Learning community modelLionel CranenburghCommitted educators know that change for students at risk requires extraordinary will to overcome the pressure to do nothing. Educators can be like Shakespeare‚s Macbeth “letting I dare not wait up I would” and like Hamlet in their search for reasons to “lose the name of action”. A few innovative educators dare to dream and gradually break down barriers so that a pulsing river of systemic pedagogic change can be channelled to parched educational fields. As an India born educator in Australia, my account of challenges I overcame as a consultant to principals working with aboriginal children and their families, has many lessons for Indian educators and teachers in a country with one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world. According to the Human Rights Commission in Australia, aboriginal students are among the most severely disadvantaged in the contemporary world. They suffer from high levels of illiteracy, transiency, poor motivation, poverty, homelessness, poor health, substance abuse, inadequate home support structures and often unsupportive school environments. In 1996, 16 percent of aboriginal students completed school compared to 60 percent non-aboriginals.My research as a consultant to principals in the most remote parts of Western Australia where the population is almost entirely aboriginal, indicated that only 40 percent of them attended school. Change, if it is to be successful, must be resourced using a bold approach which involves develop-ing a vision and making decisions that are valued. I involved principals, teachers, motivated parents and students to draw up a strategy to address social, emotional, educational and literacy raising needs. The first requirement was to identify the needs of students at risk in each school, provide professional development programmes for teachers, principals and parents and draw up a comprehensive and workable plan to make parents and students vital cogs in the decision-making system. Setting teaching standards are as necessary as light in the darkness to guide, infuse confidence, illuminate targets as also to provide opportunities for reflection and progress. I conferred regularly with parents, teachers and principals to develop a set of standards based on the Adelaide Declaration of National Goals in the 21st Century. These benchmarks include teachers demonstrating a sound commitment to the holistic development of children; continuously learning their subject and how to teach it; taking responsibility for managing and monitoring student development; thinking systematically about implementing best practices, and creating learning communities. Regular meetings, close monitoring of agreed standards, reports by principals, consultants and the groups involved in this project helped maintain enthusiasm, reduce opportunities for teachers faking it and ensured an output-oriented system. Most schools in India and Australia are education providers isolated from their local communities and jealously guarding their right to independence from parents. To break this harmful self-imposed isolation, we borrowed the idea of building learning communities from Britain. We resolved to involve various organisations and dedicated individuals within local communities to meet regularly, work collaboratively, develop instruction, welfare and curriculum policies and promote lifelong learning for students at risk. This learning…
