Paper presented at the Joint Annual Conference of AARE and NZARE, held in Melbourne, Vic 29^th November to 2^nd December, 1999.

Abstract: This paper will present the conclusions from a research project concerned with the literacy practices of students attending a rural secondary school. There are negative discourses about students who attend less privileged schools, of which rural schools are one example.

This research project has been concerned with the fact that students attending rural schools are educationally disadvantaged, and fail to achieve, on average, the academic credentials of those attending metropolitan schools. I chose to use literacy as a lens for the research, as literacy is both a key attribute for success in education, and as it was my key interest in the field of education.

The difficulties with the research were centred around the existence of misinterpretations of the importance of literacy, and the nature of the literacy required at school.

This paper will summarise findings from a research project examining literacy amongst a group of disadvantaged students. The students who were the focus of this study were based in a rural secondary school.

I am investigating the nature of the educational disadvantage being experienced by students receiving their education in rural locations. High quality outcomes in rural education are vital for students participating in rural education, for their families and for their communities, and for the future development of rural Australia, given that rural people have the deepest knowledge of both their social and physical environments. I am asking questions about what is happening at a school in rural South Australia I have called Gleesonville High School. I have used literacy as a lens for this research, as literacy is integral to learning that occurs in school, and is a key to proof of knowledge and ability as senior school credentials are achieved. In this paper I shall use examples and discussion concentrating on senior students, however some year 8 students, the first year of secondary school schooling in SA, were also included in the research.

Firstly, to explain what I understand the term literacy to mean. I use Gee’s (Gee 1990, 1996) definition of literacy, that a person is literate when they are fluent in a secondary Discourse. Thus a literate individual is someone who is fully socialised into a set of social practices associated with an institution or set of activities beyond the social unit where initial socialisation occurred. Gee uses the term ‘Discourse’ to mean

To be fluent in a Discourse, as Gee uses the term, requires use of language and appropriate social interaction, plus knowledge and adoption of the underlying ideology. Becoming socialised into a new Discourse takes a considerable time, and in the intervening period new participants in a Discourse ‘make do’ with a less than fluent ability to participate. Gee indicates that Discourses are both learnt and acquired, that is participants are both instructed and enculturated into these new social practices. That is, students both learn and acquire the social behaviours and knowledge of content areas of study, or Discourses, in which they are studying. These young people are rewarded for making progress in becoming learners within a Discourse, with the expectation that they will be fluent only to a limited degree. My research is concerned with barriers that are making it more difficult for these disadvantaged students to make the progress expected of them as students, progress towards becoming participants in various content area or subject specific Discourses. For such learning to occur effectively an environment needs to exist where students receive instruction appropriate to their needs, that is where socialisation occurs, accompanied by learning, to enable conscious reflection and meta-knowledge of the content area (Gee 1990).

This research is a result of personal concerns about the educational disadvantages being experienced by students completing their secondary education in rural schools. These students are less likely to complete their schooling to the end of year 12, are less likely to choose subjects which will enable them to be offered places in the more prestigious tertiary courses, and on average receive lower marks when studying the same courses as metropolitan students. These trends, as a long time rural resident, seem unfair. Another impetus for my study was the negative attitudes of many local people towards the secondary school attended by many of the young people of my rural district. What was happening in this school which influences the learning and acquisition of literacy, and as a result, the learning outcomes of these students? To restate my questions, what sociocultural, cognitive and linguistic barriers in this school are there to meeting the literacy demands of the curriculum in post-compulsory schooling (Cumming, Wyatt-Smith, Ryan & Doig 1998a, b; Wyatt-Smith & Cumming 1999)?

Gleesonville High School is situated in moderately prosperous agricultural district of South Australia, serving a district extending over forty kilometres north and south of its site and at least twenty kilometres east and west. A significant number of students are bused to the school, either from farming or viticultural properties, or from the small communities around Gleesonville. In common with many rural areas, average incomes and educational qualifications are lower than for the state as a whole. Historically there is considerable diversity in the district in socioeconomic status, ranging from historically powerful and wealthy families to other families who are struggling to survive and dependent on social security payments. The high school was established in 1920, drawing families to the town at that time. The size of the school has fluctuated as the economic fortunes and the population of the district has changed. The observation phase of this research occurred after a rationalisation of senior classes forced on the school by a revised staffing formula and reduced student numbers. A significant number of senior students left the school at this time to attend other schools in the metropolitan area or a nearby regional centre.

Observations occurred in year 11 classes of physics, English, geography, and physical education and photography. Data collected include class transcripts and observation notes, transcripts of student interviews, copies of set assignments, and copies of student work. In this paper I shall use some short transcripts from the English, physics and photography classes to illustrate some of the characteristics of the school learning environment of these students.

The excerpts I have chosen are typical of what occurred in these classes, and were chosen to demonstrate the types of conversations that often occurred between the teachers and their students. In the English and physics classes these incidents occurred when the whole class were involved in discussion with their teacher before moving to another related activity. These incidents illustrate teacher assistance to students to enable them to achieve the learning and completion of a task that was the goal of the teacher at that time. The incident from the photography class occurred as the class were working independently and nearing the due date of an assignment. The fourth excerpt is part of a conversation between the physics teacher and myself, chosen to indicate some of the ways in which the teachers at GHS thought about their students.

The first excerpt is part of a transcript of a year 11 English class of students taking the studying the prerequisite course for the year 12 publicly assessed English course. The lesson took place towards the end of the first semester. The class had viewed The Man from Snowy River, read some Australian ballads, and at this point was about to view the final ten minutes of the video Crocodile Dundee. Afterwards these students were to commence an initial draft of an essay about portrayal of the Australian image, drawing on the texts shared in class, together with any other material they might wish to include.

The purpose of this conversation was to prepare students for the final few minutes of viewing, and to assist the students to think about the texts they were soon to begin writing about for summative assessment.

Most of the teacher’s turns in this excerpt commence with an evaluation of the preceding student turn, proceed to further elaboration, development of a slightly different idea, and then another question of the class. The teacher does not seek ideas from the class, but instead is modeling the expression of his own thinking and ideas about the video. The questions at the conclusion of the first three turns by the teacher:

These point to a limiting in the range of the thinking by the students. These questions are guiding the students to remember specific factual information from the videos. The questions are clearly directed towards particular incidents, and framed with the intention of the students being able to answer correctly, with short factual answers. The teacher has assumed the role of introducing and discussing ideas and making links between the texts.

The work the students were required to do in this excerpt was quite different to the work required of them to satisfactorily complete their writing. Several lessons later many of the students indicated they were finding the task very difficult, with many of them appearing to be working quite slowly, as they struggled with personal doubts about what they were writing. The most difficult aspects of the task were deciding on their own ideas about the image of Australia to discuss, and including some discussion of the poetry in their work.

The physics class differed from the other classes observed. The students in this class were also half way through their first semester studying a subject new to them. Their teacher was consciously teaching and modelling to the students how to think through and solve problems, draw and label diagrams, write equations and definitions, and to conduct experiments as students of physics. The content of the course and of working as physics students were both consciously being taught to these students.

At the start of this incident, there were no volunteers when the teacher wanted to have students share the work they were to have completed the day before. This was a common occurrence. In the absence of a volunteer Frank was nominated, and found himself under considerable pressure from the teacher to answer a series of questions:

1. Conservation Law of Momentum? What did you write for that?
2. What’s it mean?
   2(a) In the absence of what?
3. What should be unchanging?
4. There are a few key things that Frank had in that. Can you pick them out Frank? 4(a)Three key things in that definition. Read it again.
5. Now, a system, what do you mean by a system?

Frank responded to the first question by reading his answer, and gave a paraphrase of the same answer in response to 4(a). Frank was being pressured by his teacher, an approach that in the long term term achieved the opposite of what the teacher would have preferred, an unwillingness to ask questions, and to reveal a need for assistance. Zoe stated in her interview, ‘and I don’t feel like asking him questions, because he will think we are really dumb.’ Student questions enable instruction and experiences in a class to be structured to the needs of the majority of the class or to individuals, and also enable students to be more in control of their learning (Jones 1991).

The practical subjects are on average preferred by rural students (Department of Education and Children's Services 1994). Observations suggested that students at GHS in the more practical classes of photography and physical education were often more self-directed than were many of the students in other classes, working cooperatively and assisting fellow students who were experiencing difficulties. However, photography was the only technology subject offered for year 11 students at GHS at the time of these observations, with students as a result needing to participate in the more academic theoretical classes with differing literacy demands, for example the English and physics classes already mentioned. This class consisted of ten students, including four female students. At the mid-point of the semester course these students were nearing completion of several assignments. The work of these students involved the developing and printing of a number of photographs they had taken, and a written critique of that photographic work. There was an additional assignment to be completed about the nature of photography.

In this excerpt it is evident that there was considerable diversity in the stages at which the students were working. Here one of the male students in the class gained specific assistance from the teacher preparing chemicals for some developing which needed to be completed. From the transcript the teacher appears to be adjusting the level of assistance required as he talks, moving from telling the student the temperature needed for the water, to actually providing physical help with obtaining the water, and directing the student to a chart to ensure that the correct time using the chemical is ascertained. This student is receiving assistance with a process that other students have completed successfully, or were currently working on. Perhaps the answer is given in this way to speed the progress of the student, and to reduce the amount of teacher time required. This incident differs from the previous two in the opportunity for, and preparedness of, the students to ask questions of their teacher. Both of the students included in this excerpt wish to go further in their work than simply using the chart provided for calculating developer times. However, the teacher’s answer to the question of the female student about what ‘reciprocity failure’ draws a brief answer about the basic chemical outcome, rather than an explanation which would assist the student to understand the term, be able to use it themselves, or to understand the vocabulary usage.

The final excerpt indicates some teacher opinions about the students at GHS, and some of the ways of working of a group of students in the physics class. This excerpt is principally a private conversation between the teacher and myself while the students were working quietly on set class work. Many teachers engaged me in conversations about my research, and about what I thought about the school, to gain some answers to the questions they had about their students. The physics teacher and I were talking about an assignment that students were to finish soon, an assignment dealing with the illustration of vector forces. The objectives in many SACE courses require students to present information in ways in addition to the written assignment, including for physics students oral presentations, posters and models.

The teacher had found this group of students disappointing in their attitudes, expectations and work practices. In this except the teacher alludes to student ideas about what constitutes school work and school learning which differ from the intent and objectives of SACE. This teacher has identified an important problem for his class as the intention of the students to acquire the knowledge rather than understanding (cf. (Anyon 1980, 1981; Jones 1991). This teacher labelled the students as resisting human agency and resistance (Giroux 1983) due to their unwillingness to work in particular ways in class, including engaging in conversations about the nature of physics and applications of physics. Another important issue that is highlighted in the excerpt above is student organisation and ways of working towards the completion of assignments. The ways of working of these students has emerged in the research as an important issue. Work is viewed by many students as a mechanistic exercise, something that needs to be completed, with many students not aiming to achieve more from the exercise than the desired completion. The learning is incidental, and a responsibility of the teacher for many students, rather than something to be monitored by students (Jones 1991). This incident highlights the focus of the students on a mechanistic approach to ‘work’ at school, rather than a willingness to engage in schoolwork at a more intellectual level, or even the awareness for many students that this is what is required of them.

The excerpt above were chosen both because they are typical of much which occurs at GHS, and for what they illustrate about students at this school and their learning. Observations and interviews with the students indicated that few students understood what constitutes sound and effective work for students, or how to achieve this. Another important factor to emerge from the research is that many of the students have poor metaknowledge about their schooling, for example the nature of the requirements of SACE, the courses which their school is able to offer them, or the requirements of their post-school aspirations.

The classroom observations revealed that few students ask questions. The students appeared detached from their learning, and were often tired and bored. When questions are asked these are not usually ones which guide the direction of the learning, and have the potential to indicate to students other levels of thinking about the concepts being taught in class, or of alternative ways of expressing and understanding that content. Instead students often ask procedural questions, with many students making do with incomplete knowledge of content. Observations also revealed that teachers tended to see it as necessary to provide much structure in the classroom. At the same time there was little guidance for the students in relation to the structuring of their writing, making choices about what to include in their texts, and practice talking about opinions and ideas which are to be expressed in written texts in ways appropriate to the content area. These are practices and abilities that often take time and considerable effort by students to master satisfactorily.

There was limited interaction between teachers and students, rather it was predominantly teacher directed learning, with teachers providing what it is they perceive their students as needing at the time (Anyon 1980, 1981). This is difficult for teachers to decide appropriately when they hold negative impressions about the abilities and interests of their students. To maximise the learning of literacies, and to obtain the best possible educational outcomes for students, there needs to be accurate knowledge in the school and with teachers, of the abilities and knowledge and aspirations of the students.

Anyon, Jean 1980, 'Social class and the hidden curriculum of work', Journal of Education, 162(1) pp. 67-92.

Anyon, Jean 1981, 'Social class and school knowledge', Curriculum Inquiry, 11 pp. 3-42.

Cumming, J Joy, Wyatt-Smith, Claire M, Ryan, Jill and Doig, Shani M 1998a, The literacy-curriculum interface: The literacy demands of the curriculum in post-compulsory schooling. Executive Summary. Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, and Griffith University. Research project funded by the Commonwealth Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs.

Cumming, J Joy, Wyatt-Smith, Claire, Ryan, Jill and Doig, Shani M 1998b, The Literacy-Curriculum Interface: The literacy demands of the curriculum in post-compulsory schooling. Final Report. Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs.

Department of Education and Children's Services 1994, Improving Learning Outcomes for Country Students. An Information Paper for Comment and Response.

Gee, James Paul 1990, Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses, Falmer Press,, London, UK.

Gee, James Paul 1996, Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses, Taylor and Francis, London.

Giroux, Henry A 1983, 'Theories of reproduction and resistance in the new sociology of education: A critical analysis', Harvard Educational Review, 53(3) pp. 257-292.

Jones, Alison 1991, "At School I've Got a Chance" Culture/Privilege: Pacific Island and Pakeha Girls at School, Dunmore Press, Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Wyatt-Smith, Claire M and Cumming, J Joy 1999, 'Examining the literacy demands of the enacted curriculum', Literacy Learning: Secondary Thoughts, 7(2) pp. 19-31.