Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemNon-language outcomes in adult ESL literacy classrooms: an examination of the Certificates of General Education for Adults( 1999)This thesis aims to investigate how the Certificate of General Education for Adults (CGEA) caters for non-language outcomes in ESL literacy classrooms. The research focuses specifically on ESL literacy learners with limited or no formal education who are characterised as having literacy needs. Non-language outcomes (NLO) such as improved self-esteem, cultural awareness and the development of learning-to-learn skills are seen by many teachers to be important gains from language and literacy courses. However, since the introduction of competency-based credentials like the CGEA, many practitioners are concerned that these do not acknowledge NLO. Using the theoretical framework of a previous study by Jackson (1994) into NLO categories, this thesis reported on the findings of a qualitative multi-case study of six teachers and their low-level ESL literacy learners. A range of data including teacher interviews, classroom observations and field notes was used to examine the informants’ conceptualisation of both ESL literacy learner characteristics and of NLO. The teachers were also asked to comment on whether NLO were documented in the CGEA. The data revealed that the informants’ characterisation of ESL literacy learners matches current definitions found in the literature. The teachers reported that these learners do make non-language gains, particularly in the affective and learning skills categories. This thesis also identified classroom metalanguage to be an additional NLO for the target learners which was not previously identified by Jackson (1994).
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ItemCulturally different and successful?: case studies of gifted Vietnamese secondary students( 1993-01)There is concern in the literature that gifted children from ‘culturally different’ populations, such as Hispanics and Blacks, are underrepresented in special programs due, in part, to the often insensitive traditional methods of identification used that do not detect particular abilities that are valued and promoted within that particular culture. Contrary to these findings, studies indicate that gifted Asians are in profusion. They present themselves as excellent, motivated students and it is almost expected that they will achieve highly in the areas of mathematics and science. The focus of this paper is a study of seven highly capable secondary school boys of Vietnamese background. In several of these cases the children have had huge hurdles to overcome including the death of a mother, escape by boat, life in a refugee camp, parents whose skills are not being utilised as well as being ‘different’. Despite this they have been successful. A case study approach was adopted to look at the nature of these students, the role of the parents and the attitudes towards giftedness. The aim is to present a holistic view of the child rather than obscure their unique characteristics in a muddle of statistics of a large scale study. This paper takes the position that it is dangerous to make such generalisations and that although gifted from the same cultural group will have certain similar traits, the assumption that common values will automatically apply to them should be curtailed as the particular circumstances of the individual child leads to different manifestations in each.
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ItemTeachers' interests in school amalgamation( 1994)This contemporary social history reconstructs policy debates that arose during the amalgamation of three High schools and three Technical schools into a new multicampus college in the predominantly working class western suburbs of Melbourne. This took place under the Comprehensive Curriculum Provision and School Reorganisation policy of the Victorian State Labor Government in the period 1989 to 1992. This policy was part of a transnational movement in educational modernisation in the industrialized capitalist countries. The study focuses on the expression of High school and Technical school teachers' interests in various local policymaking forums during the amalgamation. The study examines issues that include: school closure, representation and participation, facilities and staffing, re-deployment, promotion, subject hierarchy and curriculum ideology. The study is informed by theory in the fields of the micropolitics of school organisation and the sociology of school subjects. Unpublished primary documents and participant accounts are the basic sources of data for this study. The researcher was an active participant in many of the debates examined in this study. The study concludes that the definition of this new college was directly related to teachers' ideological, vested and self interests, and that in general, school amalgamation outcomes are better explained when these interests are taken into account. The study also suggests that local conflict arising from centrally mandated comprehensive curriculum and systemic reforms reflects contradictions in the underlying social structure, as the traditional institutional form of schooling for the working class - the Technical school - and that for the middle class - the High school - become threatened.