Connect to teacher lifeworlds

Teacher-researchers work dialogically with the key ideas and their particular pedagogical challenges, developing these in conversation with their particular classes and challenges. That is, their ‘teaching lifeworlds’.

This approach draws on Paulo Freire’s (1970/1996) ‘problem-posing education’, which encourages critical thinking by addressing real-world problems and situations for analysis and change (see key idea ‘Activist orientation’). ‘Real-world’ problems are issues directly relevant to the teacher-researchers’ professional lives and communities. These are not hypothetical scenarios or abstract concepts, but tangible challenges that are contextually driven and that the teachers face in their everyday work. Facilitators of the action research process (whether colleagues or university facilitators) and the teacher researchers engage in dialogue as co-creators of knowledge, rather than the facilitators simply depositing information into passive teachers (see key idea ‘Perform learning’).

The key ideas that teacher-researchers are offered do not dictate particular actions but are non- the-less practice-focused. Teacher-researchers make interpretations of these ideas, drawing on their own professional, cultural and personal lifeworlds, and their conceptualisations of the purpose of each lesson and the purpose of education. This is a form of teacher ‘identity-work’ which acknowledges ‘that educator practices stem from how they conceptualise themselves as teachers, the purposes of schooling and their understandings of students’ (Vass et al, 2023, p. 105). Rather than scripted methods, the key ideas act as provocations to stimulate new pedagogical approaches to be tried out and developed in the thick of classroom practices. After all, as hooks explains ‘Teaching is a performative act. And it is that aspect of our work that offers the space for change, invention, spontaneous shifts, that can serve as a catalyst drawing out the unique elements in each classroom’ (hooks, 1994, p. 11). Importantly then, teacher-researchers’ use of the key ideas are made in response to and with their students and communities. In other words, teacher-researchers work dialogically with the key ideas and their particular pedagogical challenges, developing these in conversation with their particular classes and challenges, that is, their ‘teaching lifeworlds’. This resonates with the approach that Zipin and Brennan (2019) outline:

We argue that curriculum knowledge contents, practices and purposes should emerge from robust participatory-democratic processes that include students, school staff, local residents and knowledge specialists. Such processes should involve: (a) sharing of cultural ways of knowing that participants diversely embody; and (b) mutual growth in knowledge- abilities: capacities to work with/on knowledge to meet needs and pursue aspirations that matter among all who participate. (p. 56)

Another aspect of ‘connecting to teacher lifeworlds’ is about teachers acknowledging their own cultures and how this affects their practices and relationalities as educators (See key idea ‘Diversity as an asset’). Schools function as spaces of power, where knowledge systems are constructed and disseminated based on the dominant culture’s perspectives and values. These assumptions are deeply embedded within ideological practices that, whether intentionally or not, serve to perpetuate the marginalisation of Aboriginal peoples and other diverse cultural groups (Hogarth & Bunda, 2021). By teachers addressing their positionalities, they can work towards dismantling the taken-for-granted practices that reinforce systemic inequalities. While acknowledging that privilege is always entangled, dynamic, and intersectional, this work is particularly crucial for white teachers, who constitute the majority of the teaching workforce in Australia.

By focusing on real-world problems, the professional learning becomes immediately relevant to the particular needs and aspirations of teachers.

By focusing on real-world problems, the problems, the professional learning becomes immediately relevant to the particular needs and aspirations of teachers. It also enables them to draw on their own pragmatic and theoretical expertise to connect the abstract concepts of CRP to their concrete realities, making the professional learning more holistic and meaningful. This freedom allows educators to innovate, tailor their approaches to student needs, and engage more deeply with their subject matter. We have found in our research that when teachers are able to exercise their professional autonomy and pursue their educational aspirations, they often experience a renewed sense of purpose and enthusiasm for their work.

This is especially important at our current time, where teachers are leaving the profession in droves. Recent research here in South Australia highlights that as teachers’ workloads become more demanding and intricate, they experience decreased professional freedom and fulfillment and that teachers overwhelmingly feel that ‘their voices are not heard and their professional expertise is undervalued’ (Windle et al, 2022, p. 1). This is evidenced in policy responses to this complexity that wheal in professional learning that provides standardised scripts for teachers to robotically follow. Professional learning such as this stifles joy and compassion, leaving both educators and learners feeling disconnected from each other, themselves and their surroundings. The long-standing tradition of disrespecting teachers’ professionalism and ignoring their particular contexts:

generates in both teachers and students a sense of alienation and estrangement from self and the world. This in turn arouses deep anxieties and insecurities that interfere with cultivating and nurturing the political imagination, epistemological curiosity and the joy of learning necessary to our practice. (Darder, 2015, p. 51).

In this type of approach to professional learning, teachers are treated as objects to be directed and moulded, turning classrooms into sterile environments governed by impersonal standards, divorced from genuine human interaction and connection. By connecting to teachers’ lifeworlds (ie their pedagogical challenges, their aspirations for teaching and their positionalities) the CRP action research approach is very different. Many teachers report feeling invigorated and passionate about their role, finding joy in the creative aspects of teaching and the meaningful connections they forge with students. This positive environment not only enhances their job satisfaction but also contributes to a more dynamic and effective educational experience for all involved.

References

Freire, P. (1970/1996). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Penguin Books.

Hickey, A., Riddle, S., Robinson, J., Hattam, R., Down, B., & Wrench, A. (2021). Relational pedagogy and democratic education (New perspectives on education for democracy (pp. 200-212). Routledge.

Hogarth, M., & Bunda, T. (2021). How to make a school less white. In J. S. Brooks & A. Heffernan (Eds.), The School Leadership Survival Guide: What to Do When Things Go Wrong, How to Learn from Mistakes, and Why You Should Prepare for the Worst (pp. 347-362). Information Age Publishing.

Morrison, A., Rigney, L.-I., Hattam, R., & Diplock, A. (2023). Advancing culturally responsive pedagogy in an Australian context. In L.-I. Rigney (Ed.), Global perspectives and new challenges in culturally responsive pedagogies: Super-diversity and teaching practice (pp. 211-221). Routledge.

Rigney, L.-I. (2023). On the need for new culturally responsive pedagogies. In L.-I. Rigney (Ed.), Global perspectives and new challenges in culturally responsive pedagogies: Super-diversity and teaching practice (pp. 3-10). Routledge.

Rigney, L.-I. (2023). Teachers cultivating Aboriginal child as knowledge producer: Advancing Australian culturally responsive pedagogies. In L.-I. Rigney (Ed.), Global perspectives and new challenges in culturally responsive pedagogies: Super-diversity and teaching practice (pp. 10-20).

Routledge.Rigney, L.-I. (2024). Teaching through lifeworlds of Aboriginal children: Australian opportunities through culturally responsive pedagogies. In C. Brock, B. Exley, & L.-I. Rigney (Eds.), International perspectives on literacies, diversities, and opportunities for learning: Critical conversations (pp. 47-59). Routledge.

Rigney, L.-I., & Rinaldi, C. (2023). Teaching in cultural and linguistic super-diverse Australian classrooms: A north–south exploration of Reggio Emilia. In B. Fyfe, Y. L. Lee-Johnson, J. Reyes, & G. Schroeder Yu (Eds.), Affirming the rights of emergent bilingual and multilingual children and families: Interweaving research and practice through the Reggio Emilia approach (pp. 209-225). Taylor & Francis.

Sisson, J., Rigney, L., Hattam, R., & Morrison, A. (2024). Co-constructed engagement with Australian Aboriginal families in early childhood education. Teachers and Teaching, 1-15.

Vass, G., Lowe, K., Burgess, C., Harrison, N., & Moodie, N. (2023). Professional learning and teacher identity in Indigenous education. In N. Moodie, K. Lowe, R. Dixon, & K. Trimmer (Eds.), Assessing the Evidence in Indigenous Education Research: Implications for Policy and Practice (pp. 103-124). Palgrave Macmillan.

Windle, J., Morrison, A., Sellar, S., Squires, R., Kennedy, J.-P., & Murray, C. (2022). Teachers at breaking point: why working in South Australian schools is getting tougher (www.unisa.edu.au/contentassets/f84cdb683dbb42a09ae08abc55bd9347/teachers-at-breaking-point-full-report.pdf)

Zipin, L., & Brennan, M. (2019). Pursuing pragmatic-radical curriculum democracy: Students as co-researchers on problems that matter. In S. Riddle & M. W. Apple (Eds.), Reimagining education for democracy. Routledge.