Impact on student engagement and self-efficacy

https://player.vimeo.com/video/1015035008

[On-screen text: Impact on Student Engagement and Self-efficacy]

[On-screen text: Zack Haddock, Yorta Yorta, Executive Director, Koorie Outcomes Division, DE]

Zack Haddock: But we all know how important student self-efficacy is. And when a student sees that they’re being listened to, that their opinions are being valued and that is cohesion between the parents and the school and a lack of conflict between those two environments.

It makes for a really safe, welcoming and warm environment and that’s going to have our students feel more, not only more connected, but also more empowered to contribute and commit to their education.

[On-screen text: Chris Bush, Head of Student Voice and Leadership, University High School]

Chris Bush: The sessions meant for the students involved at our school that they felt that our school deeply cared about them and acknowledged them and was willing to listen and to learn from them and so the campfire conversation for our school meant that our students, with our help, formed an Indigenous student group. And that group is working on initiatives such as our mural project, such as more prominent Acknowledgments of Country and the reviews of the humanities and history curriculum. Without that student group being formed, those students wouldn’t feel as empowered or as listened to.

After the campfire conversation the next steps will vary for different schools. For our school in particular, it’s meant that we’ve changed our student leadership models so we have diversity and inclusion and community engagement roles specifically for students and in 2024, we’re really excited to have an Indigenous student as a part of those, that leadership portfolio.

It’s the start of a journey and it’s going to take consistent and applied effort to lead to change in our school. A campfire conversation is a starting point, but it’s a really, really powerful one because it brings together members of the school community who perhaps haven’t been listened to or consulted to before.

[On-screen text: Colleen Garner, Mara, Koorie Education Coordinator, Outer East, DE]

Colleen Garner: What it meant for our students was their voice was heard and their voice was valued in that campfire space. The connections between the students, as I said, was really important as well. Staff really listened to the young people and listened to their ideas, so it would be lovely to see now what comes of that moving forward. And I know for me, I’ve only been a short time working in the Koori education workforce, it’s only been six years, but in this short space of time, just to see the growth that’s happening and for our kids to know who the other Koori students are and feeling more connected.

I went to one of the campfires and it was the only school that had done it this way but the students actually led the campfire. So they led the introductions, they led the questions, we had a lot of community members come into that one, so there were elders in that circle and we had a neighboring school come and it was just, I don’t know, to walk away and have that special feeling of watching these young leaders, lead something. Normally, students would be really nervous. We know that our teachers were really nervous to lead the campfirebut to see our students lead it, it was next level and their voices were really loud and really heard in that campfire.

[On-screen text: Merle Miller, Yorta Yorta, Wiradjuri, Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Inc]

Merle Miller: I went to another primary school and they invited a variety of parents and the kids. Before that, they actually interviewed some kids and asked them their thoughts. So while we were sitting around yarning, they had the kids, they did a kids discussion up on the wall and we could see it on the screen. It was wonderful because they knew they weren’t going to get everybody that night. So that process I thought was a fantastic idea. The school has, I don’t even think they were on the list to do the campfire conversations, they just put their hand up and said they’re going to do it and they’ve had multiple since. Now, that’s a success story because they want to, you’ve got to want to not just do it because you’re told to.

[On-screen text: Stephanie Raike, Head of Wellbeing and Support, Elisabeth Murdoch College]

Stephanie Raike: One of our alumni students who came back to be part of the conversation and he reflected that he didn’t realise the opportunities to connect at school and that that was something that he missed after he left EMC and that he didn’t realise how safe he felt in identifying at school versus in the workplace, and that he actually felt quite disappointed in himself in not standing up more to be a role model for younger students. And from that story that he shared, we’ve actually worked really hard with our alumni students to make sure that we’re reaching out to them, giving them opportunities to come back to the school and to stay connected and that’s something that’s been a bit of a shift since the campfire conversation, so I think that story, you know, it was a bit hard to hear because, you know, you don’t want to hear about any of your previous students having a rough time but to hear that he felt safe at EMC and he wants to do better for the youngest students and that turned into something you know, another example of a campfire having an outcome and that wasn’t just feedback to the department, but feedback to the school to do something differently.

What the campfires have meant for students is that they had a platform, they had a platform to share in front of their peers, their family, their teachers, their school staff and other community members about what they were thinking, what they were feeling and what their hopes are for their education and the education system. And that platform was only step one, you know, in the time that’s passed since the campfire at Elisabeth Murdoch College we’ve seen them create their own platforms and demand their own platforms to have their voices heard.

We’ve seen students present to principal class. We’ve seen students provide feedback to other forums in communities of practice. We’ve seen students come forward and say, we want the uniform changed and that’s something that’s going to change the face of Elisabeth Murdoch College now with a change to sport uniform with a design by Kyya Nicholson Ward, a really proud young Aboriginal artist.

And another story we heard from the campfire was from a young Wiradjuri woman who spoke about being part of a process to develop an anti-racism policy at our school with a teacher. Teacher, because writing policy isn’t really the forte of a lot of young people. And she spoke about how empowering it was to not just celebrate her culture but also address some of those things that weren’t going right and for her, how it felt to take back a little bit of that power to try and make some change.

And I think that that theme of the power and being involved in the changes is something that the campfire really brought about for our school, is that you cant, or you shouldn’t be doing something without someone. It can’t be for someone, it’s going to be with someone or supporting them to do it their way for themselves. Like, the solutions sit within Community for the issues aren’t resolved yet and I think that was a little example of a young person stepping up and saying, we need an anti-racism policy. I don’t know how to write it. Teacher, you do your teacher thing but I know what needs to be in it. I know how we need to get this out to the young people and she actually did a lot of the consultation out with young people and it’s a stronger policy for it. Is it the answer to everything? No, but it’s a really great start and when you involve, for example, young people, Community in some of those actions, which campfire was the start of it makes me think that these kind of things are going to work because that’s the whole idea of it, isn’t it? Is that you do it with people rather than for people.

[On-screen text: To hear more about what was shared, access the full report: www.vic.gov.au/marrung]

[End transcript]

Updated 29 October 2024

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