Reflective Practice and Changes In Practice

Whakatauki

Ko te whakaaro nui ka rite ki te waina kara, rau i te rau.

Wisdom grows like the kumara vine, leaf by leaf.

Sign up for Mindlab? Are you crazy! There is already a plethora of challenges in the working day without committing more time into your evenings and beyond… These cautionary voices were echoing in my head as I signed up anyway.

First impressions

Herbert was the lecturer who diligently roused us all from our 4.30p.m. somnambulist state.  Challenging our mindsets and dusting out the filing cabinets in the deepest recesses of our brains he had me with ‘epistemology’! I love language, rich vocabulary and words that encompass depth of concept. In that opening few minutes one of my colleagues said that I looked like I had won the lottery. It has long been a sorrow of mine that students and teachers seem to increasingly confine themselves to single syllable words and a negligible enthusiasm for vocabulary exploration. Herbert then went on with ‘axiology’ and ‘ontology’; poetry!

Having captured my mind the challenge then became one of building skills.  In the past few years my learning trajectory with digital technologies has been like that of the New Horizons space probe. Travelling far beyond the ken of my known worlds exploring the possibilities of ‘what lies just beyond’. Mindlab was able to stretch my thinking even further and confirm and consolidate areas of my practice that I was still mulling over.  Mindlab reminded me how far I had already travelled along the path towards 21st pedagogy and it prompted me to think about the ramification for other colleagues who were still working in the 20th century production line educational mindset.

I am an avid reader of science fiction and aware of how quickly fiction is becoming, has become, fact. The exploration in conversations with regard to some technological developments kept me hooked into the Mindlab experience. The clincher was the exploration of augmented reality apps, robotics (that was deep water!), and 21st century learning pedagogies.

Deeper Waters

It is true that those knowledge building experiences were a hook but the reflective practice elements were the fastener. Pursuing ideas around leadership, followership, change and environment, to name a few, was challenging. These explorations supported by excellent course content and provocative questioning made the weekly face to face meetings a highlight in my week. Great was the trepidation when the course work shifted to an online learning forum.

The remainder of the course delivered through the online learning forum continued to utilise excellent materials. The opportunity to engage through webinars and the google+ community gave a level of connectivity that helped keep me centred. On the occasions when I could not participate in a webinar I felt disconnected and discombobulated!

I thoroughly enjoyed the exploration into literature on leadership and learning, connectedness and communities of learners. It was through the google+ community that I received a message from a new collaborator and colleague I had met through he kanohi ki te kanohi sessions in the first 16 weeks.  That message came at a time when I was overwhelmed by life and some unexpected personal tragedy and my trajectory began to plummet. It was an occasion when online connectivity served to motivate me personally and to remind me that we are all interconnected and therefore significant to each other, when we might least expect to be so.

Future Steps

It is true that there were moments when I wondered if I had taken on more than I needed to.  Working full time, fulfilling a multitude of demanding roles within my job, and having a busy life outside of my work place did give me pause. In that moment of pause I recognised how excited the new and further learning had made me. The reignition of a thirst and curiosity for knowledge and debate and critical conversation has been deeply motivating.  I know that my assignments have not been perfect, squashed into moments and rushed through between other demands. However they are completed and their completion was satisfying.

Mindlab has been so inspiring that, despite saying I would step back a bit next year, I have been motivated to sign on for another learning programme.  Poutama Pounamu will be delivered largely online, something that I might previously doubted I could manage. A simplistic explanation of the course is that it is focussing on cultural responsiveness, an area that seemed to connect with me throughout my Mindlab assignments, particularly in the multicultural and international perspectives on education,  Eighteen months from now I will be at the end of that course and I feel confident that I will gained deeper understandings and awareness, utilising skills that were developed through the Mindlab course. So, thank you Herbert… ontology, axiology, and epistemology are all serving me well and I them.

Interdisciplinary Connections

Whakatauki:

Koinei nga whitiki whakairo e kaha ana.

It is the braided threads that are the strongest.

Current Collaborations

Chief Seattle said, “Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it.  Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” I think that this is true of professional collaboration. We enrich ourselves when we interact and collaborate with others. The eyes of many on a shared topic or working together to support a colleagues, student or whanau holds great potential, promise and impact.

Through the Kāhui Ako I have seen powerful examples interdisciplinary collaboration. Secondary school teachers working interdepartmentally on common goals such as raising literacy, or with primary school teachers on transition and shared skill sets such as differentiated education. Group Special Education supporting teachers through a deeper understanding of behaviour management, narrative assessment,  and alternative approaches to learning is another example of interdisciplinary collaboration. These represent Andrews’ definition of interdisciplinary collaboration “when different professionals, possessing unique knowledge, skills, organisational perspectives, and personal attributes, engage in coordinated problem solving for a common purpose” (cited in Berg-Weger & Schneider, 1998). The common purpose being the progress of individuals and cohorts of students within our classrooms, or the development of skills within ourselves and our colleagues to benefit those students.

Focus Interdisciplinary Connection

Increased whanau engagement in student education will require an interdisciplinary connection. The empowerment of whanau, recognition of their cultural histories and rich layers of skill, experience and connection that they share with their children, must be a component of the developing relationship between them, the classroom teacher and the student. Developing the shared goals for the student, wrapping that student around with common language and shared attitudes and values, and supporting both the school and the whanau to meet shared goals is an ideal worth investing in.

A first step might be to enter into a reciprocal conversation with student and whanau and, working from a position of strength,  identify what the student already brings to their learning relationship, and what the whanau can bring to support that learning relationship. The next steps might be to identify the goals each contributor might have for the student.  

As in any action plan identifying the support structures and resources that are currently available or may need to be accessed for family would be a required step. This could also open up an awareness for whanau of the strengths that they already possess in relation to the growth of their child within the concept of hauora, a rich and all encompassing approach within Mātauranga Māori and applicable and enriching for all students.

Relationship: collaboration, connection and conversation deeply rooted within a rich understanding of the culture of each child and their whanau is the way forward for increasing whanau engagement in student education. Ako between whanau, school, and student, acknowledging that each party and their support systems has value and can contribute to the educational outcomes as a reciprocal relationship, this is the key to richer whanau engagement in student education,