Courageous conversations in the Life Orientation classroom and teacher vulnerability

The Independent Education Board (IEB) introduced the need to facilitate critical conversations on controversial topics in the Life Orientation (LO) classroom at the National Conference in 2016. This shifted the focus of discussions to a facilitated critical narrative within IEB Subject Assessment Guidelines (SAGs) topics. This push followed youth activism against systemic racism at educational institutes, which initially created the perception that these conversations related to the socio-political status quo alone. However, the LO curriculum includes a range of topics that require critical narratives. Courageous conversations may trigger cognitive and emotional dissonance in both the teacher and learner. It is, therefore, crucial to interrogate the LO teachers’ lived experiences in facilitating courageous conversations. This study employed individual phenomenological interviews and a focus group discussion. The participants consisted of nine LO teachers from Gauteng, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and North West province. Each individual interview focused on determining the contexts and the phenomenon of their lived experience of courageous conversations and each participant’s agency in their private capacity as professional educators. The focus group discussion centred around establishing gaps in the motivation, training and skill development of LO teachers to facilitate these conversations. The findings indicate that the courage required of teachers to challenge and be challenged, albeit in a safe environment, results in teacher vulnerability.

“It’s Real, It’s Much More Real”: An Exploration of Values Based Reflective Practice ® as a Reflective Tool

Values Based Reflective Practice (VBRP®) is a group reflection framework widely utilized within healthcare settings across Scotland, where groups of colleagues meet and discuss their workplace-based experiences using the VBRP® structure. The VBRP® model has previously been noted within HSCC as assisting “courageous conversations” about working in a caring vocation (Bunniss, 2021a, 2021b). Despite its national platform, however, there has been limited evaluation of VBRP®. Aim: This study explores the impact of VBRP® as a reflective tool among undergraduate medical students. Method: A qualitative action research methodology was used. Results: Three themes were identified from the data: overcoming barriers to reflection during VBRP®; enhancing reflection through the social nature of VBRP®; participants’ perceptions of reflection through the lens of VBRP®. Conclusion: VBRP® enabled deeper, more authentic reflection and enhanced written reflection abilities due to its social nature. It promoted the formation of peer support networks and positive coping mechanisms among medical students. Teamworking and group relationships were also improved.

Encounters with Racism; The Need for Courageous Conversations in Australian Initial Teacher Education Programs to Address Racial Inequality for Aboriginal Peoples

The strategy of courageous conversations is offered as a means of addressing racial inequity experienced by Australian Aboriginal peoples evident in society’s institutions like education. Despite teacher preparation programs efforts to prepare pre-service teachers for diversity in the classroom, the issue of racism remains problematic. The denial of racism existing in contemporary times is commonplace. Alternatively, rather than being understood as a collective and active colonial and cultural inheritance, racism has been thoroughly reconstructed as an individual moral aberration. Dialogues about racism are often difficult and may create discomfort, raise feelings of indifference, guilt, resistance, shame, and mistrust that lead to avoidance or denial allowing ‘white’ people to remain ignorant that racial issues are endemic. Such denial and avoidance is a privilege not afforded to Aboriginal peoples who have been racially constructed and measured since the onset of dispossessing colonisation in the late 18th century. To not speak of racism and how it intersects with structural inequity for Australian Aboriginal students, serves only to perpetuate dominant racialised narratives that produce and reproduce ‘white’ privilege. This paper draws on and repurposes quantitative data gathered through a two-year critical ethnographic investigation that sought to identify and document what does successful teaching of Aboriginal high school students look like and what challenges do successful teachers encounter? The research quickly revealed the many guises of racism being encountered by teachers and students, personally and professionally, overtly and covertly, within and beyond the school gates. In this paper, narratives of encounters with racism shared by participants are provided to demonstrate the need for intentional and explicit courageous conversations in our schools that start in the Initial Teacher Education classroom.

Discrimination and client communication: how can the profession do better?

The problem of discrimination in the veterinary profession can seem like an insurmountable issue. At the recent Courageous Conversations conference Charlotte McCarroll discussed some of the research recently carried out by the University of Surrey.

Courageous Conversations: discrimination faced by students undertaking production animal clinical EMS

The problem of discrimination in the veterinary profession can seem like an insurmountable issue. At the recent Courageous Conversations conference Charlotte McCarroll discussed some of the research recently carried out by the University of Surrey.

Collaboration practices between the two tiers of school leadership in eradicating underperformance

Collaboration between the school governing body (SGB) and the school management team (SMT) in underperforming schools remains the crest for successful action taken to turn around performance as envisaged in the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 (Republic of South Africa, 1996). Their interaction is crucial in advancing the course of performance improvement. In the study reported on here a qualitative method and an interpretivist approach was used to explore how shared leadership collaboration practices between the SGB and SMT can improve performance. A case of 3 purposefully sampled underperforming schools in the Gauteng West district was undertaken. Interviews with 3 principals (individually) and 3 focus group interviews with parent SGB members, SMT members and teachers were conducted. Findings show that when developmental needs of SGBs are considered significant and stakeholders are mobilised towards collective effort (letsema), collaboration and interaction enable school performance. It is recommended that SGB development be contextualised to enable swift interaction with stakeholders; the essence of the SGB and SMT collaboration in providing leadership and dealing with issues impacting on performance should be highlighted, so that they can plan activities that bring about improved performance. Employing courageous conversations to achieve institutional goals should be through collaborative endeavours that are inspired by ubuntu leadership practice.