Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T04:34:40.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

High-Expectations Relationships: A Foundation for Enacting High Expectations in all Australian Schools

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2018

Chris Sarra ,
David Spillman ,
Cathy Jackson ,
John Davis  and
John Bray
Chris Sarra
Affiliation:
Stronger Smarter Institute, Caboolture, Queensland, 4510, Australia
David Spillman
Affiliation:
Leadership Development, MurriMatters Consulting, Boonah, Queensland, 4310, Australia
Cathy Jackson*
Affiliation:
Stronger Smarter Institute, Caboolture, Queensland, 4510, Australia
John Davis
Affiliation:
Stronger Smarter Institute, Caboolture, Queensland, 4510, Australia
John Bray
Affiliation:
Department of the Chief Minister, Northern Territory Government, Darwin, Northern Territory, 0801, Australia
*
address for correspondence: Cathy Jackson, Stronger Smarter Institute, Caboolture, Queensland, 4510, Australia. Email: [email protected].
Get access

Abstract

Enacting high expectations for all students in the classroom is a complex undertaking. Underlying, out-of-awareness assumptions may lead to actions, behaviours or pedagogic choices that do not support these high expectations beliefs and intentions. For Indigenous education, this is compounded by public and professional discourses around deficit positioning, and by historical conditioning, where many Indigenous students do not see achieving in school as part of their cultural identity. High expectations are usually considered as a performance agenda — in terms of effort, learning and achievement. In this paper, we introduce the concept of high-expectations relationships where viewing and enacting high expectations through a relational lens equips educators with strategies to support such performance outcomes. We describe this relational lens where fair, socially just relating establishes a relational space of trust, thus enabling both student motivation and the firm, critically reflective relating necessary for quality learning. Using the voices of educators, we describe how high-expectations relationships can promote collegiate staff environments, strong teacher–student relationships and trusting and supportive relationships with parents and carers. We show how these positive educational attributes of any school community, seeded through a focus on high-expectations relationships, work to support the performance outcomes of a high-expectations educational agenda.

Keywords

high-expectations relationshipshigh expectationsteacher–student relationshipsstudent engagementcommunity engagement
Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , August 2020 , pp. 32 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Benveniste, T., Guenther, J., Rainbird, S., Dawson, D., & King, L. (2017). Race, rules and relationships: What can critical race theory offer contemporary aboriginal boarding schools? In Knowledge Intersections: Exploring the Research of Central Australia. Research Symposium Proceedings. Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education.Google Scholar
Bhabha, H.K. (1994). The location of culture. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bishop, R., & Berryman, M. (2006). Culture speaks. Wellington: Huai Publishers.Google Scholar
Bishop, R., & Berryman, M. (2009). The Te kotahitanga effective teaching profile. SET: Research Information for Teachers, 2009 (2). Retrieved from www.nzcer.org.nz/nzcerpress/set/articles/te-kotahitanga-effective-teaching-profile.Google Scholar
Buckskin, P. (2012). Engaging Indigenous students: The important relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their teachers. In Price, K. (Ed.), Aboriginal and torres strait Islander education (pp. 174–188). Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chilisa, B. (2011). Indigenous research methodologies. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, Inc.Google Scholar
Covey, S.R. (1990). The seven habits of highly effective people. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Davis, J. (2012). Community connections in education: Community Durithunga – yarning in a circle on country, our way. In Phillips, J., & Lampert, J. (Eds.), Introductory Indigenous studies in education. NSW: Pearson Education Australia.Google Scholar
Davis, J., & Grose, S. (2008). Which way? What happens when embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in schools meets the professional standards for teachers and an accountability matrix? In World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education 7–11 December 2008. Victoria: Victoria Aboriginal Education Association Inc.Google Scholar
Delpit, L. (1988). The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people's children. Harvard Educational Review, 58(3), 280–299.10.17763/haer.58.3.c43481778r528qw4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodson, M., Fogarty, B., Wilson, B., Gorringe, S., Waller, L., & McCallum, K. (2017). Deficit discourse in Indigenous education. Presentation on Tuesday 21 March 2017 for Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Retrieved December 20, 2017 from http://aiatsis.gov.au/publications/presentations/deficit-discourse-indigenous-education.Google Scholar
Fforde, C., Bamblett, L., Ray, L., Gorringe, S., & Fogarty, B. (2013). Discourse, deficit and identity: Aboriginality, the race paradigm and the language or representation in contemporary Australia. Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture & Policy, 149, 162–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleming, E., McGovern, M., Moore, S., Sunners, K., Ralph, B., & Watson, M. (2015). Stronger smarter in action: Stories of school practice. Paper presented at the Stronger Smarter Institute by Social Science students at The University of Queensland. Unpublished report, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland.Google Scholar
Fogarty, W., Lovell, M., & Dodson, M. (2015). A view beyond review: Challenging assumptions in Indigenous education development. UNESCO Observatory Multi-Disciplinary Journal in the Arts, 4, 1–21.Google Scholar
Gale, T., Mills, C., & Cross, R. (2017). Socially inclusive teaching: Belief, design, action as pedagogic work. Journal of Teacher Education, 68(3), 345–356. doi:10.1177/0022487116685754.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gorringe, S. (2015). Aboriginal culture is not a problem. The way we talk about it is. The Guardian. Retrieved May 15, 2015 from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/15/aboriginal-culture-is-not-a-problem-the-way-we-talk-about-it-is.Google Scholar
Gorringe, S., Ross, J., & Fforde, C. (2011). ‘Will the real Aborigine please stand up’: Strategies for breaking the stereotypes and changing the conversation. AIATSIS Research Discussion Paper 28.Google Scholar
Griffiths, T., Amosa, W., Ludwig, J., & Gore, J. (2007). Equity and pedagogy: Familiar patterns and QT based possibilities. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education Conference, Freemantle, 25–29 November 2007.Google Scholar
Habibis, D., & Walter, M. (2015). Social inequality in Australia: Discourses, realities and futures (2nd ed.). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Harrison, N. (2007). Secret transmissions: Modelling cross-cultural relations in classroom discourses. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 35(1), 41–53.10.1080/13598660601111174CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hattie, J. (2008). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Oxford, UK: Routledge.10.4324/9780203887332CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewthwaite, B.E., Osborne, B., Lloyd, N., Boon, H., Llewellyn, L., Webber, T., Laffin, G., Harrison, M., Day, C., Kemp, C., & Wills, J. (2015). Seeking a pedagogy of difference: What aboriginal students and their parents in North Queensland say about teaching and their learning. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(5). Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2015v40n5.8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Margolin, L. (2015). Unpacking the invisible knapsack: The invention of white privilege pedagogy. Cogent Social Science, 1, 1053183.Google Scholar
Matthews, C. (2015). Maths as storytelling: Maths is beautiful. In Price, K. (Ed), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education: An introduction for the teaching profession (2nd ed., pp. 102–120). Melbourne, VIC: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781316134481.007CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNaughton, S., & Lai, M.K. (2008). A model of school change for culturally and linguistically diverse students in New Zealand: A summary and evidence from systematic replication. Unpublished report Woolf Fisher Research Centre, University of Auckland.Google Scholar
Mills, C. (2008). Making a difference: Moving beyond the superficial treatment of diversity. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 36(4), 261–275.10.1080/13598660802375925CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakata, M. (2007). Disciplining the savages, savaging the disciplines. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.Google Scholar
Ockenden, L. (2014). Positive learning environments for Indigenous children and young people. Resource Sheet no. 33 produced by the Closing the Gap Clearinghouse. Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare & Melbourne, Australian Institute of Family Studies.Google Scholar
Papageorge, N., & Gershenson, S. (2016). Do teacher expectations matter? Brookings Institution. Retrieved February 27, 2017 from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2016/09/16/do-teacher-expectations-matter/.Google Scholar
Perso, T.F. (2012). Cultural responsiveness and school education: With particular focus on Australia's first peoples: A review & synthesis of the literature. Darwin: Menzies School of Health Research, Centre for Child Development and Education.Google Scholar
Productivity Commission. (2016). Indigenous primary school achievement. Canberra: Commission Research Paper.Google Scholar
Purdie, N., Tripcony, P., Boulton-Lewis, G., Fanshawe, J., & Gunstone, A. (2000). Positive Self-Identity for Indigenous Students and its Relationship to School Outcomes [A project funded by the Commonwealth Department of Education Training and Youth Affairs]. Brisbane: Queensland University of Technology.Google Scholar
Sarra, C. (2008). The way forward. Indigenous children of the education revolution. Paper delivered to National Press Club, Canberra 26 May 2008.Google Scholar
Sarra, C. (2010). Stronger Smarter Approaches to Indigenous Leadership in Australia. In Snyder, I., & Nieuwenhuysen, J. (Eds.), Closing the gap in education? Improving outcomes in southern world societies. Melbourne: Monash University Publishing. Retrieved July 4, 2012 from http://books.publishing.monash.edu/apps/bookworm/view/Closing+the+Gap+in+Education%3F/55/xhtml/part04chapter01.html.Google Scholar
Sarra, C. (2011a). Strong and smart – towards a pedagogy for emancipation: Education for first peoples. New York: Routledge: New Studies in Critical Realism and Education.Google Scholar
Sarra, C. (2011b). Time for a high-expectations relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. Keynote address, Strong Start Bright Futures Conference, Darwin, 18 October 2011. Retrieved June 22, 2017 from http://chrissarra.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/time-for-a-high-expectations-relationship-between-indigenous-and-non-indigenous-australia/.Google Scholar
Sarra, C. (2012). Reflections of an Aboriginal school principal on leading change in an Aboriginal school: Australia. In Wrigley, T., Thomson, P., & Lingard, R. (Eds.), Changing schools: Alternative ways to make a world of difference. Oxon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sarra, C. (2014). Beyond victims: The challenge of leadership. 2014 Griffith Review Annual Lecture 7 August 2014 (p. 1–21). Retrieved June 16, 2017 from http://www.griffithreview.com/wp-content/uploads/Chris-Sarra-Beyond-Victims.pdf.Google Scholar
Schein, E. (2010). Organisational culture and leadership (4th ed). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.Google Scholar
SCRGSP (Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision). (2016). Overcoming Indigenous disadvantage: Key indicators 2016. Canberra: Productivity Commission.Google Scholar
Spillman, D. (2013). Towards a framework of dispositions, capabilities and cultural practices for developing and enacting high-expectations relationships. Unpublished paper, University of Western Sydney.Google Scholar
Spillman, D. (2017). A share in the future . . .only for those who become like ‘Us’!: Challenging the ‘standardisation’ reform approach to Indigenous education in the Northern Territory. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 46(2), 137–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stronger Smarter Institute. (2014). High-expectations relationships: A foundation for quality learning environments in all Australian schools. Brisbane: Stronger Smarter Institute Limited.Google Scholar
Stronger Smarter Institute. (2017a). Implementing the stronger smarter approach. Brisbane: Stronger Smarter Institute Limited.Google Scholar
Stronger Smarter Institute. (2017b). Stronger smarter field notes 2014–2017. Brisbane: Stronger Smarter Institute Limited.Google Scholar
Torff, B. (2011). Teacher beliefs shape learning for all students. Phi Delta Kappan, 93(3), 21–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torff, B. (2014). Folk belief theory, the rigor gap, and the achievement gap. The Educational Forum, 78(2), 174– 189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vass, G. (2013). ‘So, what's wrong with Indigenous education?’ Perspective, position and power beyond a deficit discourse. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 41(2), 85–96.10.1017/jie.2012.25CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vass, G. (2015). Putting critical race theory to work in Australian education research: ‘We are with the garden hose here’. Australian Educational Researcher, 42(3), 371– 394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, B. (2014). A share in the future: The review of Indigenous education in the Northern Territory. Darwin: Northern Territory Department of Education.Google Scholar
Yunupingu, M., & Australian Broadcasting Corporation. (1994). Voices from the land. Sydney: ABC Books.Google Scholar