Having worked in Northern Adelaide schools for ten years, the complexities and constant challenges of these environments are pivotal elements of my daily teaching life. Teaching in an educational setting which is categorised as ‘disadvantaged’ – high indigenous population, low socioeconomic area, high percentage of English-as-a-second-language learners (McInerney, 2009 p24; White, 1996 cited in McInerney, 2009 p25) – requires constant flexibility and adaptation. To better support this flexibility, I am transitioning my pedagogy to a student-negotiated, inquiry-based approach; an approach that I believe is vital for students in disadvantaged settings if they are to understand and oppose ‘oppressive economic and social structures’ (McInerney
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In my classroom, students are involved in long and short-term planning, determination of assessment requirements, structures of learning configurations and classroom processes. As a result, they are afforded increased choice in their education (Shor and Freire, 1987 pp11, 16), a platform on which their voices can be heard, a developing belief in themselves, the power they as individuals and communities possess and the development of criticality (Burbules and Berk 1999, p11) through scaffolding and gradual release of responsibility.
At my school, we have a ‘mantra’ that gets used frequently – at staff meetings, assemblies, in discussions with students – “It’s all about the learning.” I am constantly thinking about my students’ learning and recently, I began to reflect on how much of their learning I could share and design with them, as opposed to for them. As discussed by Lusted (1986 p4), the activities, supporting materials, the curriculum and voices in a class should all be shared equally among the participants in the learning. The relevance and value of learning should be co-determined and …show more content…
Students who have characteristics such as the above need pedagogies which understand them as these students bring so many skills, dispositions, experiences, world views, beliefs and values which don’t fit with national curriculum documents, educational department policies or one-size-fits-all assessments. My students have fled wars, spent years in refugee camps, walked to school with Mt Everest in the background, raised siblings, cared for sick parents and have had more experiences than some adults could have in a lifetime. I believe they have more to teach us that we could ever hope to teach them. We can’t expect students with such diverse backgrounds to ‘fit’ into the curriculum. In our role, which I believe in ‘disadvantaged’ settings is closer to the Swedish pedagogue (Hamilton, 1999 p13), we are mentors, guides, supports and tutors guiding our students to better understand, comprehend and question how far they have come, where they are now and where they have the possibility of
In my classroom, students are involved in long and short-term planning, determination of assessment requirements, structures of learning configurations and classroom processes. As a result, they are afforded increased choice in their education (Shor and Freire, 1987 pp11, 16), a platform on which their voices can be heard, a developing belief in themselves, the power they as individuals and communities possess and the development of criticality (Burbules and Berk 1999, p11) through scaffolding and gradual release of responsibility.
At my school, we have a ‘mantra’ that gets used frequently – at staff meetings, assemblies, in discussions with students – “It’s all about the learning.” I am constantly thinking about my students’ learning and recently, I began to reflect on how much of their learning I could share and design with them, as opposed to for them. As discussed by Lusted (1986 p4), the activities, supporting materials, the curriculum and voices in a class should all be shared equally among the participants in the learning. The relevance and value of learning should be co-determined and …show more content…
Students who have characteristics such as the above need pedagogies which understand them as these students bring so many skills, dispositions, experiences, world views, beliefs and values which don’t fit with national curriculum documents, educational department policies or one-size-fits-all assessments. My students have fled wars, spent years in refugee camps, walked to school with Mt Everest in the background, raised siblings, cared for sick parents and have had more experiences than some adults could have in a lifetime. I believe they have more to teach us that we could ever hope to teach them. We can’t expect students with such diverse backgrounds to ‘fit’ into the curriculum. In our role, which I believe in ‘disadvantaged’ settings is closer to the Swedish pedagogue (Hamilton, 1999 p13), we are mentors, guides, supports and tutors guiding our students to better understand, comprehend and question how far they have come, where they are now and where they have the possibility of