Student Initiatives
in Values Education, Civics and Citizenship
Education and Inclusive Student Voice
What are we learning?
Roger Holdsworth
r.holdsworth@unimelb.edu.au
Abiding Challenges
and Directions
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Basic ideas: effective learning partnerships
between students and teachers:
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Underlying ideas about the changing nature of young people’s
role in society - valuing young people?
Hence changed nature of schools’ responsibility
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Thus: youth and student participation approaches
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Emerges as:
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Middle years
Civics and citizenship education
Student voice
Student engagement (deep engagement)
A values approach to active
participation
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Student participation - not a ‘thing’ or
‘project’, but an underlying orientation:
‘verb’ not ‘noun’
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Commitment to respecting & trusting students
Strengths-based: commissioning students as
‘experts’
Investigative: querying issues and challenging
students
Experiencing real consequences and action:
making a difference
Inclusive: especially of ‘marginalised’ students
Today …
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WHY? - background ‘theory’
Some examples - practical ideas
Some learnings - irrespective of
what you do
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Some reflections about Values
and CCE …
Changed roles…
“In the family, the young remain, while the activities
from which they could learn have moved out; in the
workplace, the activities from which they could learn
remain, but the young themselves have been
excluded…
“The student role of young persons has become
enlarged to the point where that role constitutes the
major portion of their youth. But the student role is not a
role of taking action and experiencing consequences…
It is a relatively passive role, always in preparation for
action, but never acting …”
Action Poverty…
“The consequences of the expansion of the student role,
and the action poverty it implies for the young, has been
an increased restiveness among the young.
“They are shielded from responsibility, and they
become irresponsible; they are held in a dependent
status, and they come to act as dependents; they are
kept away from productive work, and they become
unproductive.”
James Coleman (1972) How do the young become adults?,
Johns Hopkins University
Deferred Outcomes Deferred Value!
• Outcomes in schools are deferred to a
future - “useful in a job or when you study
further”
• For some students, outcomes of this
future are highly uncertain … and they
know this
• But also lessons for all students: “Your
only value is in what you will become,
not what you are or can do today…”
Deferred Citizenship…
“Learning about
democracy and
citizenship when I was
at school, was a bit like
reading holiday
brochures in prison…”
Derry Hannam, English School
Inspector and adviser/trainer for the
Council of Europe on Education for
Democratic Citizenship
Development of
a strong self-concept
Sense of control:
capability,
competence, impact
on one’s own
environment, power
over one’s self, use of
social/life skills,
power to change
one’s self and
environment
After Nancy Phillips, 1990
control
Sense of bonding: with
family/peers/community,
to feel/be wanted, to
feel/be loved, to belong,
to have basic needs met
bonding
meaning
Sense of meaning: to
feel important, to feel
relevant, self-esteem,
sense of dignity/honour,
able to accomplish tasks
Arenas of Participation
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In young people’s own organisations
(SRCs, JSCs, Student Councils)
In formal decision-making processes
(representation on School Council etc)
In action/classrooms/curriculum
(cross-age and peer tutoring,
community research and action,
resource production, oral histories,
media production, job creation etc)
We just
want to have
a say!
We really want
to see some
action!
Critiques of Traditional Student
Council Approaches
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Who gets to be involved?
About what?
Links to students and school
decision-making
Non-curricular
Ineffective
See: Student Councils and Beyond.
R Holdsworth (2005); via Connect
Student Participatory
Curriculum Approaches
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Cross-age and peer tutoring
Media production (print, radio, TV)
Oral histories
Job/Work Creation (Enterprise)
Resource production
Peer mediation, support, intervention
Community research and action ….
Expertise
• Need to see students as expert
voices and actors because of their
specific experiences
• Eg cross-age tutoring program:
choose students to tutor in areas
in which they are failing because
of their knowledge of ‘failure’
Student Action Teams
Student Action Teams involve a
group of students who work on a
real, identified issue of community
interest. The students carry out
research on the topic and develop
solutions – either proposals for others
or action they then take.
SAT Principles:
• An active role for young people as part of
their community;
• Young people as community investigators;
• Young people doing something that makes
a difference or brings about change;
• Programs that involve learning and meet
academic goals
SAT Examples
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Community safety (Statewide, 2000, 2002)
Traffic safety (Darebin, 2003)
Environment (Darebin, 2005, 2006)
Police relations (Werribee, 2003)
Intergenerational conflict (Bright, 2000)
Bullying (Doncaster, 2002)
Values (Manningham, 2006, 2007; Darebin 2007)
School Engagement (Preston/Thornbury, 2007-9)
Transition (East Bentleigh + NSW, 2009)
Specific Examples
• Altona SC: SAT investigates and recommends on truancy
• Taylors Lakes PS: SAT investigates common student
concerns about transition, finds answers and publishes
booklet for all families
• Doncaster SC: SAT investigates bullying in school and
community and leads school initiatives
• Wanganui Park SC: SAT investigates ‘image’ of suburb
and takes action to improve it
• Primary school in Geelong: SAT investigates location of
school crossing and approaches local Council to change
it… etc
Topics for SATs
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Real (authentic) - not hypothetical
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Uncertain outcomes - real questions
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Of concern to young people
(important, engaging)
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Open to action and change
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Substantial - needs research
SAT in Operation:
Overall Structure
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Engagement Event (Forum 1)
Research Phase:
what is the issue? what do we know about it?
Research Reporting Event (Forum 2)
Action Phase:
what will we change? what will we do?
Action Reporting Event (Forum 3)
SAT Flow Chart…
Engagement
Event
RESEARCH
PHASE
Research
Reporting Event
ACTION
PHASE
Action
Reporting Event
Some examples of process:
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Traffic Safety - data on accidents
One Student’s Response…
(traffic safety)
“When I saw these figures, I was
first of all surprised, then angry,
then determined to do something
about them!”
Primary school student, Preston, 2003
Some examples of process:
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Traffic Safety - data on accidents
Environment - sharing their
knowledge of area
A Wider Challenge:
Are we happy for our students to be
servants of our communities?
How can we build students as
shapers of their uncertain
communities?
“Student Action Teams are about
supporting young people to
question, construct and develop the
sorts of multiple communities in
which they live and wish to live.”
Connect, 2004
Some examples of process:
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Traffic Safety - data on accidents
Environment - sharing their
knowledge of area
Values - sharing their information
on school values
One Student’s Response…
(Values Education)
“( … sniff sniff … )
We didn’t get to choose
‘integrity’, and I wanted to
do integrity so I would
understand what it meant!”
Primary school student,
Manningham cluster, 2005
The role of metaphor:
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‘Thank God You’re Here!’
Curating a ‘Museum of Values’
Mission Impossible …
Researcher or CSI (Crime Scene
Investigator)
‘Where’s the Evidence?’ game show
Fun!
Importance
of fun, but …
“… It doesn’t have to be fun
all the time; not fun, just
worthwhile.”
(student)
Some examples of process:
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Traffic Safety - data on accidents
Environment - sharing their
knowledge of area
Values - sharing their information
on school values
Engagement - body-mapping, the
‘switch-o-meter’ etc
eg Engaging students about
Student Engagement
What does
engagement
mean?
“Oh you mean whether
we’re switched on or
witched off?”
but then …
“It’s not as simple as ‘on’ or
‘off’; you can have different
levels of engagement.”
“How could we show this?”
Further questions …
“What influences the level of
engagement?”
“Can you control it?”
“I wonder how the level of engagement
changes during the school day?”
Taking ‘Pulse’ Readings
Analysing Engagement
5/6J Engagement Pulse (Tuesday 19 June)
Engagement Levels
4.00
3.50
3.00
2.50
2.00
1.50
1.00
0.50
0.00
Class Average Engagement
Boys Average Engagement
Girls Average Engagement
9.00
9.30
10.00
10.30
11.00
11.30
12.00
12.30
1.00
1.30
2.00
2.30
3.00
3.30
2.35
2.27
2.45
2.99
2.92
3.08
3.30
3.21
3.40
3.26
3.09
3.47
3.17
3.13
3.23
2.78
2.27
3.40
3.13
3.06
3.20
2.85
2.29
3.53
3.09
2.67
3.60
2.86
2.23
3.63
3.32
2.92
3.80
2.92
2.27
3.70
3.18
3.06
3.33
3.14
2.85
3.48
Times of the Day
since then …
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Decisions about action - student-run
excursions
Theory: “the more we know about
engagement, the more we’re engaged”
Assessing impact: “how do we know
we’ve made a difference?”
2009: sharing our story
Practical Issues
• Which students? and How select?
• Curriculum location:
• Ad hoc/withdrawal
• Responsible to SRC
• Within a class
• Time frame
• Teacher support/time
• Skill training
Some things we’re learning:
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Real issue - as seen by students and others
Commissioning - role of the ‘outsider’ for task, audience
(presentations), task-setting
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Uncertainty - not pre-arranged outcomes; students and
teachers as co-researchers
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Time for research - no ‘quick answers’; avoid moving to
action too fast (but need for action too)
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Inclusiveness - not just the ‘good’ kids; the importance of
‘expertise’
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Questioning - the importance of the questions that drive us
to the next stage
SATs, Values & CCE
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V
and
V
(like Garth Boomer’s ideas of
‘Negotiation’ and ‘negotiation’: ‘Values’ and
‘values’) - implicit and explicit?
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‘Values education’ underlies the SAT
approach: valuing students (respect,
doing your best, giving responsibility, care
and compassion, etc etc)
Making values explicit within SATs
‘Active citizenship’: real and valued roles
within communities
Three-Way Test of Value
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Value to the Participants:
student choice; active commitment; makes sense
to them
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Community Value:
active, hands-on; audience beyond the
classroom; seen to be of value by the community
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Academic Value:
involves learning; meets or exceeds mandated
curriculum goals; shared knowledge of what
these goals are
Resources:
Connect magazine: $33 per year (6 issues): 12 Brooke Street, Northcote 3070
Student Councils and Beyond: 108 page book: $33 ($27.50 for Connect
subscribers)
Student Action Teams: 90 page book: $33 ($27.50 for Connect subscribers)
Reaching High: 120-page book on student-run literacy camps + DVD:
$33 ($27.50 for Connect subscribers)
These last three: order from Connect:
www.geocities.com/rogermhold/Connect
Student Action Team Manual: on-line at:
www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/curricman/middleyear/
StudentActionTeamsManual2003.pdf
Australian Youth Research Centre reports on Student Action Teams: Working
Paper 21 + Research Report 22:
03 8344 9633 or yrc-info@unimelb.edu.au