Education Queensland teachers Gael Wilson and Tracey Herslet, and the principal of Waterford West State School, Di Carter, were proud as they watched the screening of their year five students’ movies at the national Building Child Friendly Communities Conference, held in Logan, Queensland in November 2011

Bristed, Helen

Darrah, Joshua

Davis, John

Hertslet, Tracey

Mills, Kathy

Sunderland, Naomi

Wilson, Gael

Queensland University of Technology ePrints Archive

This is the author’s version of a work that was submitted/accepted for pub-lication in the following source:Mills, Kathy A., Sunderland, Naomi, Davis, John, Darrah, Joshua, Bristed,Helen, Wilson, Gael, & Hertslet, Tracey (2012) “If I were a communityleader”: knowing the world by changing it. Queensland Teacher’s UnionProfessional Magazine, 27, pp. 10-11.This file was downloaded from: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/61309/c© Copyright 2011 Authors and the Queensland Teacher’s Union.Notice: Changes introduced as a result of publishing processes such ascopy-editing and formatting may not be reflected in this document. For adefinitive version of this work, please refer to the published source:10 – QTU Professional Magazine November 2012“If I were a community leader”: knowing the world by changing it Kathy A. Mills, Naomi Sunderland, John Davis, Helen Bristed, Gael Wilson, Tracey Hertslet and Joshua Darrah Education Queensland teachers Gael Wilson and Tracey Herslet, and the principal of Waterford West State School, Di Carter, were proud as they watched the screening of their year five students’ movies at the national Building Child Friendly Communities Conference, held in Logan, Queensland in November 2011. The conference drew a national audience of community activists, health workers, city council workers and CEOs as part of Australia’s response to the UNICEF international Child-Friendly Cities Initiative. Waterford West year five students were invited to present documentaries they had made on what makes places happy and healthy and answer questions from the audience during a student panel discussion.The voiceover of a documentary created by two of the year five boys filled the room: “If I were a community leader, I would put more trees in, and put more bins.” A second movie by two girls continued: “If we were community leaders, we would make more parking spaces around the school for children’s safety.”After the movie screening, the children sat at a long table on the stage forming a panel to respond to questions from the audience – as active agents for change in their local community. Knowing, for these children, was not about grasping objective facts that were separated from their lives.  In order to know the world, children have to make the world their own (Hegel & di Geovanni, 2010). The movies were the culmination of a series of learning events over several weeks that aimed to teach students that places where we live, work, play and learn directly influence our sense of happiness and wellbeing (Sunderland, Bristed, Gudes, Boddy and Da Silva, 2012).  The students applied multimodal literacy skills to shape and share their new knowledge – combining written and spoken words with moving images, music, spatial layouts, and gestures (Mills, 2011). They observed local places with researchers from Griffith University and Queensland University of Technology and filmed interviews with community members in the local shopping centre and recreational spaces. They created micro-documentaries for both national and international audiences. The project also engaged the students in understanding Indigenous ways of experiencing the natural world.  Symbols like the “message  QTU Professional Magazine November 2012 – 11stick” were used as examples of the richness of Indigenous culture on Country (Davis, 2012). The year five teachers at Waterford West State School had invited specialists into their classroom from diverse interdisciplinary fields: Josh Darrah, the graphic designer and skateboarding filmmaker; Dr Naomi Sunderland and Helen Bristed, researchers of happiness and wellbeing (Griffith); John Davis, an Indigenous leader of Community Durithunga; and educators Professor Allan Luke and Dr Kathy Mills (QUT). We were open with the students about our roles in society and our connections with education. After spending time with us, some students shared their aspirations to attend university, and become future teachers and filmmakers. A capstone moment occurred during the student panel at the national conference, when a female community member in the audience asked: “I’m from Logan City Council.  I just wanted to know how you feel about telling us this story.  How does it make you feel to tell us your story?” One of the students replied: “I feel very good because I see happy faces in the crowd”. Another responded: “I feel good because everyone liked our movies”. Finally, a student of Sudanese background announced loudly and clearly: “I feel proud that I did this!”The children had appropriated the world for themselves. They had transformed the world, and in doing so, were transformed themselves.  It reminds us that true learning and change is possible only by continuous action in the community, and not by sheer contemplation, or passive and objective receptivity.ReferencesDavis, J. (2012). “Community connections in education: Community Durithunga - yarning in circle on Country - our way”. In P. Phillips & J. Lampert (Eds.), Introductory Indigenous Studies in Education: Reflection and the importance of knowing (2nd ed., pp. 149-177). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson.Hegel, G. W. F., & di Geovanni, D. (2010). “The Science of Logic”. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Mills, K. A. (2011). “I’m making it different to the book” : Transmediation in young children’s print and digital practices. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood Education. Sunderland, N., Bristed, H., Gudes, O., Boddy, J., & Da Silva, M. (2012). “What does it feel like to live here? Exploring sensory ethnography as a collaborative methodology for investigating social determinants of health in place”. Health and Place, 18(5), 1056-1067. DR KATHY A. MILLS is currently Senior Lecturer of Language and Literacy Learning at the Queensland University of Technology, and researcher on the URL project. A former primary school teacher and School Head of Curriculum, Dr Mills’ research of new literacy practices in education has been published widely. DR NAOMI SUNDERLAND is currently Senior Research Fellow in the Population and Social Health Research Program of Griffith Health Institute at Griffith University. JOHN DAVIS is the principal of Hymba Yumba Independent School and Indigenous leader of Community Durithunga, and researcher on the URL project. A former teacher, Mr Davis has studied at a doctoral level and also published research on Indigenous education.JOSHUA DARRAH is the multimedia coordinator of Griffith University Logan campus. Mr Darrah has professional experience with filmmaking, graphic design, and other new technologies for representation. DR HELEN BRISTED is a PhD candidate of the population and social health research program at Griffith University. Her thesis topic explores participants’ experiences of public transport and its role as a social determinant of health.GAEL WILSON and TRACEY HERTSLET are experienced year five teachers at Waterford West State School, active participants of the URL research project since 2009.Screen shot from the girls’ movie

'If I were a community leader': knowing the world by changing it

Mills, Kathy A.

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“If I were a community leader”: knowing the world by changing it

'If I were a community leader': knowing the world by changing it

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