Bronwyn E. Wood

Children of Rogernomics: a neoliberal generation leaves school

outset, the authors describe two cohorts of research participants. Cohort 1 are identified as belonging to Generation X, they were born in the 1970s and left high school in 1991. This group have been involved with the wider research project, Life Patterns, for over 20 years. In addition to obtaining quantitative data from this group, 19 of the participants were interviewed, and it is from their narratives that much of the discussion of the book is drawn. Cohort 2 are identified as belonging to Generation Y, born in the late 1980s and leaving school in 2006. Survey data from this population are used less extensively throughout the book and is particularly prominent in Chapter 3. The rationale for using these two research populations is that trends can be compared across two generations. In reality, comparison is somewhat slim, and the book relies heavily on the reflections of those notso-young-people, now in their mid-30s, to make statements about the experience of rural youth. Whilst the book has some interesting contributions to make, it might have gone further. Particularly absent is any explicit discussion of gender in the context of young rural lives. This is disappointing, especially when the final chapter of the book presents the stories of three men growing up in the countryside, and going on to work in agriculture. There is plenty of data comparing the experiences of male and female participants, displayed in graphs, particularly in Chapter 3, and the idea that married rural women with university degrees are least likely to be in full time work is addressed in the text of this chapter. Gender in the countryside has been a particular focus of rural studies, and particularly within research on young people in the countryside (for example, Tucker and Matthews 2001). Combined with the authors’ suggestion that their findings fly in the face of policy frameworks regarding gender equality, this is an issue that might have been drawn out for deeper discussion and analysis. As a European, I would also have been fascinated to read about the experience of Aboriginal or First Nation young people as they deal with similar issues of negotiating community and employment as they enter adulthood. The authors’ decisions to focus on white Australian youths may be easily defended. What I find harder to understand is the absence of any explanation of this choice given the socio-cultural significance of the relationship between First Nation youth and the Australian countryside.

Researching the everyday: young people’s experiences and expressions of citizenship

This paper reports on a research study which drew attention to the constitutive nature of the everyday world in young people’s subjectivities and practices of citizenship. Central to the aim of this research was a need for alignment between the focus of the research (‘everyday’ citizenship), with methods which could illuminate the day-to-day experiences of being a citizen. In this paper, I re-examine some of the ‘everyday’ data generated by two research methods which were initially discounted as rambling or divergent. This data characteristically had frequent interjections, incomplete sentences, questions and queries, or a sense of ambiguity and uncertainty. Through a re-analysis of this data, I consider the potential it offers to contribute conceptual and theoretical insights into young people’s citizenship dispositions and practices. The research revealed the diverse, complex and contested understandings of citizenship that young people were forming in the context of day-to-day social and spatial interactions.

Participatory capital: Bourdieu and citizenship education in diverse school communities

A priority toward creating ‘active’ citizens has been a feature of curricula reforms in many income-rich nations in recent years. However, the normative, one-size-fits-all conceptions of citizenship often presented within such curricula obscure the significant differences in how some young people experience and express citizenship. This paper reports on research that explored the citizenship perceptions and practices of New Zealand social studies teachers and students from four diverse geographic and socio-economic school communities. Attention was drawn to the scale of their citizenship orientations and participation (local/global). Drawing on Bourdieu’s conceptual triad and his species of capital in particular, the author posits that the differences observed between school communities can be usefully explained by a concept of participatory capital. The paper concludes with some reflections on the implications for young people who fail to access the ‘symbolic’ global participatory capital associated with much contemporary citizenship education.

Conceptual understandings as transition points: making sense of a complex social world

Teaching for conceptual understanding has been heralded as an effective approach within many curriculum frameworks internationally in an age of rapid and constant change around what counts as ‘knowledge’. Drawing from research and experience within the social studies curriculum, this paper reflects on some of the largely unstated and unexplored aspects of adopting concept‐based approaches to curriculum. The paper explores the historical and contemporary status and development of conceptual understandings that has led to teaching (at least within New Zealand social studies) that still remains largely focused on facts and topics. The nature of learning within the social sciences highlights a society which is not static and factual, but instead, complex and diverse. This paper presents a number of reasons why teaching conceptual understandings as inert facts or ‘end points’ fails to prepare learners to understand and engage in a complex and rapidly changing social world. Instead, conceptual understandings must be understood as changeable, contextual, and contested. The paper considers how conceptual fluidity might be accommodated in teacher planning, arguing that conceptual understandings may more usefully be regarded as transition points in learning, rather than irrefutable destinations.

Sustainability champions?: Academic identities and sustainability curricula in higher education

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of academic staff who are committed to embedding sustainability within tertiary curricula and pedagogy. Design/methodology/approach The focus of this paper is on a New Zealand university. A survey of staff was undertaken and in-depth interviews conducted with 11 sustainability “champions”. A narrative variant of thematic analysis was used to examine the ways these sustainability “champions” made sense of the work they do. Through an analysis of their metaphors and metaphorical language, a sense of the identities that they held as educators of sustainability was gained. Findings Three types of identities emerged – the sustainability “saviour”, “nurturer” and “struggler”. These identities reflected the champion’s experiences, disciplinary affiliations and pedagogical approaches. Interdisciplinarity emerged as a key tenet and challenge for such sustainability champions. Originality/value This paper provides rare insights into the experiences, identities and teaching approaches of sustainability champions within higher education. It highlights the need for university-wide conversations and cross-discipline support for such academics.

Education for transformation: an evaluative framework to guide student voice work in schools

ABSTRACT In the context of neoliberal and neoconservative educational reforms, student voice work is faced with a number of potential difficulties in creating the conditions, skills and dispositions necessary for student empowerment. One of the key challenges is evaluating whether student voice initiatives are effective, relevant and transformative. Through a systematic literature review of contemporary student voice literature from the past 10 years, the article proposes an evaluative framework to measure the extent to which student voice contributes to socially transformative educational practices in primary and secondary schools This framework suggests that transformative voice work should be dialogic, intergenerational, collective and inclusive, and transgressive. It argues that the interaction of these four themes forms a set of principles or building blocks which collectively underpin transformative student voice work. The purpose of such an evaluative framework is not to provide a normative benchmarking tool, but rather, to serve as a reflective dialogical tool that could guide teachers and students towards genuine transformation of institutional structures and individual practices as well as informing policy makers, practitioners and researchers.

Excluded citizens? Participatory research with young people from a ‘failing’ school community

This paper examines a participatory community research project with young people from the ‘wrong side of the tracks’ in a provincial New Zealand town. This school-based project aimed to celebrate the expertise and insights of these young citizens by profiling their digital stories to their community. However, the failure to achieve this goal compelled the researcher to confront the ‘presentist’ assumptions underpinning this project. A re-analysis of the lingering impact of historic processes and practices of exclusion in this divided town drew attention to the temporal, spatial and relational nature of citizenship. The paper proposes that deeper recognition be given to the ‘webs of social relations’ (Arendt, Hannah. 1968. Between Past and Future: Eight Excercises in Political Thought. New York: Viking Press) that citizenship acts are constituted within, alongside the lingering impact of historical legacies of socio-spatial exclusion. Recognising these aspects will enrich our understandings of citizenship as well as enhance the transformative potential of participatory community research.

Youth studies, citizenship and transitions: towards a new research agenda

ABSTRACT A key goal in youth studies is to gain holistic understandings of what it means to be young. However, a significant impediment to achieving this has been the tendency of youth studies to develop along siloed and stratified subfields. In keeping with the goal of creating more productive dialogue between subfields in youth studies, this paper examines the intersections between research in youth citizenship and youth transitions to consider the fresh insights and cross fertilisations that such an analysis may yield. This examination reveals a sense of dissatisfaction in both subfields with traditional normative and linear models of citizenship and transitions which rely on step-wise and sequential notions of time. In response, the paper advances a new research agenda which posits more temporally, spatially and relationally-sensitive understandings of youth citizenship and transition. Drawing on Ingold (2007. Lines: A brief history. London: Routledge), this agenda proposes the use of three alternative metaphors – genealogical, wayfaring and threads – which could hold the potential to unsettle the normativity and linearity of previous youth transitions and citizenship frameworks, and thus provide deeper insights into what it means to live and to be young citizens in times of transition.

Global Citizenship Education in Australasia

Peterson, Milligan and Wood examine global citizenship education in Australasia. Focusing on Australia and New Zealand, the chapter commences with relevant comments about the political, economic and social contexts which inform notions of citizenship/global citizenship. A critical analysis of current policy and curricular initiatives is presented, and it is suggested that global citizenship education in both nations are characterised by a piecemeal and under-defined approach. Drawing on empirical research it is argued that the patchy approach means that students’ experience of GCED is inconsistent and, at times, lacking a critical edge. The chapter concludes with some possible futures for GCED in Australasia.

Student Voice, Citizenship and Regulated Spaces

Student voice and youth citizenship participation programmes in school at times rest upon simplistic and naive assumptions of the hierarchies of power that are embedded in regulated spaces. Such assumptions can also result from the prevailing models of youth participation that often rely on oppositional notions of power between students and adults. In this chapter, we critique these positions by interrogating the exchanges of power between secondary school students and teachers during the implementation of a participatory social studies curriculum project in which students took ‘personal social action’ for assessment credits. Drawing on research with five schools in Aotearoa New Zealand involving classroom observations, student focus group interviews (n = 93), teacher interviews and collaborative research, we share two case studies which explore the influence students or teachers had on controlling the social action process. Our findings illustrate a highly dynamic and intergenerational process in which the locus of power continually moved between adults and students during the course of the social action process. The need for complex understandings of power-sharing is required if young people are to participate in student voice and citizenship action in the context of highly regulated school spaces.