Barry Down

This brief identifies the key findings from research into the initial years of the implementation of The Big Picture Education (BPE) design for learning and school in five quite different high schools. We were keen to learn how school communities effectively implement a Big Picture Academy or Big Picture Education orientation within an established school. A previous report1 explored the outcomes of research into how student engagement, learning and aspirations develop in a Big Picture Academy or School. We have included the key findings from that report in a table on page 3 of this brief.

This brief outlines a map developed from research into the implementation of The Big Picture Education (BPE) design for learning and school in five quite different high schools. In this research we were keen to learn how school communities effectively implement a Big Picture Academy or Big Picture Education orientation within an established school. Out of this research we were also committed to providing school staff with ways of understanding their progress, reflecting on their progress and planning for maturation of the implementation of the design. We hope this map will make a contribution to that goal.

School transformation takes time, perseverance and courage as old practices are replaced with alternative school cultures, pedagogies and structures. The Big Picture Education (BPE) design1 for schooling endeavours to provide a personalised, engaging experience for students and teachers and in the process, to rediscover the joy of learning. These aspirations require enormous amounts of belief, focus, commitment and hard work by those involved. Importantly, as we shall see throughout this report, it is essential that schools build alignment, coherence, leadership and sustainability into their design processes(2)…

Three education-related organisations have been communicating for years about working together to enhance the relationship between teaching, teacher education and research. The current policy context surrounding teaching in Australia is clearly one that calls for greater alignment across all components and stages of the teaching profession, including pre-service teacher education and the continuing professional learning of in-service teachers. There is also a need for greater knowledge mobilisation and transfer to strengthen the links between research, policy and practice in education. This was identified, for instance, in recommendations from a Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) report calling for an 'integrated system' where 'higher education providers, school systems and schools work together to achieve strong graduate and student outcomes' (2015, p. vii). The project reported here aimed to gather information from across the education field to support greater alignment for an integrated system, and generate recommendations to sustain existing educational research and consolidate development leading to research-rich and self-improving education systems in Australia. The perspectives of teachers, educators, system leaders, education researchers and teacher educators are central to this aim as they are the source of current practices and future ideas, issues, challenges and opportunities that will enrich system-level improvement in Australian education through research.

This report identifies the key findings from a research project into the early implementation (the first 20 months) of the Big Picture Education (BPE) design for learning and school 1 in five different schools in Western Australia. The aim was to understand better how student engagement for learning and aspirations develop in a Big Picture context. These findings are reported more extensively in a series of Research Briefs, Combined Reports and papers. 2 Our goal in this document is to bring the findings together into the one summary report.

This report draws on empirical evidence from an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project (LP110100031) entitled 'Getting a job': Identity formation and schooling in communities at disadvantage (Down & Smyth, 2010) - a project which traced the experience of thirty two high school students over an eighteen month period in the years 2011-2013. The purpose of the research was to listen to young people's stories with a view to better understanding the barriers and obstacles to 'getting a job' and from their vantage point, identify the educational, policy and practice context that needs to be created and more widely sustained to assist their career aspirations and life chances. As Wyn (2009a) puts it, we need to investigate the 'disjuncture between educational policies, which continue to frame education within an industrial model (instrumental and vocationalist), and young people's own requirements- the capacity to be good navigators through new economies, to live well, and to engage with complexity and diversity' (p. 49). The underlying proposition of this research is that when young people fail to find a job, then as a society we are all worse off: (a) young people fail to realise their potential and make a meaningful transition to a rewarding adult life; (b) the wider community is deprived of the valuable contribution young people could be making; and (c) society and the economy is unable to access the unique valued contributions that can be made by young people (Smyth & Down, 2005).

Too many young Australians, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances, are not benefiting from the rewards of education and training. For others, there is a growing sense of frustration and alienation about the kind of education they receive, and from their point of view school is boring, irrelevant and disconnected from the world they know. For many, there is a lack of personal connectedness and meaning as their own needs, desires, aspirations and interests are denied in large high school settings where the focus is on subjects, timetables, discipline, didactic teaching, examinations, and classroom-based learning. These historically persistent and protracted problems have preoccupied policymakers, researchers and school reformers for the past sixty years or more. Whilst hardly new, the issue of student (dis)engagement is an increasingly urgent public policy matter not only in terms of economics - cost, productivity, global competitiveness, innovation and human capital, but also social cohesion, mental health and wellbeing, social justice, and democracy itself. At a time when young people face an increasingly volatile and uncertain future due to the impact of globalisation, deindustrialisation, technology, and job insecurity, schools are under pressure to resolve some complex social, economic and political problems not always of their own making. Ironically, schools are often perceived to be a part of the problem and also the solution. Against this broader backdrop, this report attempts to identify, map and describe the experiences of students, their parents/carers and teachers attending schools in a range of sites across Australia adopting an interest-based approach to learning. The intent is to illuminate the experiences of these participants and, from their vantage point, better understand how this approach might address questions of student engagement, school reform, school leadership, curriculum, organisation, assessment and school-community relationships.

Young people of school age are switching off and disengaging from schooling at unprecedented rates; especially in low SES school communities. Between 30-40% of young people are not completing 12 years of secondary education. If you happen to be Indigenous, poor or live in rural and remote communities, the figures are progressively worse. This failure to achieve high levels of school retention and student engagement represents a significant and intractable problem for individuals, families, communities and governments. We are all worse off when young people fail to realise their potential and do not make a meaningful transition to a rewarding adult life. The implications for the individual and society are long lasting and costly in both human and financial terms.