Faculty of Education - Theses

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End date: 2009 × Start date: 2006 × Subject: assessment ×

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    Emerging identities: practice, learning and professional development of home and community care assessment staff
    Lindeman, Melissa Ann ( 2006-12)
    This thesis argues for greater recognition of assessment staff in community care/home and community care (HACC) and a more comprehensive and considered approach to preparing such a workforce. By offering deeper insights into the practice of assessment and the individuals employed in these positions, the thesis makes the case that these are emerging identities: a new specialism in the emergent space of community care. This specialism has arisen to fill the gap which has developed as a result of changing socio-cultural practices in relation to care for the frail aged and people with disabilities, and the inability of established disciplines to keep pace with the new demands of the contemporary world. The study employed a qualitative methodology using in-depth interviews with key informants with various stakeholder interests and expertise in the area of assessment and home and community care, and workers employed in assessment roles in HACC services in Victoria. The conceptual framework is represented as theoretical perspectives from current adult educational scholarship that focus on professional disciplines (including multidisciplinary/interprofessional perspectives), those that focus on communities of practice, and those that focus on the workplace. The thesis shows that HACC assessment workers are a product of contemporary workplaces and systems of health and community care. The nature of their practice derives substantially from the local contexts in which they work; there is no single profession or discipline-based narrative that drives their practice. Instead they draw from a diverse range of knowledge sources including their embodied practice. In this way, it is argued that they are emergent practitioners, whose practice and identities share many elements with traditional professions in comparable work contexts (similar levels of autonomy, reflective practices, and development and application of ‘know how’ and tacit wisdom). The case is put that their embodied practice is the site of a robust professionalism which can provide the foundation for new approaches to the education, training and development of this increasingly important and growing occupational group. A model of learning is proposed which builds on authentic learning attained in daily work activities with clients, in the workplace as a social setting, and developing the self as a resource for practice. This model is based on a hybrid approach that builds on the learning strengths of both educational institutions and the workplace.
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    Creative catalysts: unlocking the potential power of visual art to inspire creative pedagogies across the primary school curriculum
    WIELGOSZ, MEG ELIZABETH ( 2008)
    In a contemporary primary school context, I see a vast discrepancy between policy emphasis and practical understandings in regards to developing student creativity. As a potential means of engaging and motivating students, the importance of creativity cannot be overestimated. Thus, this study arose out of a need for rich, teacher-relevant research into creativity nurture and transfer. To enable this, I examined three examples of the visual art classroom and curriculum, allegedly a key domain of student creativity. Specifically, I conducted a qualitative, arts-based inquiry which was ethnographically influenced. This comprised case studies of visual art teachers, incorporating observation and interviewing, Analysis involved semi-fixed grids and systems of coding which aimed to reveal creativity-related, overarching bridges of meaning or mutual constructs between cases. In doing so, the findings of this study are intended to support teachers in developing understandings about creativity as a step towards implementing creative pedagogies across the curriculum, In particular, the study revealed that visual art in the primary school can foster children's creative tool-kit development and that this is achieved through a range of environmental and participant behaviour factors. Furthermore, according to data, visual art in the primary school can be used to inspire creative pedagogies across all areas of the curriculum, however, this is arguably not effectively and consistently occurring in anything more than superficial ways. Finally, the study indicated that creativity can indeed be a tool for motivating and engaging children.