Number 214-215 Connect October 2015 ABN: 98 174 663 341 supporting student participation ISSN 2202-4980 What matters most to students? Issues raised, discussed, debated by students • Valuing Voice: Restorative Practices and Resources: Student Participation in Decision Making: 7 schools • International Journal of Student Voice • Student Voice Seminars and Conferences: • Jump Start Workshop (Victoria) Cambridge and Dublin • CEOM Student Participation Workshop • Mental Health Awareness Week: Suzanne Cory HS • Student Engagement in University Decision-Making and Governance • Eyre Peninsula Student Conference • Student Voice Seminar: 2016, USA • International Networking in 1995: I*EARN • Environmental Resource Kit for SRCs • Connect ... on facebook ... • VicSRC: Year in Summary; Congress; Meeting the Minister; archived ... available on-line ... Executive Camp; Recognition Awards; 10th Birthday Dinner access to other resources on-line ... Connect Number 214-215: October 2015 Thiswas sad to miss the VicSRC’sIssue: 2015 3 Valuing Voices: Congress in July ... the fi rst time Restorative Practices and Student Participation in Decision-Making in Seven Australian Schools, NSW Iin many years. I was travelling at Sally Varnham, Maxine Evers, Tracey Booth, Costa Avgoustinos the time ... attending the Student 16 Teach the Teacher: Point Cook Senior Secondary College, Vic U Voice Seminar in Cambridge and 17 EP students raise their voices on issues: then off elsewhere in northern Europe (hence also Eyre Peninsula, SA West Coast Sentinel 18 Mental Health Awareness Week: this delayed double issue of Connect.) Suzanne Cory High School, Werribee, Vic Liang Xue So this issue allows me to capture some of the outcomes 19 SRCs in Focus: Student Leadership at Mac.Rob: and spirit of that event ... and share that with you. What The Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School, Vic Demi Tangri happened there doesn’t just apply to one group of secondary 20 VicSRC: A look back at the VicSRC’s 2014-15 students in one state of Australia. There are common issues and • Congress 2015: Tess Shacklock concerns - and common ways of addressing these - that resonate - Belief Statements, Action Pitch: Lucas Muehleisen internationally. The students from England and Cambridge - Congress Outcomes - Evaluation Summary; Executive 2015-16 whom I met in Cambridge talked of their own initiatives as • Meeting the Minister: Liz Chiem school- and system-based researchers around engagement, • Recognition Awards - congratulations to fi nalists for 2015 • 10 Years of VicSRC - a celebration: Margaret Tran governance, relevance and learning approaches. And at a • Executive Camp: Victoria Vassallo, Shania Hallyburton, William Hornstra subsequent event in Dublin, primary and secondary school • Environmental Resource Kit Margaret Tran, Sam Ilobuchi, Tess Shacklock students also presented about their research and concerns. 33 International: International networking and sharing ... a new frontier? No! 33 5th International Student Voice Seminar, Cambridge, June 2015: As Bill Coppinger (and others) remind us in this issue, early seeds Roger Holdsworth, Alison Cook-Sather were being sown 20 years ago, with students video-conferencing 37 Learner Voice Conference, Trinity College, Dublin: Paula Flynn and sharing projects through I*EARN. They ask: What have we 39 International Networking: I*EARN - 20 Years On: learnt? What has been retained and surpassed? What has been Bill Coppinger, Nikki Deighton, Kathy Skidmore, Campbell McKay lost or forgotten? This article also reminds us that, 20 years ago, 42 News & Reviews: Student Engagement in University Decision- these students were working on initiatives (around climate change, Making and Governance; International Journal of Student Voice; Student Voice Seminar 2016 - Save the Date; Jump Start; Catholic pollution, the Holocaust and so on) that not only involved global Education Melbourne Student Participation Workshop; contact and collaboration, but also produced valuable student Letter to Connect: Peter Bartley contributions to shaping their world and societies. 46 Connect Publications Order Form These themes continue. 47 CLEARINGHOUSE: Local and Overseas Publications; In the major piece in this issue, a group of researchers and Websites; Contribute to Connect; Connect on EBSCO writers within the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) outline their work around restorative practices and student participation. They signifi cantly ask: Can one occur Cover: without the other? Can we imagine restorative practices that don’t acknowledge students as shared decision-makers in schools? Issues raised by students at VicSRC Congress Can there be student participation in school decision-making Graphics on cover and page 22: (including the operation of Student Councils) that is not based on Sarah Firth (www.sarahthefi rth.com) restorative principles? This sounds like the opening of a fascinating conversation from two ‘fi elds’ that perhaps haven’t met ... until now. Or where they have, the interaction hasn’t been overtly explored. Why does Connect exist?exist? Next Issue ... Connect has been We’re now back on a regular schedule after this large double published bi-monthly since 1979! issue. In December’s Connect (the issue that rounds out 36 years of publication) we hope to have an update on the forms of student It aims to: participation at Mount Waverley Secondary College; students • document student participation have already been reviewing and changing the arrangements approaches and initiatives; they outlined in Connect 213 in June this year. This exemplifi es • support reflective practices; a great process of writing up what’s happening, using this as a basis for refl ection, and then enacting changes that update the • develop and share resources. descriptions and refl ections. Also possibly some stories from the VicSRC Recognition Connect: Award winners ... and an update on Teach the Teacher. More? ABN: 98 174 663 341 That’s up to you! I’d love to hear your stories and refl ections! Connect is edited and published by: Roger Holdsworth Roger Holdsworth 12 Brooke Street, Northcote 3070 Victoria Australia Phone: (03) 9489 9052; Web: www.asprinworld.com/connect Next Issue: #216: December 2015 E-mail: [email protected] Deadline for material: end of November, 2015 2 Connect 214-215: Valuing Voices Restorative Practices and Student Participation in Decision Making in Seven Australian Schools Democracy in Schools: Student participation in school decision- making - encouraging responsibility and citizenship Children should be he teaching of Civics and Citizenship in schools perceived as partners in continues be a focus for state and federal curriculum the educational process Tauthorities. However, we know that this teaching also generally still fails to engage students in democratic along with parents, processes - processes in which they must, by law, teachers, governors and 2 participate from the age of 18 . Meanwhile, the number local authorities, with a of young people who are disengaged from school, as indicated by disciplinary exclusion or truancy, continues great deal to contribute as to be high and rising3. In addressing such problems, the well as learn. 1 policy and legislation approaches available to school tend to be reactive rather than proactive4. This is an international issue – not one occurring just in Australia5. We believe these observations are closely linked. Within schools internationally and of citizenship, through democratic • to what extent is education a process within many Australian schools, we can education’, which has been undertaken in which children and young people also see a shift towards participatory by the writers, a team of legal academics. may be active, valued and significant and restorative practices. We have The project focused on a small number participants? been involved with a research project of schools that have, to varying degrees, • what processes may be incorporated that has explored some of these embraced these principles in their within the management and interactions. The project looked at the operations. We ultimately aimed, through governance of a school to provide overlap and interaction of participatory this research, to provide evidence that for a meaningful involvement of and restorative practices in a cohort of would inform the discussion and assist students in building the school schools in New South Wales for several in advancing the incorporation of these community and in solving problems years. Its outcomes have been reported in concepts within education policy and within that community? two articles in the International Journal legislation. of Law & Education, Vol 19 Nos 1 & 2 • what is the extent to which In this research project, conducted (2014). We’re presenting here a précis of participatory and restorative in the schools between 2010 and 2012, these articles (with permission) including practices are incorporated within the summaries of the literature we drew on. our specific research questions and processes of the cohort of schools in The original articles cite full references for aims, as reported in the above articles, New South Wales that operate on this literature. Here we include a limited were to explore: democratic principles? reproduction of some study outcomes as well as a summary of its major findings. The IJLE articles provide a This report draws on two articles previously published in the comprehensive analysis of the research International Journal of Law & Education, Vol