Youth Research News Vol 9 No 2; May 1999

In this Issue:

• Conferences
• Publications
• Project Update
• PD Unit
• Around the Centre

Conferences

Civics and Citizenship Education - South Australia

Roger Holdsworth presented the keynote address at the South Australian Civics and Citizenship Education Conference in late April. Roger's address and subsequent workshop focused around the creation of real roles of value for young people through schools and its links to notions of active citizenship.

5th National Student Participation Conference - Hobart

Over 50 students and advisers from four states and territories met over three days in Hobart to compare experiences and plans in student participation in early April. Discussions focused at both school and statewide levels. Roger Holdsworth from the Centre took part in a panel with students from the Tasmanian SRC, and the Secretary to the Tasmanian Cabinet (Fran Bladel) which raised important issues about avoiding tokenism in representation. A further report of the Conference is contained in Connect #116 - available from the Centre.

Taking Children Seriously - Sydney

Taking Children Seriously is a national workshop to be held at the University of Western Sydney Macarthur on 12th and 13th July. It will bring together academics, researchers, policy makers and practitioners working in the area of New Childhood Studies. There has been an increased recognition of the autonomy of children, a re-examination of adult-child relations and an emphasis on children as 'beings', rather than 'becomings'. Children are taken seriously as competent, rational beings.

The workshop is being presented by the Childhood and Youth Policy Research Unit, UWS Macarthur. For further information and registration, contact the Unit on (02) 9772 6255.

American Educational Research Association (AERA)

JohannaWyn attended the 1999 AERA annual conference in Montreal in April. She presented a paper on her collaborative work with Professor Sandra Acker (Ontario Institute for the Study of Education at the University of Toronto). The research project focuses on the experiences of women in education in Australia and Canada. Because the conference was attended by approximately 5,000 people from all over the world, it becomes a number of separate conferences around particular interest groups. Johanna reported that in the sessions which she attended, researchers from the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and New Zealand presented papers on some common themes. These included: widespread concern about the deprofessionalisation of school teachers and the implications this may have for teacher educators; an emerging literature on the negative impact of unintended consequenses of educational reforms on young people in schools and the policy trend towards the creation of certainty (`zero tolerance' in the US, mass testing in the UK), in the face of increasing uncertainty about the role of education today.

Publications

Evaluation of the Linking Schools and Communities Program

John McLeod and Helen Stokes

The evaluation of the Linking Schools and Communities Program is now finished and the report is being presented to the participating schools. The report will become part of a larger document prepared by ACEE which will include reports from the schools involved and analysis by Steven Kemmis.

The evaluation report looks at generalisable outcomes from the practice of the different schools. Among the topics covered are:

• pedagogy and the interaction between students and teachers,
• the role of students,
• a whole school approach or a solution for problem students, and
• reciprocal relations.

The evaluation report is available on its own from the Youth Research Centre for the cost of the photocopy and the postage.

The larger report will be available in the near future from the Australian Centre for Equity through Education.
Tel (02) 9565 2948

Connect 116

Issue 116 (April 1999) of Connect - the journal supporting student participation - is now available through the Centre. There are articles from Student Representative Councils and Junior School Councils, a report on the 5th National Student Participation Conference in Hobart, and a compilation of 33 Curriculum Approaches that enhance student participation. Copies are $4 each; subscriptions (6 issues in a year) from 12 Brooke Street, Northcote 3070 are $20 for individuals and $30 for organisations.

Who Picks up the Tab?
Issues and dilemmas for services providing mainstream support to women affected by gambling in Melbourne's Western Metropolitan Region.

This report is the result of a project that was funded by the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth). The report was written by Sarah Brown with assistance from Kelly Johnson, Alun Jackson and Johanna Wyn. The report is available from:

Women's Health West
60 Droop Street, Footscray 3011

Ph: 03 9689 9588, fax: 03 9689 3861

email: whwest@vicnet.net.au

Project Updates

Survey on Rural and Remote Schooling: Human Rights Commission

In considering issues associated with school education in rural and remote Australia, the Human Rights Commission is undertaking a `scoping survey' of students, parents, teachers and other education and community workers, in order to obtain their views and experiences on:

• the availability and accessibility of both primary and secondary schooling in rural and remote Australia,
• the quality of educational services, including technological support services,
• whether the education available to children with disabilities, indigenous children, and children from diverse cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds complies with their human rights.

The particular questions most likely to be canvassed will include:

with young people and parents:

• experience - what is involved in physically getting children to school,
• costs - including transport in attending school,
• opinions about the quality of education,

with teachers:

• costs - involved in teaching in rural and remote areas,
• opinions about initiatives and programs to overcome identified costs.

The survey will complement other initiatives being taken by the Commission, including the publication and dissemination of an issues paper on the Inquiry, the calls for submissions by e-mail, letter or phone, and the `Bush Talks' focus group discussions being held in locations throughout Australia. The survey will seek input from individuals and groups not otherwise reached by the Inquiry. This might include those in different geographical locations, those with low literacy levels, those unable or unwilling to attend focus groups and those deterred from speaking up in a formal inquiry setting (specifically including young people and indigenous people).

The surveys will be conducted from May until September 1999 and a report will be written by October 1999. The surveys will include a number of avenues for response such as a 1800 number, internet site, telephone and group interviews as well as written responses. When possible the Centre will employ young people to conduct the surveys themselves as well as local people in the different states and territories.

The internet site is at:

http://yarn.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/hrc/index.htm

Please check this site for the latest details regarding the 1800 phone number or contact Helen Stokes at the Centre if you are able to fill in or distribute any surveys.

Helen can be contacted on:

ph: 03 9344 9646 fax: 03 9344 9632

email: h.stokes@edfac.unimelb.edu.au

The other project staff are Roger Holdsworth and John Stafford.

Civics and Citizenship Education

All 25 grant schools sent a number of representatives along to the second professional development day on April the 28th run by the Youth Research Centre and Gabrielle England from the Department of Education. The day was held at the Hilton Hotel which made a number of the country schools happy as they found they had to stay overnight.

The morning session started with schools reporting on their projects. This session was used as an opportunity to also share resources, network and hear about up-coming conferences. Participants were also asked to write a brief summary of their particular school's project to provide the basis for the Civics and Citizenship Education`s first newsletter to be distributed amongst the project schools. Schools were also encouraged to access the new website which is now up and running, the address is:

http://yarn.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/cce/index.htm

After this information and resource sharing session the schools were introduced to case writing which actively involves the participants as the researchers. Participants did some case writing during the day which will contribute to the development of an issues paper. Examples of some of the themes which came up were how to encourage a “whole school approach” to the issue of Civics and Citizenship Education and how to more effectively involve young people in the decision making processes of their school.

In the afternoon schools had a choice of workshops to attend. The workshops were for both primary and secondary schools and looked at either “unpacking” the Discovering Democracy kit or a “how to” audit the curriculum in your school in relation to Civics and Citizenship Education.

There will be a third professional development day in late November. In the meantime staff will visit all 25 schools each term and provide on the ground support.

Student Action Teams

The Victorian Department of Education, with support from the Department of Justice, has funded 20 Victorian schools to establish Student Action Teams to tackle local issues related to community safety. These teams will operate throughout 1999 and report on the initiatives taken.

The Youth Research Centre is undertaking a formative and summative evaluation of the project and will be working with the schools throughout the year to document their processes and outcomes and to assist their operation. The support team of Helen Stokes, Roger Holdsworth, John Stafford and Debra Tyler is currently meeting with their schools to gather information; they will return to the schools later in the year to look at changes and developments.

MindMatters: National Mental Health in Schools Project

The MindMatters project is entering the dissemination phase, the exact details of which are still under consideration by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care. The program provides a whole school approach to mental health promotion in secondary schools. It has been trialled in 24 pilot schools which were drawn from every state and territory. The program involves extensive professional development and includes a set of materials which address the implementation of a whole school approach, as well as aspects of mental health, such as bullying, coping and resilience, loss and grief, understanding mental illness and an annotated bibliography. The program also includes a document called `Life Matters' which provides guidance to schools on suicide prevention and the management of critical issues. It is expected that the program will be available to schools in the near future. (The project was undertaken by a consortium consisting of the Youth Research Centre, Deakin University Health Sciences, Sydney University, Faculty of Education and the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation).

From the PD Unit

Suicide Prevention Guidelines

Helen Cahill has completed work with the Australian Principal's Association Professional Development Council to edit Educating for Life, the National Suicide Prevention Guidelines developed by Barry Taylor and John Howard for the Department of Health and Family Services. The guidelines, piloted as part of the MindMatters project, have been reworked into a more accessible format for schools. Advice was obtained from a reference group of key professionals and extensive consultation with principals, school welfare staff, teachers and parent representatives was conducted.

Illicit Drugs and Driving CD-ROM

Helen Cahill will work as researcher and writer on a project with Global Vision for Vic Roads which entails preparing a CDROM collecting information about the effects of illicit drugs on driving. The CDROM will provide health promotion and education materials targeted at learner, P plate and professional drivers.

Trigger Video

Helen Cahill has used a drama workshop process with year 11 and 12 drama students at Princes Hill Secondary College to develop the scripts for two trigger videos focusing on issues of illicit drug use. The videos have been developed with Ruby Pictures and Life Education for use in senior classes of NSW Department of Education schools.

Around the Centre

Debra Thomson

Debra has recently joined the Youth Research Centre as the new full time administrator. Debra has been working at the university for the last five years in administration, working for Early Childhood Studies, and prior to coming to the YRC working for the Deafness Studies Unit with the Department of Learning and Educational Development. Lan Diep has taken up a new position outside of the University. Anne Sheehan is now solely working on the MindMatters project. Jasmina continues to work Monday's and Tuesday's as the admin assistant. So if you have any questions about the Centre please feel free to contact either Debra or Jasmina.

We welcome Debra to the YRC and wish her well in the new position!

Collaboration on Longitudinal Research on Health Inequalities

The Youth Research Centre's Life Patterns longitudinal study was featured at a workshop on health inequalities research collaboration held by the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University on May 5th. At this meeting, researchers from a broad range of groups and organisations (including representatives from state and federal departments of health and from research programs at universities from most states). The meeting generated a strong interest in developing a proposal for a collaborative, longitudinal study which would monitor and research health and well-being in Australia. The Youth Research Centre's Life Patterns project, presented by Johanna Wyn, was featured in a panel discussion which put the case for a variety of research designs. The meeting was notable for the extent of interest from a range of areas, for the awareness that specialist knowledge is required to generate useful information about young people, and for the interest in bringing health and education expertise together in order to further our understandings about health and well-being.

Information Study of the Youth Research Centre

A group of Information Studies students from the University of Melbourne are currently carrying out a study of the information processes and needs of the Youth Research Centre. They are contacting YRC members, staff, clients and others to gain reactions to the Centre's presentation of its research, its publications and so on. The information gathered through this process will enable the Centre to improve its operation and services.

The process is also one that mirrors the Centre's commitment to work with young people in research projects, rather than simply using young people as subjects of research. The Centre places an importance of enhancing the learning of young people through their involvement in projects of real value.

Request from a YRC member!

I am a secondary school teacher studying for a Social Work Degree, I would like to make contact with anyone who has done the same thing and is still working either in schools or education related agencies and find out the different things they're doing.

Phone Mandy on 03 5728 2316