Trusting Parents: the potency of truly, really, really, truly Partnered Learning Stories. 

Anna Jo Perry, Manukau Institute of Technolgy
Dr Jens J. Hansen, Woodhill Park Research Retreat 

In Aotearoa New Zealand, teachers are charged with writing stories about children’s learning stories.  They construct them from a professional perspective informed by and from the experience of what they see and their professional knowledge.  But when there is no language in common between the children and the teacher, more often than not, the teacher’s written perspective becomes contestable.  This presentation reconsiders the underlying purpose and methods of devising learning stories.  It does so by narrating how engagement was facilitated with newly arrived refugee parents and their children in the planning cycle.  Three lenses were used to achieve this: the child’s eye, the parents’ perspective, and finally, the teacher’s ‘informed’ viewpoint.  As a consequence, a richer deeper understanding of these children’s families and their learning needs unfolded and the potency of learning stories became appreciated afresh.  

References
Hansen, J., Perry A. (2007). “Ways of Seeing Revisited”: Introducing a way forward in visual analysis.  Early Childhood Convention Proceedings: 2007, Rotorua.

Hansen, J., Perry, A. (2009). Communities of Learning in Early Childhood Education: Supporting Reciprocal Relationships with Refugee Parents at the Centre for Refugee Education. CLESOL 2008 Refereed Conference Proceedings.

Once again, the abstract above provides only a modicum of material: to access the powerpoint presentation, click here.