Faculty of Education - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 10 of 12
-
ItemNo Preview AvailableThe art of intersubjectivity(University of Melbourne, 2004)
-
ItemUneasy lies the head : the repositioning of heads of English in independent schools in Victoria in the age of new learning technologies( 2004)This study explores the discursive practice of six Heads of English in Independent Schools in Victoria during a period of major cultural change. This change has been associated with huge public investment in New Learning Technologies and shifting perceptions and expectations of cultural agency in communities of practice such as English Departments in Schools. In this social milieu tensions exist between the societal rhetoric of school management and marketing of the efficacy of NLTs as educational realities and discursive practices at a departmental level, embodying and embedding academic values and attainments. In their conversations with the author, the Heads of English reveal much about themselves and the nature and distribution of their duties and responsibilities within the local moral order of their schools and with their individual communities of practice. A model is developed of the dual praxis of the Heads of the Heads of English, mediated by autobiography and historically available cultural resources in a community of practice. As agents concerned to both maintain and transform their local culture of English teaching, and consequently the whole school culture, the Heads of English account for themselves as responding to their own `sense of place' in their own community of practice, but also the `structure of feeling' of the period by which their achievements and standing are known. This study of the persons of the English co-ordinators draws upon both Positioning Theory and critical realism to reveal the dynamic nature of both their identity and the social organization of English teaching in schools.
-
ItemNumeracy assessment: from functional to critical practice( 2004)This study examines the validity of the measures obtained from a performance assessment of students' developing context in a numeracy context. The study was based on three premises: that teachers could make valid and reliable judgments about their students in regular classroom situations; that numeracy competence was developmental and involved higher order thinking; and that using different performance tasks could provide information about changes in students' performances over time. Numeracy was ill-defined and no developmental progression in numeracy was available on which to base assessment tasks. Common elements in descriptions of numerate behaviour and related ideas, suggested that numeracy could be conceptualised as a competence, and addressed through a generalised developmental progression. A competency perspective implied that teachers would be actively involved, and that assessment and teaching would be the same process. Performance assessment met some of these conditions, but the participation of teachers in performance assessment implemented in unstandardised conditions in regular classrooms raised validity issues. In this study, teachers used clearly specified scoring rubrics that emphasised the quality of students' performances to assist their observations of their students' behaviour when undertaking assessment tasks in numeracy contexts. The teachers' assessment took a developmental perspective that included higher order thinking, such as generalisation, justification and conjecture. Performance assessment tasks were designed using a set of design rules developed after initial trialling of pilot tasks. The different performance assessment tasks were underpinned by a generalised continuum of competence and set in diverse numeracy contexts. One cohort of 1243 Year 10 students undertook a single performance assessment task, and tests of mathematics skills, mathematical problem solving, and English ability, to provide convergent and discriminant evidence of construct validity. These students were in classes taught by 32 teachers in 14 different schools. Groups of students in Years 8 to 10 also undertook five different performance assessment tasks to provide additional validity evidence and longitudinal data. The total number of students' responses involved was 3412. All assessments were scaled using Rasch measurement techniques. Consideration of fit to the Rasch model indicated that all activities on the performance tasks, based on teachers' judgments of their students' performances, worked together in a predictable fashion to address a unidimensional underlying construct. Interpretation of this variable indicated that the demands of the activities closely matched the levels or the generalised continuum of competence. Convergent and discriminant evidence from a Multitrait Multimethod matrix, confirmed by Structural Equation Modelling approaches, indicated that there was no undue method effect from the use of teacher-judged tasks. Further findings showed that the teacher-judged performance task produced consistent information across all classes, within all schools involved. This was interpretable from a single perspective provided by the underlying generalised continuum of competence. This continuum addressed a wide range of ability levels, and included higher order thinking at the upper levels. Changes in students' performances over time could be monitored by reference to levels of development within the continuum of competence. The assessment approach, based on tasks planned specifically to link the task activities to an underlying continuum of competence through the use of carefully designed rubrics, allowed higher order thinking in numeracy contexts to be demonstrated by the students, and provided evidence of changes in students' performances over time. The findings suggested that assessment practice based on a competence approach to developmental assessment in numeracy contexts could provide valid outcome measures when implemented by teachers within regular classrooms. In addition, the process has the potential to provide teachers with information about the point at which teaching intervention could be maximally effective.
-
ItemQuestions of identity: the researcher's quest for the beginning teacher( 2004-07)In this study, the discourse about beginning teachers is a central focus. I attempt to unravel the strands of this discourse and juxtapose the voices of beginning teachers with scholarly and authoritative voices which speak about or on behalf of beginning teachers. This thesis attempts to link narrative and narrative theory with critical and cultural theory in order to highlight the nature of this discourse about teachers at career entry. Issues of identity and the ‘process of becoming’ (Britzman, 2003) remain central throughout this work.
-
ItemLanguage maintenance shift of a three generation Italian family in three migration countries : an international comparative study( 2004-03)This thesis is a comparative investigation into the use of Italian of an extended Italian family in language contact situation in three countries: the United States, Australia and France. This study is undertaken and described in the context of the different policies on migrant integration and minority languages in the three migration countries. The investigation uses the ‘Case Study’ methodology in the format of an embedded multiple case-study project. The third generation was made the focus of the study to investigate Fishman’s “intergroup social dependency” theory. According to this theory, when the immigrant experience is viewed from a perspective of three or more generation time depth, the immigrant group generally loses its language due to its dependency on the host society for its survival. Fishman contends that only an effective and strict ‘compartmentalisation of language functions’ between the minority language and the host language can help the minority group maintain its language. The findings indicate that for people of Italian background living as a minority group in language contact situation compartmentalisation is not a viable alternative. Nor do they consider the ‘maintenance’ of their community language important. When in the migration country bilingualism is valued, it is the standard variety of the heritage language that is chosen for maintenance and further learning. The study presents recommendations towards the achievability of bilingualism beyond the limitations of compartmentalisation.
-
ItemChanges with age in students’ misconceptions of decimal numbers( 2004-03)This thesis reports on a longitudinal study of students’ understanding of decimal notation. Over 3000 students, from a volunteer sample of 12 schools in Victoria, Australia, completed nearly 10000 tests over a 4-year period. The number of tests completed by individual students varied from 1 to 7 and the average inter-test time was 8 months. The diagnostic test used in this study, (Decimal Comparison Test), was created by extending and refining tests in the literature to identify students with one of 12 misconceptions about decimal notation. (For complete abstract open document)
-
ItemPrevention of falls in the subacute hospital setting( 2004)Falls are a relatively frequent occurrence amongst older people. Rates of falls amongst patients in subacute care are substantially higher than amongst people living in the community. Falls have been reported to cause physical and psychological injury, increase the likelihood of being discharged to nursing home, and are associated with longer lengths of stay in hospital. Thus, minimisation of falls in the subacute hospital setting is of high public health importance. (For complete abstract open document)
-
ItemThe politics of educational disadvantage: the impact of central government policies on secondary schools' capacities to improve educational outcomes for their socially disadvantaged students( 2004)This thesis uses the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) developed by Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith (1993) to analyse the politics of educational disadvantage in Australia. The historical influence of two competing coalitions at Commonwealth and at State level in New South Wales and Victoria is traced. For most of the 20th century there has been a dominant conservative coalition and a minority coalition that has favoured reforms to assist socially disadvantaged groups in each of the three jurisdictions. However, the composition of these contending coalitions and their relative strengths have varied substantially from State to State. The theoretical model provided by the ACF was supplemented by explorations of Halligan and Power’s (1992) ‘regime dynamics’ framework which helps explain these differences in terms of the differing politico-administrative cultures of Victoria and New South Wales.
-
ItemCultural mission of the sisters of St Joseph( 2004)This research study examines the history of Sacred Heart Catholic School, Newport, Victoria, established within the tradition and application of the educational philosophy of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, founded by Mary MacKillop in 1866. The work includes three distinct areas of research which are: 1. The MacKillop System of Education in its early stages. 2. The growth of multicultural theory and practice in Australia and in Catholicism. 3. The story of one school, Sacred Heart Catholic School, Newport, situated in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria. These areas connect up and illuminate one another throughout the thesis, evoking a sense of school life as it was experienced by members of the school community at different stages of the school's development and within a variety of social and educational contexts. The research appreciates the integral vitality of the founding spirit manifest in Mary MacKillop, especially as it was reflected in the Sisters appointed to the school at Newport as administrators and as teachers. The study examines the long-term adaptation of the mission of the Church, namely the evangelisation of cultures in the local community of Newport throughout its hundred years history. Focus is brought to bear on the interpretation of Mary MacKillop's philosophy of education in its first fifty years and the changes perceived during the later period of massive and fundamental transformation in the ethnic composition of the local community as well as the broader Church and State. By reconstructing the past this study provides a reference point for those involved in education by shedding light on the present and raising questions for the future.
-
ItemExpeditions, travels and journeys: reconceptualising teaching and learning about indigenous Australians in the early childhood curriculum( 2004)This thesis aimed to explore the terrain of early childhood educator's inclusion of Indigenous Australian peoples and cultures within their curriculum practice. Within this it was anticipated that these explorations would draw from early childhood reconceptualist literature to explore and trouble understandings of curriculum theory and practice. It was also anticipated that my research companions and I would use our beginning understandings of postcolonial theory to theorise, explore and disrupt our constructions and understandings of Indigenous Australian peoples and cultures that were based on the colonial understandings and discourse circulating within Australia and our local communities and that influenced our curriculum practices. In order to explore and disrupt this curriculum practice, my research companions and I set off on an action research journey. We travelled and journeyed within monthly meetings over one year as we located and explored curriculum practice. Action research provided the maps for this journey as we attempted to explore the curricula practices of my companions and locate and explore the issues and challenges that arose as they attempted to disrupt this practice and find reconceptualised ways towards inclusion of Indigenous peoples and cultures. Throughout this journey however, while curriculum practice was located and explored and changes to this practice occurred at superficial levels, discussions around how the reconceptualising of this practice was limited and constrained by the influences of colonial discourse upon our personal understandings of Indigenous peoples and cultures was avoided. As I travelled back into the research meetings after a prolonged absence from the research journey, I became more aware of the silences that existed within our travels that enabled us to resist change in our practices around inclusion of Indigenous peoples and cultures in ways that opened spaces for this inclusion in equitable and respectful ways. I journeyed again through postcolonial theory and while this provided me with important and useful waymarks in which to locate and understand the research travels and moments within it, this theory did not provide me with pathways to explore the resistances. Early childhood reconceptualist literature also provided and guided my reflections on curricula practice in important ways, however, similar to my struggles with postcolonial theory, did not provide for waymarks to understand and locate the silences within the research travelling group. Silences that ensured discussion of personal understandings of Indigenous people and how these understandings were constructed was avoided. Within my searching of alternate theories and ways of exploring the terrain of this research journey, I stumbled across whiteness theories and found that the silences in the research could be located, positioned and explored through and within these theories and understandings. The thesis journey then followed white pathways that led into explorations of whiteness within the research and made it possible to see how both the research companions and myself had constructed ourselves, Indigenous Australian peoples and curricula theory and practice through and within these white understandings. As I located and explored my experiences through narrative and mapped and traced whiteness within the research travels and journeys, it became possible to view how strategies of whiteness operated to discourage the explorations and locating of our personal within our professional understandings. Given this, the possibilities for shifts in personal understandings, and as a consequence, professional and curricula practice, were limited and constrained within this journey into reconceptualising Indigenous inclusion in early childhood curriculum. The journeying within this thesis into reconceptualising early childhood curriculum around Indigenous inclusion and the drawing from both postcolonial and whiteness theories, however, has resulted in more complex understandings of how this work could take place. Mapping postcolonial viewpoints and waymarks and tracing white viewpoints and waymarks within these can allow early childhood researchers and educators to view how these discourses intersect and overlap to silence Indigenous Australian peoples and cultures as well as work to avoid and limit discussion and awareness within white communities about the existence of prejudice and discrimination. Further, the effects of these colonial and white discourses on both personal understandings and the influence of these on curriculum practices aimed at including Indigenous peoples and cultures can be uncovered, located, explored and disrupted in order to create spaces and places for Indigenous voices within early childhood curricula practice.