School Centres for

Teaching Excellence

Symposium TwoSession Two

Theme: Beyond the Classroom: The need for a new teacher educator workforce

Crossing boundaries in school-university partnership

Education

Rosalyn Black, SCTE seminar, 24 May 2013

Why school-universitypartnership? Ina nutshell …

Education

The challenge of a globalised context•Multidimensionality: traditional boundaries between school and other agencies are blurring – we have to integrate elements from different contexts to solve problems•Complexity: our students’ lives (and their families and communities) are becoming more complex – education needs to accommodate this complexity•Interconnectivity: it is no longer enough to have expertise within the boundary of our own profession – we have to engage with other communities of practice•Local needs and global agendas: these intersect in complex ways that demand new approaches (Tsui 2005)

What challenges face school- university partnership?

Education

The challenge of defining partnershipIs it a partnership or is it a:•Collaboration•Consortium•Cooperative•Alliance•Dalliance?Where does it sit on the VicHealth spectrum: Networking - coordination - collaboration – partnership  (VicHealth 2009)

The challenge of capacity•Schools often seek partnership to generate improvement, but may struggle to integrate it into existing commitments or sustain it (Black, 2007)•Limited time and resources and competing commitments •are a given for most schools (and universities)

What challenges face school- university partnership?

Education

The challenge of cultureWe may all be educators, but schools and universities can be very different:• Priorities•Structures•Levels of resourcing/remuneration•Levels of education•Terminology•Cultures.

• It can be hard to navigate the ‘closed culture’ of schools or universities

• Differences between the goals of schools and universities can be problematic

• Partnerships may be school- or university-centric

• There may be unequal power and control between partners

What does school-university partnership look like when it works well?

Education

It has good governance•It is guided by shared values and realistic purposes•It is governed by clear agreements MOUs, contracts, letters of understanding). These set out:

• Why and how each partner is involved

• The outcomes expected from the partnership

• The parameters of the partnership.•It has clear operating procedures including good communication

It keeps its eye on the main game•Its primary aim is to enhance educational outcomes•Its operations do not take precedence over these outcomes

What does school-university partnership look like when it works well?

Education

It is sustainable•It attracts significant and sustained commitment from all partners •It is adequately resourced (not just at the outset)•It has processes to ensure that issues are not ignored or superficially resolved in ways that will endanger it further down the track

It adds to our knowledge•It is informed by the best knowledge in the field •It is monitored and evaluated from the start •It documents and shares its learnings with a wide audience

What does school-university partnership look like when it works well?

Education

It is more than business as usual•It tackles causes, not just symptoms•It promotes innovative practice: crossing boundaries can help us take a fresh look at our long-standing practices and assumptions (Tsui, 2005) •It responds to local circumstances and builds on local strengths •It also looks beyond the local to the systemic. It may inform policy, or practice elsewhere

It positions students as participants•Students are not just the beneficiaries of partnerships•They can also help to generate, inspire, inform and drive them •Yet they are the group most consistently left out of the creation and implementation of partnerships

Education

Kelly CarabottKim DaviesWendy GoffSimone White

SCTE: Gippsland Reshaping teacher education curriculum

Monash University Focus

• While many of the SCTE have focused on the theory-practice nexus at the site of the practicum, at Monash the focus has been on reconceptualising and designing teacher education curriculum in order to develop and maintain sustainable practices to work for social inclusion in particular in rural and regional community areas.

• A key research focus has been to examine the design features of such a teacher education curriculum.• Model 1: A Community Development Partnership Model – Extending

Learning through Teacher Education (to be presented by Wendy Goff and Kelly Carabott)

• Model 2: Learning Clubs and teacher education for social justice and inclusion: Preliminary findings of a pilot study of service learning for community, school and classroom readiness (to be presented by Kim Davies)

Pilot – Core features

• Two different SCTE models of school-university partnerships have been developed and trailed in the first and second semester of 2012 within the Graduate Diploma of Education (Primary) program at Monash University (Gippsland campus) and the B.Ed (Primary)• Although different in their design the models are both embedded into a

core curriculum unit so that all pre-service teachers participated in the model (Approx 60 students participated)

• Both have been developed from the position of the partner/s identifying a key issue where a teacher education partnership was viewed as integral to addressing.

• Both involve teacher educators, pre-service teachers, teachers and community members working together.

• Both have involved significant examination of the curriculum and the site of learning

Education

Key literature informing our practice/research - A thought experiment

Theory into a conceptual framework?

Theory into a conceptual framework?

".... teachers need access to a wider community of discourse.

School/university partnerships, subject matter organizations, and networks of various kinds can expand the community of educators and resources that inform and support teachers in their work (Lieberman and Grolnick, 1996)." 1044(Feiman-Nemser 2001)

Think – Unsettle students thinking about teaching and

unpack their own experiences. Introduce them to theories such as ‘Funds of

Knowledge’ (Moll) and ‘Virtual Schoolbags’

(Thompson).

Immerse the pre-service teachers in a range of

settings and communities.

Theory into a conceptual framework?

"Research suggests that professional communities in

which teachers share understandings about the

nature of good teaching and work together to enact them

provide particularly conducive settings for learning to teach."

(Darling-Hammond and Bransford 2005, 404)

Think – teams of pre-service teachers placed to teams of teachers in teams of schools

with a team of teacher educators.

New conceptual model: White, 2010; White &Kline, 2012

Reference: White, S. (2010) Creating and celebrating place and partnerships: A key to sustaining rural education communities, Keynote address for the Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA). University of the Sunshine Coast, 15-17th of September

White, S & Kline, J. (2012) Developing a Rural Teacher Education Curriculum Package, The Rural Educator, 33, 2, 36-42

Education

Exploring this framework and Building communities

2 models

Education

A Community Development Partnership Model – Extending Learning Through Teacher EducationKelly CarabottWendy Goff

The Partnership

1 Introduction - Innovative teaching practices

impacting on communities- Overview of the partnership

The Model - Weekly

The Initial Model

COMMUNITY

COMMUNITY

• The meeting of different organisations• The meeting of individuals• The cultural interface (Nakata, 2002; 2007)

The Partnership – Challenges or Opportunities?

Lessons Learned and Ways Forward…..

• Positives and Negatives

• Revisiting and Remembering

• Growth and Development

COMMUNITY

Community Development Partnership Model

Shared Goal Shared Goal

Shared Goal

Partnership Goal

Monash – Albert St- LCHS Community Development Partnership Model

Education

Community, School and Classroom Readiness:

Insights from Student Assessment • Kim Davies• Faculty of Education • Monash Gippsland

The Learning Clubs (TLC’s)

• Connections with PST core curriculum:

– EDF 1306 Spaces of Difference• Connections with local partners:

– Local primary schools (x5)– The Smith Family

• Theoretical resources for community, school, classroom readiness:

– Funds of Knowledge (Moll et al, 2005)

– Virtual School bags (Thomson, 2002)

– Productive Pedagogies (State of Qld, 2002)

– Transformability (Hart et al, 2004)

The rationale…

• Connecting community, school and classroom readiness with

• Preparation for inclusive education by• Working with, for and across difference• In a region characterised by high exclusion

and school drop out, low post school transition rates and persistent socioeconomic disadvantage

• Because teaching is complex, multi-faceted work and

• Students can be supported to learn successfully with their differences and identities respected and valued if

• They are appreciated in their full, complicated, interconnected community, school and classroom contexts

The assessment tasks in EDF 1306

• Task #1: Design for Difference Task : TLC Plan• Part A:

» Community and school contexts» TLC clubbers Funds of Knowledge (FoK)

• Part B:» TLC plan incorporating FoK in a negotiated inquiry project bridging to academic

learning

• Task #2: Creative Presentation: • Unpacking PST’s virtual school bag, identifying key discourses and reflecting on

implications for inclusive practice

Community readiness?

Opportunities?•Mapping of local neighbourhood - Resources, facilities, services

•Workshop presentation by Latrobe City Council Community Development teaM

•Weekly on site support from TSF Learning for Life worker

•Invitation to partner with carers and families•Interrogating assumptions and stereotypes - Especially around poverty and ‘boganism’

•Revisiting and reconsidering personal history and local experiences

•Re-contextualising and reconsidering local history and reputation via theoretical lenses

Community readiness?

Evidence?“I noticed on the way to school that the area was of quite low socio economic level. There didn’t appear to be any new development areas, and the infrastructure was reasonably old. There was a new shopping plaza but I couldn’t see any new houses.One more than one occasion, one of the house opposite the school had a fire on the front lawn and several drunk adults singing quite loudly to a country and western CD, seemingly ignoring several small children (pre school age) standing out on the road abusing passers by. The adults seemed to not notice or were unperturbed by this behaviour. I had a sinking feeling that this may be representative of the children in my TLC – but luckily it wasn’t. This spectacle however was a perfect representation of the stereotype associated with this school region and I wasn’t surprised to see it. I was disappointed that this was occurring right opposite a primary school and concerned for what this means of the community and its living standards.”“ The school location is in a tucked away part of Churchill, completely residential, very quiet. This particular area of Churchill seems to display some elements of low socio-economic population; it has the distinctive uniform architecture of government housing. And some other social signifiers such as overgrown gardens and car hulks. Although the street does not have the edgy, dangerous vibe of some other areas in the valley.”

School readiness?

Opportunities?•School TLC coordinator attends each week•Orientation to TLC school

– Resources, facilities– Routines and protocols– School’s focus for TLC– Must contact TLC coordinator if absent

or if requiring special facilities, resources etc

•Working with TLC tutor partner– Collaboration– Grouping options– Team teaching– Must notify partner of absence and

forward plan•Information and opportunity to meet clubber’s teachers

Evidence?“So from these snapshots into the boys lives and those of their community both inside and outside the classroom, I learnt a great deal. The school community is respectful and tolerant to each others differences, however some tensions were evident, particularly between parents and teachers…I wanted to meet their parents and carers – however they were very reluctant. This in itself showed me the tensions and space between parents and the school – one parent I finally managed to corner into a chat was thoroughly (and pleasantly) surprised when I wanted to have a conversation with her. I learnt so much about her child in those 2 minutes; it was invaluable. By inference I was disgusted that the school discourages parent teacher interaction to this level.”

Classroom readiness?

Opportunities•Information about clubbers from and opportunity to meet and talk with clubber’s classroom teachers•Insider stories (from students themselves and carers/families)•Team teaching (with TLC partner)•School TLC coordinator on hand to support and advise•Planning for learning (with feedback), implementation, evaluation and reflection of TLC learning plan•Cohort-wide support through collaboration and online discussion

Evidence?“The activities were thoroughly designed in a way to utilise the boy’s virtual school bags and funds of knowledge, everything we did related to them as individual people and as students – and they responded positively. Three of the boys were team players while the 4th preferred to sit quietly and talk to me when we had a break and the other three ran around outside…Upon unpacking this boy’s virtual school bag I learnt that he had a very disruptive home life, and extreme anger issues of his own. One week there was an incident between the end of the school bell and the start of TLC that got him sent to timeout to ‘cool down’…No one told me what happened or where he was – so I went to investigate…I found the teacher responsible and explained that I think participating in TLC will be more valuable to him as a learner and person than detention, and consequently he was finally allowed to join back in.

Classroom readiness?

Evidence? (cont…)“The TLC member was so surprised that I pestered the teacher to let him

join back into TLC – I could see he was not used to people sticking up for him and supporting him like that. Consequently the following week he was absent from school during the day, and he confided in me that his Mum wouldn't let him attend school that day – so at 3.30pm he ran out of the house and jumped on his bike without her knowing, just so he could attend TLC because he didn't want to miss out. The teachers came up to him and congratulated him for trying so hard, and he was positively ecstatic to have made the right choice and be commended for it. I was so pleased to have had such a positive impact on this boy and his learning that he was so desperate to participate!”

Final thoughts: Tensions and dilemmas?

• Benefits of after school learning and learning about teaching

• A different ‘space’ (i.e. context and relationship)• To learn and teach differently• A different position from which to observe school and

classroom processes and practices

• Moving these dispositions (as orientation to action) and emerging skills into a school and classroom context

• Managing frustration and avoiding resignation through burn out

• Sustaining reflexivity and critique to keep open inclusive spaces that value (recognise and respect) learner differences and identity:

• Differences do matter (Allard and Santoro, 2006)

Questions?

Contacts

•Kelly.carabott@monash.edu

•Wendy.goff@monash.edu

•Kim.davies@monash.edu

•Simone.white@monash.edu

Rural Centre of Excellence

- Four partnerships - King Valley- Mansfield- St Arnaud- Tallangatta

- Three universities- University of Melbourne- Latrobe University – Wodonga Campus- University of Ballarat

Background to Centre

• Yarrawonga Project (1998)– Partnership between

Yarrawonga cluster and Latrobe University

• Ararat Project (2000)– Partnership between Ararat

cluster and University of Ballarat– Groups of teacher trainees

within a cluster of rural schools– A focus on a curriculum area

identified by the cluster– Becoming part of the school

teaching team

Key Elements

• Key focus on encouraging teacher trainees to see a teaching career in rural Victoria as a real option

• Elements– Involvement of pre service teachers on the

basis of a whole of community approach; groups of PSTs within a cluster of rural schools; centred on an identified learning area of need/interest within the cluster

– The provision of ongoing professional learning for existing cluster staff

– The potential for research – both at an individual partnership level and across all partnerships

Approaches Taken

St Arnaud Partnership•Curriculum area of focus•Whole of community approach – school supporting PSTs during school, school councilors support PSTs outside school hours•Inclusion in the whole community

Tallangatta Partnership

• Cluster approach – involvement in both primary and secondary schools within the cluster

• The direct involvement of principals • The development of a “real induction” –

exploration of school data, community profile, school cultures, etc.

• The development of a Professional Learning Team approach to support the learnings of pre service teachers

Youth Aspirations Research

• Youth aspirations identified as a real area of concern by all partnerships• Three universities working in partnership – with each university providing a

mentor/facilitation role in their “host partnership” – lead by University of Melbourne.

• Professional development for all clusters focusing on the area of “teachers as researchers”

• The involvement of clusters in the gaining of information and data supported by the “teacher researcher” in each cluster

• Involvement of university staff and “teacher researchers” in undertaking focus group discussions.

• Minimal involvement of pre service teachers

Learnings Thus Far

• The need to explore the potential that such partnerships can provide for all involved – the real need to support the various partners in the knowledge, establishment and operation of a partnership approach is needed across key areas:

– There is a benefit for the schools involved– Skills and knowledge of existing school staff is enhanced– There is an enhanced approach to teacher education– School student learning opportunities and outcome are enhanced– Pre service teachers gain a thorough understanding of teaching within a rural learning

community..• The need to support the partnership approach on a broader scale – “pipeline approach” within the

USA and the health sector• The critical role of a “broker” to focus on the development of the partnership and to support change

of thinking, and the support the establishment of sustainable approaches centred on a partnership approach

• Awareness of pre service teachers of teaching opportunities within rural communities enhanced• Pre service teachers perceptions of rural learning communities challenged• The use of communication technology within partnerships, especially when it is a growing area

within rural communities, is very low.• The need to further explore the benefit of a partnership approach to ALL partners and have it

centred on improving/enhancing the learning outcomes and opportunities for rural young people

“Many of the findings and solutions from the research indicate that a relationship built between rural industries/organisations and higher education institutions have a positive impact on supporting trainee professionals considering, and in many cases obtaining, a career within a rural community. This seems to be further enhanced if these relationships are formalised in an agreed plan and involve a whole of community approach to the practical experience.

However research indicates that a sole focus on recruitment, without a similar planned approach to retention, is short term, and will produce limited outcomes. The research evidence clearly indicates that retention of employees in the rural workforce is as large an issue as recruitment.

Unless the project concurrently develops an overall recruitment and retention framework then sustainability of any actions will be difficult”

• Greater links between approaches utilized within teacher education organisations and those occurring in schools is needed – eg professional learning teams, etc

• With the rapidly increasing use of communication technology within schools (especially rural schools) the low level of learning within this area across teacher education courses has been identified as a real area of need

• Within a rural context pre service teachers are not necessarily exposed to the variety of experiences they face within a rural teaching role – multi age classes, team teaching, “super classes”, Pre to Year 12, etc.

• There is a real opportunity to support schools in the areas of research through a partnership approach:

– Building the capacity of school teachers in relation to the power, and use, of research (eg teachers as researchers)

– Facilitating research in an area of identified focus to enhance and improve learning within the school/cluster context.

– Recognizing excellence in teaching and learning and using those with onground experience in rural contexts within pre service teachers education courses.

• The need to see this partnership approach to enhance the capacity of the whole teaching workforce, not just the “training/education end” – eg the “pipeline model” developed within the health sector.

Learnings for Teacher Educators???

The changing work and role of teacher educators in a local school context

• Bendigo SCTE

• Craig Deed, Scott Alterator, Peter Cox, Bruce Pridham (La Trobe University)

Drivers of change

• Local context – BEP

• Principal’s perspective about ‘ready-to-teach’ status of graduates

• Improving integration of university and school-based learning

Leading to …

• Immersive 2-day a week practicum model

• Team based placement (neighbourhood)

• Co-teaching

• Expert mentors

• Use of technology to support communication, planning, teaching and review

Changes for Teacher Educators

• Increased presence in school settings

• Responsiveness to school priorities and emerging issues

• Responsiveness to changing space and culture of neighbourhood ‘classrooms’

• New ‘language’ and models of practice incorporated into university subjects

• Emphasis on general pedagogical skills and knowledge

Key ongoing questions

• How to maintain productive partnerships between university and ‘our’ schools?

• How to frame flexible practicum pathways and models, in order to afford adaptive practice?

• Integration of university and school-based learning through the practicum experience?