Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemThe dynamic process of standards-based curriculum implementation: a comparative case study of two Melbourne schools from multiple analytical perspectives( 2015)The primary purpose of this case study research was to investigate the extent to which schools in Victoria implemented common state standards in their local curriculum. Standards-based curriculum has been advocated as a key strategy for promoting equal opportunities of learning and enhancing classroom instruction in Victorian schools. However, schools may have very different social settings, and the curriculum that students actually receive may vary significantly. A multiple-perspective research design was applied to inform a study of standards-based curriculum implementation in two Melbourne schools of different socioeconomic profile. The research design adopted a stratified approach: by first interrogating curriculum alignment with respect to year 9 science instruction and state standards, and then examining contextual influences on local school curriculum planning and implementation from the analytical perspectives of social reproduction theory and activity theory. Data for this study came from a larger study called the Alignment Project (AP). To generate an in-depth understanding of local curriculum planning and implementation in each school, the present study utilized various data sources from the AP. These included: interviews with the science teacher and coordinators responsible for school curriculum planning, video recordings of a complete series of lessons (constituting one year 9 science unit), teacher questionnaires for each lesson, and copies of school curricular and instructional materials as well as student work samples. The data was examined using different analytical frameworks in accordance with the research design. Comparative analyses between the two schools were facilitated by the similar content topic taught for the science unit. The findings from the alignment analyses revealed that the both schools and teachers interpreted expectations from state standards differently and each school provided a different enacted curriculum to the students. Subsequent analyses using a social reproduction lens suggested that the two schools maintained a stratified curriculum based on SES differences, but each teacher also adapted their instruction to meet perceived learning needs of their students. Extended analyses using activity theory however revealed that there was a lack of common goals between school policy planning and classroom enactment in the less affluent school, and this may have hindered the smooth implementation of the school curriculum. The findings from activity theory suggested that actual schooling processes should be viewed as dynamic and dialectic instead of ‘reproductive’. To conclude, this study demonstrated that standards-based curriculum implementation is most usefully seen as a dynamic and complex process. Research on standards-based curriculum must recognize that the implementation of mandated curricula is a dynamic process of re-interpretations and translations made by schools and teachers, which is shaped by multiple contextual influences. No one single theoretical lens can adequately capture the multi-faceted process of curriculum implementation. This study has shown that a multiple-perspective research design facilitates a useful interrogation of the complex process of curriculum (re)construction and implementation undertaken by curriculum coordinators and teachers in the two schools. This work contributes to the ongoing understanding of the process of curriculum realization as a situated practice in school systems employing a standards-based curriculum.
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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.