From the Director of the Pymble Institute

Research typically takes a long time and the duration is often key to phases of reflection which add to the richness of the output. For the past year, I have been involved in an incredible project with a group of graduates from my school which has focused on the communication of research and practice. The (now) ex-students – graduates of Pymble’s class of 2022, Fiona, Faye and Isharah – began working with me and fellow teachers in 2021 on an anti-racism initiative which resulted in student-devised, prejudice reduction curriculum being developed and implemented.

Professor Fiona White from the School of Psychology, Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney, was our academic guide throughout the journey. Her expertise supported us to develop three lessons on unconscious bias, microaggressions and casual racism. Many of you will have seen Professor White in the ABC TV series, ‘The School That Tried to End Racism’ (Karabelas, Woodward, Foley & Ozies, 2021), where she was the academic advisor. Professor White’s expertise in the field – plus her experience in working with schools – helped us conduct research about the efficacy of the intervention. We used an instrument from Professor White’s research, the Cultural Issues Scale (CIS) (White & Abu-Rayya, 2012), which allowed us to craft a pre- and post-lesson survey to evaluate their impact. The Cultural Issues Scale measures blatant and subtle racism by asking respondents to rate the seriousness of scenarios including making a joke about someone’s background and not enrolling a student in a school because of their culture.

The College’s research involved around 200 Year 12 students and indicated that, prior to the lessons, ratings of both subtle and blatant racism were low in the cohort. The post-intervention survey revealed a reduction occurred in both subtle and blatant racism. There was also a rise in students’ metacognitive cultural intelligence which could likely be attributed to the impact of the three lessons. This finding was very reassuring to the project team, but we wanted to go further.

The students felt strongly that we had an important story to tell about how student voice contributes to curriculum development in the area of prejudice reduction education in secondary schools. Since December 2022, Faye, Isharah, Fiona and I have met regularly via MS Teams to construct an article which captures how the project came about and what it achieved. We have journeyed through the students’ new life phases of receiving their HSC results and university offers, attending ‘O’ week, starting university courses, tackling end-of-semester exams, moving dorms, and even moving countries to take up study at Oxford! Writing in a scholarly way with ex-students about a school-based project is not a common undertaking and we often felt we were in new territory. We look forward to the paper soon being published which will be a happy achievement.

Through co-writing, these young scholars have gained insights into how academic journal articles are written and they will soon have a publication under their belts. However, this will draw our post-school, online catch ups to a close. I will formally let my Principal know the partnership has ended, and I’ll cease taking notes to document the meetings. We will close off the always-open Google documents we have been working in for this past year. These three ex-school students, now university students studying law, economics, politics, gender studies and philosophy between them, have made an unusual and unique contribution to literature. I can’t wait to follow their research careers from here!

References

Karabelas, J., Woodward, J., Foley, E., & Ozies, C. (2021). The school that tried to end racism. [Documentary series]. Screentime Pty Ltd.

White, F.A., & Abu-Rayya, H.M. (2012). A dual identity-electronic contact (DIEC) experiment promoting short- and long-term intergroup harmony. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 48, pp. 597–608.

Working with a visiting academic: Dr Debra Dank

It was a privilege to welcome Dr Debra Dank to the College as the inaugural Pymble Institute Fellow. Debra is a Gudanji/Wakaja woman whose Country is in the Barkly Tablelands in the Northern Territory. Her research in semiotics resulted in a dissertation plus her celebrated book, We Come With This Place, which tells stories of her home, her Country. Debra’s scholarship in language, literacy, communication and semiotics brought many opportunities for staff professional development and Pymble benefited from Debra’s teaching through her week with us.

The experience of hosting this very talented educator, writer and scholar has made me think about the many privileges related to education and the privileges of learning in such an intimate and embedded way from a researcher-in-residence. If you are considering an ‘in residence’, fellowship or guest lecturer program, what type of learning will be transformative for your school or organisation? How ready are you (collectively) to be challenged and to grow?

With Dr Dank, we have learnt about alternatives to binary systems which make sense of the Gudanji concept of Mankujba. Mankujba expands the English language dichotomy of yes/no, black/white, and man/woman by encouraging a multilayered and multidimensional approach to understanding the world. The week with Debra afforded us the privilege of intersecting with new ideas and practices on multiple occasions and we deepened our understanding of Debra’s work and her world. You might find a similar matrix of activities works for you if you have the privilege of inviting a researcher, scholar, artist or performer-in-residence to your community. Look for the inter-connections!

Our matrices with Debra included:

• Welcoming yarn with students and staff at the College’s Yarning Circle
• Interview with students at assembly
• Presentation to the Pymble Ethics Committee to discuss Indigenous research methodologies
• Exploration with the English Department of texts by Indigenous authors, Aboriginal English, standard English and other languages
• Discussing Aboriginal Studies projects with Year 12 students
• Visiting Junior School classes to learn together
• Sharing the PhD journey and stories of writing, methodology and Country with the Education Journal Club and Junior School Research Club
• Being guest of honour at the Pymble Staff Book Club to discuss her book, We Come With This Place, which was nominated for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award (Non-Fiction)
• Mentoring Pymble Institute staff in initiating a research project with First Nations ex-students

With Debra’s mentorship, the Pymble Institute is exploring how we can conduct research into the experiences of First Nations ex-students who are now in post-school education and careers. It has been a privilege to meet online and face-to-face with ex-students from all around Australia and overseas to hear of their success in areas including speech pathology, medicine, entrepreneurship, art and design, and education, as well as parenting, community work and maintaining responsibilities to family and Country. On behalf of the Pymble community, we extend sincere thanks to Debra for her generosity, kindness and wisdom. Debra opened many eyes to issues which all educators should strive to improve and to research approaches which can support this.

Sharing research findings

Victoria Adamovich, Research Assistant at the Pymble Institute and teacher in Pymble’s Junior School, writes about ways to share research findings.

My research journey began with a desire to understand. As an EALD (English as an Additional Language/Dialect) teacher, I wanted to understand what factors impact the wellbeing of my EALD students; including migration and parental pressure. The various steps of the process – such as drafting a research question, reading literature in the field and collecting data – helped me as a researcher to put a framework around that understanding. The last, and perhaps the most important part, is to share my findings.

The act of writing my Masters thesis has been, at times, both lonely and invigorating. Lonely, as it is me, the researcher, alone with my data (the transcripts) and I have been weaving my narrative and setting my results among other researchers in the field. This has extended my knowledge, but it has been both contradictory and confirming. At times, my writing process has been invigorating. There are clarifying moments where my own understanding has been furthered and the process of writing has untangled difficult themes in my head. However, how many people will read the thousands of words sent back and forth with my supervisor at each draft?

I understand now why academics present at conferences and why the university has ‘staged assessments’ which are short presentations, followed by a critique or a question and answer session. A fifteen minute presentation may seem to trivialise the years of work! But, I found the act of summarising succinctly my research and findings sharpened my thinking. Having an audience to present to was crucial in distilling my research around simple fundamentals such as “why”, “how”, “what”, and “so what?”

Following the presentation, the critique afterwards can be sobering. However, again, it is another necessary and useful part of building understanding. My supervisor, Associate Professor Chris Ho at UTS and Dr Sarah Loch at the Pymble Institute were clearly aware of this, and have both encouraged me to seek every opportunity to present my research. Since starting my research, I have presented at the Pymble Institute’s research conferences; at the NSW Teachers’ Guild; at staff meetings in the College; to the UTS Diversity and Social Inclusion Research Group; and in the AIS EALD network meetings. In November 2023, I will present at The Australian Sociological Association conference in Sydney.

Each audience brings different perspectives and questions to challenge my work and point me in new research directions. I have learnt more about the Masters and PhD journey from fellow researchers and have met other academics studying in similar fields. I have also gathered important feedback from teachers. Since my research topic is on migrant families and children, the most nerve-racking presentation will be to share my research with them. Excitingly, I have had great interest from families at the College, and I am working with the Head of Wellbeing to frame a series of parent workshops to present the research and discuss findings. Of course, there is a whole universe in academic publishing and journals that I have not entered. Nor have I, so far, toyed with the digital megaphones of X (Twitter) and LinkedIn to share my understanding.

There are many useful websites with suggestions for sharing research findings:

https://creative.vic.gov.au/resources/audience-research-toolkit/analyse-and-report-results/how-to-share-your-research-findings

https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/how-can-you-share-your-research-findings-more-widely

Postgraduate Spotlight: Kim Maksimovic

We warmly congratulate Pymble’s Director of Futures and Partnerships, Kim Maksimovic, on completing her Masters of Education Learning and Leadership at the University of Technology Sydney. In December, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is recognising Kim with the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts Award for Achievement in Adult Education and the Outstanding Student Award for Postgraduate Students – Master of Education (Learning and Leadership) (MEDLL) – an excellent achievement on top of completing the course and managing full time work and parenting two small children.

In this interview, Kim shares insights into her decision to enhance her skill set with a Masters Degree.

You already have many years’ experience as a leader. Why undertake educational leadership studies? I wanted to understand the role that research plays in forming approaches to practice, as well as experience the application of research and theories to different industries. I could also see ways that tertiary study could reinforce professional learning done in the school, such as the NESLI (National Excellence in School Leadership Institute) course we had done at Pymble. My studies helped me to further apply those concepts.

What were some highlights of your course? I gained exposure to the perspectives of learning and development professionals within a range of sectors, including law, health, government, education and technology. This came via interaction with my peers in the course and some fantastic case studies. These gave me transferrable applications of learning to my daily work, and it was easy to see how I could apply learning from my Masters to my role at Pymble. Conducting action research and looking at change theories and models really helped me to grow in my confidence to be more analytical about my approaches to projects and initiatives.

Did you experience any challenges in studying at postgraduate level? I was very well supported by UTS and, in particular, Ann Reich, the Coordinator of the MEDLL course who encouraged me throughout my degree. I worked full time and had two babies in the time it took me to complete the course. I first exited with a Graduate Certificate after having my first born and then, I re-entered the course to complete it at Masters level whilst on maternity leave for my second born. Although it took me longer to complete the course, I did it in a way that was suited to my lifestyle. The support of my husband and in-laws who stepped in when I had weekend or evening classes was pivotal. I’m very grateful to my family for their encouragement of my studies. It does take a village!

Can you share any helpful approaches to postgraduate studies that you discovered? When work commitments conflicted with webinars or assignment deadlines, the university teaching staff were always flexible, empathetic and easy to access for assistance. I could see they were realistic about the demands of postgraduate study and supportive to help their students succeed. They walked the talk! I also tried to apply what I was learning to my work to provide further meaning and to keep me motivated. I found that sharing my learning with my colleagues also helped to refine my ideas and responses in assignments. Some Pymble staff also completed the course with me so it was great to bounce ideas off each other for assignments and to contextualise how we could apply our learning to the College context.

You’ve received recognition through two Dean’s Awards. What do the awards mean to you? They were definitely a surprise. I never win anything! It means a lot to be recognised for my efforts. I am truly humbled and appreciative of the learning experiences within the MEDLL course. The connections I have made with the academics and my peers are ones I very much value.

Do you have any advice for people considering postgraduate study? Adult learning is so different to doing an undergraduate degree. It gives you further purpose and can help grow your curiosity with new skills and perspectives. I found it also gives you confidence to network and build connections with others within and external to your industry and this helps to highlight the skills you have that are transferable to a range of leadership and diverse career pathways.

You can also see Kim and fellow MEDLL graduates in this short clip from UTS where they discuss the course.

Conversing about research with confidence

How can we engage busy teachers with research? This is a creative question we ask at Pymble and it’s one we know is relevant to colleagues in other schools. Victoria Adamovich, the Research Assistant for the Pymble Institute, has been piloting a new initiative called the Research Conversations Club. It is currently running amongst our Junior School staff and is opening up conversations in, and confidence, with research.

We know that teachers want to read more widely in their field and they want to wrestle with the world of research but there are many competing priorities on a teacher’s plate, as well as school-driven initiatives that fill up staff days and professional learning time. It can be hard to find a space to read and discuss research.

What are we trying with our Junior School team? “Essentially, it’s like a ‘bookclub’. This way everyone understands the format”, explains Victoria. Each month, a research article is shared with Junior School teachers, along with a succinct summary of the article’s key points and a set of discussion questions. The club meets in the staff room and discussion begins with those who pop by. The atmosphere is low-stakes and friendly. Even if teachers have not had time to read the article, they can bring their lunch and listen to the conversation.

The following readings have been chosen around two of the College’s strategic pillars, as examples of a way to approach reading journals in a learning context:

Digital Intelligence Topic: Robotics: Platforms, Competitions and Expected Learning Outcomes

S. Evripidou, K. Georgiou, L. Doitsidis, A. A. Amanatiadis, Z. Zinonos and S. A. Chatzichristofis, “Educational Robotics: Platforms, Competitions and Expected Learning Outcomes,” in IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 219534-219562, 2020, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3042555.

Academic Intelligence Topic: Tutoring. Does Inequality Stay in the Shadow? The Cross-national Effects of Educational Equity on Private Tutoring and Student Achievement

Wiseman, A. W. (2021). Does Inequality Stay in the Shadow? The Cross-national Effects of Educational Equity on Private Tutoring and Student Achievement. International Journal of Educational Research, 109, 101808-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2021.101808