Faculty of Education - Theses

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Author: Wilkinson, Jeremy W. × End date: 1999 × Start date: 1993 × Subject: case studies ×

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    Teachers' interests in school amalgamation
    Wilkinson, Jeremy W. ( 1994)
    This contemporary social history reconstructs policy debates that arose during the amalgamation of three High schools and three Technical schools into a new multicampus college in the predominantly working class western suburbs of Melbourne. This took place under the Comprehensive Curriculum Provision and School Reorganisation policy of the Victorian State Labor Government in the period 1989 to 1992. This policy was part of a transnational movement in educational modernisation in the industrialized capitalist countries. The study focuses on the expression of High school and Technical school teachers' interests in various local policymaking forums during the amalgamation. The study examines issues that include: school closure, representation and participation, facilities and staffing, re-deployment, promotion, subject hierarchy and curriculum ideology. The study is informed by theory in the fields of the micropolitics of school organisation and the sociology of school subjects. Unpublished primary documents and participant accounts are the basic sources of data for this study. The researcher was an active participant in many of the debates examined in this study. The study concludes that the definition of this new college was directly related to teachers' ideological, vested and self interests, and that in general, school amalgamation outcomes are better explained when these interests are taken into account. The study also suggests that local conflict arising from centrally mandated comprehensive curriculum and systemic reforms reflects contradictions in the underlying social structure, as the traditional institutional form of schooling for the working class - the Technical school - and that for the middle class - the High school - become threatened.