National Society for the Study of Education, Volume 113, Issue 2, pp. 555–574
Copyright © by Teachers College, Columbia University
A Dialogical Inquiry Into Practice
Frameworks Within Jabiru Community
College: Re-centering Young People and
Community Within a Social Constructionist
Frame
PETER WESTOBY
The University of Queensland
M. F. PAUL TOON
Jabiru Community College
KEN MORRIS
Jabiru Community, Youth and Children Services
This chapter explores the practice framework guiding the practice of workers at
Jabiru Community College, a community-based school in Brisbane, Australia. The
chapter articulates the findings from a dialogical inquiry begun by the three authors
with input from workers and youth. Seven dimensions of the framework being used
by workers are described.
Australian scholar Raewyn Connell stated in a recently published edited
collection, Schools, communities and social inclusion,
We rely on schools for social progress and mobility, and of course
influential people usually have done well at school. But school
systems that rely on competitive tests, examinations, selective
provision and rationing of advanced education also sort children
ruthlessly, steering some towards privilege and some towards ex-
ploitation. Schools lift some out of poverty but destroy others’
hopes and without conscious intention, lock out many of the ris-
ing generation from advanced education, professions and many
riches of our culture. (2011, p. xi)