Faculty of Education - Theses

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End date: 1998 × Start date: 1998 × Subject: Attitudes × Subject: Australia ×

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    Girls & post school achievement : discourse, meaning & subjectivity
    Paulke, Yvonne ( 1998)
    In an overall sense the concern of my research is the question of gender. It is concerned with girls' engagement with the discursive fields which make up their lives, their acquisition of meaning and formation of subjectivity. Specifically, my research is concerned with the role of discourse in girls' acquisition of meaning about gender, achievement and success, and the ways in which teachers can develop strategies to support girls to negotiate the complex and contradictory discourses which surround them. As a poststructuralist feminist researcher I assume a keen awareness of the semiotic, discursive dimension of the social and from such a perspective consider the question of gender in relation to girls' education and post school achievement and career success. Through an emphasis on the discourses and texts which make up schools and educational practices, such a perspective makes relevant the emotional, psychic and physical embeddedness of girls in the discursively constituted categories to which they belong. The study undertaken is a critical engagement with one of the discourses shaping girls' identities. It draws on data gathered from a focused analysis of a selection of four celebratory feminist texts. The complex and contradictory nature of the meanings within the texts are examined, and the potential of this genre of feminist discourses to remake meanings and challenge the gender order of society is explored. My own personal and professional biography and the focus of the literature review have fashioned the specific questions I posed.
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    Attitudinal differences of gifted students to school, work, teachers, parents and friends: Chinese and Australian perspectives
    Aeschliman, Carol ( 1998)
    This study investigated the views, perceptions and attitudes of gifted Chinese and Australian students towards school, teachers, parents, work and friends. The sample consisted of 275 secondary school students in Hong Kong and Melbourne, Australia. The ages of the students ranged from 10 to 18, and there were over twice as many girls as boys. Literature reviewed for the study focused on relevant aspects of gifted education as related both to Chinese and Australian students. The study used survey methodology with a questionnaire requiring responses based on a five-point Likert scale. The results of the survey indicated that there were differences in attitude between Chinese and Australian gifted students in relation to friends, school, academic school work, teachers and behaviour at school. Chinese students did not generally feel as positive about school or as confident about their academic performance as their Australian peers. They were not as negative about their teachers, although they felt their teachers gave them too many tests and not enough advice. Chinese students also felt their parents expected more of them than did parents of the Australian sample. The findings of the study suggest that there are a number of significant differences in attitude which affect the performance of Chinese gifted students in Australian schools. The study offers therefore some support for the need for greater awareness of the social and academic needs of international students. Recommendations are also made for an extension of the role of international student coordinators, together with greater provision for professional development for both their E.S.L. and mainstream teachers.