- Title
- A unique educational experience for adolescents: what do students and parents love and fear about the School for Student Leadership?
- Creator
- Plunkett, Margaret; Dyson, Michael; Schneider, Peter
- Date
- 2013
- Type
- Text; Conference paper
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/75324
- Identifier
- vital:7356
- Identifier
- https://www.aare.edu.au/data/publications/2013/Plunkett13.pdf
- Identifier
- ISBN:1324-9320
- Abstract
- The School for Student Leadership (SSL) was set up in Victoria, Australia, in 2000 to provide an avenue for Year 9 students in government secondary schools to experience an alternative to the ‘traditional classroom’. The three campuses of the school provide nine-week fully residential programs that promote the development of leadership skills and relationship building, within a framework underpinned by experiential education and cooperative learning practices. At a time when engagement and expectations are not necessarily in alignment, an opportunity to experience education in a unique way is enticing for both students and their parents. Yet there are also associated fears, particularly for parents. For example, the experience provided deviates substantially from the traditional school curriculum and this could be seen as impacting on student progress. There are also fears about how fifteen year olds will cope with sharing dormitories, taking responsibility for their own washing and cleaning, helping with cooking, taking part in physically challenging expeditions, having limited access to social media and surviving without ‘junk food’. This paper reports on part of a longitudinal study that began in partnership with Monash University in 2000. The most recent aspect involved a mixed methods study to collect data from parents and students who were participating in the program at the SSL during Terms 3 and 4 in 2012. Pre and post surveys were conducted as well as interviews with both parents and students. Data was analysed using SPSS and NVivo, however the focus of this paper will be the qualitative aspects of the initial findings from the interviews. Preliminary findings from 12 focus group and 24 individual interviews conducted with student participants, suggest a high level of respect for and engagement with the program offerings. While initial concerns about coping with physical and social challenges were expressed, educational concerns were almost non-existent. A major theme that emerged from the data was the importance of relationships, with the vast majority perceiving that lifelong friendships had been forged with their peers. Students also drew clear distinctions between the positive relationships they had developed with SSL teachers compared to teachers at their home schools. Parents were also overwhelmingly positive about the experiences they perceived their adolescent children had while at the SSL, despite initial fears. Interviews with 15 parents illustrated that they did have a number of concerns that were both educational and social, which was different to the focus of the students. However the reality for these parents was that these fears did not come to fruition, and thus they ended up sharing their child’s enthusiasm for the program, which they felt had supported both cognitive and social development in their adolescent children to a greater extent than traditional education.
- Publisher
- Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE)
- Relation
- AARE 2013: Shaping Australian Educational Research, Australian Association for Research in Education p. 1-9
- Rights
- This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
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