“This is as good as it gets”: Classroom lessons and learning in challenging circumstances

Abstract

The Changing Schools, Changing Times research, on which this article is based, is a three-year project to examine how four high schools serving culturally diverse and disadvantaged communities responded to opportunities and constraints when they set out to improve the quality of student learning. The article draws upon an aspect of the research that focuses upon learning and teaching within the classroom. It describes the process that resulted in the Day Diaries, brief but accurate recounts of a day in the life of a Year 8 class in each of the four participating schools. The paper reports on the nature of the teaching and learning scripts adopted in the lessons and how school leaders and teachers responded to the patterns when the Day Diaries were fed back as tools for reflection and discussion. It explores the idea that two interlocking logics, one of practice and the other of justification, work as a kind of grid or frame to create a “safety zone” for teachers in these very difficult classroom contexts while at the same time restricting the possibility that learners will engage with high-challenge curricula.