Confronting the Snake in the Garden of Community

EngagementA school and

University Partnership for Sustainability

Janice K Jones M.Ed., B.Ed&

Community Partnership Colleagues

In the Garden, Jones (2008)

Epistemology of Place

• My dress, my speech, my agenda to ‘build trust’ are all from another world where that has to be proven. … I feel like an alien from another world with my purposeful approach and time-driven schedules (First visit 13.11.05)

• The university with its physical and virtual landscapes of brick and concrete, its pathways and barriers embodies purpose, control and regulation. In contrast, the small school which I intitially perceived as ‘little more than a shed’ reflects a comfortable at-oneness with the harsh Australian bush. (Jones, unpublished)

The Magic Gardens School

Storyboarding Film

Enacting Children’s Stories

Creating Artworks Celebrating Together

Learning Through Play

Social Learning

Community and University

Students presented performances, walkabout theatre and workshops

The Paper

• Part 1: The Global Context: Small School Closure and Parental Disempowerment

• Part 2: The Community Engagement Context: The Epistemology of Place and Narratives of Engagement

• Part 3: Three Phases of a Community Partnership: Parent Power and Ownership

• Part 4: Scholarship of Engagement: A Neo-narrative

Narrative Inquiry in Third Space

Timeline and Events

2001 – 5Planning

ProvisionalAccreditation

School Opens10 children

ONSS Review

School University

Partnership

Jan 2008

Early 2006

April 2007

Dec 2006Full

Accreditation

Magic Gardens Project

StudentWorkshops

ONSS Review16 children

Show Cause90 Points

Letters to Minister

Appeal25 children

School ClosesMinister’s

Letter 21 Feb

Ownership and Engagement

The Move to Homeschool

A large group of parents sit outside the school, trying to find a way ahead. They have just been told the school is closing and that there is no period of grace. They are angry and fearful. (Fieldnotes, 7th March 2008)

8 of the 13 families decide to homeschool their children on hearing of the school closure. John and Meg plan to support families by running a community centre for homeschoolers

From Micro – to Macro

The closure of this non-traditional school reflectsnational and international trends.The impact of government drives for the closure of small, rural, special, religious and non-traditional schools documented in Australia Bureau of Statistics (2006a) and media reports (Weston, 2008) is yet to be researched and reported on a macro level.

Local Impact: Sudbury School Closure

• We express our concern and dismay over the treatment of the school, its staff, students and parents by the Queensland State Government, and its agents by, at the very least, overzealous, inflexible inspections and demands, inadequate research, ineffective listening, inaccurate reporting, not taking the views of children, parents and teachers into consideration, that have led to high financial costs and losses, the forced sale of the School's campus, and the diversion of school resources away from this democratic School's core business of supporting students' learning and preparation for life. (Sheppard, 2004)

Global Impact – Small School Closures

• 2006 South Australia premier announced 6 new superschools to replace 17 existing schools by 2011.

• Between 1940 and 1990 the population of the United States increased by 70% (Mitchell, 2000; Skelton, 2006) but over the same period 238,000 schools closed, requiring rural children to travel to urban schools.

• Since 1990 the closure of a quarter of West Virginia’s state schools has led to law suits against the state by parents whose children spend more than 12 hours per week on buses (Mitchell, 2000)

• Between 1967 and 1977 two-thirds of schools in Ireland were single or two-teacher run. By 1997 that figure had dropped to one quarter.

Smaller is Better?

• Klonsky (2002) reported statistical evidence of widespread alienation, bullying and suicide in large schools

• Bechtel, (1997) reported that students in schools with fewer than 300 students scored higher on the Iowa Basic Skills test, that smaller schools led to greater economies,

• Financial justification for closures refuted by Mark Witham of the South Australia Department of Community Services

Critical Uncertainty & Reflexive Praxis

• Where the third space at first seemed to sit neatly between non-traditional and traditional contexts, it is no longer the place between contexts but has become the space of critical uncertainty within me.

• I now turn the magnifying glass onto my daily praxis in the university context, questioning the epistemologies/ontologies of teacher preparation.

• Critical uncertainty turns its gaze outwards and inwards, challenging my own and others’ hegemonic practices. That focused light has the potential to burn.

Engagement and Iconoclasm?

My brain feels like it is on fire at the injustice and waste, the merciless and blind stupidity of bureaucrats who can crush something so special.I think of the hundreds of hours of film, the beautiful works created by children over many months, and the wealth of documentary evidence gathered by John and Meg showing unhappy and troubled children finding a gentler and more child-friendly way to learn. (Fieldnotes, 7th March, 2008)

The Crucible of Change

…What am I preparing pre-service teachers for? In my mind the concrete buildings, the curriculum documents, the tests and reports, the timetables and bells, the desks are burning to ashes. The third space has become a crucible of fire, and I do not think I will ever see things in the same way again “All changed, changed utterly:A terrible beauty is born” (Yeats, 2003) (Fieldnotes, 7th March, 2008) In Third Space (Jones, 2007)

The Future – Ongoing Partnership

• I continue to work with the community of parents and John and Meg

• Engagement of university students will continue through research into non-traditional methods of education including homeschooling

• Student arts groups will work with homeschooling parents and children during their community days

• John and Meg plan to co-publish with me in their own names when concerns regarding financial judgements have been resolved.

• A faculty team of researchers has now commenced work with another rural community school where student numbers are critical for the school’s survival

Child’s painting of the Garden

Thank you

The Sandpit Built by Parents for their Children