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Research Agenda School-based Educational Research 2022 - 2023
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We acknowledge the Dharug, Darkinjung, Wonnarua and Yolŋu peoples who are the traditional custodians of the land on which Barker College, Darkinjung Barker, Ngarralingayil Barker and Dhupuma Barker stand. We pay respect to the Elders past, present and emerging of the Dharug, Darkinjung, Wonnarua and Yolŋu nations and extend that respect to other Indigenous people within the Barker College community.
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Preamble
Barker College is a leader in coeducational Christian education that is characterised by a global vision that inspires hope. It achieves this as an Anglican community inspiring each learner, every experience, every day. The Barker Institute contributes to building and fostering this learning community by bringing together and working with Barker’s rich intellectual resources to facilitate learning and growth throughout the school and the wider community. This goal is realised by the Barker Institute shaping and affecting conditions where independent and collaborative research takes place, and is supported, sustained, and shared.
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The Barker Institute is one of the original school-based centres of educational research. Its primary function is to engage in educational research that inspires thought and action, inquires to create new knowledge, informs policy, improves practice, and includes students, educators and academics. Each of these actions involve, but also extend far beyond, the Barker Community. The Barker Institute also provides opportunities for members of the Barker community to contribute to a wider and ongoing dialogue about teaching and learning to drive education forward. It is a learning hub that enables professional learning and support for staff who are seeking to be better teachers, particularly where professional learning involves research-related activities or studies.
One of the important distinctives of the Barker Institute from other educational research centres is that its research takes place in the context of a community whose constituent members are simultaneously experienced educational researchers and experienced educational practitioners. The work of the Barker Institute benefits from a perspective informed by the interplay between understanding educational research discourse and being in the classroom as a teacher.
The Barker Institute uses the rich intellectual resources of Barker College to facilitate learning and growth throughout the school and the wider community.
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Introduction
The Barker Institute Research Agenda is an annually published document that identifies high-level priority domains on which it will work. The Research Agenda combines the guiding statements of Barker College with the mission and vision of the Barker Institute to bring together and work with Barker’s rich intellectual resources to facilitate learning and growth throughout the school, and the local and global community.
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Purpose of the Barker Institute’s Research The Barker Institute will engage in a range of research projects that seek to impact education by connecting external research to the Barker context, facilitating staff research, conducting research to impact both education at Barker and education throughout Australia and abroad. The work undertaken by the Barker Institute can be mapped across four tiers. While some research institutions choose to focus on a subset of these tiers, it is the four of them in combination which represent an authentic outworking of the Barker College mission, vision and values in the research context.
The Barker Institute collaborates, conducts and disseminates first-hand research to inform education beyond the School gates.
TIER
ReseaRching to impact education
The Barker Institute conducts first-hand research to assess, inspire and inform Barker activities.
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TIER
ReseaRching to impact Barker
The Barker Institute supports staff as researcher and research-informed decision makers.
The Barker Institute collates, interprets, informs and applies current research to present contexts.
Facilitating staff research
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TIER
2
Interpreting and TIER applying Research
1
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Our Research
Flagship project and research domains The research of the Barker Institute will align with five domains that represent its interests and where the Barker Institute seeks to impact education as a school-situated research centre. Through the flagship project and within each research domain, the Barker Institute will generate, synthesise and curate rigorous research. The Barker Institute will undertake these tasks to present high-quality evidence that is relevant and accessible to education practitioners, policymakers and leaders. The Barker Institute identified the research domains through a combination of recognising issues facing education that warranted further investigation and pursuing interests that were immediately relevant to Barker College’s educational context.
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Continuous consultation with educational practitioners, policymakers and leaders in Australia and further afield remains part of the process by which the Barker Institute defines and reviews its five research domains, ensuring its agility in forming and conducting individual research projects. It is anticipated that work in the research domains may continue into future years, beyond that of the timeline laid out by this document.
Partnerships The Barker Institute will continue to develop partnerships with other educational institutions to enhance its work, position itself to engage in broader dialogues about teaching and learning, and to ensure its research has impact. Initial work in this area has been undertaken with positive results. Universities, research organisations and other schools are examples of those with whom the Barker Institute collaborates and evolve its professional network.
Flagship Project
The Barker Journey
Domain
01
Coeducation
Domain
02
Indigenous Education
Domain
03
Character and Enterprise Education
Domain
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Intercultural Education
Domain
05
Future & Innovation Barker Institute Research Agenda • 9
Flagship Project
The Barker Journey is a longitudinal study that tells an ongoing story of a group of Barker students making their way through school in the 21st century and takes place alongside the work in the five research domains. The current iteration of the Barker Journey study will end in 2028. This will be when the first fully coeducational cohort to progress from Year 3 to Year 12 at Barker concludes their schooling. 2022 sees the study in its fourth year with the students in Year 6. The Barker Institute annually publishes an article based on the findings of each year’s interviews and discussions in its journal Learning in Practice. This is made publicly available on the Barker Institute’s website.
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Rationale The Barker Journey research project captures a longitudinal student perspective on learning, which today is as much about character growth as it is about academic development. The project helps to identify what the next generation of students’ value and contributes to mapping what effective learning and teaching may look like in the future. While the generation that constitutes the current Barker Journey cohort are still revealing their own key attributes and characteristics, social research has identified five emergent traits: global, digital, mobile, social and visual. This information has implications for how education might develop to meet this generations’ needs authentically.
Publication of the Barker Journey and further development of the project The analysis and findings of each year’s study will continue to be published in the Barker Institute’s journal Learning in Practice and made available to the public via the Barker Institute’s website. Both the concept and progress of the Barker Journey project has attracted international attention. Educational leaders from schools in Europe, Africa and the USA have taken interest in the project’s conclusions and the approach that underpins it. This has opened up the exciting possibility of partnering with schools overseas in consultancy as they look to undertake a similar study within their own contexts.
The Barker Journey project may explore questions such as: What will schools need to do to meet authentically the educational needs of this generation and the next? How does the current generation of student perceive learning and what does this current generation of student expect of their school experience? How does the Barker educational journey shape this generation?
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Domain 1 Coeducation
The Barker Institute will undertake research projects that will provide research-informed practical advice and guidance to educational practitioners and leaders about coeducation. The aim of these projects is to investigate the efficacy of the transition from a single-sex school to a PreK-Year 12 coeducational environment and the impact this change has had on the academic development and wellbeing of students. Excellence in boys’ education, girls’ education and coeducation are all relevant to the coeducation research domain.
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Rationale
Targetted Publications
2022 marks the first year in its 132 year history that Barker College will be coeducational from Pre-K to Year 12, across the Hornsby, Darkinjung, Ngarralingayil and Dhupuma campuses. This important milestone in Barker’s story presents an opportunity to investigate the way in which transition to coedcuation has had an impact on student wellbeing and learning outcomes, tracking the effect of the transition to coeducation from the beginning. Barker seeks to provide a quality educational environment that meets the needs of boys and girls in every capacity and this goal means there is a priority to be assigned to understanding more deeply how an effective coeducational environment operates.
In addition to disseminating ongoing research in and thinking around coeducation via its website, social media networks, and its journal Learning in Practice, the Barker Institute will work towards publishing its research in this area in such journals as: • Australian Journal of Education • Australian Educational Researcher • Oxford Review of Education
Potential projects may explore questions such as: What impact has the transition from a single-sex to a coeducational environment had on teaching and learning? How does coeducation meet the educational needs of the current student generation? How does our knowledge of teaching boys and girls best help us teach well in any classroom?
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Domain 2 Indigenous Education
The Barker Institute will undertake research projects that will provide research-informed practical advice and guidance to educational practitioners and leaders about Indigenous Education. The aim of these projects will be to contribute to the capacity of educational practitioners and leaders to develop an educational environment where Indigenous children can access the Australian education curriculum from within the safety and security of their own cultural identity which they receive as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
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Rationale Barker College stands alongside many other educational institutions in being thoroughly committed to supporting Indigenous students in all aspects of their education, and in recognising, celebrating and supporting their cultural identities. At Barker this work takes place at the Hornsby, Darkinjung, Ngarralingayil and Dhupuma campuses.
Targetted publications Genuine and meaningful learning opportunities for non-Indigenous students on curriculum-related Indigenous issues and intercultural understanding are also provided. Barker’s leadership in the area of Indigenous Education has provided an opportunity to further investigate what approaches to schooling can best support the educational needs of First Nations students, and what schools can do to equip their teachers to be the most effective in supporting Indigenous students in their classrooms.
In addition to disseminating ongoing research in and thinking around indigenous education via its website, social media networks, and its journal Learning in Practice, the Barker Institute will work towards publishing its research in this area in such journals as: • Australian Journal of Indigenous Education • AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples • Australian Aboriginal Studies
Potential projects may explore questions such as: In what ways does education on country, especially primary schooling on country, best meet the needs of the current Indigenous Australian generation? How can intercultural intelligence and competence be developed in teachers to empower First Nations students to achieve goals relating to their studies, their identity and their life after school? How might schools best design and implement authentic and impactful intercultural learning in the context of Indigenous Education?
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Domain 3 Character and Enterprise Education The Barker Institute will undertake research projects that will provide research-informed practical advice and guidance to educational practitioners and leaders about character and enterprise education. The aim of these projects will be to contribute to the fostering of successful learners who are confident and compassionate contributors to their communities, serving society as ethical citizens.
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Rationale Facing the challenges of the 21st century requires a deliberate effort to cultivate personal growth in students and to foster the ability to fulfill social and community responsibilities as global citizens. This has profound implications for schools and the teaching and learning that takes place within them. Research has shown that students’ capabilities beyond the academic learning of knowledge and skills are important predictors of achievement.
Targetted Publications Fostering and developing character traits that equip individuals to impact and change their world is increasingly valued, as is the provision of opportunities to engage in practical experiences that ensure learning is not just theoretical but also genuinely experiential. In this lies an opportunity for Barker, in line with the school vision, to investigate further how schools can best position themselves to provide learning opportunities for students to acquire and strengthen the virtues, values and competencies that will help them make wise choices for a well-rounded life and a thriving society.
In addition to disseminating ongoing research in and thinking around character and enterprise education via its website, social media networks, and its journal Learning in Practice, the Barker Institute will work towards publishing its research in this area in such journals as: • Journal of Character Education • International Journal of Lifelong Education • International Journal of Christianity & Education
Potential projects may explore questions such as: Why is character and enterprise education important? What traditional and innovative models of teaching best facilitate character and enterprise education? How can the effectiveness of character and enterprise education be both monitored and measured?
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Domain 4 Intercultural Education
The Barker Institute will undertake research projects that will provide research-informed practical advice and guidance to educational practitioners and leaders about intercultural learning and understanding. The aim of these projects will be to improve student wellbeing and learning outcomes through strengthening educational practitioners and leaders competencies for intercultural learning and understanding, in the context of a truly global school, a multi-cultural student generation and a globalised world.
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Rationale Intercultural competency and intelligence is as an indicator of successful primary and secondary education. The capability of students to learn about and engage with diverse cultures in ways that recognise commonalities and differences, create connections with others and cultivate mutual respect is an essential part of living with others in the diverse world of the 21st century. An increasingly culturally diverse student population, together with the school’s commitment to Indigenous and intercultural education, is shaping an educational environment where intercultural learning and understanding can be explicitly valued, and directly and indirectly taught with greater intentionality.
Targetted publications This presents an opportunity for further investigation into how intercultural learning and understanding can help prepare young people for life, citizenship and employment in multicultural societies and in a globalised world. Through the Barker Institute’s research in this domain, Barker can help education systems rethink goals, content and methods with a focus on the kinds of human beings that schools are educating and the kinds of societies – open, cohesive, respectful and supportive – that are valued.
In addition to disseminating ongoing research in and thinking around intercultural learning and understanding via its website, social media networks, and its journal Learning in Practice, the Barker Institute will work towards publishing its research in this area in such journals as: • Journal of Home Language Research • Journal of Research in International Education • International Education Studies
Potential projects may explore questions such as: How can intercultural learning and understanding help prepare young people for life, citizenship and employment in multicultural societies and in a globalised world? How might schools measure the development of intercultural competency and intelligence in an effective manner? How might the diversity of world languages, cultures and thinking be integrated into teaching in such a way as to inspire every learner?
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Domain 5 Future & Innovation
Barker Institute will undertake research projects that are future-oriented involving innovations in education. The aim of these projects will be to provide educational practitioners and leaders with an evidentially-based understanding of issues and topics that will inform the future of education as well as novel approaches to meet the growing strategic needs of those involved in the education of children and young people.
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Rationale Never before has so much been asked of education. Primary and secondary schools are asked to prepare all students, regardless of their background, for life long learning. Teachers are asked to foster deeper understanding at the same time as caring for student socialemotional development. Such things are asked of education because the desired future requires it. The nature of work and civic participation is evolving at an unprecedented rate. For example, advances in automation, artificial intelligence, and social media are driving rapid changes in how we interact with each other and what skills hold value.
Targetted Publications In the world students will inherit, their ability to adapt, think critically, and work effectively with others will be essential for both their own success and the well-being of society. Such a dynamic environment presents challenges that warrant further investigation, particularly in how education can best support those who shape student learning experiences as students progress toward and into adulthood, navigating and contributing to a world that is vastly different from that of previous generations.
In addition to disseminating ongoing research in and thinking around the future of and innovation in education via its website, social media networks, and its journal Learning in Practice, the Barker Institute will work towards publishing its research in this area in such journals as: • International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education: Official Journal of the International AIED Society • Asia-Pacific Journal of Futures in Education and Society • International Journal of Innovation in Education
Potential projects may explore questions such as: How might schools best design learning for students today and into the future so that they will possess the knowledge, skills and dispositions required for success? Are our research and innovation systems prepared for an era of global, open and internet intensive inquiry? How might the role of schools develop over the next 50 years in and beyond Australia?
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Notes
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t +61 2 8438 7999 e barkerinstitute@barker.nsw.edu.au w barker.institute March 2022