Transforming Schooling Through Student Advocacy
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Bernie Neville [1]
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[1] International Institute for Research on Interpersonal Relationships in Education
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- Localización: Search and research [Recurso electrónico]: teacher education for contemporary contexts / coord. por Juan José Mena Marcos, Ana García-Valcárcel Muñoz-Repiso, Francisco José García Peñalvo, Marta Martín del Pozo, 2017, ISBN 978-84-9012-769-8, págs. 747-754
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
In the 1990s public education in the state of Victoria, Australia, was 'reformed' along neo-liberal lines. One of the consequences of the was that school principals dealt with reduced funding by ceasing to employ staff in ancillary areas such as student welfare. Consequences were a decline in the proportion of students completing their schooling and a decline in school attendance. In response to this situation the Advocacy Project was initiated in 1999. The key element in the program was the allocation of each student to a teacher-advocate with whom they would have a conversation for twenty minutes each fortnight to discuss whatever was assisting or inhibiting their school engagement and learning. Three consecutive research studies explored the impact of the Advocacy model on attendance, retention, academic achievement, the social and psychological wellbeing of students and the utility of a set of electronic tools in supporting the process. It became clear that not only was the model effective in achieving the above objectives but it made a substantial impact on school culture. Current research, built on the previous findings, is exploring the impact of giving priority to the quality of teacher-student relationships within an Advocacy model.