Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemPost: 9/11: hidden pedagogy: the positional forces of pedagogy in Victoria, Australia( 2015)This qualitative study charts the lived narratives of twelve participants, six teachers and six students from urban and rural Victoria, Australia. The study examines in detail the question ‘How do teachers teach, post 9/11?’. 9/11 has become accepted shorthand for September 11th 2001, in which terrorist attacks took place in the United States of America. The attacks heralded a ‘post- 9/11 world, [in which] threats are defined more by the fault lines within societies than by the territorial boundaries between them’ (National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, 2011, p. 361). The study is embedded in the values that have come to the fore in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the ideological shifts that have occurred globally. These values and ideologies are reflected via issues of culture and consumption. In education this is particularly visible through pedagogy. The research employs a multimethodological (Esteban-Guitart, 2012) form of inquiry through the use of bricolage (Kincheloe & Berry, 2004) which is comprised at the intersectional points of critical pedagogy (Kincheloe, 2008b), public pedagogy (Sandlin, Schultz, & Burdick, 2010b) and cultural studies (Hall, Hobson, Lowe, & Willis, 1992). This study adopts a critical ontological perspective, and is grounded in qualitative research approaches (Lather & St. Pierre, 2013). The methods of photo elicitation, artefact analysis, video observation and semi-structured interviews are used to critically examine the ways in which teacher and student identities are shaped by the pedagogies of contemporary schooling, and how they form common sense understandings of the world and themselves, charting possibilities between accepted common sense beliefs and 21st century neoliberal capitalism. The research is presented through a prototypical form of literary journalism and intertextuality which examines the interrelationship between teaching and social worlds exposing the hidden influence of enculturation and addressing the question ‘How do teachers teach, post 9/11?’
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ItemGood digital video practices for novice education researchers( 2015)This thesis explores good practices for using digital video as a data collection technique in qualitative school-based research, with a specific focus on practices that can guide the use of video by novice and postgraduate researchers. Interest in using video in education research has become wide-spread in recent years following major technological advances, and increased consumer demand that have resulted in dramatic improvements in recording quality, simplification of video recording and editing processes, and reduced equipment costs. Although the literature concerning uses of video in school-based research is growing, consolidated practicable advice for neophyte researchers regarding good procedural choices, key decision points and appropriate steps when using video in school settings has yet to emerge fully. To identify effective digital video practices for novice researchers, a rigorous and systematic study was undertaken using a Delphi process, a knowledge building and consensus technique. In the first stage of the Delphi activity, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 researchers with expertise in using video in education research. These interviews produced more than 250 suggestions of effective digital video research practices. Using survey techniques, in stage two and three of the Delphi the experts then rated these suggestions twice, which produced a final consensus list of 158 good practice recommendations. The recommendations underline that using video requires the same degree of attention to practical, procedural, ethical and philosophical issues as other approaches to data collection. Moreover, the Delphi experts particularly emphasized that novice researchers should: • be methodological in the choice and use of video; • understand that quality audio-visual data is contingent on attending to technical and procedural aspects of video-data construction; • value the significance of respect and rapport in video research for building trusting relationships and achieving trustworthy data; • appreciate the obtrusive nature of video, and be reflexively aware of the mediating role of the researcher and technology in video-based studies; and • take a rigorous but also empathic and caring approach to ethical dimensions of video-based education research. The good practice suggestions cover an extensive range of topics including (but not limited to) considerations when choosing to use video, steps associated with project planning and preparation, actions when gathering digital recordings in the field, matters concerning data management and analysis, ways of enhancing the trustworthiness of video-based research, and good practices when reporting results from digital video studies. Moreover, these appear to be among the few consolidated sets of recommendations for neophyte researchers regarding how high standards of video-based research in school settings can be achieved. Nonetheless, there is scope for the practices to be elaborated and improved, and so recommendations are provided for further research to enhance the comprehensiveness, comprehension and applicability of the video good practice suggestions.
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ItemNew femininities: young women, education and employment( 2015)It is commonly argued that young women in Australia today have reached equal status with their male peers, particularly in the education realm. Representations of women’s equality in the mainstream media is summarised in images of ‘can-do’ ‘top girls’ with high levels of education and successful careers. However, despite the apparent educational success of young women, the labour market and workplace remain remarkably impervious to change along gender lines. The aim of this research is to explore young women’s experiences of the education and labour systems in terms of how social conditions affect young women’s identities and understandings of gender inequality within a post-feminist framework. This thesis addresses these developments through a feminist analysis of the structural and subjective contradictions in young women’s discourse and everyday practices. The thesis borrows conceptually from the field of sociology of youth, particularly the ideas of individualisation and social generations to understand young women’s lives. This is a mixed-methods research project using surveys and semi-structured interviews with young women in their early and mid-twenties. The data presented in this thesis demonstrates how gender is experienced, enacted and embodied in the lives of young women, frequently in ways that are competing and contradictory. It explores the complications of subject formation and what it means to be a ‘young woman’ in neoliberal, post-feminist, late modern times.