Lyn Wilkinson

Making a difference through

Scaly Survivors

Acknowledgement

The data which informs this presentation has been collected from John Pirie Secondary School between 2008 and 2010 as part of the School-to-Work Innovation Projects: literacy and numeracy, funded by the SA Minister of Education.

Both Josh and Bruce have specifically requested that their actual names be used in all presentations about them and their work.

I first met Josh in 2008 when he was in Year 10, and aged 15

He attends JPSS, the only government secondary school in this industrial regional city

He was interested in sport and reptiles

He described himself as a ‘troublemaker’ in Years 8 and 9

‘Well throughout Year 8 and the start of Year 10, I was just pretty much a trouble maker. I was also getting into trouble...I picked a fight a few times...and then at one stage I got into a situation with my maths teacher, like I couldn’t be in the same class with him...’

Josh – 2008 - describing himself in junior secondary school

Josh was invited to participate in the ‘Scaly Survivors’ program run by Bruce Mules

Science teacher

Has taught at the school for 35 years

Manager of the flexible learning centre (FLIP centre) at the school

Works in a counselling role with young people ‘at risk’

‘...a strong sense of inclusivity and a strong sense of social justice...that’s always been very important to me.’

‘...I can’t let anyone slip through...I can’t allow someone whom I’m working with to fail, because then I’m failing...’

Bruce: describing his work

‘...if we don’t get it right then that child, that adolescent, could be lost for life, they may never reconnect.’

Bruce: last opportunity

Josh: describing his turnaround

‘Then I got offered an opportunity mid-year 9 to go in Scaly Survivors, but with only one rule – I wasn’t allowed to skip school, and I had to really improve my attitude.’

‘I don’t want to be stuck in basic everything. I want to challenge myself, I want to get somewhere, I want to know if I can deal with that. I want to know that if I can’t deal with that, as least I’ve tried....If I can pass general English, who knows, I could (be) top in this class!’

Josh- 2008 - describing his hopes

‘...the switch [of class] really got me thinking, “If I can really do this, I can prove that I’m not really just a dumb idiot person and I can do something”... the people that have always thought I was dumb and everything are now asking me the questions and how to [do the] work...’

Josh: describing the turnaround

‘When adolescents trust their teacher and informally receive guidance from teachers, they are more likely to persist through graduation. Although teacher-based forms of social capital are generally beneficial for all students, those who benefit most are students most at risk of dropping out of high school.’

(Croninger & Lee, 2001, p. 568 emphasis in original)

‘… face economic and social hardships at home [so] are especially dependent on schools for support and guidance if they cannot find … social capital elsewhere in their lives’

(Croninger & Lee, 2001, p. 549)

‘with emotional support and encouragement, information and guidance about academic decisions, and additional assistance with schoolwork’

(Croninger & Lee, 2001, p. 550)

‘...not only to understand what it is that they can’t do, but believe that they can do it; that given the support, given the opportunities, given the right context as well in which things are structured, that they can actually up-skill from the things they presently can’t do.’

Bruce: describing the need for teachers to be co-travellers on the journey to literacy

Non-judgmental advocate, mentor, negotiator Clear goal is to get students back to class or

into an alternative learning program Wholistic approach: home/school/health Commitment to and understanding of social

justice Team work and collaboration with colleagues Deep understanding of issues around literacy Acts as a literacy sponsor

... any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, and model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold, literacy – and gain advantage by it in some way.... the figures who turned up most typically in people’s memories of literacy learning: older relatives, teachers, priests, supervisors, military officers, editors, influential authors....Usually richer, more knowledgeable, and more entrenched than the sponsored, sponsors nevertheless enter a reciprocal relationship with those they underwrite.’

(Brandt 1998, pp. 166-167)

Effective sponsorship takes account of

the literacies that are valued and taught in students’ homes

the community institutions to which they belong and through which they are influenced

the structures of the school the agency of other teachers the way in which school intersects with other

educational institutions (e.g. TAFE) their connections with the world of work – either

real or imagined

Josh: Oh yeah, I went for School Captain. Unfortunately I didn’t win but I kind of actually saw it coming, because I didn’t campaign or anything, because I was too heavily into schoolwork, I was so behind, because of TAFE.

Lyn: Your TAFE, yeah, we’ll get to that in a minute, yeah. Josh: I was actually still kind of proud because I got told I actually

didn’t lose by many votes at all. I got told it was actually really, really close. But Vice Captain, I was pretty proud of myself. At least I know I’m still going to have an effect on the school. I know I want lots of changes, not lots, I know I want one particular change in this school, and at least I know now I can have a say in the school.

Lyn: What would you like to change, Josh? Josh: Toilets.

‘These teacher-based forms of social capital reduce the probability of dropping out by nearly half. However, students who come from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and who have had academic difficulties in the past find guidance and assistance from teachers especially helpful.’

(Croninger & Lee, 2001, p. 548)

‘Mr M, he helped me through everything. I said this to him recently, if he didn’t really help me like when he did, I’d probably still be hanging out with all the idiots. Like some of them are good mates of mine still, but truthfully, the stuff they do and the things, like the police don’t like them you could say, and I was in that crowd, so I think I’m kind of glad Mr M picked me up when he did.’

Josh: describing Bruce

‘...positive turning points are rare. And it is also probably true that the opportunities to experience them are organisationally produced and socially distributed. This implies many students are withheld from the opportunity to correct prior mistakes and wrong decisions, and that many students cannot undo the negative traumas they experienced in their early educational careers. If opportunities for correction and transformation are absent or limited, students get locked into negative trajectories that with time become more difficult to turn around.’

(Yair 2009 p.366)

Brandt, D. (1998) ‘Sponsors of literacy.’ College Composition and Communication, 49 (2), pp. 165-185.

Comber, B. and Kamler, B. eds (2005) Turnaround Pedagogies : literacy interventions for at-risk students, Primary English Teachers Association, Marrackville, NSW.

Croninger, R.G. & Lee, V.E. (2001) ‘Social capital and dropping out of school: Benefits to students of teachers’ support and guidance.’ Teachers College Record 103 (4), pp. 548-581.

Hattam, R. & Prosser, B. (2008) ‘Unsettling deficit views of students and their communities.’ Australian Educational Researcher, 35(2), 89‐106.

Kazemek, F.E. (2004) “Living a literate life”. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 47 (6), pp.448-452.

Kerin, R. & Comber, B. (2008) ‘A national English curriculum for all Australian youth:

Making it work for teachers and students everywhere.’ English in Australia, 43(3), 21‐

27.

Pendleton Jimenz, K. and Sokolow Fine, E. (2009) ‘Safe Walk Home: Cultural Literacy in the Regent Park Community.’ Vitae Scholasticae 26 (1) pp. 80-97.

Yair, Gad (2009) ‘Cinderellas and ugly ducklings: positive turning points in students’ educational careers-exploratory evidence and a future agenda.’ British Educational Research Journal, 35 (3), pp.351-370.

Reid, A. and Wilkinson, L. (2010) We talked to them about literacy: they talked to us about their lives. English in Australia (in press)