Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemMaking the transition : cultural reproduction in the market-place( 1985)This work relates to the cultural, economic and behavioural characteristics of two groups of young people who have recently left school and, either embarked upon a career pathway via tertiary education or on to long-term unemployment. Theories of cultural reproduction and anomie were examined in an attempt to account for the pathways that the two groups had taken. Two anomalies were discovered; students from migrant or working-class backgrounds who were succeeding in higher education and some working class unemployed young people who were beginning the slide into the under class. Cultural reproduction theory was found not to exactly or accurately account for outcomes and life chances whereas anomie theory was found to be a reasonable explication for the state of malaise of a number of those young people interviewed.
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ItemRaymond Williams : a critique of his theory of culture and education( 1980)This thesis is a critical exposition of Williams' theory of culture as expounded in two of his early works, Culture and Society 1780-1950, and The Long Revolution, and of the influence of that theory on his views on education. Williams' views on man, on valued knowledge and on the ideal society, being fundamental to an understanding of his theory of culture and its connection with education, are given particular attention. Williams sees man as evolving into a being with a unique brain and hence as having the potential to learn, to reason, to communicate and to create. The process of realising this potential is identified by Williams as both the process of interaction within culture and also the characteristic achievement of culture. However, this thesis argues that such a view of man, allegedly drawn from experience, is selectively based and conjectural. Williams' account of what constitutes valued knowledge is based partly on his attempt to re-define culture by a synthesis of previous definitions, and partly on his argument that knowledge is socially created. But, despite his own overt objections to a distinctive 'high' culture, it is evident that Williams himself is extending the selection of valued knowledge and activity, not avoiding selection. At the same time, he is preserving the distinction between skilled intellectual activities (associated with the ideal of 'high culture') and the more 'ordinary' activities of a culture. The thesis also questions Williams' proposition that knowledge is a social creation based ideally on a pooling of common experience. It argues that 'experience' is not invariably the sound basis for knowledge that Williams assumes it to be and it questions the need for his strong emphasis on commonly shared experience. A 'common culture' functioning both for the expression of, and as the necessary basis for an egalitarian society is the distinctive mark of Williams' ideal society, a society which he believes will nurture man's evolving potential and hence his cultural progress. The characteristics of that ideal society - communal solidarity, participating democracy, consensus by open communication, and the principal of 'equality of being' - are critically examined, and attention is drawn to some ambiguities and apparent contradictions in their exposition. Finally, the function Williams ascribes to education, namely, that of being an important means of developing man's individual and collective potential, is examined. Williams' concern for developing intellectual skills, and for directing these towards the changing of society, is contrasted with his tendency to subordinate education to stated social ends. This, it is argued, may lead in practice to less dynamic results and be more open to distortion than Williams obviously intends. In summary, it is maintained that Williams' arguments from experience form an inadequate base for the claims his theory of culture is called on to support; that his attempt to redefine culture by a synthesis of existing and to some degree conflicting definitions leaves unresolved a number of ambiguities and contradictions; and that these weaknesses are reflected in some of his prescriptions for education.
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ItemSocial purity and the spatial distancing of classes through the urban school systems( 1984)That education through schools is a powerful force on the social fabric of modern urban societies is the underlying concern of this two part thesis. The first part of this thesis, a literature review and problem formulation exercise, takes three concepts pertaining to urban society from three 'fields of study' and attempts to put them into an 'education in schools' framework in order to test their validity. One of the three concepts is Richard Sennett's 'pure environment'. In an active sense this concept includes those . actions undertaken by sections of society to create or maintain 'purity' around them. The second concept is a geographic sociological idea of 'distancing'. Part of the process of the research section of this thesis is an attempt to use 'distancing' solely as a spatial concept. The third concept developed .here is the marxist view of the city as a productive-reproductive organ. Manuel Castells, a renowned urban sociologist of marxist methodology conceptualised the city as being constituted of the four elements; Production (Reproduction), Consumption, Exchange and Management. The most influential of these elements, according to Castells is the Production-Reproduction nexus. Succinctly put, these three concepts about the social functioning of the city produce the following abstraction of urban social activity. Urbanites, according to Richard Sennett, are in an adolescent phase of social development. This adolescent characteristic makes them fearful of things unknown and of change. In order to avoid the fearful, the unknown and any change, the urbanite attempts to create about him a completely known and comfortable environment, PURIFIED of all that is unknown or fearful. Once such a situation is obtained, as perfectly as possible, given all the real world restraints, the society, by virtue of the groups acting within it, will attempt to reproduce, in marxist terms 'Produce', what has been established as the status quo. This collective group action avoids the unknown and maintains the established pure environment where the status quo dominates. In all this the active component is the action of 'distancing'. Sociologically speaking, 'distancing' is the social separation of various 'pure' status groups within the urban society. In the geographical sense, 'distancing' is the spatial grouping and separateness of these status groups across the urban region. Manuel Castells and other writers in the field, including David Smith, argue that it is the distribution or consumption of items of 'collective consumption' which is a crucial factor in dividing society into several status groups. Publicly provided education is a principal item of collective consumption in the urban society. A research study, which will examine the extent to which social 'purity' together with social and geographic distancing interact with education, has thus suggested itself. The empirical research into this issue was based on the Central Metropolitan Region of the Victorian Education Department as it existed in 1981. This region included the central and near eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The target population. of the study were the school students, who in 1981, were attending secondary, school after exiting from a state primary school in 1980. Information was collected from these students as to their secondary school destinations. Those of particular interest to this study were those who chose not to attend their local state co-educational high school. Data was collected from these students concerning the total number of them coming from each of the sixteen high school catchments which constituted the Central Region. These numbers were later divided into those attending private schools and those attending other co-educational high schools in the region. Once their secondary' school destination was known a measurement of the distance they travelled to the secondary school of their choice was taken and averaged for each of the sixteen catchments. As mentioned, the Central Region consisted of sixteen co-educational high school catchments. A range of eight 1976 census statistics were used to derive a social 'purity' score for each of these catchments. The data thus obtained on levels of 'purity', numbers of students moving away from the local high school and the distance they travelled were each mapped and, in turn, subjected to statistical analysis to ascertain the strength of any causal relationship that may, or may not, have existed between the purity score and the other two variables. The statistical analysis suggested that several hypotheses concerning a relationship between' purity 'scores for these catchments and the distancing scores could not be supported. However, the mapped analysis of this data clearly revealed a pattern of 'purity' values as well as a distinct amount of movement out of certain catchments and into other catchments. The conclusion reached was that the current data was insufficient, or of the wrong type to fully support the hypothesis. However, there is enough evidence to suggest that the principal concepts are in operation and that, perhaps, a modified or expanded study would tend to reveal these processes more fully.
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ItemCritical pedagogy and its application to curriculum policy( 1991)Curriculum theory can be seen as social theory because a curriculum interrelates knowledge and social practices that legitimate the dominant culture. The relationship between society and schooling is reflected in the curriculum; a critical pedagogy attempts to reveal the ideological content within the curriculum as it is related to the question of power. An analysis of schooling and the curriculum traditionally has been divided into two main categories. The functionalist mode comprises various human capital economists, such as Becker (1964), who give emphasis to the functional role between schooling and economic and social requirements. In this case, schools' role is to prepare their students for the job market.-Within this functionalist mode, a more critical analysis has also been developed by Bowles and Gintis (1976) and Carnoy and Levin (1976), among others, who argue that schools reproduce the prevailing class structure. The other tradition wants to see schools as autonomous so that schools can be used as initiaters of social and political_ change, as was emphasized by Dewey (1916) and other progressive educational theorists. This paper addresses the question of whether different classes can benefit From the same academically oriented curriculum. Bourdieu and Passeron [1977) argue that the educational system merely reproduces the cultural capital which has been distributed before students enter education; those with the highest amount of cultural capital will benefit most from schooling. The same argument is taken up by Bantock [1965) who maintains that working class children are for cultural reasons likely to be inhibited from gaining the best of education even if they were given equal chances; because, as he continues to argue, 'high culture' for the working classes is meaningless. Thus, these different writers would agree that members of the working class are inhibited because of their working class culture rather than their measured IQ. Jencks (1972) and Boudon (1974) in a slightly different way argue that the class inequalities which have deeply structured roots, and are maintained by social forces, are beyond the reach of equalitarian educational reform. However, it will be argued in this paper that schooling must promote a common culture for all if all participants in schools are to benefit equally. An 'organic' curriculum suited to either class will only cement and fortify class divisions. Instead, this paper argues for the adoption of a strict academic curriculum as a means of redistributing knowledge, and thus political power, so that education may be disengaged from serving the ands of an exploitative, capitalist economy.
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ItemUndergraduate course preferences of students with some previous tertiary education( 1982)The thesis is an examination of the factors which affect the course choice of applicants to tertiary institutions. The sample is taken from the 1977 applicant cohort registered with the Victorian Universities Admissions Committee. The applicants in the sample are those who had already been enrolled in tertiary educational institutions for at least one year, prior to their application in 1977. The aims of the study are to examine the effect of previous tertiary experience, employment experience, age and sex on the course choice of the applicants. The data used in the study were taken from:. application files held by the Victorian Universities Admissions Committee. The results of the analysis are compared with the results of studies carried out in Australia and overseas which described the vocational and educational choices of students entering tertiary institutions for the first time, and subsequently transferring to other institutions in some cases. The main difference between this study and those which preceded it is that the applicant sample in this study contains persons aged from seventeen years to more than sixty-five years, whilst previous analyses had been confined in the main to the young applicants. A comparison is made between the course choices of the young applicants, aged 22 years or less, and the older applicants, aged 23 years or more. The results of this study are similar to those already published. Nevertheless some new information about the effect of the Victorian tertiary education system - the number and nature of the institutions - on the choices of applicants is presented. In addition the study makes available a comparison of age groups which has not yet been attempted elsewhere. The study shows that applicants of all ages have two objectives: the first, to obtain a qualification which will enable them to find satisfying employment; the second, the study a course which provides them with interesting activity which enables them to find personal satisfaction. In the main students wish to undertake the second objective at a University, whilst vocational training is sought at. a variety of institutions. The prestige and academic standing of the institutions is an important factor in the determination of the applicants' choices, and as a result many are not satisfied in their application.
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ItemAn evaluation of aspects of the proposition by Professor G.H. Bantock that "ultimately education both formal and informal is concerned with cultural transmission"( 1976)This thesis explores both the meaning and the application of. Bantock's assertion. Firstly, the notion of 'culture' is examined. I3antock identifies two common interpretations of the word: the anthropological and the Arnoldian 'pursuit of excellence.' He claims that his understanding is somewhere between the two. However, an analysis of his works shows that his thinking for education is far more identifiable with the Arnoldian idea of culture as what people should do, than it is with the anthropological notion that culture is what the people do. The meaning of I3antock's assertion about education's 'ultimate concern' is then examined with respect to his recommendations on curriculum. Bantock usefully distinguishes between 'cognitive' and 'affective' learning. Yet this distinction is not as sharp as one might expect: the criterion of the rational - or cognitive - as the arbiter limits his recommendations affecting curricula. If education is to be transmitted, this entails a discussion of how the transmission is to take place. �3sntack rejects 'discovery methods' as a mesas to transmit cultural values. The validity of his rejection is disputed both on the grounds of his failure to perceive the structure underlying discovery methods and the motivation of these methods. Transmission has to be undertaken by someone: thus, the role of school and not - school is examined, and the role of the teacher is explored. The former is affected by the whole area of the responsibility of the educator to his society; the latter is complicated by the fact, not explored by Bantock in any depth, that the teacher himself is necessarily involved in the wider community. lf cultural transmission is to be seen as the ultimate concern of education, then other claimants need to be described and assessed. The thesis examines the claims of self-realization, social improvement and social .usefulness, and proceeds to examine what claim cultural transmission knight have against other claims. The thesis examines the contribution which cultural transmission has over and against other claimants: its complementary nature, its sense of continuity with the past and for the future, and its dynamic spirit are explored. Finally, the thesis seeks to assess the contribution of G. H. Bantock to educational thinking. Negatively. there is a criticism of his failure to recognise the pluralistic nature of modern society, and his tendency to over-simplify the attitudes of those with whom he disagrees. But, positively, he does draw attention to the need for educational discourse to identify aims, his open-ness to a changing society, and his identification that the decisions affecting education are less and less in the hands of educators.
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ItemThe contribution of Ivan Illich to contemporary schooling theory and practice( 1988)This thesis examines the extent to which Ivan Illich's educational thought retains relevance for the present day. The approach taken is to examine his writings in detail before conducting a review of some of the criticisms it provoked. This is followed by an examination of his proposed educational alternatives in the light of the perceived roles generally ascribed to schools in modern society. Finally, the potential of achieving his vision of a convivial society is compared with some other perspectives on modern society and some post-industrial themes. Despite extensive criticism, his work represents an incisive critique of the state of schooling at that time. However, it also suffers from a series of defects in relation to his particular form of exposition and the limited opportunity it offered for practical action by those involved in education. In addition his alternatives to schooling are poorly elaborated. It is therefore necessary to resort to a comparison with other educational theories and experiments in order to illustrate the faults embodied in Illich's work. It is argued that Illich is incorrect in his assumption that eliminating schooling will bring about his convivial society. Consequently it is necessary to seek parallels with his work in the writings of other social analysts and in some post-industrial projections in order to distinguish the possibility for convivial social forms. It will be further argued that there are some indications of changes conducive to at least partial aspects of his convivial social forms and that these have implications for current educational theory and practice.