School+Context



**SCHOOL CONTEXT**  //__**I**__ ////__**MPORTANT NOTE: This wiki has been designed for MSL students and staff. In the interests of the on-going changes and discussions around a potential "merger" I have chosen not to identify my school.**__ // 

The school at the centre of the Action Research is a small-medium secondary college located in the Eastern Metropolitan Region. Demographically, the area has changed, and enrolments have peaked in the past at around 1,100 but now the population and enrolments are declining, with a current enrolment of 520.

The college has a SFO of 5.9 and 35 EFT staff, but the figure is closer to 48 with part time staff making up a sizeable proportion. More importantly, there are a large number of staff who have been at the school for 15 years plus, and three staff members who also went to school at the college.

**WHAT ARE THE ISSUES ** **? **   Declining enrolments have meant few new teachers in the past few years, and a staff profile which is heavily weighted in the “Expert Teacher” area. After a stable period of about 10 years with the previous principal, the past three years have seen the Region withdraw the position of Principal pending the negotiations around a “regeneration” project, which has now come to fruition. This will mean that the school will merge with another nearby college within the next few years. The announcement, together with the principal’s decision to implement radical changes at the Junior School to introduce an integrated learning model, and the proposal to extend the model into Year 9 in 2010, has seen a period of unrest.

In 2008 the College received its Performance and Development Accreditation, but little change in teacher practice outside the small number of Junior School teachers, is evident. There is a sense of “contrived collegiality” in the approach to new initiatives, and that after an initial push for implementation, teachers revert to old habits. The department’s implementation of “e5” provides an opportunity to develop an understanding of teacher resistance to assist in ensuring that this doesn’t become another “accountability” measure, but in fact provides an opportunity for real change in teacher practice.

This Action Research project offers the opportunity to develop an understanding of teacher resistance with a view to supporting staff through the impending and on-going changes at the college.