Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemInfluences at work on the shaping of a Catholic girls' secondary school( 1989)1988 is the twenty-fifth year of the existence of Ave Maria College, a girls' Catholic secondary school at West Essendon, established in 1963 by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. This thesis endeavours to trace the forces which shaped it - the sociological, religious, political and economic forces which influenced its growth. It examines the background and development of the College under the guidance of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, the handing over of the College to the the Catholic Education Office on the departure of the sisters in 1975, the subsequent administration by an Interim Board of Management and its eventual development as an autonomous College within the Catholic Education system, and the laitization of the College which is a feature of many Catholic secondary schools of the 1980's.
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ItemMethodological issues in the calculation of enrolment retention rates( 1982)This study examines the methods used in calculating age- and grade- retention rates for secondary schools in the Victorian education system. It focusses on the methodology' used to obtain these statistics rather than on applications of the generated statistic. However, the administrative uses for which retention rates are calculated have been considered. As a consequence of applications of the retention statistic being diverse and requiring considerable detail to be fully understood, their discussion will be reserved to a separate appendix (see Appendix I, The Collection and Use of Enrolment Data in the Victorian Education Department). The use of school data to calculate retention may be regarded as an attempt to overcome the problems faced in collecting individual pupil data. The latter would necessitate the tracing of all individuals in each age-cohort separately over that time, a task requiring data-collection methods which are yet to be made available. ''Apparent" retention rates, as they are usually called, are used on the assumption that they are unlikely to differ from "exact" retention rates, those rates obtained when individual data is used, at least in the case of aggregates greater than the individual school level. Any errors resulting from this assumption can possibly be reduced by altering the method of calculating apparent retention rates. This thesis investigates a number of different approaches of calculating retention rates with this aim in view. This thesis does not attempt to reveal anything new about the factors which affect retention. However, it is clear that in exploring new methods of calculating retention, the influence of these factors must be kept in mind. Such factors may be of long-term rather than short-term influence or they may be an aggregate one rather than one which is exhibited at a particular school. The literature on the subject is equivalent to much of the work on social differences in educational achievement, since retention rates are in one respect the most rudimentary index of school achievement, the length of schooling. Thus, no attempt has been made to offer a review of the general literature. Instead, monographs or reports most relevant to the methodological aspects are cited in the footnotes at the appropriate points, or discussed within the text when necessary.
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ItemParent attitudes to an independent school( 1986)This thesis examines the attitude of a large, random sample of parents of a single independent school in Melbourne. The School, Carey Baptist Grammar, became co-educational in 1978, partly in response to changes in enrolment patterns. A review of the literature considers trends in parent attitudes and enrolments in government and non-government schools. The present trend in favour of non-government schools in Victoria has important implications for a school such as Carey. The survey reported in this thesis examines the background of Carey Parents, their reasons for choosing Carey, their attitudes to the School's objectives, assessment of the School's performance and whether they believe they are receiving "value for money". A range of specific conclusions and recommendations are reached. The limitations of using the data from this survey for comparison with other schools is discussed.
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ItemThe effect of the employment of an overwhelming majority of lay persons as staff members on the teaching mission of the Sisters of the Faithful Companions of Jesus at Genazzano F.C.J. College, Kew( 1988)This paper will show how the teaching mission of the Sisters of the Faithful Companions of Jesus (F.C.J.) has been influenced by the laicization of staff since the advent of Commonwealth funding following the establishment of the Schools Commission in 1972 and will document the ways in which structures have changed and the composition of staff has been altered.
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ItemThe public education enterprise of the Port Phillip conservation movement 1965-75( 1984)The Franklin River Battle of the early 1980s made conservation of wilderness into a substantial national issue. However, throughout Australia in the preceding decade and a half mini-conflicts of a similar nature had occurred. Before conservation of wilderness versus hydro-electricity development in South-West Tasmania took over the front pages of newspapers and a multitude of television programmes, a climate of opinion had already been formed. The hearts and minds of a significant number of citizens had been captured by the vision of a rejuvenating area of beauty which they could enjoy themselves and 'pass on' to their descendants. Politicians have recognized that the new conservation consciousness encompasses a significant number of young people, though it is by no means confined to them, and that it crosses traditional political divides. In the Port Phillip conservation movement such citizens have played a role in a variety of local battles, establishing a climate of opinion in which conservation matters became public issues, significant in policy-making and legislation. Port Phillip conservationists attempted to prevent developments perceived as harmful, to see that improved practices were substituted and new policies formed. Efforts were also made to dispel ignorance and provide information about the degradation of landscape, pollution and the need for conservation policies in the local area and also on a world scale. By 1970 several important conflicts had emerged. One of the significant conflicts was over plans to construct a marina below the Beaumaris cliffs at the north end of the City of Mordialloc, the other over a projected car-park in a valued section of bushland on the Black Rock foreshore. In both cases, conservationists were successful. The need to evaluate and express their affection for the environment of tea-tree, coast wattle, banksia and she-oak, to which they became committed, led to important developments, both within themselves and in the community. New local associations were formed and established ones enlarged their membership and re-defined their aims. The Port Phillip Conservation Council was formed and became a co-ordinating body and focus of policy-making and public relations. An examination of the history of that organization and of the local groups reveals conscious and significant efforts to change and re-form public opinion. At the same time, a study of the issues, personalities and developments within one area, the City of Sandringham, provides an insight to the methods used in the achievement of objectives and particularly in efforts made to educate or re-educate those in power and the general public. Port Phillip Bay has played a vital role in the growth, of the metropolis of Melbourne, initially, through providing a port and waterway. Its foreshores have been valued for their charm and interest and for recreation. In some parts they provide a delightful environment of regenerating semi-natural bushland which is a living link with old Australia and a pleasure for the present population. It is a "green belt' between the world of houses, shops, factories and roads and the sea-shore. The Port Phillip movement began in the context of an interest in the Australian environment which was taking shape in the colonies in the last half of the nineteenth century. To some extent it ran parallel to movements overseas: the national parks development in the United States is an important example. Furthermore, in the 1960s and 1970s, certain problems apparent in the life-support systems of the earth were publicised widely and dramatically. Survival became an issue for a substantial number of men and women, and for girls and boys at school. Two seminal books aroused consciousness of some of the issues. One was Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the other, The Great Extermination, edited by the Australian, Jock Marshall. To this movement, and in particular to its modus operandi, this thesis addresses itself. It addresses the question of how the Port Phillip Conservation movement developed, and examines what conscious efforts were made to educate the public, particularly during the significant years of the early seventies.
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ItemAn analysis of how an innovation is disseminated by using the origins of the vertical curriculum concept in Victorian State Secondary Schools( 1985)The purpose of this investigation was twofold. One aim was to discover the origins of the vertical curriculum structure that has made a considerable impact on state secondary schools in the last decade. The other aim was to establish how the idea spread throughout the system and why schools made this major change away from the horizontal curriculum. Three research methods were used in this study. Firstly, Education Department Secondary School Handbooks were studied to identify the vertically structured schools in 1975 and 1982. Secondly, a telephone survey was undertaken in order to find more information about each of the forty-four vertical models discovered in the 1983 Handbook. This survey also enabled the original innovative schools to be identified, key individuals to be established and communication links between schools to be drawn up. Finally, the key carriers of the concept were interviewed to gain in depth information on the innovation. The outcome from the data collected should assist in the understanding of how a major curriculum change can disseminate throughout the schools in an education system. These implications should apply to educational systems outside of both Victoria and Australia.
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ItemSocial competence and the core curriculum : a critical/empirical approach to the role of social education in the core curriculum( 1981)Through the reanalysis, reassessment, and reinterpretation of the data from the Essential Learning About Society study (Piper, 1977) from the point of view of current concerns about the core curriculum, this study develops an empirically-derived framework for a core curriculum in social education which takes into account the views of a substantial section of the Australian community. The study argues that social education is a necessary component of a core curriculum designed to meet the needs of both the individual student and the society as a whole; that the concept of social competence provides a valid basis for defining a core curriculum in social education; and that, in the absence of a definitive analysis of Australian society, community perceptions provide a practical alternative to the problems of defining an education for social competence. The developed framework provides a practical resource for incorporating community perceptions into core curriculum decision-making, and as such has potentially useful applications to educational policy and practice and to further research, as well as providing a body of empirical evidence in an area where such evidence is largely lacking.
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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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ItemThe new English : an analysis of ideology in the professional literature of English-teaching, 1963-1978( 1982)This thesis focusses upon the professional literature of English teachers in Victoria in the period 1963-1978. Its concern is, firstly, to identify and delineate the distinctive features of the successive ideologies of English teaching which emerged in the literature during those years, focussing in particular upon 'the New English'. Secondly, it seeks to suggest reasons for their emergence, by examining contemporary socio-economic, political and institutional developments, to which the theory of English teaching has been responsive. Although writers in the professional literature presented themselves as spokesmen for classroom English teachers, their rationales and pre-occupations were not widely shared or successfully communicated. Therefore, the theories of English teaching which are identifiable in the literature do not represent the changing practices of teachers, but rather a succession of 'attempts by theorists to direct and control those practices. They also reflect the changing composition and configuration of a particular segment of the intellectual field over a period of time. Some aspects of the changing ideology of English teaching are thus the product of quasi-autonomous internal processes of self-reflection and debate within the profession. However, the major purpose of this analysis is to demonstrate how more widespread historical developments called forth a specific range of responses amongst theorists, whose role was one of intellectual management of those developments. It is claimed that the New English merits attention both because of its congruence with broader structural changes and because of the challenge it offered to existing forms of control over both teaching practice and the production of theory itself.