Central Coast Student Voice Alliance November 12, 2014 Shelly Beach Surf Club Roger HoldsworthEve Mayes Connect MagazineUniversity of Sydney/DEC Planning our Action

Eve Mayes …  High school English/ ESL teacher (and some other roles)  PhD student (Student voice in school reform)  Writes about student voice/ participation and other equity issues

Secondary school teacher (Physics, Maths etc): Set up Lynall Hall Community School: Curriculum Consultant: …. Youth Affairs Council: 1987, 1989 Youth Research Centre, Melbourne University:  Now: Failed Retiree (still a Senior Research Associate, YRC) Consultant to a variety of schools and clusters, on student participation/voice approaches Adviser, supporter to Victorian Student Representative Council Editor and Publisher, Connect magazine: 1979-present (#209) (now on-line and FREE from issue #201) Presenter: Global Village, PBS-FM (106.7) Sundays 5-7 pm in Melbourne Roger Holdsworth …

What …? … do you want to get out of today? what questions and concerns do you have? Throughout the day… questions ideas what’s going well concerns & improvements

Today I’d like to find out... My questions/concerns are: By the end of the day I’d like to be able to… For this to happen, I need …

Purposes of this session:  Introduce overall process for planning action by students at 14 schools, around the topic of ‘mental health’ – timeline, hopes, expectations  Introduce you to various research methods  Support you to run similar sessions with other students in your schools  Support you to set up an on-going program for the Student Alliance for 2015

Timeline: Today: Introduction to planning; Decide on topics Term : Train student school; Define topics more exactly & conduct research; Meet to share and support progress Term : Meet to present research; Plan vision and actions; Train student school Term : Carry out actions; Collect information on how its going; Meet to share and support progress Term : Meet to present outcomes; Evaluate; Celebrate successes

An action planning framework: D I V A E  Define  Investigate  Vision  Action  Evaluate

Why… D (efine) and I (nvestigate) rather than go straight to A (ction) ?

Define: What does it mean ? Why is it being chosen as a topic? What are we responding to? (what are the symptoms)

Define: What does it mean ? Why is it being chosen as a topic? What are we responding to? (symptoms) What do we already know ?

“The Doubter”

Define: What does it mean ? Why is it being chosen as a topic? What are we responding to? (symptoms) What do we need to find out? What do we already know ?

Possible research methods…  Stations 1 and 7: Survey (from NSW Commission ‘Supporting your friends’ survey) At my school…  Stations 2 and 8: Responding to photographs (adapted from Thomson and Gunter, 2007)  Stations 3 and 9: A silent conversation  Stations 4 and 10: Mapping bullying/mental health  Stations 5 and 11: Ranking forms of bullying  Stations 6 and 12: Using written scenarios with teachers (adapted from Thomson & Gunter, 2007, p. 337)

Possible research methods  We’re doing the research stations so that you might think about: How might we use this form of research in our own school research?

Evaluating research methods Research method (station) Scale of enjoyment of research station 1 = HATED it!  10 = LOVED it What can you find out through this type of research? Advantages of this method? Dis- advantages of this method? What skills does a facilitator of this research method need to have? How would you record the data from this station? Take away points/ ideas that this research gives me for our own research at our school…

Research stations  Each research station will be facilitated by a student.  You will ‘do’ the research activity for 10 minutes approx.  You will then write your evaluation of the research method for approx 3 minutes  (15 mins total per station, including moving/ set up time).  You will get time to move through 3-4 stations (depending on time).

Reflecting back (Whole group)  Enjoyment ?  Strengths and weaknesses of different research methods?  Which methods particularly draw on your strengths as STUDENTS as researchers?  How we will record the data from this research method?  Other considerations?

School group decision making  Research question(s) : What do we need to investigate? What are our research questions ?  Research methods : How are we going to investigate these questions? What are the research methods most suited to answer these questions?  Plan (timeline) : Plan  Trial  Collect data  Collate data  Analyse data  Report on data

Visioning …  A world in which …  A school in which …

Action planning… Our Vision Changes Needed (goals) Actions that we will take (strategies, tactics )

Forms of action … Engineering Enforcement Encouragement Education

Next steps …  At school:  Review today  Involve more students  Re-do activities  Define your focus  Form questions  Research approaches  Do the research  For Alliance:  Keep in touch (contact person)  Term 1: touch base … how is it going?  Term 2: report on research; plan Vision and Action  Term 3: touch base …  Term 4: report on outcomes of actions

Evaluation  Insert URL and QR code