Marian College (TLIF 4-040) - Student agency, wellbeing, and learning “He kakano ahau i ruia mai i Rangiatea” Publications

Publication Details

Project Reference: Marian College, St Thomas of Canterbury College, St Teresa’s School, and St Joseph’s School (TLIF 4-040) - Motivated by their shared concern for social justice and child rights, and by lessons from research into the interaction between student agency, wellbeing, and learning, four teachers in four Catholic schools in Christchurch set out to explore how they could improve wellbeing outcomes for their students.

Author(s): (Inquiry Team) Liz Beattie (Project Lead), Megan Martin, Keri Campbell, Lydia Sula and Sarah Te One

Date Published: January 2019

Overview

Working within different contexts, and with different cohorts of students, each teacher drew upon the same frameworks and evidence. In particular, each chose a specific inquiry focus from a set of wellbeing indicators created by the Education Review Office, and each used Lundy’s Model of Participation to consider how they would provide students with space to express their voice, an attentive audience, and real influence over their learning.

Through gathering their voice and acting on it, we were able to support the cultural identity of the students. We did this by providing a platform for the students to create a video of themselves saying their names correctly that was shared with the staff. This meant the teacher became the learner and the learner became the teacher (ako – reciprocal learning relationship). For the students and the teachers, it was a starting point to acknowledge iwi affiliations and develop the self-confidence of the students through greater understanding of their whakapapa.

Teacher-researcher journal, St Thomas of Canterbury College

Through sharing their findings, the team identified six elements that need to be present in a classroom or school that is intent on improving learner agency and wellbeing, and thus learning. These are relationships, identity, participation, pedagogical know-how, leadership, and environment. They combine to form a transformational model, called RIPPLE. In addition, one teacher developed SANER, a framework for evaluating, talking about, and growing emotional competence. Together, the team believe that these frameworks could help create significant shifts in pedagogical practice that would enhance student wellbeing and truly put learners at the centre.

The inquiry story

This inquiry took place over three years and involved four schools in Christchurch’s Catholic Kāhui Ako – Te Mara Akoranga Katorika. The schools are diverse, including two single-sex secondary schools and two full primary schools. Each of the four inquiry members held various positions within the schools. The number and age of participating students also varied, with the inquiry focus on year 9 students in the two secondary schools, and years 0–1 in one primary school, and years 6–8 in the other.

What was the focus?

This project explored the relationship between student agency, wellbeing, and learning. It was a response to evidence that when learners are listened to, and when their interests are made central to teachers’ shared praxis, they become more engaged in their learning and their wellbeing is enhanced. The project was also informed by a shared commitment to children’s rights. The team developed the following innovation statement:

We want to find out whether, given the right environment (physical, emotional, spiritual, cultural, social, educational), opportunities and support, together with our learners we can build creative, imaginative, resourceful, and practical dispositions to enhance wellbeing in communities of learning.

This inquiry addressed three central questions:

  • How can we shift our current pedagogical practices to enable student agency in order to improve their wellbeing and enhance learning?
  • How can we ensure students’ views in relation to their wellbeing are included in decisions about learning and the curriculum?
  • How can we ensure students’ voices about their wellbeing are heard?

What did the teachers try, and what happened as a result?

The teachers used data from tools such as the Me and My School Survey and a set of wellbeing indicators developed by the Education Review Office to develop a specific inquiry focus for each school. All teachers used a range of data sources to plan, monitor, and review their progress. These sources included observations, surveys, individual and group interviews, digital recordings, teacher-researcher journals, learner portfolios, and spaghetti-junction movement maps (Duncan & Te One, 2012, 2014).

The design of the four inquiry projects was informed by Lundy’s Model of Participation. This model has four components that need to be enacted in order if children’s right to express their views and have them acted upon is to be realised. These are:

  • Space: giving children safe, inclusive opportunities within which to express their view
  • Voice: facilitating children to express their view
  • Audience: listening to children
  • Influence: acting upon what children say, as appropriate.

The table below summarises the inquiry foci, what the teachers did in response to what students told them, and its impact. The fundamental purpose of each inquiry was to create an environment in which students were central to decision-making about learning and the curriculum enhanced their engagement and well-being.

School

Focus

Actions

Impact

St Thomas of Canterbury College Boys School

Learners have a sense of belonging and connection to school, to whānau, to friends, and the community

  • Provided a   platform for students to create a video of themselves pronouncing their names   correctly, so that teachers could learn to do this and also learn more about   students’ whakapapa
  • Co-constructed   the junior curriculum with whānau, students, and teachers with the intention   of better reflecting cultural perspectives
  • Co-constructed   and began to implement a plan to create a visual narrative that would   directly reflect the cultures that are present in the kura, beginning with   carved pou and a mural
  • Teachers and   students experience a more enjoyable working environment.
  • Curriculum   content is more reflective of community needs and the culture and identity of   the students.
  • Students feel   more confident to speak up and question the way they are learning, and why.
  • Students,   especially Māori, are more engaged in their learning.
  • Whānau are also   more engaged in their sons’ learning.
 

Marian College Girls School

Students are socially and emotionally competent, are socially aware, have good relationship skills, are self-confident, are able to lead, self-manage and are responsible decision-makers

  • Developed an   emotional competency framework to evaluate emotional competence (SANER)
  • Set up a   check-in and check-out process to enable the teacher to ‘hear’ what the   students were feeling as they entered and left the classroom
  • Gave students   ‘emotion words’ with which to rank the intensity of different kinds of   feeling
  • Invited   students to choose the wellbeing challenge that best met their needs, then   self-experiment, and finally share their experience with the class
  • Co-constructed   the physical learning environment with students
  • Students feel   they have choice, ownership, and agency. They feel heard and that their needs   are informing the focus and content of the learning.
  • Emotional   competency has increased (e.g., understanding that emotions aren’t ‘bad’).
 

St Joseph’s Papanui

Students are nurtured and cared for by teachers at school, have adults to turn to who grow their potential, celebrate their successes, discuss options, and work through problems

  • Introduced   learning resources across the school to shift students’ views on learning   from something that is hard to something that is fun and can be collaborative   and self-directed
  • Changed the   classroom layout and routines to better reflect students’ identities as   learners
  • Advocated for   year 0–1 students to have access to a larger grassed area for play
  • Became clearer   about learning intentions, co-constructed lessons with students, and   incorporated more reflection and feedback
  • Set up a   permanent space for transitioning children and whānau, with appropriate   resources
  • A more informal   and relaxed atmosphere
  • Younger   students are making real connections with older students in the expanded play   area.
  • Colleagues have   been challenged on the need to consider student preferences over safety.
  • Students know   what they are learning, why, and how learning may look.
  • Transitioning   children and whānau know where to go when they visit. They are relaxed, the   children play, and the parents talk to each other.
 

St Teresa’s, Riccarton

Students are included, involved, engaged, invited to participate and make positive contributions

  • Further refined   the environment that was already play-based to provide more scope for   students to manage their day
  • Planned   learning topics and selected resources on the basis of students’ interests   and learning preferences
  • Used   provocations to spark engagement, particularly for students who need more   scaffolding.
  • Higher student   engagement, with students appreciating the ability to make learning choices   based on their personal interests.
  • Provocations   have inspired some students to pursue a topic or idea further.
 

What did they learn?

Having shared and made sense of their findings together, the teachers surfaced a set of shared themes that emerged irrespective of the student cohort or the teachers’ position within the school. They believe all these elements need to be present for schools to improve student wellbeing. They shaped the themes into a wellbeing model that they call RIPPLE. The project team contends that this model has the potential to support transformational change in classrooms and across school. RIPPLE has six themes:

  • Relationships. This research revealed how social, cultural, and environmental power dynamics impact on wellbeing. Positive learning relationships can be developed when teachers collaborate with students, acknowledge each person’s identity, and embed pedagogical practices proven to create connection.
  • Identity: Teachers need to know, respect, and value students’ identity. This can be done by listening to their voices and using what is heard to create authentic learning experiences and environments.
  • Participation: It is vital to create an environment that allows for students’ voices to be heard and acted upon, so they can be active participants in their learning. This increases their sense of ownership, agency, and belonging.
  • Pedagogical know-how: To be effective in meeting student needs, educators need to be adaptive, using pedagogical research and evidence to move with the times and shift practice.
  • Leadership: It is crucial that there is collective voice in the decision-making processes that affect the learning environments for all. Therefore, leadership in schools should be three-fold: senior leadership, teacher leadership, and student leadership.
  • Environment: A learning environment should reflect the spiritual, emotional, social, cultural, physical, and intellectual needs of its community.

Drawing on learning from this inquiry and from the research of others, one teacher developed an interactive resource for gauging how students are feeling and normalising the language of emotional wellbeing. Called SANER, it has five elements:

  • See and recognise emotions in self and others
  • Awareness, acceptance, and understanding of emotions
  • Name it to ‘tame it’ by accurately labelling emotions
  • Express emotions appropriately
  • Regulation tools and strategies.

Inquiry team

Liz Beattie (St Joseph’s School, Papanui) was the project lead. The inquiry team also included Megan Martin (Marian College), Keri Campbell (St Thomas of Canterbury College), and Lydia Sula (St Teresa’s School)

The project had a critical friend, Sarah Te One, from CORE Education.

For further information

If you would like to learn more about this project, please contact the project leader, Liz Beattie, at liz.beattie@stjopapa.school.nz

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