Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemTeachers & curriculum : personal mythopoesis and the practical in pedagogy(University of Melbourne, 1996)This study explores the dynamic between the person of the teacher and work with curriculum. The person is taken to be constituted in narratives. I have, accordingly, utilised a language of myth in order to speak of personhood. Myth is the collective or individual operation of imagination whereby experience is able to be intensely owned. It is this operation of mind that I relate to the ways in which curriculum might be experienced. At issue in this process is the capacity of the person of the teacher to illuminate curriculum material, or to make curriculum a living experience for students. Though my focus is imaginational and mythic, I seek to show - through an intimate study of the inner worlds of six teachers at one school site - that it is at this impalpable level lhat 'the practical' in pedagogy becomes most significant as a curriculum consideration. By linking the subtle work of imagination to the 'practical intelligence' access is gained to the significance and meaning of personal agency and, in particular, the nature of critique in teacher work with curriculum. This introduces to the familiar theory/practice dichotomy that pervades curriculum thinking, and which tends to disempower the teacher voice, a new and incommensurable perspective. The practical emphasis, by being linked to the personal imaginational work of teachers, breaks out of an encapsulation within the classroom and the profession. Knowledge, represented in microcosm in the curriculum, is shown, via this reconceptualisation of the practical, in its living dimensionality. The imperatives of this living aspect of curriculum experience, identified in source, process, operation, and direction, stand against the different imperatives of instrumental conceptions of curriculum.
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ItemCollaborative leadership in inner city schools of Melbourne( 1994)This thesis examines leadership and its links to success in inner city schools of Melbourne, reflecting the view that the role of leaders and the process of leadership are significant contributing factors in the achievement of successful school improvement. In Victoria at the present time there is relentless change at both the school and system level. Schools are in a constant state of reorganisation with the dismantling of centralised authorities, including support services and standard operational procedures and processes. Roles and responsibilities of school principals are being revised. Many schools are being closed down as part of the government's rationalisation policy. Others are being amalgamated. Many members of staff are being required to transfer to different schools, whilst others are taking financial "packages" and early retirement. Moreover, inner city schools are confronted with further responsibilities. Students in these schools often come from low socio-economic, non-English speaking backgrounds and have special social welfare and educational needs. Staffing arrangements must serve the specific needs of transient migrant groups and innovative curriculum provision is a necessity to target the requirements of an inner city clientele. Clearly, then, skilful and imaginative leadership is imperative to cope with such a context and to bring about success. The purpose of the investigation is to establish what it is that leaders do in these schools to achieve success and school improvement, despite the prevailing difficulties. The focus is on the notion of collaborative leadership, developed and defined in this thesis as one which is transformational and encompasses distinctive elements of collaboration. Collaborative leadership is interpreted and analysed through the four central frames of leadership - structural, human resource, political and symbolic - of the Bolman and Deal (1991) typology. A qualitative approach was seen as an appropriate means of investigation, firstly, in order to provide full descriptions and explanations of the primary data and, secondly, to capture the critical features of what it was that leaders did in their daily practice to bring success to their schools. The qualitative approach described by Miles and Huberman (1984) incorporating data reduction, data display and data collection and conclusions drawing/verifying, was adopted. The findings clearly indicate that specific collaborative leader behaviour, using a repertoire of structural, human resource, political and symbolic dimensions, can lead to success in schools. Leaders used structural arrangements to establish democratic procedures which were inclusive rather than exclusive, seeing the operation of the school as a collective responsibility of teachers, parents, and, where appropriate, students. Human resource elements brought mutual respect, as well as professional and community cooperation and support. Political leadership behaviour centred around empowerment, open and frank discussion, and a striving for consensus. Symbolic dimensions contained the beliefs, values, attitudes and norms of behaviour of leaders, denoting and directing fundamental purposes and processes. In addition, the researcher has extended these findings into hypothesised causal links, which when synthesised, offer four distinctive factors as fundamental to a fully functioning collaborative culture, namely, development of educational potential, professional development of teachers, good organisational health and institutionalisation of vision. This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or graduate diploma in any tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by any other person, except where reference is made in the text.
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ItemTeachers & curriculum: personal mythopoesis and the practical in pedagogy( 1996)This study explores the dynamic between the person of the teacher and work with curriculum. The person is taken to be constituted in narratives. I have, accordingly, utilised a language of myth in order to speak of personhood. Myth is the collective or individual operation of imagination whereby experience is able to be intensely owned. It is this operation of mind that I relate to the ways in which curriculum might be experienced. At issue in this process is the capacity of the person of the teacher to illuminate curriculum material, or to make curriculum a living experience for students. Though my focus is imaginational and mythic, I seek to show - through an intimate study of the inner worlds of six teachers at one school site - that it is at this impalpable level that 'the practical' in pedagogy becomes most significant as a curriculum consideration. By linking the subtle work of imagination to the 'practical intelligence' access is gained to the significance and meaning of personal agency and, in particular, the nature of critique in teacher work with curriculum. This introduces to the familiar theory/practice dichotomy that pervades curriculum thinking, and which tends to disempower the teacher voice, a new and incommensurable perspective. The practical emphasis, by being linked to the personal imaginational work of teachers, breaks out of an encapsulation within the classroom and the profession. Knowledge, represented in microcosm in the curriculum, is shown, via this reconceptualisation of the practical, in its living dimensionality. The imperatives of this living aspect of curriculum experience, identified in source, process, operation, and direction, stand against the different imperatives of instrumental conceptions of curriculum.
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ItemThe leadership role of principals in selected secondary "Schools of the Future": principal and teacher perspectives( 1996)Schools of the Future is a major management reform of government (public) schools in Victoria, Australia. When fully implemented all schools will have control of 90% of their operating costs, principals will have the power to select and initiate the removal of staff, and schools will have a school charter that details a three year resource and accountability framework. As principals were viewed by the government as central to the reform, this research focussed on perceptions of the leadership role of principals. Perspectives on principal leadership were gathered from both principals and teachers using a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology without an a priori theoretical framework. Principals and teachers were interviewed at seven schools. In addition, principals only were interviewed at three schools. In total ten principals and thirty teachers from ten schools participated in the research. The perceptions of principals and teachers were found to be similar. The perceived leadership role of principals was found to be complex and multi-dimensional with 17 leadership themes described. In addition, there were 13 themes where change was noted in the leadership role since the introduction of Schools of the Future. Comparing the found leadership description with findings from the leadership literature resulted in a list of 12 recommendations for practice and support for three current conceptions of leadership: 1. Instructional leadership was evident, although there was less direct involvement by principals than suggested by previous research, indicating that the leadership could be better described as indirect instructional leadership. 2. The importance placed in transformational leadership conceptions on culture and symbolic leadership, and on being future orientated was confirmed in this research. 3. Support was also found for Caldwell and Spinks' description of leadership for self-managing schools, highlighting the additional leadership foci of accountability and responsiveness. Based on the research findings and comparison with the leadership literature, a model of leadership was presented that had four leadership areas labelled learning and teaching, symbolic and cultural awareness, future orientation and accountability. The model emphasised the linkages between instructional leadership, transformational leadership and leadership for self-managing schools. The model also emphasised the complexity of the leadership role of principals.