VIRTUAL: Applying Education
Abstract
The Future of Work is happening now, not on some far horizon. But in the future, work might be different to what it is now, so how does a school design learning with confidence, when what’s ahead is so uncertain? Teaching for Complexity has informed a combination of practices. This includes and Education to Employment programme with weekly paid work experience, the development of Makerspace as a safe place for learning with technology, and an interative Future of Work curriculum design process. The authors believe that preparing young people for their Futures in Work is a key responsibility of a high school, and that learning design is best done in partnership with those already in the world of work. Our context is complex. Manurewa High School is based in South Auckland, a region that has a large and growing proportion of the city’s youth. Our school roll of 2000 students represents 50 nationalities. The largest groups are Pasifika, Maaori and Asian. Through the mashing of culturally diverse perspectives, we believe our young people are uniquely shaped by their community, and therefore well placed to serve society that is increasingly complex. However, our young people – growing up in low-income and/or welfare-dependent households – do not start on the same line when it comes to learning equity. Many families have been welfare-dependent for five years or more, and lack the networks that can inform and inspire young people for their futures in work. Often growing up in damp and mouldy homes, our community is over-represented in statistics for poor life outcomes in health and education. We have been building an ecosystem of partners around the school community since 2015. The partnerships bring funding, resources and knowledge. There is complexity within the network, not only in the types of capability offered, but in the people and lived experiences they bring. There is reciprocal learning as they become mentors, curriculum co-designers and connectors.
Leanne Gibson leads the Manurewa High Business Academy in its mission to foster students’ creative, enterprising and entrepreneurial potential, working in partnerships with alumni, business and tertiary providers. She advocates for the community to create opportunities and resources that allow students to “tino rangatiratanga”, which means in Te Reo Maaori, to self-determine their futures. She has been a gig-economy worker most of her life, built around her Communications skillsets. She loves working in the connection space and creating value through collaborations.
Pete Jones is the Principal of Manurewa High School. He is originally from the UK and has a BA from Liverpool University, a PGCE from Birmingham University and an MSc from Manchester Metropolitan University. Pete taught in Manchester for 10 years and then worked in the furniture industry. He came to New Zealand in 2006 and restarted his teaching career at Manurewa High School, becoming Principal in 2016. He is driven to provide a culturally sustaining curriculum that is relevant for every student, and that prepares them for a successful future in which they are happy, confident and proud of who they are, where they come from and where they are going.
Emma O’Riordan is the Director of Disruption in the Manurewa High Business Academy. She is an innovator of learning tools and programmes that draw on her past lives as a teacher of Maths and Business. She studied in Ireland and taught in England before coming to New Zealand. She leads our Makerspace and has developed new curriculum around its technologies that allows for students to have agency in their learning. Her continuous reinvention as a teacher aligns with her belief that education has to be relevant to its time, and prepare students for change and complexity. Her hope for her students is that they can be global citizens who can excel in any situation, creating opportunities for themselves and others.
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Wednesday 26th April, 2023