Faculty of Education - Theses
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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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ItemThe decentralisation of curriculum decision making in Australia : developments and effects in three states( 1988)The decentralisation of educational decision making and the involvement of a wider range of participants in decision-making processes have been key features of the administration of education in Australia over the past two decades. Among the arguments supporting reforms to the centralised education systems in Australia was the belief that decentralisation would lead to the development of curricula more suited to the needs of students. However, the relationship between changes in the control of curriculum decision making and the nature of the curriculum has not been well researched. This study was designed to address this deficiency. The freedom of teachers to make decisions about the curriculum is constrained by many factors. These can be grouped into a number of 'frames': the system, school, community and individual. The system frame refers to the influence of educational offices and assessment authorities; the school frame is concerned with the role of different school-based personnel such as administrators and faculty coordinators; the community frame refers to the participation of parents or other community members; and the individual frame is concerned with how individual teachers' values or epistemologies might translate into curriculum practices or preferences. These frames relate to different types of decentralisation that have emerged to a lesser or greater extent in Australia: regionalisation, school-based decision making, teacher-based decision making and community participation. This study sought to address the effects on the curriculum of types of decentralisation by examining the relative influence of the four frames. Three States, which had experienced different degrees of decentralisation, were selected for historical and current comparison and within each a number of schools were selected for case study. The schools were grouped according to their administrative and curricular styles, and according to teachers' perceptions of the influence of the community. Within schools, teachers were grouped according to their epistemological views. Data were collected through the administration of questionnaires and through interviews with teachers and administrators. The analyses revealed that in the program in practice there were considerable similarities in teachers' responses. Notwithstanding this, the system, school and individual frame were important influences on the curriculum. There was little evidence that the community was directly affecting curriculum decision making, although this frame did have an indirect influence. In the ideal program, the State differences were reduced and the school differences almost completely disappeared. On the other hand, teachers' epistemological views continued to be associated with the curriculum variables measured and teachers argued that the community should have somewhat greater influence than it had in practice. Among the findings reported, it was found that teachers in the most centralised system, in more tightly coupled schools and with a 'technicist' epistemology were, compared with their counterparts in decentralised systems, in loosely coupled schools and with an 'hermeneutic' epistemology, more likely to favour what might be called traditional curriculum structures and teaching practices.
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ItemAn evaluation of the effectiveness of a rational emotive parent education programme( 1988)The effects of a rational-emotive parent education programme were studied on forty eight parents from a nonclinical population. The study employed a pre-test post-test control group design to investigate the effects of the Rational Parenting Programme which had four main goals with a dual emphasis on the mental health of the parent and the mental health of the child - helping parents develop emotional responsibility, rational discipline, rational thinking traits in their child, and rational problem solving. Four groups of dependent variables were studied: parent irrationality, parent emotionality, parent perceptions of child problems and the perception of participants' parenting by their spouses. Parent emotions studied were trait anxiety, state anxiety, self downing, anger, guilt, discomfort and wellbeing. Parent irrationality was measured by the Belief Scale which was further validated in the study. Validation evidence for the Belief Scale included findings that (a) the total scale correlated significantly with all emotional measures, (b) the Low Frustration Tolerance subscale with perceived child anxiety, and (c) the Low Frustration Tolerance and Self Worth subscales correlated with the spouse dissatisfaction measure. Results of the study showed that the Rational Parenting Programme was effective in reducing parent irrationality on the overall irrationality measure. Significant effects were found for each subscale of irrationality, with changes in Low Frustration Tolerance showing the strongest effect followed by changes in Self Worth and Demandingness. The results also showed that the Rational Parenting Programme was effective in reducing guilt in experimental group subjects and, for those parents with moderate to high entering levels of anger and state anxiety, the programme was effective in reducing levels of those two negative emotions. No group intervention effects were found for trait anxiety, self downing and wellbeing. No significant group intervention effects were found for the child or spouse variables, and no interaction effects were found between treatment effectiveness and the variables of gender, educational level and participation/nonparticipation of spouse in the programme. There were no differences in intervention effects between two experienced leaders. In experimental group subjects, changes in parent irrationality were found to be correlated with changes in emotions, namely guilt, self downing and trait anxiety, which were associated with changes in Self Worth and Low Frustration Tolerance. Exploratory findings from a ten month follow-up showed that both the changes in parent irrationality and the changes in guilt, self downing, trait anxiety were maintained. Additional changes found at follow-up in association with changes in parent irrationality were changes in discomfort and changes in the number of perceived child problems. This study adds to our understanding of the role of irrationality and emotional stress and in particular demonstrates that RET is a useful intervention in modifying parental negative emotions. Implications of these findings for future research are presented.
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ItemThe adaptation of the Irish Christian Brothers' education system to Australian conditions in the nineteenth century( 1988)This thesis argues that the Irish Christian Brothers successfully adapted their denominational system of education to Australian conditions in the nineteenth century. Initially, the Brothers brought an elementary system which they extended to superior or advanced education to provide the lower middle-class Catholics with opportunities for upward social mobility. The commitment of the Christian Brothers to denominational education suited the Catholic bishops in Australia, so the adaptation to the needs of the Church required little or no change in the policies of the religious order. By the end of the century, the Catholic Church in the colonies had taken a course of action to set up a denominational system completely separate from the State; the Irish Christian Brothers and other religious orders presented the bishops with the means of pursuing such a course. The first small contingent of Brothers arrived in Sydney in 1843 but remained only four years, mainly because of a difference of opinion between the Irish order and the English Benedictines. When the second mission of Christian Brothers arrived in Melbourne in 1868, they brought with them a system of education which was thoroughly religious and which had been already adapted to meet the needs of the poor in Ireland since 1810. Their system was mainly derived from the French de la Salle Brothers' educational system (as set out in Conduite des Ecoles, 1733). As most of the Melbourne Catholics were of Irish descent and were poor, both Goold and the Irish Christian Brothers believed that the system would readily adapt to Australian conditions. In this sense, the process of adaptation was relatively uncomplicated. In Ireland, the system had evolved from being in direct opposition to the national system to being an independent system based on specially prepared textbooks and on pedagogical methods developed by the order. In the colonies, the system in a constant state of evolution. (From Introduction)
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ItemResource and support of educational leaders( 1989)Concern about the absence of an integrated approach to the provision of resource and support for educational leaders, is a recent phenomenon in the Australian educational scene. This concern is reflected in an emerging awareness of the need to emphasize recruitment, selection, induction, and continuing development processes for all key leaders in schools, especially for principals. The purpose of this research was to identify and critically appraise current theories and practices related to the effectiveness of educational leaders, and within this context to investigate leadership training through the examination of a range of interventions which aimed to assist leaders to perform maximally. Specifically, the ethnographic investigation reported here, began with a critical assessment of relevant overseas initiatives, as well as of Australian leadership training programs, and included a six-year longitudinal study, based on insights gleaned from recent research and from personal, practical experience. Evaluation of the outcomes of this project provided a measure of the effectiveness of this uniquely structured provision of resource and support for a number of school principals in this State of Victoria. Thus, this report presents an overview of the current literature on leadership, addresses current issues about the exercise of leadership in organisations generally, focuses on the personal and professional development of educational leaders, and highlights the importance of training resource providers. Finally, this document includes a strategic plan for a sequential, staged-process which introduces teachers to leadership understandings, identifies potential leaders, exposes new leaders to basic theory and practice, and provides an on-going, personal and professional development continuum for practising educational leaders.
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ItemQuintilian: education, language and virtue( 1988)The thesis places Quintilian's pedagogical theories as detailed in his twelve books of "The Institutio Oratoria" in their historical and social contexts. It is argued that Greek literature and ideas greatly influenced Rome and, in turn, Quintilian's concept of the ideal orator and his role within Roman society. A case is argued that Quintilian believed the education of the Roman orators should encourage a return to the homeric virtues portrayed in the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is shown that the orators of Rome, from Quintilian's point of view, had developed Greek sophistic attitudes while the Roman philosophers were basically corrupt and immoral. Quintilian's educational programme was designed to reinstate the fostering of virtue as paramount in the orator's activity. An explanation and critical examination of Quintilian's views on the intimate connection between language, virtue and knowledge is carried out. The nexus, in Quintilian's thought, between virtue and rhetoric is discussed. The point is made that Quintilian offers no definition of virtue, but that he believes that morality is learnt through observing a multitude of moral acts within society, and reading and studying moral acts portrayed in literature; only then will the budding orator be equipped to study the presuppositions behind his judgements, when his true belief will be transformed into knowledge of virtue. A particular emphasis is placed on Quintilian's theories on early childhood education and the need for a proper environment for the child over the formative first years of life. It is this stage of a child's life which is critical in his moral and linguistic development. Quintilian's view that bad habits formed in childhood are nearly impossible to erase in later life, retarding the child's moral development, is discussed.
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ItemProvision for the education of Catholic women in Australia since 1840( 1988)An historical perspective of the Religious Orders of women which entered the Catholic education scene in nineteenth-century Australia, and an appraisal of their adaptation to the forces within Australian society which influenced their provision for the education of Catholic women in this country as they operated under the powerful direction of the bishops.
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ItemTeacher burnout and its relationship to social support( 1989)The purposes of this study were to examine the nature of burnout and social support among Victorian Government high school teachers, and to describe the extent to which sources and types of social support were statistically significant predictors of teacher burnout. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected by a 52-item questionnaire which was mailed through school principals to a random sample of 550 Victorian Government high school teachers. The 491 usable returns represented an 89 percent response rate from teachers, and 229 or 82 percent of government high schools. The questionnaire developed for this study and entitled, Job Survey for Victorian Government High School Teachers contained four sections: Section A, Background Information; Section B, Social Support; Section C, Human Services Survey; and Section D, Personal Comments. The study was descriptive and used statistical techniques such as means, standard deviations and frequencies in the analysis of data. The study was also exploratory and used step-wise multiple linear regression analysis, analysis of variance, .t-tests and factor analysis in data analysis. Victorian Government high school teachers recorded low to moderate mean scores for Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization burnout compared with the established norms, but a higher than average level of Personal Accomplishment burnout. Male teachers reported higher levels of Depersonalization burnout compared with female teachers. Higher levels of burnout across all sub-scales were recorded by teachers who stated a preference to leave education, who indicated their work was not at all or seldom interesting, and who perceived their work to be considerably to extremely stressful. The youngest teachers recorded the highest levels of Emotional Exhaustion burnout, and the most experienced teachers recorded the lowest on this sub-scale and on Depersonalization burnout. Higher levels of Personal Accomplishment burnout were recorded by teachers who had been in their current position for more than six years, who reported a fifty percent consistency between teacher .training and task, and who desired to leave education. Teachers considered types of social support were more helpful in coping with burnout than sources of support. Listening/concern/trust was identified as the most helpful type and peer group teachers the most supportive source. The youngest teachers reported the principal provided the least support: and female teachers provided more support and considered social support more helpful to them than did male teachers. The principal as a source of support was the statistically significant predictor of each of the burnout sub-scales. Emotional Depersonalization burnout were Exhaustion best predicted and by listen.ing/concern/trust and time as types of support, while Personal Accomplishment was best predicted by advice/information, listening/concern/trust and feedback. Sources and types of social support identified by teachers as the most helpful to them in coping with burnout were peer group teachers, listening/concern/trust, and feedback. It was concluded that the high level of Personal Accomplishment burnout in Victorian Government high school teachers was related to insufficient recognition and rewards, and inadequate administrative support.
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ItemCaptain Cook chased a chook: children's folklore in Australia: its origins, development, characteristics and functions within a changing historical and cultural context( 1989)This study describes and analyses that component of children’s subcultures in Australian which is largely adapted, created and transmitted by children for their own interest and amusement. It explores the historical and cultural nature of such ‘pastimes’ of childhood as games, rhymes, riddles and jokes, and considers their particular significance for our understanding of aspects of Australian cultural formation and of children’s development. Within the Australian context, the lack of interest in the study of children’s folklore by academics and educators has been part of a wider neglect of those (sometimes large) groups within the community that are without much status and authority. This neglect – ameliorated in recent years by the work of a number of innovative social historians – has been reinforced by the tendency for sophisticated industrial societies to regard as insignificant facets of child life which do not lead directly to what are regarded by adults as useful attributes and achievements. Yet the careful observation and analysis of the folkloric play subculture of Australian children reveals much of value and significance for our understanding of human development and social formation. Whilst certain underlying patterns emerge as common to children everywhere, there is evidence of considerable influence of the adult culture on the folkloric traditions of childhood. Children’s folklore does not exist in a vacuum, and the values, prejudices and expectations of the adult world are reflected, and distorted, in children’s lore. Children are both conservors and innovators in their play. Centuries-old practices exist side by side with jokes and rhymes about current events. No subject is safe from children’s scrutiny, no taboo without its playful parody. The traditions of play provide a secure arena for diverse and versatile linguistic, cognitive, kinetic and social improvisation and experiment. Much is possible in play, and children’s folklore allows the relatively dependent and powerless ‘middle childhood’ young a freedom not otherwise generally available. Despite constantly recurring claims to the contrary, these folkloric play traditions have not disappeared in our highly organised and mechanised world. Children continue to clap, skip, hop, rhyme, chant, tongue-twist and all the rest. It seems that childhood and children’s folklore are inseparable.