Bronwyn Ewing, Grace Sarra

Culturally responsive pedagogies and community cultural wealth: mathematics education in juvenile detention centres in Australia

Contact Author: Bronwyn Ewing (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

^{a b} Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, 4000, Australia

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

In 2016 we embarked on our Indigenous Discovery project (ARC IN150100045 - 2016-2023) with the aim of developing new knowledge and understandings that explain the efficacy of mathematics instruction at one juvenile detention centre in Queensland, Australia; and to enhance engagement in learning that built on the children’s maths knowledge and experiences. Very little is known about schooling and the types of programs, instructional strategies and curriculum used in juvenile justice systems. This paper responds to this gap by identifying instructional strategies for educating children in juvenile detention in Australia, namely, Culturally Responsive Pedagogies (CRP). We describe CRP as a way of life, of seeing the world and a way of taking action against injustice. We explain the significance of understanding community cultural wealth and capital, namely aspirational, linguistic, familial, social, navigational, and resistant capital. We used thematic and social network analysis to identify the pedagogical approaches and associated strategies for teaching mathematics to children in juvenile detention. From this identification we developed CRP as a culturally appropriate way to support Indigenous students’ maths learning while in juvenile detention. However, the application of CRP was limited by teachers’ struggle to know how to be culturally responsive. It is important to note that teaching in the Centre was found to be highly complex because of the nature of the school, the different backgrounds from which the students came, their diagnosed and undiagnosed disabilities and learning difficulties and their lived experiences beyond the Centre walls.

Francis Stonier, Guimin Su, LinLian Gao

Kindergarten STEAM training in Chongqing

Contact Author: Francis Stonier (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Southwest University, Chongqing, China 400715

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Kindergarten in China begins at age three and continues for three years until elementary school. It is the western equivalent of two years of pre-school and the traditional view of kindergarten. Elementary then beginning in all settings at grade 1. In recent years a number of deans and principals of Chongqing kindergartens have expressed interest in receiving professional development in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) curriculum activities. Looking at STEAM training among Chinese teachers, let alone, kindergarten teachers is likely the first of its kind.  In turn one of the chief aims is to see how this type of training is received among participants. The introduction of STEM/STEAM has only been a recent occurrence in the Chinese educational system.  This study shares findings from three separate professional development sessions ran for different groups of Chongqing kindergarten teachers and administrators. The sessions were all face-to-face and hands-on learning experiences. Lengths of time varied somewhat as did the size of each group. Chinese language translation was provided for all sessions. Activities will be further explained. At session conclusions, participants were provided a link for an online survey, however, the first training session were given a paper version. Completion was voluntary and 148 responses were received from participants.