Kirsten Hutchison

Ambivalent relations: the ‘tricky footwork’ of parental involvement in school communities

Parental involvement in schools, generally seen to be a good thing, is now closely linked through policy to the educational achievement of their children. In this Victorian case study, teacher and parent responses to policies advocating parental involvement are examined. It explores the intersections of gender and class in the context of changing home/school relationships characterised by policies and processes of institutionalisation, familialisation and individualisation that are shaping parental involvement. It suggests that the current discursive construction of parent/school relationships around partnerships for student learning fail to recognise the complexity of parent/teacher relations and its gendered nature. Feminist critical policy analysis framed by the sociology of the family inform our understandings of the ways changing discourses and practices currently are informing parental involvement in a culturally and socio‐economically diverse school.

A labour of love: mothers, emotional capital and homework

This paper develops a new analysis of homework by building on feminist scholarship which documents the invisible labour done by women in support of their childrens education. While numerous studies have examined the relationship between homework and achievement, little attention has been paid to the largely gendered and potentially stressful nature of ‘parental involvement’. The analytic focus in this paper is on the complex emotional and pedagogical dimensions of homework and the ways it is shaped by socio-cultural contexts. Videotaped homework interactions between one working-class and two middle-class mothers and their children are examined using Bourdieus concepts of habitus and capital. The analysis distinguishes between productive pedagogical relationships and those that promote extensive anxiety and are counterproductive to learning. The paper argues that the reserves of cultural and emotional capital required for homework completion are significant and that class position does not necessarily guarantee the ways in which these capitals are mobilised.

School principals speaking back to widening participation policies in higher education

ABSTRACT This paper examines school principal responses to the policy discourse of widening participation in higher education. As a critical analysis of how policy is produced, read and responded to by principals [Bacchi, C., 2009. Analysing policy: whats the problem represented to be? New York: Pearson], the paper questions the assumptions underpinning policies aiming to widen participation of young people in schools where families have traditionally not viewed higher education as a possible or desirable option [e.g. Bok, J., 2010. The capacity to aspire to higher education: ‘Its like making them do a play without a script’. Critical studies in education, 51 (2), 163–178]. Policy is adopted, adapted, ignored or countered by principals and teachers due to ‘situated necessity’ resulting from the history, location, pupil and parental social mix, staffing, material and economic conditions of the school and community infrastructure [Braun, A., et al., 2011. Taking context seriously: towards explaining policy enactments in the secondary school. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 32 (4), 585–596]. The data are drawn from principal interviews undertaken when researching a Year 8 Mentoring and Tutoring programme, one component of a three-year Access Express programme, a federally funded Higher Education and Partnership and Participation Programme, developed by a collaboration between a Victorian university and 7 secondary schools. Access Express’ focus on university-school partnerships captured the trend in Australia, the UK and USA during the 2000s to facilitate transitioning out-of-school through long-term university-school partnerships [Armstrong, D. and Cairnduff, A., 2011. Building university-school partnerships. In: D. Bottrell and S. Goodwin, eds. Schools, communities and social inclusion. South Yarra: Palgrave Macmillan, 268–279].

When One of the Teachers Smiles at Me

Until fairly recently, research on school dropout or failure focused on the reasons why many students do not complete their schooling: e.g. young people drop out or fail because they are not motivated, are not committed, have no self-esteem, have no ambition or, have no skills.

Volatile and Vulnerable

13 year old Caitlin1 was considered by her teachers to be one of the most troubled and troubling students in Year 8. She wore her school uniform with a contemptuous and defiant air: skirt hitched high, socks low, tie askew, her hair, tied up as required, was multi-coloured and decorated with an array of clips and slides.

You can’t do Advocacy for 15 minutes a day

This chapter presents a dialogue between a university based researcher and a secondary school principal about the power of advocacy and mentoring programs in defining and shaping school cultures. It describes the importance of wholeschool approaches to advocacy and mentoring programs, outlines key organisational features and details the transformative effects on students, staff and school culture.

The Heart of Advocacy

In this chapter we synthesise the sets of knowledge and understandings about teaching and learning developed through the school-based advocacy programs described in this collection. Within a competitive educational climate of outcome – driven performance assessment, the centrality of emotional and interpersonal relationships in good teaching and learning is too often ignored.

Running in Quicksand

Casuarina College* (pseudonym) could be any secondary school, located in an economically depressed rural or regional Australian community, although some schools may have fewer students whose parents are in the lowest SES group.

Innovating from the Inside: Teacher Influence and the "Promisingness" of Digital Learning Environments.

In line with global trends, Australian educational policy emphatically recognises the need for contemporary learners to be digitally literate, with provision of ‘one-to-one’ devices to individual learners in schools a major implementation strategy. However, without teacher commitment, the benefits of such investment in one-to-one programs are undermined and the devices themselves are under-utilised. Too often, the focus on hardware is not accompanied by insight into the organisational learning and change required in pedagogical practices. In the knowledge that curriculum and pedagogical renewal rests squarely with teachers and leaders rather than with technological hardware and software per se, this article draws on outcomes/findings from a school/university ethnographic collaboration which closely explored the introduction of a school-funded, one-to-one netbook program in a school excluded from a state-wide initiative. It seeks to make visible the often overlooked work of teachers as members of learning organisations through a narrative of change. The narrative focuses on teacher agency and capacity to mobilise a school community to commit to a vision of; no-blame risk taking; collective professional learning; the power of purpose and passion; leadership in the face of government practice which disempowered teachers and disadvantaged students; and the development of an innovation ‘from the inside’.