perhaps be considered as setting important groundwork for the world into which they will enter when they complete their schooling in 2028. In a call for broader educational goals that enable learner agency, and an accompanying broad set of knowledge, skills attitudes and values in action, OECD (2018) identified collaboration as one of several key competencies for students to have. This is because, according to OECD (2018), the ability to think creatively and innovatively to create new knowledge comes from working with others. In his reflection on the OECD’s Education 2030 initiative, Bentley (2019, p. 29) goes further and points to there being mounting evidence to show that the ability to engage is crucial to surviving and thriving in contemporary societies. That students show a predisposition for social interactions in their learning situates their educational experiences with the evolving demands of the postschool world. In an era marked by technological advancements, the development of interpersonal skills and creative competencies emerges as crucial for professional success and adaptability. …although computers are making inroads to domains previously confined to human workers, they are unlikely to replace jobs that require complex social interactions, such as persuasion and negotiation, as well as creative work involving the creation of new ideas and knowledge of human heuristics. Thus, in order to adapt to recent trends in technology workers will have to acquire creative and social skills.

Berger and Frey (2017), p.6.

C o n c l u s i o n : N u rt u r in g l e a r n ing r e l a t i o n s hi p s Nurturing learning relationships are a priority for students. This has emerged as the central thread to this year’s study. At the outset, the expectation was for a continued focus on identity and belonging, the key themes from the 2022 study. These would be framed by the changes experienced by the Barker Journey cohort, and their peers, as they commenced secondary school. Change is certainly present as a particular feature in this year’s narrative.

Students reflected on a year where there were plenty of new beginnings; it felt that school was something once again quite new. The learning and teaching environment was different and challenging, with movement and change a regular feature of the school day whereas in previous years that was not the case. Learning opportunities within and outside of the classroom diversified significantly contributing to a different set of expectations to which students were expected to work. Being a part of a much larger student body amplified the effect of an increase in the size of their own year group.

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However, as the study drew on it became evident there was more to consider. The deeper narrative from the stories we listened to emerged. The 2023 study showed that the Barker Journey students, and their peers, expect relationships that nurture from their schooling environments and experiences. Students see these nurturing learning relationships in the connections they have with each other as much as in the connections they have with their teachers. In face-to-face interviews, as well as throughout the year-group survey, repeated references to friends and social connections were made. When asked about school values in action, for instance, students always set examples in the context of social interaction. This was either as someone who experienced those values in action directly or was a third-party observer to them being actioned. Students commented on the role of adults in secondary school: one student’s Head of House was considered someone with whom the student could talk, another student commented on the way in which teachers listened. The relationship with peers was just as important as the relationship with teachers (cf. BernsteinYamashiro and Noam, 2013). …Quality of learning and depth of understanding seem to depend at least as much on the connections that people can make between what they know and how it might be applied as they do on their capacity to acquire and retain the knowledge in the first place.

Bentley (1999), p.156 For the Barker Journey cohort, relationships were seen by the students as important as the concepts and content that were being taught in the classroom. Social is as equally as important as academic, and to the students they are truly intertwined. The most striking observation made of this emerging narrative, then, was students sought relationships that were supportive, encouraging, and ultimately helpful in making sense of the world around them. It is through these relationships that students experience a deep sense of growth.

A nurturing learning relationship goes beyond the classroom. Its reality is complex; learning no longer takes place just inside a student’s head. It exists in their social networks, in the interchanges between teachers and peers. But for students to establish such networks and sustain the relationships within them is a challenging task. At this point in the Barker Journey, students expressed a readiness or openness for those connections but what was observed was that they, understandably, lacked the experience, capacities or tools to make use of them as fully as they might (cf. Bentley, 1999, p. 160). For instance, when students were asked how they worked through a particular issue or resolved a problem, their responses tended to be more generic than specific. Answers came down to “I talked with my friends” or “I just did better”. These sorts of responses will change over time; maturity and personal development will empower the Barker Journey cohort to express more articulately strategies that can enact and support resilience. For the Barker Journey group of students, and their peers, learning, teaching, and schooling entails working in an environment in which they can identify and strengthen these connections, where they can learn the application of knowledge as well as its accumulation, and progressively take responsibility for applying it in appropriate ways.

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Eccles, J.S. and Barber, B.L. (1999) ‘Student council, volunteering, basketball, or marching band: What kind of extracurricular involvement matters?’, Journal of Adolescent Research, 14, pp. 10–43.

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Research and Reflections on Practice

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Characteristics of Effective Character Education

Peter Gibson Dean of Character Education

Abs t r act All schools, regardless of sector, would consider the development of student character as an important part of education. They make provision of an array of opportunities and programs that are usually well intentioned, resourced, researched and implemented which contribute to the development of student character.

Character education takes this further, intentionally and explicitly aligning and sequencing all aspects of a school that are ultimately dedicated to the character formation of each student. The task of fully adopting an effective character education approach is a far-reaching undertaking throughout a school community and includes: 1.

an intentional & explicit focus to developing character virtues in all programs and opportunities

2.

contextualisation of a school’s approach to character education where the school’s mission and vision are lived out

3.

meaningful holistic opportunities

4.

family and wider community connection and involvement

There are also a variety of pedagogical strategies effective for character education which can be implemented through the academic, sport and cocurricular programs of a school. This article brings together themes from a collection of studies that have identified significant aspects of effective character education programs.

I n t r od u c t i on: Un d e r st a n d i n g C h a r a c t e r Character growth occurs through a continued focus of the development of virtue over a long period of time that forms good habits evident in our actions (Peitsch, 2018). Likewise, character education is the focus of character growth which occurs over a student’s schooling that enables them to flourish as human beings in their life. It involves a journey of becoming where students learn to make wise moral decisions, think critically, live in harmony with others and be successful in challenges of life. Through such development

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students become members of society who contribute to the common good and provide opportunities for others to also live well.

Character education is more than a general holistic student involvement, a teacher’s guidance from experience, and more than single unit of work or subject. Character Education spans the entire school environment influencing school culture, processes and language. I have defined Character Education as “the planned, comprehensive and systematic approach of all educational activities that develops positive personal virtues (moral, civic, performance, intellectual). It aims to intentionally, explicitly and implicitly develop students with the capacity and capability to flourish in their life and make a worthwhile contribution to a changing world” (After: Edmonson et al., 2009; The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtue, 2020). What follows is what research highlights as being significant components of effective character education approaches.

V i t a l C o n s i d er a t i o n f o r t h e d el i v e r y o f C h a r a c t e r E d u c a t i o n There are many components used in character education programs across the world in different schools. However, the preponderance of research points to 4 key aspects of which schools should consider in assessing the effectiveness of their character education delivery. These include the following.

An i n t e n t i o n a l & e x p l i c i t f o c us o n c h a r a c t e r a n d v i r t u e Effective character education approaches are intentional and explicit in focus (Berkowitz & Bier, 2005). It involves specific planning of curriculum which focuses on the development of knowledge and understanding of the meaning of the virtue and why it is important.

Different strategies and interventions can be used to target the components of virtue (e.g. specific virtues) and develop virtue literacy of students. The aim of such strategies is to allow for the reasoned judgement about application and the subsequent reflection for the process and outcome. In doing so, this allows for autonomous decision-making through the empowerment of one’s ethical and moral position (The Jubilee Centre for Character & Virtues, 2022).

A shared language, relating to character and virtues, across the school is considered advantageous in character education programs. This provides a lens through which students, staff and parents communicate and understand. Such a language permeates through all aspects of school life, including interactions with students, staff and parents; assemblies, the academic curriculum, pastoral care and cocurricular activities (Arthur, Fullard & O’Leary, 2022; The Jubilee Centre for Character & Virtue, 2022).

Character education is only effective when in the context of a school community living o u t i t s m i s si o n a n d v i si o n There is no generic ‘blueprint’ for character education, a school’s approach must be in context with its community. A school should investigate what character means to them, and how it connects with the foundational aspects of the school and its community. It should be influenced by the needs of the students and the forecasted needs of the future.

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These aspects should be reflected in a school’s motto and values. (Watts, Fullard and Peterson, 2021; UK Department of Education, 2017).

A common theme in the study of 71 British schools found that when all members of the school community to live out their set of agreed priority virtues and the mission of the school, best outcomes in character growth occur (Arthur, Fullard & O’Leary, 2022). This must be led by a school’s leaders and seen in their personal interactions, the administration of their responsibilities as well as in their attendance and participation in public and school events (Arthur, Fullard & O’Leary, 2022; Berkowitz, 2011; Lickona, Schaps & Lewis, 2003).

The Greek philosopher Aristotle noted, “all adults involved with children either help or thwart children’s growth and development, whether we like it, intend it or not.” (Berkowitz & Bier, 2005. p1). This unavoidable fact is something for teachers to be acutely aware of as they intentionally or unintentionally shape the character of the children in their care.

Parents are also aware of this and want the teachers who have influence over their children to meaningfully contribute to their children’s personal formation (The Jubilee Centre for Character & Virtue, 2022).

Research overwhelmingly points to impact of role modelling and mentoring. Whilst this is not limited to teachers but extents to older students, community members and historical figures, the mere fact that students spend a significant amount of time under the direction and supervision of their teachers points to teachers being very significant in this regard.

However, the effectiveness of teacher role modelling and mentoring is dependent on the quality of positive relationships with their students (see: The Jubilee Centre for Character & Virtue, 2022; Ryan & Lickona, 1992; Berkowitz & Bier, 2005; Berkowitz, 2011; Arthur, Fullard & O’Leary, 2022; Benninga, Berkowitz, Kuehn, & Smith, 2003; Lamb at al., 2021).

The 2005 report on the Character Education Partnership (CEP) that evaluated a range of character education programs in the USA found that the professional development of teachers is of high importance in a successful character education program (Berkowitz & Bier, 2005). The reason for this is because teachers have the responsibility for implementation of character education within schools. Teachers must have a clear picture of human potential, recognise good learning, identify the deep process of growing and maturing and provide students with the opportunities to become complete human beings.

Teachers must continually ask themselves, ‘how am I positively impacting the character growth of my students?’ (Pietsch, 2018). Furthermore, in the British study mentioned previously it also found that character education training of all school staff, not just teaching staff was advantageous to the character growth of students (Arthur, Fullard & O’Leary, 2022).

C h a r a c t e r e d u c a t i o n m u s t i n v o l v e m e a n i n g f u l h o l i s t i c o p p o r t u ni t i e s f o r g r o w t h The holistic opportunities a school offers should be meaningful and challenging for its students if it is the to positively impact their growth and development (Lamb at al., 2021).

All effective character education programs possess opportunities for students to explore passions and interests and uncover abilities that are yet to be realised. This occurs in sport and cocurricular activities, leadership opportunities, residential trips, outdoor education

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and experiential and real- world opportunities. There should also be time for student reflection to fully benefit from the experience. The aims and objectives should have clear connections and ‘through lines’ with the academic curriculum and wider school offerings if they are to effectively contribute to a student’s character development. (Hilby, 2000; The Jubilee Centre for Character & Virtues, 2022).

Sport and cocurricular opportunities should occur in a supportive, safe and caring environment where students can develop a sense of belonging that is collaborative, supportive and aspirational for students and staff. Such settings develop positive relationships between staff and students which impacts the character development process (Benninga, Berkowitz, Kuehn, & Smith, 2003; The Jubilee Centre for Character & Virtue, 2022; Ryan & Lickona, 1992; UK Department of Education, 2017).

Finally, character development does not occur in isolation but in the company of others.

Extra-curricular activities provide opportunities for students to develop citizenship, friendships and grow as team players. Friendships contribute to the cultivation of virtue as they inculcate particular practises, values and narratives that shape a friends’ understanding of moral character. Without such skills students are not adequately prepared to learn and be challenged by others (Lamb at al., 2021).

C h a r a c t e r e d u c a t i o n i s e f f e c t i v e w h e n f a m i l i e s a nd w i d e r c o m m u n i t y a r e c o n n e c t e d and i nvo l ve d Much has been written about to impact of positive parent participation in the academic growth of students. In fact, the level of parental involvement in a child’s schooling is the single best predictor of student success when at school (Henderson & Berla, 1994).

Similarly, the meaningful participation of student’s parents in a school’s character education program has been acknowledged as being among the greatest influences on a student’s character development (Berkowitz & Bier, 2005). This can occur on a variety of levels, but is most desirable as when the parent body is actively involved in supporting, codesigning, implementing, evaluating character education approaches (Berkowitz & Bier, 2005).

Student involvement within the wider community and service learning programs provides opportunities to discover intrinsic motivation to develop moral values through helping those less fortunate than oneself (Lickona, Schaps & Lewis, 2003). Service learning programs also support the connection of the classroom with the real world and the transition to work (Curren, 2017; Lamb at al., 2021). Whilst service learning aims to develop student moral virtue and matters of the heart, it can also be a trap for what David Brooks (2015) terms ‘resume virtues’. These are the activities of service one may place on their resume to highlight skills learned and the different service experiences they have had.

Universities and employers now like to see these on applications. Whilst this can be a helpful outcome, the most valuable and intended outcomes are that of the deep character development resulting from the opportunities for moral action where kindness, empathy, honesty, courage and faithfulness can be cultivated. These virtues are some of the ingredients that flourishing relationships are made of. Brooks refers to these as ‘eulogy virtues’ (Brooks, 2015).

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P e d agogi c al St r at egi es f or Ch ar ac t e r E d u c at i on Research points to the following pedagogical strategies as being important in a character education approach in academic, pastoral and co-curricular programs.

1.

Peer interactive strategies where students learn in small groups have demonstrated both academic and character benefits. Moral dilemma discussion that is designed to stimulate the development of moral reasoning has been found to be impactful across student ages and contexts (Arthur, Fullard & O’Leary, 2022; Berkowitz & Bier, 2005; Berkowitz, 2011; Lamb at al., 2021)

2. Teaching social and emotional competencies occurs in effective character education programs. This includes social skills and awareness skills such as communication, active listening, relationship and assertiveness skills. Self-management such as selfcontrol, resilience, self-belief, goal setting, relaxation techniques, self-awareness and emotional awareness. Finally, problem solving and decision-making skills are also advised. (Berkowitz & Bier, 2005; Berkowitz, 2011; Lamb at al., 2021) 3. Student empowerment is one of the central tenants of an effective program. A climate that is supportive, nurturing, trusting and one which is encouraging of a willingness to see mistakes as an opportunity for personal growth are advantageous.

Student voice in curriculum design as well as agency in learning also create ideal conditions for character learning. Student led initiatives are particularly impactful as is the celebration of personal growth, the overcoming of challenges and the achievement of goals, etc. (Berkowitz, 2011; Berkowitz & Bier, 2005; The Jubilee Centre for Character & Virtue, 2022).

4. Teaching about character that is intentional, explicit and comprehensive is of value.

This includes direct teaching about character, virtue literacy, the integration of character learning throughout core curriculum, and seizing on the teachable moments within curriculum delivery (Berkowitz, 2011; Berkowitz & Bier, 2005; The Jubilee Centre for Character & Virtue, 2022; Lamb at al., 2021).

5. Growth mindset and strength-based approach to learning where positive and trusting relationships are cultivated with nurturing relationships between staff and students. There must be supportive conditions, multiple attempts at success, progress check ins, feedback and the allowance of play for the task (UK Department of Education, 2017; Berkowitz, 2011).

6. High expectations and rigour in learning features prominently in effective character education. High standards and the willingness to work hard, deal with challenges are important in raising behaviour and academic achievement (Arthur, Fullard & O’Leary, 2022; Berkowitz, 2011; The Jubilee Centre for Character & Virtue, 2022; Lamb at al., 2021).

7.

Reflection on personal experience is central to the development of character.

Reflection on the experience of why and how we acted in a particular circumstance should be regularly undertaken by students (Lamb at al., 2021; The Jubilee Centre for Character & Virtue, 2022).

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Key R ead i n gs There are four key articles that outline how character education can be most effective.

Detailed learning can be undertaken by reading these articles.

1.

The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, (2022). The Jubilee Centre Framework for Character Education in Schools. The University of Birmingham, Birmingham.

2. Berkowitz, M, W. (2011). What works in values education. International Journal of Educational Research, (50), 153-158.

3. Berkowitz, M. W., & Bier, M.C. (2005) What works in Character Education: A research-driven guide for educators. Washington, DC: Character Education Partnership.

4. Lamb, M., Brant, J., & Brook, E. (2021) How is Virtue Cultivated? Seven Strategies for Postgraduate Character Development. Journal of Character Education 17, (1), 2-50.

Con c l u s i on Adopting a character education approach could be seen as an overwhelming task. For schools who are considering this, it is recommended that an audit of their current approach be undertaken. Often what can be found is that schools are doing more in character development than previously realised. With strategic adjustments, intentional focus on identified areas for growth and the sequencing and connection of experiences, the adoption of a character education approach is very achievable within a school’s context.

R ef er en ces Arthur, J., Fullard, M., and O’Leary, C. (2022) Teaching Character Education: What Works Research Report, Birmingham: University of Birmingham, Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues.

Benninga, J.S., Berkowitz, M.W., Kuehn, P. & Smith, K. (2003). The relationship of character education implementation and academic achievement in elementary schools. Journal of Research in Character Education, 1 (1), 19-32.

Berkowitz, M, W. (2011). What works in values education. International Journal of Educational Research, (50), 153-158.

Berkowitz, M. W., & Bier, M.C. (2005) What works in Character Education: A research-driven guide for educators. Washington, DC: Character Education Partnership.

Brooks, D. (2015) The Road to Character. Penguin Random House UK. Curren, R. (2017). Why character education. Impact: Philosophical Perspectives of Education Policy No 24, Wiley Blackwell.

Edmonson, S. Tatman, S. R., Slate, J. R. (2009) Character Education: A Critical Analysis. Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation, Volume 4, Number 1.

Henderson, A. T., & Berla, N. (1994). A new generation of evidence: The family is critical to student achievement. St. Louis, MO: Danforth Foundation and Flint, MI: Mott Foundation.

Hilby, S. (2000). Kurt Hahn and the Aims of Education. Thomas James Illustration Copyright.

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Lamb, M., Brant, J., & Brook, E. (2021) How is Virtue Cultivated? Seven Strategies for Postgraduate Character Development. Journal of Character Education 17, (1), 2-50.

Lickona, T., Schaps, E., & Lewis, C. (2003). CEP’s eleven principles of effective character education.

Washington, DC: Character Education Partnership.

Pietsch, J. (2018). Character Reborn: A philosophy of Christian Education. Acorn Press, Sydney.

The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, (2022). The Jubilee Centre Framework for Character Education in Schools. The University of Birmingham, Birmingham.

UK Department of Education (2017). Developing Character Skills in Schools, Department for Education, http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/developing-character-skills-in-schools Watts, P., Fullard, M., & Peterson, A. (2021). Understanding Character Education: Approaches, Applications and Issues. Open university Press.

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Confidence and support for all Mathematics students in a co-educational context

Amy Young Mathematics Teacher

Abs t r act People of all genders and backgrounds can enjoy and succeed in Mathematics. At Barker, our classrooms are to be positive and supportive places for all learners, equipping students with the personal attributes and skills to enjoy and succeed in Mathematics at every level. Given that the wider research literature indicates differences in confidence and achievement between girls and boys in Australia, the present research has been conducted to understand and work to reduce these differences in the context of Barker’s secondary school. Barker’s context provides a unique opportunity to investigate factors that influence success in co-educational contexts as over the last five years Barker has transitioned from a co-educational school with boys in PreK-9 and boys and girls in Years 10-12, to boys and girls in all grades at the school. In order to best meet the needs of all students, it was vital to give students a voice and learn from their experiences. This was achieved through a secondary school survey in 2022, along with focus groups and interviews in 2023. From this research, and an extensive literature review, group work was identified as one possible mechanism to build self-efficacy and an intervention was designed and conducted. Results indicate that students benefitted from all parts of the research.

This article will first review the literature on achievement and beliefs about Mathematics and how this relates to gender, then explore possible mechanisms that maintain differences. Next, further details of results from the 2022 survey that set this work in motion will be given including globally strong results, results about group work (most notably that both boys and girls tend to prefer working with a friend), and student views of success/failure among one notable subgroup. Then the 2023 interventions and further research areas will be discussed in turn. Lastly, future directions for this research will be given.

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I n t r o d u c t i o n a n d L i t e r a t u r e r ev i e w Student performance and beliefs about Mathematics have been extensively studied including gender differences in many different contexts. In countries with top mathematical performance such as China, Singapore and Finland, girls perform as well as boys overall and at the highest levels, while in Malaysia, Thailand and Iceland, girls even outperformed boys (PISA, 2012 as cited in Buckley, 2016). This is not the norm – in most countries, including Australia, boys outperform girls, even more so at the highest levels (OCED 2015). The extant research reveals that in Australia, girls are generally “less engaged with mathematics and more fearful of the subject, less likely to pursue mathematics courses (particularly at higher levels), less likely to choose career pathways that involve mathematics and more likely to be outperformed by their male peers” (Buckley, 2016, p3). This can occur in single-sex or co-educational schools.

In the past, such population trends have been attributed to biological or psychological difference, through fundamental differences in brain structure and function. While biological differences may exist, recent research has shown that there is much overlap in the structure of male and female brains, with the main finding that each brain is unique, not part of a gendered continuum from male to female (Joel et al, 2015 as cited in Buckley, 2016). Previous research reporting inherent gendered brain differences is coming under question. This, combined with research into brain plasticity (ability to change and develop), means that the concept of “intrinsic male aptitude” for Mathematics is no longer supported by research.

Rather, the role of motivational and social factors is considered significant and has become a focus of study. In Australia, as early as 1985 the ACT Schools Authority called a myth the belief that girls have a lesser ability to think abstractly or symbolically (ACT Schools Authority, 1985, as cited in Buckley, 2015). The current differences seen in achievement do not equate to differences in capacity to learn, nor is inherent gender difference in ability considered a valid reason to support single sex education. Instead, supporting all students to learn with their unique makeup is becoming the focus of education.

From the literature, the reasons for the existing gender based differences in achievement are multifaceted. Factors that have been shown to relate to achievement include an individual’s mathematical self-efficacy (belief in capability to solve problems), self-concept (belief that you are good at Mathematics), anxiety, enjoyment of Mathematics, the value of Mathematics for your future career, views of mathematical intelligence as fixed or incremental, sense of belonging and attributions of success/failure to luck, effort or skill.

Such beliefs may be influenced by experiences, parents, teachers and peers. For example, one study in the USA found that “female students aged five to seven years old were more likely to underperform in a Mathematics test if their mothers endorsed negative gender stereotypes about mathematics” (Tomasetto, Alparone, & Cadinu, 2011 as cited in Buckley, 2016).

The concern motivating the present research is that negative beliefs in any of the areas above may limit an individual’s growth in mathematical skill, their educational pathways and life choices. The good news is that such beliefs may be malleable with targeted educational and social interventions (Bandura, 1997; Buckley, 2016; Wang et al., 2013 as cited in OCED, 2015; Dweck & Master, 2008, as cited in Todor, 2014; Zakariya, 2022).

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B ar k e r ’ s r es p on s e The current research project at Barker was begun to address such global trends to ensure all Barker students are well supported in studying Mathematics. We especially want to make sure that students (and in light of the literature, especially girls) feel confident and see the importance of studying Mathematics. The first phase of the research began in Term 4, 2022, and involved a large survey of secondary students about their perceptions of Mathematics learning at Barker. Based on this and further literature review we identified interventions and further research areas for 2023.

2022 T er m 4 : Th e s u r vey M e th o d F o r the Su rve y

S u r v e y D e sig n The goal of the survey in 2022 was to explore Barker students’ experiences and beliefs, with the hypothesis that our students would show similar trends to those found in research regarding self-concept and other beliefs. The second goal was to plan future interventions that the Mathematics faculty could implement, develop and refine, along with directions for ongoing research into our students’ experiences. A final aim is to share the research findings with students, staff, parents and the wider community to promote growth in mathematical self-concept among our students.

The 2022 survey was conducted among all students in the secondary school and completed by 1452 out of a possible 1694 (86%) secondary students, during week 4 of Term 4 of 2022.

The 50 survey items were based on the ‘Attitudes to Mathematics’ survey developed by Forgasz and Leder (2020) to explore gender and Mathematics in Victorian schools.

Survey items included questions about stude nt pe rc e ptions of: •

Confidence and feeling nervous

•

The value of Mathematics, including for their future

•

Aspiration for senior Mathematics courses

•

Beliefs around success/failure

•

Teacher’s views, feelings, and strategies used

•

Desire for group/independent work/competitions

•

Social referencing: views of significant others, gendered views of Mathematics

•

Enjoyment, fast pace, competitions and views of intelligence

•

Some information about specific Mathematics practices eg checkpoints, mathematical nicknames, competitions

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Data from other comparable schools is hard to find, and our purpose was not to compare with other schools but to target continual improvement in our own context.

Participant subgroups It was hypothesised that student perceptions might vary by year group, course stream (by ability level), and gender. Students optionally self-selected Gender with 64% choosing “boy”, 34% “girl”. The small percentage of students who didn’t respond “boy” or “girl” are included in the total proportions but the small size of this subgroup means their comparative results are not separately discussed in this report.

R e s u lt s Results were consistent with the literature. This report will discuss the globally strong positive results, results around group work, and beliefs about success and failure as they result to building self-efficacy.

Globally strongest results The strongest responses to survey items are shown in the table below. This showed that 89% of students do not feel criticized by peers for doing well in Mathematics, and 81% felt it is important to do well in Mathematics. Other positive results are shown in the table.

Response options on the survey were Yes/No/Neutral. The response reported on and considered more “positive” is listed in the Y/N column.

S u r v e y Q u e s t io n

Y/ N

P e r c e n t ag e

If I do well at maths, some people make fun of me

No

89%

I think it's important to do well in maths

Yes

81%

My teacher does enough examples for me to confidently start on the questions

Yes

70%

I know what to do to improve in maths

Yes

69%

I think my maths teacher enjoys teaching me

Yes

50%

I learn better when I can discuss maths with a friend

Yes

62%

I feel comfortable in class to ask questions or to say I don't understand things

Yes

59%

Knowing maths will help me get a job

Yes

59%

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Individual vs Group work Five survey questions asked about individual or group work and both girls and boys agreed in similar proportions. This was in contrast to staff predictions from a focus group conducted before the survey where it was predicted that girls would have a stronger preference for group work. As mentioned, 62% of students agreed with “I learn better when I can discuss maths with a friend”. The graph below shows the variation by gender and year level, with slightly higher proportions of year 9 and 12 girls and year 7 and 10 boys responding positively, with similar proportions of boys and girls in year 8. Year groups in survey results are for 2022, with the exception that “Year 12” is the 2023 cohort.

The survey item “I prefer working with friends on maths questions rather than working on my own” also showed similar proportions of positive responses from girls and boys, with a slightly higher proportions of year 8 boys, and slightly higher proportions of girls for other Year groups.

By stream the higher proportions of respondents in agreement were stream 3 boys and stream 4 and 5 girls (stream 1 is the grouping of those with the highest academic achievement), Proportions were very close for other streams.

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In contrast, a higher proportion of boys than girls agreed with “When doing maths questions, I prefer to work on my own”. 38% of male respondents said “Yes” and about 30% of girls.

This pattern of difference was found at each stream and for every year group, although the results were very close at some points.

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It is important to remember that the response options were “Yes”, “Neutral” and “No”. While males were most likely to give the “Yes” response to individual work, female respondents were most likely to give a “Neutral” response to this question (close to 50%), with equal proportions of boys and girls responding “No” (about 20%). This indicates a stronger preference for individual work among male respondents, as well as agreement that they learn better when they can discuss maths with a friend.

Analysis of the free text responses has provided some further support for group work. The most common responses from students when asked how their teacher could help them learn and enjoy Mathematics were around group work, fun, games and explanation. Group work provides all of these, with explanations coming from peers as well as the teacher.

Beliefs about success/failure Success and failure attributions are important because they can build or reduce self-efficacy, which in turn is linked to future achievement. Those who attribute failure to external factors like luck or their teacher, or to internal factors in their control like effort (working hard), will be more likely to believe they can succeed in the future and so remain motivated to continue to put in effort. On the other hand, those who believe failure is caused by lack of ability have little motivation or belief that they can improve after a failure. Further, success on a task that the student considers easy may not raise their self-efficacy regarding future success. The general trend from the literature is that while both genders report effort as the main reason for success or failure, girls are more likely to attribute failure to lack of ability and success to external factors such as luck, while boys are more likely to attribute success to ability and failure to lack of effort – attributions which support the building of self-efficacy (Yailagh, Lloyd & Walsh, 2009). These attributional patterns for gender were also seen in a study in Hong Kong so may cross cultural boundaries (Mok, Kennedy & Moore, 2011).

Our survey results were generally consistent with the literature. Both genders reported effort as the most likely reason for success or failure. The results were analysed by Ability stream and by Year level and for all except year 8 stream 1, results were consistent with the literature.

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As seen in the graphs below, boys were more likely than girls to report success due to natural ability, while girls were more likely than boys to report that their success is from having a good teacher or easy work. Also girls were more likely than boys to attribute failure to ability “I’m hopeless at it” or to “The work was too hard”.

An interesting result was found in Year 8 stream 1 (highest achievement grouping). In this subgroup higher proportions of girls had high aspirations for senior Mathematics courses than boys. This led to a closer look at success and failure attributions among this group, which found in contrast to general trends, that these girls were more likely than their male counterparts to attribute success to being naturally good at it or working hard. Further, higher proportions of girls than boys in this cohort attributed failure to bad luck, and no students attributing failure to “I’m hopeless at it”.

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The success and failure attributions chosen by higher proportions of female respondents girls in this subgroup are those linked with greater self-efficacy and growth mindset. Further investigation through group interviews along with tracking this cohort through the years may provide more specific insight into how to support the mathematical self-efficacy of all learners. When teachers of these students were asked what may have contributed, they shared that this group had a number of top female mathematicians. This may contribute to the self-efficacy of other girls through vicarious experience of their success, or stronger sense of belonging.

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2023 I n t er ven t i on s In 2023 four main areas of research were conducted which will be discussed in turn. These were: 1)

A pilot implementation of fun, active group work to build self-concept with students in our Year 9 5.3 cohort, with volunteer teachers

2) Focus groups among Year 12 girls to explore reasons for dropping a senior Mathematics level 3) Interview and focus group support among top female achievers in Year 10 and Year 11 4) Discussions with staff (mostly in the Mathematics faculty) to share findings and develop classroom strategies that develop self-efficacy and support all learners.

20 23 G rou p w ork pi l ot i nte rve nti on To determine which changes to implement in the classroom, factors that influence mathematical self-efficacy were considered. Mathematical self-efficacy simply means belief in your ability to plan and execute what is needed to achieve a desired outcome. The reason this is so important is that students will pursue learning where they have high self-efficacy and avoid learning where they have low. It influences the ways students engage, motivate themselves, feel and behave. Self-efficacy is believed to be built by: 1)

Master experiences (where you succeed at solving a problem)

2)

Social persuasion (timely encouragement from parents, teachers and peers, emotional support)

3)

Positive affective experiences (increasing physical and emotional wellbeing and decreasing stressors)

4)

Vicarious experiences (seeing peers succeeding) (Borgonovi and Pokropek, 2019)

Group work was identified as one possible way to build these factors, although not much research has been done to explore this. One study among university biology students “identified five group work experiences that increased students’ self-efficacy: accomplishing the problems, getting help from peers, confirming answers, teaching others, and consulting with a teacher” (Aikens & Kulacki, 2023), and our intervention aimed to include these experiences. In addition to indications from the literature, through the 2022 Barker survey students requested more fun, engaging activities and group work, and “I learn better when I can discuss maths with a friend” was one of the strongest positive responses as discussed above.

Based on all of this, it was decided to trial active, fun group work as a way to support mastery experiences, increase positive social persuasion from peers and the teacher, provide positive affective experiences (fun, movement, practical where possible) and provide vicarious experiences of the success through peers both within and beyond a student’s group, that is, to build self-efficacy. While there are elements of group work in

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every Mathematics classroom at Barker, there was an exciting opportunity to explore the effects of enhancing this with a particular cohort of students. Starting mid term 2, half of our teachers of Year 9 5.3 Advanced volunteered (n=6) and implemented up to eight 30 minute group work lessons over 10 weeks from mid Term 2 to mid Term 3. The remaining 6 year 9 5.3 classes acted as a control group and did not do the explicit additional group work, rather continuing with their own chosen valuable learning activities. Teachers of the group work met each week to discuss positive benefits, difficulties and improvements. A pre and post survey was conducted among students to allow comparison between the experimental and control groups. Teachers also completed a brief survey at the completion of the intervention. Analysis of the pre and post survey results is underway.

Benefits The main benefits mentioned by teachers were increased student engagement, peer to peer assistance, students learning the life skill of how to work as a team, the ability for teacher and peers to see how students are thinking and that the teacher could correct student misconceptions more easily. Initial survey analysis for the experimental group found a shift to more positive responses from students on “I enjoy lessons”, “I prefer working in a group rather than on my own” and “When I am not sure how to solve a problem my peers are encouraging and helpful”.

Difficulties The main problems were around the practicality of implementing group work. For example, students needed to be taught group work skills and this took time (though this was recognised as a valuable pursuit in itself). This problem was compounded by changing class dynamics from week to week due to other school-related commitments at times during the period. Teachers also found that implementing this explicit, extended group work could take extra lesson time and the specific lessons could be difficult to fit within the sequence of a topic.

Improvements A repeat of the program of heightened group work activities will in future be programmed to coincide with a teaching block where almost all students are present for every lesson.

Another helpful change would be to provide all the group work lessons up front, rather than developing them along the way. Then each teacher could plan and implement the group lessons that best fit with their learning sequence. Teachers should also be more carefully supported to set up explicit expectations and help students develop habits around group work.

Ye ar 1 2 g i rl s fo c u s g ro u ps Given that the wider research literature says that Australian girls are “less likely to pursue mathematics courses (particularly at high levels)” (Buckley, 2016, p3), we wanted to gain more insight into the decision making process of our girls in regards to high-level Mathematics courses. Thus, focus groups were conducted with most Year 12 girls who had dropped a level of Mathematics during Year 11 or 12. It was hoped that this would help us to gain a greater understanding of the needs of girls we are seeking to support, and

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subsequently inform our choice of strategies from the multifaceted approaches recommended by the literature for improving self-efficacy to support achievement.

Findings We found that there were a variety of reasons for dropping a Mathematics course. Multiple students responded that the workload became too great, the course pace too fast, they felt they did not have the study skills or other subjects became too demanding of their time.

These were the main reasons given, and we expect boys who dropped higher level Mathematics would likely offer similar reasons. These reasons and others meant that, for these students, an easier course was a more comfortable environment.

I n d i v i d u a l a nd / o r g r o u p s u p p o r t a m o n g t o p f e m a l e a c h i e v e r s i n Y e a r 1 0 a n d Y e a r 1 1 a r o u nd a s p i r a t i o ns i n M a t he m a t i c s In response to the literature, the 2022 Survey and the Year 12 focus groups, we intervened directly with top year 10 and 11 students during Term 3 to address what we anticipated would be specific concerns relating to mathematical self-efficacy.

Year 10 Approximately the highest achieving 20% of students were identified in Term 3 2023. There were 19 girls in this group, close to the proportion of girls in the grade (34%). An individual conversation was held with each student about their career goals, study aspirations and their view of their performance/capability. Many of these students rated themselves as not as competent as their results had shown them to be. One girl thought her rank in the grade was 200, when she was actually 19th. Each student was told that they were in the top of the grade and highly capable, in an effort to build their self-efficacy. Future research will follow this cohort into year 11 and 12 and conduct further interviews.

Year 11 At the end of Term 3 2023 a lunch was held for the top Year 11 Extension 1 female students, senior female educators in Mathematics, and a high achieving Year 12 female. It featured an extended discussion where each person shared what they loved about Mathematics.

Staff also shared with the students some of the potential challenges when studying higher Mathematics courses, including self-perception, along with ideas on how to overcome these.

The Year 12 student also shared some of her experiences around how she overcame challenges and why she stayed in the course. This discussion boosted self-efficacy as was seen in subject choices and interactions in the classroom. One of the senior female educators, who is taking these students in Year 12, is also explicitly applying supportive strategies such as encouragement, feedback, explicit instruction, growth mindset, modelling mistakes and problem solving, deliberate examples and a positive classroom environment.

S h a r i ng fi nd i ng s wi t h t h e M a t he m a t i c s fa c u l t y a nd o t h e r s t a ff Results of the survey and each stage of the research have been shared and discussed in the Mathematics faculty. This has led to individual teachers making changes to classroom strategies to focus on developing self-efficacy and supporting all learners. This process is ongoing and informs further research directions.

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To improve self-efficacy, it is important for teachers to understand their role and the factors that can contribute such as encouragement from teachers and peers, vicarious experience, positive affective experiences and mastery experiences.

Recommendations from faculty meetings included: •

Allow room for cooperative work

•

Make sure the classroom is inclusive

•

Teachers should find additional opportunities to model and encourage respectful and supportive behaviour

•

Teachers can promote self-belief by giving information to students about their strong performance

•

Help all students find like-minded peers.

F u t u r e D i r e c ti on s This research has highlighted self-efficacy as a mechanism for increasing achievement among all students. Throughout this research we found indications that self-efficacy may be malleable in our context with targeted interventions. Seeking out student perspectives has given a clearer picture of student experience. Sharing these perspectives within the Mathematics faculty team has led to new ideas, desire to adopt change and greater support of students in the classroom.

In the future, we need to continue to seek out student voices, and also share their voices with each other, with teachers, with parents and with the community. Moving into next year we hope to: 1)

Share findings with parents and community,

2) Expand the type of discussion had with Year 11 Extension 1 girls about overcoming challenges in Mathematics to include larger groups of students, 3) Dig deeper into survey results from the Year 9 2023 group work intervention and repeat an improved version with Year 8 in late Term 2-Term 3, 2024, 4) Liaise with the Junior School to share findings with teachers, and listen to perspectives of younger students, and 5) Share findings with other faculties in the Secondary School.

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Ac k n ow l e d ge me n t s Thank you to Tim Miller, Sue Field, Matthew Hill, Graham Hanlon and Julie Wilson Reynolds for their ongoing support of this project.

R efer en ces Aikens, M. L., & Kulacki, A. R. (2023) ‘Identifying Group Work Experiences That Increase Students' SelfEfficacy for Quantitative Biology Tasks’, CBE life sciences education, 22(2). https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.22-04-0076 Bandura, A. (1997) Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York, NY: W. H. Freeman and Company.

Buckley, S. (2016). Gender and sex differences in student participation, achievement and engagement in mathematics. Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). https://research.acer.edu.au/learning_processes/18.

Forgasz, H & Leder, G. (2020) Issues in the teaching of Mathematics: Gender and Mathematics.

Melbourne: State of Victoria (Department of Education and Training). Available at https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/maths/ MTT_Gender_and_Mathematics.pdf Mok, M., Kennedy J.K., & Moore, P.J. (2011) ‘Academic attribution of secondary students: gender, year level and achievement level’, Educational Psychology, 31(1), pp. 87104. DOI: 10.1080/01443410.2010.518596 OECD (2015). The ABC of Gender Equality in Education: Aptitude, Behaviour, Confidence. Paris: PISA OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264229945-en.

Todor, I. (2014). ‘Investigating “The Old Stereotype” about Boys/Girls and Mathematics: Gender Differences in Implicit Theory of Intelligence and Mathematics Self-efficacy Beliefs’. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 159. pp 319-323. 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.12.380.

Yailagh, M.S., Lloyd, J., & Walsh, J. (2009) ‘The causal relationships between attribution styles, mathematics self-efficacy beliefs, gender differences, goal setting, and math achievement of school children’. Journal of Education and Psychology, 3(2), pp. 95-114. Available at: 5-Shehni Yailagh.pdf2010122795033453.pdf (scu.ac.ir) Zakariya Y. F. (2022). ‘Improving students' mathematics self-efficacy: A systematic review of intervention studies’, Frontiers in psychology, 13(986622). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.986622

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Three comments on a whole school approach to refugee education Dr Timothy Scott Research Fellow, Barker Institute

Abs t r act This article presents three comments on a whole school approach to refugee education. The comments are drawn from a much larger work, Towards a pedagogy for radical hope, which presents a literature informed, whole school model for refugee education in schools alongside some suggestions for implementing it. This article picks up on three important points raised in Towards a pedagogy for radical hope and presents them here in a more concise form than the larger text. The article explains the whole school model to refugee education, which sees transition, trauma awareness and teaching working together to provide an ongoing and supportive environment that recognises and incorporates the experiences of refugee students and sustains their hope in the future. The three comments on a whole school approach to refugee education are summarised under the following headings: (1) Concepts that inform a radical hope (2) Concepts that sustain a radical hope and (3) Classrooms that practice radical hope.

I n t r od u c t i on We have a collective responsibility to ensure education plans take into account the needs of some of the most vulnerable children and youth in the world – refugees, internally displaced children, stateless children and children whose right to education has been compromised by war and insecurity. These children are the keys to a secure and sustainable future, and their education matters for us all.

António Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in UNESCO (2016, p. 13) Guterres’ comments inform a rationale for a whole school approach to refugee education.

Recent numbers reported by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNCHR) further underscores the urgency with which Guterres speaks (see Figure 1). The UNHCR reported at the end of 2022 the total number of people worldwide who were forced to flee their homes due to conflicts, violence, fear of persecution and human rights violations stood This paper is an abridged version of T. Scott (2023) Towards a pedagogy for radical hope: developing a whole school approach to refugee education. Learning in Practice. Supplementary Volume 1. Barker Institute: Sydney.

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at 108.4 million (UNHCR, 2023). This is an increase of 19 million since the end of 2021.

According to the UNHCR, this means that for every thousand people, 14 remain forcibly displaced. To compare, in 2013, the same number was 7 in 1000; in 2003, it was 6 in 1000, and in 1993, it was 8 in 1000 (UNHCR, 2023, p. 7). Approximately 41% are children aged 18 years and under.

Figure 1: Number of forcibly displaced people (UNHCR, 2023)

A whole-school approach to refugee education acknowledges this global context, alongside the importance assigned to the education of refugees by international instruments and agreements such as the 1949 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 26), the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (Article 22), and the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (Articles 22, 24, 28, 29). Each of these share the position that education is a fundamental human right. From 2010, this perspective on education developed, with education also being perceived as an enabling right, a right through which other rights are realised (UNHCR, 2011, p. 18). Refugee education, then, is expected to be of “high quality, meaning that it is available, accessible, acceptable, and adaptable” (Dryden-Peterson, 2011, p. 9; cf. Tomaševski, 2001). It is considered, by refugee students and parents alike, to be a long-term investment that always has a sense of future relevance toward individual livelihoods and societal advancement.

This is a perspective of education underpinned by radical hope (cf. Lear, 2009). Refugee students face a new way of life without knowing what it will eventually look like. Education is perceived to hold a significant place in helping refugee students adapt to their new contexts by empowering them to act in new ways, sustain vestiges of their past and avoid completely losing their sense of self (Kallio, Meier and Häkli, 2021, p. 6). The challenge this presents to educational leaders and practitioners is how to inspire and sustain such a radical hope in students from a refugee background. In this article, and described more fully in Towards a pedagogy for radical hope: developing a whole school approach to refugee education, a three-element framework is presented. At the very forefront of learning and teaching practice are the concepts of cultural responsiveness and sensitivity, community,

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and belonging. They are sustained by three continually interacting elements that form the basis of a whole-school framework for refugee education: transition, teaching, and traumaawareness (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Whole-school approach to refugee education. (Scott, 2023)

C o m m e n t 1 : C o n c e p t s t h a t i n fo r m a r a d i c a l h o p e Transition, teaching, and trauma-awareness are the individual elements of a whole-school approach that work together to support refugee students’ learning (Figure 2). The outcome of their interaction is the provision of an ongoing and supportive environment that recognises and incorporates the experiences of refugee students and sustains their hope in the future. Educational transitions across cultures disrupt human capacities for connection and belonging (cf. Ota, 2014, p. 7ff). Therefore, it is important to have transitional support for cross-cultural mobility, feature in a whole school approach to refugee education.

Language barriers, cultural differences, and unfamiliar educational practices and expectations present further disruptions to transitions into new educational systems and contexts (for example: Uptin, Wright and Harwood, 2012; Kaukko and Wilkinson, 2018; Picton and Banfield, 2020). A whole school approach that demonstrates the learning environment understands what such disruptions mean can help individuals achieve a sense of peace and security. This is in addition to providing ongoing support to empower them to locate themselves within new social, cultural, and geographic spaces (cf. Cassity, 2013, p. 102).

Language is key for any pedagogy seeking to realise such outcomes. Daniel and Zybina (2019) make the point that ignoring language and cultural backgrounds can be demoralising for refugee students. Encouraging their use of their own background knowledge in the classroom creates a positive dynamic founded on refugee students authentically feeling seen and heard for who they are and what they can bring to the learning and teaching process. However, for any of this to be successful, trauma-aware pedagogy is vital. Refugee

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students often cope with the traumatic experiences of displacement, let alone the emotional and psychological challenges of adjusting to a new country and culture. They may have missed out on formal education for an extended period or may have little prior knowledge about the host country's educational system or academic expectations. Trauma makes it difficult for refugee students to succeed academically, leading to feelings of frustration, isolation, and low self-esteem. Flashbacks and thoughts can enter the minds of refugee students resulting in them completely switching off to the lesson, something that refugee students want teachers to understand (Cassity, 2013, p. 95). In a school setting, the impact of this disruption can be amplified as students are already going through “a period of identity formation, shifting social relationships, priorities and expectations, and the [experiencing the] need to navigate the transition from childhood to adulthood” (Allen et al., 2018, p. 3). Trauma-aware education mitigates the impact trauma has had, helping to develop learner capabilities for feeling safe in educational settings, establishing effective relationships while in those settings, and being able to self-regulate emotionally (Howard, 2022, p. 19). Transition, teaching, and trauma-aware education are three elements that work together in concert to form the basis of a transformative, whole-school approach to refugee education. Going further than just acknowledging refugee students’ experiences, the elements drive a school’s pedagogy to provide a level of academic care whereby refugee student learning, teaching, and schooling experiences empower and equip them to change the world from a position of hope.

C o m m e n t 2 : C o n c e p t s t h a t s us t a i n a r a d i c a l h o p e Cultural responsiveness, community and belonging are fundamental to any whole school approach to refugee education. If authentic learning amongst refugee students is going to take place, concepts and content need to be delivered in a manner that demonstrates intercultural awareness and understanding. Refugee students need to see that their teachers, and the broader learning environment in which they find themselves, do more than just acknowledge their presence. There needs to be a focus on understanding and valuing the cultures, languages, and religions of refugee students, and recognising the unique challenges they may face in adapting to a new culture and a new educational system within that culture (for example: Naidoo, 2010, 2013; DeCapua, 2016; Moloney and Saltmarsh, 2016; Ficarra, 2017; Kanno, 2018; Daniel and Zybina, 2019). Cultural responsiveness and cultural sensitivity foster community and belonging because they contribute to a sense of one being a part of a larger whole, to educational environment that is inclusive.

Inclusive education is a prominent and recurring idea within the research literature on the method and practice of teaching refugee students (for example: Naidoo, 2009; Taylor and Sidhu, 2012; Dumenden and English, 2013; Block et al., 2014; Edgeworth, 2015; Hilt, 2017; Messiou and Azaola, 2018; Baak, 2019). The topics explored in this field are diverse but between them is the shared view that inclusivity for refugee students is important. For example, Naidoo (2009) takes the position that students for whom schooling has not been a part of their past experience or something that has not been a part of their family and/or home life may find it challenging to acculturate or adapt to school life and academic study.

Keddie (2012) and Taylor & Sidhu (2012) posit the idea that a whole-school inclusive approach can bring a greater degree of social inclusion for refugee students, not only in

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the school but also within the broader community. In this sense, “schools can act as a key link for refugee-background students and their families to support offered within the wider community” (Block et al., 2014, p. 1350). Schools are therefore not just a place where a refugee student can receive an education but a place where, through the learning and teaching they experience, there is a restoration of hope for their future built on an acceptance of who they are and the cultural heritage that has informed their personal stories.

Com me n t 3 : Cl as sr ooms t h at p r ac t i c e a r ad i c al h op e Being empowered and equipped to change the world from a position of hope comes from what happens in classrooms. These classrooms develop the voice of refugee students and give them a platform to express their past, to distil and communicate their thoughts powerfully in the written and spoken word, and to act to bring about change in the world for good. This can be achieved by embracing different strategies that affirm refugee students for who they are as much as recognising the challenges they encounter while adjusting to their new learning and teaching environments. An affirming classroom, then, integrates language support as a priority. Bajaj et al. (2023) placed translanguaging as the first of twenty strategies schools considering refugee education.

Translanguaging is the effort to move across and beyond language boundaries (García and Wei, 2014; García and Lin, 2016; Kleyn and García, 2019). It challenges the position of English as the most valuable language for education and ideologies that frame bilingual children as somehow deficient (Bartlett and Bettney, 2023, p. 31). Bartlett and Bettney (2023) suggest a number of different ways in which a multilingual ecology can be reached. One approach conceptualises every teacher as a language teacher (Bartlett and Bettney, 2023, p. 34).

Multilingual signage around the school, using students’ languages in school announcements and having multilingual resources in school libraries are other approaches. These help to create a multilingual environment where students are shown how all aspects of their identities are welcome, valued, and beneficial to all student learning that takes place (Bettney and Bartlett, 2023). Honouring histories and heritages are further approaches that characterise classrooms practising radical hope. Bajaj (2023) suggests that incorporating the histories of refugee students, their experiences and their heritages into the classroom is essential in humanising the educational process, making learning meaningful and connected to their realities. Bajaj (2023) gave an example of a transdisciplinary work from Oakland International High School in the US where teachers had refugee students develop a project on water collection, use and management in their own countries. This part of the project was to be presented in the refugee students home language, with teachers directing students to imagine that they were presenting to their grandmother. Once the home language version of the project was complete, students would then work to translate that presentation into English so that the presentations could be delivered to the class. In the process they compared the collection, use and management of water as a resource in the US with that of their home country.

Community partnerships form a third attribute of classrooms practising radical hope, connecting refugee students with members of their cultural community in their host country.

Partnership can also provide valuable resources and support for what takes place in the

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classroom (Kovacevic, Klimek and Drower, 2018; Bartlett and Triana, 2023). For example, partnership can connect teaching and learning processes to civic engagement. One school in New York linked a bilingual course it offered called “Social Justice and Latinos in NYC 1913-2013” with a Spanish-language newspaper in New York called El Diario. The curriculum taught students about the history of Latinx communities in the city and encouraged students to develop “a social justice perspective, deepen historical and civic knowledge, and think critically about how political engagement and political representation for Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Mexicans and other groups had changed over time” (Bartlett and Triana, 2023, p. 165).

Con c l u s i on A praxis for refugee education emerges from integrating academic literature on refugee education with practical strategies for classrooms with refugee students. Underpinning current research on the subject, which informed the development of a whole school refugee education model based on the concepts of transition, trauma awareness and teaching, are the concepts of cultural responsiveness, community and belonging. These sustain the notion of radical hope, which sits at the centre of the whole school approach to refugee education proposed by this paper. Drawing on Lear (2009), radical hope for a refugee student is to be encouraged and inspired to face a new way of life without comprehending how that new life might appear. Education shaped by cultural responsiveness, community and belonging establish an environment for learning that establishes radical hope for refugee students. Schools encourage this hope. They are aware of the trauma that refugee students will have experienced as they shift from their home culture to their adopted culture, support the transitions they have experienced as they enter their new schooling environment, and ensure that the teaching and learning received motivates them to new realms of possibility in the future.

R efer en ces Allen, K. et al. (2018) ‘What Schools Need to Know About Fostering School Belonging: a Meta-analysis’, Educational Psychology Review, 30(1), pp. 1–34.

Baak, M. (2019) ‘Racism and Othering for South Sudanese heritage students in Australian schools: is inclusion possible?’, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 23(2), pp. 125–141.

Bajaj, M. (2023) ‘Strategy 2: Honor Histories and Heritages’, in M. Bajaj et al. (eds) Humanizing Education for Immigrant and Refugee Youth: 20 Strategies for the Classroom and Beyond. New York and London: Teachers College Press, pp. 37–43.

Bartlett, L. and Bettney, E. (2023) ‘Strategy 1: Utilize Translanguaging in English Language Development’, in M. Bajaj et al. (eds) Humanizing Education for Immigrant and Refugee Youth: 20 Strategies for the Classroom and Beyond. New York and London: Teachers College Press, pp. 31–36.

Bartlett, L. and Triana, C.M. (2023) ‘Strategy 18: Develop Community Partnerships for Social Support and Civic Engagement’, in M. Bajaj et al. (eds) Humanizing Education for Immigrant and Refugee Youth: 20 Strategies for the Classroom and Beyond. New York and London: Teachers College Press, pp. 160–166.

Bettney, E. and Bartlett, L. (2023) ‘Strategy 11: Address School Language Policies’, in M. Bajaj et al. (eds) Humanizing Education for Immigrant and Refugee Youth: 20 Strategies for the Classroom and Beyond.

New York and London: Teachers College Press, pp. 104–110.

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Block, K. et al. (2014) ‘Supporting schools to create an inclusive environment for refugee students’, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 18(12), pp. 1337–1355.

Cassity, E. (2013) ‘Voices shaping education: Young African refugees in Western Sydney high schools’, International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives, 8(3), pp. 91–104.

Daniel, S. and Zybina, M. (2019) ‘Resettled Refugee Teens’ Perspectives: Identifying a Need to Centralize Youths’ “Funds of Strategies” in Future Efforts to Enact Culturally Responsive Pedagogy’, The Urban Review, 51. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-018-0484-7.

DeCapua, A. (2016) ‘Reaching Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education Through Culturally Responsive Teaching: Reaching Students with Limited/Interrupted Education’, Language and Linguistics Compass, 10, pp. 225–237. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12183.

Dryden-Peterson, S. (2011) Refugee Education: A Global Review. PDES/2011/10. Geneva: UNHCR. Available at: https://www.unhcr.org/research/evalreports/4fe317589/refugee-education-globalreview-sarah-dryden-peterson-november-2011.html.

Dumenden, I.E. and English, R. (2013) ‘Fish out of water: refugee and international students in mainstream Australian schools’, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 17(10), pp. 1078–1088. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2012.732120.

Edgeworth, K. (2015) ‘Black bodies, White rural spaces: disturbing practices of unbelonging for “refugee” students’, Critical Studies in Education, 56(3), pp.

351–365.

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2014.956133.

Ficarra, J. (2017) ‘Comparative International Approaches to Better Understanding and Supporting Refugee Learners’, Issues in Teacher Education, 26(1), pp. 73–84.

García, O. and Lin, A. (2016) ‘Extending Understandings of Bilingual and Multilingual Education’, in O. Garcia, A. Lin, and S. May (eds) Bilingual and Multilingual Education. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1–20. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02324-3_1-1.

García, O. and Wei, L. (2014) ‘Language, Bilingualism and Education’, in O. García and L. Wei (eds) Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 46–62.

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137385765_4.

Hilt, L.T. (2017) ‘Education without a shared language: dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in Norwegian introductory classes for newly arrived minority language students’, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 21(6), pp. 585–601. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2016.1223179.

Howard, J.A. (2022) Trauma-Aware Education: Essential information and guidelines for educators, education sites and education systems. Sanford Valley, Queensland: Australian Academic Press.

Kallio, K.P., Meier, I. and Häkli, J. (2021) ‘Radical Hope in asylum seeking: political agency beyond linear temporality’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(17), pp. 4006–4022. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1764344.

Kanno, Y. (2018) ‘Non-College-Bound English Learners as the Underserved Third: How Students Graduate from High School Neither College- nor Career -Ready’, Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR), 23(4), pp. 336–358.

Kaukko, M. and Wilkinson, J. (2018) ‘Praxis and language: Teaching newly arrived migrant children to “live well in a world worth living in”’, TESOL in Context, 27. Available at: https://doi.org/10.21153/tesol2018vol27no2art834.

Keddie, A. (2012) ‘Pursuing justice for refugee students: addressing issues of cultural (mis)recognition’, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 16(12), pp.

1295–1310.

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2011.560687.

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Kleyn, T. and García, O. (2019) ‘Translanguaging as an Act of Transformation: Restructuring Teaching and Learning for Emergent Bilingual Students’, in L.C. de Oliveria (ed.) The Handbook of TESOL in K12. John Wiley & Sons, pp. 69–82.

Kovacevic, Z., Klimek, B. and Drower, I. (2018) ‘Refugee Children and Parental Involvement in School Education: A Field Model’, in Social Justice and Parent Partnerships in Multicultural Education Contexts, pp. 139–161. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-3943-8.ch008.

Lear, J. (2009) Radical Hope: Ethics in the face of cultural devastation. Harvard University Press.

Messiou, K. and Azaola, M.C. (2018) ‘A peer-mentoring scheme for immigrant students in English secondary schools: a support mechanism for promoting inclusion?’, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 22(2), pp. 142–157. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2017.1362047.

Moloney, R. and Saltmarsh, D. (2016) ‘“Knowing Your Students” in the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classroom’, Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41, pp. 79–93. Available at: https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2016v41n4.5.

Naidoo, L. (2009) ‘Developing social inclusion through after‐school homework tutoring: a study of African refugee students in Greater Western Sydney’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 30(3), pp. 261–273. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01425690902812547.

Naidoo, L. (2010) ‘Engaging the refugee community of Greater Western Sydney’, Issues in Educational Research, 20(1), pp. 47–56.

Naidoo, L. (2013) ‘Refugee Action Support: an interventionist pedagogy for supporting refugee students’ learning in Greater Western Sydney secondary schools’, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 17(5), pp. 449–461. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2012.683048.

Picton, F. and Banfield, G. (2020) ‘A story of belonging: schooling and the struggle of students of refugee experience to belong’, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 41(6), pp. 841– 853. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2018.1552921.

Scott, T. (2023) Towards a pedagogy for radical hope: developing a whole school approach to refugee education. Sydney: Barker Institute. Available at: https://bit.ly/RadicalHope2023.

Taylor, S. and Sidhu, R.K. (2012) ‘Supporting refugee students in schools: What constitutes inclusive education?’, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 16(1), pp. 39–56.

Tomaševski, K. (2001) Human rights obligations: making education available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable. Gothenburg: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida. (Right to Education Primer, 3).

Available at: https://www.right-to-education.org/sites/right-toeducation.org/files/resource-attachments/Tomasevski_Primer%203.pdf.

UNESCO (2016) Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Paris: UNESCO. UNHCR (2011) UNHCR Global Appeal 2011 Update. Geneva: UNHCR. UNHCR (2023) Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2022. Copenhagen: UNHCR Global Data Service, Statistics and Demographics Section. Available at: https://www.unhcr.org/global-trends-report-2022.

Uptin, J., Wright, J. and Harwood, V. (2012) ‘“It felt like i was a black dot on white paper”: Examining young former refugees’ experience of entering Australian high schools’, The Australian Educational Researcher, 40. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-012-0082-8.

Walsh, D., Ndiaye, Y. and Amadou, A. (2023) ‘Strategy 14: Establish Dual Enrollment and Early College Programs’, in M. Bajaj et al. (eds) Humanizing Education for Immigrant and Refugee Youth: 20 Strategies for the Classroom and Beyond. New York and London: Teachers College Press, pp. 125–131.

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Buildings Before Blueprints: A metaphorical exploration of digital ecosystems in modern education

Dr Andrew Mifsud Director of Digital Learning Innovation

Abstract The contemporary educational paradigm, enriched by emergent digital pedagogies, online platforms, and AI-driven mechanisms, necessitates a considered and optimised approach to educational digital systems. This article, rooted in the metaphor of buildings before blueprints, explores the intricacies of selecting and implementing student information systems (SIS) within a K-12 institution. The study identifies four pivotal strategies based on empirical experiences grounded in cultural and historical activity theory frameworks. In synthesis, the article champions a holistic and participatory approach to integrating digital systems in education, emphasising meticulous planning, user engagement, and iterative solutions.

I n t r od u c t i on At the 2018 World Economic Forum, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated, “The pace of change has never been this fast, yet it will never be this slow again" (Trudeau, 2018).

This statement is undoubtedly true of the education landscape. Schools grapple with how to prepare students for an ever-evolving future that is changing at an ever-increasing pace and are burdened with pressures for adaptability, personalisation, and inclusivity (Freeman et al., 2017). These demands are met with an increased reliance on digital systems; the student information system (SIS) has become a linchpin for school operations and management.

At its core, an SIS serves as a repository for student data, aiding in administrative and academic tasks (Steenkamp & Basal, 2010). However, their role has expanded with modern demands, making them the backbone of educational institutions' digital ecosystems (Wu et al., 2020). The SIS must facilitate a duty of care for students, communicate and engage the school community, track student data for pastoral and academic purposes, and integrate with a broader web of digital systems while remaining robust and reliable (Zhao, 2022). The reliance on these systems for essential school operations places tremendous pressure on selecting a product that serves the school's needs.

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The process for selecting the right SIS for K-12 education is not overly represented in the literature, with much of the research centred on post-secondary contexts, blogs, or commercial websites. This article seeks to contribute to the research field by providing four critical learnings uncovered while searching for a new SIS. The article presents a novel approach to embracing change within this milieu, drawing on the metaphor of constructing "buildings before blueprints."

M et h od ol ogy Following the theme of this journal, “Close-to-practice”, I have approached this research using an ethnographic methodology. As a researcher-practitioner, I was heavily involved in each phase of the SIS project for 18 months, commencing in late 2021. This period encompassed key phases of remediation (understanding the tensions that exist in the incumbent SIS), interim (planning the selection of a new SIS), and selection (engaging in vendors to co-design a potential solution). At every stage, I led and participated in crucial project groups where I had opportunities to engage with SIS vendors, critical stakeholders on staff, external consultation groups, and colleagues from peer schools. Data was collected in mixed modes, including survey results, focus group discussions, conversations, and journal entries. In analysing this data, I adopted the standpoint of Engeström’s (2015) third generation of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to provide a lens to interpret actions and perceptions made by constituents of the project, including reflections on my practice.

R e s u lt s A data synthesis has resulted in four critical reflections of essential criteria in selecting a SIS. 1.

Conceptualise the SIS as an architectural endeavour: Viewing the SIS and related systems as architectural structures, emphasising strategic planning, clarity of purpose, resource allocation, and temporal considerations. This perspective underscores the role of leadership and a communal sense of ownership in this approach.

2. Adopting a persona-centric analytical lens: Drawing inspiration from Activity Theory, the selection highlights the importance of interpreting digital systems from diverse user perspectives, ensuring comprehensive functionality and a more inclusive digital environment.

3. Embracing cultural and historical activity analysis: The findings suggest a broader contextual understanding, wherein tools and processes are seen through historical, cultural, and hierarchical dimensions. This perspective offers insights into potential systemic tensions, laying the groundwork for their resolution.

4. The imperative of co-design: Proposing a participatory design model, the findings emphasise collaboration among stakeholders, technical teams, and SIS vendors. This approach ensures customised solutions, addresses historical frictions, and promotes user integration.

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D i s c u ss i on The following section discusses the four critical reflections on the SIS selection process.

T h e B ui ld i n g M e t a p h o r : A G ui din g F r a m e w o r k Consider the process of erecting a building. The vision, purpose, and specific needs dictate its construction. Implementing the SIS requires a similar clarity in purpose, connectivity amongst stakeholders, apt resource allocation, and meticulous planning. The leadership must be intimately involved, ensuring community participation and ownership.

We are typically very clear about the purpose of a building. We build science labs, music rooms, and assembly halls, all with a clear goal: to facilitate science classes, music lessons, assemblies, and so on. We understand how spaces connect, how one room flows to the next, and how one building flows to the next. We know that we must have connecting paths and amenities. We ensure spaces are accessible and fit for all users. We understand the costs involved in a building, from governance and planning to the cost of staff resources and material costs. Finally, we understand the time requirements. Buildings take time to build.

Considering digital systems in this way proved helpful; the student information system is not an isolated platform but an interconnected system that exists with all our other systems.

There needs to be a flow of information between systems, like the pathways that connect buildings. We need to be clear about the purpose of each system. We need to understand the importance of planning, recognising costs and the time required to select and implement effectively. Importantly, for a building to take shape, it needs the vision and drive of school leadership. Support and shared ownership from school leadership are essential in making good choices and a smooth implementation.

Persona-Centric Analysis and Activity Theory In the same way, we would work to understand the needs of the people using a building; we wanted to frame our selection around different personas in our school. Activity Theory offers a comprehensive lens to evaluate digital systems, looking beyond technological performance. Each user interacts with the system uniquely. This "persona-centric" approach enriches our understanding, offering many perspectives. Therefore, to choose and implement an SIS effectively, one must understand the multifaceted experiences of its varied users.

A persona view borrows heavily from research methods that analyse large and complex work systems. The methodology is built on Activity Theory – associated with Vygotsky, Leont’ev and Engeström (Cong-Lem, 2022). Understanding how complex and interrelated activities work is achieved by breaking down an activity from the perspective of a “subject” or user. It is then possible to map the user to the outcome of their activity and consider the way different factors mediate the activity. We will look at some of the other factors in the proceeding section. For now, the critical point is that the persona view provided us with a way to frame processes. We used this when we evaluated our existing system, we took a persona-perspective when developing scenarios to test out systems in our shortlist, and we

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are currently putting together a summary report based on the analysis of this data that explores the experience of different systems from the perspective of key personas.

Taking on a persona view requires time and effort from project groups. Still, we have learnt that this time is valuable as the process allows users to understand experiences from their perspective and see scenarios from the viewpoint of others.

C u l t u r a l - H i s t o r i c a l C o n t e x t u a l i s at i o n When reviewing a current system or collecting requirements for a new system, it appears logical enough to take an analytical approach that breaks down the problem into smaller, bite-sized pieces. This was indeed the approach that the project group initially adopted during the selection process. The project team collected over 570 technical requirements from each functional area that relies on the SIS and broader system architecture. The critical learning, however, came from realising that a more expansive perspective could yield more significant results.

When relying only on an analytical approach, the concern is that it only tells parts of the story and is reductive as it focuses too heavily on the technology itself. The project group realised that placing too much emphasis on what a system can and cannot do distracts from the understanding that the tool is a mediator in the broader activity, albeit a significant mediator. If mediators are levers that determine the activity's success, tensions within the activity can be understood and resolved by considering all mediating factors. This might come in the form of changing processes, reconsidering organisational structures, and so on. Taking this broader perspective allows schools to view activity more sophisticatedly. In the case of a student information system, the system itself is a tool used to achieve a higher purpose or objective. It is, therefore, more valuable to understand it this way: a human being trying to accomplish a goal mediated by technology rather than considering what the tool can or cannot do in isolation. This understanding aligns with the theories associated with human work and activity, particularly Engeström’s (2015) Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). The use of CHAT to understand complex digital systems has been used previously in research to analyse tensions of a school adopting a blended learning environment (Mifsud, 2021).

CHAT uses Activity Theory to analyse human activity and the interaction between the elements in the triangles in Figure 1, recognising that an institution's cultural and historical contexts play a pivotal role. Many activities involve the SIS as a mediating tool, but to illustrate, let us explore the activity of a staff member interacting with the SIS to surface student information to provide a duty of care. In this case, the subject of the activity is the staff member. The activity's outcome (or objective) is that staff seek a holistic view of a student (for example, viewing a student’s location, medical notes, and so on). This can be broken into smaller goals (or objects), for example, entering and accessing student data.

To achieve the object and outcome, the staff member must negotiate interactions between tools, rules, a wider community of members, and the breakdown of tasks associated with the activity. The tools represent the SIS and related digital platforms. The rules define the requirements and expectations of the school when performing this activity. The community represents other staff members performing similar tasks. The division of labour represents

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the structured hierarchy responsible for individual processes – from school leadership to middle management.

Once we have this activity picture, we can analyse where clashes or tension appear. The tensions within the activity reduce the ability of staff to achieve the desired outcome. These tensions might be due to problems with the tool (in this case, the SIS) but may also stem from other interacting forces within the activity. For example, the activity rules may dictate that the staff member needs elevated permission to see the required student information.

Tension in the community interaction might result in incorrect data entered relating to this student from another staff member. This analysis requires a deeper understanding of the historical and cultural work environment. An example of this type of analysis from this study can be seen in Figure 1, where tensions were found between the staff's interactions with the tools, the tools with the object, the rules and the object, and the division of labour and the object. Hence, a thorough analysis, which marries technological prowess with cultural understanding, is imperative.

Figure 1: Example of contradictions in the existing activity

While holistic insight is valuable, an even deeper understanding can be achieved by examining how different activities interact. To illustrate, consider the example of a student getting a concussion on the playing field and the multiple activities that go into the care of that student. The sports coach initiating action, the health centre advising care, the incident manager following up, the communication with parents and pastoral care staff, and finally, the class teacher all come together to ensure that the student is being looked after and adjustments can be made to accommodate learning activities. Tensions in one or more of these activities will impact the core objective of providing care for that student.

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This study suggests that schools seek to understand tensions beyond interacting with the tool alone. To bring back the building metaphor, we should consider the experience of the people who interact with a building, their history, their activities, and how they connect with others. This perspective requires a different analysis sympathetic to our constituents' history and culture. So, while collecting requirements for a new system is essential, it is equally vital to triangulate this data with an understanding of the tensions and challenges that occur in the current system through a cultural and historical perspective. It is in the resolution of the tensions that we can see effective change.

Co -d e s i g n i n g t he S o lu t i o n The final lesson relates to the transformative process of co-design. This study found that collaboration between stakeholders, IT experts, and SIS vendors can yield a system that resonates with the users' needs. Such an approach mitigates traditional challenges and fosters a sense of collective ownership, ensuring its longevity and relevance. Armed with an understanding that roles, processes, and rules act as levers to resolve contractions in the system provides stakeholders with a perspective that there is an opportunity to review practices to overcome technological shortcomings.

The project team understood that it was unlikely to find a single platform that could deliver an “out-of-the-box” solution. Instead, the group embraced co-design to negotiate process changes to achieve the same outcome. Adapting processes are a natural occurrence in adopting a new SIS; these changes are inevitable. The key learning comes from bringing key stakeholders into negotiating process changes during the selection process. This was identified as a tension in implementing the previous SIS, where staff felt that changes had been imposed upon them with little to no say. We have seen how this can lead to frustrations with the system. Therefore, these findings advocate engaging stakeholder involvement in the design from the start of the process. During sessions and discussions, stakeholders were encouraged to consider different ways of achieving the same outcome by recognising where the existing tensions lie and working together to find ways to release tensions.

Con c l u s i on This article metaphorically used building construction to describe the development of digital architecture for a school. The findings highlighted the importance of taking a participatory approach, incorporating feedback from all user groups, and ensuring there is clarity of vision and purpose for the SIS. Schools should consider the holistic analysis of activities, not just factors that involve direct interaction with the SIS. This perspective fosters the possibility of a co-design between product vendors and key stakeholders.

While fraught with challenges, the journey towards integrating digital systems in education presents opportunities for creating a robust foundation for future generations. It necessitates an approach that's holistic, collaborative, and reflective of the institution's unique persona. By meticulously planning and harnessing collective expertise, schools can effectively navigate the complexities of the digital age.

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R efer en ces Cong-Lem, N., 2022. Unravelling Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT): Leontiev’s and Engeström’s approaches to activity theory. Knowledge Cultures, 10(1), pp.84-103.

Engeström, Y., 2015. Learning by expanding. Cambridge University Press.

Freeman, A., Becker, S.A. and Cummins, M., 2017. NMC/CoSN horizon report: 2017 K. The New Media Consortium Mifsud, A, 2021. The sand that fills the gaps: A journey of expansive transition to blended learning in a secondary school, The University of Sydney.

Steenkamp, A.L. and Basal, A., 2010. Building an Integrated Student Information System in a K-12 School System. Information Systems Education Journal, 8(24), p.n24.

Trudeau, J., 2018. Davos address. January 23, Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.

Wu, X., Feng, B. and Qi, W., 2020, September. Design and implementation of a novel student information management system. In 2020 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Information Systems and Computer Aided Education (ICISCAE) (pp. 637-639). IEEE. Zhao, Z., 2022. Reform of Student Information Management Thinking and Methods Supported by Big Data Technology. In International Conference on Cognitive based Information Processing and Applications (CIPA 2021) Volume 1 (pp. 451-459). Springer Singapore.

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Balancing Innovation and Responsibility: Challenges in developing a framework for ethical AI integration in education

Gabi Corderoy Digital Learning Leader Stephen Liseo Digital Learning & Innovation Leader

Abs t r act This paper explores the challenges faced by K-12 schools seeking to develop a framework for teachers and students using artificial intelligence (AI) that balances innovation with responsibility. As AI technology gains momentum in educational settings, developing guidelines that ensure ethical use, safeguard student privacy, promote inclusivity, and foster responsible AI practices is imperative. This article traces the development of a Working Group to propose recommendations for developing a framework for Barker College. This exploration highlights some meaningful opportunities AI brings to K-12 education while uncovering the challenges in developing proposals for a fast-moving, wide-reaching, disruptive technology. Central to this study is AI's disruption in assessment and how technology can catalyse more profound assessment reform. By sharing this approach, the paper aims to contribute to the broader discourse on responsible AI integration in K-12 education and serve as a resource for educational institutions seeking to navigate the evolving landscape of AI conscientiously and responsibly.

I nt r oduct i on AI-based technologies have been used in numerous fields of endeavour for decades; however, for the most part, they have worked in the background rather than being immediately apparent to end users (Akgun and Greenhow, 2021). The release of OpenAI’s Chat-GPT in November 2022 heralded significant change when a large language model was readily available to all for the first time. No other online system achieved the number of subscribers as rapidly as Chat-GPT (Mollman, 2023). Since then, the proliferation of online tools leveraging various AI technologies has increased dramatically (Larsen and Narayan, 2023). These tools are starting to directly impact fields of human endeavour and altering

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employment in many sectors (Sample, 2023). The full extent of the changes and impact this will have on society can only be speculated at this stage.

Education is one area where the impact of AI has been immediate and challenging, resulting in the topic dominating K-12 education research and discourse (Akgun and Greenhow, 2021).

Education has long weathered a barrage of technological disruptors. Electronic calculators, the World Wide Web, Wi-Fi, laptop computers and smartphones have all emerged over the past several decades and have had implications for teaching and learning; however, the fundamental difference is that these technologies were introduced to schools in a far more controlled and managed way (Consoli et al., 2023). The speed at which AI has entered the education sector, coupled with this technology's significant potential, presents novel challenges to educators and school administration (Tang et al., 2020). Chat-GPT seemingly appeared with minimal warning and was instantly accessible to all teachers and students.

This technology can be seen as a form of disruptive innovation (Christensen, 2013) in the way they have the potential to massively disrupt an existing sector, typically by offering a technological solution at a lower cost that can reach a broader scale.

Schools attempted to respond to this emerging disruptive innovation by formulating advice, frameworks, and policies. As AI and, more specifically, Chat-GPT became frequent news stories, an urgent requirement emerged for Barker College to develop guidelines to help shape what these tools would look like at the school. It was widely reported that some schools and education systems were taking immediate steps to block access to Chat-GPT (Lim et al., 2023). As these stories emerged and gained attention, concerns arose from various parts of the school community about how Barker would address these tools. This article explores the approach of the Digital Learning Team and a Working Group when developing an ethical framework for using AI at Barker and examines the challenge of responding to a rapidly growing technology.

Me t h o d o l o g y The Digital Learning Team established a Working Group made up of educational professionals who were interested in the education implications of AI. The Working Group represented diverse subjects, including Science, English, PDHPE, Music, Design and Technology, Computer Science and Teacher Librarians. The Working Group undertook a thorough literature review and attended webinars, educational technology conferences, and discussion groups. The group collaborated on notes and ideas using OneNote.

The Digital Learning Team arranged a focus group session with a selection of students from the school’s Tech Team. Students were asked to share their opinions and suggestions on this issue for the school to consider when designing their approach towards using AI in the classroom. Using a combination of data, the Working Group subsequently helped develop the guidelines for using AI by drafting interim recommendations presented to the Learning Team, who were responsible for curriculum leadership. The data highlighted several considerations that may be useful to other schools developing similar frameworks.

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Resul t s Based on advice gathered at conferences, the Working Group agreed that banning or blocking access to these sites was not viable. A ban would do nothing to stop students from accessing the sites on personal devices and from home, which may result in further inequity between students. Likewise, prohibition of any kind is questionable in its effectiveness, especially in the context of a readily accessible online service. The results also confirmed that the potential of AI technology was still being determined and shifting daily.

It was clear to the group that educators needed to learn what these tools could do and understand their implications for teaching and learning as much as possible.

From the outset, the Working Group were overwhelmingly optimistic about AI's opportunities in schools. However, it was clear that trying to develop a set of guidelines for a technology that is still in its infancy and the implications of which have yet to be fully realised, was going to be a challenging task. Recurring themes emerged: concern over plagiarism, the potential for using AI tools to help teachers with administrative tasks and lesson preparation and to help students with learning. Overlying all of these are ethical and privacy concerns around using these tools by students and teachers.

The main themes that emerged from student interviews were the impact of AI on students' learning habits and skills, the privacy implications of using AI systems that may collect personal data, the role of teachers in providing feedback and guidance with the help of AI, the need for a clear and transparent student policy on AI usage, and the potential for interactive and creative learning activities that involve AI. The students' responses indicated a mixed attitude towards AI in education, with enthusiasm and caution. They highlighted the importance of ensuring ethical, responsible, and meaningful use of AI in the classroom.

Di s cus s i on It was clear that great enthusiasm existed to investigate the opportunities that the technology presented. However, the main area of concern raised by the school community and the topic that dominates discussions on AI in education focused on the student use of AI for plagiarism. These concerns are valid for specific tasks, albeit not entirely new. For example, students have always been able to access tutors to help them with homework and assessment tasks. In the context of AI, the main difference is the ease of accessibility. Any student with access to the internet now has access to a personal tutor. AI tutors have the potential to be of immense benefit to students; however, it is important to note that current generative AI systems do have limitations. Students need to be taught to understand what these limitations are if they are to leverage these tools effectively. Likewise, whilst the proliferation of these tools has gone some way towards resolving some of the equity issues regarding access to tutors, equity issues still exist in that many of the AI systems that students use have free and paid subscription models available. The paid models offer additional features and more sophisticated language models in these cases. Plagiarism has existed for as long as there has been language. Certainly, generative AI tools have made it easier to produce work that is not original and is undetectable by traditional plagiarismchecking tools. Several products have been released that claim to detect work AI has

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generated; however, our initial investigations have revealed these systems to have questionable accuracy, with many false negative and false positive results being returned.

Two apparent strategies emerged to address concerns about using AI for plagiarism. The more popular idea amongst the working group was to change the type and nature of the assessment tasks that are at risk. Inevitably, this led to philosophical discussions about the very nature of student assessment. Most educators will agree that current assessment paradigms could be better, and this topic has been explored extensively (Gonski et al., 2018). For those who are most cynical about the effectiveness of summative assessment tasks, any tool that has the potential to disrupt the current paradigm is welcome. AI certainly falls into this category; however, widespread and deep assessment reform takes time. It is still being determined if the emergence of AI will lead to rapid and comprehensive change in the area.

The second and less popular strategy was a response that saw research-based and takehome assessment tasks changed to in-class tasks. The Working Group felt that this was not an ideal outcome, but it addressed the immediate concerns of departments who felt that the risks associated with doing the task at home were unacceptable. In-class tasks have their place but favour certain cognitive engagement types and may not allow students to dive deeper into a topic and demonstrate their understanding from research and detailed investigation. Nevertheless, the speed with which AI emerged has meant that educators must consider how to balance a response to immediate concerns, with the time required to rethink and adapt existing assessments.

R e c o mme n d a t i o n s The Working Group acknowledges the significant, revolutionary impact AI has had and will continue to bring to education – it is immense. It can potentially remake the deep structures of education and employment fundamentally. Accordingly, schools must be proactive and receptive in their response. Generative AI has significant potential to subvert traditional processes and outcomes of education, not only for students but also for teachers. However, we invite the education community to see changes as vital opportunities rather than problems that must be overcome.

Accordingly, we do not encourage the addition of obstacles to using AI but rather invite active engagement and ongoing exploration of its potential. This recommendation is made within the continuing development of AI, so rapid and transformative that it would need more integrity to recommend anything less. This technology has gone from virtually nonexistent for most users to ubiquitous in months and continues to evolve at a staggering pace. It is appropriate to continue to learn the likely future for this technology and the likely impact on education in systemic, professional, classroom, and pastoral domains.

In this context, AI is a technology we encourage teachers to explore to address personal and professional development and improve their knowledge and experience with these tools. The authors will continue to explore the potential of this technology both to increase administrative efficiencies and improve educational outcomes for our students. Barker will continue to develop more concrete and specific recommendations as developments in this

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field have become more settled, and our understanding of their impacts becomes clearer.

As a counterpoint, we say with certainty that the human matters. Thus, this is an opportunity to distil our practice to celebrate our staff and students’ most intimate and vital quality, their inalienable human value. There is no greater enabler of learning than the relationship between teacher and student.

Concl us i on Integrating AI in education is an exciting development with the potential to revolutionise learning. However, it comes with significant ethical responsibilities. While AI can potentially transform education and employment, Barker College adopts a proactive and receptive stance to navigate these changes. The authors recognise generative AI's capacity to transform traditional processes but acknowledge concerns about using AI for plagiarism. It advocates for active engagement and ongoing exploration of AI's potential, acknowledging that the technology is rapidly evolving.

Ref erences Akgun, S. and Greenhow, C., 2021. Artificial intelligence in education: Addressing ethical challenges in K-12 settings. AI and Ethics, pp.1-10.

Christensen, C. M., Horn, M. B., & Staker, H., 2013. Is K-12 Blended Learning Disruptive? An Introduction to the Theory of Hybrids. Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.

Consoli, T., Désiron, J. and Cattaneo, A., 2023. What is “technology integration” and how is it measured in K-12 education? A systematic review of survey instruments from 2010 to 2021. Computers & Education, p.104742.

Gonski, D., Arcus, T., Boston, K., Gould, V., Johnson, W., O’Brien, L., & Roberts, M., 2018. Through growth to achievement: Report of the review to achieve educational excellence in Australian schools. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.

Larsen, B. and Narayan, J., 2023. Generative AI, a game-changer that society and industry need to be ready for. In The World Economic Forum.

Lim, W.M., Gunasekara, A., Pallant, J.L., Pallant, J.I. and Pechenkina, E., 2023. Generative AI and the future of education: Ragnarök or reformation? A paradoxical perspective from management educators. The International Journal of Management Education, 21(2), p.100790.

Mollman, S., 2023. ChatGPT gained 1 million users in under a week. Here’s why the AI chatbot is primed to disrupt search as we know it. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chatgpt-gained-1-million-followers224523258.html.

Sample, I., 2023. ChatGPT: What can the extraordinary artificial intelligence chatbot do? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/13/chatgpt-explainer-what-can-artificialintelligence-chatbot-do-ai.

Tang, X., Li, X., Ding, Y., Song, M. and Bu, Y., 2020. The pace of artificial intelligence innovations: Speed, talent, and trial-and-error. Journal of Informetrics, 14(4), p.101094.

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Nurturing Cultural Responsiveness: A snapshot of professional learning initiatives improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students Lucy Pitkin Dean of Indigenous Education Dr Timothy Scott Research Fellow, Barker Institute

Abs t r act This paper provides a snapshot of nurturing cultural responsiveness with the intent of improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students.

Having defined culturally responsive teaching, it then presents results from a survey undertaken by teaching staff on the professional learning experienced and the impact that this professional learning has had. Surveyed staff indicated that professional learning with the most impact was that which contributed to both meaning and authenticity: immersive professional learning was the most effective. This was particularly clear in the increase in levels of confidence about embedding Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander histories, perspectives, and cultures into the content being taught. Continuing to nurture Culturally Responsive Pedagogies will be an important part of professional learning initiatives in this field into the future.

I n t r od u c t i on Culturally responsive teaching can be defined as “using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them” (Gay, 2000, p. 31, cf.

2002, p. 106). It is an approach that teaches to and through the strengths of these students, contributing to cultural validation and affirmation in the process. Cultural responsiveness, then, goes beyond awareness and competence to emphasise active and intentional engagement with cultural diversity, that involves modifying practices and approaches to ensure inclusivity and equity – acknowledging the cultural context of those being served (Gay, 2010, p. 31). In an Australian context, this often includes understanding the significance and meaning of cultural protocols, histories, and languages of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. For schools that seek to improve educational outcomes for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students, the development of cultural responsiveness is an important consideration.

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A substantial body of research highlights the multifaceted challenges faced by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students that contribute to educational disparities in experience of and achievements in education with their non-Indigenous counterparts (Bodkin-Andrews and Carlson, 2016; Vass, 2018; Brown, 2019), and that despite measures aimed at reducing these disparities, and after fourteen years of government driven strategies under the “Closing The Gap” framework, only 4 of the 18 socio-economic targets remain on track to be met (Commonwealth of Australia, 2022). In fact, targets set under this framework that are specific to education such as Year 12 attainment and the completion of tertiary qualifications are showing some improvement since the baseline year of 2016. With the exception of enrollment in early childhood education, unfortunately these targets are not being met in Australia (Productivity Commission, 2023).

In recognition of the significance and urgency in addressing these disparities, various educational initiatives have been implemented, including prioritising teacher professional learning programs aimed at changing pedagogical practices and improving cultural responsiveness in our schools. Recently the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) identified Aboriginal education and supporting Aboriginal students as a mandatory priority area, requiring teachers to complete at least one NESA accredited course in this area to maintain their accreditation. Additionally, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) emphasises the importance of cultural responsiveness in the teaching profession and has integrated this concept into the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST). Prioritisation of these concepts recognises the significance of developing cultural responsiveness as an integral part of effective teaching that creates inclusive and supportive learning environments for students of diverse cultural backgrounds, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Additionally, Bishop & Vass (2020) made a convincing argument that genuine, widespread professional learning in this area has the potential to build the skills and capacity of teachers in culturally responsive practices.

Many schools aim to develop a culture of life-long learning to support staff to improve their practice, remain up to date with current research and address specific educational needs; Barker College is no exception. A balanced and wide-ranging offering of professional learning for staff is key to achieving a dynamic and effective learning environment for our students and improving learning outcomes. With a focus on Indigenous Education, we have implemented a program of professional learning targeted towards continual improvement in the knowledge, skills, and confidence to implement culturally responsive pedagogical practices. Much of this program is supported by funding provided by the Association of Independent Schools (AIS) Waratah Project in Indigenous Education, and we are incredibly grateful for this additional support.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a snapshot of some of the steps that can be taken to support staff develop intercultural understanding in working with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students. It has not been approached as an exhaustive assessment or analysis. This paper also maps out a starting point from which an understanding can be derived of the impact that the steps taken by teaching staff has made in fostering the knowledge, skills, and confidence to implement culturally responsive pedagogical practices.

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G a t h e r i n g in f o r m a t i o n a b o u t s t a f f pr o f e s s i o n a l l e a r n in g Throughout 2022 and 2023, a variety of optional Indigenous education professional learning opportunities were offered to staff. Examples included the “Stronger Smarter” program, sessions related to the Kinchela Boys Home, 8 Aboriginal ways of Learning, and On-Country professional development. Broadly speaking, these were aimed at four main outcomes: 1.

Strengthening Culturally Responsive relationships between staff, students, and families.

2. Embedding Aboriginal pedagogies & knowledge systems into teaching practice.

3. Deepening understanding of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander histories, perspectives, and cultures.

4. Connecting with local Aboriginal cultures and the rich and diverse cultures of the Communities in which our Aboriginal Campuses operate.

Information was gathered to understand how teaching staff are engaging in professional learning and development to improve educational outcomes for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students through an optional survey released to teaching staff via email that was available for completion over a two-week period. 68 teachers from various departments and sections of the school responded anonymously to the survey. The questionnaire spanned various aspects relating to the utility of Personal Learning Plans, staff participation in Indigenous Education professional learning activities (both internal and external to the school) and the types of professional learning staff are interested in completing in the future.

The survey delved into the impact of activities completed in 2022 and 2023 on educators' confidence in incorporating Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander histories, perspectives, and cultures into their teaching. It sought to understand the specific changes made in pedagogical approaches, as well as the observed transformations in interactions with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students. Additionally, educators were invited to reflect on the efficacy of the professional learning events attended and suggest improvements for future initiatives. The survey extended its focus to barriers hindering participation in such activities and solicited preferences for the types of Indigenous Education-focused professional learning that the school could offer to enhance teachers' confidence in embedding diverse perspectives into their curriculum.

Ke y F i n d i n gs f r om t h e Su r ve y F i n d i n g 1: D i v e r s i t y i n p r o f e s s i on a l l e a r n i n g o p p o r t u n i t i e s c o n t r i b u t e d p o s i t i v e l y t o t e a c h e r c o n f i d e n c e w o r k i n g w i t h A b o r i g i n a l a nd / o r T o r r e s S t r a i t I s l a n d e r s t u d e n t s Overwhelmingly, the results of the survey clearly reflected a shift in the confidence of staff when embedding Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander histories, perspectives and cultures into their classroom practice. As demonstrated in Figure 1 below, prior to attending the various professional learning opportunities the 65% of staff reported that they were slightly or moderately confident, while after the professional learning this majority shifts to 74% being moderately or very confident in this area.

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Figure 1: BEFORE and AFTER attending the nominated Indigenous Education professional learning activity (-ies), how confident did you feel about embedding Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander histories, perspectives, and cultures into the content you teach?

F i n d i n g 2: I d e n t i f i c a t i o n o f w h a t m a k e s I n d i g e n o u s E d u c a t i o n P r o f e s s i o n a l L e a r n i n g h ave i mpact In addition to increased confidence in authentically embedding content into their programs, staff were asked about the delivery of their content and any changes they had made because of their professional learning. Overwhelmingly (93%), staff made at least some changes to the delivery of their lessons because of participation in professional learning.

Further, 40% of respondents indicated that they had made at least noticeable and purposeful changes, substantial and consistent or comprehensive changes to their classroom practice. These changes included, for example, integrating Aboriginal pedagogies into their programs.

Figure 2: Have you changed the way you deliver your subject’s content in response to what you have learnt about Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Cultures or Pedagogy?

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When asked which professional learning experience/s they found most impactful, staff reflected on individual programs and how they contributed to their specific needs as a teacher working with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students. Five characteristics that contribute to professional learning opportunities having impact emerged: 1.

Practical application and relevance

2.

First-hand experiences and storytelling

3.

Cultural immersion and on-country professional development

4.

Student involvement and perspectives

5.

Varied learning formats and resources

The sense of impact is reflected in teacher comments about the changes they made to their teaching practice in light of the professional learning opportunities they undertook. One teacher commented on how it has been easier to find the language to use in an authentic way when it comes to discussing, and celebrating, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples. Several teachers made reference to a stronger understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, how to approach sensitive issues as a result, and being able to build up engagement and interest in the content and concepts being taught.

Another teacher commented: “I want opportunities to engage with Indigenous Australian perspectives to be meaningful and considered and not insensitive or outdated”.

Fostering culturally responsive teaching practices has entailed teachers engaging in diverse professional learning experiences throughout the year. These have centered around four key focus areas which aim to enhance educators’ understanding, pedagogical approaches, and relationships concerning Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander perspectives, cultures, and histories. The reflections presented in Table 1 below encapsulate the degree of impact these professional learning endeavors have had. From programs focusing on strengthening culturally responsive relationships to embedding Aboriginal pedagogies and knowledge systems, and deepening understanding of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander histories, perspectives, and cultures, the reflections capture the multifaceted dimensions of the professional learning journey. The narratives shed light on the effectiveness of various opportunities afforded staff, including the “Stronger Smarter” program, sessions related to the Kinchela Boys Home, 8 Aboriginal ways of Learning, and On-Country professional development. These reflections point to the dedication of teachers to advancing Indigenous Education as well as underscore the significance of building meaningful connections with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures in the drive to positive and successful learning and teaching.

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Table 1: Staff reflections on professional learning (PL)

PL Fo cu s

S t r e n g t he n i n g C u l t u r al l y Responsive Relationships

E mbed di n g A b o r i gi n a l P e d a g o gi e s & K n o w l e d ge S yst e ms

Deepening Staff U n d e r s t an d i n g o f A b o r i gi n a l / T o r r e s S t r a i t I s l an d e r Histories, Perspectives, and Cultures

C o n n e ct i o n w i t h L o c a l A b o r i gi n a l Cultures and C o m m u n it y Diversity

F e e d b a ck - “Stronger Smarter as it gave me an excellent insight into Indigenous education and gave me strategies that have been very helpful. It has proven useful for all my students.”

- “Stronger Smarter Leadership course was a great way to develop strategies to better support students and build understanding of their families.”

- “Stronger Smarter and the Kinchela Boys Home session were both outstanding. Powerful, insightful, purposeful, accessible and relevant. I would highly recommend”.

- “The 8 Aboriginal ways of learning last year was also so great. Helpful to have strategies that I can directly implement into my teaching and amazing to think of using Aboriginal Knowledge and teaching systems”.

- “8 Aboriginal Ways of learning ….. with Ros Thomas and Embedding Indigenous Perspectives into Literacy at the AIS with Ros Thomas - these events were so informative, targeted specifically to areas that are relevant to us, content was accessible and confidence was built to enable change.

Both of these events were excellent and I recommend them to all staff”.

- “Seeing and hearing how teachers modelled and embedded authentic First Nations perspectives and cultures in their teaching practice. It just helped to see how it was done”.

- “The experiences and recollection of the elders from the Kinchela Boys Home was a huge impact. I have shared their stories with students as well as those outside school. Their stories should be known by all”.

- “The events that included story and information sharing from First Nationals people were the most impactful and informative."

- "Lecture series on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories at the Museum of Sydney - Improved and updated my content knowledge + accessed new teaching resources”.

- “The session on the Kinchela Boys Home was a very stark reminder of the trauma that can still exist in the lives in Indigenous students and their families. Hugely valuable”.

- “The Kinchela Boys session helped me to understand the scope and ongoing trauma of government policies and the stolen generations”.

- “The Kinchela Boys session was eye opening. The stolen generation tends to be something that we see as in the past, but to see a grandparent from our school was stolen - really brought it home”.

- “I loved the On Country PD at Bobbin Head, meeting more local First Nation peoples, and learning about the country that we are working on. This is so important. I would love to learn more about other countries, the people and the culture”.

- “The student lead events were powerful as I think we should hear from them as often as possible. Connecting the Campuses was really interesting - just to hear about the completely different lifestyle, expectations and progress these campuses are making”.

- “Honestly, speaking with and working with the staff at Darkinjung and Ngarralingayil has had the most impact. They have provided helpful perspectives and I've been able to see some of their practice in person”.

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F i n d i n g 3 : I m m e r s i v e p r o f e s s i o n a l l e a r n i n g i s h i g h l y v a l u ed . S t a f f v a l u e c o n n e c t i n g w i t h l o c a l A b o r i g i n a l C u l t u r e a nd H i s t o r y a s a p a r t o f t h e i r p r o f e s s i o n a l l e a r n i n g The high degree of value staff place on immersive professional learning that provides connection with local Aboriginal Cultures and history as a part of their own development as a teacher aligns with wider findings in the field. In her article focusing on the concept of cultural competence in teacher professional learning, Burgess (2019) argued that attaining cultural knowledge and understanding is most effective when delivered by local Aboriginal cultural knowledge holders. Burgess (2019) reported that teachers learnt new knowledge about local Aboriginal peoples, cultures, history, and issues. This new knowledge challenged their assumptions, personal and collective positioning, and pedagogical practices to teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Staff reflections, detailed in Table 1, also tell this story. Learning on country or from Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander knowledge holders meant that staff felt they had a clearer sense of Indigenous perspectives and knowledge as part of the curriculum. They therefore felt less prone to opening themselves up to misunderstanding. This sentiment echoes the results of research carried out by Harrison and Greenfield (2011) into the “confusion across all schools involved over the use of Aboriginal perspectives and Aboriginal knowledge, with the two concepts being used interchangeably to refer to the syllabus content that is taught about Aboriginal people” (p.66). Not thought through or implemented properly, this sort of confusion can have the effect of reinforcing stereotypical representations, something staff indicated they wished to avoid.

C o n t i n u i n g t h e p a t h o f C ul t u ra l R e s p o n s i v e n e s s : F u t u r e D i re c t i o n s …a collaborative approach towards cultural competence in Australian education, undertaken in partnership with the local Aboriginal community and the relevant education institution, is the most effective means of ensuring educational positive outcomes for Indigenous students…

Krakouer (2015), p.19.

Culturally Responsive teaching practices have been understood as a means by which educational outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students can be improved.

Krakouer’s concluding comments in her literature review on Culturally Responsive Pedagogies and their impact on improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students set a direction that is reflected in the literature on teacher professional learning and development in culturally responsive teaching practices.

Fundamental to continuing the path of Cultural Responsiveness is a collaborative approach that works closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Klenowski (2009) asserts this will encourage teachers “to adopt culturally responsive pedagogy to open up the curriculum and assessment practice to allow for different ways of knowing and being” (p.77). Burgess (2019) posits such a prioritisation is needed if culturally responsive schooling is to be empowered and teachers enabled as critically reflective change agents in their contexts.

Continuing down the path of Cultural Responsiveness will build on what staff have undertaken in Indigenous Education. In their study of teachers’ culturally responsive

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teaching self-efficacy, Cruz et.al. (2020) encouraged future studies to continue in their exploration of opportunities that prepare teachers for developing their capacity for culturally responsive teaching practices. Their conclusion was reached from increasing evidence that teachers who successfully implement culturally responsive teaching practices could positively impact learning outcomes. There is a challenge for schools with this, however.

Australian classrooms are increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse, yet the evidence suggests that many teachers lack the confidence and/or expertise to engage with cultural difference in supportive and educationally productive ways.

Morrison et al. (2019), p.57.

In their literature review on Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in the Australian context, Morrison et al. (2019) concluded that professional learning and development for teachers in culturally responsive pedagogies has been lacking in schools despite the growing body of evidence that these pedagogies do improve the educational experiences and outcomes of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people. Continuing to nurture culturally responsiveness will need to be a priority in teacher professional learning to embrace and build on students’ identities and backgrounds as assets for learning. Not only will it improve the learning experiences and outcomes for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people but it will set the stage for schools to be environments that support students from diverse heritages and, ultimately, all students in Australian schools.

R efer en ces Bishop, M. and Vass, G. (2020) ‘Talking about culturally responsive approaches to education: teacher professional learning, Indigenous learners and the politics of schooling’, The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 50(2), pp. 340–347. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/jie.2020.30.

Bodkin-Andrews, G. and Carlson, B. (2016) ‘The legacy of racism and Indigenous Australian identity within education’, Race Ethnicity and Education, 19(4), pp. 784–807. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2014.969224.

Brown, L. (2019) ‘Indigenous young people, disadvantage and the violence of settler colonial education policy and curriculum’, Journal of Sociology, 55(1), pp.

54–71.

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783318794295.

Burgess, C. (2019) ‘Beyond cultural competence: transforming teacher professional learning through Aboriginal community-controlled cultural immersion’, Critical Studies in Education, 60(4), pp. 477–495.

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2017.1306576.

Commonwealth of Australia (2022) Commonwealth Closing the Gap Annual Report 2022. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.

Cruz, R.A. et al. (2020) ‘An Examination of Teachers’ Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy’, Teacher Education and Special Education, 43(3), pp.

197–214.

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0888406419875194.

Gay, G. (2000) Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice.

Gay, G. (2002) ‘Preparing for Culturally Responsive Teaching’, Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2), pp.

106–116. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487102053002003.

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Gay, G. (2010) Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice. 2nd edn. New York and London: Teachers College Press.

Harrison, N. and Greenfield, M. (2011) ‘Relationship to place: positioning Aboriginal knowledge and perspectives in classroom pedagogies’, Critical Studies in Education, 52(1), pp. 65–76. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2011.536513.

Klenowski, V. (2009) ‘Australian Indigenous students: addressing equity issues in assessment’, Teaching Education, 20(1), pp. 77–93. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210802681741.

Krakouer, J. (2015) Literature review relating to the current context and discourse on Indigenous cultural awareness in the teaching space: Critical pedagogies and improving Indigenous learning outcomes through cultural responsiveness. Melbourne: Australian Council of Educational Research. Available at: https://research.acer.edu.au/indigenous_education/42.

Morrison, A. et al. (2019) Toward an Australian culturally responsive pedagogy: a narrative review of the literature. Adeliade: University of South Australia. Available at: https://apo.org.au/node/262951.

Productivity Commission (2023) Closing the Gap Annual Data Compilation Report July 2023. Canberra: Productivity Commission.

Vass, G. (2018) ‘“Aboriginal learning style” and culturally responsive schooling: Entangled, entangling, and the possibilities of getting disentangled’, The Australian journal of teacher education, 43(8), pp.

89–104. Available at: https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2018v43n8.6.

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Mirroring the White Fragility of the Reader in

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Marcus Felsman English Teacher

Abs t r act This paper has a subject focus on contemporary literature. The inquiry explores recent theories on race and the notion of whiteness by examining these aspects of the popular novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid that challenges readers to confront their racial assumptions and positionality. It draws on the work of Richard Dyer, Robin DiAngelo, Helen Morgan and others to apply a theoretical lens that evaluates the novels narrative devices. The paper reveals the underlying emotions, motivations and racial complexes that contribute to the tensions explored in the novel between the Islamic East and the Anglo dominant West in the post 9/11 epoch and that continue to echo in experiences and exchanges across spatial and racial boundaries. It examines the novel's unresolved tension that offers readers the opportunity to reflect on broader societal implications of racial relations.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid (2007) provides a literary window into experiences of race relations and a mirror for the audience to conceive of their white fragility that determines their thinking and interactions across racial and cultural lines of identity. The concept of ‘white fragility’ and research on the notion of ‘whiteness’, has drawn on several disciplines in its conception. Earlier research on race predominantly focused on the relational dynamics between whites and non-whites by emphasising the race of non-whites over the racial identity of white participants, to perpetuate and consolidate the othering of one group and transparency of another (Cheng, 2001). The placement of whiteness as a distinct racial identity and socio-racial phenomenon was advanced by Richard Dyer’s White, which identifies the deliberate non-racing of whiteness, as he defines it “the assumption that white people are just people fails to recognise that non-white people, that are consistently identified according to their race are something else. This is endemic to white culture” (Dyer, 1997, p.2). Just over a decade later sociologist Robin DiAngelo developed the notion of ‘white fragility’ (DiAngelo, 2018) and psychologist Helen Morgan provided a psychoanalytic perspective on Dyer, DiAngelo and others research in The Work of Whiteness (Morgan, 2021) that consolidates and then advances

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the theory with the use of clinical case studies revealing the subconscious implications when whiteness continues to perpetuate “raceless romances” (Munos, 2012, p.12) that permit “whites to regard themselves as having no race.. (which) become both dominant and invisible” (Morgan, 2021, p.12). Morgan focuses on how whiteness works to disavowal hereditary responsibility for hegemony and exploitation of the past to deny and protect the consequential benefit of current privileges.

Applying the notion and theory of white fragility to The Reluctant Fundamentalist unmasks the underlying emotions, motivations and racial complexes that contribute to the racial tensions explored in the novel between the Islamic East and the Anglo dominant West in the post 9/11 epoch, that continue to echo in experiences and exchanges across a myriad of contexts today. The characters in the novel and their plight, allegorically represent large collectives and concepts, particularly the East and West divide after the events of September 2001. This paper places the racial identity of the audience and their surrogate character at the very centre of the reading, focusing on Hamid’s narrative craft that disrupts the fourth wall to expose the readers white fragility. The author constructs the audience proxy for readership plurality and flexibility in and out of the frame narrative, thereby not precluding audience members that do not identify as white.

Accessing the Reader

The frame narrative disrupts the fourth wall to challenge the audience while balancing the readers flexible movement within the action of the novel. Hamid’s frame avoids combatively dismantling the fourth wall to access its audience, his device design is less intrusive and more nuanced. The intimacy of the second person pronouns allows Hamid to draw the audience closer, “Perhaps a thought of this nature is passing through your mind, for I detect a certain seriousness in your expression” (Hamid, 2007, p.53), that echoes the narrative voice in Italo Calvino’s novel If on a Winter Night a Traveller (Calvino, 1981). The Italian author´s postmodern experimentation blurs the lines between the protagonist and the reader but Hamid avoids this as there is no doubt that Changez is the protagonist and narrator. What he blurs instead are the recipients of Changez’s monologue, the reader with the white American interlocutor whose character is constructed with the broadest of brushstrokes into a silhouette. The nameless figure plays a vital part in the frame narrative as a passive audience, providing the situation to vehicle the delivery of Changez’s story, the physical space of the outdoor eatery is his stage with an audience of one to receive his dramatic monologue. The listener is a surrogate for the reader, a proxy whose character is underdeveloped, allowing readers to recast themselves into his position, a vassal to be transposed onto his silhouette. The blurring of the character with the reader provides Hamid with opportunities to mirror and challenge his audience by disrupting the fourth wall, thereby accessing them directly while still offering flexible movement for their autonomous participation in and out of his place within the narrative frame. The second person narrative device in the audience surrogate, serves to hold a mirror to the audience so their white fragility can be reflected at them.

The Identity of the Audience Surrogate

Hamid disrupts the fourth wall to confront his audiences cultural and racial assumptions inherent in their whiteness. In the novel’s exposition the author expediently identifies the

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national and racial identity of the audience surrogate, unlike his personality and character that remain undefined. The first remarks delivered by Changez to the figure display his rhetorical confidence by applying hypophora to dismiss several physical stereotypes as his means to predict the figures nationality, “Nor was it your dress that gave you away”.

Changez reveals that it was the character’s “bearing that allowed me to identify you”. The first response to the question, “How did I know you were American?”, immediately emphasises race, “No, not by the color of your skin: we have a range of complexions in this country” (Hamid, 2007, p.1). It appears that Changez has dismissed skin tone and race as universally diverse, however by opening with it in his prolepsis he not only confirms the nationality of the figure but also his racial identity to confront the invisibility of his whiteness just as Morgan theorises, “its very invisibility is key to its continuance as it allows us the freedom to be blind to our own privilege” (Morgan, 2021, p.12). Other than his race, nationality and gender we are not provided with any more to fill in and form the character. These traits of the audience proxy are intended to invite the reader to inhabit his silhouette aided by the consistent use of second person pronouns, “I noticed you were looking for something.. you seemed to be on a mission… I thought I might offer you my services” (Hamid, 2007, p.1). Despite Changez appearing to brush it off, the whiteness of the figure cannot be denied and is the second feature confirmed, as this much of his identity comes into focus on the very first page to plant itself firmly in the audience’s reading.

The tension between the figure and narrator is immediately apparent, “Do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America” (Hamid, 2007, p.1). The reference and image of the beard is symbolically placed to contrast with “America” immediately following it, distinguishing difference in representing the Islamic world and the relationality of the beard to the West in the post 9/11 context. Changez’s remark is ironic and intended to challenge the white fragility of the figure and therefore the reader about racial and religious stereotyping, especially those that reductively associate facial hair with Anti American sentiments. The beard functions as a satirical allusion to Islamophobia that accelerated after 9/11 and during the War on Terror, and the hysteria that ensued is critiqued by Hamid, “America was gripped by a growing and self-righteous rage in those weeks of September and October” (p.106). In his work on Muslim male stereotyping, Abdullah Syed (2009) points out that the anglophone media had long been propagating the Islamic beard as a symbol of extremism and terrorism before 2001, evident in a 1979 Time Magazine cover article, “Islam- The Militant Revival”, responding to the Iranian revolution that ended in February of that year. The intensification of Islamophobia is well documented by researchers, including Khaled Beydoun (2018), Peter Manning (2006), Caroline Mala Corbin (2017) and Jack Shaheen (2001). The media’s perpetual use of a bearded, dark, turbaned male as culprit, enemy and constant threat, resulted in the vilification of Muslim males solely based on appearance is addressed by Syed; “Muslims across the world began to feel the impact of Islamophobia and were faced with discrimination and prejudgment due to their appearance. Strict security was applied to Muslim males with beards” (Syed, 2009, p.49). Hamid satirises the paranoia of the period that had many in the West equate appearances, especially race and facial hair, with extremism, violence and terrorism. In chapter five Changez recounts his own experiences with this climate of paranoia and fear after the attacks when he returns to the US from a business trip in Manila;

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“I was escorted by armed guards into a room where I was made to strip down… I

was, as a consequence, the last person to board our aircraft. My entrance elicited looks of concern from many of my fellow passengers. I flew to New York uncomfortable in my own face: I was aware of being under suspicion; I felt guilty” Hamid (2007), p.85

Despite his residential status, having graduated from one of their elite universities and contributing to the US financial machine in his prized role at a reputable firm, Underwood and Samson, Hamid´s analogous acronym mimicking the nation, Changez is subjugated to the apparatus of the American surveillance system and discriminated against as a consequence of his race and nationality. The discomforting imagery is confronting, especially as none of his actions or choices contributed to that alienating experience. The exclusion and discrimination is compounded further when Changez’s Anglo US, Underwood & Samson, colleagues abandon him at the airport, “My team did not wait for me... I rode to Manhattan that evening very much alone” (Hamid, 2007, p.86). The separation and distance between races is in contrast to when he joined Princeton years earlier having been welcomed into American society. Immediately after recounting these events to the white figure, Changez’s narrative voice probes at the unease of the audience and their proxy, “I can see that I have offended you, angered you even. But I have not, I suspect, entirely surprised you. Do you deny it? No?” (Hamid, 2007, p.86).

Hamid’s second person pronouns disrupt the fourth wall to shadow and pursue the audience’s reaction and probe the fragility of their white identity when confronted by his narrative voice. Changez’s character develops as a provocateur, evident in the cumulative rhetorical questions and the familiarity of their tone. The beard symbol recurs again, “we have not met before, and yet you seem to know at least something about me. Perhaps you have drawn certain conclusions from my appearance, my lustrous beard” (Hamid, 2007, p.86). The allusion to racial and religious stereotyping is less subtle here, “conclusions” and “appearance” confront the audience’s assumptions to reveal racial prejudices that emerge in challenging moments that expose their white fragility, like for Changez’s colleagues when they abandon him.

After Hamid establishes the surrogate’s most identifiable features, his Anglo American racial and national identity, Changez challenges his and therefore by proxy, the audience’s white identity. Hamid makes visible what Richard Dyer termed “the invisibility of whiteness” (Dyer, 1997, p.9). The author disrupts subconscious racial assumptions of the audience surrogate and his white readers by making them aware of their race, which they are not accustomed to or comfortable with. The author foregrounds the visibility of the surrogate´s Anglo American identity, to then attest to Dyer’s plea that “Whiteness needs to be made strange” (Dyer, 1997, p.10) to which Hamid obliges.

Inverting Foreignness and Exposing W hiteness

The novel challenges the audience to consider their whiteness and foreignness like their proxy character, not as pampered tourists blinded by their assumed rather than consciously recognised racial privilege but as isolated and fragile foreigners in the Lahore streetscape, stripped of their transparency and normalcy when staring into the mirror that Changez holds up for them in the second person exchanges. Glaring into the reflection

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held by the narrator, the audience begin to witness the visibility of their race and the fragility that is exposed when their subsumed entitlement is disrupted and dislodged by the inversion of their foreignness. The design of the frame narrative centred around the table of an outdoor eatery in the central market of Lahore, provides the author with the opportunity to contrast its setting with that of Changez’s monologue, the failed love story with the US in New York. The Lahore streetscape, Changez’s rhetorical sparring and second person voice as well as the profiling of the audience surrogate, construct the frame narrative to invert the experiences of foreignness and exclusion Changez endured in the main narrative during the Islamophobic climate after 9/11. The foreignness of the interlocutor is undeniable as Hamid makes his racial privilege visible and contrasted against his surroundings. The inclination of the surrogate is to be blinded by his whiteness and the privilege that is inherent with it, “the invisibility of (his) assets” (Dyer, 1997, p.45).

Hamid positions his protagonist and provocateur to look at his interlocutor and see his whiteness without flinching or taking a backward step “to dislodge it from its centrality and authority” (Dyer, 1997, p.47). In so doing, the foreignness, strangeness and then unease of the figure becomes increasingly evident as Changez provokes his audience and their proxy“in Lahore; the sun, although hot, has such a soothing effect. Or, I should say, it has such a soothing effect on us, for you, sir, continue to appear ill at ease… the frequency and purposefulness with which you glance about- a steady tick-tick-tick seeming to beat in your head as you move your gaze from one point to the nextbrings to mind the behaviour of an animal that has ventured too far from its lair is now, in unfamiliar surroundings, uncertain whether it is predator or prey!”

Hamid (2007), p.35.

The diction and tone of paranoia in, “ill at ease”, “unfamiliar”, “uncertain” is accentuated in the zoomorphic imagery of “lair”, “animal”, “predator or prey”. The image produced of the figure confirms his unease as the anxiety and paranoia represented with the movement of his eyes mirrors that distorted image that Hamid delivers for Changez’s discomfort in his face when transiting from Manila to New York. Both men are deliberately discomforted by their exclusion and othering, in being made foreign in both moments. Changez pretends to guide the figure towards comfort in the immediate environment, “Come, relinquish your foreigner’s sense of being watched. Observe instead how the shadows have lengthened.

Soon they will shut to traffic the gates at either end of this market” (Hamid, 2007, p.35).

The caring inclusivity of “Come” is made incongruous and ironic when the figure’s foreignness is defined by Hamid’s provocateur.

The religious metaphor of the bread for the breaking of tensions and divisions between the Islamic world and the white West is crafted into the action to end the chapter, “Here.

A piece of warm bread, like so- ah” (Hamid, 2007, p.35). Nevertheless, inherent to the white fragility of the audience surrogate and reader is fear which disrupts the bread breaking and opportunity for reconciliation with Changez to affect change, as his name suggests. Robin DiAngelo’s definition of white fragility speaks to the situation; “a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves… the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear and guilt, and behaviours such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the

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stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium” DiAngelo (2018), p.2.

Applying DiAngelo’s theory to the audience surrogate reveals the characters motivations for his silence when the invisibility of his whiteness is exposed and the inversion of his foreignness is provoked and confronted by Hamid’s mirroring in his narrative voice.

Audience Autonom y and Positionality

Hamid’s construction of the frame narrative provides the opportunity for the reader to consider their positionality by choosing to absorb the silhouette of the audience surrogate, transposing themselves within the action as a participatory recipient of Changez’s story.

Alternatively, readers can choose to remain an observer on the exterior of Hamid’s frame by filling in the blank spaces in a process of co-authorship to construct a character independently of themselves. Hamid’s flexible frame and use of second person allows for a combination of both, depending on the reader’s inclination. Including the reader as a co-author is a principle that the author has advocated; “the reader, as much as or even more than the writer, is deciding what is really going on. I wanted the novel to be a kind of mirror, to let readers see how they are reading, and, therefore, how they are living and how they are deciding their politics” Hamid (2013) We can see in the novel, both the reader and Hamid are holding up the mirror together to lead the audience to question, how similar am I to Changez’s interlocutor, is it me or at least a version of myself?, effectively displaying Hamid’s intention for his readers to reflect on their political position, “I play with the form in order to bring the audience into the moral action of the novel” (Hamid, 2013). The author’s construction of the frame narrative using the audience surrogate in conjunction with the second person voice, challenges his readers, particularly their racial and cultural assumptions but avoids pinning them to just one place with little opportunity for choice and autonomous movement.

Hamid satirises the reader’s white fragile assumptions that Changez will fully convert to extremism and fundamentalism. By the end of the novel the reader is instead presented with greater ambiguity in relation to Changez’s commitment to Islamic fundamentalism than his earlier committed conversion to the corporate fundamentalism of the West at U&S. Nevertheless, for the audience surrogate, white fragility and paranoia pervades their relationship and the tension develops until the unresolved final action, “why are you reaching into your jacket, sir?” (Hamid, 2007, p.209), inviting the audience into the allegorical action of the plot as Changez gestures towards reconciliation, “I know you have found some of my views offensive; I hope you will not resist my attempt to shake you by the hand” (Hamid, 2007, p.209). Ultimately it will be the choice of the reader who can perpetuate the tension of Hamid’s literary representation, the world of his novel out into their lived social and political experience. Alternatively, the reader can consciously disrupt this dynamic by acknowledging their whiteness to challenge the stereotyping that fuel the racial and cultural divisions between Islam and the West and between those that are white and those that aren’t.

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Ref erences Beydoun, K. “Rethinking Islamophobia”, Al Jazeera, March 12, 2018. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/3/12/rethinking-islamophobia-2/ Calvino, I. If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller. Torino: Einaudi, 1981.

Cheng, A. The Melancholy of Race. New York: Oxford UP, 2001.

Corbin, C. “Terrorists are Always Muslim but Never White: At the Intersection of Critical Race Theory”.

Fordham Law Review. 86, no. 2 article 5 (2017). https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5437&context=flr DiAngelo, R. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. New York: Beacon Press, 2018.

Dyer, R. White. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Hamid, M. The Reluctant Fundamentalist. London: Penguin, 2007.

Hamid, M. “Mohsin Hamid on writing The Reluctant Fundamentalist”, The Guardian, 14 May 2011. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/may/14/mohsin-hamid-reluctant-fundamentalist-bookclub Hamid, M. “Mohsin Hamid on his enduring love for the second person narrative”, The Guardian, 22 March 2013. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/22/mohsin-hamid-second-person-narrative Hoffman, S, Anu Asnanni, M, & Hinton D. “Cultural Aspects in Social Anxiety and Social Anxiety Disorder”. Depress Anxiety, 27 no. 12 (27 December 2010): 1117 – 1127 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3075954/ Khan, I. “Taliban shaving off beard to escape”, Dawn, May 16 2009. https://www.dawn.com/news/464807/taliban-shaving-off-beard-to-escape Manning, P. Us and Them: A Journalist's Investigation of Media, Muslims and the Middle East. Sydney: Random House Australia, 2006.

Morgan, H. The Work of Whiteness- A Psychoanalytic Perspective. Milton Park: Routledge, 2021.

Munos, D. 2012. “Possessed by whiteness: Interracial affiliations and racial melancholia in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist”. Journal of Postcolonial Writing. 48. (September 2012)

Shaheen, J. Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People. London: Interlink Publishing Group, 2001.

Sperry, P. “When The Profile Fits The Crime”, The New York Times, July 28, 2005. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-sociologist-examines-the-white-fragility-thatprevents-white-americans-from-confronting-racism Syed, A. “Buzzing: Post- 9/11 Muslim male identity, stereotypes, and beehive metaphors”. University of New South Wales Library, 2009. https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/entities/publication/6e51f333-918a4c76-9886-43c5bc692502 Time Magazine. “Islam The Militant Revival”. Issue date April 16, 1979. https://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19790416,00.html

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The Impact of School Sports Programs on Student Wellbeing

Adam Watson Director, Sport - Operations

Abs t r act This paper investigates the impact of school sports programs on student wellbeing, emphasising the importance of physical, mental, and social health in adolescents.

Through a structured survey administered to all students in Years 7 and 10, it explores students' perceptions and experiences of sports participation. The findings reveal a positive attitude towards co-curricular sports, highlighting benefits in overall health, social interaction, personal development, and enjoyment. Feedback also highlighted opportunities for ongoing enhancement in areas such as logistical arrangements, harmonising academic commitments with sports participation, fostering positive team dynamics, and expanding the range of sports offerings to cater to diverse interests and encourage flexible engagement. The data also unveils variations in perceptions and experiences across gender and year groups. The study advocates for further research employing more qualitative methods and longitudinal analyses to attain a comprehensive understanding of students' attitudes towards sports participation over time.

I nt r oduct i on Traditionally, independent schools in Australia have often set themselves apart from the Public and Catholic sectors by placing a strong emphasis on comprehensive co-curricular programs. Like chess and debating, the sport component provides students with an avenue to represent their school that nurtures a sense of pride, while fostering significant relationships with their peers and teaching faculty. Sport perhaps stands out among these cocurricular programs due to the well-established association between physical activity and positive health and overall wellbeing. Ensuring a well-rounded approach to student participation at Barker involves striking a balance between addressing the evolving needs and interests of students and providing a diverse range of co-curricular options. Therefore, it is vital to examine the impact of school sports programs on actual and perceived student wellbeing continually. A comprehensive evaluation of different approaches in this space is

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necessary to make informed decisions, taking into consideration the full range of benefits and implications.

Li terature Revi ew Engaging in organised sports during adolescence has been identified as a unique contributor to overall wellbeing, surpassing the benefits of other recreational physical activities (Wilson et al., 2022). Research has consistently demonstrated that participation in sports is associated with higher levels of wellbeing and improved mental health outcomes, including reduced depression and anxiety (Murphy et al., 2020; Donaldson, 2006). A study

by Sabiston et al. (2020) found that a greater number of years participating in team sports during adolescence was associated with fewer depressive symptoms in early adulthood.

These findings highlight the potential long-term mental health benefits of sports participation during adolescence. Regular physical activity and sports involvement has also been linked to various cognitive benefits, such as enhanced cognitive function and better stress management, along with improved self-esteem and a reduced risk of chronic diseases (Penedo, 2005; Bailey, 2006).

Within the secondary school context, physical education and sport programs play a significant role in promoting physical health, motor skills development, and mental wellbeing (Bailey, 2006). These programs have shown to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression among students, while also contributing to improved academic performance and cognitive function (Taras, 2005). Additionally, inclusive sport programs have the potential to foster the development of crucial social skills, teamwork, cooperation, and leadership qualities, thereby promoting inclusivity and reducing discrimination within the school environment (Bailey, 2006). To enhance the wellbeing and positive mental health of adolescents, it is crucial to provide diverse physical activities and sports opportunities (Murphy et al., 2020). Strategies such as increasing exposure to physical activity, promoting greater engagement in individual or team sports, and prioritising sports participation can optimise wellbeing within this age group (Bowker, 2006; Piñeiro-Cossio et al., 2021). Ingt has been documented in the literature that adolescents from less privileged backgrounds may experience greater emotional distress, underscoring the importance of fostering active lifestyles among this population (Steptoe & Butler, 1996). A report by The Aspen Institute (2019) identified a decline in youth sports participation rates, particularly among these lowincome youth, and underscores the importance of significant investment in school sports programs to promote participation and ensure the benefits of sport are accessible to all students.

The literature has reported notable differences in adolescent male and female participation in sports and physical activity, particularly in organised sports. Research has found that females can tend to shift towards informal and non-organised physical activities, especially as they progress through adolescence, influenced by factors such as competing demands, lack of time, and changing interests (Eime et al., 2016). These shifts in participation levels across different sports and physical activities underline the need for targeted interventions and support to sustain participation rates, particularly among girls, as they advance through adolescence (Eime et al., 2016).

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The existing literature strongly supports the promotion of physical activity, and the prioritisation of sports participation as means to foster the optimal development of physical and mental well-being in adolescents. A crucial aspect that requires exploration is how students perceive the benefits of physical activity to their overall wellbeing and in what capacity. While research has shown the positive effects of sports participation on mental health, cognitive function, and social development, it is vital to understand how students themselves recognise and articulate these benefits. Gathering data on students' perspectives provide valuable insights into their personal experiences, motivations, and perceived outcomes related to school sports programs. This knowledge can inform the design and implementation of programs that align more effectively with the needs and aspirations of students, leading to enhanced wellbeing outcomes.

Additionally, investigation into the perceived barriers to participating in school sports programs is valuable. By identifying any factors that may hinder students' engagement in school sports educational institutions like Barker can develop targeted strategies to overcome these barriers and create a more inclusive and supportive environment for all students.

I n q u i r y Qu e s t i o n How do students perceive the impact of school sports programs on their wellbeing?

Me t h o d s Survey Design

The process of gathering qualitative and quantitative data from students in Years 7 and 10 was facilitated through a carefully designed survey questionnaire. This survey was specifically designed to delve into the students' experiences, attitudes, and challenges associated with the participation in sport at school. The survey also explored their perceptions as to the effect of sport on their wellbeing and perceived barriers to participation in sport.

Sam pling

Approximately one third of students in Year 7 and Year 10 elected to complete the optional survey including 109 students from Year 7 and 122 students from Year 10. Regarding gender distribution, there were 128 male respondents, 97 female respondents, and 6 students who preferred not to disclose their gender. One notable aspect of the sampling is that students from all 19 sports included in the compulsory school sports program were represented in the survey responses. This ensured that a diverse range of sports and athletic backgrounds were considered in the data analysis. It is important to acknowledge the students who did not respond to the survey for various reasons which may introduce some limitations to the representativeness of the sample, not fully capturing the perspectives of those students.

Nonetheless, the collected data still provide valuable insights into the views and experiences of a substantial portion of the student population. The survey was designed to be optional and anonymous, ensuring the privacy and confidentiality of the participants. The research

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was designed in consultation with the Barker Institute ensuring that all appropriate ethical considerations were addressed in line with school policies and relevant legislation.

Data Analysis At the close of the survey and upon collecting the responses, a data analysis process was conducted, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative data facilitating the identification of key patterns, trends, and insights. Quantitative analysis included comparing responses between different year groups and genders. In addition, qualitative data analysis was conducted to gain deeper insights into students' experiences and perceptions. Open-ended survey responses were examined to identify common themes, emerging patterns, and indepth perspectives. Furthermore, existing data on current sport attendance and trends, obtained from Barker’s administrative software, Clipboard, was integrated into the discussion. This allowed for an examination of the relationship between survey responses and actual participation in sports programs. Correlations and associations between perceived impact and real-world engagement in school sports were explored to provide a deeper understanding of the findings. The data analysis process recognised the limitations of the inquiry, such as potential non-response bias.

Findings

Of the 701 students invited to complete the survey, 231 responded, including 109 from Year 7 and 122 from Year 10 (Figure 1). The gender distribution among respondents consisted of 128 males, 97 females, and 6 students who didn't disclose their gender (Figure 2). Year 7 had 48 females and 61 males, while Year 10 had 49 females, 67 males, and 6 undisclosed.

This distribution is representative of the gender ratio at Barker.

Figure 1

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Figure 2

Students from all 19 sports of the sport program participated in the survey, with Football/Soccer, Netball, and Rugby being the most represented (Figure 3). The distribution aligns with the overall participation numbers across various sport options at Barker.

Figure 3

Students were asked how sports participation might impact their overall wellbeing (Figure 4). Around 30.3% noted a very positive impact, suggesting that sports significantly boost their wellbeing. An additional 43.3% also reported a positive impact, reinforcing the benefits of sports on wellbeing. In contrast, a small minority found sports detrimental to their wellbeing, with 5.1% reporting a very negative impact, and 6.1% indicating a negative impact.

Lastly, 15.2% were uncertain about the relationship between sports and wellbeing, reflecting mixed or unclear perceptions on this issue.

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Figure 4

The survey also asked students to identify the specific aspect of wellbeing most influenced by sports (Figure 5). Physical health stood out as the most impacted for 44.6% of respondents, followed by social health for 28.1% and mental health for 16.9%. A small group of 13 students identified 'other', with many clarifying an interrelation among physical, mental, and social wellbeing. Interestingly, 11 students noted no impact of sports on any aspect of their wellbeing.

Figure 5

In the qualitative section of our survey, students were given an opportunity to articulate their perspectives on sport participation at Barker. 148 students responded, representing 64% of the survey participants. These responses provided rich, diverse insights and revealed several key themes in support of sports participation.

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S u p p o r t i v e T h e me s Health and Fitness

An overwhelming number of students recognised the integral role of sports in maintaining health and fitness. Their sentiments were encapsulated in comments like, "Sport is good for both physical and mental health" and "if the winter sport and the summer sport is compulsory, the fitness of the students would be better".

Social Interaction and Team Building

Many respondents value the social bonding and camaraderie fostered by sports participation. This was mirrored in statements such as "it allows students to keep active and encourage each other" and "it's still a positive 'rule' to allow students to gain the confidence and skills for when it comes to outside of school, making new friends, building respect and sportsmanship for strangers".

Personal and Skill Developm ent

Students also highlighted the importance of sports in personal growth and skill acquisition.

This sentiment was reflected in responses like, "provides important trust and team building experiences to help you later in life" and "sport should be compulsory because it contributes to the health and wellbeing of the student".

Enjoym ent and Engagem ent

A considerable number of respondents find sports enjoyable and feel a sense of engagement while participating. As one student expressed, "I think that everyone should definitely be doing sport at Barker to stay healthy and active, but it is also a lot of fun".

Potential for Flexibility

While students largely support sport participation, a few highlighted the need for flexibility within the program, particularly for those with other commitments or health issues.

Perceived Barriers to Sport Participation

When posed with an optional question about potential barriers to sport participation, 93 students (40.3%) responded.

Logistical Com plications

A group of students voiced concerns about logistical issues related to sports, such as scheduling conflicts, the requirement for early morning sessions, and the inconvenience of long trips for games. Comments like "Having sport at the same time as my siblings", "Training times often clash", and "extremely long trips" underline these issues.

Balancing Academ ics and Sports

Like previous data and subsequent themes, students across both groups expressed difficulties in managing academic responsibilities alongside sport commitments. Some

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students want more time to do homework or say that they struggle to complete homework due to sports commitments. This challenge was illustrated by comments such as "One difficulty I have with participating in sport is that because of it, I have no time to do homework."

Pressure and Negative Team Dynam ics

There were considerable concerns about the pressure to perform well in sports and the potential for adverse dynamics within a team. Statements like "The pressure to play well," and "Sometimes sport can be really unenjoyable if you have… teammates who will blame everything on you if the team messes up" reflect these concerns.

Discom fort

Both year groups mentioned the need for personal comfort and preference. Some students expressed discomfort with wearing standard sportswear, others wanted to participate in sports not currently in the suite offered by the school, and some suggested increasingly varied teams in some sports to better match skill levels.

External Com m itm ents

Balancing sports with other outside commitments, such as work, family activities, and other hobbies was a challenge raised by many students. This is evident in comments such as one student who chooses to participate in a sport in their own time; "my outside of school sport … clashes in with my sport at Barker and I always have to arrange different times."

Tim e Constraints

A recurrent theme from both groups was the perception of sports as time-consuming, leaving limited time for studying, relaxation, or other personal activities. This was reflected in comments like "time - as you get older it becomes more difficult to fit (it in with) study time, homework, outside activities, a job etc."

Subgr oup Anal ys i s Gender

The differences between male and female perspectives in a coeducational environment are vital to explore. The subgroup analysis revealed that physical health (52%) and social health (23%) were the aspects most influenced by sport among the female population, with mental health (19%) following closely as the third-most impacted aspect (Figure 6). Physical health (40.9%) and social health (30.4%) were the most impacted aspects of wellbeing in the male population (Figure 6).

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Figure 6

Questions that offered students the chance to share their thoughts on the nature of sport participation and perceived barriers highlighted some key differences among genders.

W eather Conditions

Interestingly, male students expressed more concern about adverse weather conditions affecting their sports participation. No such concerns were found in female responses. This suggests that weather conditions might disproportionately affect sports more commonly played by males, or that males might have a higher sensitivity to the weather impacts on their sporting activities.

Sport and Academ ic Clashes

Male students showed a heightened concern about the conflicts between sports and their academic schedules. This finding was less prevalent in the female responses, which might indicate that male students feel a stronger pressure to balance academic and sporting commitments, or that their training and fixtures might be more likely to clash with academic schedules.

Inclusion of Diverse Sports

Female students showed a preference for a more diverse range of sports, including individual and non-traditional ones. This perspective was less common among male students, suggesting that existing sports options might be perceived as less inclusive or appealing to female students.

Barriers to Participation

Females were more concerned about physical discomfort and self-consciousness, often associated with uniforms, and the impact of sports on personal time.

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Year Group

For Year 7 students, physical wellbeing was the most impacted by sport (45%), followed by social (23.9%) and mental wellbeing (19.3%) (Figure 7). 7.3% found sport not applicable to their wellbeing, and a minor group (4.6%) reported other aspects. In Year 10, physical wellbeing was reported as the most positively influenced by sport (40.2%) (Figure 7).

Additionally, 27.8% of students noticed a positive impact on their social wellbeing, and 18.9% saw benefits for their mental health. For 9% of students, sport was not relevant to their wellbeing.

Figure 7

Like the gendered analysis, questions that offered students the chance to share their thoughts on the nature sport and perceived barriers to sport participation highlighted some key differences between year groups.

Tim e M anagem ent and Academ ic Pressure

Both Year 7 and Year 10 students expressed concerns over balancing sports with schoolwork, but this issue was more pronounced among Year 10 students, who also voiced concerns about mental health and a need for more study time. This suggests increased academic pressure and complex schedules as students reach the senior school at Barker.

Choice and Preferences in Sports

Year 10 students a lower satisfaction with the variety of sports options and expressed a desire for more choice in sports participation. In contrast, Year 7 students were more concerned with age restrictions barring them from certain sports.

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Social Im pact

Year 10 students reported that sport was positively impacting their social life. Conversely, Year 7 students were more likely to report negative social experiences in team sports, which could suggest different social dynamics at play across the age groups.

Practical Concerns

Year 10 students voiced concerns about the travel distance to sport sessions, hinting at more practical barriers for senior students. Year 7 students, meanwhile, showed more discomfort in sports settings and mentioned issues with sibling schedule clashes, reflecting more immediate and personal concerns at a younger age.

Di s cus s i on The inquiry sought to explore the perceptions of Barker students towards sports programs and their impact on overall wellbeing. It also aimed to identify potential barriers to sports participation, with findings contextualised within current school sport attendance data for the past six months, providing a sound grounding for the analysis.

The findings confirmed a generally positive attitude towards sports participation across the different year levels and genders, with most students recognising sports' contribution to their wellbeing. This sentiment aligns with the existing body of literature advocating the positive health outcomes associated with physical activity (van den Berg et al., 2016; Wilson et al., 2022; Murphy et al., 2020), and Sabiston et al.'s (2016) research suggesting team sports may help reduce depressive symptoms during adolescence.

This positive view of sport and physical activity participation was reflected in the school's sport attendance data over the past six months, with high participation rates across year levels and genders. Specifically, the attendance rates were higher in Year 7 than in Year 10, likely indicating a slight increase in the barriers to participation as students’ progress through their academic years.

Limitations of the study must be acknowledged, including the fact that not all students responded to the survey, and the data primarily represents the views of students who were present and willing to complete the survey. Consequently, the perspectives of nonparticipating students may not be adequately captured, and further investigation may be necessary if significant changes to the existing sport programs were to be implemented.

Concl us i on The sports program at Barker College is generally perceived to enhance wellbeing. These findings provide valuable insights to aid regular reviews of the program. The data supports the importance of flexible, inclusive, and diverse sports programs that not only improve students' physical health and wellbeing but also align with their academic commitments and personal interests. Future research could include more qualitative data collection methods, such as interviews or focus groups, and longitudinal studies to track student attitudes and

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participation rates in sports over time, thereby providing a more comprehensive understanding of the evolving needs and aspirations of students.

Ref erences Bailey, R. (2006). Physical Education and Sport in Schools: A Review of Benefits and Outcomes. The Journal of School Health, 76(8), 397-401. ISSN: 0022-4391.

Bowker, A. (2006). The Relationship Between Sports Participation and Self-Esteem During Early Adolescence. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue Canadienne des Sciences du Comportement, 38(3), 214-229. ISSN: 0008-400X. Donaldson, S. (2006). The Effects of Sports Participation on Young Adolescents' Emotional Wellbeing.

Adolescence, 41(162), 369-389. ISSN: 0001-8449.

Eime, R. M., Harvey, J. T., Sawyer, N. A., Craike, M. J., Symons, C. M., & Payne, W. R. (2016). Changes in sport and physical activity participation for adolescent females: A longitudinal study. BMC Public Health, 16(1), 1-7.

Penedo, F.J. (2005). Exercise and wellbeing: A review of mental and physical health benefits associated with physical activity. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 18(2), 189-193. ISSN: 0951-7367, 1473-6578.

Piñeiro-Cossio, J., Fernández-Martínez, A., Nuviala, A., & Pérez-Ordás, R. (2021). Psychological Wellbeing in Physical Education and School Sports: A Systematic Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(3), 864. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18030864 Murphy, J., Sweeney, M. R., & McGrane, B. (2020). Physical Activity and Sports Participation in Irish Adolescents and Associations with Anxiety, Depression and Mental Wellbeing. Findings from the Physical Activity and Wellbeing (Paws) Study. Physical Activity and Health, 4(1), 107-119.

Sabiston, C. M., Jewett, R., Ashdown-Franks, G., Belanger, M., Brunet, J., O'Loughlin, E., & O'Loughlin, J. (2016). Number of Years of Team and Individual Sport Participation During Adolescence and Depressive Symptoms in Early Adulthood. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 38(1), 105-10. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.2015-0175 Steptoe, A. S., & Butler, N. (1996). Sports participation and emotional wellbeing in adolescents. The Lancet (British edition), 347(9018), 1789-1792.

Taras, H. (2005). Physical activity and student performance at school. The Journal of school health, 75(6), 214-218. ISSN: 0022-4391, 1746-1561.

The Aspen Institute. (2019). State of Play: Trends and Developments in Youth Sports. van den Berg, V., Saliasi, E., de Groot, R. H. M., Jolles, J., Chinapaw, M. J. M., & Singh, A. S. (2016). Physical Activity in the School Setting: Cognitive Performance Is Not Affected by Three Different Types of Acute Exercise. Frontiers in Psychology, 7(MAY), 723. Frontiers Media Sa. Wilson, O. W. A., Whatman, C., Walters, S., Keung, S., Enari, D., Rogers, A., Millar, S. K., Ferkins, L., Hinckson, E., Hapeta, J., Sam, M., & Richards, J. (2022). The value of sport: Wellbeing benefits of sport participation during adolescence. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(14), 8579. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148579

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We need to talk: Why agriculture needs to say more about the global issues it can help alleviate Scott Graham Head of Agriculture

Abs t r act There is a need for the agriculture sector to be proactive, upfront and be a significant part of the public conversation around how we alleviate climate change and food insecurity. A key role of agriculture education is to secure the future workforce to address these issues. Many current secondary students, in particular those of higher academic ability, place significant importance on a career path that includes altruistic or humanitarian aspects such as helping others and making a difference in the world.

They see the problems the world faces and often far from being despondent, they seek a future of helping solve them. Agriculture is a very attractive career path for these secondary students and the sector would do well to double down through loudly promoting its role in being a significant way to alleviate these big global problems.

I n t r od u c t i on The world is facing a series of concurrent and interwoven challenges that effect the natural world and all of us who live in it. Climate change and food security are increasingly significant issues that we cannot easily escape or avoid hearing about, even in the relative privilege afforded simply from living in Australia. As a country, we are one of the largest exporters of agricultural produce globally on a per capita basis, with around 72% of our total produce exported in 2023 (ABARES, 2023). We rank 1st globally for food affordability, and 22nd for overall food security (Economist Impact, 2022). Yet on the same index, Australia scores very poorly for food security policy, strategy and agency, as well as having high volatility of agricultural production relative to other nations (Economist Impact, 2022). Whilst this production volatility due to climatic factors in Australia might not come as a surprise, it is our relative wealth and significant exports which can be redirected domestically that allow us as a nation to have a very low prevalence of undernourishment, low percentage of children underweight (Economist Impact, 2022) and a very high Human Development Index of 0.951, placing us 5th of 191 nations (United Nations Development Program, 2022). Yet even in the relative abundance of available land and volume of agricultural produce that we are afforded in Australia, recent natural events such as the 2019-2020 ‘Black Summer’ bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic bring to front of mind the unavoidable and sometimes overpowering reality that climate change and food security are issues that even we

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Australians, maybe especially we Australians, need to deal with head-on. They are not abstract concepts for others to deal with alone. We as Australians may not have gone hungry during COVID-19, but we were made bluntly aware of how quickly specific foods which we have come to rely on and take for granted can become rapidly unavailable to us.

Agriculture as a sector, as the sole producer of food and the largest land-user, is uniquely placed to help alleviate both the issues of food security and climate change. Approximately 55% of land in Australia, or 427 million hectares, is used and managed for agricultural productive purposes (ABARES, 2023). At the same time, we face a dire shortage of students progressing onto agriculture-related degrees at university, and hence a shortage of agricultural professionals to help solve these very issues that the world faces and that the current generation of secondary students are convinced need action. Currently, in Australia there are at least 6 jobs per graduate from agriculture-related degrees at university (Pratley, 2016).

Concurrently, we know that young people of the current school-aged generation, especially those who are academically capable, often place significant importance in making career decisions to satisfy a desire to make a positive impact on society as well as a social responsibility to those around them and the wider world (YouthInsight, 2017). As the most connected generation who has ever existed, where it is easy for them to know what is going on across the world instantly, this may not be a surprise. However, this altruism as a factor in career choice is finding expression in the biggest challenges of our time. There are very few current high school students who need convincing that climate change is real. They have understood the science, seen the climatic records for temperature be surpassed year after year, seen the ‘once-in-100-years’ natural disasters happen in consecutive years, and hence feel that something needs to be done about it. Many see these issues as something they want to do something about.

C l i ma t e C h a n ge , F ood Se c u r i ty a n d A gr i c u l t u r e Whilst agriculture has always been on the front line of dealing with climatic factors, as a sector it has not always been seen publicly as acknowledging the reality of human-caused climate change. Even as recently as 2018, former federal agriculture minister, David Littleproud, stated that he didn’t “give a rats if it’s man-made or not” when referring to the changing climate (Graham, 2018). A traditionally conservative sector, it was only during the recent National Farmers Federation presidency of Fiona Simson that the sector itself came out ahead of even the coalition government of the time in acknowledging publicly that climate change is human-induced, that agriculture is on the front line of dealing with it, and that it is being proactive in meeting targets set for emissions reductions (Farm Tender, 2018).

Agriculture is indeed on the front lines of climate change, as a land user of 55% of Australia’s surface area, stretching to all parts of the continent. Climate change will make conditions tougher for Australian farmers. Indeed it already has, and they will need “significant adaptation responses”, although it will “vary considerably across farming regions and industries” (Hughes and Gooday, 2022). However agriculture, in particular through its use and custodianship of soil, can play a “major role in mitigating climate change” and has “huge potential to slow climate change” (UN Environment Programme ,2019).

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It may appear obvious that agriculture, as the sole provider of food, also has the most significant role in ensuring global food security. Whilst COVID-19 has brought food insecurity front-of-mind for most Australians, for many throughout the world, the inability to obtain adequate nutrition is a day-to-day or season-to-season reality. Instability of food prices, failed crops, pests and diseases as well as the afore-mentioned climatic variability, all lead to a significant minority of humans going without enough food daily. Whilst Australia is considered amongst the most food secure nations on the planet and “does not have a food security issue” (Duong, 2022), global instability such as conflicts on the other side of the world or global pandemics, can still affect food prices and availability in Australia, and that has a flow-on effect to food choices for Australians.

T h e d e s i r a b i li t y of a l tr u is t i c c a r e e r s To solve these concurrent and interlinked problems of climate change and food insecurity, agriculture needs a significantly increasing workforce of innovators, who apply their problem-solving skills in areas such as science, business, technology and engineering, to come up with solutions and technologies that will enable us to feed the global population adequately, whilst adapting to a different and ever-changing climate. Whether through new breeds of plants or animals, the creation of agricultural robots or more efficient agribusiness systems to improve food security amongst many other things, it is the innovation that will enable agriculture to alleviate these problems.

Older students in later secondary school commonly grasp the link between agriculture and these global problems, and many also have humanitarian and altruistic personalities and seek a career where they can satisfy these desires. YouthInsight (2017) undertook research looking into what motivates secondary students to consider choosing a career in the agriculture sector. In the research, two of the top four reasons for students considering a career in agriculture included “improving lives / the world” and “environment / sustainability”. Those who tended to have humanitarian and altruistic personalities desired careers in agriculture so they could “ensure the world doesn’t go hungry”, “improve practices to limit environmental impacts” and “use technology to improve the quality of our food and our society”. The research also showed that careers in any field that “positively impacts your community” were of very high importance to the majority of students surveyed.

C o n c l u s i o n a n d t h e w a y f o r w a r d f o r A g r i c u l t ur e It seems logically to follow, that agriculture as a sector needs to say more about these crucial issues of climate change and food security given it can be a key contributor to the solutions to these problems. Indeed, these issues cannot be solved without agriculture. Hence, it is imperative that the sector speaks loudly and very publicly on these issues and be clear that it is an avenue for aspiring students, to attract all range of graduates, including the best and brightest students, in the numbers required to solve the challenges the sector, and world, face.

Large numbers of secondary students are well aware of the big challenges the world faces.

They want to do something about them. Those with altruistic values can be easily drawn to

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a career in agriculture if they become aware of what the opportunities are, as it offers so many big challenges for them to solve professionally over the span of their careers.

These students are inherently future-focused. They think of where they will be in 10, 20, 40 years’ time when they will still be in the workforce. Agriculture has challenges ahead of it that are easily on this timescale and beyond. It is important therefore that the sector be public, upfront and very future focused with the challenges it faces. This will enable it to attract the students who are also thinking this way, and want to get involved in a sector that is thinking the same way and as far ahead as they are. If students can see their own selfvalues aligning with the values and challenges of a sector, then they can see themselves ending up with a career path in that sector. Agriculture is incredibly well placed to do this if it can be more upfront and public about it.

At Barker College over the past 15 years, Agriculture as a subject has been repositioned as a science-based subject which is very future-focused, demonstrating to the students, and the sector, that it has a role to play in confronting these issues. Over this time, enrolments have increased from 50 students in Years 9-12 in 2007 to 420 students in 2023. Time and again, we see a significant number of students coming through Agriculture at Barker College who are wanting to make a difference. Given that they grew up in Sydney, these students did not see agriculture as being something for them when they started high school.

However, when faced with the challenges and opportunities lying ahead, the students have seen a future in the sector, have progressed through to university agriculture-related degrees and beyond in large numbers, in order to try and make a difference in the world in their own way, through a career in agriculture (Graham, 2021).

R efer en ces ABARES (2023). Snapshot of Australian Agriculture 2023 - DAFF. [online] Agriculture.gov.au. Available at: https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/products/insights/snapshot-of-australianagriculture#around-72-of-agricultural-production-is-exported [Accessed 19 Sep. 2023].

Duong, C. (2022). Food security: the world is hungry for a solution. [online] UNSW Sites. Available at: https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2022/09/food-security--the-world-is-hungry-for-asolution [Accessed 13 Nov. 2023].

Economist Impact (2022). Global Food Security Index (GFSI). [online] Global Food Security Index (GFSI). Available at: https://impact.economist.com/sustainability/project/food-securityindex/explore-countries/australia [Accessed 28 Oct. 2023].

Farm Tender (2018). Full transcript for NFF president Fiona Simson’s address to the National Press Club. [online] Farm Tender. Available at: https://www.farmtender.com.au/prime-ag-news/full-transcript-fornff-president-fiona-simpson-s-address-to-the-national-press-club [Accessed 23 Oct. 2023].

Graham, B. (2018). Agriculture minister David Littleproud says he doesn’t ‘give a rats’ whether climate change is man-made. [online] news.com.au. Available at: https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/agriculture-minister-davidlittleproud-says-he-doesnt-give-a-rats-whether-climate-change-is-manmade/newsstory/3e8dcec55b6c832d679c9eed1ff4f523 [Accessed 23 Oct. 2023].

Graham, S. (2021). Untapped Potential: The Neglected Urban Interest in Secondary Agriculture.

International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education. [online] Available at: https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/CAL/article/view/14377/13763.

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Hughes, N. and Gooday, P. (2022). Climate change impacts and adaptation on Australian farms. [online] ABARES. Available at: https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/products/insights/climate-changeimpacts-and-adaptation#future-changes-in-climate-could-make-conditions-tougher-for-australianfarms [Accessed 6 Nov. 2023].

Pratley J (2016) Graduate supply for Agriculture-a glimmer of hope. Agricultural Science 2 8 (2), 13-16.

United Nations Development Programme (2022). Human Development Insights. [online] hdr.undp.org.

Available at: https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/country-insights#/ranks [Accessed 27 Oct. 2023].

United Nations Environment Programme (2019). The huge potential of agriculture to slow climate change. [online] UNEP. Available at: https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/huge-potential-agricultureslow-climate-change#:~:text=Soil [Accessed 10 Nov. 2023].

YouthInsight (2017). Developing student interest in the agriculture sector Final Report. [online] Shire of Manjimup. Available at: https://www.manjimup.wa.gov.au/repository/libraries/id:2dsd3ekxd17q9s83uxq6/hierarchy/SITE%20C OLLECTION%20DOCUMENTS/our-shire/SEED/mediareleases/documents/SEED_YouthInsight_%20DevelopingStudentInterestinAg_Dec2017.pdf [Accessed 27 Oct. 2023].

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The embodied pedagogy: Preliminary personal reflection of incorporating the Alexander Technique in string teaching Sheau-Fang Low Music Tutor - Violin

Abs t r act The Alexander Technique is a step-by-step process of mindful self-observation which provides a structured set of tools and insights to free instrumental teachers from established constraints and offers creative possibilities in teaching situation (de Alcantara, 2018; Madden, 2017). Such programs are important to respond to the myriad of challenges for instrumental teachers who combine performance and pedagogy skills, with behavioural management and managing employer expectations.

This article is a synthesis of constructive application of the Alexander Technique in string teaching. A more constructive pedagogy mindset was noted by the author, along with positive learning outcomes for students observed by school administrators and reported by parents. It is proposed that purpose-designed Alexander Technique classes have the potential to empower both teachers and students in making constructive and practical choices in teaching and learning scenarios.

Key Terms

Alexander Technique, Body Mapping

I nt r oduct i on Instrumental music teaching, whether in group or private settings, can be highly demanding.

As renown cello pedagogue Phyllis Young wrote: … string teaching is difficult… We are dealing with an art involving human beings, no two which are alike. A set of absolute rules that fits all does not exist, and new and unique problems will constantly arise no matter how many years of successful teaching experience one has.

Young (1997), p.5 Instrumental teachers need to combine performance and pedagogy skills with behavioral management and the expectations of parents and administrators. This combination can be

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stressful for everyone and have detrimental effects on personal wellbeing (Hanson, 2021).

When a teacher or student is stuck in entrenched habits of playing and teaching, this may also constrain the practical possibilities of the teacher and the performer (Kleinman & Buckoke, 2013).

The Alexander Technique (AT) is a step-by-step process of mindful self-observation discovered by F.M. Alexander. This can be learned through experiencing and discovering how our unconscious habits have interfered with our natural movements and hindered our constructive reactions (Alexander, 1985). This unique psycho-physical embodied approach provides a structured set of tools and insights to free a person from established constraints and offers creative possibilities in every situation. Example of this could be in a teaching situation for the teacher or a learning situation for the student. The successful application of AT by the teacher in constructive self-management can help preserve the aspiration to teach music and support a safe, creative, and joyful process in instrumental teaching (Madden, 2014; 2017).

Body Mapping (BM) is frequently used by AT teachers to provide an understanding of the anatomy involved in the movements required in action or to play an instrument. The body map is a person’s representation of the body in the brain. It provides the brain a more accurate picture of how the body is moving and facilitates ease of the action or movement (Conable, 2000). Some basic understanding of BM offers valuable insights into the various ways music students use their limbs and body in instrumental playing; which could enhance learning and minimise unnecessary physical tension in students’ instrumental performance.

Alexander observed that we move according to our body map, which is how we think we are structured rather than how we are actually structured.

When the body map is accurate, the movement dictated by the map will look and feel free, poised, easy and balanced. … [It] is comprised of three aspects: structure, function and size. That is what our body is like, what it does and how big it is. … errors [in body mapping] causing pain, injury and limitation Johnson (2009), p. 14

P a r a me t e r s o f t h i s a r t i c l e Personal -reflection method used for this article has been used in many social and cultural research studies. The author has kept notes on the constructive application of the AT in string pedagogy since she began the Alexander Technique teacher training course. These notes have included personal reflections on the process as well as observable positive learning outcome for the students. This article is a synthesis of these reflections which have also included several conference presentations at national level (Holdaway & Low, 2023; Low, 2022).

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Application of the Alexander Technique in string teaching and learning

In any teaching and performance scenario stress is often associated with a sense of having no choice but to battle on. This is particularly seen in in the experience of instrumental teachers in group teaching scenarios with its embedded behavioral challenges. Application of the AT by the teacher in challenging teaching situations offers the teacher opportunities for constructive change from the default habitual reaction, based on the decision to stop and think differently in those demanding. This practice relates to the core principles of the Alexander Technique: Inhibition – the prevention of undesirable states of mind and body and Direction – the new thinking that promotes improved functioning. The process empowers the person with choice, where constructive alternatives to usual or habitual reactions may emerge in the moment.

In several challenging teaching circumstances, application of the AT has enabled me to engage in self-observation and gained new coordination instead of my less conducive habitual reactions to the challenging teaching situations. As my constructive response to the situation was a new experience to the students, a novel learning milieu transpired for the students. In one particular year cohort, I was finding challenges ensuring all students were following class instruction due to a variety of individual and environmental factors. My habitual urge to discipline the students in order to manage the class dissipated, once I was able to apply the AT process in class by staying in presence with the students. Alexander made the discovery that improved Primary Control – the coordination of the head and spine relationship which governs the use of the whole self; has the potential for enhanced ease and positive engagement. When the head and spine is positively engaged, there is less physical-musculature tension and clearer mental state; which in turn allows the mind to respond in a more neutral manner, rather than the habitual narrowing of the fight - flight mode. I found myself being more responsive to students’ learning needs, rather than being confined to the rigidity of my lesson plan, thus stayed open to other ways of imparting the learning of violin playing skills to the students. The process thus empowered me with choice, where constructive creative teaching alternatives may emerge in the moment. This is the essence of a healthy attitude to teaching and learning.

Mental and physical states are intrinsically linked. Poise, balance and flexibility are associated with focused clear and engaged mental states. AT provides the learner with increased awareness on how the mind and body interact in activity, particularly when dealing with potentially stressful situations. Individuals are empowered with tools to enable self-care and to cultivate compassion. The AT process includes some exploration of the dynamic relationship between the head-torso, the arms-torso and the legs-torso in the context of the whole-self in activity. The term Faulty Sensory Awareness is often used by Alexander to infer a habitual way of doing things frequently feels correct and more comfortable; compares to the new and less familiar, though more efficient or advantageous pattern.

Often the struggles students experienced in performing certain musical passages or specific technique on the instrument, are the result of faulty Body Mapping (BM). It is not uncommon to see beginner violin/ viola players clamming their head on the violin/viola in a slum position with the instrument pointing towards the floor. Repeated requests for the students

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to hold up the instrument would induce undesirable tension and poor posture. Instead, basic understanding of BM, as well as the function of the axial skeleton, allows the teacher to guide the student in balancing the head delicately on top of the spine with ease, thus freeing the students’ arms for playing the instrument. When focusing on BM (which included information such as the whole arm consists of four parts, the wrist has two joints and each of the four fingers has four bones) rather than traditional posture reminders, I have found that students respond better as they could visualize the improved use of themselves. Once I worked it through with the students to acknowledge their Faulty Sensory Awareness, students were more likely to implement the positive changes with greater ease.

In other instances, string students have reported improved in tonal resonance through the application of the AT process. Some of these students could be classified as perfectionists who could suffer performance anxiety reporting losing control and/ or stiffness in performance. These students were provided with the AT framework with its embedded BM and guided AT process to consciously cooperation with the whole-self using a constructive mind-set. The improvement made by the students were noted by parents and conductors, which resulted in renewed enthusiasm for practicing and playing.

Concl udi ng t hought s The AT framework supports constructive and practical choices in dealing with stress and the practical demands of teaching and learning. The inclusion of the AT process in teaching has given the author a renewed perspective of working with students with diverse learning needs, as well as guiding students in achieving elite performance level in a more conducive learning milieu. Students experienced and gained some insights into the AT processes that they can experiment with in other areas of their life. This preliminary reflection espouses the findings of many previous studies that purpose-designed Alexander Technique classes have the potential to empower both teachers and students in making constructive and practical choices in teaching and learning scenarios, thus warranting further investigation.

Ref erences Alexander, F, 1985, The use of self (revised edition), Victor Gollancz.

Chance, J, 2013, Principles of the Alexander Technique: What it is, how it works and what it can do for you (2nd edition), Singing Dragon, London.

Conable, B, 2000, What every musician needs to know about the body: The practical application of Body Mapping and the Alexander Technique to making music, GIA Publication, Chicago.

Davies, J, 2019, ‘Alexander Technique classes improve pain and performance factors in tertiary music students’, Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies, vol. 24, no. 1, pp accessed 23 May 2019 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbmt.2019.04.006>.

De Alcantara, P, 2018, The integrated string player, Oxford University Press.

Hanson, J, 2021, ‘Research-to-resource: Confronting and overcoming music teacher burnout’, Applications of Research in Music Education, vol. 40, no. 1, pp 5-9, accessed 18 October 2022 < https://doi.org/10.1177/87551233211019999>.

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Holdaway, G, & Low, S, 2-3 July 2023, ‘Unleashed musical potential with BodyMinded thinking’, [conference presentation], ASME XXIV National Conference Music Unleashed, Sydney, accessed 30 October 2023 <https://www.asme.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ASME-2023-Abstractsbooklet.pdf> Johnson, J, 2009, What every violinist needs to know about the body, GIA Publications, Chicago.

Kleinman, J, & Buckoke, P, 2013, The Alexander Technique for musicians. Bloomsbury Blandine, London.

Low, S, (1-4 July 2022), ‘Coaching violin/ viola students to play with more ease’, [conference presentation], AUSTA National Conference Strings of Australia, Melbourne, accessed 30 October 2023, <https://www.austa.asn.au/nc22-sheau-fang-low/> Madden, C, 2014, Integrative Alexander Technique practice for the performing artists: Onstage synergy, Intellect, Bristol, UK. Madden, C, 2017, ‘Glimpsing the collaboratives: Alexander Technique teachers working with teachers of other disciplines’, in C Madden & K Juhl (eds), Galvanizing performance: The Alexander Technique as a catalyst for excellence, Singing Dragon, London, pp. 262 – 276.

Vineyard, M, 2006, How you stand, how you move, how you live. Da Capo Press, Cambridge.

Young, P, 1997, Playing the string game: Strategies for teaching cello and strings. Shar Publications, Michigan.

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The Power of Paws: Dog-Assisted Wellbeing Interventions on Student Motivation and Engagement in the School Setting Yvonne Howard Deputy Head of Junior School

Abs t r act Despite the recent increase in therapy dogs in schools in Australia and around the world, there is the scarcity of research and evidence regarding the impact of dogassisted wellbeing interventions on students. While the perceived positive benefits of these interventions have been acknowledged over time and shared in various contexts (e.g., Allied Health, n.d.), there is limited evidence to support their efficacy in the educational context. Therefore, further research is needed to advance our understanding of this type of intervention. This article summarises relevant research in order to conclude with an outlined research process to provide first-hand data on the impact of a dog-assisted wellbeing program in an Australian school.

K ey terms Dog-assisted well-being interventions, therapy dogs, human-animal bond, emotional support, student well-being, motivation, engagement, animal-assisted intervention

A n i m a l - A s s i s t e d I n t er v e n t i o n s The therapeutic integration of animals and their use in a variety of contexts have been explored over time. All therapeutic interventions in schools are designed to support the mental health and wellbeing of students. Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI) can take many forms and they are often tailored to meet specific needs of students (Meixner & Kotrschal, 2022). Animal-assisted interventions can utilise a range of animals including; fish, birds and farm animals. Dogs, horses and aquatic animals (dolphins) are most often used (Nimer & Lundahl, 2007). Dog-assisted interventions are increasingly being used in healthcare and social care due to the favourable impact (Lundqvist et al., 2017). Building on the findings of Nimer and Lundahl (2007), Harper et al. (2015) evaluate the role of using dog-assisted intervention in the postoperative recovery of patients after hip and knee arthroplasty. It was found that there was substantial improvement in pain scores in comparison to where there was no dog-assisted intervention. The implications of this study, whilst beyond the scope of the educational context, makes an important

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contribution to the existing literature on dog-assisted interventions and highlights the need for further research to understand the impact on wellbeing in the school setting.

As is evident from the extant literature, much research in animal-assisted interventions has taken place in clinical and health contexts, with minimal attention focused on educational settings (primarily in reading interventions e.g. Hall et al., 2016). Notwithstanding this, the emerging body of research examining the benefits of dogs in schools yields promising results and highlights an important area for continued research (Gee et al., 2007; Grove et al., 2021; Thelwell, 2019).

Trained and untrained therapy dogs have become a common sight in health care settings and educational settings in recent years. Dogs are the ultimate non-judgmental companions. According to Chandler (2012), animals encourage positive social interactions.

These interactions may enhance student motivation and engagement in the school setting.

T h e i mp or t a n c e of t h e h u ma n- a n i ma l b on d Human-animal interactions resulting in the human-animal relationship and human-animal bond are all terms used throughout the literature. Feeling close to an animal or pet is not uncommon (Hines, 2003). Walsh (2009) supports this and highlights that people who connect strongly with animals have an increased capacity for love, compassion and empathy. This is significant in a school context where a therapy dog is used as a dogassisted wellbeing intervention as it may help students form positive relationships with others, understand their feelings and perspectives therefore foster healthy relationships.

Humans' tendency to attribute human traits to their pets, known as anthropomorphism, strengthens the link between animals and people (Fine et al., 2019). Individuals establish a close emotional bond with a companion animal in mutual exchanges within the humananimal relationship throughout their lifetime. Whilst this relationship is not one that emulates that of a human-human one, it is one where animals can replace elements of human-relationships (Russow, 2002). This represents one possible mechanism by which dogs may enhance student wellbeing within schools.

According to research by Zilcha-Mano et al., (2011) humans and their pets may develop ties that are comparable to those between themselves and other people. Levinson & Mallon (1997) assert that those who view their animals as companions frequently consider being with their dogs to be a safe haven. It seems that therapy dogs may serve as an attachment figure for people who have not developed strong family ties (Levinson & Malon, 1997). A therapy dog is able to help a patient develop a closer relationship with a person (Rockett & Carr, 2014). Importantly, this suggests that the dog has helped facilitate a positive and meaningful interaction between the patient and individual. Therefore, potential dog-assisted wellbeing interventions in a school setting may assist students form stronger bonds with teachers, students and members of the community. Wells (2009) argues that “pets are good for us” (p.9). Whilst this is by no means a new phenomenon, the relationship between an animal and the physical wellbeing is a new field where only recently there has been any scientific interest.

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There has been a rise in interest throughout the past few decades in the notion of the human-animal relationship and identifying the ways in which this animal bond can impact the wellbeing of students. Therapy dogs are being utilised increasingly in a variety of settings particularly schools due to their perceived benefits (Meints et al., 2022). Meints et al., (2022) reveals that AAI have shown positive benefits in the school setting, by reducing stress in children evident in cortisol levels. Martin and Farnum (2002) reported similar results claiming that dog-assisted intervention has positive benefits on children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study discovered that children laughed more, indicating an uptick in energy and a brighter, more lively disposition. There was evidence of increased focus as the children maintained interest speaking less about unrelated topics when engaged in dog-assisted intervention.

Cortisol and oxytocin are two hormones that have been associated in relation to dogassisted interventions in schools. We still don't fully understand how social recognition works, even though scientists have some idea of where it occurs in the brain. The hormone oxytocin, sometimes known as the "hug" hormone, "love" hormone, or "cuddle" hormone, may be the missing piece to understanding the human-animal bond (Petersson et al., 2017). The many similarities between the effects of oxytocin and the effects of the human-animal interaction (HAI) are particularly apparent, and they support the idea that activating the oxytocin system may be a crucial mechanism behind the effects of HAI. Studies have shown that interacting with animals, particularly well-known dogs, can raise oxytocin levels in people. Female dog owners' plasma levels of oxytocin were dramatically raised after petting a dog, for three minutes (Handlin et al., 2011). Similar results were reported by Odendaal & Meintjes (2003) who discovered that caressing familiar dogs increased oxytocin levels more than touching unfamiliar ones. In summary, both animals and humans benefit from this relationship established when petting an animal, a question that needs to be asked is: ‘in what ways do cortisol and oxytocin levels change in humans during dog-assisted interventions in the school setting and what is the impact of these changes?”

Understanding and exploring the psychological processes behind all these interactions, particularly the role of hormones such as oxytocin and cortisol and its relationship to the impact of dog-assisted wellbeing interventions is an area of ongoing research (Petersson et al., 2017).

Therapy dogs may be beneficial to students’ wellbeing and motivation within the school setting. Dogs are as Wood (2016) describes; anyone’s best friend. They are affiliative, meaning they are excited to meet new people, yet not overly boisterous. Dogs have “become the world’s foremost experts on every type of human behaviour” (Millan and Pelletier, 2017, p15) and therefore dog companionship is consequently a good fit for humans. Therefore, a dog may have a positive impact on a student’s wellbeing as part of an appropriate intervention program. We know the positive benefits animals have in child development in educational settings due to the powerful connection. (Fine et al., 2019) Baird, Grove and Berger (2022) examined the impacts of therapy dogs on the Social and Emotional Wellbeing of Kindergarten to Year 12 students through a systematic review.

Social and emotional wellbeing includes a person’s behaviours, relationships, strengths

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and feelings. Therapy dogs are a wellbeing intervention which may have an ability to improve the social and emotional wellbeing of a student in an educational setting (Fedor, 2018; Henderson et al., 2020). The dog can become a vehicle for connection and positive and supportive relationships. Therapy dog work with children in a therapeutic context, (Friesen, 2010) nursing staff suggested that when students interacted with a therapy dog, a feeling of trust was created.

S t u d e n t W el l b e i n g The significance of student wellbeing within Australian schools cannot be overstated.

There exists a reciprocal relationship between students' school-related wellbeing encompassing attitudes and emotions toward school and their capacity to respond to changes in a positive manner. Therefore, emphasising that fostering both school-related wellbeing and adaptability can have educational benefits (Putwain et.al., 2020). The best way to understand wellbeing is as the interaction between internal and external influences and how a person reacts to these (OECD, 2014). The World Health Organisation defines health as “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 2023). These definitions provide a foundation for the educational context as well-being has a direct impact on the students’ academic performance and overall health. When learning is collaborative, centred on relationships and emotional processes, schools can be instrumental to student success (Durlak et al., 2011).

Consequently, schools are increasingly looking at ways to enhance wellbeing outcomes for students. Due to positive outcomes associated with animal-assisted interventions in non-educational contexts (Brelsford et al., 2017), recent interest in the implementation of animal-assisted interventions within educational settings has been seen within Australian schools. For example, Gee et.al., 2021 shares insights that dogs support human health and wellbeing through a biopsychosocial connection. It is this relationship of biological, psychological and social that is said to impact one another and therefore impact human wellbeing.

There has been growing interest in social and emotional learning and the positive role that therapy dogs may have to enhance learning outcomes for students. Social-emotional Learning refers to the process of learning social-emotional skills considered to be essential for success during the school years and later in life (Durlak et al., 2011). Students learn to manage emotions, have empathy, solve problems, make responsible decisions whilst maintaining healthy relationships (Lawlor, 2016) Whilst there are perceived benefits to incorporating dog-assisted wellbeing into the school setting there are also perceived risks including sanitation concerns, suitability of the dog temperament, school needs, school support and the dog's welfare (Grove et al., 2021).

Grove et al., provides valuable insights into guidelines and recommendations for the implementation of a therapy dog in an educational setting, it is important to acknowledge it is not a comprehensive investigation and further research is required.

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Dogs are suitable for human engagement because of their social nature (Prothmann et al., 2009). They are also very trainable in terms of assisting those who may require physical or emotional support. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that people who engage with a dog experience reduced levels of stress and anxiety (Trammell, 2017). The presence of a dog in the educational context has shown promising results in reducing anxiety and improving school attendance (Henderson et al., 2020 & Zents et al., 2017). These benefits encompass stress reduction, enhanced social interactions, and increased student engagement (Brelford et al., 2017).

A p p l i c a t i o n : R e v i ew i n g t h e i m p a c t o f a d o g - a s s i s t e d w e l l b ei n g i n t e r v e n t i o n i n a n Au s t r al i an s c h ool Over the past three years, Barker College (a co-educational, independent, PreK-12 school in Sydney, Australia) embarked on their own journey of introducing an authorised therapy dog named Peachy as an integral component of our wellbeing framework. Peachy's presence has sparked remarkable engagement, positive interactions, and discussions among students and staff alike. These observations, along with the literature presented in this paper, have ignited a curiosity to delve deeper into the effects of this initiative, prompting the interest to design and conduct a research study.

Preliminary reviews included an anonymous school-wide student survey. Comments from primary-aged students included: •

Seeing Peachy made me forget all the worries I had, all I could think of is how cute she was.

•

I saw Peachy making others happy, it made me feel happier that Peachy was having an impact on someone else's day.

•

Peachy sat on my lap and let me pat her, I felt calm and happy.

When contemplating the various dimensions of Peachy's role within the school environment, numerous intriguing questions have emerged. These questions pertain not only to the perceived direct impact of Peachy on students but also to the broader implications for the school community, ranging from different age groups' responses and ethical considerations surrounding animal-assisted interventions. Areas for investigation include: •

Interactions and impact on wellbeing

•

Efficacy of Peachy as a wellbeing strategy

•

Long term effect of Peachy over time as an intervention

•

Impact comparisons across age groups

•

Impact of reducing stress and anxiety

•

Student and staff perceptions

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•

Ethical considerations

therefore, this proposed study has two aims: 1.

To identify and test factors related to primary students’ and their teachers’ experiences with the school’s therapy dog (Peachy) and handler (the researcher).

This study will consider the influence of Peachy and the researcher (as a schoolbased wellbeing intervention) on variables such as subjective well-being, positive affect, motivation, and engagement.

2. To gather an evidence-base that can inform the effective implementation of a dogassisted intervention for the whole school (PreKindergarten to Year 12).

This research project design seeks to understand the perceptions of one dog-assisted wellbeing intervention on student motivation and affective engagement in a school setting. A mixed methods research design combining both quantitative and qualitative methods will help answer the proposed research questions.

The significance of this research project lies in its potential to contribute to the field of education and student wellbeing. By examining the impact of dog-assisted wellbeing interventions on student motivation and affective engagement, the research findings hope to inform the effectiveness and appropriateness of incorporating such interventions in schools.

R efer en ces Baird, R., Grové, C., & Berger, E. (2022). The impact of therapy dogs on the social and emotional wellbeing of students: a systematic review. Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 39(2), 180208. https://doi.org/http://doi.org/10.1080/20590776.2022.2049444 Brelsford, V. L., Meints, K., Gee, N. R., & Pfeffer, K. (2017). Animal-assisted interventions in the classroom—A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(7), 669. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14070669 Chandler, C. K. (2012). Animal assisted therapy in counseling. Routledge. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.4324/9780203832103 Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta‐analysis of school‐based universal interventions. Child development, 82(1), 405-432. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01564.x Fedor, J. (2018). Animal-assisted therapy supports student connectedness. NASN School Nurse, 33(6), 355-358. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602X18776424w Fine, A. H., Beck, A. M., & Ng, Z. (2019). The state of animal-assisted interventions: Addressing the contemporary issues that will shape the future. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(20), 3997. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16203997 Gee, N. R., Harris, S. L., & Johnson, K. L. (2007). The role of therapy dogs in speed and accuracy to complete motor skills tasks for preschool children. Anthrozoös, 20(4), 375-386. https://doi.org/10.2752/089279307X245509

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Gee, N. R., Rodriguez, K. E., Fine, A. H., & Trammell, J. P. (2021). Dogs supporting human health and well-being: A biopsychosocial approach. Frontiers in veterinary science, 8, 630465. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.6304655 Grove, C., Henderson, L., Lee, F., & Wardlaw, P. (2021). Therapy Dogs in Educational Settings: Guidelines and Recommendations for Implementation. Front Vet Sci, 8, 655104. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.655104 Handlin, L., Hydbring-Sandberg, E., Nilsson, A., Ejdebäck, M., Jansson, A., & Uvnäs-Moberg, K. (2011).

Short-term interaction between dogs and their owners: effects on oxytocin, cortisol, insulin and heart rate—an exploratory study. Anthrozoös, 24(3), 301-315. https://doi.org/0.2752/175303711X13045914865385 Harper, C. M., Dong, Y., Thornhill, T. S., Wright, J., Ready, J., Brick, G. W., & Dyer, G. (2015). Can therapy dogs improve pain and satisfaction after total joint arthroplasty? A randomized controlled trial.

Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®, 473, 372-379. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-014-39310 Hall, S. S., Gee, N. R., & Mills, D. S. (2016). Children reading to dogs: A systematic review of the literature. Plos one, 11(2), e0149759. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149759 Henderson, L., Grové, C., Lee, F., Trainer, L., Schena, H., & Prentice, M. (2020). An evaluation of a dogassisted reading program to support student wellbeing in primary school. Children and Youth Services Review, 118, 105449. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105449 Hines, L. M. (2003). Historical perspectives on the human-animal bond. American Behavioral Scientist, 47(1), 7-15. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764203255206 Lawlor, M. S. (2016). Mindfulness and social emotional learning (SEL): A conceptual framework.

Leos, R. A., Cuccaro, P. M., Herbold, J. R., & Hernandez, B. F. (2023, March). School Parent Attitudes and Perceptions Relating to Animals, Animal-Assisted Interventions, and the Support of Children’s Mental Health. In Healthcare (Vol. 11, No. 7, p. 963). MDPI. https://doi./10.3390/healthcare11070963.

Levinson, B. M., & Mallon, G. P. (1997). Pet-oriented child psychotherapy. Charles C. Thomas: Springfield, IL, USA. Martin, F., & Farnum, J. (2002). Animal-assisted therapy for children with pervasive developmental disorders. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 24(6), 657-670. https://doi.org/10.1177/019394502320555403 Meints, K., Brelsford, V. L., Dimolareva, M., Maréchal, L., Pennington, K., Rowan, E., & Meixner, J., & Kotrschal, K. (2022). Animal-Assisted Interventions With Dogs in Special Education-A Systematic Review. Frontiers in psychology, 2660. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.876290 Millan, C., & Peltier, M. J. (2017). Cesar Millan's Lessons from the Pack: Stories of the Dogs who Changed My Life. National Geographic Books.

Nimer, J., & Lundahl, B. (2007). Animal-assisted therapy: A meta-analysis. Anthrozoös, 20 (3), 225–238. https://doi.org/10.2752/089279307X224773 Odendaal, J. S., & Meintjes, R. A. (2003). Neurophysiological correlates of affiliative behaviour between humans and dogs. The Veterinary Journal, 165(3), 296-301. https://doi.org/10.1016/s10900233(02)00237-x Petersson, M., Uvnäs-Moberg, K., Nilsson, A., Gustafson, L.-L., Hydbring-Sandberg, E., & Handlin, L. (2017). Oxytocin and cortisol levels in dog owners and their dogs are associated with behavioral patterns: An exploratory study.

Frontiers in psychology, 8, 1796. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01796

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Prothmann, A., Ettrich, C., & Prothmann, S. (2009). Preference for, and responsiveness to, people, dogs and objects in children with autism. Anthrozoös 22, 161–171.

Putwain, D. W., Loderer, K., Gallard, D., & Beaumont, J. (2020). School‐related subjective well‐being promotes subsequent adaptability, achievement, and positive behavioural conduct. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(1), 92-108. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12266 Rockett, B., & Carr, S. (2014). Animals and attachment theory. Society & Animals, 22(4), 415-433. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-12341322 Russow, L.-M. (2002). Ethical implications of the human-animal bond in the laboratory. ILAR journal, 43(1), 33-37. https://doi.org/ 10.1093/ilar.43.1.33 Thelwell, E. L. (2019). Paws for thought: A controlled study investigating the benefits of interacting with a house-trained dog on university students mood and anxiety. Animals, 9(10), 846. https:// doi.org/10.3390/ani9100846 Trammell, J. P. (2017). The effect of therapy dogs on exam stress and memory. Anthrozoös, 30(4), 607621. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2017.1370244 Walsh, F. (2009). Human‐animal bonds I: The relational significance of companion animals. Family process, 48(4), 462-480. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1111/j.1545-5300.2009.01296.x Wells, D. L. (2009). The effects of animals on human health and well‐being. Journal of social issues, 65(3), 523-543. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2009.01612.x Wood, S. (2016). Anyone’s best friend: A qualitative exploration of the positive influences of animal assisted therapy on mental health and well-being.

World Health Organisation., (2023). The Global Health Observatory. Retrieved 24.4.2023 from https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/major-themes/health-and-well-being Zents, C. E., Fisk, A. K., & Lauback, C. W. (2017). Paws for intervention: Perceptions about the use of dogs in schools.

Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 12(1), 82-98. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1080/15401383.2016.1189371 Zilcha-Mano, S., Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2011). An attachment perspective on human–pet relationships: Conceptualization and assessment of pet attachment orientations. Journal of Research in Personality, 45(4), 345-357. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2011.04.001

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An overview of Giftedness: transforming potential through responsive teaching

Susanna Matters Coordinator of Gifted and Talented, Junior School

Abs t r act Within the Barker Community, giftedness is identified and supported as students progress through their schooling. This article will provide an overview of key concepts in the field of gifted education which are put into practice at Barker. In doing so, it presents an opportunity to clarify a common misconception about the experiences and characteristics of gifted and talented students. In popular culture, the term ‘gifted and talented’ is often limited to an understanding that elite opportunities are offered to a very select number of students. This narrow interpretation places an unhelpful emphasis on high levels of performance, concentrating on the notion of success rather than that of meaningful, individualised learning. At Barker, gifted education takes a holistic approach with a focus on differentiated practice and harnessing student strengths to enable fulfilling learning experiences.

G i f t e d o r T a l e n t e d?

In the field of gifted education, an important distinction is made between natural aptitudes and their realisation as achievements. This differentiation between giftedness and talent is the premise of Gagné’s Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (DMGT, 2013) which informs both NSW Department of Education policy and Barker’s approach to gifted education. According to the DMGT (2013), giftedness refers to the ‘possession and use of outstanding natural abilities or aptitudes, in at least one ability domain, to a degree that places an individual at least among the top 10 per cent of age peers’. Talent, however, refers to ‘the outstanding mastery of systematically developed abilities (or skills) and knowledge in at least one field of human activity to a degree that places an individual at least among the top 10 per cent of age peers’ (Gagné, 2013). Gagné (2013) proposes that ‘gifts’ must be developed into talents through learning activities which are catalysed through intrapersonal, environmental and chance factors.

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N.B. 90 per cent of identified gifted students

B e h a v i ou r s Achieves Seeks teacher approval Avoids risks Doesn’t go beyond syllabus Accepts and conforms Chooses safe activities High grades Consumes knowledge

Expresses impulses Challenges teacher Questions rules Honest and direct Emotional May have poor self-control Creative expression Perseveres with interests and passions Stands up for convictions May be in conflict with peers Devalues/denies talent Drops out of extension programs Rejects challenges Moves peer groups Disconnected to teacher/class Unsure of direction

F e e l i n g s an d A t t i t u d e s

Complacent Dependent Good academic self-concept Fear of failure Extrinsic motivation Self-critical Works for the grade Unsure about the future Eager for approval Sees ability as a fixed trait

Highly creative Bored and frustrated Fluctuating self-esteem Impatient and defensive Heightened sensitivity Uncertain about social roles Strong motivation to follow inner convictions Wants to right wrongs Tolerates ambiguity Energetic Desire to belong Feel unsure and pressured Inner conflict, feelings of insecurity and guilt Diminished sense of self Ambivalent about achievement View some achievement behaviours as betrayal of their social group

Not liked by teachers Viewed as rebellious – want them to conform Engaged in power struggle Creative Discipline problems Entertaining to peers Don’t view them as gifted Underestimate their success

Viewed as leaders or simply unrecognised Seen as average and successful Compliant Quiet/shy Resistant Unwilling to take risks Freedom to make choices Conflicts to be made explicit Support for abilities Gifted peer network Role models who cross cultures Skills to assist in moving between social groups and contexts Self-understanding Acceptance/To be heard

Liked by teachers Admired by peers Over-estimate their abilities Believe they will succeed on their own

A d u l t / Pe e r Pe r c e p t i o n s

To be connected with others To learn tact, flexibility, selfawareness and self-control To feel creativity is supported Contractual systems Less pressure to conform To learn interpersonal skills which affirm others

To be challenged To see deficiencies To take risks To understand themselves as learners To learn assertiveness skills To develop an understanding of creativity

N e ed s

Betts and Neihart (1988, 2010) developed six learner profiles to assist educators and parents in understanding the feelings, behaviours and needs of gifted and talented students. These profiles provide a holistic overview; they do not seek to differentiate these learners according to their abilities, talents or interests. These profiles can be used to aid the identification of gifted and talented students and for the development of appropriate educational goals.

Gifted and Talented Learner Profiles

T h e Su c c e s s f u l

The Creative

The Underground

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The At-Risk

The Twice Exceptional

B e h a v i ou r s Creates crises/disruptions Thrill seeking Motivated by relationships Intermittent attendance Interests outside school Low academic achievement May self-isolate Creative Critical of self and others Inconsistent productivity Makes connections easily Inconsistent productivity Academically average/below Similar to younger students in some social/emotional functioning May be disruptive/off task Good problem solving Conceptual thinking Enjoys novelty and complexity Disorganised May not cope with gifted peers Slow in information processing Appropriate social skills Works independently Sets SMART goals Seeks challenge Strongly self-directed Follows areas of passion Good self-regulators Stands up for convictions Resilient Produces knowledge Possesses understanding and acceptance of self

F e e l i n g s an d A t t i t u d e s

Resentful and angry Depressed Reckless and manipulative Poor self-concept Defensive Unrealistic expectations Not accepted Resists authority Not motivated by teacher rewards

Learned helplessness Intense anger/frustration Mood disorders Poor academic self-concept Uncertain of belonging Prone to discouragement

Self-confident Self-accepting Sees ability as fluid and malleable Optimistic Intrinsically motivated Ambitious and excited May not view academics as highest priority Willing to fail and learn from the experience Shows tolerance and respect for others

Support Advocacy for new directions Feedback about strengths and possibilities Facilitative, ongoing relationships Support for risk-taking

A strengths-based approach Coping strategies Skill development Monitoring for additional disabilities – especially ADHD To learn to persevere Self-advocacy skills

Safety and structure Individualised programs Confrontation and accountability Choice Inner purpose and goal setting Counselling

N e ed s

Admired and accepted Capable and responsible Positive influences and peer relationships Successful in diverse environments

Requires too many learning adjustments Underestimated for their potential Seen as not belonging in gifted programs Seen only for their disability Seen as unusual/’weird’ Seen as helpless

Angers adults Peers are judgmental Troubled Irresponsible Rebellious May be afraid of them May be afraid for them Adults feel powerless to help them

A d u l t / Pe e r Pe r c e p t i o n s

Table 1: Reference: Betts, G.T., & Neihart, M. (1988). Profiles of the Gifted and Talented. Gifted Child Quarterly, 32 (2), pp. 245-247.

The Autonomous Learner

D o m a i n s o f g i f t e d n es s Gagné’s (2013) model goes on to classify nature abilities or ‘gifts’ under broad categories called domains. The domains are intellectual, creative, social, perceptual and physical (Gagné, 2013). These domains can be linked to emerging talents. For example, one who shows potential in the creative domain might go on to demonstrate competency in the arts.

Barker staff recognise that students may have potential in one or several domains. As such, a whole school approach to identifying and supporting gifted students is used to ensure specialist staff and resources can be allocated to supporting the emergence of talent in specific fields.

Le ve l s of gi f t e d n e s s Within the intellectual domain, Gross (2000) observes there are different levels of giftedness.

These levels are mildly gifted, moderately gifted, highly gifted, exceptionally gifted, and profoundly gifted. This is an important consideration for educators when designing learning experiences for students. Typically, students within the mildly gifted range can be catered for in the classroom through quality differentiated teaching strategies. However, a student in the moderately-highly gifted range benefits from targeted intervention programs such as small group work and a compacted curriculum. Students within the exceptionally and profoundly gifted range require acceleration programs.

While levels of giftedness are based upon psychometric scores, it is important to acknowledge that best practice in gifted education demands a multiple-criteria approach to the identification of students. This approach is employed at Barker through the use of broad screening tools such as standardised assessment, above level testing, parental nominations, teacher nominations, peer nominations, self-nominations, and the use of work samples. Once students are identified, it is useful to consider their needs and strengths according to Betts and Neihart’s (1988) profiles of the gifted and talented. According to this research, gifted and talented students present in six distinct ways: the successful, the creative, the underground, the at-risk, the twice exceptional and the autonomous learner (see Table 1).

T e a c h i n g a n d l e a r n i n g f or gif te d l e a r n e r s An individualised pathway through curriculum can be designed for students once they have been identified as gifted. A vertical pathway focuses on progressing through content at a faster pace because mastery has already been demonstrated. Common vertical pathways include acceleration and curriculum compaction. An alternative means to traverse the curriculum is called a horizontal pathway. A horizontal pathway focuses on transdisciplinary connections and developing a deep, conceptual understanding of curriculum areas. It requires the broad application of knowledge and skills. Within either pathway, teaching and learning is dynamic and responsive to student strengths. Gifted students particularly benefit from complexity, challenge, and choice in their learning alongside opportunities to think

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critically and creatively, and to work at a faster pace. In making these adjustments, educators aim to create conditions for students to experience ‘flow’ – an optimal state of engagement (Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi, 2002).

Gifted education seeks to ensure that ability is well-aligned with opportunities to grow talent in a setting where a child’s needs can be met holistically. However, recent research on ‘transformational giftedness’ suggests an accompanying objective (Sternberg et al., 2021).

When one has found their purpose in life and is directing their advanced abilities towards positive improvement for society, this is said to be ‘transformational giftedness’ (Sternberg et al., 2021). Ultimately, at Barker, research-based practice in gifted education aims to support such a transformation for gifted and talented students.

If you would like to know more about the support available for gifted and talented learners at Barker, please contact Susanna Matters (Gifted and Talented Coordinator – smatters@barker.nsw.edu.au).

R efer en ces Betts, G.T., & Neihart, M. (1988). Profiles of the Gifted and Talented. Gifted Child Quarterly, 32 (2), pp.

245-247.

Gagné, F. (2013). The DMGT: Changes within, beneath and beyond. Talent Development and Excellence, 5, 5 – 19.

Gross, M. U. M. (2000.). Exceptionally and Profoundly Gifted Students: An Underserved Population | Hoagies’ Gifted. https://www.hoagiesgifted.org/underserved.htm Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2002). The concept of flow. Handbook of positive psychology, 89, 105.

Sternberg, R.J., Chowkase, A., Desmet, O., Karami, S., Landy, J. & Lu, J. (2021). Beyond Transformational Giftedness. Educational Sciences, 11 (192) pp 1 – 9.

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Who, what, why, how? Four questions all teachers should ask about gifted education Amanda Eastman Christian Studies Teacher

A b st r a c t A common myth amongst parents and educators is that gifted students will be fine on their own, which results in school resources being directed elsewhere. This article explores why this myth is untrue and unhelpful. It addresses four key questions aimed to dispel misconceptions and help teachers develop their understanding of gifted learners. It investigates common characteristics of and challenges faced by gifted learners, highlighting progress that has been made in this area at Barker College and culminating in recommended strategies for individual teachers.

In tr od ucti on It is commonly assumed that gifted students will flourish regardless of whether they receive targeted interventions (Cooper, 2009; Moon, 2009). Historically, struggling students have been seen as a higher priority, while teachers presume that gifted students do not need additional support (Jarvis and Henderson, 2012). However, decades of research and declining international test results converge to suggest that this assumption is both fictitious and potentially damaging. This misconception has led to many gifted learners disengaging, underperforming and experiencing a range of socio-emotional challenges (Siegel et al., 2017; Fonseca, 2010). According to Reis (2009), “their ability is no guarantee of success, as gifted students may become bored, underachieve and drop out of school if the learning environment fails to meet their need” (Henderson and Jarvis, 2016, p.65). Consequently, their talent may not be fully developed and society does not capitalise on their potential.

Therefore, rather than assuming gifted students will be fine, teachers need to investigate ways to support them and maximise their capabilities. Firstly, teachers should be able to identify gifted students through knowing and understanding their characteristics. Secondly, they should be familiar with overarching policy documents and their implications for individual schools. Thirdly, they should recognise the potential risks facing gifted students whose needs are not met and fourthly, they should have a toolkit of strategies to employ in the classroom. This document frames these four needs as essential questions teachers should ask about gifted learners, in order to inform and upskill teachers at various stages of their career.

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Questi on 1: Wh o a r e gi fted stud en ts?

C h a r a c t e r is t ic s Gifted students are not necessarily the top achieving children in the class, so should not be identified by marks alone. Gifted individuals are often characterised by curiosity, critical thinking, advanced memory and prompt or precocious acquisition of new knowledge and skills. Giftedness can occur across multiple domains and there is also a wide variation between levels of giftedness (Callahan et al., 2017). However, giftedness is not synonymous with talent. It refers to raw aptitude (giftedness) rather than measurable achievement (talent).

This distinction is clarified in Figure 1: Gagne’s Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (DMGT) which has been widely adopted in Australian contexts (Gagne, 2009). Achievement, or high test scores, can be a sign of coaching or drilling rather than innate ability. There may be gifted children whose ability has not been developed due to environmental or intrapersonal factors, so it is important for teachers to understand gifted characteristics without relying on marks alone.

Figure 1: Gagné’s Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (Gagné, 2009)

C h a lle n g e s Teachers ought to understand that giftedness does not solely have positive manifestations.

In fact, many gifted attributes can present in either positive or negative ways. McLeod (2018) provides an extensive list of desirable traits, but suggests that “these same characteristics and factors may also prove to be inhibitors of success, particularly when the learning environment does not accept or foster individual difference” (p.2). These potential difficulties are outlined in Callahan (2017), some of which has been capture in Figure 2. For

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example, flexible thought processes may be perceived as ‘disruptive’ and ‘disrespectful,’ or evaluative thinking may lead students to be overly critical of others. Furthermore, gifted students may exhibit perfectionistic tendencies leading to work refusal. Gross (2004) also suggests that an overly developed sense of justice can lead to rebelling against perceived hypocrisy. Thus, gifted students will not always be model students. There are a range of reasons why gifted students could have difficulty adjusting to the classroom environment, such as developmental asynchrony (Silvermann, 2002); inadequate engagement (McLeod, 2018) or even a second exceptionality.

Figure 2: Characteristics and associated challenges (Callahan, 2017)

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Ide nt ificat io n A definitive way to confirm giftedness is through an Intelligence Quotient test such as the WISC-IV (Rimm et al., 2018). Some students will come to school with a psychologist’s report and recommendations from IQ testing. However, such reports are expensive to acquire and should not be considered the sole means of identifying gifted children, as this may exclude gifted students from diverse socio-economic or cultural backgrounds. Barker College triangulates a range of other identification processes, in line with research which shows that multidimensional strategies are most effective (Rimm et al., 2018). These include aptitude tests, off-level tests, parent nomination and teacher observations. Consequently, teachers need to understand the diverse manifestations of giftedness and processes are underway to build teacher awareness and capacity. Overall it is helpful to remember that: Giftedness is not what you do or how hard you work. It is who you are. You think differently. You experience life intensely. You care about injustice. You seek meaning.

You appreciate and strive for the exquisite. You are painfully sensitive. You are extremely complex.

Silverman (2012)

Questi on 2: Wh a t d o th e p ol icy d ocumen ts sa y?

The Australian Curriculum identifies gifted students as having special needs that ought to be met through targeted provisions (ACARA, 2016, v.8.2). This directly dispels the myth that gifted students will be fine on their own and gives momentum to the national drive to improve gifted education. Within the document, the general capabilities shown in Figure 3 provide a springboard for facilitating higher-level thinking and developing successful, confident and creative learners.

Figure 3: General capabilities across the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2016)

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In the absence of a federal mandate or funding, the onus for improving gifted education lies with states and territories. Each state has a policy which recommends differentiation and ability grouping, but individual responsibility remains with specific schools (Walsh & Jolly, 2108). The NSW Government (2019) has developed the High Potential and Gifted Education Policy, which outlines five key actions to improve the experience of gifted learners (Figure 4). Whilst this may provide a helpful framework for schools, the uptake appears to be gradual and inconsistent. It is promising that gifted education is gaining more prominence but it is imperative that this engenders genuine attempts to build teacher capacity. This should also be a priority at tertiary education level.

Figure 4: NSW Government 2019

Another potential issue with policy documents is that they are largely theoretical but lacking in practical applications. For example, “it is unclear how the DMGT’s representation of myriad factors influencing talent development should (or could) be translated unto specific educational practices in school settings” (Henderson and Jarvis, 2016, p.63). Policy needs to be accompanied by support for schools, including professional learning opportunities and relief time for developing effective programs.

Jarvis and Henderson (2012) articulate the need for individual schools to have their own practical and well-informed mission and vision for gifted education. Jung and Worrell (2017) elaborate on this to suggest that “such a mission and vision will need to be accompanied by an understanding of giftedness among the staff at the school, the development of a school-wide strategy for the identification of gifted students, and the development of a coordinated set of educational interventions” (p.588). Barker College undertakes ongoing refinement of their policy, which draws on the research and strategies below.

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Questi on 3: Wh y i s i t i mp or ta n t to ma k e pr ovi si on s for gi fted stud en ts?

Risk facto rs Repeated Senate Inquiries in 1988 and 2001 have found gifted education in Australia to be lacking (Commonwealth of Australia, 2001). These findings have been slow to translate into tangible improvements in the classroom. “At the level of individual schools, the literature suggests that there may be a general lack of focussed or coherent educational opportunities for most gifted students.” (Jung and Worrell, 2017, p.588). Gifted students with unmet needs can become bored and frustrated, developing poor work ethic and even sometimes dropping out (Rimm, 2003; Rimm et al., 2018). Academic disengagement can also lead to social vulnerability and poor self-concept. In contrast: …gifted and talented students benefit from learning experiences that enable them to access more advanced content, work through material at a faster pace, and systematically develop their academic interests through individually-tailored experiences.

Henderson & Jarvis (2016), p.62 So cio -emot io nal vu lne rabilit ie s Scholars differ in their views on the ubiquity of emotional vulnerability amongst gifted populations. Some gifted students appear to be well-adjusted (Robinson, 2008), although it could be argued that the selection criteria for such studies led to skewed results.

Regardless of whether all gifted students are inherently vulnerable, there is no doubt that this is true for some, and therefore their emotional needs deserve careful consideration.

Gifted students are not homogenous, and no student will exhibit all of the potential characteristics, but there is enough research to suggest that when their needs are not met, gifted students can display maladaptive behaviours, emotional dysregulation or social isolation (Jung and Worrell, 2017). These outcomes can improve when students are connected to others through extra-curricular activities and community engagement. EddlesHirsch et al. (2012) found that social-emotional support was as integral as academic adjustments. Professional learning in schools should extend to counselling departments to ensure that students receive adequate socio-emotional support as required.

Unde rachie ve me nt Underachievement is common when gifted students do not receive the individualised support they need in order to flourish. As seen in the DMGT (Figure 1), certain developmental processes are required to develop potential into talent. The Revised Profiles of the Gifted and Talented (Betts & Neihart, 2010) are helpful for identifying characteristics of underachieving gifted learners. For example, underachieving students may suffer from boredom, frustration, impatience, mood disorders, heightened sensitivity and low selfesteem. These alarming manifestations create a strong impetus to improve classroom practices for gifted learners. Reassuringly, Reis (2009) integrates findings from a number of studies to show that gifted interventions can reverse underachievement. For example, atrisk underachievers can benefit from individualised programs, professional counselling, mentoring and advocacy (Betts & Neihart, 2010).

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Tw ice -e xce pt io nal le arne rs A specific subset of potentially underachieving students deserves more attention here.

Misset (2018) defines twice-exceptional students as those who “simultaneously show evidence of high performance or potential in a domain of talent and also have a disability that impacts their ability to achieve and learn” (p.361). These students may be difficult to identify as the giftedness and disability can have a masking effect on each other. To assist with identification, Silverman (2009) recommends focusing on cognitive strengths often associated with twice-exceptional learners, such as verbal fluency, visual spatial skills and divergent thinking. There may be a disconnect between these skills and others, such as processing speed, working memory or writing skills. Common disabilities which may present concurrently with giftedness are Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Specific Learning Disabilities (SLDs). It is worth knowing that these conditions may present differently in students with high IQ when compared to the general population.

To assist twice-exceptional learners, most researchers recommend a bifold approach – providing accommodations to address the disability and providing opportunities for their strengths to be utilised and developed. This involves avoiding deficit thinking and gathering information on the student’s strengths, interest and talents. Baum et al. (2014) suggest a third key principle for working with twice exceptional students – flexible assessment which accounts for asynchronous bursts of development. Furthermore, Nicpon et al. (2010) emphasise the need to create supportive and inclusive environments, where educators “explicitly model accepting and affirmative behaviour toward the twice-exceptional student so that this strengths-based model can be actualized” (p.15). For example, some adjustments may involve providing a student who has ASD with reading material focusing on their specific area of interest or segmenting tasks into manageable chunks for a student with ADHD.

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Questi on 4 : How sh oul d g i fted l ea rn er s b e ca ter ed for in th e cla ssr oom?

Te ache r qu alit ie s Despite the need for gifted learners to receive differentiated instruction, time constraints often lead teachers to cater only to the ‘average’ learner (Lassig, 2009). If teachers are still reluctant to allocate time and resources to gifted students, they should be aware that many of the strategies recommended for gifted students in this document have the capacity to benefit all students and positively impact overall achievement rates (VanTassal-Baska, 2003).

These include problem-solving approaches and inquiry-based learning. Reis (2009) also supports the idea that enrichment strategies benefit both gifted learners and other students alike. Therefore, teachers need not fear that accommodating the needs of gifted students will disadvantage others. Furthermore, there are certain attitudes and approaches that can be developed to creative supportive and engaging environments. A checklist of desirable teacher qualities can be found in Figure 5.

Figure 5: synthesised from The Centre for Gifted Education (1998, as cited in VanTassal-Baska, 2003) and Feldhusen et al. (1997).

St rat e gie s Rogers (2007) identifies five provisions that gifted students should experience everyday.

These are daily challenge, acceleration options, independent learning assignments, socialisation opportunities and differentiated curriculum. Jung and Worrell (2017) elaborate on these strategies, including additional ideas such as ability grouping, academic competitions, mentorships, extension and enrichment activities. These approaches are offered in various ways at Barker College, with the offerings increased in 2023 to include a pilot withdrawal program for Year 7 students. However, given the high percentage of gifted learners at various schools including Barker College, gifted strategies should be understood and utlised by all teachers, not just reserved for special programs. Some specific strategies have been summarised in Figure 6, with further explanations adapted from VanTassal-Baska (2003).

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Figure 6: VanTassal-Baska (2003)

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P acing – moving at a rate that matches the student’s cognitive speed and limiting repetition (with deliberate slowing for deep thinking at targeted points).

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Inqu iry – promoting high level thinking through investigating problems.

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Qu est ioning te chnique s – eliciting higher order thinking through probing questions, which may be convergent, divergent, or evaluative.

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P ro ble m so lving – using stages such as fact finding, problem identification, idea generation, solution finding and action plans.

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P ro ble m-base d learning – presenting students with real world problems to investigate in groups. It “heightens both the complexity of the tasks and the motivation of the learners” (VanTassal-Baska, 2003).

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B iblio t he rapy – encouraging the student to read books where the protagonist faces problems relatable to their own experience (e.g. perfectionism, understanding differences, social skills).

Furthermore, Sternberg & Williams (1996) suggest a range of strategies to develop creative thinking, which can often be undervalued or pushed aside to accommodate a content heavy curriculum. For example, they recommend building self-efficacy so students are confident to take risks and push the limits of their potential. It is also important to find ways to value and reward creativity, rather than just recollection of information.

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When planning for individualised learning, pre-testing is a desirable way to identify what students already know and avoid repeating content unnecessarily. It can also be used to identify particular interest areas within a topic which could form the basis of personal interest projects. Pre-testing can also be used to inform streaming or arrange ability groups, however it should be used in conjunction with other identification processes.

Acce le rat ion There will be cases where streaming and differentiation are not enough to meet the individual needs of highly or profoundly gifted students. Feldhusen (1993) identifies how accommodations should escalate in correlation with increasing levels of giftedness. For example, enrichment in a regular classroom might suffice for a mildly gifted student.

Meanwhile a highly gifted student may require subject acceleration, and an exceptionally gifted student would benefit from radical acceleration. Misconceptions around acceleration seem to have bred reluctance in some school settings, but the research can help to dispel these fallacies and paint a more positive picture of acceleration.

Longitudinal studies of accelerated students have identified a range of academic and social benefits. For example, Gross (2006) reported superior life satisfaction, career success and relationships amongst accelerants compared to peers who were not afforded the same opportunities. These findings were supported by Steenbergen-Hu et al., (2016) who also found acceleration correlated with positive academic outcomes. Gross’ report on Releasing the Brakes for High-Ability Learners (2011) has helpful suggestions for exemplary practice if acceleration is being considered. The success of acceleration depends on careful planning and ongoing support. For example, the IOWA Acceleration Scale can be used to determine the suitability of potential candidates. Those who are accelerated should be partnered with suitable buddies in the new learning environment and receive ongoing counselling support.

C o n c l u si o n s It has long been mistakenly assumed that gifted students will thrive independently. Raising teacher awareness is an effective antidote against the perpetuation of this myth. This document is designed to dispel this misconception and build understanding and capacity amongst teachers. Readers are encouraged to: •

familiarise themselves with the characteristics of gifted learners

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play a role in improving school-wide gifted policy and programs

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be aware of risk factors for gifted learners, and

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test out the suggested classroom strategies.

By addressing these issues, “society benefits from helping gifted students become tomorrow’s leaders” (Rimm et al., 2018, p.21). Therefore, as teachers develop their own practice they should share ideas and resources with colleagues to improve educational

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outcomes for as many gifted learners as possible. This will have positive implications for individual students, education institutions and Australian society as a whole.

R e fe r e n c e s Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2016). The Australian Curriculum v8.2. http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). (2011). National professionsl standards for teachers. Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs (MCEECDYA).

Baum, S. M., Schader, R. M. & Hebert, T. P. (2014). Through a different lens: Reflecting on a strengthsbased, talent-focused approach for twice exceptional learners. The Gifted Child Quarterly. 58(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986214547632 Betts, G.T. and Neihart.

M. (2010).

Revised Profiles of the Gifted and Talented. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=c3Rqb3NlcGhzLmNvLm56fHN0LWp vc2VwaC1zLWNhdGhvbGljLXNjaG9vbC1wdWtla29oZS1nYXRlfGd4OjVkZWVkNmQ5YjljMzJjYmE Callahan, C. M., & Hertberg-Davis, H. L. (Eds.). (2017). Fundamentals of gifted education: Considering multiple perspectives. Taylor & Francis Group.

Commonwealth of Australia (2001, October 2). The education of gifted and talented children.

Parliament of Australia. https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_Employment_and_ Workplace_Relations/Completed_inquiries/1999-02/gifted/report/contents Cooper, C. (2009). Myth 18: It is fair to teach all children the same way. Gifted Child Quarterly, 53(4), 283-285. https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986209346947 Eddles-Hirsch, K., Vialle, W., McCormick, J., & Rogers, K. (2012). Insiders or outsiders: The role of social context in the peer relations of gifted students. Roeper Review, 34(1), 53-62. https://doi.org/10.1080/02783193.2012.627554 Feldhusen, J. F., Colangelo, N. & Davis, G. A. (1997). Secondary services, opportunities and activities for talented youth, Handbook of gifted education. (2nd Ed). Allyn & Bacon.

Fonseca, C. (2021). Emotional intensity in gifted students: Helping kids cope with explosive feelings (2nd ed). Routledge.

Gagne, F. (2009). Leading change in gifted education : the festschrift of Dr. Joyce Vantassel-Baska / (B. MacFarlane, T. Stambaugh, & T. Stambaugh, Eds.). Prufrock Press.

Gross, M. (2004). Exceptionally gifted children (2nd ed). Routledge Falmer.

Gross, M. (2006). Exceptionally gifted children; Long term outcomes of academic acceleration and nonacceleration. Journal for the education of the gifted, 29(4), 404-429. https://doi.org/10.4219/jeg2006-247 Gross, M., Urquhart, R., Doyle, J., Juratowitch, M. & Matheson, G. (2011). Releasing the brakes for highability learners: Administrator, teacher and parent attitudes and beliefs that block or assist the implementation of school policies on academic acceleration.

GERRIC. https://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/Releasing_the_Brakes_Overview_A4__ Nov2011.pdf Henderson, L., & Jarvis, J. (2016). The gifted dimension of the Australian professional standards for teachers: Implications for professional learning. Australian journal of teacher education (online), 41(8), 60-83. https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2016v41n8.4

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Jung, J. Y. & Worrel, F. C. (2017). School psychological practice with gifted students. In m Thiekling & C. E. Wood (Eds.), Handbook of Australian school psychology (pp.575-593). Springer International.

Lassig, C. J. (2009). Teachers’ attitudes towards the gifted; The importance of professional development and school culture.

Australian journal of gifted education, 18(2), 32-42. https://doi.org/10.21505/ajge.2015.0012 McLeod, B. (2018). Research supporting the identification of gifted learners. Association of Independent Schools ACT. https://ais.act.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/Article-1_Research-Supporting-theIdentification-of-Gifted-Learners.pdf Missett, T. C. (2018). Twice exceptional students: Gifted students with disabilities impacting learning. In H. L. Hertberg Davis (Ed.), Fundamentals of gifted education: considering multiple perspectives (2nd ed., pp.361-371). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Moon, S. (2009). Myth 15: High-ability students don’t face problems and challenges. Gifted child quarterly, 53(4), 274-276. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0016986209346943 New South Wales Government (2019). High potential and https://education.nsw.gov.au/policy-library/policies/pd-2004-0051

gifted

education

policy.

Nicpon, M. F., Allmon, A., Sieck, B. & Stinson, R. D. (2010). Empirical investigation of twice-exceptionality: Where have we been and where are we going? Gifted child quarterly, 55(1), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986210382575 Reis, S. M. (2009). Research that supports the need for and benefits of gifted education. National Association for Gifted Children.

Rimm, S. (2003). Underachievement: A national epidemic, In N. Colangelo & G. Davis (Eds.). Handbook of gifted education (3rd ed., pp. 424-443). Allyn & Bacon.

Robinson, M. N. (2008). The social world of gifted children and youth, In S. I. Pfeiffer (Ed.). Handbook of giftedness in children: psychoeducational theory, research and best practices (pp.33-51). Springer.

Rogers, K. (2007). Lessons learned about educating the gifted and talented: A synthesis of the research on education practice. Gifted child quarterly, 51(4), 382-396. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001698 6207306324 Siegle, D., McCoach, B., & Rubenstein, L. (2017). Underachieving gifted students. In H. L. Hertberg Davis (Ed.), Fundamentals of gifted education: considering multiple perspectives (2nd ed., pp.372-385).

Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Silverman, L. (2002). Asynchronous development. In M. Neihart, S. Reis, N Robinson & S. Moon (Eds.), The social and emotional development of gifted children: What do we know? (pp.31-37). Springer Science.

Silverman, L. (2012). 100 words of wisdom: Linda Kreger Silverman. Supporting emotional needs of the gifted. https://www.sengifted.org/post/100-words-of-wisdom-linda-kreger-silverman Steenbergen-Hu, S., Makel, M. C., & Olszewski-Kubilius, P. (2016). What one hundred years of research says about the effects of ability grouping and acceleration on K-12 students’ academic achievement: Findings of two second-order meta-analyses. Review of educational research, 86(4), 849-899. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654316675417 Sternberg, R. J. & Williams, W. M. (1996). How to develop student creativity. Association for supervision and curriculum development.

VanTassal-Baska, J. (2003). Selecting instructional strategies for gifted learners. Focus on exceptional children, 36(3). https://doi.org/10.17161/fec.v36i3.6801 Wallace, B. (2007). Raising the achievement of able, gifted and talented learners within an inclusive framework. NACE. Walsh, R. L. & Jolly, J. L. (2018). Gifted education in the Australian context. Gifted child today, 41(2), 8188. https://doi.org/10.1177/1076217517750702

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Students are unlikely to advocate for themselves: Reshaping Stage 4 for English to differentiate for gifted students Greg Longney Director of Teaching and Learning

Charlotte Wells Assistant Coordinator - English

Reprinted with permission: Longney, G., Wells, C., 2022, Students are unlikely to advocate for themselves: Reshaping Stage 4 for English to differentiate for gifted students. Journal of Victorian Association for Gifted and Talented Children. VISION Volume 33 (2), 2022 10-14. Readers are encouraged to use this citation in their own references.

Abs t r act This article is written in two parts. Part 1, written by Greg Longney, describes the broader school context and outlines the plan to address shortcomings in the school’s advocacy for gifted students. Part 2, written by Charlotte Wells, focuses on one teacher’s experience of conducting action research and then leading change in the English Department. The overall picture is a positive one, supporting teachers to understand giftedness in all its forms, and supporting gifted students by creating appropriate levels of challenge, abstraction, and complexity in English classrooms.

P a r t 1 – Gr e g L o n g n e y Since 2017, a focus of the school has been to better address the needs of gifted students.

Like the national landscape of gifted education in Australia, the school’s provision for gifted students was fragmented. In over a decade of being a History teacher and then a Head of Department, very little of the school’s attention had been given to the needs of gifted students. Academically capable students were well-supported and were able to achieve success. However, opportunities for extension were most often presented as extra work for ‘fast finishers’ or out-of-class options such as competitions. There was little evidence of differentiated classroom practice and there were many misconceptions about highly able students. There was no staff training in gifted education. For most staff, a gifted student was a smart student, usually a motivated student who was likely to succeed without a great deal of additional attention or support.

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Five years on, while the approach to gifted education remains a work in progress, the landscape is much different. There is increased awareness of the needs of gifted students and, therefore, greater opportunities to advocate for gifted and high potential students.

The school’s approach to change has focused on three key areas: 1.

Training staff to understand gifted education theory and to apply it to their teaching practice.

2. Greater use of data to identify and support gifted students.

3. Increased focus on differentiated teaching practice and assessment.

The most significant development has been the introduction of planned professional learning for staff to engage with gifted and talented theory and practice and to undertake classroom-based research. This has been facilitated in groups of 10-12 staff, led by Mrs. Bronwyn Macleod from Aldea Education. Research indicates that teacher attitudes toward gifted students are often negative but improve significantly with appropriate training (Jolly and Walsh 2018). The program has helped staff to understand how to interpret test data, the importance of pre-testing to identify what students already know, the complex picture of the identification of gifted students, and the different approaches to planning and delivering a differentiated curriculum.

Another step taken has been the reintroduction of external placement tests for students entering the school in Year 7, and the grouping of students in classes based on ability.

Historically, Year 7 students have been placed in House groups in all classes except English and Mathematics, where students have been grouped based on academic attainment determined by internal testing only. The aim of the new approach was two-fold; to put a focus on student ability as much as student achievement, and to acknowledge the research that indicates that ability grouping for gifted students is an effective practice. The conclusions of the research in this area are still debated, and the success of such programs will depend on effective curriculum differentiation and appropriate assessment practices (Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation 2019).

The focus on high ability class grouping has allowed us to discover more about the learning characteristics of gifted learners. In relation to highly able students, teachers have always known that they learn faster than other students and are capable of learning more complex material. Teachers who have been teaching the Year 7 high ability classes have been asked to seek opportunities to provide greater complexity, greater abstraction and, where appropriate, more opportunities for students to conduct independent research. (McCoach et al. 2017, cited in CESE, 2019). Yet, staff are discovering that students, regardless of ability, need a certain level of explicit teaching such as scaffolding and worked examples, especially in the early stages of learning new content. Rosenshine (2009) comments that gifted learners will be able to move through this content faster, but still require this foundational instruction. Furthermore, students of high ability will likely develop talents asynchronously and still need very explicit instruction in some curriculum areas, for example, some students present as highly able, can master content quickly but are poorly organised and are not adept at writing. This is not altogether surprising, but these experiences have added to our

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collective understanding of how to teach gifted learners and have gone some way to challenging the stereotype of gifted students and how they learn.

The most complete picture of how we have advocated for gifted learners can be found in the work of the Stage 4 English team. As a group, they have embraced the challenges of using data to ask questions about students’ strengths and weaknesses. Meticulously, they have planned a differentiated program of study that sets high expectations of all students with integrated extension work (not optional extras) for the most able.

P a r t 2 – C h a r l o t t e We l l s In 2020, I had the privilege of being part of the school’s planned professional learning on gifted education. Having an exceptionally talented Year 8 class inspired me to further my knowledge and understanding about gifted and talented theory and practice and to undertake action-based research. Understanding and interpreting the data on the students gave me more insight into the approach required to provide greater complexity and ways to differentiate the unit of work outside the demands of the assessment program.

Having a large percentage of students with Stanine 7-9 in their placement test data shaped the design of my research question - How can teachers differentiate successfully in a top class to stretch and challenge all students? My aim was to increase the complexity of tasks and to encourage academic risk taking in a safe environment.

Throughout the academic year, I observed the following: � many students had displayed signs of perfectionism � many appeared to only take learning seriously when it counted towards their final grade � many memorised responses � many compared themselves to others � students feared the thought of risk taking and did not want to be achieving the lowest marks in the class.

The greatest challenge was to modify the program to allow freedom of choice to encourage independent learning and strengthen advocacy. While some students had previously displayed signs of being only motivated by marks and grades, most of the students were happy to share the journey with me and were keen to improve their educational outcomes.

Act i on Res ear ch Cas e St udi es Whilst my research question was designed to differentiate for all students in the class, we were encouraged to select three students to include as part of our action research. To

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understand the varying needs of individual learners, it was imperative to recognise the specific characteristics and differences of learners.

Student A – I observed a lack of confidence in this student as he consistently compared himself to others in English. His perceived or actual underachievement was evident in Betts and Neihart’s Type 2 profile – somewhat resentful and often challenged tasks if they weren’t attached to marks. He often rushed work, monopolised class discussions and demanded one on one guidance for assessments (Betts & Neihart 2010). Student A felt dejected with his assessment marks (total of 104/110) and could not see where he was ‘losing’ marks rather than what he had achieved. There was a concern over keeping him engaged in his learning as he was resistant to do anything new that did not have marks attached to his work.

Student B – This student displayed characteristics of perfectionism – self-critical, sensitive, and worried about getting things right. He was a very confident student but procrastinated which resulted in tasks often being incomplete. Student B achieved full marks for all assessments bar one where he achieved 29/30.

Student C – This student was an independent learner, a strong critical thinker and had superior vocabulary; but was not a risk taker. His performance data revealed Stanine 9s in all areas (General Reasoning; Reading comprehension; Writing and Spelling) and he liked working with other gifted students. Student C also achieved full marks for all assessments bar one where he achieved 29/30.

The internal English assessment results indicated that most of the students were demonstrating competency in the outcomes prior to the assessment and were achieving above the A range, based on the syllabus outcomes. Therefore, differentiation was at the forefront of my mind for a 9-week term with no formal assessment. This provided the ideal opportunity to build on the positives of the year, to refine and develop skills which would allow the students to think more deeply and take academic risks.

Students completed questionnaires which were designed to measure their attitudes to English, and this assisted in the task design. The pre-questionnaire results confirmed that the students had found a lot of the Year 8 work unchallenging and effortless, but allowing greater choice and flexibility resulted in the post-questionnaire results revealing their enjoyment that the increased level of difficulty and the extra demands provided.

Famously, David Ausubel (1968) stated, “The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly.”

Therefore, to gain an indication of the individual strengths and areas for development for each student and assist in the development of dynamic activities, I initially undertook OffLevel testing where students had to respond to a stimulus and write an extended response without guidance. From gaining a deeper knowledge and understanding of differentiating more proactively, I was then inspired: � to use tiered instruction to allow students to work with appropriately challenging tasks;

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� to use the Williams Model to encourage more creative thinking and to provide extension and enriching activities; � to use Bloom’s Taxonomy to promote and encourage higher order thinking and a more abstract and conceptual understanding.

Tiered Instruction

The idea of designing tiered tasks was that all students learn the same fundamental skills and concepts but through varying modes and complexity of activities. The tiers should appropriately challenge the students at the current ability level, and I used the Off-Level testing and their assessment scores when making the decision as to which tier to give the students to complete.

Task 1: During our study of Andy Mulligan’s Trash, students had to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the contextual activities by completing a narrative writing task. � Write the opening to your narrative using third person omniscient voice � Write a section of your narrative (not the opening or ending) using third person limited voice) � Write the ending to your narrative using an unreliable narrator

To add to the complexity of the task, the students were required to research their chosen narrative voice and were asked to generate appropriate success criteria (see below). � It has to be clear that you have used one of the images provided. � Your piece should indicate what you have learnt about dumpsites - look at the Dumpsites page and Angel of the Dump page. � You need to aim to write 300-400 words. � Your narrative must be set on the dumpsite. � You must write in the narrative voice you have been allocated

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Student C work sample

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Student C work sample

Students found the tasks demanding as they were forced to move out of their comfort zone.

Student C said, “I enjoyed the challenge, even though it was hard.”

Task 2: On completion of the novel study, students were encouraged to consider the wider issues explored in the text. I gave the students a choice between Core (purple) and Extension 1 (green) or Extension 1 and Extension 2 (red). Despite providing an element of choice, no student chose the Extension 2 option.

Is resilience a necessary requirement of survival? How is this evidenced in 'Trash'? How is this seen on a more global scale?

Survival is a human instinct. Does the end justify the means for this to occur? You need to refer to 'Trash' and at least one other text you have read.

"Learning is not compulsory … neither is survival." How is the truth of this statement played out in at least three texts you have read or viewed recently? You must use 'Trash' in your response.

All students completed a full response, except for Student A who was resistant.

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It was evident that gifted students sometimes cannot advocate for themselves and therefore, need to have engaging, complex tasks purposely designed and allocated to them by their teachers.

W illiam s’ M odel – Tolerance for Am biguity

I posed open ended what if? questions at the end of a lesson for the students to consider and they expressed their thoughts in the next lesson. The questions sparked interesting discussion, but students struggled to stay on task due to the challenging nature of the questions. � What if compulsory education was globally enforced? � What if children got to decide what was taught in schools? � What if education was devoid of all political ideology?

My conclusion here is that the task was too ambitious as a one-off activity and students need to be provided with more frequent opportunities to engage with complex concepts.

Bloom ’s Taxonom y

Students were provided with question stems to write their own questions using the framework. Students understood that the six levels ranked in order from the most basic to the most complex and their task was to write 10 questions that ranged in complexity. The students were keen to write difficult, challenging questions and said that they “enjoyed being the teacher and writing the questions. It was difficult though to write the higher order questions and know the answers”. Student B said, “We should leave writing the questions to the teacher.”

My conclusion of this task was that just because the students were highly gifted, that didn’t translate to them being able to automatically undertake higher order tasks. This aligns with the idea that students are not always able to advocate for themselves and need more frequent training and explicit teaching to engage at a level of which they are capable.

Student Feedback

With the exception of Student A, the students responded positively to the range of dynamic activities. Unfortunately, Student A’s fixation on marks was detrimental to his learning and resulted in disengagement and negative behaviour. It was disappointing that he did not see this as an opportunity to flourish outside the demands of the formal assessment program.

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Res ear c h Concl us i ons The reactions observed ranged from a sense of achievement and satisfaction and an appreciation of being stretched on the one hand, to a reluctance to engage with the challenge on the other. Overall, it was a positive experience. It was evident that some students, regardless of academic ability or giftedness, are not able to advocate for themselves. Some do not want to advocate for themselves in terms of challenge but will when it is linked to personal achievement.

As a consequence of this action research, a decision was taken to focus on the English faculty to differentiate programs and to foster change. In my new role as Stage 4 English Assistant Coordinator and in consultation with the Director of Teaching and Learning, I have begun to reshape the teaching and assessment practices to make the learning experiences richer. Currently this is the application of tiered tasks in three units across Stage 4. This has led to conversations about changing texts and introducing conceptual frameworks.

Staff who were interested in developing differentiation across Stage 4 were invited to participate in planning days where we collaborated and implemented a range of different strategies to strengthen advocacy. In Year 7, we designed an Identity Unit where we have key conceptual areas with a range of differentiated texts and activities, allowing students an element of choice in their learning journey. In Year 8, we adapted the creative writing unit and developed and trialled pre-assessments which gave us an insight into students’ abilities prior to delivering the differentiated unit.

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Fut ur e Di r ect i ons The future success of such programs will depend on adjustments to teaching practice in other areas, most notably assessment practices. Traditionally, all students, regardless of ability, have completed the same summative assessment tasks and this restricts any benefits of a differentiated curriculum. It has been pleasing to see some departments begin to experiment with differentiated assessment practices and this change will need to be expediated to take advantage of the decision to group students by ability and the observable benefits of differentiated programs of study. Ultimately, we are working towards an integrated program of identification, programming, and assessment that serves the needs of all learners, particularly our most able.

Ref erences Ausubel, D. P., Novak, J. D., & Hanesian, H. (1968). Educational psychology: A cognitive view.

Betts, G.T. & Neilhart, M. (2010) Revised profiles of gifted and talented. Accessed October 28, 2022. https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/high-abilitytoolkit/Pages/defining-high-ability.aspx Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation. 2019. "Revisiting Gifted Education." Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation. Accessed September 25, 2022. https://www.cese.nsw.gov.au/ DET. 2019. High Potential and Gifted Education. Accessed September 25, 2022. https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/high-potential-and-gifted-education/about-thepolicy/high-potential-and-gifted-education-policy Jolly, Jennifer L, and Rosalind L Walsh. 2018. "Gifted Education in the Australian Context." Gifted Child Today 81-88.

Rosenshine, B. 2009. "The Empirical Support for Direct Instruction." In Constructivist instruction: Success or Failure? New York, NY: Routledge.

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Research and Reflections on Practice: Supplementary Volume

Learning in Practice Supplementary Volume

September 2023

Towards a pedagogy for radical hope: Developing a whole school approach to refugee education Dr Timothy Scott Research Fellow, The Barker Institute Barker Institute Learning in Practice Supplementary Volume 2023 • 1

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Abs t r act

This monograph presents a literature-informed, whole school approach to refugee education. Its title comes from Lear (2009)’s treatment of how Native American Crow Chief Plenty Coups led the Crow Nation through a period of great cultural change and traumatic disruption. No longer able to hunt buffalo, and forced to live on reservations, Chief Plenty Coups had to lead his people to a new and meaningful way of life devoid of the traditions and values that had historically defined what it was to be a part of the Crow Nation. Lear uses Chief Plenty Coup’s story, and the behaviour of the Crow, to examine a successful response to cultural collapse. He imagines what this response might entail: continuing to see oneself as who one always has been, still a part of the culture that used to be one’s own, at the same time as adapting courageously and wisely to a transformed and unfamiliar world. It is a situation similar for many a student from a refugee background: traumatic change, cultural adaptation, and unlearning and relearning that brings purpose and meaning.

There are five chapters to this study. The first chapter introduces the work, outlining the key focus and question to the exploratory research that follows. It explains the title of t his monograph as well as a definition of r efugee to help set context for the discussion that follows. Chapter Two gives a global and national context for the refugee education, starting with current estimates for the number of refugees in Australia and abroad, and finishing with the global perspective that education is an enabling right. Chapter Three provides academic grounding through an examination of extant literature on refugee education. From this literature, the fourth chapter presents a framework with three interconnected elements: Trauma, Transition and Teaching. The whole-school approach details a pedagogy for radical hope, achieved through schools being aware of the diverse trauma that refugee children will likely have experienced, supporting the cross-cultural transition that refugee children experience as they enter their new schooling environment, and ensuring that the teaching and learning that takes place motivates them to new realms of possibility in the future. The interplay of these three elements helps drive a school’s pedagogy to provide a level of academic care whereby refugee children and young people experience transformative learning, teaching, and schooling that empowers them to thrive personally and publicly and equips them to impact the wider world from a position of hope. The fi fth chapter concludes this work and draws together the various threads of discussion that have been followed in the development of a whole-school approach to refugee education. It outlines several key principles and practices aimed at fostering resilience, empowerment, and positive transformation.

Access the full publication at barker.institute/publications/radicalhope.

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About the Authors Gabi Corderoy is part of the Digital Learning Team and a PDHPE teacher. She is the current sports coordinator for both cricket and fencing, and prior to her digital learning role, she was the assistant coordinator of PDHPE. Having worked in various roles within the School, she has developed a keen interest in enhancing teachers’ capabilities and efficiency in managing administrative tasks and preparing content. Gabi is committed to providing students with a positive and consistent learning experience throughout their schooling, which motivates her to promote the seamless integration of technologies across the school.

Amanda Eastman has taught History, Learning Support and Christian Studies at Barker College. From 2012 – 2014 she was the Assistant to the Director of Studies, overseeing the implementation of the Australian Curriculum. In 2017, she began working as the Assistant to the Director of the Barker Institute, contributing to initiatives such as the ‘Barker Journey’ longitudinal research project and the editing of the Barker Institute journal. She has also enjoyed participating in a variety of Barker’s cocurricular activities such as softball, touch football, hockey, snowsports, boarding, Crusaders and Focus On. She is currently working part time at Barker, whilst studying for a Master in Gifted Education and teaching undergraduate education students.

Marcus Felsman is an English teacher and the coordinator of Individual Programs. Whilst graduating he worked in social work for three years and since 2008 Marcus has worked in Mexico at the Victoria School, The British School of Quito in Ecuador, United World College in The Netherlands and for the Letovo School in Moscow before arriving home to Sydney. During his time in Ecuador, he designed and delivered the school wide service-learning program and in The Netherlands, Marcus was Dean of Students and oversaw the introduction of the refugee scholarship programme at UWC. He is passionate about cultural exchange and maximising learner´s critical engagement as well as transformative education for less privileged students.

Peter Gibson is the Dean of Character Education at Barker College. Previously, Head of Senior School (Deputy Principal) at Shellharbour Anglican College and Head of Boarding at Trinity Grammar School, he is a highly experienced educational leader. Peter has led school communities in the development of academic performance built on a Growth Mindset approach to learning. He has been successful in leading the development of the pastoral care programs and has extensive breadth of experience and expertise in co-curricular activities. In his current role, he is leading an exciting innovation in developing the concept of Character and Enterprise Education as well as the implementation of Round Square, K-12.

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Scott Graham is currently the Head of Agriculture at Barker, having commenced his teaching career in 2010. He is currently undertaking a PhD, under the title of “Increasing enrolments and engagement in secondary and tertiary agriculture”, through improving academic rigour and reputation of agriculture in secondary schools. Scott is the recipient of the 2021 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools.

Yvonne Howard is a creative, dynamic educational leader serving as the Deputy Head of Junior School, bringing her expertise and passion to Barker College since 2020. In recent years, Yvonne has expanded her focus to the realm of student wellbeing. She has embarked on innovative initiatives, notably introducing animal-assisted interventions, leveraging the heartwarming presence of Peachy, the therapy dog. Through Peachy’s companionship and the therapeutic benefits of animal interaction, Yvonne has witnessed a remarkable and positive impact on students’ emotional wellbeing and overall engagement. Yvonne continues to explore innovative approaches to support students’ holistic development. Her multifaceted expertise, from gifted education to wellbeing interventions, reflects her unwavering commitment to creating a nurturing and enriching educational environment for all learners.

Dr Matthew Hill is the Director, Barker Institute with a focus on professional learning, research, and innovation in the school. He teaches Physics and the new Science Extension course at the School which introduces students to scientific academic research. Matthew’s doctorate reflects his passion for science education focussing on Representational Fluency amongst physics students at school and university. He has published in leadership, education, and science journals and been involved in course development and teaching at The University of Sydney and The University of Western Sydney. He has also completed a Graduate Diploma in Divinity at Ridley College in Melbourne.

Dr Andrew Mifsud is the Director of Digital Learning Innovation and a Music teacher at Barker College. His doctoral research was an ethnographic study on student perceptions and experiences of secondary school blended learning environments. This research used cultural-historical activity theory to theorise an expansion of the learning activity based on resolving internal and external contradictions. Andrew has also been involved in social learning sites, digital learning, and music education research projects. He has presented this work at national and international education conferences. Andrew is the NSW Secretary of the Australian Society for Music Education. He is a past recipient of the ASME Music Educating for Life Award and Outstanding Professional Service Award for his work promoting professional learning in the music education community. Andrew is a Teacher Coach at the College of Teachers at Barker.

He is currently leading a school-wide project to evaluate the School’s digital information systems.

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Stephen Liseo is part of the Digital Learning Leader team at Barker College.

He trained as a Mathematics and Science teacher and has a master’s degree in Information Technology. Stephen has held previous roles at other schools as Head of ICT Integration, Head of IT and Head of Technology and Applied Studies. The common theme being technology. He is genuinely excited by the opportunities that technology can bring to teaching and learning.

Greg Longney is a History teacher and the Director of Teaching and Learning at Barker College. Greg has been teaching at schools in England and Australia since 1995. As a key part of his role, Greg has overseen the process of differentiating the curriculum for all students with a particular focus on the needs of high potential and gifted learners. His Master of Education(Research), focused on how History teachers understand disciplinary knowledge and how they communicate it to their students.

Sheau-Fang Low’s passion for music pedagogy is reflected in her master’s degree, along with training and certification in Suzuki Method, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, and most recently the BodyMinded Alexander Technique teacher training. She is an AMEB (NSW) string examiner and has been a violin pedagogue at Barker College for more than two decades. Sheau-Fang is sought after for her ability to adapt her teaching to suit the various learning styles of her students; and has given presentations in numerous workshops and conferences on various aspects of violin teaching. She is a long-standing member of the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra.

Susanna Matters is the Gifted and Talented Coordinator at Barker College working across Kindergarten to Year 8. In 2015, Susanna received the New South Wales Teachers’ Guild Certificate of Excellence for Early Career Teachers. In 2017, she was awarded with excellence a Master in Gifted Education from the University of NSW and named the Australian College of Educators NSW Young Professional of the Year. In 2020, Susanna completed a Professional Certificate of Educational Neuroscience from the University of Melbourne. She is passionate about shaping a whole-school culture and language around gifted education which helps individual learners feel understood and celebrated.

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Lucy Pitkin is the Dean of Indigenous Education and a teacher of Agriculture.

She has taught in various educational settings over the last 11 years, including schools in rural areas and in schools on Sydney’s western fringe. It was here that Lucy’s passion for supporting students from diverse backgrounds really grew. She is responsible for the continued implementation, review and development of the School’s Indigenous education strategies in the Secondary School. Lucy works with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations to improve access to education for Aboriginal and/ or Torres Strait Islander students, and to develop the understanding of and commitment to reconciliation of non-Indigenous students and teachers. She also works to implement and support the continued best practice in Indigenous education at Barker, including assisting teachers to bring Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and perspectives into their classroom.

Through continued involvement in external research projects and Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander education networks, and close relationships with Community, Lucy is able to support staff to continue to develop their teaching practice in a culturally responsive way.

Dr Timothy Scott is an experienced history and modern languages teacher, having taught and held various leadership roles in schools in Australia and abroad for the past 23 years. His PhD investigated socio-political influences on contemporary German conceptions of history and archaeology. He is also a principal researcher at the Barker Institute, Barker College’s school-based educational research centre. Tim’s research interests include intercultural and interlingual learning and teaching, the impact of artificial intelligence on education, and the role of student voice in improving educational practice.

He believes embedding research informed practice has become increasingly important and is the mark of contemporary schools, empowering their teachers as experts and enabling their learners to thrive. Tim is also one of the lead researchers for the Barker Institute’s longitudinal study, the Barker Journey.

Adam Watson is the Director of Sport – Operations at Barker College, where he currently teaches Personal Development, Health, and Physical Education (PDHPE). He has previously taught Religious Education and HSC Studies of Religion. Adam holds a Bachelor of Human Movement and a Bachelor of Teaching from the University of Technology Sydney, a Graduate Certificate in Religious Education from Australian Catholic University, and a Master of Educational Leadership from the University of New South Wales. His MEdLead research project investigated the perceived impact of school sport programs on student wellbeing. Adam’s interests lie at the intersection of sport and religion/ spirituality, and student psychosocial outcomes resulting from school sport participation. His commitment to these areas of study is further evidenced by his ongoing research through a Master of Philosophy at the University of Sydney.

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Charlotte Wells is an English teacher and Assistant Coordinator of English for Stage 4 at Barker College. Charlotte has been teaching in Wales and Australia since 2003 and has a passionate interest in differentiation to enable all students to access the curriculum, to enjoy English, and achieve their potential.

Amy Young is a Mathematics teacher in the Secondary School at Barker College and has a strong interest in catering to difference and engaging students in the classroom. Amy has been working on the project “Girls in Maths@Barker” since Term 4 2022. She has completed a Master in Gifted and Talented Education.

As part of this master’s, Amy published “Building a whole school approach to professional experience: Collaboration and community” in the Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education through a joint project between Macquarie University and the Association of Independent Schools (AIS). She is an AISNSW Experienced Teacher and has been teaching since 2007.

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