Week 29- Consider Your Audiences

Activity 5: Discuss how you addressing the context of different audiences (local, national and/or international) and their perspectives while you were taking action.

Step 1: Defining my Audience

The audience that I am addressing are the students and their whanau, with consideration towards fellow colleagues, Senior Management and the Board of Trustees.

My primary focus for my inquiry is enhancing parent engagement in order to improve student learning. When I first started my inquiry I had the idea of improving student achievement through the use of the new Digital Technologies Curriculum. I wondered whether parents learning about the curriculum and activities they could do at home, would have an impact on student success in this area as it would be a collaborative learning experience for both parent/s and student. Along the way my inquiry and my thinking changed to ‘how could I use digital technology to enhance parent engagement’ as this was truly evident through surveys that were completed during ‘taking action’ earlier in my inquiry. The whakatauki ‘he rangi tā Matawhāiti, he rangi tā Matawhānui’ which translates to ‘the person with a narrow vision sees a narrow horizon, the person with a wide vision sees a wide horizon relates to my own learning and understanding throughout this process. In the beginning of this inquiry my inquiry was very narrow as I had not thought about it from a wider perspective, it wasn’t until I begun to interview and survey whanau that my mindset was able to see the bigger picture.

Step 2: Analyse the Audiences’ Perspective

Through the reading of ‘Supporting future oriented learning and teaching (2012) I was able to identify with the theme ‘New kinds of partnerships and relationships: Schools no longer siloed from the community’. This theme related to the importance of building those strong relationships as “better school community connections are an important precondition for future-oriented learning is that real community understanding of and support for future oriented educational ideas education is required if schools are to achieve the required shift in focus” (pg. 49).

Parent’s perspective proved that they were keen to play a part in the child’s learning but either did not know how to go about it or did not have the time due to family or work commitments. Prior to analysing the surveys and interviews, I had an incline that this was the case. We have the same parents attending parent interviews and home-school partnerships. How can we attract those parents who do not attend these home to school bridging partnerships?

After discussions with colleagues that have faced similar challenges with parent engagement and how their engagement could enhance learning achievement and success it is evident that they have trialled various options from being available before, during or after school hours and inviting parents in for informal meetings.

The Board of Trustees and Senior Management openly discussed the issues of my inquiry as they too had tried numerous alternatives to gain parent engagement as it is widely known that parent engagement leads to student success.

Step 3: Discuss how you are addressing the context of different audiences (local, national and/or international) and their perspectives while you are taking action

Students- student voice is heard and recorded to gain their perspective around whether parent engagement would help them to succeed.

Whanau- survey, interviews and exploring alternatives to enhance communication. This will help to problem solve reasons why parents are currently not engaged.

Senior Management- they are able to provide guidance and support and filter information across the school.

Board of Trustees- are aware of my inquiry and the purpose for it.

Community of learning- using digital technology to communicate with parents who cannot come into school and what how other schools have trialled.

References:

Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching — a New Zealand perspective. Report prepared for the Ministry of Education. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306

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