Angelique Howell

As this project involved collaboration with Indigenous Peoples, I begin this paper by positioning myself as a first-generation Australian of European descent and acknowledging that I continue to experience the privilege that has been afforded to me by colonialism. I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which I live and work, and pay my deepest respects to Elders, past, present, and emerging. I also gratefully acknowledge the invaluable assistance of staff in the school’s Indigenous Hub who so graciously helped the non-Indigenous members of the research team to learn and grow in our understandings of Indigenous culture and Country.

I recently worked on a research project with the students and teacher in an Alternative Learning Centre (ALC) as co-researchers and learners. The number of alternative/ flexible learning settings are increasing rapidly in Australia and play a vital role in supporting young people for whom mainstream education is not a good ‘fit’. By providing material support, positive relationships, and including students in decision making processes, these programs help many young people to complete Year 12 (Shay & Heck, 2015; Te Riele, 2012). However, they have also been critiqued for their tendency to focus on low level learning outcomes, rather than a meaningful curriculum (Howell & Lynch, 2020; Mills & McGregor, 2017; Te Riele et al., 2017) and are often used as ‘dumping grounds’ for these young people (Mills et al., 2018).

Our project trialled a new research methodology called youth-adult participatory action research (YAPAR) (Howell, 2023) that combines the guiding concept of youth-adult partnership (YAP) with youth participatory action research (YPAR); an unmistakably pedagogical methodology that involves mentoring young people through the process of conducting research and aims to make a positive difference in their lives. Linking YAP with YPAR seeks to achieve two outcomes that have been shown to disrupt negative cycles of poor outcomes for both students and teachers. First, it recognises every participant as having important expertise, to create a culture of intergenerational dialogue and mutual learning. Second, this mutual learning happens through a critical-democratic conceptualisation of engagement (McMahon & Portelli, 2004) that is based on the idea of democracy as a way of life rather than a system of government (Dewey, 1958). This approach to engagement resonates with the notion of productive pedagogies; the ‘kinds of classroom practices … that make a difference to the academic and social learning of students’ (Hayes et al., 2006, p. 4). Based on the findings of a large study known as the Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study (QSRLS), productive pedagogies comprise the four dimensions of intellectual quality, connectedness, supportive classroom environment, and working with and valuing difference.

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I pause here to note that while the YAPAR methodology seeks to foster mutual learning between students, teachers, and researchers, in the spirit of this issue’s focus on curriculum and pedagogy, this paper focuses on the students’ experiences of the project and their learning outcomes.

To trial this new methodology, we co-designed and implemented four mini projects, while simultaneously learning from each other. As the students and teacher learned how to conduct research together, I learned about improving my research practice through interactions with, and feedback from, the other co-investigators. We conducted our research two days per week over five weeks during Term 4 of the 2022 school year. At that time, the program had 11 students, including one Aboriginal young person. Working in small teams comprising 2-3 students and the adult co-investigators, we explored how The ALC could be revitalised in ways that enhance engagement for the students and teacher alike. The word revitalise was chosen by the students because improve had negative overtones that took the focus away from making the program even better. We began our research journey with a series of workshops on how to conduct qualitative and quantitative research, and how to do so in ethical ways (See Howell et al., 2022, pp. 3-6). Then, before co-designing our projects, the students and teacher explored the question of what it means to be engaged by choosing an image that they felt represented engagement. Through this activity, we arrived at the conclusion that no two people conceptualise or experience engagement in the exact same way.

Our research project is represented in an image on the cover of our co-authored report, which can be found at https://eprints.qut.edu.au/236287/. Designed by three students, including the Aboriginal young person, this image represents the four mini projects as puzzle pieces which interlock to signify the interconnectedness of the wider project.

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Mini Project #1

Figure 1 Deadly Learning Space project puzzle piece

Our first mini project, A Deadly Learning Space: Cultural Inclusion in The ALC, is represented in this puzzle piece (Figure 1) through an Indigenous artwork depicting land and sea animals to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples as the traditional custodians of the land. This mini project was initiated by the Aboriginal student who noted that while cultural representation was featured in the mainstream school, it was missing in The ALC. This mini project’s team, comprising three students, the teacher and myself, began by exploring the level of support for greater Indigenous representation and cultural awareness in The ALC.

To achieve this, we developed a brief survey, which everyone completed. While two respondents answered ‘strongly agree’ for every question, the remaining answers were mostly neutral, raising a serious and potentially harmful question: Did this mean that more than half the non-Indigenous members of the ALC were indifferent about Indigenous representation and cultural inclusion? This led to our decision for the students in the team to lead a small focus group to explore the meanings behind these responses. When analysing the data, we found that far from a lack of support, the neutral responses from the survey showed that the non-Indigenous members of The ALC were very supportive of the idea but needed to know more to develop a better understanding of Indigenous culture and its importance for Indigenous students.

Three recommendations were developed, with two implemented at the time of writing this article. The first was to write an Acknowledgement of Country, read by a different student at the beginning of each week:

As members of The ALC and in the spirit of Reconciliation, we acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we gather and recognise the teaching and learning that has occurred in this place over thousands of years. We pay respect to Elders – past, present, and emerging – and acknowledge the valuable contribution Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples continue to make to our national story.

The second recommendation, to celebrate/observe Indigenous events such as NAIDOC Week and Invasion Day have yet to be implemented, however this is a work in progress. Our final recommendation, to represent Indigenous culture, began with two students in the group, including the Aboriginal student, creating an artwork in consultation with staff in The Indigenous Hub. The first section of the artwork (see Figure 2), which will be painted on the external door, features native plants and bees to represent the program’s gardens and native beehive as well as show respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Coming from the central design are pathways which continue along the internal walls of the classroom. These pathways, which incorporate the handprints of the students and teacher, come together at another artwork that combines the current program logo and a gathering circle (see Figure 3).

This artwork has been positioned under the whiteboard at the front of the room, as this is where the students and teacher come together each day. New students will add their handprints once their enrolment is confirmed and they formally join the program.

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Mini Project #2

Our second mini project, The Yarn: An outdoor learning & wellbeing space, is represented in the puzzle piece in Figure 4, which illustrates some of the ideas for redeveloping an outdoor area under a large tree next to The ALC building. This project originated from earlier conversations between the teacher and the students about the release of the ‘happiness’ chemicals serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins. They felt that this could be helped by having access to an outdoor space in which to work, have lunch, ‘chill out’ and take a break from ‘inside noise’.

Conducted by three students, the teacher and myself, this project began with conducting interviews to gather ideas about what everyone would like to see in this space. The students felt that this was the best starting point, as it would make no sense to put resources into redeveloping an area that was not going to be used effectively.

We used these findings to create a survey to see which of these ideas were most popular. The most strongly supported idea was developing a native/cultural garden to show respect for Indigenous Peoples, which formed a meaningful connection with the Deadly Learning Space project and reflected the group’s growing understanding of the importance of cultural representation and inclusion. It was therefore decided to call this space ‘The Yarn’, an idea that came from discussions of Yarning Circles. Other popular ideas for redeveloping this space included a table with a chalkboard top for taking notes and playing noughts and crosses, etc., building garden bed seats and having sensory items in the space for students to use.

Our analysis of the data resulted in three recommendations. The first was to redevelop the area under a large tree near the building. The students had initially felt it would be best to utilise an open area on the other side of the building. However, it was over 40 degrees Celsius when they measured the space, and it was quickly decided that it would be unusable during the summer months. Our second recommendation involved a good tidy-up of the area. This will involve removing discarded items such as old plant pots and broken furniture, and replacing these with new outdoor furniture, as well as landscaping the site with plants that are native to the area. Advice for suitable plants will be sought from the local council’s Native Habitat Program. These recommendations cannot be implemented yet, because a new building close to The ALC is nearing completion, thus preventing safe and complete access to the area to be redeveloped. However, the current Year 10 and 11 students will continue implementing this part of the project in 2024, in partnership with the students and teacher in the Hands-On Learning Australia (HOLA) program.

Our third recommendation, to engage with school projects and the local community to forge working partnerships, came in the form of a new concrete pathway. Constructed by students in the Trade Training Centre (with help from their teacher) who were completing their Certificate I, the pathway starts outside The ALC building and continues to the fence at the back of the school, simultaneously providing easy access to the site for The Yarn.

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Mini project #3

Figure 5: The ALC space project puzzle piece

Our third mini project, The ALC Learning Space, was also conducted by three students, the teacher and myself. Represented in this puzzle piece illustrating part of the learning space (Figure 5), this project arose from the question, how could we make a program that everyone was satisfied with even better?

The project started with a survey which found that while everyone was largely happy with the program, there was room for improvement. Interestingly, the only person who was unsure whether the teacher created a stable, comfortable, and helpful learning space was the teacher herself. To explore the survey findings in more depth, the students conducted a small focus group with two students and an interview with the teacher. Our analysis revealed four key themes which we used to develop our recommendations. The first theme, ‘furniture based’, found that while everyone liked the style of furniture, more tables were needed for the students to do their work effectively as three tables were not enough for 11 students to work at. The school’s leadership team supported our recommendation to purchase three more collapsible tables and provided the funding. Like the recommendations of The Yarn project, we also proposed buying some fidget/sensory toys, and we received some money to purchase these as well (Figure 6).

‍Our second theme of ‘learning based’ came from two of our findings. While some students felt limited in their certificate choices, they did not want access to mainstream style subjects. Rather, they asked for courses that would give them life skills, including car maintenance, gardening, cooking, caring for animals and cleaning. While some of these options are not available due to legal constraints, we recommended that all the available certificate courses be displayed in the room so that students can be more independent in their choices.

The third theme of ‘building based’, refers to The ALC building, a demountable classroom located at the outer edge of the school grounds. Through interviews conducted by the students, we found that the most concerning problem was a lack of access to water, as the only available water was the cooler. This made it difficult for students to participate in activities like cooking and not having easy access to water for students and staff to wash their hands presented a hygiene problem.

Figure 7: Capital works to connect the ALC to the schools water supply

Recommendations therefore included the purchase of a 3000-litre rainwater tank and pump from Bunnings, an Australian household hardware and garden chain, at a total cost of $1,462. However, after the school’s leadership team read the report, they decided instead to fund a capital works project to connect The ALC to the school’s water supply (Figure 7) and to have a proper sink installed in the building – an exciting and unexpected outcome of the project.

The final theme of ‘social based’ confirmed the results of the survey which showed that the teacher creates a safe learning space and that students feel comfortable asking her for help. We also found that everyone agrees that The ALC is a comfortable and safe place to be because everyone is treated kindly and with respect.

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Mini Project #4

Figure 8: The Maintaining Acceptable Noise project puzzle piece

Our fourth and smallest mini project, Maintaining Acceptable Noise Levels in The ALC, is represented in the puzzle piece featuring a ‘no noise’ symbol (Figure 8). This mini project was conducted by two students, together with the teacher and me. This project stemmed from conversations about high noise levels causing stress and fatigue for students and the teacher, making it difficult for everyone to be at their best and get their work done. Rather than concentrating on reducing noise, one of the students suggested that we focus on maintaining appropriate noise levels, as this was a more positive way of looking at the problem.

Data collected through individual interviews with four students and the teacher revealed four key themes. First, definitions of ‘acceptable noise’ ranged from ‘quiet enough to hear the air con’ to ‘where everyone can continue with their own work’. To try and find a level of working noise that everyone would be comfortable with, the teacher suggested trying the Bouncy Balls app, which is freely available from https://bouncyballs.org and can be displayed on a large computer screen while everyone is working. This app allows everyone in the room to visualise noise levels and determine a level that everyone is comfortable with. Once this was determined, the app was set to emit a beep or ‘shush’ sound when it was reached.

During the interviews, the students and teacher were asked how they felt about having a ‘quiet time’, an idea that came from the Coles and Woolworths ‘quiet hour’ for people who have trouble with sensory overload. Everyone was on board with the idea of incorporating this time after lunch each day, especially on big days when the students and teacher are most likely to feel overwhelmed. We therefore created a poster featuring the Bouncy Balls app with a zero-noise level (Figure 10). The poster was printed on corflute and is displayed for 20-30 minutes each day after lunch.

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Critical conversations about learning and teaching in flexible/ alternative learning settings

While the project resulted in significant outcomes for The ALC’s teacher, current and future students, its impact extended beyond these tangible improvements. After the conclusion of the mini projects, we came together to share our experiences of being co-investigators and learners, as I recorded our discussion on a storyboard. This is a way of enabling Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing to be heard (Shay, 2019), and was preferred by all students for sharing our ideas rather than traditional research methods of recorded interviews or focus groups.

The teacher and I were initially surprised that every mini project related almost exclusively to the working environment, rather than what is learned/taught in the program. As we shared our experiences at the end of the project, the students confirmed that they believed a positive, safe, and productive working environment needs to be established before any learning can take place. While the working environment had provided our key focus, we recognised that the mini projects were conducted in ways that incorporated multiple learning areas of the national curriculum:

English - developing research questions, interview questions, interpreting interview data, and drafting, editing, and finalising the report
Mathematics - generating surveys, interpreting survey results, creating graphs, measuring spaces, and developing budgets for the recommendations
Humanities and social sciences - learning about Indigenous culture and the importance of representation
Science - landscaping the outdoor area with native plants suited to The Yarn space and its positioning within the local ecosystem
The Arts – creating Indigenous artworks, the digital image for the ‘Quiet Time’ poster, and the project report cover

Through our discussion, it became clear that the students’ learning extended beyond the curriculum, as they had also learned about themselves. Describing how their views of themselves as learners had shifted during the project, the students reported that ‘I’ve become more confident in how much I can achieve’ and ‘It made me realise what I’m capable of. I went from staying home all year to coming in and doing a whole research project’. This confidence also gave rise to significant improvements in attendance. While only four students attended the first workshop, virtually all students’ attendance improved as the project progressed - not only on the two project days, but five days per week, as they became more motivated to complete their other certificate work as well. They explained that in addition to the quality of the work they had produced through the mini projects, much of their new-found confidence came from having their work recognised, taken seriously, and most importantly, acted upon by the school’s leadership team. As one student noted, ‘they could have just replied by email, but they came up to talk to us. They took us seriously and told us their plans for the future’. This outcome reinforces the idea of agency as a dynamic living ecology of human social systems, comprising profoundly interdependent, networked relationships (Collins & Raymond, 2020). I extend Collins’ and Raymond’s idea of learner agency here to encompass a sense of collective agency; that together, students, teachers, researchers, and school leaders can solve their shared problems through their combined efforts to learn from each other as they create context-specific solutions.

The students’ experience of recognising their capabilities through the mini projects was enriched through the production of a short documentary film after the project had concluded. This experience of real-world film production involved working with a highly regarded film Director/ Producer who brought an array of “real” lighting, sound, and camera equipment into The ALC.

Re-enacting the mini projects and their outcomes highlighted in an exciting, yet very tangible way, the significance of our research and its implications. It is anticipated that this documentary film will be released in late 2023 on the website: https://research.qut.edu.au/yapar/.

Conclusion

Our project supports the findings of other research which shows that combining material support, positive relationships, and opportunities to engage in meaningful learning enables marginalised young people to surpass both public and their own expectations of their abilities (Mills et al., 2018). Through a ‘curriculum of life’ (McMahon & Portelli, 2004) that was ‘anchored in present realities and shared concerns’ (Mayes & Holdsworth, 2020, p. 101), the project created an intellectually challenging learning environment for the students, teacher and researcher through mutual learning that connected the classroom to the real world. Its mentoring approach also recognised that a supportive learning environment extends beyond the idea of positive relationships to the creation of safe spaces in which students feel they can engage in academic risk taking without fear of failure (Hayes et al., 2006). Finally, it worked with and valued difference by accounting for the perspectives of a diverse range of social actors, including young people who are typically dismissed as disengaged underachievers. As the teacher emphasised, ‘there’s a stigma that we need to change’.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank QUT for funding this project through the University’s ECR Grant Scheme. Many thanks also to the school’s Principal, Deputy Principal and Business Manager for supporting the project in very real ways which included ensuring the implementation of the recommendations. I would also like to especially acknowledge Mr Nigel Oorloff, the Director and Producer of our documentary film, for giving us an unforgettable experience of film production and for helping us to tell our story in a way that no-one else could have. Most of all, I wish to sincerely thank the students and teacher in The ALC for making me feel so welcome in their shared learning and teaching space, as well as their extraordinary efforts and dedication to the project.

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Angelique Howell

Queensland University of Technology

Contact: angelique.howell@qut.edu.au

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