Wednesday 5 September 2018

How can one work with an interdisciplinary model in school?

Working with the developmental system approach - can we successfully use an interdisciplinary approach in schools?

When working with children in a school environment often the issues or problems are perceived from an narrow perspective - from inside the school and the immediate relationships the child has in school and their attitude towards learning and their behavior.  While parents are ‘invited into school’ to discuss issues and problems regarding their child’s negative school contributions, it is often the school that has an established behavior and sanctions system (which parents and children have to sign up to when their child joins the school). To deal with the negative behavior or attitude the child may go onto a report or log which teachers and tutors and Heads of Years will monitor each lesson and daily and the parents check every evening for instance.
Whilst these are all important and relevant, it is also necessary to include external factors, such as home life, parental engagement with the child and the child’s own experiences, hopes and dreams.

To adopt the disciplinary approach, one would need to establish a system using all contributors: those working in the school, the local community, and the child’s family. You would need commitment from all parties to have success.

Perceived barriers could be:
- Parental disengagement from the system
- A lack of confidence the system 
- The perceived cost of time outweighing the benefits long term
- Manpower 
- A lack of support from leadership

Ways that you might be able to have an influence on these would to work alongside professionals and passionate individuals from a range of backgrounds and knowledge and experience to establish systems of accountability and success. Create a team.
Alongside this, the support and cooperation of the child is vitally important. The system almost needs to empower the child so that they feel a sense of responsibility for the positive change and parents also have to take a strong committed role whereby they are supporting the child first, before the school, and work to establish a positive relationship with them.

Barriers here could be: parental working conditions, poverty or wealth, home life, external influences such as peer groups, antisocial behavior  from the parents, poor home environment, illness and so on.
Therefore it is important that when systems are being established there is communication between the teachers and staff and parents. Barriers need to be identified and not shameful for the parent to admit. Schools and local services need to recognize that these barriers may not be in the parents control and therefore help needs to be offered. This might be guidance and/or advice. But in order for the child to successfully benefit from the system, these all need to be addressed and all people involved need to work together.
 I suppose this sounds a lot like community.

Welcome

Welcome to wellbeingwithrosie’s blog


If you have made it here then we (most likely) already share a lot in common, or perhaps you’re looking into wellbeing & what it means to you... or perhaps you are here because you are opposite to me. For whatever reason, you’re welcome.

A little about me - but not too much!

I have moved to the Netherlands with my bf. he got a new job offer here and we thought why not? It offers a chance to start a new kind of life, to try something new and to challenging ourselves in many ways. So we quit our jobs, packed up our houses and drove my tiny car full to the brim onto the ferry and successfully made the crossing to NL.

The hardests thing so far (other than missing our friends & family) is the language. Although everybody we have met so far speaks English (or Engels), it is mine and my bf’s interest to learn the basics of Dutch. He - for work. Me (Ik I should write) - so that I can integrate more into society here. Both of us - when we are traveling around to smaller, localized areas of NL bikes, we shouldn’t assume that the people living there will speak English. This would be narrow minded and lazy. Thus we battle on with our languages learning and question Dutch people we meet about pronunciation. So far, nee goed!

Before we moved I was a Secondary School English Teacher for 11 years, plus my training year, and over that time I have seen the system go full circle.

I worked in six schools in my 11 years. I valued every experience - even though it was hard making new acquaintances and new professional relationship and learning new systems - but I don’t believe I would have made the professional progress I did made without moving schools. If you’re a teacher and considering changing schools I would advise you to take that risk and experience working at a number of schools - you’ll gain an incredible amount both personally and professionally. And if it doesn’t work out, research the schools in the area where you’d like to live & apply to those that reach out to you and connect with your values.

I love being a teacher. I love working with teenagers (rather than primary school age) because they are bolshie, fun and make everyday different. I love working hard and researching and discovering new ways of teaching the curriculum to engage all learners. And to not get bored teaching!

However, towards the end of my previous roles, I felt as though I wasn’t finding time for the things that I love about the job, the things I love about working in a fast paced school environmental and the things that kept me in the professaion for over a decade.
Those things were:
- Research
- Relationships
- Extra Curricular
- A sense of humor 
- Personal Development: my own interests and looking after me.

And that is why I am dedicating time to wellbeing. My own. Others. Everyone. 

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