From the Director of the Pymble Institute

Pymble Institute News

International connections

I recently had the privilege of attending the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools conference in Boston, USA, and hearing of important work in girls’ education from around the world. Schools for girls, girls’ schools, girls’ education and even definitions of girls themselves were openly discussed at the global forum as over 500 educators, leaders and researchers gathered together. Three members of the Pymble community presented research papers and received feedback which will further their inquiry and action in project areas which are making a difference in girls’ education. I have summarised the projects below with suggestions on ways readers can pick up on outcomes from these projects in their own contexts:

Deities of our time: Social media influencing and its impact on senior high school girls

Pymble’s College Chaplain, Rev. Punam Bent, worked with a colleague from St. Catherine’s School, Bramley, UK, as well as Joy Secondary School, Jabalpur, India, to explore who young women follow on social media and what the term ‘follow’ really means. The project, using a cross-cultural methodology, saw Punam and Kate Hawtin, from St. Catherine’s, work alongside senior students in the three schools to design a survey and collaboratively analyse results. Punam and Kate conveyed the quandary many adults feel around social media and the role of influencers in the lives of young people, but their research revealed a strong vein of optimism and conscious selection of people to follow who are role models and inspirations in areas of community benefit.

• Do you know who your students follow on social media and what motivates their choices? The results may surprise you! Many students in the project follow influencers who advocate for social justice, disability rights and raise awareness of equity issues.

• Students follow people who make them feel good about the world and whose strategies role model ways of dealing with complex situations. This included slam poets and artists who share their views through creative means.

• Can you work with someone from another state or country on a research project? Punam and Kate connected via the Bright Field global mentoring initiative coordinated by Ian Wigston and hosted by the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools. They found immense value in the process of collaborating and in the opportunities for their students, as well as their own learning.

A Kindness revolution: How a focus on kindness can help our girls flourish as learners and leaders

Kate Brown, Head of Pymble Ladies’ College Junior School, has a passion for kindness and walks the talk in every way. She recently organised for the College to host a kindness convention and hopes other schools adopt this initiative in their own communities. Kate collected data from students from Kindergarten to Year 6 in ways which were both creative and practical. She conducted discussion meetings, hosted student presentations, encouraged student leaders to define issues, organised smaller action/focus groups and enabled students to create their own artefacts. As a busy Head of School, Kate utilised the data to inform each next step of her project and maintained a commitment to listening to what her students were saying as she planned ahead.

• As adults, how well do we model ways of being kind to ourselves? A key finding of the research was that students rated kindness to self at a much lower level than kindness to others and kindness to the environment. Further research and action will explore this through deep attention to ways people can be kind to themselves without letting others down, boasting or ignoring the needs of others.
• How flexible is your research design? Don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good! If Kate had waited for the perfect time to collect data, in the midst of a typically busy school year, research output from a Head of School would never eventuate. Work with your opportunities and resources and keep moving!
• Go with your passions. Kate’s interest in kindness has evolved and been deepened through her research, and with new global connections, is now set to expand. Start your own revolution from where you are and with what you believe is most important.

How does the use of Vertical Whiteboards encourage Year 10 girls to take risks when solving problems in Mathematics?

Former staff member and Pymble Alumni, Katie Jackson, was selected as a Global Action Research Collaborative (GARC) Fellow of the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools in 2021/22. The GARC program enables Fellows to work on action research projects with support from academic mentors and peers, world wide. The GARC Initiative is a wonderful addition to the research training schools can offer and provides participants with a global network and platform for sharing. Katie leaves a legacy of pedagogical innovation at Pymble with floor-to-ceiling whiteboards in one of our Maths classrooms, as well as research-based evidence of how this simple and cost-effective design encourages conversations, confidence and risk taking in girls’ mathematical learning.

• Have you used action research? Do you have questions you’d like to explore to bring about change? 
• Do you have a critical friend to walk alongside you in your research project? I had the privilege of being in Katie’s classroom as a researcher while students used the vertical whiteboards. I drew maps of the room, noted conversations from students and took photos which Katie and I later discussed. I could not believe the impact the design of the room was having on student learning right before my eyes! Your research can make a difference by involving others in the process as your advocates and critical friends.
• If you are in a girls’ school, the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools GARC program is a must for you to consider!

I hope you enjoy the updates in this newsletter.

Dr Sarah Loch
Director – Pymble Institute

Conversing about research: The Pymble Conference

The third Pymble Research Conference was held on 26 July 2022 with Pymble staff, parents, guests from other schools and universities and pre-service teacher education students in attendance. The theme of this year’s conference, after two years of COVID-19 induced interruption, was ‘conversation’ which the online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines as an ‘oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions or ideas’. Words are certainly important in research – be they written or spoken – but catching up with old friends, making new connections and being in the same room to share sentiments and ideas was a delight.

We joined to listen to and learn from eleven presenters, plus keynote speaker and Pymble Ladies’ College Board Member, Dr Kate Highfield. Kate presented Five big ideas from under 5s: Early Childhood Education – why do we all need to know about this? and opened our eyes to strategies inherent in early childhood education which translate so powerfully to education generally. These ideas are: child-led learning and inquiry learning, sustained shared thinking, documentation, whole family collaboration and relationships and strong theoretical underpinning.

Kate Highfield is Deputy Head of School, ACT and Regional NSW, in the School of Education at the Australian Catholic University and she has contributed to the development of future educators primarily in the early childhood and primary sectors, but also across several higher education institutions. She is the General Manager of Professional Research and Translation at Early Childhood Australia. Kate has a passion for early numeracy and mathematical development through fostering creative and critical thinking. The audience loved Kate’s depth of knowledge, experience and enthusiasm, and were thankful for the conversation she sparked.

Other speakers are listed below and can be contacted through the Pymble Institute if readers are interested in finding out more about their work:

• Victoria Adamovich, Pymble Ladies’ College, Wellbeing of EALD students: A look at family dynamics
• Cristi Wilsmore, SCEGGS Darlinghurst, Teaching and learning experiences in ability-grouped mathematics primary classrooms
• Mariel Lombard, Pymble Ladies’ College, The PhD Journey
• Karen Ahearn and Lexi Ibbotson, Pymble Ladies’ College, Exploring the benefits of play in a transition to school context
• Liam Hume and Deb Owens, Pymble Ladies’ College, The impact of research on teacher practice in Elective Geography
• Rev Punam Bent, Pymble Ladies’ College, Deities of our time: Social media influencing and impact on senior high school girls
• Ryan Stewart, Pymble Ladies’ College, First Nations representation in twentieth century local histories: From Gilgandra to Pymble
• Kate Brown, Pymble Ladies’ College, The kindness revolution: Enabling children to flourish as learners and leaders
• Natasha Stanfield, Pymble Ladies’ College, Ethics committees: Training students to take an active role

Save the date for the 2023 Conference: Tuesday 25 July 2023.

Shining a light on education and research

Pymble Ladies’ College publishes our research and innovation journal twice a year with articles by staff members and guest writers. You can read the latest edition of the College’s research publication here. Edition 7 is inspired by the Academic Intelligence pillar of our strategic plan which encourages us to contribute to knowledge for a better world in ways that model the enduring virtues of intellectual tenacity and scholarship. The articles in Illuminate: Research and Innovation span a wide range of topics which give the reader insight into current issues in classrooms and staffrooms.

Highlights from the latest edition include:

• Journeys of curriculum innovation in Geography with articles from Ray Howells (agriculture) and Liam Hume and Deb Owens (interdisciplinary learning); members of our Geography, Business and Economics team
• Mapping a College-wide approach to internal teacher accreditation and reward by Kerryl Howarth, Director of Professional Learning 
• Understanding ways of enhancing student learning in Year 12 Higher School Certificate courses by Melissa McMahon
• Looking at local history through a First Nations perspective by History and Aboriginal Studies teacher and PhD candidate, Ryan Stewart

For the complete list of Pymble Institute publications, visit the website.

To contact any authors, contact the Pymble Institute on pymbleinstitute@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au.

From PhD to publication: Shakespeare and happiness

The Pymble Institute is celebrating the launch of Pymble staff member, Dr Kathleen French’s recently published book, Shakespeare and Happiness. As a long-standing member of the College staff and English Department, there are many who would like to join the celebration and recognise Kathy’s work – all are welcome! 

Shakespeare and Happiness is a study of happiness in the early modern period with specific reference to some of Shakespeare’s plays. It discusses the search for happiness in the late romantic comedies The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It and Twelfth Night, the loss of happiness in the problem comedy Measure for Measure, the tragedies Hamlet and Othello and the tragi-comedy The Winter’s Tale. It takes a feminist approach by foregrounding the important role of women in showing the right way to live and achieve happiness and situates discussions of the loss of happiness in the current context of the #MeToo movement. Dr Kathy French’s book is the first to consider happiness by approaching it from the perspective of research conducted by positive psychologists. In an interdisciplinary approach that combines methodologies from literature, psychology, philosophy, religion and history, Kathy’s book emphasises the richness and complexity of Shakespeare’s exploration of the nature of happiness. 

The launch will take place on 12 October 2022 at Pymble Ladies’ College in Conde Library and it includes a Q&A with Kathy to explore her journey from PhD to publication. As Kathy prepares to bring a second book to life from her PhD, there is much to learn from her writing process and methods of organising her research.

RSVP: Click here to register your interest in attending

There is no charge for this event.

Pioneering students and research in outdoor learning

Year 9 Pioneers – Getting ready for adventure

There was a palpable buzz in the air as Year 9 Riverview boys arrived at the College to join Pymble girls for a meet and greet event a few days before embarking on the inaugural long-stay residential program at Pymble’s outdoor education campus, Vision Valley. Pymble Ladies’ College has held many outdoor education camps at various locations, but this will be the first group to stay for four weeks, combining academic learning and experiential outdoor learning in our very own beautiful outdoors environment. The program culminates in The Great Return; a five day trek where small groups of students and staff apply skills of teamwork, resilience and problem-solving to make their way from the Central Coast back to the Pymble campus.

Lining up the research

While the students were busy getting to know each other, there was another flurry of action among the researchers. Working together are:

• the Pymble Institute team of Dr Sarah Loch and Victoria Adamovich,
• the Pymble Outdoor Education team of Stuart Clark, Director of Vision Valley, and Nick Wilkesmann, Head of Outdoor Education,
• Pymble’s Year 9 team lead by Tom Riley, Head of Upper School,
• and the researchers from Western Sydney University, led by Professor Tonia Gray.

The research team has designed pre-and post-surveys for participating Pymble students to explore themes of resilience, persistence, coping strategies, confidence and bravery. In addition, complementary surveys for parents of the Pymble students will collect data to understand valuable parent perspectives and to see what they notice in their daughters in terms of resilience and confidence.

Collecting data in a tech-free zone

The data collection process is a fine art and science of timing, ethics approvals, participant consent forms, and in our case, technology! One of the main intents of the month-long program is a digital detox for the students, so completing online surveys at Vision Valley was something the team tried to avoid. Yet, collecting data on paper forms would mean considerable data entry time. Thankfully, the flexibility of the Upper School team helped save the day as we gathered students at school to complete the pre-survey before they left.

Another critical methodology being applied in the research will come through focus groups with students while they are in the long-stay environment, both at Vision Valley and when away on expedition. We are extremely lucky to be working with research assistants from Western Sydney University who are not only highly skilled educational researchers, but are also trained and experienced outdoor educators. They will walk alongside the students and engage them in discussion while participating in a range of exciting and challenging outdoor activities and more day-to-day tasks. This methodology is inspired by Peter Renshaw’s (2021) research into creative and impactful ways of walking and talking alongside children as they explore the natural world.

Aside from collecting feedback from the students who are pioneers in the Pymble long-stay program, canvassing parental expectations and feedback is another important part of the research. Special consideration as to the timing of data collection was considered, especially about questions exploring whether parents had noticed changes in their daughters following the camp.

Students as researchers

There are many stakeholders in the results of the research. These include students themselves who are interested to see if their own attitudes and traits changed before and after the program. The research team looks forward to working with our students to design further research where students take the lead in asking questions of most value to them. Parents will have a chance to reflect with their children on the outcomes of the program.

Looking ahead

The Head of Outdoor Education at Pymble, Nick Wilkesmann and his tireless team will certainly look at results to inform decision-making for the second Year 9 residential camp in two months time. St Ignatius College, Riverview are also eager to learn from our research to help formulate their outdoor education program in the future.

There is a real excitement around this inaugural outdoor education program for students – we cannot wait to learn from the data and use the research results to make future iterations of outdoor learning more beneficial for the learning and wellbeing of young people. 

References

Renshaw, P. D. (2021). Feeling for the Anthropocene: Placestories of living justice. The Australian Educational Researcher 48 (1), 1-21.

Prejudice reduction education: Setting the direction

A research project with Professor Fiona White from the School of Social Psychology at the University of Sydney has resulted in a student-developed, anti-racism and prejudice reduction curriculum. Four lessons, as well as a pre- and post-survey, have been piloted by Year 12 students to help students prepare for the transition to post-school tertiary environments and the workforce.

The story behind the research began in 2021 with a group of students who met with the Intercultural Prefects to discuss ways to prevent microaggressions and prejudice, such as was being witnessed around the world in the wake of COVID-19 outbreaks. The students compiled an extensive literature review and a suggested range of lessons around topics of identity, stereotypes, policy and psychology. Even with comprehensive information on what issues needed to be raised, questions emerged as to the best ways to deliver education around race, diversity and allyship.

With the generous assistance of the Pymble Parents’ Association in the form of a professional learning grant, Head of Secondary Wellbeing, Mrs Melissa Boyd, and Dr Sarah Loch from the Pymble Institute engaged Professor Fiona White to consult with the group. Professor White shared her recent work from the ABC TV program, The School That Tried To End Racism, as well as academic papers and research instruments appropriate for a school community. The group began working with new language to describe in-groups and out-groups, prejudice reduction and cultural awareness.

A series of online meetings with Professor White enabled the students (by now in Year 12) to refine their initial ideas into specific wellbeing lessons which were part of the Pymble Directions program. As part of a staff professional learning session, the students presented their program to a group of K to 12 staff for feedback before running a training program for the teachers who would lead the sessions. The lessons followed the following three focus areas:

• Racism and its reduction through identifying similarities and differences: Where does racism stem from and how can we reduce it? 
• Anti-Racism and Allyship: Understanding and deconstructing racial stereotypes
• Underrepresentation in Media: Let’s talk about race and media

Survey research in the form of an online pre- and post-survey is enabling us to measure the impact of the lessons. Using Professor White’s Cultural Issues Scale, ratings of blatant and subtle prejudice are measured. Pleasingly, the results showed a significant increase in cultural metacognitive intelligence and the lessons could have contributed to this. 

The Anti-racism Allyship group of Year 12 2022 students have left a legacy for future student groups to continue building upon. The students who took the lead in this area are Faye Chang, Isharah Hewavitharana, Fiona Fu, Isabella Ho, Isabelle Chen and Samira Toor, and the College thanks them for their transformational efforts.

Illuminate 7 – Knowledge for a better world

Learning at Pymble is the inspiration for this edition of Illuminate: Research and Innovation. In educating students to explore what matters to them and to see themselves in futures they may not have imagined, staff who model curiosity and a hunger for learning are setting a great example. In developing the enduring virtues of intellectual tenacity and rigorous scholarship, staff and students think critically, creatively and collaboratively, with commitment to decisive action. 

Edition 7 is available here.

Publications from the Pymble Institute

Edition 2 of the College’s student research journal, Perspective, is now available.

The Illuminate, Edition 6, takes the theme of wellbeing and presents papers through a range of lens, including music, literature, resilience, rites of passage, mentoring and learning.

Editions of Illuminate are available here. 

To contact any authors, contact the Pymble Institute on pymbleinstitute@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au.

Perspective – Pymble’s student research journal

The 2nd Edition of the student research journal, Perspective, was launched at the Student Research Conference in May 2022. It celebrates the scholarship of students from Year 7 to 12, including exemplars of research in Extension Science and Extension History. These courses provide excellent opportunities for student research, which in turn provides a firm foundation for embracing extensive inquiry and research projects at university. There are also articles from students who entered competitions, such as The National History Challenge, and who completed passion projects in courses or on their own.

The research topics indicate areas of interest and importance for young people, including equine health, the future of coal, Australian First Nations’ history, culture and truth telling, feminist perspectives on history, curatorial policies in Australian museums, Chinese-Australian culture and Little Big Histories of everyday items like chopsticks and paper.

We are proud to give our students a voice and a way of communicating their research to the world.

Perspective, Edition 2, is available online – Perspective Edition 2

For the complete list of Pymble Institute publications, visit the website.