Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemChinese/Anglo-Celtic bicultural children's education experiences in Australia( 2001)This study explores, through three case studies, how home, school and community factors have influenced the education and development experiences of Chinese/Anglo-Celtic bicultural children attending Australian schools. The worldwide lack of previous research on the education of bicultural children and the high outmarriage rate of Chinese-Australian women make it important to understand whether Chinese/Anglo-Celtic children experience similar or different education problems to those experienced by monocultural minority and mainstream children The data was collected from parents and children through questionnaires and individual interviews conducted at each family home. All the participant families were referred to the researcher by colleagues and were previously unknown to the researcher. The findings indicate that the children's home environments have influenced the varying levels of their Chinese and Australian cultural values and language skills. However, they all generally appear psychologically stable and have successfully integrated into their respective schools and mainstream society.
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ItemMulticulturalism: the implications for midwifery education( 1990)Australian society is a system in change, with immigration creating a need for an urgent review of the education of midwives. Caring for the families of differing cultures requires a basic understanding of cross-cultural midwifery beliefs. A comparative analysis was made of the beliefs of midwives and two of the most recent arrivals, Vietnamese and Turkish. Data was collected via a questionnaire. The main findings indicate: (1) midwives have significantly different beliefs regarding childbearing from those of women of other cultures. (2) Childbearing practices vary across cultures. (3) There is an urgent need for midwifery education to include a component on cross-culture childbearing practices to ensure a satisfactory childbearing experience for people of all cultures residing in Australia.
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ItemSocial ideologies in two sets of multicultural curricular materials( 1980)The large increase in the non-British proportion of Australia's population since 1945 has created a demand for greater recognition in schools of cultural difference and a re-affirmation of the goal of equality of educational opportunity. Marxist theories of ideology, hegemony and the State are employed to examine whether 'multicultural' curricular materials which are ostensibly advocating a critical appraisal of the society and subscription to these pluralist goals, are not soliciting support for dominant ideologies. The thesis questions whether they are not acting to reproduce the social order to the detriment of the ethnic minorities they are purporting to serve. The first of the two sets of curricular materials examined, Ethnic Australia, develops a Eurocentric view of exploration and inter-ethnic relations favourable to the needs of .capitalist economic growth. Its criticism of prejudice is unrelenting, but it does not extend it to an adequate analysis of the social conditions which might have generated discrimination and conflict. In its presentation of Italian and Greek cultures, it highlights and reinforces those attitudes and behaviours which are most conducive to an acceptance of competitive individualism under capitalism. The materials entitled Australia : A Multicultural Society, show the benefit of widespread consultation with educators and ethnic groups. They offer a view of culture and a picture of the material circumstances of Greeks and other migrants in Australia which accords with the most recent and carefully conducted research. In delivering a sustained attack on the inadequate provision for migrants in this country, they expose children' to a variety of ideological perspectives gleaned from the media, ethnic communities and the peer culture. Reservations are expressed about the capacity of materials with a liberal reformist ideology to develop in school students a critical awareness of the more intractable social structural barriers to the achievement of social equality and acceptance of cultural difference. Finally, there is brief discussion of the problems of construction and dissemination of critical curricular materials in a publicly funded educational system.