Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemVCE course development days, 1991 : an appraisal( 1992)This minor thesis traces the evolution and rationale of the development and implementation of the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) from its inception in 1987 to its first full year of operation in 1992. It outlines the design and operation of the professional development program undertaken to assist the implementation of the certificate. Its focus is an appraisal of the major element of the professional development program - the 1991 course development days. Three perspectives are offered in this account of the effectiveness of the 1991 course development days - a district evaluation, individual presenter's responses and a regional survey. The appraisal concludes with an overview and a set of recommendations for continuing professional development for VCE teachers beyond 1992.
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ItemThe reorganisation of learning in the middle school : teacher positioning, affiliations and departmental influences( 1997)Recent emphasis on whole school planning and professional development models seems to ignore the embedded and embodied social reality of departmental subcultures in secondary schools. This research suggests however that while departments may be potent primary sites for decision making where much professional knowledge can be assumed and is codified in tradition, interdisciplinary initiatives may be more effective in changing a school's footing. Where a more fundamental repositioning of the school is intended the social and organisational "apparatus" must be imminent, reproduced moment by moment in the conversational action of the teachers and carried through time, not as abstract schemata, but as current understandings of past and present conversations that transcend action. This thesis is a study of eminent change in the organisation of the school in the form of an integrated curriculum unit (I.C.U.) introduced in Year 7 in an independent Years K-12 College. It is concerned with the imbeddedness of school culture in the restricted discursive practices of teachers in their subject departments and focuses on the process and possibilities for fundamental change in the middle school curriculum. The study is framed by the organisational tensions felt by three of the author's colleagues who with the author were key members of the I.C.U. team. These were the tensions between their subject department roles and the humanistic positions the teachers were espousing in conversations with the author as they discussed a joint reconstruction of new middle school curriculum. It is a study of an attempt at a number of management levels to transform the educational emphasis, institutional practices and societal rhetorics in secondary education. The three teacher colleagues were surveyed and interviewed about the influence of departmental subcultures on the organisation and restructuring of learning in the middle school. Background contextual data on teacher's departmental affiliations is included along with the student's perceptions of the humanistic goals of the I.C.U. program. A variety of methodologies were employed to provide a more comprehensive picture of this curriculum enterprise in a secondary school within a dominant departmental structure. The study does not provide solutions for others to adopt, rather the narratives describe the problems faced by teachers in acting in ways beyond those ascribed to them in their institutional roles in subject departments.
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ItemFactors influencing the development of curriculum initiatives in Victorian secondary schools( 1989)This thesis is based on a study of teachers at Preston East Technical School. The purpose of the interviews was to illicit information about teachers' perceptions of themselves as compared with their given role in the state system. This is then analyzed against what is offered as the ideal role of a teacher. It is suggested that if it is the teacher's role to improve educational opportunity, then teachers should be concerned with the outcome of exiting students. This would involve detailed monitoring of programmes, possible delivery of additional programmes and industrial campaigns not only for necessary educational resources but also for job creation for youth. This thesis demonstrates that teachers are too involved in the psychic reward of their job and this, combined with the undermining of their conditions, is preventing further curriculum development. Processes, such as the participatory model used by the Ministry of Education which involve teachers in anything other than viewing student outcome, are time-consuming and divert attention from the issue of equity. What is recommended as an ideal learning situation is the formation of a partnership between student and teacher, where both work as if part of a research team, who will call upon the wider community for clarification of values and information.