Who am I and where am I going?
The single outstanding feature of new economic and community conditions is contending with environments that contain new kinds of risks and dangers, problems and challenges. QSE 2010 points out that the most pressing concerns facing Queensland families and parents today are about children's physical and mental health, and about how their educational development will translate into constructive futures.
Queensland students need vision, plans and tools to navigate and negotiate their relations within families, and with peers, community members and others. They need the understandings and skills that will be necessary for them to care for themselves, mentally and physically. They need to be able to take some control over their lives, planning how and where they might live and work meaningfully and constructively.
The New Basics category, Life pathways and social futures, refers to that cluster of practices students need to master in order to flourish in a changing world. It involves both understanding the self and relationships with others, mental and physical health, and designing a place for the self in the changing contexts of work and community.
Because we are not certain that we know futures - the future of an individual, the future of the world, we best ensure that our students are prepared for uncertain futures by allowing diversity within a general framework that emphasises the value and, hence, relevance, of development of human qualities and potential.
An understanding of self involves knowing who one is (e.g. genetic makeup), where one has come from (e.g. some cultures place significant importance on knowing about connections to the past), and where one wants to go.
There are four New Basics organisers and they have an explicit orientation towards researching, understanding, and coming to grips with the new economic, cultural and social conditions. These four clusters of practice are deemed to be essential for lifelong learning by the individual, for social cohesion, and for economic wellbeing, as described in Queensland State Education 2010 (QSE 2010), which was published by Education Queensland in 1999.
As curriculum organisers, the New Basics will help schools, teachers and curriculum planners to move beyond a defence of status quo knowledges to a critical engagement with the ongoing change that characterises new times. The New Basics are predicated on the existence of mindful schools, where intellectual engagement and connectedness to the real world are constant foci.
It can no longer be assumed that families are predominaintly organised around a mother and father and children, all living in the same house. The beginning of the twenty-first century sees the emergence of many new family configurations. Understanding the diversity of family situations is an important part of establishing identity, maintaining self-esteem, and understanding others. It can also provide important experiential grounds for planning personal life pathways.
Social relations have become the stock-in-trade of service and information-based economies. Interpersonal communication skills are essential aspects of successful practices in work and play. Ability and willingness to acquire skills in conflict resolution and problem solving, to show tolerance and leadership, to develop and maintain personal friendships, and to cope with peer pressure can all be seen as basic educational outcomes. These knowledges and skills should not be viewed as components of only certain school subjects or learning areas but as essential elements of an overall process of developing a set of strategies to use for personal life pathways.
It is essential that students have an understanding of issues surrounding mental and physical health. It is also important that they are able to develop and implement personal plans that incorporate the social and physical dimensions of health, and deal with the various forms of at-risk behaviours that face young people particularly. Care of the self means having a personal action plan to deal with the peer and social pressures that may influence and potentially impede people's life opportunities.
Schooling and, in particular, the middle years, is a crucial time for a young person coming to grips with an understanding of self and other people. Adolescence is the time when young people begin to formulate their view of themselves and their place in the adult world. In shaping their future, young people have to come to terms with their own personal feelings, motivations and desires - including the powerful sexual ones.
In volatile economic times, work for all is not guaranteed. Preparing for work does not just involve the development of academic and job-related skills. It also involves understanding the changing worlds of work, the different kinds of social relations in workplaces, as well as issues associated with, and possibilities for, retraining and lifelong learning. Also relevant in this context are survival in times of unemployment, intellectual sustenance in time out from the workforce, creative and productive use of leisure time, and options for selected training and further education. Schools can assist by providing career and work education, as well as experiential and work observational learnings. Many secondary school students are involved in part-time work (e.g. in local service industries) and schools can take this into consideration in their curriculum plans.
In earlier economic times, schools provided skills and credentials that were readily translatable into options for employment or further study. Students currently confront complex risky pathways to such desired outcomes. Agency and action, initiative and enterprise, are often demanded from young people if they are to participate successfully in the world. Knowing how to find or create meaningful and gainful work and how to identify opportunities for self-development have also become important skills in new times.
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© The State of Queensland (Department of Education, Training and Employment) 2004.