Glenda McGregor

Alternative education sites and marginalised young people: ‘I wish there were more schools like this one’

This paper reports on research conducted in alternative schools/flexible learning centres 1 designed to support young people marginalised from mainstream schooling in Australia. Many of the young people attending these centres had left school due to difficult personal circumstances and/or significant conflicts with schooling authorities. We argue that the ways in which these schools construct their learning environments, teaching programmes and pedagogical relationships are conducive to encouraging such young people to re-engage with educational processes and thus should be supported as viable alternatives within schooling sectors. Moreover, we contend that data gathered from these sites should be used to inform many of the practices within mainstream schools that currently contribute to the marginalisation of certain categories of youth.

Educating for ("Whose") Success? Schooling in an Age of Neo-Liberalism.

In western nations, the social and economic changes of the past 30 years have facilitated a reorientation of the focus of educational institutions. Global capitalism has placed education at the forefront of national competitiveness, and governments have responded with education policies primarily designed to serve the needs of the market. Such neo‐liberal economic imperatives have been supported by a variety of neoconservative social forces calling for schools to become sites of cultural and moral restoration. This paper draws upon current theoretical debates about the consequences of such changes and employs ethnographic data from a small qualitative study of Australian youth to argue the case for a more democratic and student‐centred approach to educational reform. It contends that in the interests of all young people, it is time for schools to resist systemic impulses to make them producers of human capital and claim their role as transformative institutions of human possibility.

Pedagogic Voice: Student Voice in Teaching and Engagement Pedagogies.

In this paper, we are concerned with the notion of ‘pedagogic voice’ as it relates to the presence of student ‘voice’ in teaching, learning and curriculum matters at an alternative, or second chance, school in Australia. This school draws upon many of the principles of democratic schooling via its utilisation of student voice in respect of the curriculum and pedagogy. We recognise that within the schooling context, voice can represent many things. Drawing on interview data, we outline two key areas of student voice: community membership associated with the ownership of practices and decision-making related to the young people’s learning and improved engagement; and encouraging curricular choice and the inclusion of personal interests and strengths within a school environment that is flexible and encourages individual freedom while balancing these with a young person’s required progress at school. Given that a lack of voice in schools has been attributed to many marginalised students’ alienation from mainstream schooling, we demonstrate how attention to pedagogic voice can not only work to engage students in learning, but also improve civic engagement.

Two contrasting Australian Curriculum responses to globalisation: what students should learn or become

This paper compares two contrasting educational policy responses to globalisation in Australia: the ‘New Basics’ experiment that occurred in the State of Queensland (2000–2003) and the Australian Curriculum, which is currently being implemented across the nation from preschool to Year 10 in English, history, mathematics and science. These initiatives illustrate the tensions that have continued to mount during the last decade over answers to the question of ‘what counts’ as the most valuable knowledge and/or skills needed to negotiate the complexities of a rapidly globalising world. Illustrating one international trend of favouring the development of competencies and dispositions, the New Basics project abandoned traditional school subjects for futures oriented, ‘real-world’ learning. The Australian Curriculum demonstrates a strong return to ‘the disciplines’, partly as a local backlash against experiments like the New Basics and Outcomes Based Education, but also motivated by the desire to improve the nations performance on international tests; however, via its framework of ‘cross-curriculum priorities’ and ‘general capabilities’, the Australian Curriculum also pays heed to the rhetoric of shaping the individual as the kind of person with the skills and dispositions required by the global millennium citizen and worker.

Alternative education and social justice: considering issues of affective and contributive justice

This article considers the ways in which three alternative education sites in Australia support socially just education for their students and how injustice is addressed within these schools. The article begins with recognition of the importance of Nancy Fraser’s work to understandings of social justice. It then goes on to argue that her framework is insufficient for understanding the particularly complex set of injustices that are faced by many highly marginalised young people who have rejected or been rejected by mainstream education systems. We argue here for the need to consider the importance of ‘affective’ and ‘contributive’ aspects of justice in schools. Using interview data from the alternative schools, we highlight issues of affective justice raised by students in relation to their educational journeys, as well as foregrounding teachers’ affective work in schools. We also consider curricular choices and pedagogical practices in respect of matters of contributive justice. Our contention is that the affective and contributive fields are central to the achievement of social justice for the young people attending these sites. Whilst mainstream schools are not the focus of this article, we suggest that the lessons here have salience for all forms of schooling.

Boys and music education: RMXing the curriculum

Music is central to the lives of most high‐school age boys. However, music education is a marginalised area of the school curriculum, decreasing in popularity as students approach senior school and succumb to pressures to choose subjects perceived to be more useful in the ‘real world’. While this process is common for both boys and girls, the drop‐off is greater among boys, who sometimes construct music as a ‘feminised’ subject. Attempts to engage boys in music, thus, often involve music teachers trying to adapt their pedagogies to what they perceive to be boys’ interests and learning styles. In some cases music teachers attempt to construct a ‘connected’ curriculum for boys in ways which accommodate, reinforce and reproduce hegemonic constructions of masculinity. This article argues that it is critical that the pedagogical practices music teachers deploy in order to encourage boys’ engagement with the subject take into account the cultural implications of globalisation, media and music technology and capitalise upon diversity rather than participate in the reproduction of dominant constructions of gender. The article further argues that music education, like other marginalised areas of the school curriculum, when demonstrating such nuanced understandings of youth cultures and their relationships to various constructions of young masculinities and femininities, provides an opening for the study of masculinity and gender relations in contemporary society in ways that can benefit both girls and boys.

Teaching in the ‘margins’: rekindling a passion for teaching

The data for this paper are drawn from a qualitative research project involving a number of alternative education sites in Australia and the United Kingdom. In this paper, we focus only on the motives and teaching philosophies of a sample of teachers who have chosen to work in alternative education sites despite, for some, the prospect of uncertain employment conditions and lower salaries. A thematic approach is used with the data so as to structure participant perspectives on a range of teaching-related issues. We argue that the experiences and perceptions of these teachers provide a starting point for reflection about the impact of many current educational policies that have been shaped or influenced by market-driven neo-liberal paradigms emphasising disciplinary accountabilities for teachers.

Learning not borrowing from the Queensland education system: lessons on curricular, pedagogical and assessment reform

ABSTRACT This paper provides a detailed account of the Queensland education systems engagement with reforming curriculum, pedagogies and assessment. In so doing, it responds to the University College Londons Institute of Education report on ‘high-performing’ jurisdictions, of which Queensland, Australia, was identified as one. In this report, nine issues and choices in relation to ‘instructional systems’ confronting a new education minister (or secretary) are considered. This paper details the strengths of the Queensland education system in relation to curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, whilst acknowledging that particular aspects of the global and national Australian contexts, alongside internal Queensland politics, can inhibit the ongoing work of the very processes that led to Queensland being identified in the Institute of Education report as a ‘high-performing jurisdiction’. We conclude by arguing that minsters of education need to take a longer view of educational reform than is currently the case and that quick fixes determined by electoral policy cycles need to be avoided. Learning about and from ones own system as well as from others requires a depth of analysis and time that is often not conducive to such policy cycles.

Alternative programmes, alternative schools and social justice

Alternative educational programmes and alternative schools have been a feature of the educational landscape for some 50 years or more. These alternatives cater for children and young people who have generally experienced a variety of forms of exclusion during their schooling (Arnold, Yeomans, & Simpson, 2009; Sparkes & Glennerster, 2002). In some jurisdictions, a common aim of alternative education programmes is to return students to ‘regular schools’ (Slee, 2011). However, research suggests that young people who go back into regular schools from alternative programmes and short-term placements find it difficult, as nothing within the regular school has changed since they first left (Carswell, Hanlon, Watts, & O’Grady, 2014; Cox, 1999). Thus, alternative schools often aim to provide a permanent alternative route to further education, work or training. In so doing, they provide a convenient way for schools to continue unchanged, engaging in a range of exclusionary practices (Araújo, 2005; Mills, Riddell, & Hjörne, 2015). Whether young people return to regular school or continue with an alternative education programme, the regular school remains a critical social justice problem. In this special issue, we report on recent international research that traces the ways in which the alternative schooling pathways play out across four national contexts. Among them, these papers take account of the variety of student populations, programme designs, spaces and policy issues that characterise alternative education, drawing attention to its flexible and dynamic nature (Aron, 2006; Kraftl, 2013). Our overarching concern is to present the range of social justice questions that arise from the alternative education of young people of compulsory schooling age. However, we want to do so in ways that explore these programmes in the context of educational provision at large, since what happens in alternative education is implicated in – and in turn implicates – practices in regular schools. This concern has led us to pose the following question: ‘What might regular schools learn from alternative programmes and schools?’ It is a question that invites a critical interrogation of what alternative education programmes can offer; how this can be viewed afresh in shifting policy contexts; and where the spaces for, and threats to, a more socially just education system might be found. The papers collected together here propose a set of answers to this question. They address issues of school exclusion, the types and quality of education provided within alternative programmes and schools for those who reject and/or have been rejected by regular schools, the return of students into their original schooling contexts and the social justice implications of these issues. In doing so, the contributing authors have drawn on a range of theoretical resources and have taken account of the particular methodologies

Exploring the Affective Dimension of Teachers' Work in Alternative School Settings.

Abstract The affective dimension of teachers’ work is a vital element in shaping inclusive, child-centred classrooms. It is particularly important for students who lack certain aspects of care and support within their personal lives. Recently, neoliberal educational paradigms of data gathering, external testing and competition have increased pressure upon students and teachers in mainstream schools. Many teachers feel that they have been taken away from their core business of teaching and caring for young people. Students with the highest needs often leave or become excluded from mainstream settings; some find their way to alternative/flexi/second chance schools. Our research indicates that within such sites, teachers and workers appear to be committed to the implementation of an educational environment and ethos explicitly framed by concepts of affective justice and an ethics of care. Despite its challenges and because of its rewards, they strongly assert the significance of their emotional labour when working with, usually disadvantaged, young people and helping them to overcome marginalisation. We contend that this redefinition of schooling as inherently ‘relational’ implies forms of teacher activism that transcend the obligation to student ‘well-being’ as commonly understood in mainstream settings, and which is failing to meet the needs of many young people.