Teaching and Learning with the Capabilities

1. Teaching and Learning with the Capabilities A Critical Capabilities Approach

2. Outline • Overview of project • Context • Australian Curriculum • Capabilities Approach: • Theoretical dimensions • Pedagogical resources • Project Goals / Aims • Literacy and Numeracy approach • Outcomes: • Success Indicators • Early findings • Conclusion

3. Leading the Australian Curriculum in Numeracy and Literacy: Two Year Project • Australian Curriculum and the Capabilities • Literacy • Catholic • Identities • Numeracy • Social justice • Ethical, creative and critically discerning learners • Building excellence • Number sense • Geometrical sense • Measurement sense • Context • Critical orientation Texts: print,visual , performance, digital • Reading Locating Understanding Critically reflecting • Composing • Perspective • Text strategies • Language use • Melbourne declaration • Capabilities historical • Australian Curriculum capabilities • Using the capabilities to frame critically discerning questions Critical Thinking and Reasoning

4. Leading the Australian Curriculum in Numeracy and Literacy: Two Year Project • Learning • Theories • Leading • Planning and Implementing • Models of leadership • Leadership role • Use of data to inform improvement • Leadership that builds on theories and research • Leadership that contributes to theories and research • Pedagogy for • Knowledge society / economy • Culture • Democracy • Working with leaders • Working with staff • Using data to asses and to discern success and plan for future action

5. Using Principles of Action and Design Based Research • Action Research • Critical and ethical participation for social change (Kemmis 2005, 2006; Kemmis and McTaggart 2001, 2005; Barazangi 2006 • Design Based Research • 1. Building a Rich Understanding • 2. Developing Critical Commitments • 3. Reifying Commitments into Design • 4. Expanding the Impact • 5. Making Theoretical Contributions (Bannan-Ritland 2003, Barab et al2007)

6. Setting the Context Melbourne Declaration: Goal 2 Capabilities and cross - curriculum priorities Social and political purposes Subject discipline Australian Curriculum Rationale All young Australians become: • Literacy • Numeracy • ICT competence • Critical and creative thinking • Ethical behaviour • Personal and social competence successful learners • confident and creative individuals • active and informed citizens Capabilities

7. Rationale: Australian Curriculum Dimensions - English

8. Rationale: Australian Curriculum Dimensions- Mathematics

9. ACARA and Policy Enactment: Curriculum Knowledge Connected Meta Curriculum: School and Classroom Culture Chosen Curriculum: Choice and Pedagogy Formal Curriculum Strand Strand Strand Core Curriculum Capabilities and Cross Curriculum Priorities

10. Challenge: Bridging Core and Formal Curriculum Knowledge Core Curriculum Chosen and Meta Curriculum • Choice • Learning design • Pedagogy • School culture Formal Curriculum ( Hill, 2010)

11. Teaching and Learning: A Capabilities Approach • Where did the capabilities come from? • What are the learning and teaching implications of a curriculum that emphasises capabilities and disciplinary practice as complementary aspects of curriculum knowledge?

12. Capabilities Approach for a Capabilities Curriculum • The philosophical-ethical ground of a capability approach • AmartyaSen and renowned social philosopher Martha Nussbaum define capabilities as: • effective powers of people to act as democratic citizens: informed, participatory and proactive • not simply inborn but must develop through learning means such as appropriate curricula and pedagogies • as an ethical principle of human social membership • all people are entitled to: • live dignified lives • full and meaningful participation in civic-social life • urgent for: • engaging the complexities of globalisation • Empowering all citizens – that is, success for all– rather than some at the expense of others. (Hattam and Brennan for CESA Stage 2 Research Project Support Materials 2010)

13. CA Values: Sen and Nussbaum

14. Capabilities : Educational Implications (Walker 2009, Kincheloe 2000, 2004, Robeyns 2005) • Intrinsic value of education and its functions, both for the individual and for society • Framework for the assessment of inequalities in education: suggests conception of effective opportunities • Informs pedagogy and models of curriculum that enhance freedom and agency

15. C.A. and continuities with Critical Pedagogy(Walker 2009, Kincheloe 2000, 2004, Unterhalter 2009, Janks 2010) • Critical pedagogy : engage with questions of • Power, Access, Diversity and • Opportunities to design social futures • Like critical pedagogy, capability approach situates education within a vision of social and human development • Both share the concern for the potential of education to enable the doing of good in the world • ‘challenge us to recognize, engage and critique (so as to transform) any existing undemocratic social practices and institutional structures

16. Critical Pedagogy for Transformed Relationships and Human Flourishing(Hart 2009, Terzi 2010, Robeyns 2005) Pedagogy as democratic process: • Ask how young people view their capabilities and their agency with regard to achieving valued ways of being and doing for themselves • Needs to be dynamic and iterative as the ways of being and doing that young people value may be subject to change as they grow and develop • Needs to be a sense of fluidity with opportunities to review, refine and reframe the capabilities identified on an individual basis

17. Capabilities, Experience and the Negotiation of Meaning(LeBmann 2009, Cormack 2007, Biesta, Osborg and Cilliers 2008 , Luke 2011, Harpaz 2005) The Usefulness of John Dewey • “learning as a co-operative task of the learner and the educator. The educator acts as a guide and supports the learner in framing purposes. This guidance is not a restriction but an enhancement of the learner’s freedom of intelligence (Dewey 1938, p. 71). • Use of experience as key unit for learning • look at the situation of the learner, i.e. • External conditions: • foregrounds interaction • highlights the importance social environment, contact and communication • Internal conditions: principle of continuity shapes the internal condition of the learner: past, present and future experiences are connected (LeBmann 2009) • There is no final truth of the matter, only increasingly diverse ways of interacting in a world that is becoming increasingly complex.’ (Biesta et al 2008) • Dewey wanted to reassert a science and philosophy that dealt with cultural morals and values. For Dewey, morality was a “practical sociocultural fact” from which all inquiry proceeded ( Luke 2011)

18. Capability Approach: Implications for Teaching and Learning Key features that influence design of learning: • Individual development through enhanced opportunity and freedom: • negotiate learning (within expectation of curriculum frameworks) • build knowledge and expertise collectively • systematic planning and teaching • purposeful communication of learning • Critical and creative thinking reflected by • approaches to questioning • teachers and students designing learning in response to critical, creative and personally connected questions • transformation of developing expertise in ways that are meaningful to the individual

19. Critical tools: Pedagogical Moments for a Critical Capabilities Approach(Cormack and Sellars 2006)

20. Community of Thinking(Harpaz 2005) • The practice of teaching and learning in a Community of Thinking is based on three stages: • fertile questions • research and • concluding performance. • These stages are supported by a continual process of initiation by which students form the common knowledge basis necessary for creating questions and conducting research.

21. Types of Questions for a Capabilities Approach(Harpaz 2005) • An open question • An undermining question • A rich question • A connected question • A charged question • A practical question

22. A Capabilities Approach to Curriculum Knowledge Key questions: • How will teachers and students critically engage with curriculum knowledge in ways that support democratic relationships? • How will we know that human flourishing is occurring through evidence of wellbeing , opportunity and freedom to exercise capabilities, and in ways that enable personal, social and political aspirations? • What will our indicators of success be?

23. Project goals: Connecting the Dimensions • Developing expert curriculum knowledge • Tying planning to pedagogy • Enacting pedagogy • Assessment • Reflection and Evaluation

24. The story thus far…… Articles from media used as starting points • Flood in Queensland Write a letter to Mrs Anna Bligh giving her your opinion and advising her of possible floods and measures to ensure minimal damage when the next flood hit Queensland. • Party invitation on face book Writing a brochure providing advice on child protection and internet usage. • Gulliver's travel story Use of literature and mathematical concepts

25. A Process for Thinking About and Critically Engaging with Curriculum Knowledge • Consider how questioning through the lens of capabilities references the content strands and possible learning events . • Consider how other capabilities and strands come into view when asked to think about each of the dimensions through critical questioning. • How do these activities engage the subject e.g. • the Mathematics proficiencies e.g. develop a disposition for analytical thinking • content descriptors in Mathematics and English? • How have these learning activities led students to an action through engagement with • functioning • capabilities development • opportunities to demonstrate agency?

26. Read the article focussing on the part starting from: “…they showed anyone who talks…” to “…dam above Brisbane had created misplaced confidence? (Wivenhoe had not yet been built)”. • Is the argument supported by the given data? • Can the flood pattern be predicted? • Write a letter to Ms Anna Bligh giving her your opinion and advising her of the likelihood of worse flooding in the future and of measures to ensure minimal damage when the next flood hits Queensland. • What numeracy and literacy knowledge is required to interpret this information? Which of the Capabilities and Cross Curricular Priorities could be addressedin such a text?

31. Critical questions: investigations of text in relation to other capabilities • Capabilities: ICT (Researching and designing • Use excel or any other graphing package to interpret and represent the data. • Choose the most appropriate representations for the argument. • Search for other data using the internet to present a comparative argument.

32. Capabilities Outcomes Human Flourishing • Engage with the complexities of globalisation, and the human aspects of all. Understand and respect cultural differences. • Empower all citizens – the activity encourage the students to learn to question information and to use data and to question data sources to discern the credibility • Agency • Build effectiveness to act as democratic citizens, be more purposeful, informed and proactive • become aware of others needs and to give others a human face whether it is nationally or globally.

33. A 35–year warning on Brisbane flooding ignored   • Mathematics content: Statistics as probability (Year 7, 8&9) • Identify and investigate issues involving continuous or large count data collected from primary and secondary sources. • Understand mean, median, mode and range; interpret these statistics in context of data. • Content: measurement and geometry • Different views of objects • Construct and deconstruct geometrical shapes.

34. A 35–year warning on Brisbane flooding ignored   • Mathematics content: Statistics as probability (Year 7, 8 &9) • Explore the practicalities and implications of obtaining representative data using a variety of investigative processes. • Identify everyday questions and issues involving at least one numerical, and at least one categorical, variable and collect data directly from secondary sources.

35. A 35–year warning on Brisbane flooding ignored   • Proficiencies • Use the information given to reason, prove, disprove, affirm the argument and suggest ways forward. • Fluency, use the information given and knowledge of mathematics to interrogate the argument put forward by the given data etc. • Use mathematical processes and undertsanding of statistics, probability and graphing. Suggest ways forward and initiate preparedness for other similar disasters by using problem solving strategies.

36. Outcomes, Provisional Findings and Insights • Using Capabilities to • guide questioning • structuring learning events • opens and enriches learning opportunities across all subjects • Success indicators as tools for evaluation: • Principles of democratic relationships articulated for students, teachers and leaders • Cross Disciplinary Effects • Convergence working at least on two planes • Knowledge • Practice • Classroom and school effects • Ground up leadership • Whole school reflection • Teaching as iterative process • Respect for complexity of teaching process • Opportunities for rich learning • Thinking Tools and Planning Tools • Conceptual development tool • Unit Planner for scoping and sequencing learning

37. Using Capabilities to Guide Questioning andStructure Learning Events • Learning focus engages • Socratic (critical) questioning • Capabilities • Cross curriculum Priorities • Content descriptions • Use of capability through activity that engages • Creative and critical thinking • Repertoire of pedagogical resources • Keeps student one step removed - reflect on capabilities of others i.e. participants in texts • Builds awareness • Invites rather than imposes identity work • Connected practically to application • Opportunities for reflection and evaluation occur as needed; is connected to the learning and life of the student

38. Success indicators as tools for evaluation:Embedding principles of democratic relationships

39. Success indicators as tools for evaluation:Embedding principles of democratic relationships

40. Success Indicators as Tools for EvaluationEmbedding principles of democratic relationships

41. Cross Disciplinary Effects • Convergence   can  exist  on at  least  two planes - knowledge and  practice e.g.: • Knowledge: • critical  approaches • discipline  e.g.  the  use  of  mathematical  knowledge  as metaphors for  learning  in  English eg space time  shape probability • language  in  helping  to  understand  mathematics • Practice: • Numeracy  and  Literacy practices  that  support learning: • collective work • developing a critical orientation • student  talk in  academic  discourse • the  transfer  of  student  talk  to the  doing  of  Mathematics  and  English

42. Classroom and School Effects • Ground up leadership Teaching teams experimenting with planning processes characterised by: • Use of cross disciplinary knowledge • Use of capabilities to structure activity • Use of capabilities to structure inquiry • Example Unit • Whole school reflection on capabilities • Engagement with whole staff and faculties • Curriculum leaders actively involved in reflection

43. Teaching as Iterative Process:Respect for complexity of teaching process • Risk in codifying complex classroom interactions into simplified models or frameworks • Details of “the complex orchestration of teaching as a whole” can be lost in frameworks which turn teaching into routine technical exercises • It is helpful to engage in dialogues about teaching and learning characterised by • heuristic investigation into practice • a learning space subject to a negotiation of meaning between participants • learning generated through a regard for knowledge as contingent and open to question

44. Next Steps:A question for gathering data and framing an evaluation • How will we know that leaders, teachers and students have demonstrated • functionings, capabilities and agency i.e. degrees of choice, respect for individual differences, human flourishing • commitments to equity and justice • respectful and democratic classroom relationships • critical disposition in classroom learning activities and the development of the general capabilities

45. Contact • stephen.kelly@cesa.catholic.edu.au • christelle.plummer@cesa.catholic.edu.au

46. References • References • Barazangi N., (2006) An ethical theory of action research pedagogy Action Research 4(1): 97–116 • Kemmis, S. (2005a) Knowing practice: searching for saliences, Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 13(3), 393–428. • Kemmis, S. (2005b) Is mathematics education a practice? Mathematics teaching?, in: M. Gooset al. (Eds) Proceedings of the Mathematics Education and Society 4 Conference (Brisbane, Centre for Learning Research, Griffith University). Available online at: http://www.griffith.edu.au/ conference/mes2005/pdfs/Kemmis.pdf (accessed 27 October 2005). • Kemmis, S. & McTaggart, R. (2001) Participatory action research, in: N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds) The Handbook of Qualitative Research (2nd edn) (Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage), 567–605. • Kemmis, S. & McTaggart, R. (2005) Participatory action research: communicative action and the public sphere, in: N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds) The Sage handbook of qualitative research (3rdedn) (Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage), 559–603. • Kemmis, Stephen(2006)'Participatory action research and the public sphere',Educational Action Research,14:4,459 • Bannan-Ritland B. (2003) The role of design in research: The integrative learning design framework Educational Researcher; 32, 1 • Barab S., Dodge T. Thomas M., Jackson C., Tuzun H. (2007), Our Designs and the Social Agendas They Carry THE JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES, 16(2), 263–305 • Hill P. (2010), ‘A national curriculum: looking forward An Australian curriculum to promote 21st century learning’, Education Services Australia • http://eqa.edu.au/site/anaustraliancurriculumtopromote21stcentury.html • Nussbaum, M. (2001), Symposium on AmartyaSen’s Philosophy: Adaptive preferences and women’s options, Economics and Philosophy , 17, 67 -88 • Rogers B. (1999): Conflicting Approaches to Curriculum: Recognizing How Fundamental Beliefs Can Sustain or Sabotage School Reform, Peabody Journal of Education, 74:1, 29-67 • Robeyns, I. (2003) Sen’s Capability Approach and Gender Inequality: Selecting relevantcapabilities, Feminist Economics, 9:2–3, pp. 61–91. • Robeyns, I. (2005) The Capability Approach—aTheoretical Survey, Journal of Human Development, 6:1, pp. 93–114. • Kincheloe, J. L. (2000) Making Critical Thinking Critical, in: D. Weil & H. K. Anderson (eds), Perspectives in Critical Thinking: Essays by teachers in theory and practice.p (New York, Peter Lang). Kincheloe, J. L. (2004) Critical Pedagogy. (NewYork, Peter Lang). • Sen A., (2005) Human Rights and Capabilities, Journal of Human Development6 (2) • Unterhalter E. What is Equity in Education? Reflections from the Capability Approach • Osberg D., Biesta G., Cilliers P., (2008) From Representation to Emergence: Complexity’s challenge to the epistemology of schooling, Educational philosophy and theory, 40 (1), 213-227 • Luke, Allan (2011) Generalising across borders : policy and the limits of educational science. In American Educational Research Association An-nual Meeting, April 8-13, 2011, New Orleans. (Unpublished)