Improving schools in poor areas: It's not about the organisation, structures and privatisation, stupid!
- Authors: Smyth, John
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Improving Schools Vol. 17, no. 3 (2014), p. 231-240
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- Description: In this article, the author presents a review of his extended research engagement with disadvantaged young people and their education. He challenges the dominant neoliberal model of school reform based on business values and the ‘managerial school’ as alien to educational values. He introduces various stages of research he and his colleagues have undertaken over the past two decades, showing the importance of an authentic engagement with young people’s lives, the characteristics of schools which reach out to disadvantaged students and the importance of transformative pedagogy and community involvement.
Blurring the boundaries : From relational learning towards a critical pedagogy of engagement for disengaged disadvantaged young people
- Authors: Smyth, John , McInerney, Peter , Fish, Tim
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Pedagogy, Culture and Society Vol. 21, no. 2 (2013), p. 299-320
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP100100045
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- Description: This paper tackles what is arguably the most pervasive and pressing educational issue confronting affluent Western countries - the disengagement, disconnection and tragic displacement from schooling of increasing numbers of young people, mostly those from backgrounds of disadvantage. Despite enormous policy efforts, this 'problem' is proving impossible to dislodge from within the existing educational policy paradigm that appears to be exacerbating the problem. This paper explores theoretically and practically what alternative attempts might look like that start from within the lives and experiences of those most affected, young people as well as their teachers, and it explores what some research 'portraits' look like from 'inside' the existential realities of these complexities. Employing the heuristics of 'new mobilities', the paper looks at some alternative ways of locating 'new social spaces' from which to re-engage and re-connect these young people with learning, and with some effect. The paper is sanguine about the extensive work yet to be done, and in this regard it proffers some thoughts on the unfinished business of what it terms a 'critical pedagogy of engagement'. © 2013 Copyright Pedagogy, Culture & Society.
- Description: 2003011131
'Coming to a place near you?' The politics and possibilities of a critical pedagogy of place-based education
- Authors: McInerney, Peter , Smyth, John , Down, Barry
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 39, no. 1 (2011), p. 3-16
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- Description: It may seem something of a paradox that in a globalised age where notions of interdependence, interconnectedness and common destinies abound, the 'local', with its diversity of cultures, languages, histories and geographies, continues to exercise a powerful grip on the human imagination. The ties that bind us have global connections but are anchored in a strong sense of locality. This paper explores the theoretical foundations of place-based education (PBE) and considers the merits and limitations of current approaches with particular reference to Australian studies. The authors argue that there is a place for PBE in schools but contend that it must be informed by a far more critical reading of the notions of 'place', 'identity' and 'community'. The implications of pursuing a critical pedagogy of place-based education are discussed with reference to curriculum, pedagogy and teacher education.
Critical civic engagement from inside an Australian School and its community put at a disadvantage
- Authors: Smyth, John
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Critical Civic Literacy: A reader p. 141-154
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- Description: 2003009322
The Deakin experience: discovery crafting and finessing a critical perspective with which to speak back
- Authors: Smyth, John
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Education, social justice and the legacy of Deakin University: Reflections of the Deakin Diaspora p. 173-185
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- Description: I will start at the beginning—even though I am sorely tempted to start from where I am at the moment and work backwards. There is a bit of history that is important to understanding my story.
- Description: 2003009321
Critically engaged learning : Connecting to young lives
- Authors: Smyth, John , Angus, Lawrence , Down, Barry , McInerney, Peter
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Book
- Relation: Adolescent cultures, school & society No. 42
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- Description: This book - the finale in a trilogy by the authors - traces the way in which a number of disadvantaged schools and communities were able to move beyond deficit, victim-blaming and pathologizing approaches and access resources of trust, relationships, connectedness and hope. It describes how these Australian schools and communities were able to benefit from working with 'street-level' bureaucrats who had reinvented themselves around notions of socially just forms of capacity-building. The book provides a set of insights into what is possible from a critical engagement for school and community renewal perspective, by working with the resources that exist within disadvantaged contexts, even in damaging neoliberal policy times.
- Description: 2003006329