Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemSocial competence and the core curriculum : a critical/empirical approach to the role of social education in the core curriculum( 1981)Through the reanalysis, reassessment, and reinterpretation of the data from the Essential Learning About Society study (Piper, 1977) from the point of view of current concerns about the core curriculum, this study develops an empirically-derived framework for a core curriculum in social education which takes into account the views of a substantial section of the Australian community. The study argues that social education is a necessary component of a core curriculum designed to meet the needs of both the individual student and the society as a whole; that the concept of social competence provides a valid basis for defining a core curriculum in social education; and that, in the absence of a definitive analysis of Australian society, community perceptions provide a practical alternative to the problems of defining an education for social competence. The developed framework provides a practical resource for incorporating community perceptions into core curriculum decision-making, and as such has potentially useful applications to educational policy and practice and to further research, as well as providing a body of empirical evidence in an area where such evidence is largely lacking.
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ItemGreek girls and the culure of femininity : a study of three Melbourne schools( 1988)This study examines how second generation Greek girls develop a sense of self within the context of two cultures--the home and the school. The particular solutions chosen by Greek girls to negotiate these two worlds are formed by the interaction of gender, class and ethnicity in Australian society. In the move to Australia, migrants have transported a culture in which traditional ideologies of the culture of femininity impose a definition of 'good womanhood'--emdodied in the concept of honour--which places strict demands on the behaviour of girls in all aspects of their lives. 'Being Greek' affects girls' educational experiences and constructs their social reality. The study contends that for Greek girls 'goodness' of character is understood as a matter of moving delicately between the precepts of traditionally expected behaviour of females and a school code of behaviour that can be at odds with those expectations. In some schools this cultural dichotomy is heightened by expectations of 'ethnically correct' behaviour based on racist assumptions in addition to a series of values, rules and standards inherent in the culture-of the school which are at variance with the interests and culture of Greek girls. This project studies three schools in Melbourne. It found that while Greek girls perceive education to be the legitimate vehicle to achieve better jobs than those of their parents, some girls participate in counter-school behaviour--in opposition to both the racist and sexist practices in the school and the ccurriculum which does not address their specific needs and interests. Other Greek girls in the same schools, however, conform to the demands placed on them. In one school--a girls' private school--the culture of the school itself does not challenge the Greek code of female honour but rather facilitates a total commitment and celebration of its dictates as a question of family and personal status. However, negotiating the two worlds is for all girls fraught with serious contradictions and ambiguities.
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ItemInitiative and control : in the Disadvantaged Schools Program in Victorian government schools, 1973-80( 1985)The Disadvantaged Schools Program seemed a fertile field for the study of the relationship between initiative and control. While the need for organisational controls, in the interests of conformity, cohesion, security, co-ordination and effectiveness can hardly be disputed, neither can the urge of individuals to be themselves, and to act as they think best. While any group, organisation or society needs some pattern of regulation, both for its own sake and for the sake of its members, harmony is a heavenly rather than an earthly state. The intrinsic nature of man, the gap between prescribed and actual organisational goals, the effect of continual change in people, structures and external conditions, all serve to ensure that the interaction between people and organisations can never be smooth for long. The key problem awaiting solutions is the finding of the parameters of the optimal relation between the individual member of an organisation and it overall structure, between individual aims and organisational goals, between necessary mechanisms of delegation and control and individual needs and expectations.
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ItemThe Ministerial Review of Postcompulsory Schooling : a case study of a temporary adaptive system( 1986)For complex organisations such as educational systems to be able to adapt effectively to changing circumstances they need to develop a repertoire of adaptive mechanisms. The temporary adaptive system appears to merit inclusion in such a repertoire. This study reports the conduct of one case of a temporary adaptive system: The Ministerial Review of Postcompulsory Schooling conducted in the State of Victoria between 1983 and 1985. The case is an example of the operation of a quite complex temporary adaptive system which incorporated its own temporary subsystems within its overall process. It was established to initiate changes at the system-wide level of a large educational system. The issues at stake were ones perceived to be significant by those within the educational as well as the wider community. Within one year after the publication of its Report most of its recommendations, with some modification, appear to have excellent chances of implementation. The case is shown to demonstrate quite strong adherence to the features of temporary adaptive systems discusssed in the literature, and to the procedures recommended for attaining a successful operation and outcome. These features and recommended procedures - and their interaction - are described and analysed in the study. From the findings of this one case suggestions are made for modifying and extending the theory relating to temporary adaptive systems.
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ItemDifficulties in maintenance of ethnic language and culture in a multicultural society: with particular reference to Italian families in Melbourne( 1981)The growing political awareness and acknowledgment of Australia's multicultural society produced in the seventies an increasing number of reports on the needs of the ethnic communities. The Government acknowledges that it is now essential to encourage the development of a multicultural attitude in Australian society to foster the maintenance of cultural heritage and promote intercultural understanding. The long-awaited signs of widespread implementation of stated policies and recommendations have been disappointingly slow in emerging. This is attributed to the slowness of a change in attitude throughout the community. Because the Australian school system is not in tune with the multicultural society of today, children of ethnic parents are not receiving equal education opportunities with their Australian peers. Through lack of recognition of their ethnic language and culture by schools, children of ethnic parents are rejecting their mother tongue. In a series of case studies of Italian families in Melbourne, the mother's attitude was seen as the most important factor in language maintenance at the present time. Attitudes were seen to differ, not according to social class, educational level or region of origin, but according to individual values and beliefs. The importance of maintenance of ethnic language and culture for the traditional cohesiveness of the Italian family ethos is stressed, but is seen as resting on a tenuous thread.
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ItemA comparative study of ten Victorian Protestant girls' school histories 1875 to 1920( 1985)In recent years a number of histories of independent girls' schools have been published and it now seems an appropriate time to draw together some aspects of this history. This thesis will trace some of the common features of these histories with a view to explaining the changes in the development of female education in Victoria during the period 1875 to 1920.(From Introduction)
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ItemEducational provisions for gifted and talented children in Victorian schools viewed from an Australian perspective( 1982)This thesis is concerned with the Educational Provisions for Gifted and Talented Children in Victorian Schools. A knowledge of historical developments both Australian and world wide is seen as a necessary prerequisite for an understanding of present practices in both government and non-government schools. An analysis of the major contemporary issues which face the designers of programmes for gifted and talented children is then presented. Once these issues have been identified a description of current educational provisions operating within Victorian schools is undertaken. Government and non-government schools are examined at both the primary and secondary levels, as well as teacher training courses for the teachers of the gifted and talented. In the conclusion, achievements both in Victoria and Australia in meeting the needs of gifted and talented children are discussed and the prospects for the future are considered.
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ItemParents in the classroom( 1987)The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of the presence of parents in the classroom on children, parents, and teachers. The study took the form of a sequenced set of action research style interventions in an outer-suburban secondary school and an inner-city primary school. Attitudes of parents of students in year 7 to creativity, frustration, control, play, and teaching/learning were measured with Strom's Parent as a Teacher inventory, P A A T. Achievements of the children in word knowledge, comprehension, spelling, and maths were measured with tests of ACER. There were some significant correlations between attitudes of parents and achievements of their children. For example, attitudes of mothers to control and the achievement of their children in maths were very highly correlated (N=105, p=.001). After one year of secondary schooling, there was no significant difference between the entering and final achievements of the year 7 students in this study in comprehension and maths (N=123). End-of-year scores of students for word knowledge and spelling were below the scores that would have been expected of students one year younger (N=175, 174). The numbers in these comparisons differ because of absences from school. Classroom experiments were conducted with parents in classrooms in a junior secondary and a primary school. "Parents" means adults who may be parents, other relatives or friends of the students, or friends of the school. In year 7, three different treatments for six weeks were compared, namely, two parents for two classroom periods a week (T), two parents for four periods a week (F), and no parents (Z). There was a significant interaction between mathematical aptitude and treatment (p=.021) such that at the low level of aptitude, achievements in maths with treatments F and T were superior to treatment Z. Also, with the low and medium levels of aptitude combined, treatment T was superior to treatment F (p=.038). With respect to attitude to learning maths, treatment T was superior to treatment F at both the low and medium levels of mathematical aptitude. However the effect on post attitudes was not significant. The attitudes of students in one grade 2 and two composite grades 3/4 were measured to sixteen items that were related to their school and TV. Coincident with the presence of parents in the classrooms of grade 2 and two composite grades 3/4 , there was an increase in positive attitudes of students to eight items in which there was a high level of teacher/parent involvement (HTPI) compared with eight low TPI items (grade 2, N=26; grades 3/4, N=50). In grades 3/4, the presence of parents in the classroom over a period of eight weeks had useful cumulative effects on time on task, teacher stress, and inappropriate class behaviour. Parents, students, and teachers in this study recommended that experience with parents in the classroom should be expanded.
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ItemDeclining enrolments and school reorganisation: an enunciation of the policy and planning options for Victorian post-primary schools( 1988)The state school system in Victoria experienced a significant decline in student enrolments during the 1980s. This was due to a combination of a sustained fall in fertility and the rise in popularity of non-government schooling. It was only partly offset in post-primary schools by the increase in retention. These factors, together with geographic location and school type, were the principle determinants of enrolment movements in individual schools. The politics of enrolment contraction are those of scarcity and conflict. Local schools compete with each other for the diminishing pool of students, the increase in schooling costs per student creates conflict between schools and the Government over resource utilisation, restrictions are placed on school curricula and teachers find their working conditions, professional opportunities, classroom teaching and morale all adversely affected. Secondary schools with declining enrolments need to consider some form of reorganisation. While the policies of the government on curriculum, school structures and reorganisation itself do set certain parameters, school communities are presented with a range of curriculum and structural options. The introduction of new curricula, which have structural implications, into Years 7-10 (Ministerial Paper No.6/Frameworks) and in Years 11 and 12 (the V.C.E.) provide both an incentive and an opportunity to reorganise as a positive response to decline. The positive and negative aspects of the planning options available to schools need to be weighed up in terms of Government policies, curriculum principles, the experience of other education systems and the pilot program of reorganisation in Melbourne's South Central Region. The process of school reorganisation will work more effectively where it has been decentralised to local planning committees which actively involve all of those affected by proposed changes. Given that the process is redistributive in nature, successful reorganisation is dependent upon the political acknowledgement and accommodation of conflicting interests.