The significance of this milestone was underlined by the current Barker Journey cohort also being the first fully coeducational primary school year group to progress through Year 3-6 at Barker. This article presents an overview of the primary school phase of the Barker Journey project, 2019-2022. In so doing, it presents a longitudinal perspective on learning, teaching, and schooling that is distinctly student-based. These students are part of the generation labelled “Generation Alpha” and their narratives about how they have experienced going to school in the 21st century have provided valuable insights that deserve the attention of teacher and educational leader alike. The article provides a complementary analysis to the annually published articles that focus on student perspectives year-by-year. It explores the four- year development of five topics for investigation described in the methodology of the 2019 article – values, relationships, resilience, coeducation, and aspirations – and conveys its findings with an emphasis on the concepts of continuity and change as well as lessons and provocations for educators to consider.

Various research questions guided the process, centering around schooling in the 21st century with data collection focused on listening to student voice. The data consisted of annual interviews of a key group of 30 representative students, supplemented by whole cohort group interviews of all students in Year 3, and a survey of all students in Year 6.

Four years of research can be summarised into 20 key findings, as presented in the table below. These findings are in relation to the five themes identified as the outset of the project in 2019 including values, relationships, resilience, coeducation and aspirations. These findings are being presented to the Barker College and national and international research communities trough various events in 2023. Each finding is explored and justified in the publication in the 2022 Barker Institute Journal, Learning in Practice.

While this report serves an an important milestone (the culmination of the Barker Junior School Journey), the Journey and therefore the research is by no means complete. The project continues with the Year 7 cohort of 2023, now incorporating a whole group of students new to Barker College who are commencing their Journey through the Barker College Secondary School. We look forward to hearing these students voices, and sharing their stories, to continue to understand the needs, and achievements, of schooling in the third decade of the 21st century.

The full report can be downloaded here: The Barker Junior School Journey Report on Year 3-6 from 2019-2022

Cover The Barker Junior School Journey Report on Year 3-6 from 2019-2022

Dr Matthew Hill

Dr Matthew Hill is the Director of The Barker Institute with a focus on professional learning, research, and innovation in the school.  He teaches Physics and the new Science Extension course at the School which introduces students to scientific academic research. Matthew's doctorate reflects his passion for science education focussing on Representational Fluency amongst physics students at school and university. He has published in leadership, education, and science journals and been involved in course development and teaching at The University of Sydney and The University of Western Sydney. He has also completed a Graduate Diploma in Divinity at Ridley College in Melbourne.

Dr Timothy Scott

Tim has held various leadership roles in schools in Australia and abroad for the past 24 years, alongside teaching history and modern languages. He is currently Research Principal at the Barker Institute, the school-based educational research centre at Barker College. His research interests include intercultural and interlingual learning and teaching, refugee education, and the role of student voice in improving educational practice. Tim believes embedding research informed practice has become increasingly important and is the mark of contemporary schools, empowering their teachers as experts and enabling their learners to thrive. He is one of the lead researchers for the Barker Institute’s ongoing, decade-long longitudinal study, the Barker Journey. Concurrently with his educational research responsibilities, Tim teaches History and Global Studies at Barker. Tim’s PhD investigated socio-political influences on contemporary German conceptions of history and archaeology.