Changing Practices, Changing Education

Transcription

1 Changing Practices, Changing Education

2 Stephen Kemmis Jane Wilkinson Christine Edwards-Groves Ian Hardy Peter Grootenboer Laurette Bristol Changing Practices, Changing Education 1 3

3 Stephen Kemmis Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga New South Wales Jane Wilkinson Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga New South Wales Institution: Griffith University Brisbane Queensland Christine Edwards-Groves Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga New South Wales Ian Hardy University of Queensland Brisbane Queensland Peter Grootenboer Griffith University Queensland Laurette Bristol Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga New South Wales ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Springer Singapore Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London Library of Congress Control Number: Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2014 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (

4 Foreword Few phenomena are as crucial to human life and as tricky to figure out as education. In recent years the world has witnessed a plethora of efforts to deal with the complexities of this enterprise by specifying common policies and standards as well as precise performance metrics for all schools located in particular, large-scale (often national) jurisdictions. The authors of this outstanding new book, Changing Practices, Changing Education, claim that this approach which they call New Public Management strips education of its proper goal, that of preparing students to live well in a world worth living in, and transforms education into standardized, factorylike schooling. The antidote to this baneful effort is the realization that education always transpires in particular sites and can achieve its promise if it and its transformation are conceptualized as such. The authors acknowledge that the idea that education always transpires in particular places and should be attended to as such is not new. What this book brilliantly provides is a new way to understand this truth and, thereby, a new conception of a path whereby education can fulfil its mission. This new approach involves reconceptualizing education and the sites where it occurs through a type of social ontology that has recently been making waves in the social sciences: practice theory. Ontologies of this type advocate analyzing social phenomena as composed of practices. Applying the authors version of this ontology to education and its transformation involves treating education as a complex or ecology of practices, the sites where it transpires as places where practices intersect and develop, and its transformation as a matter of reconfiguring practices, practice ecologies, and the conditions under which they transpire. The result of this reconceptualization is a new, insightful grasp of what must occur for education to realize its promise. Since the book marshals an original version of practice theory, it also makes an important contribution, not just to educational theory, but to practice theory itself. The book well succeeds at its tasks. The elaborate theory exposition provides the reader with a compelling account of the nature of practices, the semantic, material, and social arrangements that support practices and prefigure their development, and the idea that practices form networks that can be likened to living entities. The authors very nicely conceptualize interdependencies among practices as a matter of practices providing resources for one another. They also stress the importance v

5 vi Foreword of sites, the fact that practices always transpire in particular places: while practice architectures sets of supporting arrangements are always the arrangements that support particular practices at particular sites, it is in particular places that practices exist in ecological configurations. The book thereby adroitly depicts how practices concretely proceed and hang together. The book s version of practice ontology proves its empirical chaps in being put to work analyzing what the authors call the education complex: learning, teaching, professional learning, leading, and researching (self-study on the part of teachers and administrators). These phenomena are analyzed as practices, a tack that sometimes yields original delineations, for example, professional learning treated as practices of developing practices. The authors explore ecological relations among practices of these five sorts, clairvoyantly revealing how practices of one sort provide resources for practices of other sorts in particular classrooms, schools, and districts. Most intriguing among the many insights that result from treating the education complex thus is the authors recasting of the venerable question about the effectiveness of teaching in inducing student learning as a matter of the interdependence, that is, the resource interdependence between particular teaching and learning practices. The book s version of the idea that learning is initiation into practices in its hands, a Wittgensteinian becoming able go on in practices is also most illuminating. The book concludes with an eloquent elucidation of site based educational development, the idea that the realization of education as preparation for living well in a worthwhile world must be taken up site by site in response to the particular practices, architectures, and ecologies present in them. Having already traced the complex architectures of and entanglements among practices in particular classes and schools, the authors cogently argue that reforming education requires changing practices class by class, school by school, and that doing this in each case requires altering the arrangements that support practices in a class or school and transforming the practice ecologies located there. No doubt a tall order, but a necessary one. The significance of this exceptional book lies not just in delivering a novel alternative to opponents of the standards and curriculum establishment. It also lies in demonstrating the value of attending to ontology in empirical research and policymaking. The book provides insightful analyses of schools while also offering new ways to fill out ideas about education and its path forward. It thereby provides guidance for education and a lesson for other researchers throughout the social disciplines. University of Kentucky Theodore R. Schatzki

6 Acknowledgements First, we want to record our enormous gratitude to the teachers, students, school and district leaders, and district education consultant staff in the states of New South Wales and Queensland () who have given us such generous access to their work and lives in the course of the research reported here. Some, we met only two or three times, for a total of just a few hours, but others we have worked with for dozens of hours over more than 4 years. Although one of our research team had previously worked with people in some of the schools and one of the districts, most of us started our relationship in the roles of researchers and researched. Over the years we worked together, however, we have become closer to one another. In addition to being visiting researchers, we gradually became critical friends, and then, with people in some of the schools, we have become just plain friends as well as coresearchers on new projects. Thank you for allowing us to interview you, to observe you at work, to engage with you in conversations about your practice, to hear your stories and the histories of your schools and districts, and to write about you in various publications about practices and the relationships of practices with one another. We have learned so much from you and because of you. We also want to thank two critical friends who read earlier drafts of this book and gave us constructive advice about our ideas and the ways we expressed them: Karin Rönnerman and Roslin Brennan Kemmis. Thank you for your suggestions, and please forgive us for the suggestions we failed to notice or failed to implement. Others have also read other draft texts in various forms conference papers, articles and raw manuscripts: thank you, too, for the civility and generosity of your academic friendship. Among these (we cannot name them all), we especially thank Susan Groundwater-Smith, Bill Green, Paul Hager, Ann Reich and Nicole Mockler. We especially acknowledge Alison Lee, whose death in 2012 robbed us of a friend, and years of scholarly advice and inspiration. Practice theory has lost a spring of fresh and sometimes disruptive insights. We thank Annemaree (Annie) Lloyd who worked with us on several drafts of a manuscript which never appeared in its own right, but some of which appears in Chapter Four of this book, about student learning. You continue to sharpen our thinking with your (not so) innocent questions. vii

7 viii Acknowledgements Kathleen Clayton, Barney Dalgarno, Susanne Francisco, Annette Green and Nick Hopwood also read particular draft chapters, asked many probing questions, and made many helpful comments which caused amendments in our texts perhaps not as many as you would have liked. Our thanks also go to our colleagues in the Pedagogy, Education and Praxis research collaboration colleagues and co-researchers at Charles Sturt University, the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), the University of Tromsø (Norway), Åbo Akademi University (Finland), Leiden University (The Netherlands), Sheffield University (United Kingdom), and Griffith University and the University of Queensland (). It has been a privilege to have you test and develop our ideas in your empirical projects, and to reflect with you about what we all have learned. Our thanks, too, to our colleagues in the Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education at Charles Sturt University for practical, financial and intellectual support over many years. We are grateful for the support of the n Research Council, which provided funding in for the Discovery Project Leading and Learning: Developing ecologies of educational practices (DP ). We are also grateful to Charles Sturt University for the support and co-funding that made the project, and the writing of this book, possible. In print and in person, Theodore Schatzki has been an immense source of insight and inspiration for us an example of how to be the finest of intellectual interlocutors. We hope this book contributes to the continuation of our conversation. We are especially grateful, too, Ted, that you munificently agreed to write a Preface for the book. Barbara Conlan deserves our special thanks. You have so ably assisted us throughout the research reported here, administering the project, providing research assistance, managing the data archive, and keeping us going in travel and all sorts of other ways. We are grateful for your friendship, your laughter, your wry forbearance, and your exceptional ability to work with us as part of our team. Finally, we want to thank our families for the support you have given us through the years of this research and the work that has sometimes too often taken us from you in time and space. We are grateful for the opportunities you have given us to live the kinds of lives as academics, as authors and as people that have allowed us to encounter, engage with and express ideas and ourselves. Thank you for these generous gifts. You are among the practice architectures that make our practices possible.

8 Contents 1 Education: The Need for Revitalisation... 1 Introduction... 1 A New View of Practices... 3 Practices as Formed in Intersubjective Spaces: Semantic, Material and Social... 5 Changing Practices Requires Transforming Intersubjective Spaces... 7 A Guiding Question... 9 The Organisation of the Book The Study Philosophical Empirical Inquiry The Case Studies Analysis Conclusion References Praxis, Practice and Practice Architectures Introduction Praxis and Education: Educational Praxis Practice Language Games, Activities and Practices The Theory of Practice Architectures Site Ontologies Conclusion References Ecologies of Practices Introduction Critiquing the Notion of Ecologies of Practice Ecologies of Practices as Living Systems Ecologies of Practices in the Education Complex Concluding Comments References ix

9 x Contents 4 Student Learning: Learning Practices Introduction Learning as Initiation Into Practices Learning How to Go on in Practices: A Wittgensteinian View of Learning Learning as Being Stirred in to Practices Practice Architectures and the Practice of Learning Sarah s Lesson: What Did the Students Learn About and Through Writing Expository Texts? Annie s Moving Diagram: Tracing a Learning Journey over Time Analysis: Annie s Moving Diagram Practices of Learning in Ecologies of Practices Student Learning and Teaching Student Learning and Professional Learning Learning and Leading Student Learning and Researching Practices of Learning and Site Based Education Development Conclusion References Teaching: Initiation Into Practices Introduction Practice Architectures of Teaching at Hillview Practice Architectures of an Inquiry Approach to Teaching Practice Architectures of Teaching at Hillview: An Inquiry Approach in Kindergarten Practice Architectures of Teaching at Southwood: The Community Garden Teaching Practices in Ecologies of Practices Practices of Teaching and Site Based Education Development Conclusion References Professional Learning as Practice Development Introduction Projects in Professional Learning for Practice Development The Practice Architectures of Professional Learning as Practice Development Cultivating a Culture of Care and Collaboration Exercising Agentic Collegial Responsibility Deprivatising Practice Professional Learning in Ecologies of Practices Connections Between Professional Learning and Teaching, Leading and Researching Practices

10 Contents xi Professional Learning and Site Based Education Development Conclusions References Practising Leading Introduction Practices Architectures of Leading Staff Meetings as an Intersubjective Space for Enabling Practice Development Site Based Leading Practices Students Leading Practices Systemic Leading Practices Site Based Leading: Leading Practices (in Ecologies of Practices) Conclusion References Researching as a Practice-Changing Practice Introduction Site Based Projects of Researching Practice Practice Architectures that Enable Researching Practice: Northton School Practice Architectures that Enable Researching Practice: Westville Practice Architectures that Enable Researching Practice: Hillview School Researching in Ecologies of Practices Ecological Connections Between the Practices of Researching, Critically Reflecting and Evaluating The Practices of Researching Shaping Leading Practices Researching (Critically Reflecting and Evaluating) for and as Professional Learning Researching Shaping Changes to Teaching Practices Researching to Improve Student Learning Practices Site Based Education Development: Practices of Researching Fostering a Praxis Orientation References Revitalising Education: Site Based Education Development Introduction Some Key Findings Site Based Educational Development What is Site Based Education Development? Site Based Educational Development in Ecologies of Practices Site Based Education Development: Conclusions References

11 xii Contents Appendix Analysing Practices Using the Theories of Practice Architectures and Ecologies of Practices: An Example Analysing Practices Using the Practice Architectures Framework Some Notes About Analysing Social Life Using the Theory of Practice Architectures A Caveat Transcript and Analysis: Sarah s Lesson on Expository Text with a Year 5 6 Class Episode 1: Introduction to the Lesson: Review of Past Lessons on the Topic Analysis of Episode Episode 2: Preparation for the task for this lesson: Writing an expository text Analysis: Episode Episode 3: Introducing the group task of writing an expository text Analysis: Episode Episode 4: Students work in groups to draft an expository text Analysis: Episode Episode 5: Representatives of groups report on their draft expository texts Analysis: Episode Analysing Practices Using the Theory of Ecologies of Practices Ecologies of Practice Evident or Implied in Sarah s Lesson Conclusion Index

12 List of Figures Fig. 2.1 A theory of education Fig. 2.2 Practices are composed of sayings, doings and relatings that hang together in projects Fig. 2.3 The media and spaces in which sayings, doings and relatings exist Fig. 2.4 The theory of practice and practice architectures Fig. 3.1 The theory of ecologies of practices Fig. 4.1 A vocabulary list on a board in Kendra s Year 5 classroom Fig. 4.2 Annie s moving diagram 1: initial state Fig. 4.3 Annie s moving diagram 2: final state Fig. 7.1 Practices of leading: An example Fig. 9.1 The pedagogical triangle Fig. 1 The theory of practice architectures xiii

13 List of Tables Table 1.1 Ecologies of practice and practice architectures Table 2.1 Table of invention for analysing practices Table 3.1 Capra s principles of ecology as criteria for determining whether practices and ecologies of practices are living systems in ecological relationships Table 1 Table of invention for analysing practices Table 2 A table of invention for analysing ecologies of practices Table 3 Sarah s lesson: Evidence of ecologies of practices xv