All in the game of school : structuring a socially cohesive school

Abstract

This Educational Doctorate (EdD) comprises a portfolio of papers based on a research led school leadership initiative. The purpose of this initiative has been to build social cohesion in an Australian government boy's high school in Western Sydney, New South Wales - known hereafter by the pseudonym Broadacres Boys High School (BBHS). Throughout the portfolio, Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical concepts are mobilised to analyse how the constructivist relation between habitus and field is structured and structures the way the game of school is played at BBHS. The portfolio is organised into two sections, each of which articulates the impact of the broad and the specific restructuring of the field on the practices of the BBHS players as they respond to the changes. The first section (Part A) deals with the broad restructuring of the curriculum and teacher professional development through the Platform for Collaborative Education (PCE). The PCE aims to build a collective understanding about teaching and learning at the school by allowing teachers time for collaboration and reflection to develop their practice and increase their pedagogic and social capital. The second section (Part B) examines how the PCE is operationalised through a multicultural music and dance program, aimed at increasing the social and cultural capital of the students, to build social cohesion, and increase student participation in learning. This program contests traditional approaches to boys' education (competitive sports, outdoor adventure and physical challenges) through music and dance as collaborative activities that build social cohesion in a multicultural school community. The research emphasis on music and dance programs also provides boys with a critical perspective of the normative assumptions about the performativity of physically competitive masculinity by engaging with affective and co-operative learning. My leadership and research practices are critically examined to reflect my interpellation of this leadership project, to influence the social conditions, to build social cohesion, and to affect the climate and culture of the school. Bourdieu's theory of practice has been mobilised as a reflexive device to critique my motivation for leadership of pedagogical practice to consciously embed the student and community voices in the strategic structuring of curriculum, and to critique the knowledge that is transacted in this field. As a researcher, I reflect on the ways in which my analysis of the data is structured by my habitus and the high value I place on building social cohesion in BBHS. Importantly, the research demonstrates the effectiveness of leading professional interaction in a school that enables individuals to creatively approach the complexities of teaching and learning, so that students participate in an education that provides them with opportunities to be productive, successful and to enjoy themselves. It also demonstrates how a leadership project for school improvement that has been deliberately holistic, slow moving and contextualized, allowed the players in the field to develop interpersonal relationships through close collaboration, evaluation and reflection on the initiatives that have been introduced. Analyses of comparative annual school data from BBHS that records student achievement in national assessment for literacy and numeracy, behaviour management interventions (attendance, suspensions, awards) enrolments, retention rates to year 12, and post school destinations for leavers after year 12 from 2008 to 2014, indicate improvements. Evidence from interviews and focus groups with teachers and students at BBHS reveal that the social conditions of the school (the field) have been positively impacted upon by the research-based practice initiatives over a five-year period. These multiple forms of evidence suggest that the school has become more socially cohesive.

Date of Award	2016
Original language	English