Week 29 notes

Why is it important to consider your audience and Who are they?

Education Council (2017) in ‘Our Code, Our Standards’ asserts that as a teacher, you are in a “trusted position in society and recognise the influence we have on learners, their understanding of the world and the future wellbeing of our society” (p. 2). When you started taking action in the past 4 weeks, you brought about changes in your practice as well as the practice of those that you lead. You are accountable that the changes align with high-quality teaching and leadership (Education Council, 2017). It is, therefore, essential to consider who could be an audience of your practice and what messages you would like to convey to these audiences.

Your students are obviously one of the audiences as they are at the centre of your teaching practice. They need to know why you are carrying out the inquiry and how it impacts on their learning. Other audiences can be your colleagues, leadership, whanau and other stakeholders who need to know what is going on with the tamariki (children).

However, as we have already looked at those above mentioned audiences in previous class notes and assessments, the focus of this week’s class notes is the audience(s) in a broader sense, those that are outside of your immediate teaching context, beyond your classes or school and still relevant to your practice but can easily be overlooked. In this interconnected world, your practice is not and should not be confined within the walls of your classroom. The Reflective Writing video (SkillsTeamHullUni, 2014) in Week 25 also points out that when reflecting, it’s necessary to step backwards to see practice in the wider context. Therefore, this week aims to urge you to see the bigger picture of your practice, especially where it is situated within local, national or international context.

Applied Practice - activity 5

This week we address Applied Practice 2 Activity 5: Create a reflective entry to discuss how you are addressing the context of different audiences (local, national and/or international) and their perspectives while you are taking action.

Here is our suggestion on how to draft, finalise and share your reflective entry

Step 1: Briefly define your audiences

In this step, you need to identify and explain the audiences you will write about in this week’s reflective entry. Remember, you should look at those that are outside of your immediate teaching context and still relevant to your teacher inquiry.

For example, if your teacher inquiry is about authentic learning, your local audience can be a local industry that your students interact with for their project or the audience can be teachers in your community of learning (COL). At national or international level, the audiences can be national/ international policies or trends in relation to your teacher inquiry.

You can self-search relevant resources regarding the national/international policies or trends. Or, you can use either one or both of the following recommended readings in your discussion

• “Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching: A New Zealand perspective”(Bolstad, Gilbert, McDowall, Bull, Boyd & Hipkins, 2012) (supplementary): this is based on a NZ research project on current practice and futures-thinking in education. Skim through the Executive Summary or the list of themesand subthemes identified as emerging principles for a 21st century education system outlined below and select one that is relevant to your teacher inquiry:
  Theme 1: Personalising learning
  Theme 2: New views of equity, diversity and inclusivity
  Theme 3: A curriculum that uses knowledge to develop learning capacity
  Theme 4: Changing the script: Rethinking learners' and teachers' roles
  Theme 5: A culture of continuous learning for teachers and educational leaders
  Theme 6: New kinds of partnerships and relationships: Schools no longer siloed from the community
  Subtheme 1: The role of current and emerging technologies
  Subtheme 2: Role of collaborative practices
• Trends shaping education spotlight (OECD, 2018) (supplementary): This document compiles the analysis of the global trends affecting education and raises relevant questions for education policy makers and practitioners to consider how to act towards those trends. Again scan the headings of the reading and select one that is relevant to your inquiry topic.

Note that we want you to choose just one (sub)theme or heading since the reflective entry needs to be concise.

Step 2: Analyse the audiences’ perspectives

In this step, unpack what the different audiences’ perspectives might be. The perspectives are the attitudes or viewpoints towards practice.

For example, if your teacher inquiry is about gamification and your local audience are teachers in your community of learning (COL), write about what are the teachers attitudes or viewpoints towards this type of learning, are they eager adopters or are they still sceptical about the approach?

Regarding the national/international policies or trends, analyse the resources you have found, or, if you have used either one or both of the above mentioned readings, read further into the documents to unpack the point you have selected for step 1.

Step 3: Discuss how you are addressing the context of different audiences (local, national and/or international) and their perspectives while you are taking action.

In this step, based on the analysis you have done in step 2, discuss how you are addressing the context of the different audiences and their perspectives while you are taking action for your teacher inquiry.

Both supplementary materials that we have mentioned earlier have general recommendations of what needs to be done to address the national or international trends in education. Another useful reading is the first part (p.4-8) of ‘“Addressing Current and Future Challenges in Education”’ (supplementary) which analyzes what schools should do to prepare students to be successful in the rapidly evolving global economy. You can consider the suggestions in those documents and link to your own context when writing your reflective entry for this week.

Remember that it is important to support your reflection with relevant resources either from the readings we recommend in this week’s class notes or references that you source.

Checking You’ve Done All That Was Required for This Week

The Tasks-list on the next tab helps you to check you have done all the required activities.

References

Education Council. (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards%20web%20booklet%20FINAL.pdf

Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching — a New Zealand perspective. Report prepared for the Ministry of Education. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306

Daggett, B. (2014). Addressing current and future challenges in education. Retrieved from http://www.leadered.com/pdf/2014MSC_AddressingCurrentandFutureChallenges.pdf

OECD. (2018).Trends shaping education 2018 spotlight. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/Spotlight-15-A-Brave-New-World-Technology-and-Education.pdf