Full details of these projects can be accessed here (pdf download)

The Centre for Popular Education convenes various courses, forums and conferences related to the pedagogy and politics of teaching and youth work. Please refer to the relevant web page sections.

Research and Development Projects

• Conference papers from Education and Social Action Conference 2004
• Granville Schools Collaboration Project
• Partnerships between school teachers and youth workers
• Turkish Youth: moving from school to work and further study
• Effective Pedagogy in Numeracy for Unemployed Young People
• Legal Support with Young People
• Development of national competency standards for Australian youth sector
• Certificate in Youth Development (South Pacific)
• Youth Worker Trainer's Manual
• Inter-generational and community involvement in Alexandria Park Community School
• The Sustainable Schools Program: Communities and Schools
• Centering the School Community within Teacher Education
• Building School Communities
• Action Research Proposal: Quality Education in Mt Druitt High Schools

Granville Schools Collaboration Project

School Community links focussed on learning in the middle years (PDF, 168k) - download this research paper by Debra Hayes and Andrew Chodkiewicz. This paper arose from the Granville Schools Collaboration Project.

This is an interagency project that explores collaborative approaches to improving the outcomes from schooling for low SES students. The participating schools are located in the Granville District. The CPE is working closely with a number of partner organisations, including the NSW Department of Education and the Priority Schools Funding Program (formerly the Disadvantaged Schools Program). We are attempting to mobilise, coordinate and align the efforts of teachers, parents, district personnel, community workers, academics and a range of other educators around two core concerns:

• How do we more effectively engage and improve learning outcomes for disadvantaged students in the middle years?
• How can a collaborative approach to this question support all stakeholders to more effectively engage students in learning?

Whilst the partners involved are accustomed to cooperating, we are less accustomed to collaborating. It is our hope that this collaboration will strengthen and renew our efforts to redress the entrenched lower levels of achievement and participation at school of students from low SES backgrounds. A more detailed description of the concerns underpinning this project can be found in the keynote address given by Dr Debra Hayes at the 2000 Education and Social Action Conference.

Their full report - Beyond the School Fence (2003) (PDF 1.2mb) - is also available.

Partnerships between school teachers and youth workers

Who is engaged in helping young people learn? School teachers and parents play a centrally important role. But for many young people so do: youth workers, health workers, TAFE and VET teachers, sports coaches, community leaders, and others. While there is a growing amount of partnership activity between schools and community groups this forum is based on a belief that much more can be achieved. One particular challenge is to enable out-of-school educators to work with school teachers, rather than alongside them.

More about this... (pdf download)

Turkish Youth: moving from school to work and further study (final report attached)

To research the way unemployed Turkish youth in south western Sydney learn informally from their experiences with the labour market, education and training. By focussing on one ethnic group within a particular geographic area, the study should provide valuable insights into their experiences. The research may also be able to support the advocacy by the Turkish community organisations in seeking out services and funding that assist Turkish youth to move more easily into employment, or further education and training.

More about this... (pdf download)

Effective Pedagogy in Numeracy for Unemployed Young People

This project was led by the UTS Centre for Language & Literacy with assistance from the Centre for Popular Education.

Client: Australian National Training Authority

Completed in 1998.

Researchers: Betty Johnston, Sheilagh Kelly, Stephen Black and Griff Foley

Legal Support with Young People

Client: Marrickville Legal Centre and the Association of Children's Welfare Agencies with funding from the NSW Law Foundation

Completed in 1995

Researchers: Rick Flowers and John McIntyre

We undertook a study of the pedagogy and practice of police officers, solicitors, youth workers, welfare officers and others who work with young people in the legal system. The research employed a variety of innovative qualitative research methods. The report Working Together recommended training focus on encouraging more co-operation between police, lawyers, social workers, and other workers. The report is available in 5 volumes: vol. 1 Defining the Needs and Issues of Young People in the Legal System; vol. 2 The Nature of Support with Young People; vol. 3 Aboriginal Perspectives; vol. 4 Literature and Training Review and Practitioner and Young Person Perspectives; vol. 5 A Collaborative Training Model and Resources. Published reports are available from the Centre for Popular Education, UTS.

Development of national competency standards for Australian youth sector

Funding: National Health and Community Services Industry Training Advisory Board

Completed in 1993

Researchers: Rick Flowers, Clive Chappell, Andrew Gonczi, Sue Knights, Suzi Quixley, Barbara Mountain and Tony Holland

This was the first national competency standards project in the community services industry to seek endorsement from the National Training Board. Using a variety of qualitative and participatory research methods it sought to address the distinct nature of practice in the human services industry.

Certificate in Youth Development (South Pacific)

Client: Commonwealth Youth Program, South Pacific Regional Centre

Completed in 1990

Staff: Griff Foley

From June 1989 to April 1990 research and consultations were conducted in a number of South Pacific countries, including Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Fiji, as the first stage of the course development process. Ongoing advice and support was provided to assist the successful development and implementation of a Certificate in Youth Development Work. A series of papers, competency statements and course outlines were produced.

Youth Worker Trainer's Manual

Client: NSW Youth Sector Training Council

Completed in 1992

Staff: Rick Flowers

This consultancy was jointly undertaken with Vaughan Bowie, Lecturer in Welfare Studies, University of Western Sydney. We were engaged to develop educational materials that will be used by experienced youth workers who will be trained to develop and deliver training to other youth workers. In addition we undertook a written evaluation of the whole program development process.

The Sustainable Schools Program: Communities and Schools

The NSW Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) and NSW Department of Education and Training (DET) commissioned us to undertake research about the ways schools and communities work together for sustainable development. The project brief and our successful proposal are attached.

In 2003 these two agencies, with support from the Commonwealth Department of Environment and Heritage commenced a pilot program - NSW Sustainable School Program (SSP) - with the aim of supporting both government and non-government schools to:

• encourage and support their shift towards more sustainable environmental practices;
• identify opportunities within the school curriculum that support both quality teaching and school management processes and practices to achieve improved environmental outcomes for the future; and
• identify opportunities to develop deeper understandings of the impact of a school community’s own practices on the environment.

Since then the SSP pilot has involved almost 200 schools from across NSW in the program. Most were government primary schools located in rural NSW (see Appendix 1 for breakdown of schools by type and location).

Schools were supported by a group of environmental educators - the Sustainable Schools Support Team (SSST). Their main role was to provide assistance to the primary, secondary and central schools involved in the SSP program in their area. Members of the team were based in thirteen school education areas across the state. Most were located at departmental regional environmental education centres, with a few others at council environmental education centres or at a school involved in the program.

One important feature of the SSP has been the value placed on schools developing ‘partnerships’ with communities. Yet it was stated in the brief given to us that there was little systematic analysis of these partnerships.

(We) want a picture of what’s happening, what’s known, what’s been/being learnt about the role of school-community partnerships. We want to know what’s working and why. And what else needs to be known (p. 2 of Contractor’s Brief).

Henderson and Tilbury (2004: 45) suggest that ‘expanding partnership capacity should be a planned component of whole-school sustainability approaches’ but note:
However, no empirical research has been undertaken in this area making it difficult to answer the question “what constitutes an effective partnership?” or “how can effective partnerships” be developed.

We set out therefore to:

• define community-school partnerships;
• draw on literature to review various theoretical frameworks for ways communities and schools work together for sustainability;
• map and review how communities and schools in NSW are currently working together; and
• discuss ways community-school partnerships for sustainability can be supported and strengthened.

The final report is attached.

Schooling and Lifelong Learning for Democracy and Community Building

papers and abstracts from: (download document1 PDF 3.1MB, download document2 PDF 52k, download document3 PDF 12.2mb)
Flowers, R. (Ed.) 2004 Education and Social Action Conference, Centre for Popular Education UTS

Avenell, D.
What’s in it for me? : Victorian State School Governance

Bee, B.
Stories about program planning and teaching in a popular education tradition

Burgh G. and Davey S.
Learning for Democracy: Caring, dialogue and deliberative communities

Coker, J.
As a result of poetic reflection: Development of a curriculum for collaborative innovation
as one model of democracy and community building through experiential learning

Coker, R.
Collaborative action toward socially sustainable corner chair production for disabled children

Davidson, N., Mooney, M., Camden-Pratt, C., and Wright, D.
Enhanced creative practices for teaching

Denzil, T., Ndaba, A., Norman, H., Widin, J. and Yasukawa, K.
School, community, university partnerships: who benefits?

Dolgon, C.
Teaching for democracy or technocracy: The future of service learning in the United States

Fyfe, I.
Civics and citizenship education in Australia: Are young people really discovering democracy?

Hammer, S. and Star, C.
Higher education for community and citizenship?

Hunter, M. and Gillies, R.
Building learning communities through interagency collaboration

Miles, R., Grimson, H., Goodwin, S., McGregor, E., Mitchell, P., Parkin, C. and Harrison, L.
Why women’s programs in the 21st Century: the benefits of women only
educational programs in community building

Sanguinetti J., Waterhouse, P. and Maunders, D.
Pedagogies on the edge: researching complex, situated practice in youth & adult community education

Shrestha, M., Wilson, S., Ryan, J. and Unsworth, L.
A community-based learning portfolio: a pilot project on the validation of non-formal education

Skattebol, J., Dwyer, J. and Simpson, S.
The child as rhizome: Implications for research methodologies with children

Star, C.
Engaged Academics? Dilemmas for early career academics

Tett L.
Powerful literacies

Valeontis, K., Shearer, L.., Phillips, N. and Williams, S.
Gardens for Celebration Project and Al-o-wah Murrytoola (Dharug for ‘Together we Share and Enjoy’) Youth Holiday Program

Wilson, K.
Service learning and inclusive practices: the effects of learning through
service on students on the autistic spectrum

Winter, A.
From ‘public good’ to ‘community’: The languages of civic engagement

For further information please contact cpe@uts.edu.au

Full details of these projects can be accessed here (pdf download)