Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemMalaysian higher education and the United States as a model: policy borrowing or policy learning?( 2013)Higher education plays an important role in many developing countries. Graduates are being equipped with professional knowledge and skills to fulfil the demands of the labour market in a knowledge economy. Developing countries tend to adopt models of higher education organization from developed nations, especially those that are world leaders. Progress in science and technology and national wealth itself point to the success of these systems and suggest that they represent a suitable and feasible path to take. Malaysia is amongst those developing nations that have looked to advanced economies to provide a model of mass higher education which would raise educational levels and national income. But has a process of policy-borrowing achieved both the growth and the equity that governments have promised? Has the expansion and diversification of higher education in Malaysia created more equitable access for all students in order to ensure that increased higher education is undertaken by a wide range of population who have the ability and motivation to succeed? This study aims to contribute to policy learning in higher education in the developing world (as distinct from uncritical policy borrowing). It focuses on Malaysia’s efforts to learn from the US experience. The findings of this study may assist the Malaysian policy makers in designing new improved policies to widen access in higher education and to further strengthen Malaysian higher education sector. In the first section of this thesis, a review is made of US efforts to expand higher education, while improving equity. Two barriers to participation in higher education – school dropout rates and low achievement among young people who do graduate – are examined in greater detail. This then leads to a key discussion on the types of higher educational institutions in the US, their enrolment patterns and the challenges faced by each institution. At the end of this section, the findings that developing countries can learn from the United States’ experience are highlighted. In the second section, the study focuses on Malaysia. It starts with historical overview pre independence, focusing on economic, social and educational developments. The growth and structural transformation of the Malaysian economy are also examined and compared with educational attainment. Trends in primary and secondary public education expansion and challenges facing this public system are then discussed, leading to a detailed discussion on the development of the Malaysian public and private tertiary education sector. The findings presented in this study show that the challenge for Malaysia is not to become like the USA, but to learn from the US experience and to develop its own strategic plans for higher education that fit with the social and economic needs of the country. The study suggests policy directions to making higher education in Malaysia more effective and equitable, which includes strengthening and improving Malaysia’s public schools, enhancing the quality of higher education and assisting students from disadvantaged families. Such initiatives may assist Malaysia to become the best provider of higher education in the South East Asian region and a high-income developed country by the year 2020.
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ItemThe aspiring spires: momentum and the status university( 2013)Higher education is in many respects governed by market relations and state direction; in some ways, however, it is not. In prestige, it falls back on an elusive force. The university is entrepreneurial, and it is public spirited, and it is also itself. According to perceptions of how much of a university a university is, it is able to relay credibility. Rankings and taxonomical mapping may come at this nebulous prestige from more solid data, including the tracing of market performance and state backing. Crucially, though, it is prestige that any ranking hoping to gauge the calibrations of trust and belief is after, whether prestige already detected or that anticipated according to momentum. Aware of this, inasmuch as an organization can think, the status university continues to grow as a magnet for competitive but remarkably peaceable human endeavour, and as a major junction for the forces of civil religion. The thesis seeks to update the appraisal of the highly evolved sense of status in universities and in progressively expanded higher education systems, and to deepen appreciation of the energy and history with which they swell.
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ItemThe investments, expectations and identity construction of bilingual teachers of English in pursuing further professional education in Australia( 2013)There is an increase of bilingual teachers of English from non-English-speaking settings who are obtaining their Master of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in English-speaking contexts. Most TESOL programmes concentrate on providing content knowledge to these teachers, without giving much attention to their “investment”, a notion proposed by Peirce (1995) to indicate how individuals are connected historically and socially to a target language. Additionally, not much consideration is given to these teachers’ expectations, lived experiences and identity construction while they are studying and living in English-speaking countries. However, these aspects are significant in their development as teachers and users of English. With a central research question that examines the processes that contribute to the identity construction of bilingual teachers of English while pursuing a Master of TESOL degree in an English-speaking country, this thesis explores the aforementioned neglected aspects through a case study. Data were collected through individual interviews and email correspondence with eight bilingual teachers of English who pursued a Master of TESOL degree as international postgraduate students at Sandstone University, Australia. Data were analysed qualitatively and interpreted based on a conceptual framework that was synthesised and adapted from the literature, from the participants’ responses, and from my perspectives as an insider-outsider. Findings suggest that when the participants were in Australia, many of them constructed their identities as they faced challenges both inside and outside the classroom. However, all of the participants changed and adapted to studying and living in Australia. Their investments and expectations affected their lived experiences and identity construction in powerful ways. In order to fulfil their expectations, many of the participants displayed agency in interacting with others. The participants also positioned and repositioned themselves in various ways in response to their different experiences both inside and outside class. Moreover, they applied the content knowledge that they gained from class to their personal experiences. Some of the changes that the participants made when they were in Australia were temporary adjustments to their immediate context and their expectations of obtaining their degree. These changes were not sustained when they returned to their home countries. This fact implies that there was continuity in the midst of their identity change, as they remained connected to some aspects of their home sociocultural values even while changing in Australia. This study confirms the advantages of using multiple theories to elucidate the complexity and evolution of language teacher identity. Various implications are suggested for future international students, teacher educators and teacher education programmes. The limitations of the study and areas for future research are also recommended.
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ItemDesign and validation of an instrument to assess development of intrapersonal learning skills for students with an intellectual disability and students with autism spectrum( 2013)Investigations into the education of students with disabilities in Australia report that teachers lacked training and information about how to support the learning and participation of these students resulting in a need for materials to assist teachers to provide a mandated equality of educational services (Commonwealth of Australia, 2002; Victorian Equal Opportunities and Human Rights Commission [VEOHRC], 2012). The current study addressed this need with the overall aim to provide teachers of students with disabilities with an assessment instrument that established their students’ current developmental level and informs decisions about developmentally targeted teaching strategies. The research addressed to what extent such an assessment instrument could be developed, whether the developmental learning progressions were appropriate for all students with disabilities, and whether teachers could use the progressions to inform decisions about targeted teaching strategies. The study worked within a model of education change (Griffin, 2007a, 2007b) that linked educational measurement to policy with a purpose of, by extension, informing school-level and systemic decisions about the provision of resources and development of curriculum for students with disabilities. The design of assessment materials was based on procedures for defining standards-or criterion-referenced frameworks (Griffin, 1993, 2007a, 2007b) that rely on subject matter experts collaborating within a simulated partial credit latent trait model (Masters, 1982). It followed instrument design and validation recommendations by Wilson (2005) and Wolfe and Smith (2007a, 2007b), and AERA, APA, and NCME Standards (1999) for educational and psychological testing. The instrument focused on assessing the intrapersonal skills of students whose primary disability was intellectual or developmental (i.e. autism). These skills included cognitive and emotion-based learning skills that support capacity to learn and engage with the learning environment. The intrapersonal assessment instrument, in the form of a classroom observation survey, was used in a large scale trial of items with 1594 students followed by a calibration and validation study on assessment data from 663 students. The study resulted in the establishment of three learning standards that describe student proficiency in terms of developmental progressions that can be linked to differentiated teaching plans: an emotion skill progression, a cognitive skill progression for students with an intellectual disability, and a cognitive skill progression for students with autism spectrum disorder. The alpha coefficients of the intrapersonal learning cognitive (intellectual disability), cognitive (autism spectrum disorder) and emotion sections of the instrument were 0.97, 0.96, and 0.93 respectively. The different cognitive skill based learning progressions for students with an intellectual disability or autism spectrum disorder was an important finding of the study. It provided evidence of a distinctive learning pathway for students with autism and a breakdown of the nature of this difference. Arguments for instrument validation relied upon statistical analyses conducted within an item response theory (Rasch, 1980) framework and teachers’ uses of the instrument to develop targeted and differentiated learning strategies. The study provided the state government with a basis upon which to build a new curriculum model for schools charged with the education of students with disabilities and the study’s impact has been manifested in government policy for the support of educational programs for these students.
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ItemElectronic gaming machine payment systems and their influence on player behaviour( 2013)Electronic gaming machine (EGM) structural characteristics are increasingly recognised as having an effect on player behaviour although the nature, and extent, of this influence remains unclear. Several recent Australian studies have considered EGM card usage, both with and without payment abilities, and found support from organisations and players for these systems. Adoption levels, however, remain low relative to the number of venues and players, and voluntary- to- use pre-commitment features designed to support and enhance player decision making are rarely used. This thesis then, aimed to explore the adoption, use and diffusion of EGM payment systems including cashless and card-based gambling technologies (CCBGTs) in Australia. It comprises two qualitative studies and the development of a theoretical model. Study One comprised interviews with 14 key gaming venue employees and Study Two, interviews with 30 EGM players from two Sydney, New South Wales (NSW) registered clubs. The results were used to develop a theoretical model of cashless EGM payment technology use- diffusion that is informed and supported by the literature from a range of information systems and gambling research disciplines. The salient features of the Australian EGM industry including benefits and harms is initially presented in the thesis before a review, in Chapter Two, of gaming machine structural characteristics. A narrowing focus on money in and money out payment mechanisms and exploration of the known and unknown impacts of adoption and use of these features is discussed in the context of the literature, which generally highlights their differential effect on player enjoyment and venue profitability. Further research and policy interventions that target EGM characteristics with a likely low impact on recreational players and venues are advocated. Study One explores the adoption of CCBGTs from the organisational perspective, with an emphasis on the ability of employees to effect change. It then analyses employee observations of player behaviour related to EGM payment type choice. In the first instance these employees are found to be potentially effective agents of change who readily observe and respond to the needs of gambling customers and can relate these to specific operational impacts. Opportunities for genuine employee participation in the diffusion process beyond the communication and adoption stages would, it is concluded, improve outcomes in the rate of adoption, range of customer use and the process of product development and enhancement. Gambling organisations that genuinely embrace cashless and cPrinted ard based gambling technologies have an opportunity to advance their corporate social responsibility credentials. Variations in player behaviour are explained according to whether customers are putting money into or taking money out of the machines. The results indicate that segmenting customers as either light or heavy users would be useful to improving the adoption and use of cashless EGM payment technologies. Players in Study Two comprised 26 cashless card and 4 cash only users (‘non-users’). Several respondents also had experience with ticket-based payment methods. A key objective was to understand within-session player behaviour and, where appropriate, to reflect on how that behaviour differs to non-cashless play. The small sample of non-users was questioned about their reasons for resisting adoption of the card and, relatedly, users were asked about times that they supplemented or suspended their cashless use. Overall, these participants indicated that the card simply improved the EGM play experience by streamlining their ability to deposit and retrieve gambling monies. There was little consensus as to whether card use impacted individual expenditure, machine choice, session length, or breaks in play relative to cash-based play, although several respondents spoke compellingly about how the card influences their ability to manage their gambling monies. The results of Study One and Study Two inform the development, presentation and justification of a theoretical model of EGM payment technology use-diffusion that integrates antecedents to use, actual behaviour and consequences of use. This model characterises users according to their rate and variety of payment technology use, and explains the relationship between intention, use and consequences. A key feature of the model is the inclusion of a user profile matrix that segments users according to their rate and variety of use of the payment characteristics, yet also captures partial use, resistance to use and suggests post-adoption feedback mechanisms. Within this study card-based gambling technology’s ability to enhance player decision making, in the context of facilitating responsible gambling, is acknowledged according to the consequences of use. These are classified according to whether they are anticipated, desirable and direct or unanticipated, undesirable and indirect, consistent with the taxonomy proposed by Rogers (2003). Overall, this thesis makes an original contribution to knowledge of the effects of use of cashless EGM payment technologies in Australia through an application of the technology adoption and use literature. It achieves this via an in depth exploration that utilises inductive, qualitative research techniques to uncover usage activities and their meaning from different stakeholder perspectives. Significantly, it provides evidence that CCBGTs can improve the within-session decision making of players. Gambling venues also benefit from the introduction of these technologies despite the upfront costs, and can realise a return on their investment that includes increased levels of player satisfaction if the technology is appropriately supported by employees. These technologies have the potential to improve the control players have over their gambling by encouraging positive behaviour modification. Counselling and community education can additionally assist gamblers to choose and use technologies that support their choices. Additionally, the study has implications for gambling industry policy makers in explicating the extant links between the provision of gambling technologies and the resultant behaviours.
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ItemBuilding university research capacity in Vietnam: prospects, problems and possibilities( 2013)There has been an absence of research on university research capacity building, particularly in developing country contexts. To narrow this research gap, this thesis aims to: (i) identify the essentials of building university research capacity; (ii) evaluate critically the extent to which these essentials have been embraced by four selected leading Vietnamese universities; (iii) recommend policies, processes, and strategies to enhance these universities’ research capacity and performance. Taking a qualitative, case-study approach, this study uses semi-structured interviews as the primary method for data collection. The study interviews 64 participants, of whom 55 are from within four selected leading Vietnamese universities and nine are external stakeholders. The study identified five key empirical findings in accordance with five domains of university research capacity building. First, in terms of research resources, the four universities lacked adequate research related human resources, infrastructure, and funding. Second, in organizing and structuring research, ideally, a university should manage both visible and intangible organizational tasks. In practice, the four universities focused mostly on completing an organizational chart for research. They seemed to neglect most of the other underlining structural issues. Third, regarding research related HR policies, in theory, universities should employ various strong HR policies in recruiting, developing, assessing, and rewarding academics. In practice, to a certain extent, the four universities recognized their academics’ research activities. However, their policies did not adequately encourage academics to maximize their research potential. Fourth, in terms of research management plans, it is argued that universities should develop an institutional interlocking and integrated research strategy. In practice, the four case-study universities hardly managed research strategically. They developed research plans only for the purpose of obtaining external block-grant funding, not for guiding future action. Finally, regarding research culture, universities should develop shared underlying organizational assumptions supporting research. The four universities failed to fully achieve this goal. Overall, their institutional research development was in its infancy. To enhance the universities’ research capacity and performance, this study suggests that changes should take place at a number of levels. At the system level, the government should (1) provide more funding for university operational expenditure and research; (2) use research performance-based tools in allocating research funding; and (3) confer a higher level of autonomy on the universities, especially in the areas of finance and human resources (HR) management. At the institutional level, the four universities should (1) enrich research resources; (2) create a more professionalized system of organizing research; (3) design a well-supported career development path for research-oriented academics; (4) clearly define institutional research objectives; and (5) translate these espoused objectives into concrete organizational actions. This study provides rich empirical data on research capacity building at four leading Vietnamese universities and suggests a model for enhancing these universities’ research capacity and performance. This knowledge is useful not only for these four case-study Vietnamese universities but also for any other university in a similar development context requiring tools and resources for building research capacity.
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ItemThe challenges of academic leadership in Korean higher education( 2013)In recent years, South Korean higher education has been transformed from a system driven by traditional humanist values to a system that is now highly commercialized. This has given rise to numerous challenges of academic leadership faced by the deans of faculties at both public and private universities in Korea. This thesis addresses three key research questions: ‘What challenges do Korean deans face?; ‘How do Korean deans interpret these challenges?’; and ‘How do Korean deans respond to these challenges?’ The thesis addresses these questions through accounts the deans themselves provide of their lived experiences of policy and practice, particularly with respect to the demands of academic leadership. The thesis takes a hermeneutical, phenomenological approach to research, involving attempts to listen empathetically to the deans’ narratives of their feelings and understandings. An analysis of these narratives reveals that, particularly in wake of recent New Public Management-inspired reforms in Korea, the key challenges that the deans face may be clustered around issues of governance; autonomy and authority; and how to interpret and enact the requirements of effectiveness. It also suggests that for these deans one of the major tasks of academic leadership is to reconcile the potentially competing values that these challenges represent. I argue that their attempts at this reconciliation involve a complex assemblage of new managerialism and commercialization, as well as retaining a commitment to traditional academic values.
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ItemMolecules as tools: discourse, artefacts and children's meaning-making about particles of matter( 2013)This thesis reports on a discursive sociocultural research project exploring 6-12 year old children's use of 'molecules' as conceptual tools. Current curriculum guidelines for chemistry recommend delaying the introduction of 'molecules' until secondary schooling. The idea that matter is particulate is taken as 'too abstract' for young learners, who express only 'vague ideas' of unseen 'particles'. Three research question direct the study: . What everyday ideas of 'molecules' and 'atoms' do children today contact and what are the sources of these ideas? . How do children progress in their meaning-making with 'molecules', when given opportunities to explore particle ideas, including in virtual interactive visualisations? . What are young children afforded (Gibson, 1979) when explorations with all three levels of chemical thinking (Johnstone, 1991) are socially and materially supported? Twenty two dialectic-interactive teaching interviews were conducted with 24 participants in 2010, with this researcher performing the role of the more expert other. This cultural tool-use study tracked the young participants as they explored the offered signs in the materially and socially supported activity. Participants' speculations were supported, tracked and analysed using positioning theory (Harré, 2002a). Moment-to-moment changes in discourse identified ways in which these beginners began putting on their molecular spectacles (Kind, 2004). The research findings show that children today are contacting terms, images and chemical symbols of molecules in everyday life. A set of scientifically appropriate chemical learning themes were isolated as storylines in the data. Previously reported difficulties learner's have with using all the three levels of chemical thinking were re-interpreted as appropriate learner discursive work with the thinking tools when participating in a scientific cultural activity. Two suggestions are put forward to apply in re-considering current practices: 1. that young children be encouraged in their thinking with the three levels of chemistry when exploring matter, by offering them ideas of 'molecules', including the nanoscopic-world scale, using the hinge proposition 'molecules are built of atoms'; and 2. that available virtual interactives provide visualisations that can modify the learnability of 'molecule' concepts, by using the three levels of chemical thinking in combination, giving learners opportunities to experience movement between these frames in their developmental thinking.
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ItemGender discourses and teacher-talk: reconceptualising teachers' roles in promoting gender equity in Pakistani early childhood classrooms( 2013)This study used feminist poststructuralist theories to reconceptualise teachers’ roles in promoting gender equity in early childhood classrooms in Pakistan. Whilst, how to promote gender equity in early childhood classrooms have been studied in western settings; this is one of the first studies to explore this issue in depth in the Pakistani context. The study used participatory action research to gather data about how twelve teachers enacted gender equity in their classrooms. That data included detailed observations and videotaped data of interactions between teachers and children, interviews with teachers, conversations with children, field notes, monthly meetings of the action research group and reflective journals collected over a ten month period. I found that reconceptualising gender equity in Pakistan is both risky and contradictory because of the discursive ‘regime of religious patriarchy’ that frames and bounds this work. Specifically, discourses of morality, essentialism, heterosexuality, male supremacy and sexuality limited how teachers enacted gender equity in their classrooms and the risks they perceived and at times were prepared to take in promoting gender equity in their classrooms. Any discourses or pedagogic practices which were seen to have their roots in the divine could not be challenged or changed. However, despite this, teachers did find ways to do gender equity work in a context such as Pakistan that is visibly patriarchal and dominated by a regime of religious patriarchy. The thesis thus creates new knowledge about how teachers can challenge discursive practices and work for gender equity from within specific boundaries. It also points to the possibilities of working with children in the future to offer multiple ways of ‘doing’ masculinity and femininity.
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ItemPublic policy for higher education in Chile: a case study in quality assurance (1990-2009)( 2013)An early adopter of external quality assessments, Chile stands out as an example of innovative reforms in higher education policy across the developing world. Much less is known, however, about the local factors that affected the formation, implementation and consequences of quality assurance policies. This study examines the interplay of structural and agency factors, tracing variations in this policy domain from a longitudinal perspective. Through semi-structured interviews with policymakers, higher education leaders and experts who were directly involved in advancing reform at different stages, the study documents the rise and decline of quality assurance through a twenty-year span (1990-2009) covering four consecutive terms of government — from the reinstatement of Chilean democracy to the last year in power of the same centre-left coalition that conducted the political transition from military rule. The study begins tracing the origins of Chilean higher education and the revolutionary changes it started to experience from 1980 toward, embracing greater competition and privatisation. Later, the theories that inform the thesis — Anthony Giddens’s structuration and Margaret Archer’s morphogenesis — are presented along with the methodological design chosen for the study. Supported by this background, a case description is introduced in three parts, each of them pertaining to different reforms: the introduction of licensing in 1990, the formation of course accreditation pilots in 1999, and the creation of a comprehensive quality assurance scheme in 2003. The analysis provides a comprehensive exploration of the structural properties — enrolment expansion, competition among providers, an elitist policymaking style, and the quality assurance discourse — behind these reforms and their mutation over time. Likewise, the changing position of leading policy players is examined as well as their manipulation of existing structures to influence the design and implementation of policy changes. By confronting agency and structural interaction, policy trajectories emerge, allowing a better understanding of policy dynamics in Chilean higher education. The study unveils the growing centrality of quality assurance within the policy architecture and the substantial efforts universities have made to limit its impact in their core business and to maximise their competitive advantage in complex and dynamic environments. The analysis suggests that, incrementally, these tensions are highly correlated with the declining utility and legitimacy of the existing quality assurance scheme. It advances that quality assurance can, however, play a significant policy function in reassuring the fundamental values of higher education if greater participation in external assessments is granted and financial incentives attached to quality assurance are removed.