Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemWhat do 'at risk' boys say about their schooling experiences ? : creating agency for boys' views and feelings about school( 2008)The following discussion outlines the theory and operational methods that inform a general ethnographical study, designed to understand the views and perceptions of three 'at risk' boys relegated to a specialised Victorian state school. The methodology hopes to empower the male students taking part in the study by giving emphasis to the didactic importance of their views, opinions and experiences expressed during a series of interviews in which they participate. It is hoped that the boys will be able to identify areas of education that need improvement, and define real life problems within their own learning experiences, so genuine male learning dilemmas and insights are generated and debated in the research. However, Connell (1989, 1995) characterises boys as `inheritors of an all conquering hegemonic masculinity' and this classic feminist perspective seems to be preventing the evolution of a boys' paradigm in education by diverting attention away from boys' educational issues by asking `which girls' and 'which boys' are specifically disadvantaged. This generic ethnographical study attempts a pro-male research project which holds boy's views, opinions and experiences paramount in the research logic processes, and makes use of key foci descriptors conceptualised in recent government research and programmes to discover how young males experience and dialogue about their schooling lives.
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ItemAims, men or money?. the establishment of secondary education for boys in South Australia and in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales - 1836 to 1860( 1980)Young children bring with them to school a certain amount of science knowledge gained from their everyday lives. What they "know", whether right or wrong, may be the result of interactions with family, television, computer programs, books, peers or visits to environmental locations, museums or science centres. In this study, children who have been at primary school for between two and three years are asked to describe their knowledge and their sources of information. The extent to which school factors are influencing their science knowledge is investigated. A survey was developed and protocols trialled before fifty-seven children aged eight and nine years at a provincial Victorian government primary school were surveyed to establish their home background and family interest in science, their own attitudes and feelings toward science and the efficacy of their science experiences at school. Interviews were carried out with nine students, selected to represent a broad range of attitudes to science, in order to gain more detailed information about their specific understandings of a number of topics within the primary school science curriculum and the sources of their information. The students' responses revealed that where they were knowledgeable about a subject they could indeed say from where they obtained their knowledge. Books were the most commonly cited source of information, followed by school, personal home experiences and family. Computers and the internet had little influence. Students who appeared to have "better" understandings quoted multiple sources of information. Positive correlations were found between enjoyment of school lessons and remembering science information, liking to watch science television or videos and remembering science information, and liking to read science books and remembering science information. Mothers were also linked to the use of science books at home, and the watching of nature TV shows at home. There are several implications for the teaching of science at early years level. Teachers need to be aware of powerful influences, from both within and outside of the classroom, which may impact on children, and which may be enlisted to help make learning more meaningful. The research indicates the importance of home background, parental interest and access to books, and notes the under utilisation of computers and lack of visits to museums and interactive science centres.
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ItemA report on the relationship between family literacy practices and attitudes and those of year one boys who were referred to reading recovery intervention after one year of schooling( 2007)An overview of recent research in Australia has found that boys perform lower in literacy-related areas of the curriculum and that gender is a key predict�r of literacy attainment. Specifically, boys comprise about two-thirds of all students referred to Reading Recovery Intervention in Australian schools. The purpose of this study therefore was to report on the literacy practices and attitudes of four Year One boys who were referred to Reading Recovery Intervention after one year of schooling and how these relate to the literacy practices and attitudes valued in their families. In particular, this study investigates how these boys appropriate those highly situated literacy practices valued in the home and then transfer them to the school context. This qualitative case study undertaken at an inner suburban Government Primary school in Melbourne (Victoria) is informed by a socio-cultural view of learning which acknowledges the significant role of family enculturative practices on children's literacy development. Unlike previous studies which have explored traditional variables such as ethnicity, race and poverty on literacy development, this research is significant because it specifically examines families with high levels of physical and cultural capital who initiate and participate in supportive and rich literacy practices in the home. Therefore, it was of interest to the study why some boys did not engage with reading and writing as their parents and teachers might have assumed.. Also, throughout this study the intention was to elicit the boys' `voice' to determine their perceptions of literacy and their own learning. Interview data were gathered from the boys, their parents and classroom teachers in the form of semi-structured interviews, responses to fictional scenarios and peephole observations of home literacy practices. McNaughton's (1995) Socialisation Model of Emergent Literacy incorporating issues of gendered preferences, guided participation and appropriation provided the theoretical and conceptual framework for data analysis. The research findings provided confirmation of strong enculturative literacy practices operating within families of the study. Furthermore, the findings demonstrated the notion of identity played a key role in the boys' literacy choices. The study also provided evidence of dissonance between the home and the school with regards to writing practices and highlighted the narrow definition of literacy operating in both these contexts.
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ItemPerceptions of how year 8 boys in an ethno-centric inner suburban Australian school configure their masculine identities within their school setting( 2008)The purpose for this study is to explore how Year 8 boys in an ethno-centric community school located in suburban Melbourne are `configuring' (Connell, 2000) their ideas about masculinity and to consider the evolving processes and influences informing these gendered identity configurations. A qualitative case study approach was deemed appropriate for addressing the aim of the study and a feminist, poststructuralist perspective was used to frame the research process. Consistent with this perspective was the need to honor the boys' voices. The data collection methods included focus-group discussions over a six-week period with two groups of Year 8 boys. A questionnaire survey was conducted prior to the focus-groups to inform and shape the discussion questions. In the third focus-group, the boys were asked to bring in a personal artifact or totem with which they identified their ideals of being a man. The finding of the study revealed that masculine identity is a highly socialized construct (Davies, 1993) transmitted through male Discourses (Gee, 2004) and resonated with Martins' claim that boys negotiate their masculine configurations (1999) within themselves and between themselves in endless processes of becoming (Walkerdine, 1990). Boys were often fluid in their configurations, with their positionings changing over the focus-group discussions. The configuring of the boys' ideas about their masculinity was mediated by a strong connection to their ethnic heritage that was linked with the past rather than with the present. The boys were strongly opposed towards any signs of effeminacy which they associated with a loss of power and prestige among their peer group - any association with homosexuality being perceived as a threat to their masculinity. The artifacts chosen by the boys as representative of being a male were guarded fiercely and generally it was agreed that these were not to be touched or exposed in a casual manner. Totems such as computer-action programmes, guns and For Him Magazines (FMHs) were forwarded as a means for talking their masculinity into existence - essentialising it. Recommendations that emerged from the study include: the need for more opportunities for boys to talk more openly amongst themselves; to access the thinking and experiences about what it means to be a male in their wider community, and to embed in the curriculum opportunities for boys to challenge stereotypes and to acknowledge that gender identity matters.
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ItemSources of maladjustment in male sixth form students( 1974)Following Hohne (1951) and a pilot study by Conway (1960) an in-depth investigation was made of 96 sixth form boys from two large metropolitan private secondary schools - one a Catholic college, the other a grammar school. It was planned to test hypotheses that there would be significant differences in personal adjustment between both schools and curricular groupings (Maths-Science versus Humanities- Commercial). It was further planned to investigate the sources of various kinds of maladjustment by qualitative analysis, using individually administered projective tests and interviews. Apart from an appreciable difference in I.Q. between the two curricular groups, no really significant difference was found between schools and groups. There were, however, some differences in the kind of values espoused by contrasted schools and contrasted groups. Furthermore, qualitative analysis established, with a large measure of confidence, that the chief sources of stress experienced by students in their terminal secondary year were not curricular or scholastic. Maladjustments from domestic and extracurricular sources were found to decisively outrank those deriving (or believed to have derived) from the requirements imposed by the syllabus and school milieu. This finding was considered to have some value as a basis for criteria for further enquiry into the relationship between intrapsychic stresses and educational performance.