To say the week has been fascinating would be a gross understatement. We have met many absolutely wonderful educators whose passion for public education is inspiring. The challenge of creating equity and equality in a system where roughly a third of students attend private schools and another third attend religious schools is not taken lightly. Most of the indigenous students attend public schools and the educators we met are determined that public education is the route to a better life for the vast majority of their learners.
We introduced the spiral of inquiry to each of the groups we met and it was seen as a useful cognitive tool to keep the focus on the experiences of their learners - and avoid being submersed by the churn in the system. There is a lot of interest in creating stronger links with BC schools and opportunities for the exchange of ideas abound.
We also shared the framework for Aboriginal understanding and knowledge that was developed by Laura Tait and her colleagues. This was very well received and the acknowledgement that 'Aboriginal Education is for Everyone' is also starting to take hold in NSW. There are 7 key principles of indigenous understanding that are expected to be incorporated into every aspect of the NSW curriculum. We look forward to learning more from our colleagues here and to sharing what we learn through this blog.
Working through key questions in Sydney |
Sydney Opera House - beautiful |
Dear Judy and Linda - Thank you for the opportunity to have you share your expertise and educational talents with colleagues in the Illawarra and South Coast region. We were certainly inspired by how your work aligned with ours and were most impressed with the professional dialogue created during the day and these conversations continue. It was our pleasure to have you visit the Illawarra and share our stories, adventures and our land with you. I should also add - our seafood & 'Chardy' too! Thanks for the laughs :) - Fiona Senior-Conroy
ReplyDelete