The goal I have chosen from my
interdisciplinary map is in the area of support services. The
present difficulty with support services is they tend lack a shared “empathetic
horizon” and shared language (Thomas Mc Donagh Group, 2013).
Most of the reading for week 31 is
around integration within educational contexts.
This blogpost is looking at integration between services. “It seems
oxymoronic that literature acknowledges the benefit of interdisciplinary
scholarship, advocating that “it likely yields more innovative and
consequential results for complex problems than traditional, individual research
efforts” (Amey & Brown 30), yet institutionalized traditions
within academia continue to stymie interdisciplinary efforts” (acrlguest, n.d.). This quote refers to
academic fields but equally applies to educational/social service fields.
The ideal would be an integrative model
where the distinctions between subject areas disappear and there is a global
approach (Mathison & Freeman, 1997). Again this refers to
academia but can be applied to support services.
The following analysis intends no criticism
of individual agencies which all work to their brief nor to the dedicated and
passionate professionals who work within them.
When a child is struggling in the whole of
their life, within school it presents as learning and/or behaviour
difficulties. Educators know this is the
often the tip of the iceberg and we also know that the within school
presentation is the only one we can really influence.
It is hard to get help but the most
disappointing thing is once external help is allocated, it is very narrow in
its focus. So each agency only does one
thing. We often find there are
combinations of parenting, social need, mental health, nutrition etc which we have to address through separate
agencies. For RTLB or Learning Support
we are coached in providing positive behaviour management systems which is
sometimes frustrating as that is our “bread and butter” and we know there's a
much bigger picture to deal with.
Sometimes educators have to make a
notification to Oranga Tamariki (ex CYFSs).
It could be for a loving family that is struggling and may need parental
support for positive behaviour management (for instance). The result of the notification (which is
mandatory) is one of the parents ends up prosecuted, no further help comes to
the family and the family leave the school because they don't trust the school
any more. The child may also be on
Learning Support or RTLB, or both. The
school may be liaising closely with the public health nurse. There may be cultural support and connections
in place. Yet there is a lack of
integration beyond what the school itself provides.
The Ministry is beginning to address this
problem. There is talk of a new delivery
model with six key elements to support ORRs funded students and featuring a key
worker who coordinates services and monitors progress (Ministry of Education, 2017b). The Ministry is also
considering how Communities of Learning may prioritise and allocate support
services within the COL (Ministry of Education, 2017a). These would be steps
towards a more integrative model.
For my own short term goal I will aim to
avoid teacher disappointment by insisting that all support agencies explain
their function and limitations to the teacher they will be working with and at
the outset there is a clear agreement about the aims and boundaries of the
service.
REFERENCES
acrlguest. (n.d.). A
Conceptual Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration | ACRLog. Retrieved
November 3, 2017, from
http://acrlog.org/2015/05/14/a-conceptual-model-for-interdisciplinary-collaboration/
Mathison,
S., & Freeman, M. (1997). The logic of interdisciplinary studies.
Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research
Association, Chicago. Retrieved from
https://app.themindlab.com/media/32979/view
Ministry
of Education. (2017a, August). Extension of Learning Support Trials. Ministry
of Education. Retrieved from
chrome-extension://oemmndcbldboiebfnladdacbdfmadadm/https://education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Extension-of-Learning-Support-Pilot.pdf
Ministry
of Education. (2017b, October). Expansion of Learning Support Service Delivery
model. Ministry of Education.
Thomas
Mc Donagh Group. (2013). Interdisciplinarity and Innovation Education.[video
file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDdNzftkIpA
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