'Raising Reading' in the community: A case study of praxis in practice

Abstract

In this article we present a case study of a school community engaging in what we describe as educational praxis - a form of committed learning to meet the needs of poor and refugee students in a disadvantaged community in Australia. The school, part of the Catholic systemic school sector in Australia, shares its site with the local Catholic parish, but serves a largely non-Catholic community with a high proportion of refugee families. In this case study, we examine and foreground what we describe as the ‘ecology of practices’ established in the site to address the learning needs of the students, (and members of the broader community). Specifically, we examine the leadership practices at a range of levels, the staff teaching practices, and the learning practices of students which arose in response to these preliminary practices. Data were collected through indepth individual and group interviews with participants from across the school community. We focus on one particular initiative, the ‘Everyone a Reader’ program to exemplify how this array of leading and teaching practices contributed to students’ learning. The research reveals that by deliberately and strategically taking a praxis approach, and looking at the range of leadership, teaching and student learning practices, and how they inter-related, we are better able to understand the conditions conducive to meeting the specific and challenging learning needs of students and the broader community, particularly in some of the most disadvantaged communities.