FORUM 385

Volume 58, Number 3, 2016

www.wwwords.co.uk/FORUM
http://dx.doi.org/10.15730/forum.2016.58.3.385

Transforming Pedagogy in Primary

Schools: a case study from Australia
ALYS MENDUS

ABSTRACT This article stems from a doctoral study about alternative education around
the world and the authors personal journey to identify characteristics of the ideal
school. The focus here is a case study of one small primary school in Australia, through
which it shows that there can be a larger amount of freedom and self-actualisation
available to students in the classroom even when a school is governed by teaching a
compulsory state curriculum. By sharing the story of this school, the article aims to
enable educators to reflect on how they structure classrooms and to offer ideas of
educating differently.

Introduction
This article is a case study of an educational alternative: a school called
Koonwarra Village School, in rural Victoria, Australia. Koonwarra Village
School, established four years ago, believes that
self-actualisation is best achieved through freedom. Internal freedom
in thought and expression, within an environment that is free from
overbearing authority, externally imposed rules and unnecessarily
prescriptive courses of study. Such freedoms are provided within the
context of a healthy and functional school community. (McKenzie,
2012, n.p.)
Koonwarra Village School is a small primary school that is part-funded by the
state and part-funded by parental fees. It is an innovative example of educating
differently as it illustrates how one school has radically altered its pedagogy
from many of its more mainstream counterparts.
At Koonwarra Village School, the students have learning contracts where
they are in control of a great proportion of their own time. They must reach
agreed learning goals each week as well as attend focus groups with children of

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a similar ability level regardless of age on particular subjects, thereby
ensuring they meet the requirements of the Victoria State Curriculum. All
students are aware of their level and progression, which is similar to the
expectations in UK schools. This approach is underpinned by John Hatties
(2008) work on Visible Learning in terms of clearly displayed learning
intentions and outcomes.
This case study has been developed as part of a doctoral study of
alternative education in which I have used autoethnography to explore ideas of
ideal education. In brief, autoethnography, as defined by Spry, is a self-
narrative that critiques the situations of self with others in social contexts
(2001, p. 710).
One approach that I have used is to become a school tourist, meaning
that I observe, question and occasionally teach in schools and other educational
places. I position myself as a cultural broker (Giroux, 2005), by looking for the
glow (Maclure, 2013) that I feel is the different character of each school. This
work has involved storytelling and journalling of my experiences of visiting
alternative schools around the world.
This article is largely based on my journalling from visiting Koonwarra
Village School in February 2016. It describes the school and several key aspects
of its innovative pedagogy, and finishes with an argument that other schools
might benefit from considering some of these issues in their own contexts.
Koonwarra Village School has agreed to be named within this article.

Narratives Koonwarra Village School, Victoria, Australia

Site Description
It was a beautiful day, hot and dry, with clear blue skies as we drove onto the
school site. I saw a school house, some building works and fabulous, tall old
trees. It felt like the place was glimmering. We were met by a friendly face and
together we helped unpack the organic produce into the school kitchen for the
weeks lunches. Fiona (the Founder and School Coordinator) took me on a tour
of the school site.
Fiona led me to the Sun Room, the space for the Year 1 and 2 children
(aged 5-8). It was a beautiful, light and open space, with available resources,
comfy book corners, some desks, a large carpet space, and a play corner,
looking similar to many carefully thought-out primary classrooms for the
younger ages that I have visited. However, the difference, as the class teacher
explained, was how she approached the learning and teaching and the
childrens involvement and motivation. She was about to start with maths where
she and her assistant both held small focus groups. In order to work on skills
previously introduced, the other children had access to several different
Montessori independent-learning resources to extend and deepen their
understanding at their own pace.

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Teacher as Mentor
Fiona took me to the older childrens classroom to meet Sarah and Dan (two of
the staff members). They have a large room, a computer room and a small focus-
group room. I stayed with Sarah for the first part of the morning, interested to
observe how a focused teaching group worked. Koonwarra Village School is
different from many mainstream schools that I have visited as the school views
the teacher as a mentor helping with the learning process. Sarah was getting
the group of nine children to think about skills needed for inquiry-based
learning by introducing a group work activity. The children split into two
smaller groups and one group chose to work outside. It was really interesting to
see the children visibly grow as learners as the group inside realised that by not
writing anything down they forgot their ideas. The group working outside
realised (with a little help) that their group dynamics had been challenging, as
they had not sat in a circle, but at different levels and distances from each other,
thus making it easier for one person to take over or another to remain silent.

Development of Skills in Working Together

Teaching group work skills seemed like a really sensible idea as it made me
think about the line between self-actualised learning (Maslow, 1943) and
democratic learning (Neill, 1960; Greenberg, 1995), understood in this context
as child-centred learning. At some democratic schools that I have visited, the
idea of offering a formal lesson on developing a particular skill, such as inquiry
or group-based skills, might be seen to contradict the philosophy; this is
because the students might not have suggested this lesson or even chosen to
attend it. I know that democratic education can be implemented in many ways,
but I am wondering if by giving the students the skills to work effectively in
groups, it could be seen as actually being more democratic as they are then able
to make a choice to use those skills, thereby achieving a higher level of self-
actualisation and freedom.

Personal Contracts and Self-actualisation

The week is organised into blocks of time, with each day starting from 9 a.m.
Each childs personalised timetable has specified focus groups that they need to
attend throughout the week. At the end of each focus group, the teacher may
give some follow-up work and a deadline for when the task is to be completed.
When the student is not in a focus group they follow their own personalised
timetable to guide them on the work that they can do independently. Students
are encouraged to not interrupt a mentor when they are holding a focus group;
it is clear on the timetable when mentors are floating and available for
individual support. The weeks work is clearly available as a display wall in the
main room, with subjects and levels and any worksheets or information on
resources. Within this plan there is also space for computer usage (including a

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free-play/games/Internet allowance) and electives for different afternoons such
as craft and sports (including snorkelling).
Each student has to organise their time at school to meet their objectives
by the end of the week. Every Friday, the mentors check each students progress
to make sure the work is completed, or if not, what extra support might be
needed. Any unfinished work has to be completed over the weekend and an
email is sent home to parents so they know what is going on. The contracts are
set at different autonomy levels, which range from more structured ones to
include daily checklists in the Sun Room to more flexible ones where students
have almost complete freedom regarding their compulsory workload. This
means that if a child chooses to spend the week reading a book instead of
completing their set tasks, the mentor waits until the Friday review to discuss
this. There is some flexibility to account for individual circumstances, such as
where they are not feeling able, for physical or emotional reasons, to engage
fully in academic work.
These timetables are complex and I could see they were a lot of work to
establish and monitor. Sarah explained that developing them took up most of
her Sundays, but that they were important as she really cared about offering
personalised learning. I asked some older students working independently what
they were doing, and why and how they had chosen particular tasks. One
showed me their contract and then led me to the learning wall to show me how
they chose their activities and what level they were working at. They told me
how much they enjoyed being in charge of their own learning and knowing
where they were going next.

Thoughts on the Day

What stood out to me as different from many schools that I have visited was
that not all play is continually supervised. Children had the freedom to explore
the extensive grounds, with hens, a vegetable garden and space for secretive and
adventurous play where trees can be climbed. This was possible as adults were
still around and available if needed.
The day had all gone so quickly and at 3 p.m. when I listened to the story
in the Sun Room I felt so much warmth from both the students and the staff
that I was happy to take up the invitation to go swimming in the sea after work.

Reflection and Conclusion

The pedagogy at Koonwarra Village School challenges traditional pedagogies
of many mainstream schools (such as single-age groupings, didactic teaching,
extrinsic motivation) but, interestingly, it also sheds light on approaches used in
some democratic schools (such as unschooling and child-led learning). As such,
it offers a new vision. It creates a story of hope and enables freedom that is not
utopian but human-scale where the staff are constantly learning, reflecting and

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refining ideas and working with the students to transform education for the
future.

References
Giroux, H.A. (2005) Border Crossings, Cultural Workers, and the Politics of Education, 2nd
edn. New York: Routledge.
Greenberg, D. (1995) Free at Last: the Sudbury Valley School. Portsmouth, NH:
Boynton/Cook.
Hattie, J. (2008) Visible Learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement.
New York: Routledge.
Maclure, M. (2013) The Wonder of Data, Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies, 13(4),
228-232. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1532708613487863
McKenzie, F. (2012) Koonwarra Village School Philosophy documents.
http://www.koonwarravillageschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/KVS-
Philosophy.pdf (accessed 1 June 2016).
Maslow, A.H. (1943) A Theory of Human Motivation, Psychological Review, 50(4),
430-437. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0054346
Neill, A.S. (1960) Summerhill: a radical approach to child rearing. New York: Hart
Publishing Company.
Spry, T. (2001) Performing Autoethnography: an embodied methodological praxis,
Qualitative Inquiry, 7(6), 706-732.
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/bkg/methods/spry.pdf (accessed 9 May 2016).

ALYS MENDUS is in her second year of a PhD scholarship from the

University of Hull in Freedom to Learn. Her key areas of interest are searching
for education for the future, societal change and alternative pedagogies. Her
professional background is as a teacher in mainstream, special schools, Steiner
Waldorf, home education and Forest School settings with children from birth to
adulthood. For further information on Koonwarra Village School:
[email protected] or www.koonwarravillageschool.org.
Correspondence: [email protected]

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