Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemThe role of curriculum coordinators in state secondary schools : implementing the Moneghetti Report : democratic process and curriculum deliberation : an interactive ethnography( 1999)In Victorian Government state Secondary Schools, the position description of Curriculum Coordinator, in conjunction with the Principal, generally includes the responsibility of leading and managing the implementation of whole school change. Shared decision making is much more an established expectation amongst staff in state secondary schools than it is in independent schools where executive authority is clearly the prerogative of the Principal, and the management structure has traditionally been hierarchical. In a climate of teacher disenchantment with restructuring, competitive marketing and centrally directed change, it is important that the Curriculum Coordinator is skilled in securing agreement on key curriculum decisions. Ling (1998) and Vivian (1997) have shown that the successful management of curriculum change depends to a large degree on the deliberative as well as strategic skills of the Curriculum Coordinator in enlisting the support and cooperation of teachers. They found that this depends to a large degree on the personal propensities and moral capacities that the Curriculum Coordinator brings to the role which is defined to a considerable extent by their relationship with the Principal. Weiss (1998), however, identifies teachers as inhibitors of change if the change adversely affects them or if it is perceived to be contrary to the prevailing interests of the students or to the ethos of the school. Schwab (1983) has presented an argument for the centrality of the deliberative role of Curriculum Coordinator (or Chairmen as Schwab calls them). This study, written by an experienced Curriculum Coordinator, explores the knowledge, skills and propensities employed by three practising Curriculum Coordinators in Victorian State Secondary Schools in Melbourne when leading the deliberations of their curriculum committees to consider the implementation of a State-mandated change. This research in the form of historical ethnographies presents each Curriculum Coordinator's understanding of the role through their retelling and evaluation of the strategies that they used in dealing with the implementation of a compulsory Sport program. As a reference point for evaluating these strategies, I have discussed the participant's stated position model of the relevant skills and propensities, my own understanding of the role as a practising Curriculum Coordinator and compared them with Schwab's paradigm. The assumption was that through reflection and narrative construction these experienced teachers would be able to identify critical issues and explore areas of their middle management position. It was felt at the outset by the author and participants that sharing of reflection would benefit both the mentor and others in curriculum management positions in State schools (Weiss 1995). Potentially the collaborative reconstruction of their experiences as interactive ethnographies constitutes professional development for both the subject and for those with whom they are willing to share their experiences. In the planning, interpretation and evaluation of the change processes that they used, the subjects of these interactive ethnographies were mindful of the obligations of the role and how their management of the task would reflect on their credibility and moral capacity. On the one hand, they and the Principal were obliged as part of their appointed duties to implement Department of Education policy. On the other, there was a zone of moral freedom in which they felt they could impact positively or negatively on the educational culture of the school and on the professional lives of their colleagues. These studies suggest that the Curriculum Coordinator's position is more complex than Schwab suggests in his account of the deliberative arts and functions of the Chairman. The Curriculum Coordinator's role is shown to be far more complex than simply leading the deliberations of the curriculum group. The interactive ethnographies illustrate the critical role that the Curriculum Coordinator plays in mediating, maintaining and promoting the basic principles upon which the school's curriculum is predicated. Meaningful curriculum reform necessitates the redefining the local working rules, tasks and obligations of the teaching staff and students. The Curriculum Coordinator's ability to retain a moral capacity in the face of mandated change is seen to strongly influence the degree to which the organisational capacity for reform is maintained in their schools. Each Curriculum Coordinator felt ultimately responsible for insuring that the needs of the students, and the values and vision of the school as a learning community were not lost in the continuous process of externally mandated change and accountability which has characterised State education in the late 1990's.
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ItemCurriculum leadership: as envisaged, perceived, enacted and experienced: a case study of a Catholic secondary college( 1998)This study explored the dimensions of the curriculum leader role in a Secondary Catholic College. For the purpose of this study, curriculum leaders were identified as official members of the Curriculum Development Team (CDT) including Key Learning Area Coordinators (KLACs), Enhancement Learning Coordinator, VCE Coordinator, Professional Development Coordinator and the Curriculum Coordinator. The study adapted Goodlad's (1979) 'curriculum inquiry' framework to illuminate the various realities of curriculum leadership within the organisation. Employing a qualitative research approach the investigation examined curriculum leadership as: � envisaged by the Founder and the senior administration of the school � perceived by the school's curriculum leaders � enacted by the school curriculum leaders � experienced by members of Key Learning Area Teams within the school In addition, the study identified factors that impact on the degree of congruency existing between the various held realities of curriculum leadership within the organisation. Sergiovanni's (1984a) 'forces of leadership', including cultural, symbolic, educational, human and technical forces were introduced into the study as benchmarks in which curriculum leadership is definable. The findings of this study provide a rich portrayal of both the shared and unique understandings of the dimensions of the curriculum leadership role within the organisation. Whilst the understanding of the curriculum leadership role as envisaged was highly congruent with that perceived, these realities differed significantly from those enacted and experienced. The findings of this study are supportive of the work of Hargreaves (1989) who asserts that "the work cultures of teachers work are profoundly influenced by the work structures of teaching" (p.46).
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ItemImplementing the CSF-English in a whole language classroom( 1998)A new curriculum structure called the Curriculum and Standards Framework (CSF) was introduced to Victorian primary and secondary schools in 1995. The CSF-English comprises four strands, two of which (Contextual understanding and Linguistic structures and features), represent what could be seen as new information to Whole Language trained teachers. This thesis addresses the CSF-English in two ways. First, it deconstructs the CSF-English. Second, it will attempt to trace its implementation in a case study. In order to lay the basis for a historically located, theoretically informed deconstruction of the CSF-English, the researcher conducted a close reading of the document, informed by a reading of the literature on the history of English curriculum. The conclusion is that the CSF-English, while being theoretically inclusive, is unsynthesised, eclectic and confusing. This thesis examines how two grade 5/6 self described Whole Language primary school teachers went about implementing the CSF-English, a document to which they had limited theoretical access. This thesis focuses on the types of texts and the types of knowledge about texts which were presented in the classroom. Using ethnographic methodology both qualitative and quantitative data were collected to create a rich and detailed portrait of all occurrences of the teaching of reading and writing. The data showed that a narrow and unbalanced range of text types was presented. While fictional and personal texts occurred with high frequency, factual texts occurred very infrequently. The data also showed that literal and personalised knowledge about texts was frequently taught, whereas the overall structures of texts and the situational and socio-cultural context was rarely taught. The central conclusions reached were first that the teachers implemented only those aspects of CSF-English which concurred with their Whole Language philosophy. The Whole Language model of English did not provide a means for these teachers to implement the CSF-English as a whole. Second, those aspects of the CSF-English which drew most heavily on Critical Social Literacy were taught infrequently. Third, it was concluded that the students of these Whole Language teachers were not being fully prepared for the demands of secondary school literacy. In particular, they were not being familiarised with the types of texts that matter in the secondary school, nor were they being inducted into critical and analytical thinking about texts.