6/6 - PD: Student Agency

Staff PD: Student Agency

6th June 2017

For our Staff PD session today we had two students and a teacher from Kaipara College talk to us about their recent journey to include student agency within their school. They started a student agency group for Maori students with the key idea of being culturally responsive. They started with a student agency day to discuss what this would look like. What is it? What do they want to achieve? When they will meet? Key themes of what student agency in action would look like are:

• building relationships
• group work
• controlled but fair environment
• humor
• positivity
• fair work pace - not too fast
• having activities that allow students to move

Students organized a Whanau evening. They sent letters to family so they could come in and learn about NCEA. What is it? What are credits? How do you pass level 1, 2 & 3? The evening was fully ran by students. They also included a session based off Kamar results. 

They then held a PD Day for staff. There were multiple sessions which included:

• deficit theorizing
• this was confronting & uncomfortable for some teachers as they gave examples such as  a teacher growling a student for not having a pen even though they had pens on there desk, a student was missing for 2 weeks - didn't ask where they were and they had been attending a funeral
• Amazing Race for staff where they were graded A, M & E
• Whanau evening #2 - rang parents rather than letters, greater success
• Awards evening/success assembly - PRIDE awards, Ruben Wiki also attended, students MCed the night

They continued their journey this year and just last week completed their first Whanau evening for 2017. They rang parents again as well as sending emails.  They found the phone calls were more effective & drew in more parents. This night included 5 Pods, ran by students, and made sure to include upcoming events at school.

So how has implementing a student agency program implemented staff & students? Some examples of how they have been going are below:

• students interviewed teachers from different facilities to provide a range of different voices. They were asked what effects and impacts have worked for them:
• increased relationships including greater respect & partnerships
• helped gain extra knowledge & Maori students were more engaged
• cultural language = more involvement
• impacts on students included:
• Maori are more engaged and participating in class
• students personal excellence was being acknowledged even if that was even just an Achieved or Merit
• Interview with the Principal
• Why did you let the group happen? - stepping back from leadership to allow students to have more of a voice, in turn parents became more involved after seeing the development
• Effects of staff - teachers were more open to change. They sometimes knew that change was needed but they were unsure of how this would happen

So a key question is where do you even start on a journey like this?

Kaipara College started by addressing the needs of the students. It is vital to make sure students have the biggest voice, because after all it is all about them. They then ensured they focussed on pedagogical development. This was mainly through co constructing holistic strategies with both students and staff. This included what does it look like and how is it visible? They did acknowledge that having a new principal and faculty leaders may have helped to have created more momentum for change.

This PD session left me feeling inspired. It reminded me that although I may not be able to change everything in the school, I can at least ensure ALL of my students feel included and valued within my classroom.