Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemBeing a school councillor in a government secondary college in Victoria, Australia: constructions of role and meaning( 2006)While the responsibilities and functions of school councils in government secondary schools in Victoria are set down in legislation, there is still considerable scope for councillors - principals, staff, parents, students and community members - to apply their own understandings, interests and skills to their participation in this form of governance. This study focused on how individual school councillors interpret the part they play in school governance, in terms of the roles they construct for themselves and the meanings that they develop through enacting those roles. The ultimate purpose of the research was the development of a middle-range grounded theory about how they construct their roles and meanings. In this qualitative research, data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with a total of thirty-four school councillors, including all membership categories, in four secondary colleges in the metropolitan area of Melbourne. Respondens discussed their beliefs about school governance, their motivations and aims as councillors, their interpretation of their councils' work, some of their experiences, and meaningful outcomes. Data were analysed according to the principles of developing grounded theory, and, through the processes of open and axial coding, diagramming and comparison and testing of data, five themes and six components were identified as common to all respondents' constructions of roles and meaning as councillors. These components – The Big Vision, Coherence of Values, Meaning within the Biographical Trajectory, Social Relationships, Capacity, and Agency within the School Council Structure – form, in order, three pairs relating to dimensions of thinking, feeling and doing. The component which emerged as particularly dominant in the construction of role and meaning as a councillor was found to vary among individuals.