policy & reform
campusreview.com.au
Great expectations
How to help students weighed
down by the pressure to succeed.
Shelley Davidow interviewed
by Richard Garfield
F
inal-year school students and
university undergraduates are rushing
towards an imaginary finishing line
burdened by societal expectations about
their future, leading to a state of anxiety
that impairs academic performance and
negatively affects decision-making.
That’s the view of University of the
Sunshine Coast lecturer in curriculum and
pedagogy Dr Shelley Davidow, who says it’s
time for parents, teachers and the media
to “release the pressure valve” and give
university and high school students the time
and space needed to make clear decisions.
“We need to change the messages we
are giving to the next generation,” she says.
“A good percentage of mental health
patients are young people with anxiety and
14
it’s induced by enormous expectations
they feel they can’t meet and a feeling they
should never fail.”
Given the reality that today’s school
leavers and undergraduate students will
have a number of careers, “the whole idea
of having to decide what you are going to
be for the rest of your life when you’re 17 is
a myth,” Davidow says.
While this situation is driven in part by
our competitive, globalised world, Davidow
advocates giving students the opportunity
to “find their element”.
“The important thing is that wellbeing
comes first. Academic performance will
follow,” she says.
“If you come out of school not knowing
what you want to do, that’s fine.
“Even if you follow a path after school
and down the track you change your mind,
that’s okay too.”
Davidow joined Campus Review to
discuss what’s driving this pressure and
what can be done to ease the burden.
CR: You describe the anxiety levels of
students by saying they’re suffering from
‘finish line syndrome’. What you mean by that?
SD: I believe we have created a narrative in
society in which we’ve drawn this imaginary
finish line, probably somewhere during the
last days of exams in Year 12, and our entire
educational system is then geared towards
this finish line.
Parents and teachers are all involved
in this narrative. We goad and cajole our
children towards this imaginary finish line,
and we’ve created a reality now which is
absolutely packed chock-full of stress, all
the way from Kindergarten through Year 12.
I think this doesn’t serve us well.
You say that students leaving high school
and entering university are being driven to
this anxiety by the enormous expectations
placed on them. Who or what are the key
drivers of this?
I think it’s a societal narrative which
creates this pass/fail dichotomy. Either
you’ve passed or you’ve failed, or you’re a
success or you’re a failure, or you win or
you lose. That’s the primary problem. We
say, “Oh, we celebrate failure,” but in reality,
society looks down on failure very poorly.
The minute we give A–F grades, there is
no encouragement for failing, or having
divergent approaches or open-ended
questions that don’t have right or wrong
answers but a variety of solutions.
Our whole narrative needs to change.
That’s what I’m advocating for – from the
way that we grade students to the way that
we expect people to be at a certain stage at
a certain age.
I think this narrative has its basis in
something real – survival – where there are
winners and losers. If you go right back to
monkeys in the trees, the monkey who gets