Annette Foley

The research looked at how adult community educators engage and reconnect compulsory school students’ enrolled in alternate, off school site programs.

 Being conducted at a time when school student retention rates are at an all time high and young people are now more likely than ever before to become disengaged from the schools system and in many cases disengaged from their local own community.

 Government and commentators recognise that a major challenge for the future in Australia is to have a well educated society able to live healthy, productive lives, this is essential for Australian’s economic future through a community who can participate and contribute to society and the nation’s workforce (Christenson, Sinclair, Lehr, and Hurley, 2000; Bear and Mink, 2006; Smyth, Angus, Down & McInerney, 2008; Wyn, 2009).

 Look at how ACE educators work to engage disengaged school aged students  Find out why these students connect with the ACE style of teaching and learning but are disengaged from mainstream schooling.  What are the benefits to these students  VET Outcomes  Other Outcomes  Can the mainstream school system learn something?

 Understand the teaching and learning practices within Adult and Community Education (ACE) classrooms and other learning spaces, in order to learn whether and in what ways the pedagogies and the ‘pedagogical culture’ of teaching in the ACE sector might support or facilitate the development of generic learning and life skills

 The research involved -  The Young Mothers program enrolled through Link-Up Ballarat  Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) enrolled in the ‘Stepping Stones’ program delivered from the Daylesford Neighbourhood House  Youth Works program delivered out of BEST Ballarat.

 Do you like coming to the program?  Why?  Why not?  What is different about coming here to other school settings?  What do you learn?  Do you think the environment is different to school?  Is the teaching different to school?  Why?  Why not?  Are the teachers different to school?  Why?  Why not?

 ‘This place makes me feel comfortable… I used to be bullied at school but here it feels safer’  ‘It is more relaxed here, but we still get the work done’  ‘If I feel angry I can leave without copping sh.. from teachers…I can have a smoke and go back into class’  ‘It feels like the teachers here especially I..y really cares about me’

 ‘It’s just different here you know …more comfortable’  ‘I actually look forward to coming’  ‘I don’t feel stupid when I ask a question’  ‘School was hell for me…bullying at … was out of control’  ‘The teachers really care’  ‘Teachers have more time for you here’  ‘They make it more fun’

 How do you engage the students in your program?  Are your teaching practices and philosophies different from the main stream school system?  How and why  What are the key differences?  How do students in these programs respond to ACE pedagogies?  How important is the environment to the ACE teaching and learning approach?

 ‘We make this place as accessible and as comfortable for the students as possible…we provide a place to sit outside and smoke if they like…’  ‘We find that being as flexible as we can works for the students’  ‘We counsel the students here’  ‘I live in this community and know these kids’  ‘Our culture is more a combination of welfare and teaching practice’  ‘I take time to talk to the students about what they need or if they have any problems’  ‘We have very clear rules here around how we expect the students to treat each other and they respect it…we don’t have a bullying problem here’

 ‘This place makes them feel comfortable, we make sure it looks comfortable’  ‘The students have input into what we teach and they have their babies here all the time’  ‘It is a place they love to come to, I find them waiting at the door when I get here in the morning’  ‘The kids seem to learn through our flexible approaches’

 Flexible pedagogy  Mixing welfare and education Personal approach One on one Non prescriptive curriculum approach Connecting local community and student interests  Allowing ‘Timeout’ for students  Ownership of learning  Applied learning approaches  Trust  Comfortable

 Many of the students had plans for the future that involved either:  Going back to school  Starting (continuing with) a VCAL or community VCAL program  Starting an apprenticeship  Going to the local TAFE  One students was attending the program and also attending the TAFE and had started a Certificate in community services.

 Life skills  Cooking  Baby care  Financial management  Counselling  Health

 The data showed a pedagogical culture that involved connecting students local community knowledge, interests and youth culture to connect students to learning and contributing through flexible approaches that were not prescriptive regarding the curriculum approaches.  Teachers spoke about the importance of taking time with students individually  The learning spaces were seen as important to the success of the programs

 Questions/comments?