Confronting the Snake in the
Garden of Community
Engagement
A school and
University Partnership
for Sustainability
Janice K Jones M.Ed., B.Ed
&
Community Partnership
Colleagues
In the Garden, Jones (2008)
Epistemology of Place
• My dress, my speech, my agenda to ‘build trust’
are all from another world where that has to be
proven. … I feel like an alien from another world
with my purposeful approach and time-driven
schedules (First visit 13.11.05)
• The university with its physical and virtual
landscapes of brick and concrete, its pathways
and barriers embodies purpose, control and
regulation. In contrast, the small school which I
intitially perceived as ‘little more than a shed’
reflects a comfortable at-oneness with the harsh
Australian bush. (Jones, unpublished)
The Magic Gardens School
Storyboarding Film
Enacting Children’s Stories
Creating Artworks
Learning
Through Play
Celebrating Together
Social Learning
Community and University
Students presented performances, walkabout theatre and workshops
The Paper
• Part 1: The Global Context: Small School
Closure and Parental Disempowerment
• Part 2: The Community Engagement Context:
The Epistemology of Place and Narratives of
Engagement
• Part 3: Three Phases of a Community
Partnership: Parent Power and Ownership
• Part 4: Scholarship of Engagement: A Neonarrative
Narrative Inquiry in Third Space
Timeline and Events
2001 – 5
Planning
Provisional
Accreditation
School
University
Partnership
Early 2006
School Opens
10 children
Magic Gardens
Project
Dec 2006
ONSS Review
Full
Accreditation
April 2007
ONSS Review
16 children
Show Cause
90 Points
Jan 2008
Appeal
25 children
Minister’s
Letter 21 Feb
Student
Workshops
Letters to
Minister
School Closes
Ownership and Engagement
The Move to Homeschool
A large group of parents sit outside the
school, trying to find a way ahead. They
have just been told the school is closing
and that there is no period of grace.
They are angry and fearful.
(Fieldnotes, 7th March 2008)
8 of the 13 families decide to
homeschool their children on hearing of
the school closure. John and Meg plan to
support families by running a community
centre for homeschoolers
From Micro – to Macro
The closure of this nontraditional school reflects
national and international trends.
The impact of government drives for the closure
of small, rural, special, religious and nontraditional schools documented in Australia
Bureau of Statistics (2006a) and media reports
(Weston, 2008) is yet to be researched and
reported on a macro level.
Local Impact: Sudbury School
Closure
• We express our concern and dismay over the treatment
of the school, its staff, students and parents by the
Queensland State Government, and its agents by, at the
very least, overzealous, inflexible inspections and
demands, inadequate research, ineffective listening,
inaccurate reporting, not taking the views of children,
parents and teachers into consideration, that have led to
high financial costs and losses, the forced sale of the
School's campus, and the diversion of school resources
away from this democratic School's core business of
supporting students' learning and preparation for life.
(Sheppard, 2004)
Global Impact – Small School
Closures
• 2006 South Australia premier announced 6 new
superschools to replace 17 existing schools by 2011.
• Between 1940 and 1990 the population of the United
States increased by 70% (Mitchell, 2000; Skelton, 2006)
but over the same period 238,000 schools closed,
requiring rural children to travel to urban schools.
• Since 1990 the closure of a quarter of West Virginia’s
state schools has led to law suits against the state by
parents whose children spend more than 12 hours per
week on buses (Mitchell, 2000)
• Between 1967 and 1977 two-thirds of schools in Ireland
were single or two-teacher run. By 1997 that figure had
dropped to one quarter.
Smaller is Better?
• Klonsky (2002) reported statistical evidence of
widespread alienation, bullying and suicide in
large schools
• Bechtel, (1997) reported that students in schools
with fewer than 300 students scored higher on
the Iowa Basic Skills test, that smaller schools
led to greater economies,
• Financial justification for closures refuted by
Mark Witham of the South Australia Department
of Community Services
Critical Uncertainty & Reflexive
Praxis
• Where the third space at first seemed to sit neatly
between non-traditional and traditional contexts, it is no
longer the place between contexts but has become the
space of critical uncertainty within me.
• I now turn the magnifying glass onto my daily praxis in
the university context, questioning the
epistemologies/ontologies of teacher preparation.
• Critical uncertainty turns its gaze outwards and inwards,
challenging my own and others’ hegemonic practices.
That focused light has the potential to burn.
Engagement and Iconoclasm?
My brain feels like it is on fire at the injustice
and waste, the merciless and blind stupidity of
bureaucrats who can crush something so
special.
I think of the hundreds of hours of film, the
beautiful works created by children over many
months, and the wealth of documentary
evidence gathered by John and Meg showing
unhappy and troubled children finding a
gentler and more child-friendly way to learn.
(Fieldnotes, 7th March, 2008)
The Crucible of Change
…What am I preparing pre-service
teachers for?
In my mind the concrete buildings,
the curriculum documents, the
tests and reports, the timetables
and bells, the desks are burning to
ashes. The third space has
become a crucible of fire, and I do
not think I will ever see things in
the same way again
“All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born”
(Yeats, 2003) (Fieldnotes, 7th
March, 2008)
In Third Space (Jones, 2007)
The Future – Ongoing Partnership
• I continue to work with the community of parents and
John and Meg
• Engagement of university students will continue through
research into non-traditional methods of education
including homeschooling
• Student arts groups will work with homeschooling
parents and children during their community days
• John and Meg plan to co-publish with me in their own
names when concerns regarding financial judgements
have been resolved.
• A faculty team of researchers has now commenced work
with another rural community school where student
numbers are critical for the school’s survival
Thank you
Child’s painting of the Garden
The Sandpit Built by Parents
for their Children