Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemCurricula skills valued by parents of students attending special developmental schools( 1999)This study was undertaken to investigate the values placed on specific curricula skills by parents of intellectually disabled children. The study also examined the relationship between these values and selected background variables. In addition, this study identified the parental preferred length of time that should be spent on particular skills each week in the educational programs of their children. A two part questionnaire was used to collect the data. It consisted of items relating to the background characteristics of the respondents and curriculum items that parents of children with intellectual disabilities were asked to rate. Eighty-six parents in the Northern Metropolitan Region of Victoria provided data for this study. Space was provided for parents to indicate other skills which they felt would be important for their children to learn. Items were spread across four curricula domains: functional life, academic, social/friendship and 'other' skills. T-tests and analysis of variance were employed to determine the significance of differences between means of ratings on the variables. Several findings emerged from the study. Parents were found to prefer independent functional life skills and integrating social/friendship skills throughout their child's school life, while academic skills were consistently rated last. Consistent with these ratings was the further observation that self-help or independent living skills, communication and social skills, were categories highly valued by parents. Significant difference was found related to the age and gender of the children of parents making the ratings. No significant differences were identified for parent age or parent educational level. Independent functional life skills were rated higher for older children, particularly for boys while integrating social/friendship skills rated higher for older girls than for older boys. Recommendations for parent involvement in curriculum decision-making are included.
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ItemGirls & post school achievement : discourse, meaning & subjectivity( 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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ItemDisability, education and ethnic families: the changing Greek-Australian experience( 1996)This study set out to examine whether there would be a difference in the attitudes held towards people with disabilities by two different generations of Greek Australians. The first group were those who had spent their formative years in the mother country whilst the second had been born in Australia. It was assumed that the attitudes held would be shaped by both the experience and the communal value system. The working hypothesis was that the attitudes held by the Anglo oriented group of young Greeks would be more akin to the general community than to the Traditional Group. The literature indicates that children raised in a multicultural environment will begin to absorb the values of the dominant society even when their own ethnic group maintains a cohesive set of values and provides a context in which to live a fulfilling life. The literature suggests there are six areas where the Greek tradition might significantly vary from the dominant group. These can be illustrated by the specific questions:- causes attributed to disability, responsibility for care, access to social services, access and participation in mainstream education, access to employment, and the rights to personal development. A survey was undertaken to evaluate the attitudes system of the groups, two of Greek background and one of Anglo-Australians. The results, with two small exceptions confirmed the hypothesis and provided conformation of the proposition that attitudes towards disability are shaped by the cultural context in which one lives and schools need to take into account the structure of ethnic families of Greek background. To maximise the levels of cooperation and communication the family values must be understood and respected. For the schools to assist those with disabilities to achieve meaningful and satisfying lives it is necessary to ensure that the whole family unit benefits.
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ItemParents perceptions of enabling practices used by integration teachers in the western region of Melbourne Victorian government schools which have supported integration programs for children with intellectual disabilities( 1998)This study was undertaken to identify and compare the perceptions of 92 parents of children with intellectual disability from the Western Region of Melbourne toward enabling practices used by integration teachers in Victorian government schools. The study then proceeded to an investigation and evaluation of the success of the integration teachers in developing an adequate parent-integration teacher partnership. Details of parent background were found by questionnaire and each parent completed an adapted version of the Enabling Practices Scale (Dempsey, 1995). Enablement was found by factor analysis to be perceived by these parents to be composed of four facets, namely: support, collaboration, empowerment and autonomy. Parents from background other than English were slightly more positive than their Anglo counterparts towards collaboration with integration teachers. Parents in general were found to hold positive attitudes toward the enabling practices of integration teachers. From this, it was concluded that the integration teachers had been successful in establishing effective parent-teacher relationships in all four facets of enablement.