Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemWhat do 'at risk' boys say about their schooling experiences ? : creating agency for boys' views and feelings about school( 2008)The following discussion outlines the theory and operational methods that inform a general ethnographical study, designed to understand the views and perceptions of three 'at risk' boys relegated to a specialised Victorian state school. The methodology hopes to empower the male students taking part in the study by giving emphasis to the didactic importance of their views, opinions and experiences expressed during a series of interviews in which they participate. It is hoped that the boys will be able to identify areas of education that need improvement, and define real life problems within their own learning experiences, so genuine male learning dilemmas and insights are generated and debated in the research. However, Connell (1989, 1995) characterises boys as `inheritors of an all conquering hegemonic masculinity' and this classic feminist perspective seems to be preventing the evolution of a boys' paradigm in education by diverting attention away from boys' educational issues by asking `which girls' and 'which boys' are specifically disadvantaged. This generic ethnographical study attempts a pro-male research project which holds boy's views, opinions and experiences paramount in the research logic processes, and makes use of key foci descriptors conceptualised in recent government research and programmes to discover how young males experience and dialogue about their schooling lives.
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ItemParent professional partnerships in IEP development : a case study of a MAPS process( 2007)The practices, language and behaviours which professionals adopt when they meet with parents prior to Individual Education Program (IEP) planning may have a significant effect on the attitudes and capabilities families bring to the educational setting. During this case study the adult family members of a child with additional needs were observed as they addressed the developmental and programming needs of their child by participating in the McGill Action Planning System (MAPS) and a subsequent Program Support Group (PSG) meeting. Themes indicating attitudes or perceptions that empowered the family towards continued participation in collaborative teams for IEP development emerged in the observational data and were defined through the methods of informant diaries and semi-structured interviews. Less dominant quantitative methods were used to verify that the participant's ongoing attitudes towards parent professional collaboration corroborated with the final themes of flexibility, unification, satisfaction and function.
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ItemEstablishing a multi-sited disposition for ethnographic research in the field of education( 2008)This thesis responds to the challenge of how educational research might be practised in a contemporary world that is no longer necessarily organised by nearness and unity. Focusing on ethnography, it argues for what a multi-sited disposition contributes to research in the field of education. By giving prominence to the notion of multi-sited ethnography. as it has been developed by the anthropologist George Marcus this thesis shows how ethnography conceived this way is now necessary in educational research. The study brings together recent concepts from anthropology with Australian educational ethnography, providing an analysis and reconstruction of how to go about doing ethnography in a world that is characterised by partial connections. To highlight the contributions to education of this research disposition, the final part of the thesis provides an exploratory account as an example of how to approach a specific research topic in this field. In sum, this thesis makes a unique contribution' to educational research by providing an ethnographic approach for the study of contemporary educational lives.
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ItemA case study approach to the student at risk of leaving school early( 2005)There are two components in this research. The first comprises identification of what characterises an at risk student using risk factors identified from the literature. The second comprises identification of the prevalence of these risk factors in one school and how this school identified and assisted these students in the context of the early school leaver literature. Fifty-two students from a Melbourne government high school and seven of their teachers participated in the research. Students were divided into three groups; at risk students who participated in an intervention program, at risk students who did not participate in an intervention program, and a low risk group. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered and analysed to investigate prevalence of risk factors and usefulness and relevance of the intervention programs. All students completed a 30-page survey consisting of a demographics page, the Academic Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, the Classroom Environment Scale (Real and Ideal Forms) and the Family Environment Scale (Real and Ideal Forms). The teachers completed the Teacher Report Form of the Child Behaviour Checklist. The at risk students participated in interviews and completed six monthly questionnaires. From these data, a profile of the at risk student was developed. At risk students are characterised as performing academically lower than low risk students, exhibiting more problem behaviours, are more likely to be male, to value friendships made at school, to find the work at school and the teacher relationships difficult, to hold aspirations to achieve year 12 and believe they are in control of their school experience. The students participating in an intervention felt it was valuable. The quantitative data revealed non-significant changes in these students' academic self-efficacy and trivial differences in their academic grades. It is clear that school aptitude results from as early as year 7, and student behaviours can help to identify students at risk. It is also clear that friendships formed at school serve as a buffer for these students. Significant events occurring in the nominated at risk students lives do not appear to influence their decision to leave school early. The results imply that schools have the necessary information to identify students at risk, but that intervention programs need to be designed specifically to target problem issues. Recommendations for the school are made in the hope that they can be communicated to educators and the broader community.
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ItemPrimary teachers' practices in a demonstration school : the pedagogical uses of websites( 2007)The new communications technologies are the latest technological revolution to impact on education. Karl Marx pointed out it is not technology that shapes a social world, but the social arrangements that are required or adopted to implement it. But contrary to what I will argue, Marx and many others since have thought that there are an indeterminate number of social arrangements by which technology, defined in physical terms, can be implemented as an industrial or educational process by human beings with a history and traditions. The discussion points to the following principle: a website is transformed from a piece of stuff into a social object by its embodiment in staffroom narrative. In education the pattern of Internet use has the potential to change the professional identity formation, individually and collectively, of teachers who use it, so researching how the Internet is used helps in understanding the individual rationales that underpin some of the day to day choices teachers make that will shape the future of schooling. This study of the teachers' discursive practices, in an ICT demonstration school, seeks to understand their site practices in the context of this social responsibility. Each of the teachers has a pedagogical past or 'historical self' that acts as an agent on all they say and do in the community of practice. The differences in how teachers interpret and utilize Internet websites may reflect to what degree institutional practices and social rhetoric play an 'active' role in determining a teacher's classroom agency. Teaching with the new information technology should afford children not only access to new knowledge but the executive intelligence to form their own educational investigations. However, Wittgenstein has warned us against taking superficial models of where we are or what there is. In this study, everyday social talk, including social theory is full of grammatical substantives, but only those which refer to discursive acts are what they seem. The discursive exploration of specific social episodes that occur within a new socially constructed technological world of the primary school (Schatzki, 2002) enable us to understand the patterns of practice of the Purcell Primary School community and identify meanings that are constructed within. The data presented demonstrates how the six members of this teaching community make sense of their world; not only as individuals, but as members of both the broader team and a school community directly determines how they acquire 'shared meaning' within that community. The research identifies the self, of the teachers, as agents or patients (Harre, 1995) in the real world context of Purcell. For the teachers, collectively and individually, at Purcell, and teachers in the broader educational community, alike, understanding their psychological location in their own storylines in a complex local moral order that publicly embraces the new informational technology in the face of new institutional practices, has the potential to enhance their capacity and lead to a more technical and comprehensive fulfilment.
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ItemThe parent-child mother goose program : a case study of a family-centred early intervention literacy initiative( 2006)Research related to early childhood education and development indicates the importance of the quality of social services provided to children in the early years. The Parent-Child Mother Goose study looks at the effectiveness of an early childhood program as a preventative intervention for children with additional needs through action research. The study was conducted over two cycles during 2005. It uncovers the characteristics of the Mother Goose Program; the role of the professional; and the effects of the intervention on parents and children. The study also introduces some of the most important concepts in early childhood education which include: Parent-Focused Programs, Family-Centred Practice, Inclusive Practice, and Retention in Early Intervention. Last the research examines the gaps in the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program and discusses issues such as: Concept Clarity, Cultural Competence, Access and Participation, Follow ups and Feedback, Fathers in the Early Years and Evaluation in Early Childhood Programs. The research addresses each issue separately and provides future recommendations for early childhood professionals in the context of a small scale study. The research concludes that the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program is an affective preventative intervention for parents and children who are committed to consistent participation.