Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Theses
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ItemThe attitudes and concerns of Catholic parish primary school principals and teachers toward the integration of students with disabilities into regular schools( 1997)This study was undertaken to identify' and compare the attitudes of Catholic Parish Primary School principals and teachers toward the integration of students with disabilities. The study also investigated variations in attitude toward integration for sub-groups of the principals and teachers. In addition, this study ascertained the concerns these educators have about the implementation of integration in their schools. A three part questionnaire was used to collect the data. It consisted of items relating to the background characteristics of the respondents and their schools, a modified version of the Attitude Toward Mainstreaming Scale (Berryman & Neal, 1980) and an open ended question eliciting educators' concerns about integration. Fifty five principals and 145 full time classroom teachers in the Northern Area of the Archdiocese of Melbourne responded to the questionnaire. T-tests were employed to compare the attitudes of the principals and teachers toward integration., Thematic analysis was used to examine the concerns of educators. Several major findings emerged from the study. Principals were found to hold more positive attitudes toward integration than classroom teachers. Principals were also significantly more positive than teachers toward the integration of students with severe disabilities. Younger principals held significantly more positive attitudes toward integration than older principals. No significant differences were identified for sub groups of the teacher sample. Similarity existed between the two groups of educators in terms of their expressed major concerns about integration. Lack of school based support personnel, funding and training, in that order, were recorded most frequently by both groups of educators.
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ItemDifficulties in maintenance of ethnic language and culture in a multicultural society: with particular reference to Italian families in Melbourne( 1981)The growing political awareness and acknowledgment of Australia's multicultural society produced in the seventies an increasing number of reports on the needs of the ethnic communities. The Government acknowledges that it is now essential to encourage the development of a multicultural attitude in Australian society to foster the maintenance of cultural heritage and promote intercultural understanding. The long-awaited signs of widespread implementation of stated policies and recommendations have been disappointingly slow in emerging. This is attributed to the slowness of a change in attitude throughout the community. Because the Australian school system is not in tune with the multicultural society of today, children of ethnic parents are not receiving equal education opportunities with their Australian peers. Through lack of recognition of their ethnic language and culture by schools, children of ethnic parents are rejecting their mother tongue. In a series of case studies of Italian families in Melbourne, the mother's attitude was seen as the most important factor in language maintenance at the present time. Attitudes were seen to differ, not according to social class, educational level or region of origin, but according to individual values and beliefs. The importance of maintenance of ethnic language and culture for the traditional cohesiveness of the Italian family ethos is stressed, but is seen as resting on a tenuous thread.
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ItemImprovement and accountability, perceptions and emotion: some tensions within an appraisal of department heads at an inner south-eastern school( 1999)This thesis presents a naturalistic descriptive case-study approach to an appraisal of Heads of Departments in a medium sized boys school in the inner South- Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The language of 'tension' and 'paradox' is used to explore some of the built in contradictions which seemed to characterise this appraisal cycle. Its intention is to make explicit several 'tensions' which arose during the process: tensions between the intentions of the administrative leadership in the school and the participants in the appraisal, between the intended and actual outcomes, and between the nature of the appraisal itself and how this was perceived to relate to the daily work of those appraised. The process of the appraisal is described, as is its context and history in the school. Particular attention is given to ambiguities in the perceptions of key actors in the appraisal, which it is claimed were often unperceived or unstated. The experience of certain individuals is followed in order to explore this dimension further. In this thesis I find that there were significant benefits from the process that was conducted, but that it was also flawed in focussing almost exclusively on the administrative dimension of Department leadership, and also caused pain and discomfort to several of the people involved. The emotional dimension of appraisal is thus also considered. While many of the tensions discussed are seen as inherent in the process, changes in the process are suggested to make it more relevant to this particular group when an appraisal is run at the school again.
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ItemAssemblages and representations: boys' interactions and displays in a Year 8 coeducational classroom( 2005)This thesis draws on themes from postmodern philosophy (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, Grosz, 2004) and gender (Connell, 2002) to render boys' behaviours in a coeducational classroom and depict diversities in classroom cultures. The study engages one site, a Year 8 coeducational classroom, in an outer suburban Catholic secondary college of Melbourne, gathering moments and capturing shifts and responses to a range of representations during timetabled lessons. This ethnographic study of classroom behaviours of boys recognises the powerful influence of metanarratives on identities and agendas in schools. It employs a lens that views the metanarrative discourse as a field, where interplays between individuals and assembled cultures take place, as shifting, becoming, transiting bodies (Grosz, 2004). The research rejects deceptive simplifications that some totalising perspectives can bring to a study about gender, preferring stances that recognise multiple, unstable representations (Connell, 2002, p. 89). There is a recognition that particular challenges apply to ethnographic research of classes, including influences of histories and stances of the observer. It contests objective epistemological models and utilises conceptions of knowledge that reject objective accounts of reality to view cultures as `happenings' and multitudes of differential relations (Edgar & Sedgwick, 1999, Semetsky, 2003). Assemblages and representations observed in this study may not be reproduced in other settings, but lessons can be drawn from an understanding of representations, relationships and interplays between boys, their teachers and their peers. The study contributes to the debate about boys' education by providing connections between the observations and analysis of classroom interactions and boys' education literature. It shows how representations by participants in an educational setting can influence assemblages. It offers advice for educators about approaches that can effectively influence learning events.
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ItemSucceeding academically at a working-class school: some case studies( 1990)In this pilot study, I chose to interview only academically successful students because I wanted to identify as many as possible of the factors that might be unique to this group. In a larger study it would be necessary to interview the unsuccessful as well to establish whether the characteristics identified were in fact unique to the successful students. (From chapter 1)