Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemLanguage planning at the school level: the great wall of Chinese( 2014)This thesis researches language policy and planning (LPP) at a local school level. It reveals the complex dynamics at play in a case study of the issues and process involved in the attempt to introduce Chinese language into a Victorian government school. Language policy and planning has had a long history associated with the field of education. Unfortunately the academic study of this area has tended to concentrate specifically on macro level policy fields with fewer studies at a local level or over an extended time frame. Previous research has remained largely within the confines of academic discussion in which it has been principally critical in orientation, or it has focused on government language policy and has thus mostly been technocratic and top-down in orientation (Lo Bianco, 2010, p. 240). Very little research has been done on language planning at a local school level where practising teachers and administrators engage in a process of interaction with their students, the students’ parents and government policy to enact language policy and planning in a practical manner. It is unknown whether the macro level academic study of this area has even impacted on the LPP process at the school level let alone whether there are many affordances that discussion of technocratic top-down planning can offer at the local level. In order to understand language planning at school level, what is needed is a kind of LPP practice and theory which is both critical and effective, evaluative but also pragmatic. This kind of understanding of the local aligns with R. Cross (2009) who called for theories of LPP. There have recently been calls to concentrate on micro levels of language planning which can effect change in a pluralist society, where individual choice is an under-researched factor in the micro level. Such a move might help the formulation of LPP which is effective at local levels while avoiding the pitfalls of an overly mechanistic and technocratic focus. In moving towards theories of LPP, R. Cross (2009) advocated use of sociocultural theory. The current study aims to contribute to LPP research by addressing the process of introducing Chinese language into a government school and to create greater understanding of the process by theorising this language planning. To achieve this aim, a sociocultural theoretical framework comprising third generation activity theory (Engeström, 1987a), narrative study (Swain, Kinnear, & Steinman, 2011), expansive learning cycles as an interpretive framework (Berman, Lagenhove, & Harré, 1999; Engeström & Sannino, 2010), and Q methodology (Brown, 1980; Stephenson, 1953) has been deployed. The data gathered are used to contribute to a theory of site-specific language planning. To connect theory to practice, a mixed methods approach was adopted to provide understanding of the agency of various actors in implementing another foreign language option. The thesis concludes with a consideration of the implications of the analysis of LLP at the school level and how this might be used in effecting change in a school level as well as theoretical and methodological insights.
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ItemPaired-placements in teacher education: a sociocultural activity theoretical perspective( 2014)This thesis explores the potential of an alternative placement model, the paired-placement, in facilitating teacher professional learning in a Vietnamese second language teacher education context. It asks three specific questions. First, what types of teacher professional learning occur in the paired-placement? Second, in what ways does the paired-placement facilitate that learning? Third, what contextual factors shape teacher professional learning in the paired-placement? Methodologically, this research draws upon case-study research of four pairs of Vietnamese preservice teachers of English over their 15-week paired-placement in 2009 at a Vietnamese university in Hanoi, Vietnam. The data gathered for the purposes of the study include individual interviews with the preservice teachers; observations of the pairs’ co-taught lessons; video-recordings of planning meetings and lessons; and relevant artefacts such as instructional materials and policy documents. The data were analysed by using a combined genetic and joint-activity system analytical approach. This approach comprises three levels of analysis, namely a genetic domain analysis, joint-activity system analysis within each case, and cross-case analysis. Theoretically, the study is grounded in Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of learning and third generation activity theory. Specifically, it draws on the concepts of mediation, genetic method, zone of proximal development (ZPD), contradiction, and expansive learning. Deviating from the conventional conceptualisation of learning, the study views ‘contradictions’ in the pair-work as sources of change and development. The findings reveal that the paired-placement was conducive to teacher professional learning, irrespective of the pairs’ initial dyadic interactions. Teacher learning opportunities were initially manifested in conflicts within the teacher pairs. These include, for example, negotiation of partners’ differing or conflicting conceptions of student teaching; conflicts caused by their unequal division of roles and responsibilities, and unequal power relationship; and dilemmas concerning conflicting rules that regulated their joint-activity. However, within the framework of planned and supervised collaboration, the preservice teachers resolved most of their conflicts constructively and experienced qualitative transformations in their collegial collaboration, professional identities, and professional knowledge. Beyond identifying the types of learning, the findings uncover the intricate process of learning mediated by the paired-placement. Driven by their object-motives, manifest in their conceptions of student teaching, the teachers exercised their agency by drawing on peer observation and/or professional dialogue as resources for reflection, to achieve enhanced understanding, which then informed their subsequent response to contradictions. The study shows that object-motives could be reconceptualised in the paired-placement context. The study reveals multi-layered forces that shaped teachers’ learning to teach English in the paired-placement. These forces included teachers’ prior experiences and attributes, the shift from single-teaching to collaborative-teaching, and a range of factors manifest in the broader context of the paired-placement in Vietnam. The influence of these multi-layered forces was by no means homogeneous – different teachers responded differently to similar circumstances. Overall, the study reveals the complexity of teacher learning afforded by the paired-placement. The study highlights paired-placement as a promising model of teacher preparation. It also offers a new approach to conceptualising teacher learning in such collaborative settings, thereby opening a novel line of research-based inquiry that is capable of many further applications.