5.2.1 Classroom teacher reflexivity and praxis
The opportunity to observe his own class while someone else taught provided Mike the classroom teacher time to reflect on not only what was happening in his class but what he needed to do in his classroom. He realised he had to work on two fronts, not only to develop positive respectful and inclusive relationships but to provide different engaging pedagogies for those students who were at risk of becoming dis- engaged in school life.
Throughout the drama Mike expressed shock and concern as he became aware of the subliminal anti- social behaviours and exclusive relationships that were alienating some students in his classroom. He stated in the follow up interview he needed to attend to these and to find ways to get his students to work in groups and develop more inclusive and positive relationships. Observing what was happening in drama and also taking part in aspects of it had caused him to deeply reflect on his role in the possible perpetuation of antisocial behaviour in his class by not noticing what was going on. It was “flying under the radar”(Mike,TI). Baer and Glasgow (2008) in their work in process drama and bullying state the importance of teachers as figures of authority need to be able to intervene when anti- social incidents or bullying occurs. “Teachers and administrators are the most effective and proper agents of authority and should be able to intervene in these power struggles, but they don’t always know what is happening, much less take appropriate action” (p.80).
Again the research cited by Gibbs and Poskitt (2010,p29 ) similarly claim that students enjoy working with others especially others who have a different
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background to their own. “Students claim they learn better when working with other students and enjoy learning more (Pickens & Eick,2009 ).Students may also develop friendships with students from different backgrounds (Allison & Rehm 2009)”. This is particularly significant in terms of knowing the other in the classroom.
The literature around student engagement and achievement reinforce the need for relational teaching in schools. There is a need for programmes such as restorative practice in order to teach and develop respectful relationships in schools. The literature based on current research in New Zealand claims it is crucial to build relationships and make connections whanaungatanga, (interconnectedness), within social groups because it is essential not only for engagement and academic
success for Māori but all students. This is well documented in the work of the Kotahitanga projects alongside evidence cited by Gibbs and Poskitt (2010,p.16) that clearly establishes the need for students to be included and part of a group if student academic success is to occur.
Mc Farlane cites the work of Smith and Laslett who say it is essential that you have to “get on with them” before you can “get on with it” 1993).
What was significant for Mike was as a result of observing the ‘wolf’s restorative conference’ he too began to reflect on his way of interacting with some of the more challenging students in the playground. He reported in his interview that during a lunch time when about to engage with a student he stopped and thought about what it might be for that student and modified his conversation. Mike also noted his lack of knowledge and experience at using drama as pedagogy. He reflected on the enthusiasm of his students, particularly his reluctant learners who he observed engaging in the drama activities.
5.2.2 Teacher researcher reflexivity and praxis
Working alongside students in this drama I reflected that I too had let things fly under the radar especially in regard to student involvement in curriculum plans and in teacher professional development. I had let the curriculum be dominated by only one of the key stake holders in the school, the teachers. Students had only a small “voice” in what was happening at school particularly in curriculum planning.
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Once again it reinforced that students were the “experts” when it came to who they wanted as teachers and what they wanted to learn. Carspecken (1996) claims “seeing something clearly that one has already known in an unclear or implicit way” is what can occur for the researcher in critical ethnographic research ( p144 ). This noticing is also a crucial part of restorative practice and drama where there needs to be democratic practice around what stories are privileged and who ‘speaks’ in classrooms and schools.
Neelands notes (2002) teachers are often overwhelmed by the apparent scale of what is required them (p.119) and “We live in an age in which the curriculum as ‘planned’ has overshadowed the vitality of the curriculum as ‘lived’ experience” (p.107).
Like Mike, I too had been shocked at the initial groupings in class for I had believed that as a multicultural school we were inclusive. I thought I could allow this to carry on for the sake of the research outcome but how authentic was this? I had to use my knowledge of cooperative learning and feedback to suggest
different ways to be in the classroom. I began to request that each time we did another activity there had to be a new person or pair in the group. Following these activities we reported back on our co-constructed criteria about the success of our groups. I reflected, if I wanted a democratic classroom then I had to model respectful ways of working and share power in terms of curriculum planning. Drama also worked for me on a personal level. It gave me a safe way to vent my frustrations in an almost classic cathartic manner. In the lived reality of my experience in education, how often had I listened to wolf stories and needed the students to reintegrate ‘the wolf’ back into their class in order to ‘grow the other story’ around the ‘wolf’? How often had I listened to teachers telling me they did not want that child in their class. How often had I heard the statement “ I am not going back into that class Miss cos the teacher is boring and doesn’t care”.
Using teacher in role I was able to say as a principal that my teachers did not want that student. I could be the mother who said to the principal in an overheard conversation “Why should crow boy get a special programme when my good boy didn’t ?” I could be the mother of the wolf and recite a litany of punishing life
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events that I have heard repeatedly in my career. These were real life problems and the students in ‘role’ needed to help me with them because I didn’t know what to do? They were my community and they had the “power” to make a difference. Heyward (2010) links this notion to Vygotsky’s theory of socially constructed knowledge and claims that it is necessary that the teacher brings to the discussion alternate stories rather than the dominant discourse so often presented in classrooms. “…..the socially constructed nature of knowledge necessitates that teachers elicit conflicting perspectives so that learners engage in sustained, thought provoking dialogue rather than the mere repetition of a single dominant viewpoint” (Alton-Lee,2003;Lyngard & Mills,2002, cited in Heyward p.198). Drama worked for me on many levels and certainly I was as engaged as the students during those sessions. From a research perspective the critical
ethnographic elements of personal, professional and political came together within the drama sessions and in the reflections outside as I consciously and curiously listened to the reflections of the students and teacher following the intervention.