Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemInfluences in curriculum change, a case study : the introduction of P.S.S.C. physics in Victoria(University of Melbourne, 1988)
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ItemThe impact of technology on the secretary and its implication for educators(University of Melbourne, 1988)The aim of this thesis is to examine the effects of the current technological revolution on women holding secretarial positions in the workforce, and the consequent implications for educators in the Secretarial Studies area. Major considerations during the discussion are the sexual segregation in the working environment and the tenuous positions that women have come to hold as a result of short sightedness, capitalist exploitation, and technological change. Other areas discussed are the health and safety hazards linked to the use of computer equipment, opportunities for up-grading for the more highly educated secretary, evidence of de-skilling for those possessing keyboarding skills only, and the necessity for management to overcome outdated attitudes towards the secretarial role. It is concluded that the secretary has generally been adversely affected by the new technology but only as a direct result of societal attitudes and values which relegate women to low status, gender specific employment. Education is viewed as the only realistic avenue open to alleviate the problem inherent in a society clinging to outmoded views during a time of rapid technological change.
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ItemIdeology critique and the production of meaning : a critical approach to selected urban education material( 1989)Ideology critique, when applied by educational research to the ideational content of curriculum materials, has evoked negative connotations of partiality and bias, mis-representation of social reality, and ultimately, of untruth. This thesis attempts to assert a more positive sense of "meaning production" for curriculum critique and shift emphasis away from representation towards signification. Part 1 reviews the management of questions of ideology and education by the sociology of school knowledge and curriculum research. I argue in Chapter 1 that strategies of ideology critique, along structuralist and culturalist lines of difference, have inadequately addressed issues of critical subjectivity, hegemony, and social transformation that is posed by radical education. Four curriculum studies of text book analysis are discussed in detail, in terms of their attachment to the sociology of school knowledge and in terms of the "bias and balance" discourses that they produce. Meaning production is used to enhance, rather than displace, practices of ideology critique, in ways that the case study analysis seeks to develop. The urbanism kit that is analysed in Part 2 is undertaken as a means to ground these issues, rather than to render a consummate curriculum analysis. Critical reading of the case study materials in Chapter 2 is enabled by the urban theory of Manual Castells. His ideology critique of urbanism and reformulations of urban system, urban planning, and urban social movements, are utilised to the extent that theoretic productions of the case study materials in Chapter 3 are analysed in terms of their constitutive discourses, rather than in terms of determinations about whether they are biased or ideological. Chapter 4 examines this process of signification further. Our inquiry shows that not only are understandings about "the city" produced, but, discourses about knowledge-production and about individual subjects are set up at the same time. Analysis of the case study material also indicates that balance is not necessarily built-in as a result of a commitment to provide diverse expert opinion. This has implications for those practices of curriculum criticism and curriculum construction which attempt to locate and redress bias as well as promote critical thinking. The directions suggested here are disposed towards problematising categories of analysis, especially categories such as "society" and the "individual", and towards opening up questions about what is produced as knowledge.
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ItemStarting age at primary school and subsequent retention rates, behavioural and learning difficulties, and academic achievement in the middle and upper primary school( 1989)A study of 1380 grade 3, 4, 5, and 6 primary school children at four metropolitan schools was undertaken to examine the relationship between school starting age and retention rates, referral rates (for behavioural, learning, behavioural and learning difficulties, individually or aggregated), and performance on a range of achievement tests. Six different entry age group categories were identified according to entrance age in the child's preparatory grade year. These were underage starters (younger than 4 years 6 months), younger-entering starters (4 years 6 months to 4 years 9 months), normal-entering starters (4 years 10 months to 5 years 1 month), older-entering starters (5 years 2 months to 5 years 5 months), and overage starters (older than 5 years 5 months) . The last category was split into two separate groups comprising those who had repeated kindergarten, and those who had been held back at home and had not attended kindergarten. These groups were used in computation, though some of these groups were amalgamated subsequently in some chi square analyses because of low expected cell numbers. The youngest entrants (underage and younger-entering children) were found to be significantly more likely to have been retained for a year at primary school than their normally older classmates. Risks of retention dropped with increasing age on commencement, except in the case of overage entrants who had not attended a kindergarten. Preparatory grade, grade 2 and grade 3 were the most common grades chosen for retention. The academic achievement of children retained in Preparatory grade to grade 6 was significantly lower than that of the nonretained children at grades 4, 5, and 6. There was no significant difference at grade 3 level. Retained younger-entering, underage children and girls were found to be significantly more likely to be referred for learning difficulties, and retained younger-entering and underage children had significantly higher rates of referral for aggregated (multiple) causes than other entry age groups. Significant differences between older-entering and younger-entering children were not found with respect to academic achievement as measured on a range of achievement tests. However, significant differences favouring overage starters who had repeated kindergarten and other entry age group children were observed at all grade levels and in a variety of achievement tests, though not in a uniform manner. Younger-entering children were significantly more likely (across the whole sample) to be referred for learning difficulties and aggregated referral rates than other entry age groups. This applied to both girls and boys. Significant differences were also observed for aggregated referral rates with the underage and younger-entering students, and overage starters were also more likely than other entry age groups to have been referred for behavioural or learning difficulties, or both. Boys were significantly more likely to be referred for behavioural difficulties, behavioural and learning difficulties, and aggregated referral rates than girls. When children who had been retained were removed from the calculations, it was found that children who had repeated kindergarten had significantly better achievement in the range of tests utilized in the study, than all other entry age groups. This held across the four grades though not in every test with every entry age group. There were no significant differences between nonreferred children and those referred but who had not repeated a year, in any of the referral categories. Suggestions are made for future research.
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ItemInfluences at work on the shaping of a Catholic girls' secondary school( 1989)1988 is the twenty-fifth year of the existence of Ave Maria College, a girls' Catholic secondary school at West Essendon, established in 1963 by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. This thesis endeavours to trace the forces which shaped it - the sociological, religious, political and economic forces which influenced its growth. It examines the background and development of the College under the guidance of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, the handing over of the College to the the Catholic Education Office on the departure of the sisters in 1975, the subsequent administration by an Interim Board of Management and its eventual development as an autonomous College within the Catholic Education system, and the laitization of the College which is a feature of many Catholic secondary schools of the 1980's.
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ItemThe confused Frenchman : some considerations of 'freedom' in Rousseau's writings and its educational implications( 1987)The focus in this thesis is the concept of 'freedom' and, more specifically, how this concept is used by Rousseau. An attempt will first be made to clarify the meaning of 'freedom' and then Rousseau's discussions about it will be examined. Particular emphasis will be placed on an analysis of educational freedom and what Rousseau writes about it, especially in Emile. It will also be argued that the ideal political freedom that Rousseau proposes in The Social Contract is an extension of the freedom he talks about in Emile. Some critics have levelled the charge that Rousseau is not consistent in his definitions of what constitutes freedom and Max Rafferty has even referred to him as 'the confused Frenchman'. In this thesis it will be argued that this confusion is only apparent and not real. In this respect, the critical literature about Rousseau's theories on freedom will be analysed in an attempt to show that there is indeed an internal consistency of definition in Rousseau's works and that his view is of positive, rather than negative, freedom.
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ItemThe effect of the employment of an overwhelming majority of lay persons as staff members on the teaching mission of the Sisters of the Faithful Companions of Jesus at Genazzano F.C.J. College, Kew( 1988)This paper will show how the teaching mission of the Sisters of the Faithful Companions of Jesus (F.C.J.) has been influenced by the laicization of staff since the advent of Commonwealth funding following the establishment of the Schools Commission in 1972 and will document the ways in which structures have changed and the composition of staff has been altered.
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ItemDichotomies and paradoxes of youth unemployment : a philosophical and comparative study( 1989)Youth unemployment (YU) and unemployment by choice (UBC) have been considered from four perspectives, labour market, economic aspect, education and social sciences. First the problem of YU in general and UBC in particular is outlined. For policy-makers and job-creators this information is obviously vital to avoid disappointments of predictions and results. Workaholics and UBC have totally different goals and values and choose accordingly. Then the economic perspective is considered: The economists' views and theories are analysed and comparative profiles of some OECD countries presented. Some of the other questions asked are: is there a nexus between excessive imports and unemployment and what may this indicate, and what solutions do some of the economic theorists present. This is followed by a comparative study of educational thrusts and training in various OECD countries. Again comparative profiles in various OECD countries are used in unravelling or demystifying this complex problem, which may be seen as at least partly a matter of choice of life-style. An attempt is then made to use principles from the social sciences to explain the personal, social and economic causes and effects of UBC and some recommendations are made.
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ItemToward a competent society : a critical analysis of H.G. Well's conceptions of social change and the education programme he designed to effect that change( 1989)This thesis developed out of initial research on Raymond Williams's conceptions of culture, society and education. Williams had argued that 'a long revolution' was evident in human affairs, from which a common culture must finally emerge. It was a matter of survival for it to do so. Williams saw culture as 'our common life' and argued that it was the proper field in which criticism and selection of what was of value to the common life should take place. It must eventually be organized on a global basis and deliberately constructed by means of participatory democracy. To achieve these ends, Williams demanded an education that would promote a competent society governed by human needs and not by inherited models. (See particularly, Raymond Williams, The Long Revolution (London, 1961; Penguin edition, 1965), esp. p.174, and Raymond Williams, Towards 2000 (Penguin Books, 1986). It seemed that in the social and political writings of H.G.Wells, there were many antecedents to Williams's ideas. Wells was engaged in promoting a deliberate revolution in human affairs akin to Williams's idea of a 'long revolution'. It was meant to effect profound social change, culminating in the formation of a global society and thereby rescuing the human species from impending disaster, even extinction. It seemed worthwhile to explore some of these antecedent ideas in Wells's writings and to examine the claims he made for them. This thesis accordingly examines the ideas of H.G.Wells on social change with particular reference to his models for world order and the means by which this change was to be achieved - revolution and education. It is argued that Wells posited a competent society as the ultimate goal of human endeavour and effective social change, a society distinguished by full control over its destiny and the ability to extend a life of complete satisfaction to all of its members, yet there are a number of contradictions that would operate to frustrate that realisation.
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ItemAn analysis of John Dewey's philosophy on 'education as growth'( 1989)This thesis' approach to John Dewey's philosophy, specifically his ideas on 'education as growth', while aiming to provide a critical analysis, is also sympathetic. Hence it is not entirely committed to another school of thought. Rather it leads to the criticisms which are set forward in two ways. First in attempting to state his thought clearly, we are forced to note that, at times, there are crucial ambiguities in Dewey's use of key terms. These ambiguities are of special importance in considering what Dewey has to say about the empirical method and what he has to say about the nature of events. Second, and more important, in attempting to state the relationship between his views on fundamental topics, we find conflicting 'intellectual tendencies which are not resolved by Dewey. John Dewey's educational writing has been analyzed with a view to determining his views about the aims and general character of education. This thesis has examined whether Dewey's basic recommendations about educational. aims and methods are logically connected with his technical philosophical formulations or are 'rendered more likely by them. At almost every point, the upshot of this analysis has been to suggest that the logical or philosophical links that Dewey claimed or assumed between his technical philosophical formulations and educational recommendations do not in fact exist.