Number 245 Connect October 2020 ABN: 98 174 663 341 supporting student participation ISSN 2202-4980 Students’ agency in learning • Learner Agency as a living ecology Resources: • Agency: examples from 9 schools • Australian children & student voice conference: on-line: 7-9 December 2020 • Rethinking decision-making in schools • Vale Sir Ken Robinson • Our World Our Say survey results: AIDR • Social entrepreneurship & student agency • Victorian Young Leaders’ Program • ‘New way of doing school’ • Sustainability action: local & international • Our Shared Story • Youth for Peace award • NSW Student Voices hub • Youth participation award: BCE • Global links: • Youth involvement in health research survey • Student voices on remote learning: PivotPL Global youth advocacy forums; Link OnLine Learners • Audits of Practice: available online here • Student Voice facebook group • VicSRC: Virtual Congress 2020; VIT PD topics • Connect ... available online ... on facebook ... New Executive archived ... access to other online resources Connect Number 245: October 2020 Thishe voices of students Issue: about their 3 Children and Student Voice Virtual Conference 2020 learning during COVID-19, have 5 FOCUS: Student Agency: Temphasised issues of student or learner 5 Learner agency as a living ecology agency. The time of remote learning EdPartnerships International, Vic Jayne-Louise Collins, Larissa Raymond exposed existing practices and attitudes, U 11 Student agency: learning from lockdown and hopefully has forced us to rethink what we do. Brighton Beach PS, Vic Kate O’Hara, Naomi Beales In some cases, students have rejoiced at their experience of 13 Co-designing inquiry Learning greater control over learning: what they learn (and why), how they St Pius X PS, Heidelberg West, Vic Barbara Gomez learn (including, for example, its pace), how they know and show that 15 Assessment and reporting they are learning. In other cases, students have reported their struggles St Mary’s Catholic PS, Williamstown, Vic Anthony Hockey to motivate themselves and to define why and how they learn. In both cases, this has directed our attention to the opportunities that classrooms 16 Collaborating on building student agency and schools have provided for students to experience and reflect on their Eltham HS, Vic Chizuko Inoue-Andersson exercise of control over their learning; or, conversely, it has exposed how 18 Student agency on the Horizon schools and classrooms have constrained those opportunities and made Our Lady of Mercy College, Heidelberg, Vic Rosemary Jones students’ learning dependent on direction by others. 22 How Social Entrepreneurship fosters students’ agency We need to be careful not to lapse into deficit thinking: blaming Pinewood School, Palo Alto, California Michelle Dette Gannon, Jerusha Conner students for their ‘incapacity’, or highlighting their ‘inabilities’. 26 Student voice leads community thanks In our understanding of ‘student voice’, we are now recognising Regency Park PS, Wantirna, Vic Franca Nikolovski that students do not ‘lack voice’ – ten seconds in any classroom or school 27 Primary students’ remote artwork project should disabuse us of that. The focus is then about how we hear and Coburg PS, Vic Jenny Hay listen and respond to those voices. 28 Student-centred sustainability And it’s about inclusion: which voices are heard. We’ve often quoted Our Lady of Fatima PS, Rosebud, Vic Aidan McLindon Adam Fletcher’s illumination of ‘convenient’ and ‘inconvenient’ student 29 A need to rethink decision-making in schools Geraldine Rowe voice - and pointed out that (apart from the importance of us listening to and learning from voices that challenge us) the willingness of students to 31 A hub to hear what students have to say: Education NSW Dani Cooper express ‘effective voices’ integrally depends on whether they know they 33 The Victorian Young Leaders’ Program in a COVID-19 world are being listened to - and whether they see that there are outcomes as a DET, Vic Hannah Fitzgerald, Yianni Syrbopoulos consequence of their voices. 35 Global Youth Advocacy Forums We need to show a similar caution about deficit understandings Asia Education Foundation, Vic Satoshi Sanada of ‘student/learner agency’. Many schools have started with an explicit concern that their students are “compliant rather than engaged”. That 36 Link OnLine Learners: Portland Education, UK Alex Bell can easily lead us to a view that these students “lack agency”. 37 Our World Our Say: AIDR, Vic Brigid Little But, reflection on what happens in schools indicates that all students 39 Teach the Future UK Derry Hannam do have and exert agency. They do make decisions about their learning. 41 VicSRC: Some make decisions in line with our expectations of them as active Congress 2020 report; Meet your VicSRC Executive; and engaged learners: they are enthusiastic, interested and engaged Advocacy win: VIT PD topics; Comfortable spaces in schools; (convenient agency?). For others, their agency means they accept that they Student Community; Partner Schools; Student Voice Hub might be bored and frustrated in their learning, because they can see this 48 News & Resources: could lead to longer-term goals that they want to achieve. Others exert their agency by deciding (consciously or less consciously) to be passive Vale Sir Ken Robinson: Nic Abbey; New Way of Doing School: Carl Rust; Youth Participation Award: Brisbane Catholic Education; Our Shared Story; and compliant in their learning because it is less painful that way (but Youth for Peace Award; Youth Involvement in Health Research Survey; they are more engaged in being with friends). And others – perhaps more ‘We are not learning; we are just memorising’: UK students obviously – exert their agency by resisting schooling (though perhaps Online resources: Student Voices in remote learning: Wren Gillett - Pivot PL; not learning?) through disruption or absence (inconvenient agency?). Audits of School Practices; Student Action Teams & Student Councils and These are all aspects of student agency. We need to turn our Beyond; Facebook pages: Connect; Student Voice Research & Practice group attention from the supposed characteristics of students’ agency, to 54 Connect Publications: Order Form examine and change the opportunities that are provided within our classrooms and schools, for student agency to be exerted. 55 CONNECTIONS: Local and International Publications; Contribute to Connect; Connect website/databases What does that mean for student and teacher and school practices? The articles in this issue ... and hopefully the next ... explore some of these ideas in practical ways. Cover: Next Issue ... Student Voice and Agency leads community thanks We’d love to hear from you about your lived experiences of student voice, agency and participation! Could this be a focus for the next at Regency Park PS, Wantirna (page 26) issue? In particular we’d be interested in: • What does co-design of learning actually mean in your classroom? Connect: • How does this go beyond adults simply listening to students’ ABN: 98 174 663 341 feedback, and then continuing to have sole responsibility for Connect is edited and published by: Roger Holdsworth planning, designing and directing learning? (with support from the Youth Research Centre, The University of Melbourne) Roger Holdsworth 12 Brooke Street, Northcote 3070 Victoria Australia Phone: (03) 9489 9052; Web: www.asprinworld.com/connect Next Issue: #246: December 2020 Contact e-mail: [email protected] Deadline for material: end of November, 2020 2 Connect 245: Inclusivity: Support and Partnership for the post pandemic future Children and Student Voice Virtual Conference 2020 Monday 7 December – Wednesday 9 December 2020 8.30 am to 12 noon (Australian Eastern Daylight Time) e invite you to join our student-led Our Special Interest Group [Children and virtual conference in December 2020! Student Voice Across All Sectors] is committed to enabling children and student participation in This gathering is proudly co-hosted by the W partnerships within learning and in life. Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) and Deakin University Research for Therefore, over the mornings of three days: 7th Educational Impact (REDI), bringing together to 9th December 2020, attendees will hear from students, teachers, school leaders, and researchers to distinguished keynote speakers and engage in action- communicate and envision inclusivity for students in inspired dialogues through panels, discussion forums the future. and other presentations. October 2020 3 As economies and schools emerge from the Keynote speakers: pandemic, it is time to take an opportunity to examine how schools effectively support the needs Professor Dana Mitra of students by including their voices in the reshaping Professor of Education in and rebuilding of activities that are taking place. the Education Policy Studies Building on our commitment to empowering Department at Pennsylvania children and student voice, agency and State University, USA participation, some questions we ask are: • How can student voice become more inclusive? Mr Roger Holdsworth • What were school-system priorities in the age of Editor and publisher, Connect; coronavirus? and Honorary Associate, Youth • How have schools addressed the increase in Research Centre, Melbourne highly specialised support services required Graduate School of Education, such as mental health? The University of Melbourne • How was the new classroom digital interface co-designed with children