Education and Training Reforms for the Future The future of every young Queenslander depends on their ability to achieve high-level qualifications…

What’s Mainstream?  Dusseldorp Skills Forum Research Study in South East Queensland  Examine implementation of ETRF  Identify features of provision to inform education systems  Provide rich understanding of perceptions, aspirations and experiences of students and practitioners

What’s Mainstream? Research Questions  What kinds of programs emerge to meet needs of ‘at risk’ students?  How do learning options differ?  How do student populations differ?  What are barriers to full participation?  What characterises successful programs?  What are the outcomes?  Is a new form of ‘mainstream’ emerging?  What lessons can ‘mainstream’ draw?

Positive findings  Most students are happy and feel safe  Most teachers are dedicated and caring  Students are remarkably tenacious  Students are perceptive and fair  Students value education  Deputies are held in particularly high esteem  New partnerships are developing  There’s an honest appraisal of the challenges

Key findings  Schools are changing – but is it enough?  Student support – but learning improvement?  Flexible centres retain students – but do they provide valued credentials?  Pathways to work – but is this the sole business of education?

Key issues  Re-entry is difficult  Two stream curriculum – privileged pathways  Minimum change to non-VET curriculum  Regressive pedagogies persist  Content protectors and behaviour managers  Deep learning, teaching for understanding, learning how to learn?

Further issues  Cultural assumptions and expectations  Desire for control and conformity  Students want respect and a positive role in schooling  Professional learning needs of staff  New labels and blame games?  Attendance, literacy skills, behaviour  Scramble for funds

What young people say:  Successful teachers are ‘mad’: quirky, fun and they listen to you; when a teacher can make you laugh, you want to be at school  When people do extra for us, we don’t want to let them or ourselves down  It’s not a shame to have a kid; you can still be a student learner  Some schools bother too much about the small things  It was better in primary; secondary just didn’t work for me, so I dropped out  A teacher can turn a kid around: if they don’t attack you personally, they fix behaviours and still respect you  Education is important for a job and for life…we just don’t know the pathway and we keep going off track

What practitioners say:  We have a strong emphasis on social justice, from a position of firmness and fairness, underpinned by care  In this community, they’re authentic people with aspirations  The only way to re-engage students is to focus on their needs  Feisty is good; feisty is resilient; without feisty some of these kids would be dead  If you get it right in Middle Phase in managing behaviour and curriculum, it pays off later  Kids here live with very great issues; they’re malleable, not resilient yet  We use codes of behaviour, but the focus is on activities where it’s fun to be and kids become more responsible  The creative process is inevitably skill building  I think we need some ‘spring in the fence’ rather than ‘zero tolerance’

Key points of agreement  Sorting students has (unfortunately) always been a high school’s major function  Traditional models carry deep cultural assumptions  Without confronting assumptions, new models will lead to the same outcomes  Australia has moved from ‘equal opportunities’ to ‘equal outcomes’  Do we have equitable inputs to lead to these outcomes?

Further agreement  Today, good jobs require literacy and problem-solving skills  It’s not ‘fodder for the industrial machine’, it’s democracy that loses  Partnership between schools and communities is vital  Creation of smaller learning environments is essential  A multistrand strategy is crucial

8. Lessons from successful provision  Substructures to make dynamics manageable  Relationships based on respect  Relevant curriculum  Minimum conformity/maximum democracy  High expectations with targeted support  Site level autonomy  Teaching and learning reform  Differentiated and reliable resourcing

The future of every young Queenslander depends… This reform is about engaging young people in learning You can’t even really mandate attendance, much less participation DSF believes in robust, rigorous options that embrace creative pedagogy, content and relationships… Schools should be civilizing places