The "Communities working with schools" program research will consist of studies focussed on communities and how they engage with schools, how they would like to engage with schools and how schools might look in a situation where they are driven by community needs, hopes and aspirations.
This research will consist of studies focussed on communities and how they engage with schools, how they would like to engage with schools and how schools might look in a situation where they are driven by community needs, hopes and aspirations. This may prompt a rethinking of contemporary education in creative ways.
We will focus on projects that explore major initiatives within local communities - facilitating connections with education systems, networks of schools, individual schools and the growing ‘alternative’ school sector - considering how schools can be a hub for supporting marginalised young people’s ‘non-education’ needs, including legal aid, crisis accommodation, domestic violence support, transport, mental health services.
The insights generated in relation to thinking differently about education will draw on a range of methodologies and data sets: the approaches will traverse traditional ethnographies, fine grained case studies, policy analyses, design based approaches, and large qualitative and quantitative random sampling.
Our first activity is a sustained focus on one local community (defined by a local government jurisdiction) case study. We are undertaking a large mapping exercise or ‘audit’ of existing community-education partnerships to consider the support structures in place to keep young people engaged in learning, especially those highly marginalised by poverty, and various forms of discrimination. Interviews with major stakeholders in the community and education system will be conducted to gather finer details about these support structures, and a young people’s ‘commission’ to investigate and create responses to major issues impacting upon young people’s educational opportunities, as seen by them, in the region will be supported.
Throughout the activities associated with this program there will be a focus on doing research with not on the local community. We will consult with major stakeholders, including a reference group, throughout the research processes.