How we care for students: Pastoral care and the role of the dean

The role of the dean in the pastoral care structure of a secondary school

10.26686/wgtn.17008003 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Jennifer Harriet Fraser

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Secondary School ◽

Pastoral Care ◽

Local Level ◽

Well Being ◽

Direct Care ◽

Job Descriptions ◽

Staff Members ◽

Care Structure

Pastoral care structures in New Zealand schools often include a middle management role of dean. This position has existed in New Zealand schools for decades, influenced by the existing systems and structures adopted from the United Kingdom. The responsibilities included in this role are often defined by schools at the local level in order to satisfy growing expectations of schools’ responsibility for student well-being and achievement. There has been little research concerning this position within the pastoral care structure of schools. This study aimed to explore the perceptions of members of the school community on the role of the year-level deans within one New Zealand secondary school. Senior managers, deans, teachers, and students from a state co-educational, urban, secondary school were interviewed regarding their views on the role, responsibilities, and effectiveness of the position of the year-level dean within their school. Deans also completed a daily log to record the nature of their tasks completed pertaining to this responsibility. Participants’ responses were analysed for major themes. The themes discussed include the intention of the role of the dean, tensions between the management of academic and pastoral issues, the exploration of the challenge in providing care for all students, and how resources available to the school and the dean can impact their role. A difference in the role between the junior school (Years 9 and 10) and senior school (Years 11, 12, and 13) was reported by all participants. Deans reported engaging in reactive tasks more than proactive, preventative tasks. Defining the role of the dean and its relationship to other roles within the school proved challenging for the perspectives, and this confusion was evident through a lack of clarity around lines of authority described in the job descriptions. Deans reported some difficulty in understanding their role in relation to managing form teachers, particularly where that staff member may hold a position of responsibility in curriculum. The reactive nature of the role was revealed. This indicated that deans continue to provide predominantly reactive care concerned with individual students, often meaning that only a small group of students receive direct care from deans. The predominantly reactive nature of the role creates implications for schools in the challenge of delivering care to all students. A more collaborative approach to pastoral care from all staff members may improve the provision of pastoral care for students. A proposed job description that may reflect the role of the dean more accurately is presented.

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The role of the dean in the pastoral care structure of a secondary school

10.26686/wgtn.17008003.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Jennifer Harriet Fraser

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Secondary School ◽

Pastoral Care ◽

Local Level ◽

Well Being ◽

Direct Care ◽

Job Descriptions ◽

Staff Members ◽

Care Structure

Pastoral care structures in New Zealand schools often include a middle management role of dean. This position has existed in New Zealand schools for decades, influenced by the existing systems and structures adopted from the United Kingdom. The responsibilities included in this role are often defined by schools at the local level in order to satisfy growing expectations of schools’ responsibility for student well-being and achievement. There has been little research concerning this position within the pastoral care structure of schools. This study aimed to explore the perceptions of members of the school community on the role of the year-level deans within one New Zealand secondary school. Senior managers, deans, teachers, and students from a state co-educational, urban, secondary school were interviewed regarding their views on the role, responsibilities, and effectiveness of the position of the year-level dean within their school. Deans also completed a daily log to record the nature of their tasks completed pertaining to this responsibility. Participants’ responses were analysed for major themes. The themes discussed include the intention of the role of the dean, tensions between the management of academic and pastoral issues, the exploration of the challenge in providing care for all students, and how resources available to the school and the dean can impact their role. A difference in the role between the junior school (Years 9 and 10) and senior school (Years 11, 12, and 13) was reported by all participants. Deans reported engaging in reactive tasks more than proactive, preventative tasks. Defining the role of the dean and its relationship to other roles within the school proved challenging for the perspectives, and this confusion was evident through a lack of clarity around lines of authority described in the job descriptions. Deans reported some difficulty in understanding their role in relation to managing form teachers, particularly where that staff member may hold a position of responsibility in curriculum. The reactive nature of the role was revealed. This indicated that deans continue to provide predominantly reactive care concerned with individual students, often meaning that only a small group of students receive direct care from deans. The predominantly reactive nature of the role creates implications for schools in the challenge of delivering care to all students. A more collaborative approach to pastoral care from all staff members may improve the provision of pastoral care for students. A proposed job description that may reflect the role of the dean more accurately is presented.

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Role of In-Service Promoted Secondary School Heads in Strengthening Secondary Education in Kohat Division (Pakistan)

International Journal of Human Resource Studies ◽

10.5296/ijhrs.v3i1.3114 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 38

Author(s):

Qaiser Suleman ◽

Ishtiaq Hussain

Keyword(s):

Secondary Education ◽

Secondary School ◽

Professional Training ◽

Statistical Treatment ◽

Sampling Technique ◽

Simple Random Sampling ◽

School Level ◽

Teachers And Students ◽

School Heads

The purpose of the current paper was to explore the role of in-service promoted secondary school heads in strengthening secondary education. The objectives of the study were: (a) to investigate the role of in-service promoted secondary school heads in strengthening secondary education; (b) to investigate the weak areas of in-service promoted secondary school heads in strengthening secondary education; and (c) to suggest workable recommendations to improve the administrative performance of in-service promoted secondary school heads. All the teachers and students at secondary school level in Kohat Division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan) constituted the population of the study. The study was delimited to male secondary school heads, teachers and students only. The study was further delimited to 30 secondary schools in each district of Kohat Division i.e., Karak, Kohat and Hangu. In order to ensure adequate representation of the population, 450 teachers and 900 students were selected through simple random sampling technique. The nature of the study was descriptive and questionnaires were used as research instrument. Pilot testing was conducted to eliminate the weaknesses, misconceptions and ambiguities of the questions in the questionnaires. Data was collected through personal visits. Then it was organized, tabulated, analyzed and interpreted. Statistical tools, i.e., percentage and chi square were used for the statistical treatment of the data. After analysis of the data, the researchers arrived at the conclusions that the overall administrative performance of in-service promoted secondary school heads was ineffective and unproductive. They lack the qualities of effective leadership and successful administration. Based on findings of the study, it is strongly recommended that a special professional training programme regarding school administration and management should be institutionalized so that in-service promoted secondary school heads may be equipped with the modern techniques of school management and administration. KEYWORDS: Role, In-service Promoted Secondary School Heads, Strengthening, Secondary Education

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(Re)Shaping spaces for learning

The New Zealand Annual Review of Education ◽

10.26686/nzaroe.v26.6858 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 ◽

pp. 52-59

Author(s):

Lucila Carvalho

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Learning Environments ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Collaborative Teaching ◽

Traditional Classroom ◽

Learning Spaces ◽

Aotearoa New Zealand ◽

Teachers And Students ◽

Spatial Configurations

Schools and universities in Aotearoa New Zealand have been transitioning into new spatial configurations. These spaces are being carefully (re)designed to accommodate technology-rich activity, and to enable collaborative teaching and learning in ways that actively engage students in scaffolded inquiry. As teachers and students shift from traditional classroom layouts into flexible learning arrangements, educators are having to deeply rethink their own practices. In addition, the recent Covid-19 outbreak raised new questions in education about the role of technology in learning. This article argues that it is critical that Aotearoa educators understand (i) how to (re)design and (re)configure learning spaces in ways that support what they value in learning; and (ii) how they can tap on the digital to extend students experiences, both across and beyond schools and universities’ physical settings. The article introduces a way of framing the design and analysis of complex learning situations and reports on qualitative findings from a recent survey, which explored educators’ experiences of learning environments across Aotearoa New Zealand.

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Implementing the MY FRIENDS Youth programme in a New Zealand secondary school: The experiences of staff and Year 9 students

10.26686/wgtn.17018822 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Laurence Fay

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Young People ◽

Secondary School ◽

Secondary Schools ◽

School Context ◽

Anxiety And Depression ◽

Teachers And Students ◽

The Impact ◽

Youth Resilience

Increasing rates of young people’s anxiety and depression is a concern for New Zealand secondary schools and this results in issues for students such as decreased wellbeing and school attendance, health difficulties and social isolation. In 2013 the Ministry of Education introduced a pilot of the MY FRIENDS Youth Resilience programme into secondary schools for students in Year 9. This thesis reports on the experiences of teachers and students of the MY FRIENDS Youth programme in one secondary school context. This programme is based on cognitive behavioural therapy principles and has been developed to support young people build their understanding and skills in resilience to enhance their wellbeing. The programme has been implemented and evaluated with young people in a number of countries. Research has shown it to have beneficial effects in promoting emotional resilience and in reducing anxiety and depression in students. The findings of this school case study are explored, and the impact of the programme for the students and their school community is presented. A case study methodological approach was used that enabled the collection of rich data to explore the deep meaning from teachers and students. This involved an in-depth instrumental case study within one secondary school involving teachers, students, the counsellor, the principal and students’ parents. Observations, document analysis and interviews took place to build a comprehensive understanding of how teachers and students learned through the programme. Findings suggest the students see the MY FRIENDS Youth Resilience programme as a positive, useful programme that has enabled them to learn various strategies to deal with challenging scenarios in their life. The findings also address barriers to implementation and possible implications for the future. Several suggestions for the programme are discussed along with certain adaptations of the programme to make it more relevant to the New Zealand context.

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Secondary Sexting: A Restorative Framework for Understanding and Addressing the Harms of Sexting Behaviour among Secondary School Students

10.26686/wgtn.17059877 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Emma Wicks

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Secondary School ◽

School Students ◽

Effective Response ◽

Hypothetical Scenario ◽

Zealand Secondary School ◽

The Subject ◽

Senior Students ◽

Qualitative Phase

In New Zealand there is a growing concern over the engagement of teenagers in sexting, especially so-called ‘secondary sexting’, the non-consensual distribution of intimate images. This thesis aims to analyse the behaviour of sexting through a restorative lens and to outline the role of restorative responses can make in a New Zealand context. It combines a review of international literature on the subject with a pilot study of senior students at a New Zealand secondary school, a school that has deemed itself to be a “restorative school”. The empirical study employs a mixed-methods approach. The quantitative phase involved students (n=125) in Year 11 -13 completing a survey to ascertain the prevalence of sexing and their attitudes towards criminalization of different types of sexting. The qualitative phase involved focus groups with students (n=13), one-on-one interviews with staff (n=7) and parents (n=17) discussing how they would respond to a hypothetical scenario of secondary sexting. The study finds that although only a small percentage of students engaged in secondary sexting, secondary sexting is the cause of significant harm and there is need for an effective response. This thesis argues that restorative response has the most promise at addressing these harms. It also shows that applying a restorative framework to the analysis of the practice enables us to identify and challenge victim blaming tendencies in both popular opinion and official responses. It proposes that for New Zealand to adequately respond to sexting there needs to be a shift away from viewing secondary sexting as a result of poor choices to one that focuses on respectful relationships and the obligations that go with them.

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New Zealand Secondary School Teachers' Perceptions and Practices Toward Curriculum Integration

10.26686/wgtn.17005000 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Susan Arrowsmith

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Secondary School ◽

Secondary Schools ◽

Curriculum Integration ◽

Secondary School Teachers ◽

School Teachers ◽

Senior Managers ◽

Theoretical Understanding ◽

Teachers Perceptions ◽

Zealand Secondary School

Curriculum integration is an approach that aims to integrate teaching across traditional subject boundaries. Curriculum integration has received a growing level of interest in recent years in New Zealand, even from secondary schools that up until now have largely retained disciplinary boundaries. However, in spite of this recent popularity, curriculum integration remains a contested concept in terms of its definition, theoretical grounding, and practice, and we still know very little about how and why teachers are enacting this idea. This study investigated New Zealand secondary school teachers’ perceptions and practices pertaining to curriculum integration. Participants included 25 teachers and senior managers from four New Zealand secondary schools currently employing curriculum integration. A collective case study design was utilised, gathering qualitative data through focus group sessions, semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis. The data was analysed thematically. The findings indicated that teachers’ theoretical understanding of integration was limited, and that most of the programmes were pragmatically founded. Factors that appeared to enhance the success of curriculum integration were the historical roots, whether the programme was initiated by teachers or senior managers, the type and degree of integration employed, if the programme ran as a special curriculum or across the whole school, the level of support received, and the timing of the programmes. It was apparent that whilst curriculum integration has been advocated by the New Zealand Curriculum, there are still many challenges for secondary schools wishing to employ it. If this is indeed an area of future growth, then the Ministry of Education have a responsibility to provide a clear definition of, and professional development for, curriculum integration. This would help to strengthen the progressive, integrated curriculum espoused in the New Zealand Curriculum so that it is on far less shaky ground than at present.

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Implementing the MY FRIENDS Youth programme in a New Zealand secondary school: The experiences of staff and Year 9 students

10.26686/wgtn.17018822.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Laurence Fay

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Young People ◽

Secondary School ◽

Secondary Schools ◽

School Context ◽

Anxiety And Depression ◽

Teachers And Students ◽

The Impact ◽

Youth Resilience

Increasing rates of young people’s anxiety and depression is a concern for New Zealand secondary schools and this results in issues for students such as decreased wellbeing and school attendance, health difficulties and social isolation. In 2013 the Ministry of Education introduced a pilot of the MY FRIENDS Youth Resilience programme into secondary schools for students in Year 9. This thesis reports on the experiences of teachers and students of the MY FRIENDS Youth programme in one secondary school context. This programme is based on cognitive behavioural therapy principles and has been developed to support young people build their understanding and skills in resilience to enhance their wellbeing. The programme has been implemented and evaluated with young people in a number of countries. Research has shown it to have beneficial effects in promoting emotional resilience and in reducing anxiety and depression in students. The findings of this school case study are explored, and the impact of the programme for the students and their school community is presented. A case study methodological approach was used that enabled the collection of rich data to explore the deep meaning from teachers and students. This involved an in-depth instrumental case study within one secondary school involving teachers, students, the counsellor, the principal and students’ parents. Observations, document analysis and interviews took place to build a comprehensive understanding of how teachers and students learned through the programme. Findings suggest the students see the MY FRIENDS Youth Resilience programme as a positive, useful programme that has enabled them to learn various strategies to deal with challenging scenarios in their life. The findings also address barriers to implementation and possible implications for the future. Several suggestions for the programme are discussed along with certain adaptations of the programme to make it more relevant to the New Zealand context.

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Teaching and learning New Zealand's difficult history of colonisation in secondary school contexts

10.26686/wgtn.17148218 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Michael Harcourt

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Secondary School ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

History Education ◽

Field Trips ◽

The Past ◽

Teachers And Students ◽

History Of ◽

Colonial Violence ◽

Settler Society

In recent years, awareness of New Zealand’s history of colonial injustice has grown in national consciousness. This awareness has led to much questioning of history education, particularly New Zealand’s high autonomy curriculum and its capacity to ensure that all young people encounter these ‘difficult’ aspects of the past. Yet little is known about the experiences of secondary school teachers and students during lessons on New Zealand’s history of colonisation. This study aimed to explore how teachers and students engaged with the history of colonisation, including how a sample of effective teachers and their students confronted the challenges and complexities of these pedagogical encounters. The importance of understanding this became even more significant when in 2019, the government surprised many by announcing that New Zealand history will become a compulsory feature of the curriculum at all levels of school from 2022. This thesis contributes to the new challenge of implementing compulsory curriculum content by developing a deeper understanding of the complexities currently experienced by teachers and students during lessons on colonisation. History education that focuses on historical forms of violence and its representation in curriculum is commonly referred to as the study of ‘difficult history’ (Epstein & Peck, 2018). In New Zealand, the early European colonists acquired land from the Indigenous Māori people resulting in inter-generational forms of suffering, trauma and oppression. In such a ‘settler society’ the history of one’s own nation and its instances of colonial injustice present challenges because the descendants of the early colonists remain, owning the majority of land and controlling to a large extent political systems and institutions, including schools. This thesis extends the research on difficult history by focusing on the challenges of teaching and learning the history of colonisation in New Zealand, particularly as it relates to the power dynamics of a settler society. It plays close attention to the pedagogical complexities of place and emotion and is situated within a broad framework of critical theory which seeks to explicitly acknowledge the significance of Indigenous systems of knowledge. Using a mixed method approach, this study presents findings drawn from a survey of teachers (n=298) and students (n=1889) and a multiple-site case study using qualitative approaches at four schools. In addition to classrooom based research, the study also investigated students’ experiences during field trips to places of colonial violence. Data gathering methods included interviews, semi-structured focus groups, classroom and field trip observations and a student-led photography task. Analysis of the data showed that history and social studies teachers overwhelmingly expressed critical views about the nature of colonisation and recognised that, for example, colonisation reverberates in the present and that its consequences were destructive, primarily for Māori. Teachers also comprehensively endorsed inquiry-led and discussion-based pedagogical approaches that were attentive to the conventions of the discipline of history. Some dominant conceptions, however, revealed barriers that prevented teachers’ collective ability to engage more deeply with this history, especially Māori perspectives. Students also expressed critical views about colonisation, but many still understood this process as a discrete ‘event’ found only in the past, reducing their ability to consider the implications of the past for today. Furthermore, while the majority of students were receptive to learning the history of colonisation, a significant proportion were not. The ethnographic component of the study revealed a number of complexities that hindered deeper engagement with the past. This included dealing with discomfort and resistance to histories of colonisation and the challenges teachers faced in forming relationships with iwi and hapū. The ethnographic component also showed that school field trips to sites of colonial violence held potential to operate as place-based ‘counter narratives’ that could transform students’ prior conceptions and deepen their engagement with difficult histories of place. The study concludes that two key ‘patterns of engagement’ shaped teachers’ and students’ encounters with New Zealand’s history of colonisation. In the first, many teachers struggled to engage pedagogically with Māori perspectives and approaches to the past, which made the curriculum goal of acknowledging and validating Indigenous systems of knowledge less likely. In the second, students’ emotional discomfort functioned as a complex and ever-present dynamic that potentially deepened but at times reduced their engagement with difficult histories of colonisation. Collectively these findings have implications for classroom practice and policy reform that take on a renewed urgency with New Zealand’s move toward compulsory teaching of New Zealand history.

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From 'essay' to 'personal text': The role of genre in Norwegian EFL exam papers 1996-2011

Acta Didactica Norge ◽

10.5617/adno.1090 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Sigrid Ørevik

Keyword(s):

Secondary School ◽

Mixed Method ◽

First Year ◽

Multimodal Texts ◽

Text Production ◽

Genre Awareness ◽

Time Period ◽

Upper Secondary ◽

Teachers And Students

Introduction This article investigates developments in the use of genre in Norwegian EFL exam papers for first year upper secondary school during the time period from 1996 to 2011, describing genres rendered in texts for reception (attached text material) and texts for production (task options in the main exam assignment) in the two curriculum periods Reform 94 and the Knowledge Promotion of 2006. Genre-related patterns are identified and compared, and the aspect of multimodality in texts for reception and production in EFL exams is discussed. Material and method Sixteen exam papers from 1996 to 2011 constitute the corpus material of the study. Genres rendered in attached text material are categorized, as well as specified and inferred genre instructions in the chief assignment for text production. The study employs a mixed method combining quantitative and qualitative analyses. Findings The results show significant changes in genres rendered in texts for reception. A few computer-generated genres are observed in the last curriculum period; but no increase in multimodal texts from R94 to LK06 is observed. The range of genres for production remains largely unchanged through the period of investigation, although the distribution among the genres changes. Moreover, genre instructions in text assignments are, to a certain extent, unclear or mixed in both curriculum periods, although more so in R94 than in LK06. Discussion and conclusion Based on these findings the article suggests further investigation and debate concerning genre awareness connected to EFL exams, among education authorities as well as among teachers and students of English.

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