Teaching & Learning | Case Studies of Integrated Teaching | Leonora District High School |
Difficulties of Integration

Case Studies - Leonora District High School
Difficulties of Integration

• Staffing

• The Community

Staffing

High turnover of staff is an ongoing issue for isolated schools. At the end of 1996 there was a large change in staff at Leonora District High and five of the six secondary teachers in the project left to take up other positions.

The change introduced new pressures that impacted on the delivery of the integrated curriculum to secondary students.

A large number of graduate teachers were appointed to the school and so the graduates were necessarily focused on establishing themselves as teachers. Most of them were intent on improving their teaching practice and student management.

This took up time and meant that the integration program had a lower priority than in the preceding years. Nonetheless teachers are still very about their positive about their achievements.

Incompatible staff combinations were mentioned as another factor that inhibited the communication and hence the level of integration.

Staff becoming tired and disillusioned, especially in their first year of teaching, was pointed out as a further difficulty in the school.

In contrast, established teachers who did not want to change their time-honoured routines also were mentioned as a barrier to establishing a new curriculum.

In summary, it was recognised that collaborative and cooperative planning were integral to the effective development of integrated teaching practices at Leonora District High School.

Reasons such as the high staff turnover, combinations of personalities, tiredness, disillusionment and non-cooperation were identified as barriers to effective team planning and hence implementation of the integrated program.

A commitment from the majority of staff was necessary to overcome these problems.

The Community

The Leonora community had a significant impact on the school and community issues were carried over into the school environment.

Teachers commented that the planning and momentum of the outcome-based integrated program, and teaching in general, was hindered by the need to manage immediate student issues from their community.

For various reasons it was claimed that the integration innovation did not have the full endorsement of the community and to some extent this created a non-supportive environment that impacted on its implementation.