Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemHow leadership is manifested in Steiner schools( 2005)The purpose of this research was to determine how leadership is manifested in Steiner schools. These are schools with no principal or formal leadership structure. An intensive study was conducted of one independent, fee-paying Australian Steiner school catering for children aged 5 to 18. A descriptive case study methodology was used employing individual interviews with 10 staff members of the school, and document analysis. The administrative structure of the school was found to be much more complicated than that of a traditional school, although similar to Steiner schools in general. There were 21 mandated groups that existed in order to administer the school, the most notable being the College Of Teachers. The operation of the school was best described as a democracy. Benefits of the school structure included a feeling of inclusion in the leadership and management of the school, the opportunities for many staff to assume roles of responsibility in mandated groups and an adaptability of the organisation. Problems found included a lack of clarity of roles, resistance to leadership and the time to make decisions. Leadership was found to be highly democratic, with no official leader in the organisation. However, there was found to be an unofficial leadership structure based on merit and experience, with several prominent individuals identified, and one in particular. The research is significant in that it has explored an alternative school leadership structure - one that is problematic but also has significant benefits.
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ItemDeepening Australian democracy: what can schools do?( 2000-11)The term, ‘civic deficit’, has been used to describe a situation in which a significant proportion of Australian citizens display low levels of knowledge and understanding of, and low levels of engagement with, Australian political and constitutional arrangements. This civic deficit has attracted increased attention by governments, policy makers, and the broad educational community within Australia in recent years. The Report of the Civics Expert Group (1994) identified school education as a major site in which to address this deficit, and the past decade has seen increased emphasis on civics and citizenship education in Australian schools. The thesis critically examines the role of civics and citizenship within Australia secondary schools. It does this, not purely from an educational perspective, but from within the broader context of the contemporary Australian political system. This thesis regards citizenship as inherently a political concept, and develops the notion of democratic citizenship as the most significant element of this. It is argued that democratic citizens are more than merely knowledgeable about their nation’s democratic traditions, government institutions and constitutional arrangements. While these elements of civics and citizenship education have a role, democratic citizens are genuine members of their political community. It is argues that they are inquisitive participants in that community.
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ItemExpeditions, travels and journeys: reconceptualising teaching and learning about indigenous Australians in the early childhood curriculum( 2004)This thesis aimed to explore the terrain of early childhood educator's inclusion of Indigenous Australian peoples and cultures within their curriculum practice. Within this it was anticipated that these explorations would draw from early childhood reconceptualist literature to explore and trouble understandings of curriculum theory and practice. It was also anticipated that my research companions and I would use our beginning understandings of postcolonial theory to theorise, explore and disrupt our constructions and understandings of Indigenous Australian peoples and cultures that were based on the colonial understandings and discourse circulating within Australia and our local communities and that influenced our curriculum practices. In order to explore and disrupt this curriculum practice, my research companions and I set off on an action research journey. We travelled and journeyed within monthly meetings over one year as we located and explored curriculum practice. Action research provided the maps for this journey as we attempted to explore the curricula practices of my companions and locate and explore the issues and challenges that arose as they attempted to disrupt this practice and find reconceptualised ways towards inclusion of Indigenous peoples and cultures. Throughout this journey however, while curriculum practice was located and explored and changes to this practice occurred at superficial levels, discussions around how the reconceptualising of this practice was limited and constrained by the influences of colonial discourse upon our personal understandings of Indigenous peoples and cultures was avoided. As I travelled back into the research meetings after a prolonged absence from the research journey, I became more aware of the silences that existed within our travels that enabled us to resist change in our practices around inclusion of Indigenous peoples and cultures in ways that opened spaces for this inclusion in equitable and respectful ways. I journeyed again through postcolonial theory and while this provided me with important and useful waymarks in which to locate and understand the research travels and moments within it, this theory did not provide me with pathways to explore the resistances. Early childhood reconceptualist literature also provided and guided my reflections on curricula practice in important ways, however, similar to my struggles with postcolonial theory, did not provide for waymarks to understand and locate the silences within the research travelling group. Silences that ensured discussion of personal understandings of Indigenous people and how these understandings were constructed was avoided. Within my searching of alternate theories and ways of exploring the terrain of this research journey, I stumbled across whiteness theories and found that the silences in the research could be located, positioned and explored through and within these theories and understandings. The thesis journey then followed white pathways that led into explorations of whiteness within the research and made it possible to see how both the research companions and myself had constructed ourselves, Indigenous Australian peoples and curricula theory and practice through and within these white understandings. As I located and explored my experiences through narrative and mapped and traced whiteness within the research travels and journeys, it became possible to view how strategies of whiteness operated to discourage the explorations and locating of our personal within our professional understandings. Given this, the possibilities for shifts in personal understandings, and as a consequence, professional and curricula practice, were limited and constrained within this journey into reconceptualising Indigenous inclusion in early childhood curriculum. The journeying within this thesis into reconceptualising early childhood curriculum around Indigenous inclusion and the drawing from both postcolonial and whiteness theories, however, has resulted in more complex understandings of how this work could take place. Mapping postcolonial viewpoints and waymarks and tracing white viewpoints and waymarks within these can allow early childhood researchers and educators to view how these discourses intersect and overlap to silence Indigenous Australian peoples and cultures as well as work to avoid and limit discussion and awareness within white communities about the existence of prejudice and discrimination. Further, the effects of these colonial and white discourses on both personal understandings and the influence of these on curriculum practices aimed at including Indigenous peoples and cultures can be uncovered, located, explored and disrupted in order to create spaces and places for Indigenous voices within early childhood curricula practice.
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ItemAsian studies in Australian education 1970-2002 : a study of four reports( 2005)For well over a hundred years Australia's relationship with Asia has been contentious. In contemporary Australia there is still an ongoing debate on Australia's possible place in and relationship with Asia. The debate occurs across the social and political spectrum in Australian society. Over recent decades this debate has been a major policy issue in education policy for both federal and state governments. The argument for the study of Asia in education is not immune from this wider political and social discourse addressing Australia's position and place in Asia. Between 1970 and 2002 there have been four major Reports on Asian studies in Australian Education. The reports: the Auchmuty Report (1970), the FitzGerald Report (1980), the Ingleson Report (1989) and the Jeffrey Report (2002) offer a unique opportunity to chart the development of Asian studies and languages in Australian education over an extended period of time. The reports provide a unique insight into the state of Asian studies at approximately ten year intervals. Each report offers a detailed account of the contemporary situation, mostly in the universities, of the study of Asia and languages. Each offers explicit policy recommendations to enhance the position of the study of Asia into the future. The recommendations are directed to government, educational authorities, universities and members of the profession. These reports provide the basis for this thesis. For the study of Asia to gain an accepted and permanent place in the curricula in Australian = education and in particular in universities, new approaches to policy development and implementation must occur. The traditional culture of the universities, the European tradition, must be challenged as it presents many barriers, both pedagogical and administrative, to acceptance of the study of Asia. In addition, over the last 15 years, Australian universities are being continually reshaped by a change process instigated by the Federal government. All disciplines have been and are still being affected by these changes. The case for the study of Asia must be framed in such a way that it recognizes and responds to these organizational and financial changes and challenges if the study of Asia is to become a key component of the curricula. The contention of this thesis is that the study of Asia and Asian language must have an accepted and recognized position in Australian education at all levels. The policy advocacy for the study of Asia, while recognizing the pragmatic reasons of improved economic ties and outcomes and political relations should, at the same time, highlight the invaluable learning opportunity that the study of Asia's many and varied histories and cultures provide. The study of Asia, then, would meet the economic and vocational imperatives of present government policy while at the same time contributing to a greater understanding of society.