Partnerships and Intergration
Interface Learning: Learning Partnerships between Schools and Museums
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sally Thorhauge
The theoretical framework of my research on learning partnerships between schools and museums is inspired largely by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger-Trayner's theories about social learning and communities of practice, and springs from a holistic understanding of learning and learners. My previous research has centered around qualitative studies of museum-school collaborations of many different types. The qualitative methods I have employed when studying museum-school partnerships range from observations in the field, semi-structured interviews to action research. In recent years, my focus has been on transforming the didactic and collaborative practice of teachers and museum interpreters' through practice-based research in which they themselves are involved. A flexible collaborative model has evolved, which has at its center the concept of Interface Learning, a term I coined to indicate the learning that can take place when two communities of practice synergetically mesh and learn from each other. Teachers and museum interpreters report that they see their collaboration according to this model as practice-related continuing education and didactic and pedagogical training and development. Collaborating in this way is challenged by structural and financial constraints at both institutions. However, in Denmark recent reforms of primary and secondary education mandate greater openness between schools and the world outside them, not least heritage institutions, making for and encouraging professional collaborations between formal and informal learning environments.
Peer Mentoring through Social Media: A Worthwhile Approach in Enabling Education
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Bianca Price
Social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook have been widely embraced by students and increasingly educators are seeing these technologies as a valuable resource for enhancing the student experience, improving engagement as well as helping students build social networks and obtaining peer support. As many developed nations move towards universal higher education, many Australian Universities have implemented enabling programs to provide an alternative pathway into University. The shift towards widening participation stems from the Australian Governments approach to promote equal access to students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, there are numerous challenges with enabling education, most notably the level of support required by these students as well as high attrition rates. Consistently peer mentoring programs are found to be an effective for student’s personal development as well as their academic success. Accordingly peer mentoring has been found to improve the first year experience, increasing student retention as well as improving the interpersonal skills of the mentors. Guided by Social Learning Theory, this study explores if the benefits of peer mentoring are attainable with enabling students on a SNS. 237 students of a University enabling program were invited to join a Facebook group. The Facebook group is facilitated primarily by peer mentors under the supervision of a leader researcher. Employing a mixed methodology including interviews as well as using netnography, the Facebook group’s “online” content (i.e., the “Wall”) was examined to see how effective and beneficial peer mentoring is on social media for students in enabling programs.
Mapping the Socio-professional Integration of Muslim Minority Women in Education in Thrace
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Keratso Georgiadou
This paper focuses on the plight of Muslim minority women in Thrace, residing in the North- Eastern Greek province in all its three prefectures (Evros, Rodopi and Xanthi). There is evidence of increases in the number of female students in state and minority schools during the past years, their success in graduating from Greek universities and the adaptation of Muslim minority women to the information age. However, Greece’s economic crisis and the consequent austerity measures imposed by the EU, have resulted in new pressures on both the general population and minority Muslim communities that has made it harder to track the progress being made of the socio-professional integration of these women during this challenging time period. Collecting data concerning Muslim minority in Greek Thrace and especially minority women is not an easy effort. This paper will thus examine the available data about the professions that Muslim minority women occupy from information collected from multiple sources: public and private organizations, institutions, citizen service centers, local commercial and technical chambers, hospitals, municipal offices and other institutions. In addition, data from interview/conversations with Muslim minority women, will illuminate the agony they continue to experience as they pursue professional integration. Finally a set of proposals and thoughts on the empowerment and integration of Muslim minority women will be presented to illustrate the types of effort needed and the mutual respect among Christians and Muslims that is required in order to bring a sense of justice and lead to inclusivity among the communities of the region.
