S7_institutional-identity-and-school-community-matters by International Baccalaureate® (IB), Asia Pacific

Prepared by Eric Jabal

2012/3/17

Institutional identity and school‐community matters: ‘Encapsulated’ & ‘inclusive’ lessons for student engagement from two international schools in Hong Kong by Eric Jabal, Ph.D Secondary Head, ISF Academy IB Asia Pacific Annual Conference 2012

That was then: IB‐AP (Beijing 2008)  Educating for cosmopolitan subjectivity: Reorientating international school imperatives for multiple citizenships  A picture of caring and compassion… or of privilege and indifference?

…This is now

Why? > What? > How? ‘School improvement is about enhancing engagement through g a better ffit between achieving young people and the school as an institution.' (Rudduck & Demetriou, 2003: 275)

ejabal@isf.edu.hk

Prepared by Eric Jabal

2012/3/17

Student engagement as… One way of understanding whether schooling conditions motivate learners to cultivate the necessary attitudes + skills + knowledge + habits + dispositions:  to achieve well‐being; and  to be successful student‐citizens today and tomorrow. (Starratt 2003; Kuhn 2005; Claxton 2008)

Today’s takeaways  Attend to the school's living and learning environments.  Develop a degree of institutional reflexivity that considers the intersection of school culture and community.  Identify the conditions for student engagement: i.e. attachment, participation, and commitment within learning and school life.

‘We have to recognize that young people’s engagement in school affects not just their future, but the quality of their d il lives daily li and d experiences i now.…’ (Willms, Friesen et al. 2009: 7)

ejabal@isf.edu.hk

Prepared by Eric Jabal

2012/3/17

‘It is important to remember that young people are not just adults‐in‐training; their lives as they experience them now are as valuable and meaningful as those of the adults they will become….’ (Willms, Friesen et al. 2009: 7)

‘How they feel about school and their own achievement is, for most young people, central to their daily lives ‐‐ whether they feel good about themselves and cared for at school; whether they are frustrated, frustrated anxious, anxious bored, or depressed; whether they feel vibrant and excited by what they are learning; and, for that matter, whether they are learning at all.’ (Willms, Friesen et al. 2009: 7)

Why? > What? > How? ‘School improvement is about enhancing engagement through g a better ffit between achieving young people and the school as an institution.' (Rudduck & Demetriou, 2003: 275)

ejabal@isf.edu.hk

Prepared by Eric Jabal

2012/3/17

Student engagement‐driven approach To improve school policy, administration, and practices to enable an engaging education: i.e.

 Intentionally, positively shapes students’ living quality and experiences within learning and school life; and  Achieves a better fit between young people and the school.

What does it mean to be educated?

= To be ENGAGED… Affectively (i.e. feeling = socio‐emotionally)

Behaviourally (i.e. doing = actions)

Cognitively (i.e. thinking = academically) (Fredericks, Blumenfeld et al. 2004; Jimerson, Campos et al. 2003)

The IB World Student Survey (January 2012, Issue 64, pp. 16‐20)

What is life really like for a learner in an IB school? Sample: N = 1,100

ejabal@isf.edu.hk

Prepared by Eric Jabal

2012/3/17

Which word best describes the IB programme you are currently studying? 24% 24% 18% 14% 14% 6%

Academic A d i Challenging International Creative Rewarding Humanitarian

What are the most important qualities for an IB student? 1st Hard work 2nd Academic ll excellence 3rd Time mgmt. 4th 5th 6th 7th

Creativity Teamwork Int’l outlook Curiosity

Which trait in the IB learner profile do you consider the most relevant to your own life? 17% 15% 13% 12% 11% 9%

Open‐minded Open minded Knowledgeable Risk‐takers Thinkers Communicators Inquirers

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Prepared by Eric Jabal

2012/3/17

What type of career would you like to pursue after leaving school? 22% Medicine 14% Business 12% Engineering 8% Science 8% Law 6% Creative Arts

Selected implications: IB survey 1. School CULTURE • ‘…the way

we do

things around here’

(Deal and Kennedy, 1983: 14)

• Institutional identity: i.e. overall impact of underlying mission and focus of the institution • ‘The framework from which we [teachers and administrators] and our students make sense of the life and world around us’ (Poore, 2005: 351)

What drives your school’s vision / mission?

Selected implications: IB survey 2. School COMMUNITY • Working relationships that characterise school and its members – i.e. interactions  internally (students, teachers, administrators)  externally (communities beyond school)

• Relationships’ quality, breadth, and depth

What characterises the working relationships in your school community?

ejabal@isf.edu.hk

Prepared by Eric Jabal

2012/3/17

Student engagement approach ‘Schools as institutions will have greater motivation and support for implementing policies and practices that foster [student] engagement if they perceive the linkages between student development and the enhancement of the total school environment.’ (Furlong, Whipple et al. 2003: 111)

A‐B‐Cs of engagement for SE  as learner‐centred approach for whole‐person development: i.e. feeling [A]+ doing [B]+ thinking [C] = Student engagement [SE]  needs needs and development of the whole person and development of the whole person – i.e., physical, social, intellectual, aesthetic, and cultural (IBO, 2002). ‘Engagement is located in a complex interface of contexts and people [and practices], rather than residing within the student’ (Butler‐Kisber, 2007: 8)

SE/School improvement goal  To strengthen ↑ the enabling conditions that increase student engagement  To reduce ↓ the disabling conditions that produce student (dis‐) engagement (…or passive compliance, resistance, detachment)

ejabal@isf.edu.hk

Prepared by Eric Jabal

2012/3/17

4Cs: ‘Total School Environment’ Culture Co‐ curriculum

Community Curriculum (Braskamp et al., 2006)

Student engagement within the 4Cs

Striving towards praxis ‘What is needed for better research on schools is better images of what schools are and what goes on in them. ‘Better’ in this case means creating images of schools that reflect their character and quality and that tell us something of what the experience of schooling is like [for those therein].’ (Greenfield, 1993: 19)

ejabal@isf.edu.hk

Prepared by Eric Jabal

2012/3/17

Research questions  What makes international schools engaging places for students?  What meanings do students attach to key areas of their day‐to‐day experiences within the international school in Hong Kong?  How does the ‘institutional habitus’ (Thomas 2002) the students encounter support and constrain their experiences of and engagement within the school’s ‘4Cs’ (Braskamp, Trautvetter et al. 2006)?

Analytic lens: ‘Institutional habitus’ ‘Habitus’ (Bourdieu, 1990/1977) • interplay amongst people’s culturally‐mediated habits that structure the way people interpret, act in, and respond within social contexts.

↓ ‘Institutional habitus’ (Thomas, 2002) • how and why sense‐giving and meaning‐making structures and processes inform action to shape the social practices within the school’s 4Cs.

Student engagement within the 4Cs

ejabal@isf.edu.hk

Prepared by Eric Jabal

2012/3/17

Research sites – Phase 2 Waratah High

Windsor Secondary High

• K‐12 • nearly 1,000 students (about 80 senior students) • offers IB‐DP + national‐ curriculum system • relatively young history • ‘A source of pride for the [country’s] community’

• Y7‐Y13 • more than 1,000 students (nearly 400 senior students) • offers IB‐DP and national‐ curriculum system • long‐standing traditions, storied history

Research sites – Phase 2 Phases 1, 2 Students surveyed

Waratah High

Windsor Secondary High

215

Interviews 18 (student) 15 (student)

15 (teacher) 15 (teacher) Obser‐ vations

21 days

14 days

Lessons learnt: Takeaway 1  Attend to the school's living (and learning) environment: i.e. School culture, school community [2Cs]  ‘Strong interrelatedness between social and emotional issues, social learning activities, and academic learning’ (Vibert, Portelli et al. 2002: 99)

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2012/3/17

WH Teacher‐leader insight 1a ‘I think I would just call this a ‘school’ because by definition, ‘school’ is a place where you come to learn. Putting international in front of it doesn doesn’tt make ‘international’ a difference…. In local schools, students come from the surrounding suburbs. In international schools, they may come from a country that’s further away….’

WH Teacher‐leader insight 1a ‘…But in both schools, you have to learn about other people’s characteristics and cultures. So I would just call this a ‘school’ rather than an ‘international’ school.’ ‘Institutional habitus’ – schooling for… learner development and growth learner’s personal and social identities as people ≠ student (but one ‘role’)

WSH Student insight 1b ‘I don’t know if this phrase ‘international school’ is a good thing. I think we are international in that we recognise everyone’s cultures. There’s always an Indian dance and, as I was saying about the SSC [Senior School Centre], you’ve got Bombay, Chinatown, where all the different people sit. So cultures are very recognised here….’

ejabal@isf.edu.hk

Prepared by Eric Jabal

2012/3/17

WSH Student insight 1b ‘…But I think to be truly ‘international’ is not to recognise each other’s cultures. Not to say, ‘Oh look at him. He’s Indian. I accept that.’ It’s not to do that. It’s to say ‘Well, there’s a person. What can I learn from them?’ So it depends on how you define ‘international.’ I don’t think there are racial tensions here, but there’s racial awareness. And I think that makes us less international than if we just existed normally.’

Lessons learnt: Takeaway 2  Develop a degree of institutional reflexivity that considers the intersection of school culture and community.  ‘Schools are human communities, not just places where learning is efficiently transmitted’ (Gaskell, 1995: ix).  Teachers as ‘keepers of the [school] culture’ (Braskamp et al., 2006: 62).

WH Teacher‐leader insight 2a ‘For the first time teaching overseas… this was such an easy move. I walked in the door and things were familiar. The books were ffamiliar. The attitudes were ffamiliar. The language was familiar. Even the calendar and the schedule were familiar.’

‘Institutional habitus’: School‐teacher…  no different to ordinary school ‘back home’

ejabal@isf.edu.hk

Prepared by Eric Jabal

2012/3/17

WH Teacher‐leader insight 2b ‘I don’t see that Chinese parents are included in our parent bodies. In fact, they are quite excluded – and it can’t just be the Chinese parents parents’ fault. fault They actually exclude themselves because they don’t feel that they’re accepted…’

WH Teacher‐leader insight 2b ‘…You can definitely see the strong involvement in and support of the school by the Caucasian parents. But you don’t see many Chinese parents here…. have they been invited? Do we make them feel accepted and welcome?’ ‘Institutional habitus’: School‐home… ‘cellophane walls’ (Leach, 1969) ‘…invest heavily in local connectedness’ (Allen 2002: 141)

Teacher/Student insights 2c ‘Strangely enough, although it is an international school, people tend to stick with the same race.’ (WSH student) ‘The students here tend to cluster into Western and Cantonese, generally, which I suppose is understandable.’ (WH teacher‐leader)

ejabal@isf.edu.hk

Prepared by Eric Jabal

2012/3/17

WH Teacher‐leader insight 2c ‘[P]robably the hardest issue the school has is getting the students to mix. Walking around, you don’t really get a strong impression that mixing is naturally occurring…. Certainly in the junior years, you could walk into most classes and they would be visibly sitting in cultural groups.’ ‘Institutional habitus’: Student‐student… Segregated patterns of relationships in/ex‐clude

‘Inclusive’ v ‘Encapsulated’ schools Inclusive



Encapsulated

• uphold ethno‐ nationality: Replicate transplanted culture • Culture • limited diversity li i d di i + • ‘international‐ • teaching limited to • Community mindedness’ + culture‐specific • Curriculum pedagogy • inter‐culturally + • managed multi‐ balanced • Co‐ cultural experience curriculum curriculum • (integrated) diversity

4Cs:

(Sylvester, 1998; Thompson, 1996)

SE/SI challenge: (Mis‐) match? Students from ‘a fourth culture – one that is not their home system, not a foreign system in a foreign land and not an international school abroad, but an international school in their home country which does not represent their native culture and beliefs.’ (Deveney, 2005: 161)

ejabal@isf.edu.hk

Prepared by Eric Jabal

2012/3/17

SE/SI opportunity: Match? • International school children ‘have many sociological variables in common: They are predominantly from intact professional families; these families are middle to upper middle class; and education is highly valued’ (Gerner and Perry, 2000: 269). • International schools ‘train the elite of a country’ (Caillode, cited in Hayden & Thompson, 2008: 9).

SE/SI opportunity: Match? • Shared identity: Constructively leverage the vested, inherent economic, cultural, and symbolic ‘social capital’ (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990/1977) therein • Stimulate personal engagement, secure commitment, and cultivate every learner’s quest for ‘moral excellence’ (Starratt, 2003): i.e. to put their privilege to work as a force for good.

ejabal@isf.edu.hk

Prepared by Eric Jabal

2012/3/17

Final thoughts 1. ABCs of student engagement ‐ To feel [A] > To do [B] > To think [C]

2. Student engagement approach to SI ‐ School as ‘learning and living environment’ ‐ Attend to embedded and overlapping 4Cs

3. What does it mean to be educated? ‐ To engage and to be engaged! (recall keynotes from Hans, Sarah, and Paul)

ejabal@isf.edu.hk