Law & Ethics contexts in my digital practice.

Law & Ethics contexts in my digital practice


Alan Hall raises some interesting points in his paper titled "What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers".  The paper used a case study at Camp Hoha (p7) but to be honest is a rather simplistic and a dated problem.  I have just returned from camp and school policy states that no alcohol is to be consumed on camp but either students or adults.
The classroom has changed and definitely expanded beyond the four walls of 20 years ago. Indeed my interaction with students has moved from only during to school time but all the time and any time.  At our school all the teachers have a gmail account that is available for both parents and students to use as a way to contact us and us them.  This provides both a great way to communicate and provides a paper trail for this communication.  Essential in today's political educational climate.

However the area of most concern is the use of digital technologies and the subsequent school policies to adequately protect both teachers and students.  The publication by netsafe provides a reasonably comprehensive guide covering the ethics and legal obligations involved in using technology in school.

One of the interesting points when talking about ethics and digital practice is the differing beliefs and attitudes held by the teachers, parents and students.  Some teachers are facebook friends with student while others are not but their does not seem to be a school policy that comprehensibly sets out the ethics or law in this situation.

My personal ethics in dealing with technology.

Last year a speaker arrived at school from www.simulate2educate.co.nz named John Parsons he was both engaging and informative.  In fact so powerful was his message that the school policy on digital media was changed a day later.  If you get the chance I highly recommend that you attend one of his personal development sessions, they are excellent both as a teacher and a parent of preteen children.  As a result I developed a personal ethics code regarding digital technology and the various stakeholders that I deal with as a professional teacher.  I openly discuss these with the students and parents.

These ethics involve social media, communication methods and digital imaginary.  However it does seem due the the highly fluidic nature of modern teaching practices each teacher has to develop their own moral and ethical code along side the school and governmental policies which are constantly evolving.  The key here is communication between all of the stakeholders on a regular basis


Hall, A. (2001, April). What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. Paper presented at the IIPE Conference, Brisbane.

https://www.netsafe.org.nz/advice/education/

http://www.simulate2educate.co.nz/

Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsiveness in my Practice

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

The idea of developing a Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in my classroom has been an interesting and somewhat frustrating journey. The idea of Culturally Responsive pedagogy as defined by Bishop (2011) is an excellent and somewhat essential ingredient to engaging learners by the use a relevant context where they can bring their own cultural experiences and beliefs with the aim of improving achievement.  

Why I have I found this frustrating?

I arrived in New Zealand in 2006 to train as Science teacher with my specialty being Chemistry & Physics and during my training struggled with many of the Maori words especially the student names.  This translated in the classroom too much laughter where the students had to keep repeating their names until I could pronounce it in the correct way.  I still struggle with the rolling r's.  The next frustration I found was I had very little guidance on how to make my teaching or lessons more culturally responsive there is very little out there on this topic and as an immigrant to this country I feel I need more help than most.

NCEA and Cultural Responsive Pedagogy

As a Physics teacher my teaching load is often 40-60% senior Physics classes with the emphasis on ensuring the student pass the external standards at the end of the year. The major point to note here is that all the concepts are based on the physics and while some cultural context can be used it’s very limited and I have yet to see it employed in the assessment papers other than loosely linked to some context and unfortunately I do not have the cultural expertise to marry the two.

What has been interesting?

One of the challenges I have faced is in how to embed Cultural Responsive Pedagogy into my teaching.  In part of this has been achieved by sharing of resources and talks with my community of learning. Also a major influence has been the students themselves.  Indeed it is the students who have taught me the most like: counting, naming the Planets and understanding of native floura and fauna.  I have endeavoured to add this where possible to a culturally responsive practice.  Personally one of the most important principles I have used in my teaching is the one of Ako, the culturally preferred pedagogy principle as

defined by (Keown, P., Parker, L., & Tiakiwai, S,  2005). The principle of Ako becomes particularly relevant because knowledge construction should not just be confined to the student it should be considered a journey where both the student and teacher embark on learning together. Bishop, Berryman, Tiakiwa and Richardson (2003) saw that the most important influence on Maori student’s educational achievement was the quality of the in class face-to-face relationships and interactions between teachers and Maori students. Indeed over the past ten years I have learned a considerable amount about their cultural diversity from the students directly, probably more than any personal development I have attended, and will continue to adapt and improve wherever possible.

Bishop, R. (2011). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. In The Professional Practice of Teaching (pp. 185-204). Cengage Learning.

Keown, P., Parker, L., & Tiakiwai, S. (2005). Values in the New Zealand curriculum: A literature review on values in the curriculum. Report for the Ministry of Education, New Zealand by the Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research, School of Education, The University of Waikato. New Zealand

Bishop, R., Berryman, M., Tiakiwai, S., and Richardson, C. (2003). Te Kotahitanga: The Experiences of Year 9 and 10 Māori Students in Mainstream Classrooms. Wellington: Ministry of Education. www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/tekotahitanga

Is the Bunsen burner Dead?

Broader Professional Context - Is Bunsen burner dead?

In recent years many developed countries such as USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand have been concerned with science education and the falling numbers moving from secondary to tertiary education in the areas of science. (1)
According to the PISA survey of 2014 New Zealand has experienced a decline in the Science literacy of 15 year olds, although still above the OEcD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)  average this decline is significant and a worrying trend. (2)



So why is science literacy important in the 21st century?
Modern society is built on a scientific and technological platform and we largely function 
everyday where we expect the science and technology to function ubiquitously with little understanding of what is happening inside those little containers we carry around. Indeed we need to understand some large socioscientific issues that have arisen this century such as climate change, energy requirements of an increasing world population and distribution of food and medical supplies. In any modern democracy it is an educated populace that keeps the government policies in check via the media or direct protest.  How can you do this without science literacy?

Problems with current Science Education.
The role of science in modern society has seen a seismic shift in the 21st century however the science taught at secondary school is largely the same as it was 40 years ago.  We still learn the elements periodic table indeed this is what my current Year 10 class is learning just like me 30 years ago and my parents before me 50 years ago. Indeed despite all the changes in the curriculum science lessons are largely the same, all be it with more technology available, so now instead of doing a class demonstration we can watch a you tube clip. Indeed one of the first experiences for high school students arriving at secondary school is how to light a Bunsen burner safely yet in most real world laboratories health and safety has seen these replaced with electrical heaters.  One quote that seems significantly apt in describing the current state of science education is that students are "frogmarched across the scientific landscape from one feature to another, with no time to stand and stare, or to absorb what it was they had just learned" (Bull et al. 2010).(3)

There has a great deal of endeavour to change the curriculum over the past 30 years to be more connected to real world contexts, more student centric, more inclusive to a wider ethnic diversity, more cognisant of the way students learn, increased technology in the classroom. Indeed these efforts have resulted with the introduction of new words into the curriculum document but has had little effect on how science is taught in the classroom.  Indeed Science education seems to have a low profile in many primary school and is mostly used a context for inquiry learning and as a result students arrive at high school with very little knowledge of scientific methodology.

If science education is going to move into providing the appropriate skills for the 21st century and provide a science literacy that allows populace to make informed choices we need to rethink how science is taught in our schools.

(1) www.nzcer.org.nz/system/files/14606.pdf

(2) www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/indicators/main/education-and-learning-outcomes/science_literacy_achievement_senior_secondary_schooling
(3) Bull, A.,Gilbert, H., Barwick, R., Hipkins, R., Baker, R. (2010) Inspired by Science, A paper commissioned by the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor.

School Culture - Week 2

History

On Monday 28th January 1884 Rangiora High School (RHS) opened for its first day with a roll of 19. One hundred and thirty three years later on Wednesday 1st February 2017 a new cohort of students were welcomed into RHS with a roll of around 1800. History and tradition is important to our school and is frequently mentioned in introduction and graduation speeches. Indeed a book has been published that documents the journey the school has taken though the late 19th until the late 20th  
century(1). The age of the school has certainly had a impact on the culture and according to the development stages identified by Schein(2) would be considered midlife where continued growth and renewal is essential to avoid move towards decline.

Community

Rangiora has seen a huge change over the past 100 years from small farming community in North Canterbury to a thriving community of over 15,000 people.  Indeed the biggest change has happened in the past five years due to the Earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 where there has been a big migration from Christchurch. Over the 10 years I have been there the roll has grown from 1200 to 1800 students despite the reduction in our school zone. This made its impact felt in a number of ways not least moving our decile rating from 8 to 9 but also in the nature and make up of our community of parent and students.  No longer do many of our students come from farming background with the aim to move to agricultural trades after school but a more cosmopolitan mix with the aims far more diverse.  The school needs to adapt to this new reality and change its rural community outlook to a more global and inclusive mentality.

School Culture

Currently I believe that our school culture is in transition and given the issues and challenges we have faced over the past couple of years regarding the removal of the principle and the ensuing court case has left a degree of uncertainty among the staff.  In fact the teacher culture within the school is in a high state a flux with a concerted effort to move from 'Individualism' towards 'collaboration' as identified by Hargreaves (3). This is due in part to the Innovative learning environment that is due to open May 2017 and the move to 21st century learning.  However the as I experience the current teacher culture it more a like 'Balkanisation' where smaller collaborative groups have been formed to teach the incoming Year 9. This initiative been labelled as connected learning and group of 30 teachers from across multiple departments have been placed in groups 5 to team teach 60 students. 

In terms of the typology of the school culture this very much depends on who you ask with the responses ranging from moving, cruising, strolling or struggling (4).  However whatever the typology of our school culture one thing is for sure it going to significantly and radically change to accommodate the needs of the community and its learners. This may indeed be facilitated by the appointment of a new principle this year. 

Currently much of the change has focused on structure especially roles and responsibilities this is the easy stuff the hard issues still have to be addressed.  This will make the next two years and interesting and some what exciting journey.


1. Gunby, D. C., & Rangiora High School. (1984). Rangiora High School, 1884-1984: A centennial history. Rangiora [N.Z.: Rangiora High School Centennial Committee.

2. Schein, E.H. (1985).

3. Hargreaves, A. (1994). Changing teachers, changing times: Teachers work and culture in the post modern age. London: Cassell.

4. Stoll, L. (n.d.). School Culture: Black Hole or Fertile Garden for School Improvement? School Culture, 30-47. doi:10.4135/9781446219362.n3