Lori Beckett, Chris Evans and John Buchanan

There are three parts to this project. The first part is a teacher learning and development project, which has occurred throughout 2005, and will continue in 2006. This has been funded by the whole school PD budget. The Acting Principal, Mr Bob Bruce, invited academic partners Dr. Lori Beckett and Ms Chris Evans from the University of Technology, Sydney, to work with two ‘pods’ (ie groups) of beginning and early career (BEC) teachers and their teacher mentors on a one-day per month basis. This part of the project has incorporated critical reflection on teacher and school effectiveness informed by scholarly literature (authored by a range of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal writers). It has also featured a sequence of Aboriginal community-situated ‘inductions’ for the pods of teachers.

The second part of the project, to commence in late 2005 and conclude in 2006, is teacher research by the pods of teachers to support their teaching and learning in the urban Aboriginal community setting.

The third part of the project is research conducted by the academic partners, who will undertake an enquiry into establishing a community school identity and investigate the effectiveness of the TLD project in helping to align teacher practice with the needs of a range of stakeholders.

Our research connects with school effectiveness and school improvement, curriculum reform, and productive pedagogies, or quality teaching in NSW parlance. It is about identifying the school’s particular social mix (Aboriginal, NESB, and diverse socio-economic status, including people who experience significant social and economic disadvantage), and taking into account its recent history of amalgamation in 2003. Cleveland Street High, Redfern Public, Alexandria Public and Waterloo Public Schools all came together as a community school serving the Redfern-Waterloo area.

NSW Minister for Education & Aboriginal Affairs, Dr. Andrew Refshauge:
‘Despite the many educational initiatives implemented by the Commonwealth and NSW Governments over the past 20 years Aboriginal students continue to be the most educationally disadvantaged student group in Australia’
Media Release 20/10/04

Significance of research

• The exploration of a model for teacher and adult education, based upon a school/community ‘induction’ that acknowledges local diversity within Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities and invites sustainable partnership.
• Progress in responding to recommendations 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 23, 43, 44, 47, 50, 51, 63, 65 of the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group & NSWDET The Report of the Review of Aboriginal Education (2004).
• Its location within a more broad research context exploring intersections between school reform and school community disadvantage and implications of such interaction.

See attached for the original research proposal.