Faculty of Education - Theses
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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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ItemVoices from below: family, school and community on the Braybrook plains 1854-1892( 1993)This thesis identifies and documents a number of families and neighbourhoods on the plains west of Melbourne in the years 1854 to 1892. It traces their interaction with each other, with teachers and with the central education bureaucracy. A major aim is to make visible the women and children in these neighbourhoods and, where possible, to let them speak for themselves. The period studied is the latter part of the nineteenth century, from the early years of local control and government aid through the various boards of education to the first two decades of 'free, compulsory and secular education'. Braybrook Shire is divided into different neighbourhoods, ranging from the small and fluctuating industrial community at Maribyrnong and the 'labouring-class' suburb of Maidstone, to the dairying and stock-holding areas at Albion-Braybrook, then further west to the settlement of Kororoit Creek, with its farms and explosives factory, and beyond to the sparsely-settled rural areas of Derrimut, Mt Cotterell and Rockbank. The diversity of the small communities studied and the microscopic approach adopted, challenge the view that local communities are uniform, static, isolated entities and that women and men are passive victims of outside forces. There is oppression and hardship, but also evidence that local people had a range of strategies for survival and some victories in local battles with the State. Schooling was clearly an important issue to these early migrant settlers, despite the need for children's labour in family economies. 'Community' is seen to be complex, including mobility and continuity, conflict and kinship ties, and interaction between the private and the public domain. The thesis demonstrates women's importance in the local culture and the value of searching for local perspectives and the voices of 'ordinary' people. The sources and the methodology used suggest possible approaches for other researchers.