Shahieda Drake is studying the Masters of Teaching in Early Childhood specialising in children’s Literacy and Numeracy that is affected by language deficit or disability; students with EALD background; disengaged or trauma-affected. Shi worked in mainstream classrooms in a support role for 15 years as an Arts technician and Literacy/Numeracy support and unfortunately saw mainstream fail to meet the needs of such marginalised students and typically developing students as well. Shi is researching and exploring alternate education models such as Montessori for its authentic, holistic, child-centred learning. The future landscape of education needs to address issues of school refusal and disengagement from learning and she believe that alternate education models have a philosophical and academic directive that is aligned with children’s development and learning. Shi is pursuing a research and study tour to that end exploring Montessori, Reggio Emilia, Steiner/Waldorf and Democratic Education models across Europe. This project is for developing a complex pedagogy which she finds not only fulfilling for herself as a future teacher, but to also provide a purposeful and creative learning environment for children.
