Lindy Abawi

Introducing refractive phenomenology

Abstract All researchers are presented with the need to choose or design a research methodology suited to the research topic or problem to be investigated. Methodology provides the philosophical groundwork that underpins investigative frameworks and choice of methodology is therefore crucial as it will indeed ‘colour’ both research process and product. Research that aims to investigate how individuals experience a given phenomenon lends itself to qualitative research methods and in particular to a phenomenological approach. Refractive phenomenology builds on hermeneutic phenomenological foundations through the use of interpretive filters taking individual depictions of lived experience and viewing, reflecting, redirecting and channelling these through a series of filters and reductive lenses until the ‘Essence’ of the phenomenon has been brought into view.

Creating enduring strength through commitment to schoolwide pedagogy

The term schoolwide pedagogy was once rarely heard and yet has now become a part of most discussions around school improvement. But what does it really mean and why is the presence of a schoolwide pedagogical framework important? Some would say that in their school the adoption of an authoritative approach such as Habits of Mind, Bloom’s Taxonomies or the Productive Pedagogies is a schoolwide pedagogical framework. To some extent they are, but what is often lacking is the intellectual and social capacity that is built through collective professional sharing and articulation of strongly held beliefs about contextually relevant teaching and learning practices. Without this sense of ownership, teacher adoption ends up being sporadic at best with some teachers paying only lip service to imposed quality frameworks. In schools that have engaged with the processes of the Innovative Designs for Enhancing Achievements in Schools (IDEAS) project, personal pedagogical principles and authoritative pedagogical principles are contextualized by the school community as a whole. The story from one school is used to demonstrate the enduring strength of commitment when a school creates its own SWP.

School meaning systems: the symbiotic nature of culture and'language-in-use'

Recent research has produced evidence to suggest a strong reciprocal link between school context-specific language constructions that reflect a school’s vision and schoolwide pedagogy, and the way that meaning making occurs, and a school’s culture is characterized. This research was conducted within three diverse settings: one school in the Sydney Catholic Education system and two Education Queensland State schools, in Australia. Emergent from the school data is the understanding that a contextually created meaning system can be a powerful force, having a beneficial effect on, and symbiotic relationship with, school culture. Such a meaning system is not dependent on words alone. Metaphors, images, structures and processes unique to each context appear integral to the creation of meaning within each school, and how staff and students make sense of their ‘life-world’. Each meaning system works at the level of establishing and reinforcing basic norms, assumptions and ways of working. The creation of such a meaning system does not happen by accident but requires nurturing. This research suggests that over time, shared understandings appear to become intuitive to some extent, and accepted ways of thinking and working become firmly embedded as school culture.

Professional learning communities enhancing teacher experiences in international schools

Abstract In international school contexts, schools that establish support networks for newly arrived staff tend to stand a better chance of retaining staff and creating a positive and successful work environment. The case study at the center of the paper is an International School in Vietnam and this paper aims to highlight the importance of building professional learning communities (PLCs), both as arenas for academic expertise to be shared and as support networks for teachers. The PLCs being researched were established in August 2011, with the research taking place over 6 weeks during April and May of 2013. Eleven teachers took part in the phenomenological case study undertaken to gain a better understanding of their lived experiences. Findings suggest there was a refocusing on student achievement as being central to teachers’ core business; an understanding of the importance of teacher leadership developed; teachers felt more valued because personal professionalism was acknowledged; and, a culture of sharing collaboration and general support emerged.

Metaphor: Powerful imagery bringing learning and teaching to life

Using metaphor to clarify pedagogical understanding and to anchor teacher beliefs and knowledge to meaningful contextualized mental maps can have powerful consequences in schools. Frequent changes in school staff and clientele present schools with the challenge of how to share culturally specific messages quickly and effectively to those new to the school, whether staff, students or parents. Conscious collective use of metaphor within a school’s meaning-making system has been found to be one of the possible answers. This article explores the use of metaphorical visions within schools that have undertaken the Innovative Designs for Enhancing Achievement in Schools (IDEAS) Project and how the linking of metaphor to understandings of schoolwide practices creates cognitive connections capable of facilitating collective understandings. The duality of meaning through metaphor facilitates a cognitive ‘Place’ where new and old understandings can be shared, explored and enriched. A skilfully chosen and well investigated rich metaphor can capture the essence of what a school community believes to be important for student success. This essence can be shared, refined, reflected upon and used to guide and align understandings of practice. The findings show that the strong reinforcement of cognitive links through the use of metaphor may also sustain cultural understandings of pedagogical practice over the long term.

Shared Pedagogical Understandings: Schoolwide Inclusion Practices Supporting Learner Needs.

Educational perspectives that recommend inclusion of children with special needs into mainstream classrooms remain a controversial topic. The Melbourne Declaration declares that all young Australians should be supported to become successful learners; confident and creative individuals; and active and informed citizens. So the question remains how is this to be achieved in ways that support all learners to reach their full potential regardless of their individual talents or learning challenges. Funding to support students with special needs is not staying in touch with the increasing numbers of students with special needs, many of whom are entering into mainstream schools and classrooms, thus schools must find effective ways of meeting a wide diversity of need. Creative and blended modes of support and inclusion must be trialled, critiqued and adjusted to meet the needs of each specific context. Practices that may be successful in one context with one cohort of students will not necessarily work within a different context and/or with a different group of students. Nonetheless, research shows that underpinning principles of practice and support structures that provide for all students within a school can and are being established successfully. Much can be learnt from successful practices such as those explored within this school case study. Underpinning the success of this school’s approach to inclusion is the school’s culture of support and relationships building. This strongly supportive culture emerged as a result of the envisioning work the school community undertook as part of the school’s involvement in the successful school revitalization project known as IDEAS (Innovative Designs for Enhancing Achievements in Schools). Individualized support programs have created a student-centred culture of inclusion according to need, which provides an approach to guide practices in other contexts.

Three-dimensional pedagogy: a new professionalism in educational contexts

This article provides evidence of a new teacher professionalism whereby teachers, acting as collaborative individuals working together, are the key to effectively meeting the needs of diverse student cohorts. Drawing on data from Australian school contexts and the work of researchers from the Leadership Research International team, new professional images of teachers’ work have emerged as the result of a whole-school improvement process – the Innovative Designs for Enhancing Achievements in Schools (IDEAS) process. Such processes facilitate collective engagement enabling teachers to refine and share individual strengths, as well as build capacity in areas of challenge. This reimaging of teachers is related to the concept of three-dimensional pedagogy where teachers weave personal pedagogical beliefs and authoritative pedagogical frameworks with schoolwide pedagogical principles which are known as the school’s schoolwide pedagogy (SWP). A SWP, clearly aligned with the school’s vision for a preferred future, is derived by staff as a sign of their collective commitment to contextualized, high-yield teaching and learning practices. The focus is on meeting the needs of ‘our students’ in ‘our context’ while being sensitive to systemic direction. Teachers lead the process of developing SWP, working with it, refining it and embedding principles into shared pedagogical action. What emerges is the concept of micro-pedagogical deepening, a process of critiquing and defining contextualised practice. Such practices, led by the new teacher professional, are not only changing the professional image of teachers but also the look, feel and sound of educational workplaces.

Developing a generic review framework to assure capstone quality

ABSTRACT Within the higher education context, capstone units can be viewed as a significant means of assuring intended learning outcomes for programmes. They provide students with the opportunity to consolidate and apply prior and new disciplinary learning, as well as employability skills and graduate attributes. This paper describes the first stage of an initiative in a regional, Australian university to develop a capstone quality review framework that can be applied across disciplines. A deductive, thematic analysis of relevant literature, guides and institutional strategic documents using a constant comparison method was used to develop a collectively agreed upon set of capstone quality domains and related criteria. These would enable reviewers to assess whether capstone curricula were fit-for-purpose. Capstone domains and criteria were validated and revised using a multi-stage, moderated review of 10 capstone units. This validation process affirmed that to avoid issues with reviewer inter-rater reliability, future use of our framework should emphasise calibrating reviewer interpretation to ensure greater levels of shared understanding of underlying concepts. It further suggested the desirability of incorporating aspects of teacher self-assessment, teacher feedback and student results. Provided these findings are accounted for, we conclude that the proposed capstone review domains and criteria could be used for quality review and enhancement, or capstone benchmarking processes, regardless of discipline area.

Special issue: Metaphor, vision and schoolwide pedagogies

School improvement is an ongoing challenge. The articles in this special issue of Improving Schools provide insight into the manner in which organizational coherence empowers schools to make a difference in their communities and improve student outcomes. Coherence within the case study schools whose stories are shared has been achieved through collective commitment to a set of shared values and beliefs captured in the form of a school’s Vision and Schoolwide Pedagogical Framework (SWP). These artefacts serve to sustain focus on priorities pertinent to a specific school context. Collaborative practice and reflection across a school professional learning community ensure that shared meaning making results in shared action and intent, the very basis on which coherence is built. When a vision and set of guiding principles become embedded into practice over time, the resulting meaning system enhances the distinctive culture of that school. Synergies generated by shared norms and assumptions produce unconscious culturally appropriate responses to a complex variety of everyday needs. Teacher isolation within the four walls of a classroom diminishes and the social and intellectual capacity built through continued and enhanced collaborative practice within the school staff and community enhances school goals and transfers into improved outcomes for students. Read individually, these articles encourage the reader to reflect on each school narrative, the impact of the findings, and how these relate to personal teaching experiences. When read in sequence they portray a collective story about teaching passion and commitment, sustained capacity building and schoolwide coherence. In ‘School meaning systems: The symbiotic nature of culture and ‘‘language-in-use’’’, the strong reciprocal link between a school’s context specific vision and schoolwide pedagogy and how the development, exploration and ongoing commitment to these artefacts of shared knowledge creation produce shared meaning and coherence is explored in detail. ‘Activating the “language for learning” through schoolwide pedagogy: The case of MacKillop School’ clearly illustrates how coherence within the case study school resulted in student outcomes improving significantly in the areas of numeracy and literacy. With a community of 98 percent ‘English as an added language’ students, the research explores the impact of the schoolwide pedagogical principles on practice and the emergence of a language for learning. 493713 IMP16210.1177/1365480213493713Improving SchoolsEditorial 2013