What are the elements of alternative education which encourage and allow support of at-risk youth to gain NCEA level one and pursue higher education
Author: Chantelle Foketi
What are the elements of alternative education which encourage and allow support of at-risk youth to gain NCEA level one and pursue higher education
Chantelle Foketi
18 July 2019
Abstract
The purpose of this project is to explore what is successful in the alternative education setting, identify the key elements and be able to replicate this so other programs can be just as successful. Many young people attending alternative education centres have left mainstream schooling because of personal circumstances and/or significant conflicts with schooling authorities. I want to show that the unique ways in which alternative education centres design their classroom environments, teaching programs and pedagogical relationships are conductive to supporting such young people to reconnect with educational processes.
The main audience that will benefit from my project are the alternative education tutors, managers, students and their whanau. To achieve my purpose, I undertook a qualitative research project. I used the scope of my own organisation, Te Ara Poutama Alternative Education Centre, to gather data. I also explored literature to examine best practices and ideas around alternative education. My literature review centred around aspects of school engagement, the classroom environment and student learning, instruction and authentic achievement, the importance of developing aspirations and hope, pathways and goals, the role of positive emotions, and house alternative education transforms systems.
Key words: Alternative education; NCEA Level One; Achievement; Aspirations; Hope; Future goals.
This research was supervised by Heather Carpenter.
Licence
This thesis is not publicly available. The Executive Summary is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International.
