Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemAdolescent literacy journeys( 2017)Utilizing qualitative research methods, this multiple case study investigates factors influencing adolescents’ perceptions of their literacy capacities. These factors are identified as either personal or institutional, depending on whether they stem from the students’ personal or academic contexts. Green's Literacy in 3D Model is used extensively as an analytical lens to identify and categorize factors impacting students' perceptions at a pivotal time of their high school education. Identification of factors influencing students’ perceptions about their literacy capacities is relevant to educators and educational institutions alike, because it can assist optimal use of instructional approaches and provide learning opportunities and environments that facilitate student constructions of positive perceptions. This qualitative study is based on the assumption that a resilient sense of self-efficacy in the context of literacy is an essential component of academic success. The research provides a glimpse into the students’ literacy journeys and gives their voices a forum so they could influence instructional approaches and school programs.
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ItemNew technologies and literacy pedagogy: a case study of two Victorian government schools( 2005)This study investigates the ways in which a sample group of state secondary school teachers are adapting literacy pedagogy to incorporate new technologies. Research in the area of literacy education indicates that the literacy requirements of citizens in the new century will, and in fact already do, differ remarkably from those of ten or twenty years ago. The traditional perception of literacy as a print-orientated, alphabetically coded skill base has been variously problematised and challenged in recent years, to the extent that literacy is now generally regarded as a highly individualized, reflexive, meaning-making response to an authored stimulus (a text) which can be authored and read in a number of different modalities - some of them electronic in nature. In effect, literacy skills are now perceived to be those tools and stratagems developed by an individual in order to make sense, and put within a social context, the multiple sourced print, audio, visual, spatial and inter-related cultural products that are so prolific in the media-saturated socio-cultural environment of our contemporary Western civilisation: (see for example the work of educational theorists such as Cope & Kalantzis 2000; Luke et al, 2003; Snyder 1996; and Gee 2000. It stands to reason that if the literacy demands upon citizens of the 21st century are significantly different from those of the past, then the educational priorities for literacy educators may well be profoundly different as well. This study therefore examines how a select group of literacy educators perceive their role in providing and developing a meaningful literacy curriculum that addresses the effect these new technologies are having upon the practice of reading and writing amongst their students. Such a shift in pedagogical paradigm will inevitably be reflected in the ways in which teachers desire to, or do already successfully embed new technologies into the daily machinations of their classroom practice. Ultimately, this study is intended to provide a snapshot of the beliefs and practices of a small group of literacy educators regarding the embedding of new technologies into their curriculum development and implementation. While such a narrowly centred study cannot c1aim to be indicative of the beliefs and practices of all teachers operating in all schools of the state, nonetheless it does provide a complex and multifaceted perspective of the situation at a micro-sociological level.
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ItemExploring the challenges of developing literacies in a remote indigenous community context( 2005)This study describes an evolving process undertaken by a small Aboriginal Independent Community School to develop a unique teaching and learning environment. This environment catered to the specific needs of this remote Kimberley community. It looks at the challenges facing these Indigenous children to develop appropriate literacy skills in such an isolated environment. The narrative that unfolds explains the features that distinguished this community school and accounted for the success of the programs. The projects, the resources, the stories, the journal entries, the approach and the active community engagement form the basis of the study. An eclectic approach drawing on case study, reflective practice, action research and ethnographic techniques, were utilized to paint a complex picture of the evolving pedagogy.
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Item"If your body's not really moving, your brain's not really going": process drama, literacy and the middle years( 2010)Much research and writing has occurred over the last decade into the education of boys, with particular attention paid to the discrepancy in literacy levels when compared with girls. Research shows that the Middle Years of schooling are a major transitional time of adjustment; when literacy levels, particularly of boys, tend to plateau. The difference in literacy and engagement levels in English classes of boys and girls also tends to become wider, with more boys being at a lower percentile. This action research project, in a Year 7 English class, implemented Process drama strategies to engage students in their literacy learning. Analysis of a range of data, including writing samples demonstrated increased engagement during English classes and some improvement in literacy skills.