Confronting the Snake in the Garden of Community Engagement

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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)
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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 (Jones, unpublished)

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The Magic Gardens School
Storyboarding Film
Creating Artworks
Celebrating Together
Learning Through Play
Enacting Childrens Stories
Social Learning
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Community and University
Students presented performances, walkabout
theatre and workshops
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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
  Neo-narrative

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Narrative Inquiry in Third Space
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Timeline and Events
2001 5 Planning
Provisional Accreditation
School University Partnership
Magic Gardens Project
School Opens 10 children
Early 2006
Student Workshops
ONSS Review
Dec 2006
Full Accreditation
Letters to Minister
April 2007
ONSS Review 16 children
Show Cause 90 Points
Jan 2008
Appeal 25 children
School Closes
Ministers Letter 21 Feb
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Ownership and Engagement
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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
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From Micro to Macro
The closure of this non-traditional school
reflects national and international trends. The
impact of government drives for the closure of
small, rural, special, religious and
non-traditional schools documented in Australia
Bureau of Statistics (2006a) and media reports
(Weston, 2008) is yet to be researched and
reported on a macro level.
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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)

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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
  Virginias 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.

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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

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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.

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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)
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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)
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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 schools
  survival

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Thank you
The Sandpit Built by Parents for their Children
Childs painting of the Garden