'Identifying that which is valuable in EVERY child'

I'm not sure what your childhood was like, but mine wasn't great. As we have reached the end of the academic year in schools and universities within Australia, I thought it might be useful to revisit the first question in my pedagogical framework in 'Pedagogy and Education for Life'.

"Do I identify that which is valuable in each child?"

If you have followed my work, you will have realized that my family life was problematic. For most of my early years up to the age of 17, I lived in a dysfunctional family with two alcoholic parents. I also had the devastating experience of finding my mother had died during the night after a massive heart attack. This was the result of alcoholism that left her an emaciated woman, who ate little but drank much. My father was also an alcoholic for much of my early life, although thankfully he stopped drinking when I was 12 years, when he lost his job after being found with alcohol on his breath at work.

In my case, it was my 4th Grade teacher who was the first to recognize that while I was an annoying student at times (partly due to my struggles with life at home), he saw potential in me. I now know, my behaviour was due mainly to disinterest and boredom with what he was trying to teach me. But he invested time in me, trying to find something that would capture my imagination and hence improve my behaviour.

The secret of his success as a teacher, was that he saw some hidden potential in me that no other teacher had ever been able to see.He recognized that I was bored and had significant home life problems. He turned me around by providing some unique opportunities to stretch my knowledge and motivation by trusting me to undertake some special projects in our class.

Above: An early school photo. Good luck if you can pick me!

How did he respond to my disinterest and bad behaviour?

First, he created jobs for to keep me busy and learning something in the process. His most ambitious move was to turn over full responsibility for a brand new tropical fish aquarium that he trusted me to set up and care for. He also encouraged me to learn more about the tropical fish and give talks to our class and other students about them, including their habits, food and natural environments of the fish.

Second, he ensured that my learning opportunities were pitched at a level that challenged me, rather than making me do the whole class activities which I found, easy, boring and seemingly a waste of my time.

Every teacher reading this will probably be saying, "I can't design a separate curriculum for one nuisance student!" Of course you can't, but by recognizing that my ability wasn't being stretched, and my home life was appalling, he knew he needed to do something different for his benefit and also mine. I am so grateful he did! 

As teachers we need to realize that our students come to us with different strengths, abilities and interests. To some extent, this requires us to address the diverse interests and abilities in our classrooms and adopt varied methods and content.

My early teaching experiences

Given my early school experiences, it won't surprise you that when I became a teacher I tried many innovative things to engage my students. I was always looking for things that would stretch them, widen their knowledge, and inspire them to learn new things. For example, in my second year of teaching with a Year 6 class at the time, I came across an old gramaphone on the side of the road as I drove to school. It was being tossed out. Our family had a gramaphone when I was a child. It was in our garage, still worked, and I would play old records on it. 

I stopped my car, asked the owners were they 'really' throwing it out. They said yes and I asked could I have it. I managed to push it into the large boot of my car and slowly drove the 2km to my school. I had another staff member help me to take it to my classroom. I put it the middle of the room and wondered what my students would say when they saw it. One or two knew what it was and one student said they had lots of old records in his garage. He went home (he had a lunch pass) and returned with some records. We used the gramaphone for much of the rest of the day. We listened to it, explored how it actually worked without power, wrote about it and so on. It was an incredible learning experience. I took it home and restored iy on a tiny balcony of an apartment my wife and I rented. I still have it to this day, and it is a prized object that we occasionally play for fun.

Teaching the Whole Child

I know that some teachers feel the expectations they have today as teachers are different to what I had several decades ago. But the need to encourage creativity, and develop inquiring minds that lead them to ask questions and look for explanations for things that are new to them, is critical.

In the process, we might uncover knowledge and interests that will surprise us. Schools are so regimented and programmed today, that in many ways creativity is dampened. We need to look for opportunities to widen our students worlds.

A side benefit to such an approach to teaching will I believe lead us to discover things about our students that we were unaware. In the process we might just identify in each child things that are valuable and sometimes unique. 

Thank You

Thank you to the many thousands of people who follow my blog. This is my last post for the year. My apologies for not posting on this blog last month, life has been busy.

Seasons Greeting to all!! I look forward to staying in touch in 2025.

Trevor

Formation in Education Involves an Education of the Heart - Part 2

Introduction

This post is based on my Day 2 Keynote address to the 'Australian National Leaders' Summit Christian Schools Conference' (19-22 Aug 2024). In this talk I shifted focus and considered how we develop and sustain a pedagogy that transforms classroom life. Just how do we create environments that foster the formation of our students? Such formation is not just intellectual and physical, but also spiritual, it is very much “the life of the playground, as well as the classroom that influences formation”. And of course, the life of our students outside our schools is also very significant. While we have opportunities within the school and classroom to shape and influence our students, there is less opportunity outside the classroom; except perhaps in extra curricula activities like sport, dramatic productions and so on.

I address this critical topic more fully in Chapter 6 of “Pedagogy and Education for Life”, where I zoom in on the life of our classrooms and the wider school. The wisdom of Alasdair MacIntyre, reminds us that “EVERY activity, every inquiry, every practice aims at some good”. This might NOT be THE GOOD but something we PERCEIVE to be good. Our lives, point us in directions, that can shape us. Our formation is the outcome of the “practice of many practices”.

The second half of my book is very much the ‘how to’ part. Here I remind us, while we teach, we are also ‘guides’ for our students, in a world with many voices and stories. These pull us in different directions as perceptions of what is ‘good’ will frequently clash with what parents and teachers see as ‘good’. And of course their directions chosen, may conflict with THE ultimate ‘Good’ that God offers them. The Christian school has as a significant role in this formation.

For, “Education is the whole of life as a community and the experience of its members learning to live this life from a specific standpoint or end goal.” (“Hear my Son”, Daniel J. Estes).[1]

I want to draw indirectly on my framework for Christian pedagogy (Ch 9) to discuss how this Christ-centred pedagogy contributes to the transformation of our students; in mind, body, and soul.

As I shared in my last post, Taylor’s concept of the “social imaginary” is very helpful. Like us, the life of students is influenced by “the ways we are able to think or imagine the world (or society)”.[2] This is shaped as we absorb the stories of life, and engage in rituals and cultural practices that shape desires, and develop visions of the good life. Students arrive at school already with an inner sense of what they want life to be like, and perhaps well-formed hopes and desires. We “imagine the world” as we hope it will be.

We’d hope the life of the classroom and the school, will help them to understand the greatest ‘good’, is to be found in and though Christ. Teachers and staff have an incredible opportunity to witness to their faith as they teach and nurture the students God gives them.

My Early Life

I had no such opportunity as a child to hear anything about Jesus in my home, for I grew up with parents who were both alcoholics from the time I was 7 or 8 years old. The photo below of me as a baby with my parents shows my Mum and Dad in happier times. Sadly these didn't last long. My Dad followed his father's example and was an Atheist and Communist.

My Mother had grown up in a Christian home, but sadly rejected her faith when she met my father. As I visited friends’ homes and saw the closeness of their families, I would covet what they had. But I could only imagine what this would be like. Perhaps this was when God placed the first seeds of a future hope in my mind. Decades later I was to accept Christ. My older sister was a great support to me, but I coveted a family just like some of my friends had. Understanding and perhaps influencing such inner hopes and desires in our students is relevant to our task as leaders and teachers.

The things our students hope for are also influenced by the stories we share with one another. “Story” influences how we imagine our futures, how we hear the hopes of others, and also how we share our own. We are in actions and practices very much storytellers.

But what are the stories that capture student imaginations? Many are from outside the classroom, as they observe others, watch television, listen to their favourite music, read things that open their eyes to other worlds. As teachers, we should share some of our stories, as we strive to see hearts captured for the Good. This is where teachers have a key role.

The Teacher as Guide

Daniel Estes in his book “Hear My Son” (p.237-285) reminds us of the great responsibility all teachers have as “expert(s) WITH authority”, and as “facilitators” in the classroom. He also points us to our role to “guide” our students. Proverbs 22:6 echoes this:

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”

Of course, this proverb was directed at parents, but teachers can also play a part in such shaping. The greatest spiritual influence on our students’ should be parents, youth leaders, School Chaplains and so on. But teachers also have students for a large part of their lives, which is an incredible privilege and opportunity.

Even in public schools at a time I was not even a Christian, I had to deal with student imaginations being captured through the stories and practices of life. In the classroom, playground, and related activities, student are being shaped in behaviour, but also in the desire to belong to groups of people with whom they share many practices, dispositions, hopes and preferences. James Smith suggests such groups introduce us to what he calls “secular liturgies” (Smith, “Erotic Comprehension”, pp 5-6).

Students like us are “immersed within an intertextual cacophony of stories that shape and influence the things we desire” (Cairney). Aristotle argued that the motivation for this is our desire for “human flourishing.” We’re taught and even lured, by visions of the ‘good life’. When I was a teenager, like all boys I wanted to be fit, with a taught body (I failed on all counts). But today, our desires have gone to another level. Young men (and women) can end up worshiping their bodies. To be like someone else can so easily become their greatest desire.

 

The challenge for all Christian students and teachers, is to push back upon unrealistic and unhealthy views of the world. Our students are taught, perhaps even lured, by many pictures, or alternative visions of the ‘good life’ and their hoped for futures.

Daniel J. Estes [3] helps us to see how to apply Vygotsky’s work. He suggests that:

“The metaphor of the teacher as guide includes both direction by the teacher and active involvement of the student in the learning process”.

How this is achieved will depend on the age of your students as well as the role of chaplains, and the structures you have in place for Christian Growth. Chaplains might take the lead in such things, but always in partnership with teachers. The Christian activities we plan in our schools, hopefully create a number of contact points for such discussions. But there are many more (lost) opportunities in the ‘cracks’ of school life.

Let me share briefly a vignette from my book. Jackie is a year 11 girl aged 16. She’s from an average lower-middle-class family with a mortgage on a comfortable home, and two cars in the garage. Her mother is university trained and a teacher, while her Dad has an administrative role in a government department. Jackie has a good group of mainly non-Christian friends and is well-liked. Not surprisingly, she is a member of a number of groups, or ‘communities’, in fact eight:

• Close school friends
• Students in her art class
• Her extended family
• A dance group she has been in for 8 years
• Pizza restaurant staff where she works part-time
• Members of her netball team
• Fellow students at technical college where she does a food-service course part-time
• Her 2500 Facebook friends, as well as content and contacts on Tik Tok, Snapchat and Instagram.

As James Smith suggests, any group has its own ‘secular liturgies’ that impact on lives. Such ‘liturgies’ that occur in groups begin to shape and teach us to be a certain ‘kind of person’.

Even if Jackie doesn’t accept all the values and views of the groups she frequents, they all require some ‘quiet acceptance of, and compliance with these practices if she wishes to be part of group life. As Jackie moves in and out of these diverse groups her desires are being shaped, and her priorities of life formed. A vision of her future is developing.

Any impact on Jackie’s formation, occurs against a backdrop of many competing stories, desires, and views of the good life. 

Now for any teacher reading this post, who has already crossed arms and is thinking, “that’s why my role is just to teach and lead, to do more seems impossible”. But read on! Because, as James Smith reminds us that:

“Christian formation and discipleship are 'educational' projects in the most holistic sense.” 

And as teachers we are included. For while we cannot disciple all our students, we can have an impact in significant ways for some, and for many small but significant ways.

At this stage you might be silently saying “whatever”! How can I as a teacher have much influence on my students? My response is, “That all depends on the relationship you have with your students, and the breadth of their relationships with Christian students and teachers, sporting coaches etc in and outside their school.”

Addressing the Invisible Things of Life

As teachers, we soon learn that much of what our students and children learn is through “things which are invisible”. Pierre Bourdieu’s idea of “habitus” and Charles Taylor’s concept of the “social imaginary” help us as we grapple with this issue [p.99 ‘Pedagogy and Education for Life’ p.99].

For “… beneath the surface of any discussion, argument or opinion expressed by a group or institution, sits the human imagination at work, helping us engage and take notice of stories, myths, new concepts, hopes and dreams. And in doing so our inner desires are shaped”.

Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky used the term Obuchenie (ar-bu-cheene), to explain the relationship between school teaching and learning as something “intertwined”. For as students listen to their teachers, they also listen to other sources of ‘authority’ on many things. This includes fellow students! Vygotsky’s term tries to capture the actions and intentions of both teacher and learner. Once again, these voices also work on and in them.

The key for us as teachers is to understand this “intertwining” as inevitable. While we know our students listen to many sources and authorities on life, as teachers, we should also share our thoughts. Our role is not indoctrination, but creating environments where there is openness and dialogue possible to see things from different perspectives. While our key role as teachers with expertise and knowledge of what students need to learn is to teach, as Christian teachers and leaders we also need to share life wisdom in the cracks of classroom life. Our voices need to be one more amongst the many voices they will hear in and outside the school. This is a significant duty and responsibility we all assume. Might God empower us as we seek to do so.

 

 

 

Is Christian pedagogy any different to sound secular pedagogy? Part 1

This was the question that shaped one of two plenary addresses I presented to the 300 delegates of the "Australian National Leaders' Summit Christian Schools Conference" (Brisbane 19-22 Aug 2024).

The brief was to unpack the ideas in my book 'Pedagogy and Education for Life'. It was a challenging task to synthesize all aspects of my work in two 45 minute addresses. But, it's even more difficult to do so in two posts. But here goes!

1. What do we mean by Christian Pedagogy?" 

The word 'Pedagogy' is derived from the Greek word “Paidagogeo” which is a compound of “paidos” (child) and “agogos” (one who leads or guides) (Cairney, 2018, p.32). Some quick questions in response. Is this how we see the role of the teacher in Christian schools? I believe it should be. If so, how do we lead or guide our students? Does it look any different to secular schools?

 

The Apostle Paul used the word “Paidagogeo” in Ephesians 6:4 in relation to “discipline" which is how it is often translated. But Paul and others were using it in the sense of “bringing [them] up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” But what does he mean by this? Let me work through some key points.

 

2. Is there such a thing as 'Christian Pedagogy'?

I think most Christian Christian leaders would agree that teaching is different in Christian schools. But as I have visited Christian schools, and talked with teachers and administrators, much of what they mean when using the term “Christian teaching”, or in some cases “Teaching Christianly”, was that staff and teachers saw their own personal faith somehow shaping their work in the classroom. That's one of the reasons, I use the term Christian pedagogy NOT Christian teaching.

In a school with all (or mostly) Christian teachers, what's different about their practices? Is the relationship between teacher and students different? At a broader level, what do the principal, school board and parent body, see as the fundamental things that make their school a Christian school? 

How recognisable would this be to others? Would they be recognisable to parents, students, other non-Christian schools and so on? Or, are our schools (and parents) just as distracted by academic success, and simply relegate matters of faith to the background?

I believe we need to devote more time in Christian schools to considering what faith-based pedagogy looks like in all classrooms. In fact, we need to develop a 'whole of life perspective as well as a community perspective in our schools. Why? Because our schools should be places where faith is evident in varied ways, and where it is discussed and seen as a priority with teachers, students and parents.

3. But What Does it Mean to Teach in a Christian way?

One of the key assumptions and priorities in the type of pedagogy I'm suggesting is that we create classroom and school environments where:

"Education is seen as the whole of life of a community, and the experience of its members learning to live this life, from the standpoint of a specific end goal" (Cairney, 'Pedagogy and Education for Life'). And of course, I'm suggesting that the "whole of life" of the school is more than studying subjects and succeeding academically, in order leading to gain good results and employment. 

Rather, the whole of life of the school should be just as much about shaping students to grow in faith, with an understanding that God created them to do more than simply being successful in life. Our God wants our students to know Him, seek to honour Him, and lead lives that bring glory to Him.

• If so, what does such community ‘life’ look like?
• How do we live from the standpoint of a specific goal? 
• What might the goals of the school and the teacher look like?
• What is our role in helping to achieve such communities? 
  

I will look more closely at some of these questions in my next post. I quote John Hull in the introduction to me book, who helpfully notes:

"What normally passes for Christian Education can more accurately be named 'Christians educating'." Ouch!

Trevor Hart identifies rightly in the foreword to my book that I have sought to describe a “teleology” (i.e. a reason or explanation for the function or purpose of something) or an “eschatology” (i.e. seeing our students in the light of a bigger and more ultimate vision). We do not simply seek educational and intellectual accomplishments, or future wealth.

Hart also suggests, as I do, that what makes “Christian Education” distinctive, is not the curriculum, specific pedagogical methods and so on, but an “eschatology” that views our hopes for our students, in light of a much bigger vision than academic success, future employment and ongoing self-advancement.

4. Summing Up

 

I hope our schools, teachers and leaders, articulate and offer clear reasons for the faith that drives their every action? I implore all of us to assess whether our pedagogy and priorities demonstrate a much bigger vision for our students’ future (and their parents), than just top marks and rankings, careers and success. Of course, this might be different from what some parents (and even staff) perceive as the ‘good life’. But there is no reason to see these things are incompatible. We need to keep asking, what does “success” look like for students and us as teachers? Finally, if teachers, parents and students have different views, how do we reconcile them?

 

Christian schools should seek to create rich school environments, that point students towards faith in our Lord and Saviour, not just ‘success’ in life?

 

In my next post, I will look more closely at how Christian Pedagogy has a key role in shaping our students in the faith which at times might be invisible. While we can easily see and assess student growth in knowledge, skills, and commitment to learning, how do we assess growth in the inner life of our students?

---

John Hull, “Aiming for Christian Education, Settling for Christians Educating”, Christian Scholar Review 32 (2009) 203-23.

 

 

 

 

 

Can You Identify Something Commendable in Every Student?

I wrote a version of this post for another blog I write
('Pedagogy and Education for Life'). That blog is specifically for teachers in Christian or faith-based schools, but the topic is just as relevant in all schools.

Let me first ask a question. Do we believe there is something commendable in every child we teach? In the first week of first term in any school year you won't have much of an idea, but if you're well into the year and you still haven't recognised something it's a problem.  It might just be that we don't know them at all. But I'd hope that after 2-4 weeks we would know something about every child. Their name (more difficult for secondary teachers), and a little about their personality. Maybe the things some are good at, and even some friendship obvious friendship groups. But at the 2 month mark we should know much more about all students.

Some children hide in the background of classroom life. It's easy to quietly withdraw, keep a low profile, look out the window, and count the minutes till recess, lunch and home time. This presents a problem for every teacher, for we must get to know our students, including their strengths, weaknesses, hopes, fears and life challenges.

Across my teaching career, I observed children who could be disinterested, under-performing and at times difficult in one class, who suddenly blossomed in a different class. "Why is this so"? I'd hope that we never see children in our classrooms who we assume haven't anything to offer.

 

Above: My students in 1978

I taught in three different elementary schools across all age ranges. In many ways, it was my third school where the challenge to know all students became even clearer and more important to me. I was the sole teacher and head of a small school. While it had two buildings, two classrooms, a small library, a staff room and office, I was the only teacher as well as 'Head' of the school. I was the person who ran the 'Tuck Shop' each week etc. I had 26 children across seven grades (and at one stage 31). That is, Kindergarten (5 year olds) to Grade 6 in the same room. The school was situated in a small town with just 300 people.

So why am I stressing the imperative to know our students? Because, all students need to understand they are known, valued and seen as capable of doing new things. This makes a difference! Perhaps this is obvious to some, but how is it achieved in the busy life of the classroom? Let me tackle this from three angles.

a) Every child needs to feel valued, and seen as able to do things

An important ingredient for any child's success is the realization they can be successful at something. It took me until 4th grade to realize that I was good at a few things. I enjoyed Kindergarten and learnt to read and write. But by grade 3, I spent most of the day looking out the window and thinking about the fun I'd have when I got home. I managed to learn to read, write and so on, but I was pretty naughty and easily distracted. But, in grade 4 a new teacher invested some time in me. He could see my problems, including a tough home background and my previous disruptive behaviour, but he was prepared to invest in me, even in a class of 41 students across two grades (see below). I'm 4th from the left in the back row.

Mr Campbell had the sense to channel what he saw as potential in me, in a way that would motivate. I became the garbage monitor, milk monitor, duster cleaner etc to no doubt to try to keep me out of trouble (to little effect at first). This was against a backdrop of the Principal who saw me as a 'drop kick'. He simply caned me every time I messed up, which was often the case in his eyes in grades 3 to 5 Grade. But even as my behaviour improved, he found excuses to cane me. Once when he saw me looking out the window during a lesson (bored stiff), as he walked along the verandah past my classroom. He came in, took me out and caned me twice!

But a big change occurred when an aquarium with tropical fish was purchased by the school and placed in my classroom. My teacher put me in charge of it. He handed me a book on tropical fish and asked me to study it. He later asked me to give a presentation to the class on raising tropical fish. It was a success, and the fish and I both flourished.

The challenge for all teachers is that some students will present as disinterested, difficult and annoying (as I was), while others will take the front seats, smile, look engaged and answer all the questions. Being able to identify the gifts and abilities of all students is our greatest challenge, and much more important than seeing their weaknesses and problems.

Years later, after I'd become a teacher, I recall a day while on playground duty at a small Primary school in my home city that had an impact on me. I was standing next to the Principal who would come out from time to time to watch our students. The boys were playing cricket and a new boy broke a cricket bat. The Principal called him over and said "how did that happen?" The boy replied "I don't know Sir", I just missed the ball and hit the pitch. To which the principal replied, "I'm watching you son, I can remember your older brother breaking a cricket bat when he attended this school too." A colleague nearby whispered in my ear, "and I bet he's never forgotten it." How easily children are labelled. At that moment I thought to myself, I was that kid once, and this principal was like my old principal in primary school who had caned me over 40 times before Grade 5.

A fundamental mark of a good teacher is the intent to look for the good in students, and seek to identify their abilities and potential, not just their weaknesses and failures.

b) Teachers need to gain the trust of their students and in the process, seek to identify gifts in unusual places.

In 'Pedagogy and Education for Life' I share a vignette about a student name Chanda who I taught while living in the US as a visiting scholar at Indiana University some 40 years ago. As part of my research, I team taught with a relatively new teacher who was keen to have me working with her. I met a student named Chanda almost immediately. She was a larger than life boisterous student who made her presence known; but often not in the right way. 

Chanda rarely did her work. In fact, after being in her class for 6 months, I couldn't recall her completing any task. Often, she didn't even start them. One morning as usual, the children raced down the corridors having left the buses that brought them from the Trailer Courts that most lived in. Chanda burst through the door, and threw her bag onto her desk. It bounced off, fell open at my feet, and a bundle of scrappy looking paper dropped out. I was helping to pick them up and she quickly grabbed them off me. I said, "Hey, that looks like writing!" She quickly replied, "It's nothin Sir, just some music I did at home." As I held one piece, I saw it was in the form of a song. I asked could I read some. As I took one, she said, "Sir, you won't like it." I pleaded, "let me read some, PLEASE?" After saying no three times, she reluctantly agreed, and said "just a couple". There must have been 30 works in the bag. I quickly realized she was writing music, which was in effect poetry.

None of her writing had been revealed previously to her teacher or me. It's difficult at times to gain the trust of our students so that we are in a position to identify special gifts. Chanda was a difficult student from a troubled background. She didn't enjoy school subjects, but had hidden potential. You can read a bit more about Chanda and see one of her songs/poems in my book "Pedagogy and Education for Life" (Ch 2, pp 25-27).

c) Students need to know their teachers know them, and in some way 'get them'.

This statement might sound like waffle, but in reality all relationships only succeed when both parties understand the other. Mr Campbell was the first teacher who 'knew' me. He could see beyond the grubby and sometimes difficult poor kid, to a child with potential. Even the extreme introvert in a classroom can be understood. But it requires patience and close observation of the child in class, as well as their behaviour and interests outside the classroom. The latter is difficult, but nonetheless there are ways to read the signs that disclose what makes each child tick. In particular, what they like, dislike and feel passionate about. As a young teacher, I coached many of the school sporting teams and spent much of lunchtime in the playground talking to students, playing paddle tennis with other teachers (and some students). In essence, I was observing and getting to know them in different contexts. This was easy at my One Teacher School, but a little harder with classes of 35+ as I had in my early years of teaching in large city schools.

Teacher expectations matter. The school principal who caned me so many times in my early primary school years had no idea who I really was. I say that even though my sister had been at the school before me and was well-loved. Her sporting skill and a beautiful singing voice made her a stand out. Mr Whitaker saw little good in me, and had no idea who I really was. But Mr Campbell took the time to get to know what made me tick. My interests, my hidden abilities and what switched me on as a learner, weren't that obvious. As a result, I often withdrew and gazed out the window. Dreaming up ideas for what I'd do after school. Projects to start, cubby houses to build, boats to build and bushland to explore near my home. 

Working hard to engage every student is a challenge for all of us. It might well be that it's only across many years of schooling that each of us experience teachers who see something special in us. One such teacher will make a difference. Mr Campbell was mine. Who might you inspire and help to shape? Perhaps a kid like me, or Chanda?

Selling our Kids Short: Educating the Disadvantaged

This is a topic that has been around since I was a teacher many years ago. How do we support and help children who are disadvantaged to learn and flourish? The challenge is close to my heart, for I was one of those children. Born with a father who was a coal miner, as was his father, grandfather and great grandfather. Before that my family was growing potatoes in Ireland.

There were nine boys in my father's family, and when they came to Australia in 1922 they were all highly literate. They were all readers, performed reasonably well at school and went on to become leaders of a movement seeking to support and promote the needs of the worker, by helping to build strong unions. Two built the nation's largest poultry farm. How were a bunch of mine workers whose ancestors struggled, and lived in a two room miner's cottage with only shared a outside pit toilet and washroom able to do these things (my Father's town below). 

           Above: Main street of Caldercruix (Scotland)

Beyond the amazing resilience of the miners and their families, there was a strong commitment in Scotland to school education. In the late 18th and early 19th Century the government set out to educate the poor. Its public education system was a leader around the world. What about today? How well do our public systems compare today?

Why was their education so good?

I discovered an old post that I didn't quite finish back in 2011! In it I reported the comments of Alfie Kohn titled "Poor Teaching for Poor Children". The following snatch from it is still very current:

"Love them or hate them, the proposals collectively known as 'school reform' are mostly top-down policies ... pitting states against one another in a race for federal education dollars...  offering rewards when test scores go up ... firing the teachers or closing the schools when they don’t."

I hear many echoes of this today. Alfie Kohn continues:

"Policy makers and the general public have paid much less attention to what happens inside classrooms - the particulars of teaching and learning - especially in low-income neighborhoods."

 

Education Week was held just three weeks ago in NSW. We put our best face forward for the general public, and rightly celebrated all the good things about our schools and our teachers. What we didn't hear much of were the inner groans of our teachers, who find it hard to teach the way many would like to, due to the pressure politically to ensure children do well on public testing published for all to see. Every time, bureaucrats and governments groan about "falling standards", we are back on a familiar merry go round.

 

Meanwhile, how are our teachers using their time?

 

In Australia, our teachers are typically buried in paperwork, helping their students prepare for public testing (national and state), ticking boxes, writing reports etc. Where is the time to prepare the lessons they might plan, and the opportunities to form creative young people to become the leaders of tomorrow?

 

As a young teacher, in my first appointment in a difficult community in Western Sydney in the 1970s, this wasn't the case. I found myself with primary school classes of 30-36 students with mixed ability students. No classes were graded. What to do? Thankfully, we were not hounded to teach to the test. So my plan was to work hard to excite my students about learning, to get them to enjoy school and be challenged. Along the way, I still taught them the basic skills for life. Yes, reading, writing, mathematics, knowledge of the world etc.

Above: My first class

But I had a fair degree of autonomy to vary my routine when something exciting happened. These opportunities occurred often in my classrooms with questions and comments like "I don't get it", "Sir, did you know that...", "have you ever seen a Wedge Tailed eagle" and so on. I had the chance to follow some of these interests and questions, and be creative myself. I wrote a book over 30 years ago in which I shared some of my ideas and strategies for making literature and reading exciting. 'Other Worlds, the Endless Possibilities of Reading'. You might still find a copy on Amazon.

 

For example, one day on my way to school, I saw an old 1930s gramophone on the footpath, being tossed out. I asked the owner could I have it, he said yes! I jostled it into the back of my car and took it to school. With the help of another teacher we carried it to my room. I just sat it at the front of the room. As the children arrived, they saw it and questioned, "what's that Sir?" I asked them to tell me.

 

Above: Gramaphone restored

One child finally recognized it; there was one in his grandfather's garage. He went home for lunch and brought back some old 78 Bakelite records. I set aside most of the day to help them find out more about it. We played the records, discussed the differences between the player and the records. We then spent the rest of the day in varied exploration, drawing, writing, researching etc. Sadly, this type of spontaneous activity is hardly possible today. Paperwork, reporting and preparation for public exams take up far too much of teachers' time (not by choice).

 

Finding ways to break this cycle

 

The life of the teacher has been discouraging for quite some time in Australia. Things seem to be getting worse as a direct result of the “reform” and strategies pursued by governments in most countries. Most are promoting getting back to skills, 'the basics', testing students and schools against the standards of other unlike groups. Sadly, such reforms are cheered on by education departments, many parents and journalists.

 

 

It's hard to see how we change things, but we need to look for opportunities. I am so happy that during 'Book Week' in Australia this month, we can return (in a sense) to celebrating and enjoying learning with a creative focus on literature. We can try to recapture the joy, and challenge of education which can occur by reading for pleasure and enjoyment. No test afterwards, just the joy of reading, responding to it, sharing it with friends and so on. 

 

One of our key performance goals in schools, should always be to influence our students to become avid readers. That was something the Scottish system in the 18th and 19th centuries understood. We need to recapture this in Australian schools, and work to enable our students to explore, enjoy and perhaps even write inspired by literature. I'll write a post on our award winning children's books when they are announced next week.

The last word

Alfie Kohn's thoughts helped frame this post. He offered good insights from varied educators and scholars, including Deborah Meier. I'll let this educator and author who founded extraordinary schools in New York and Boston have the last word:

 

"...The very idea of 'school' has radically different meanings for middle-class kids, who are “expected to have opinions,” and poor kids, who are expected to do what they’re told. Schools for the well-off are about inquiry and choices; schools for the poor are about drills and compliance. The two types of institutions barely have any connection to each other".

How can we work to achieve this in our varied countries? I can't say I recognize it in many schools. Do we just keep enduring the stress on skills and testing, or in the interest of our children's education, will we take a stand to see some changes made?

I may offer a second post on this in the future.

 

Above: One of my early primary school classes (41 students)

Realigning Education & Career Expectations in Schools and Families

It's difficult to write a post like this one without appearing that I'm being (at least indirectly) critical of teachers, and parents. As a former teacher, I'm aware of the challenges in teaching, whether infants, primary or secondary. And as a parent, and more recently a grandparent, I understand how tough parenting can be. All levels of education have their own unique issues in 2022, but there are some issues that are common to all. 

 

As a teacher, you will be aware that parents tend to be more critical than they once were. Expectations are higher than ever! Every parent feels their child is unique (and of course in one sense they are), and many want them to end up working as brain surgeons, lawyers, engineers or some other high-paying role. Teaching is unfashionable right now partly because everyone talks it down, including teachers.

Many parents will also question what teachers do, even though the teacher is the education and teaching expert, not the parent. It is one of the few professions in the world where almost everyone feels they have the right to question the professionals. And of course, media critics of teaching abound.

 

As well, school education systems are constantly wanting to test and measure achievement with instruments (i.e. tests) that inform them on how students and schools are being judged. These measures never offer a comprehensive picture of what our students are learning, and always seem to end up producing negative stories in the press. Is there any wonder teachers feel unhappy?

 

It seems that many people are quick to criticize and slow to acknowledge that teaching and parenting are both challenging roles in the 21st century. What can we do about this situation? I want to suggest that both key parties need to review and reassess their hopes and desires for children. In particular, I think as parents, we need to think carefully about what our students' aptitudes and skills are, and how these might equip them for specific roles in life. At day's end our children can't all be brain surgeons, CEOs, lawyers, doctors or CEOs of their own start-up companies with their unique products and inventions that resulted from their university studies. So how do we set realistic goals and expectations for our children as they enter education? Let me ask a few pointed questions:

 

1. When your child first entered primary/elementary school, were you already aware of what you expected from education for your child? As well, had you already decided what profession you wished them to pursue?

2. When your child entered the secondary school, had you realigned your expectations much?

3. What factors shaped the above choices? Was one factor your desire to see them do something similar to you as their parents? Or, in some cases, perhaps something quite different and 'better'? And high paying!

4. How closely did you examine your child's natural gifts, abilities and interests in thinking through such decisions?

 

Why pose these questions?

 

I ask questions like these because I have observed for decades that many parents embrace goals for their children very early in life, that aren't necessarily based on an objective assessment of their children's aptitudes and abilities. Recent research in Australia suggests that a majority of parents expected their children to go to university, with 62.8% indicating either Yes, definitely or Yes, probably. As well, fathers who hold trade qualifications are less likely to expect their children to enter higher education. But both mothers and fathers tend to rate boys as being substantially less likely to attend university than girls, and overall parents over-estimate the likelihood of their child entering university. Some of my family members, and many friends always saw me as destined for engineering. I commenced mechanical engineering with Australia's major steel company (BHP) when I left school, but in a few months I tossed this in and pursued teaching as a career! My father was NOT impressed. My experience and that of many others, suggest that we need to think more carefully about the aspirations we have for our children.

 

                         Image: Aerial photo of the Newcastle Steelworks (c1960s) where I began training and work

In this post, I am composing the post against a backdrop of nail guns being used to build a luxury home near me. The workers are mostly men, who have completed 4 years of high school education followed by a trade course over 2-3 years at a technical college. I suspect that few were very successful at school. They all drive cars much better than mine and the builders I know live in homes (usually with minimal or no debt) that are better than many university educated people can afford. They seem to enjoy and get satisfaction from their time spent on site, with a predictable pattern of 3-4 hours’ work (7.00am till 11.00am), one hour for lunch (or 'smoko' as some call it), and then another 3 hours before they go home and forget about work till the next day.

 

All parents and teachers are different, but as an informed observer I want to offer a critique of some of the expectations parents and teachers seem to hold, and encourage all readers to answers the following questions.

 

What do schools seek to equip children for?

 

If you answered "get to university", "succeed in their final exams", "end up with a good job" etc, I think your response might just be VERY narrow. All schools, and particularly Christian and religious schools of all types, should be seeking to develop the whole child, not be setting expectations on the first day of primary/elementary school for them. Our will always reflect our relationship with the child and our personal aspirations. In my book 'Pedagogy and Education for Life' I point to Doug Blomberg's thoughts on the relationship between teacher and child. He makes a very telling point that has relevance to both teachers and parents when thinking about our hopes and career expectations for children. He states in 'Wisdom and Curriculum' that the task of the school, including faith-based schools is to use curriculum, which he defines as inclusing “the relationship between the teacher and the child” for a central purpose:

 

"... to create a (school-)world within the world, because it is a selection from and sequencing of an all-but-infinite range of possible experiences. It is a conscious (re-)ordering of the world for the purposes of teaching and learning. The ends to which these processes are directed provide the criteria for the selection and organization of school experience." (Cairney, 2018, p.44)

 

I underline the final sentence because it speaks to the issues I'm discussing in this post. The expectations of parents are (I suspect) pretty much set before school. While these might change across the years of school life, they do not shift easily, and in some cases never do!

 

Parents have the primary role in shaping future expectations early in life, but this tends to shift over time, with teachers and other students also playing a role in the development of every child's hopes and dreams for life after school. Teachers must be aware of this and reflect on how they might influence pathways for the good, or perhaps, NOT for the good of the child.

 

I might do a follow-up post on this topic, but for now I simply leave readers to ponder and perhaps discuss the issues I have raised with others.

Helping our Students to Make Connections between Life and School

I presented a plenary address this week at the Seventh International Literary Juvenilia Conference 2022. The conference explored Juvenilia, that is, youthful writing up to the age of twenty. As part of my plenary address I explored Intertextuality research which was a key focus for me in the 1980s to 1990s. Intertextuality refers to the "relationship between texts" (Kristeva). In my book 'Pathways to Literacy' (Cassell, 1995) I describe it as "the process of interpreting one text by means of another text".

Two people inspired me to explore Intertextuality. First, my dear friend and colleague Margaret Meek from the University of London (who died just two years ago), and Prof. Jerome Harste (Indiana University) who has been a close colleague and friend for almost 40 years. Jerry invited me to come to Indiana University (Bloomington) as a Postdoctoral Fellow in 1984. My purpose was to commence postdoctoral research and writing on Intertextuality.

While at IU, I collaborated with a Grade 5 teacher at an Indianapolis School. Barbara invited me to spend time at her school and assist her as a co-teacher, with a class that at times was challenging. I want to share a story from this classroom, that I also shared at the Juvenilia Conference this week. This student's writing, was to offer me a profound insight into why the task of inspiring our children as readers and writers can be at times challenging.

On an ordinary morning, as I prepared for the school day, I heard the yellow school buses arrive at the entrance, and the rush of students down the corridor shortly just minutes later. Students burst through the door and we did the usual crowd control, as they jostled their way to their seats. Some were shouting to one another, and a few were saying “Hi Sir”. A bolshie young African American named Nora (not her real name) threw her bag onto the desk. It missed, and its contents spilled onto the floor right in front of me. I started to help her pick things up. I grabbed a wad of writing paper with numerous texts that looked like stories.

 

I was shocked! Norah was a disruptive student and had the ability to spend a whole day without completing any task. She was from a difficult family and lived in a trailer court. It’s no exaggeration to say, she had not produced a single piece of writing in English while I was there. I said to her, “what’s this Norah?” She replied, “Nothin Sir”. I said, “looks like writing to me”. “It’s Nothin Sir, just stuff I do at home.”

 

I hesitated and said, “can I read some of it?” “No Sir, you won’t like none of it. It’s just stuff.” “Looks like poetry to me”.  “No Sir, just some songs.” I said, “please let me read some.” She replied, “well, maybe just a couple.”

 

The first untitled ‘song’ that caught my attention was this one ‘:

 

Lonesome all alone

She waits by the phone

Lonesome all alone

She wants to belong

Lonesome all alone

She listens and hopes

But there is no sound

Just a lonesome hound

Lonesome all alone

 

Was this great poetry? For this 11 year old child, yes! At home, it seemed Norah was a writer, whereas at school she was mostly a pest, and had not completed a single piece of writing at school. She saw little relevance in her school learning, but found inspiration in writing music stimulated by her own inner hopes and dreams.

I share Norah’s story, because I believe there are many children like her in our schools, for whom the literature of great authors has not been part of their lived experience. As such, the literary seedbeds of their storytelling and writing are different to the students many of us will teach in our schools. She was inspired by popular music at home and moved to write in response to her struggles as a disadvantaged African American.

I want to suggest 4 key ingredients for motivating and engaging our students as learners:

 

• First, know your students well. Who are they at home? What are their passions outside school
• Second, discover the things in life that our students might want to share with others?
• Third, consider what might unlock the passions and interests of our students leading them to become risk takers, willing to share the things that touch and inspire them most? 
• Fourth, as teachers we should try to help our children to build a "cauldron of stories" as a reservoir into which they can dip as writers.
  

The challenge in my talk at the conference was a simple plea. Get to know our students well, and seek to plough the seeds of the love of literature, into the lives of students like Norah, and I suspect many other children within our schools. In this way, we might just be able to help children like Norah (& me when at school) to grow as readers and writers as they connect their lives with the things of school.