Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemAn investigation into the relationship between the engagement, creative ability, and classroom culture within secondary schooling.( 2021)This study examines how creative ability is influenced by students' beliefs about the classroom culture and its relevance to their learning endeavours. Current education provision favours students who perform patterns of actions traditionally associated with academic achievement. This approach disadvantages students who are creative in non-academic domains. Research has neglected the teaching of high ability students who are disengaged with regular classroom cultures that restrict their opportunities to display their creativity. The study used a mixed methods approach to investigate the learning characteristics of disengaged high ability students that predict creative outcomes in various domains. It identified differences between learning characteristics of high ability engaged and disengaged students. The disengaged students felt marginalised and showed learning profiles that were suited to non-academic learning contexts. The findings suggest that classroom engagement and culturally acceptable creative expression requires appropriate perception and exploitation of symbolic and material affordances in the form of culturally acceptable patterns of actions, during socially and materially situated activities, when creating artefacts in their classroom. This implies engagement is a relational concept that represents the transactions and interactions between a student and their teacher, the symbolic and material affordances, and artefacts within a specific classroom or school culture. The study recommends classroom-based assessments teachers can use to identify the patterns of perception and action that lead to engagement and provide opportunities for all students to develop their creativity.
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ItemAn Examination of Indigenous Australians who are Flourishing( 2020)In response to the high levels of disadvantage that is experienced by Indigenous Australians, consecutive Australian governments continue to pursue an approach that primarily focuses on Indigenous Australian disadvantage - which is commonly pursued in isolation of their strengths and the solutions they may hold to improve their own lives. Given the limited research into the strengths of Indigenous Australians, this thesis sought to contribute to research about Indigenous Australian strengths. Two primary research questions were explored to understand how Indigenous Australians employed in a tertiary education institution were flourishing in their lives. The first question was: What characteristics, beliefs and behaviours are used by a group of Indigenous Australians that enable them to function effectively and live with purpose? The second question was: To what extent does the practice of the participants’ Indigenous Australian culture enhance their wellbeing? The sample group comprised of 11 participants. To be selected for this study, the participants had to identify as an Indigenous Australian, be employed by an Australian tertiary institution and have experienced high levels of wellbeing in periods throughout their lives. This thesis drew on an interpretive phenomenological methodological framework that is informed by contemporary research in positive psychology and Indigenous Standpoint Theory. Three major findings arose from this study. First, participants have a shared understanding of how Indigenous Australian wellbeing is conceptualised. Second, participants access an inventory of known Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian personal characteristics, subsequent beliefs and behaviours that enable them to function and be effective in their lives. Lastly, the practice of Indigenous Australian culture is central to the health and wellbeing of many of the participants.
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ItemWhat drives schools to implement a successful change process that is more inclusive of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ) students and staff?( 2019)Schools are rarely the spaces of fairness, kindness, inclusion and equality that some perceive them to be. At its heart, this work is one that considers how school leaders understand and react to the discrimination and oppression of lesbian, gay, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) individuals within their environment and, more importantly, what drives engaged, visible school leaders to change these situations. The key research question that is going to be considered is; ‘What drives schools to implement a successful change process that is more inclusive of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ) students and staff?’ Flowing from this question are the sub-questions - What is the role of school leadership? What is the role of teachers? What are the significant forces and factors that help or hinder the drive for change? This thesis utilises qualitative research and narrative inquiry using semi-structured interviews to collect data from participants at school sites in Victoria, Australia. The semi-structured interviews are analysed using critical theory, in order to understand motivations, actions and behaviours. Critical theory concepts such as power, oppression, culture, repressive tolerance and leading change have contributed to the analysis. The data chapters in the thesis first consider the broad, wide-ranging idea of culture and environment and how these impact LGBTQ change processes. There is a focus on visible leadership within school spaces and the ability to manage change in a difficult social environment. In the two final data chapters, there is a more detailed description of the factors that enable change and those that hinder it within schools. The conclusion draws together the findings from the data chapters in order to address the research questions. This thesis ends with a section considering the road ahead for LGBTQ inclusive practice. The underlying emphasis of this thesis is to understand what prompts school leadership to move from a position of wanting to do something for their LGBTQ community to overt action, with leaders engaging and driving the change process in a positive and affirming manner. There are schools in the State of Victoria that have adopted overt and clear LGBTQ-inclusive policies or programs, and this work illuminates the way they went about managing the process of implementing and running those policies and programs. The thesis investigates the point that exists between the expectations of diversity and inclusivity, documented by government and education authorities, and the eventual adoption and implementation of school policies or actions focusing on LGBTQ students and staff. The underlying purpose of doing this research is to inspire change within the schooling system and to document the path to success and its benefits. It is envisioned that the research will help schools and education authorities to drive more action in this space. This thesis will assist schools, facing the legal and increasingly social expectations for change and with the prerequisite tools and resources for change, to move beyond a hesitant position and into one of action, so that, one day, schools can indeed become spaces for fairness, kindness, equity, and inclusion.
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ItemRaymond Williams : a critique of his theory of culture and education( 1980)This thesis is a critical exposition of Williams' theory of culture as expounded in two of his early works, Culture and Society 1780-1950, and The Long Revolution, and of the influence of that theory on his views on education. Williams' views on man, on valued knowledge and on the ideal society, being fundamental to an understanding of his theory of culture and its connection with education, are given particular attention. Williams sees man as evolving into a being with a unique brain and hence as having the potential to learn, to reason, to communicate and to create. The process of realising this potential is identified by Williams as both the process of interaction within culture and also the characteristic achievement of culture. However, this thesis argues that such a view of man, allegedly drawn from experience, is selectively based and conjectural. Williams' account of what constitutes valued knowledge is based partly on his attempt to re-define culture by a synthesis of previous definitions, and partly on his argument that knowledge is socially created. But, despite his own overt objections to a distinctive 'high' culture, it is evident that Williams himself is extending the selection of valued knowledge and activity, not avoiding selection. At the same time, he is preserving the distinction between skilled intellectual activities (associated with the ideal of 'high culture') and the more 'ordinary' activities of a culture. The thesis also questions Williams' proposition that knowledge is a social creation based ideally on a pooling of common experience. It argues that 'experience' is not invariably the sound basis for knowledge that Williams assumes it to be and it questions the need for his strong emphasis on commonly shared experience. A 'common culture' functioning both for the expression of, and as the necessary basis for an egalitarian society is the distinctive mark of Williams' ideal society, a society which he believes will nurture man's evolving potential and hence his cultural progress. The characteristics of that ideal society - communal solidarity, participating democracy, consensus by open communication, and the principal of 'equality of being' - are critically examined, and attention is drawn to some ambiguities and apparent contradictions in their exposition. Finally, the function Williams ascribes to education, namely, that of being an important means of developing man's individual and collective potential, is examined. Williams' concern for developing intellectual skills, and for directing these towards the changing of society, is contrasted with his tendency to subordinate education to stated social ends. This, it is argued, may lead in practice to less dynamic results and be more open to distortion than Williams obviously intends. In summary, it is maintained that Williams' arguments from experience form an inadequate base for the claims his theory of culture is called on to support; that his attempt to redefine culture by a synthesis of existing and to some degree conflicting definitions leaves unresolved a number of ambiguities and contradictions; and that these weaknesses are reflected in some of his prescriptions for education.
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ItemMatthew Arnold's perception of culture and the implications of that perception for his educational writing( 1976)The first chapter centres around an analysis of the concept of culture and, in particular, three uses of the concept which recur consistently throughout Arnold's works: culture as a pursuit of our total perfection, as a means of social transformation, and as an inward operation. The question is raised: Why, according to Arnold, did men need to be transformed, and in what ways could culture effect this transformation? Chapter two is concerned with answering the first part of the question; chapter three the second. An exploration of the need for men to be transformed involves an analysis of Victorian society as Arnold perceived it. How, on the Arnoldian analysis, could culture transform society? Culture is concerned with the pursuit of perfection by man's coming to know 'the best which has been thought and said in the world'. Though it begins as an inward operation, it never rests there. The man who seeks perfection comes to see that 'totality' entails social commitment. Hence the importance of culture for Arnold's social theory. The agents of social transformation are thought to be, in particular, the 'aliens', those 'generous and humane souls' whose concern is the development not of their 'ordinary self' but of their 'best self'. These 'men of culture', acting through their 'collective best self', are seen as instruments of social transformation. The weaknesses of Arnold's social theory are now explored. What are the implications of Arnold's perception of culture for his educational theory? He never really sees the elementary schools as centres of 'culture'. They are, at best, centres of 'light' and 'civilization'. This attitude reflects not only Arnold's realism, but also his unconscious acceptance of a middle class view which sees culture, specifically, as 'literary culture'. It is in his approach to the question of middle class education that the close link between Arnold's social theory and his educational theory can best be seen. The transformation of the middle class through culture is a pre-condition of the transformation of society. And it is through education that 'general liberal culture' is to be fostered. Thus, Arnold's commitment to middle class education is not only compatible with his commitment to culture, but also an important aspect of that commitment.
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ItemAn evaluation of aspects of the proposition by Professor G.H. Bantock that "ultimately education both formal and informal is concerned with cultural transmission"( 1976)This thesis explores both the meaning and the application of. Bantock's assertion. Firstly, the notion of 'culture' is examined. I3antock identifies two common interpretations of the word: the anthropological and the Arnoldian 'pursuit of excellence.' He claims that his understanding is somewhere between the two. However, an analysis of his works shows that his thinking for education is far more identifiable with the Arnoldian idea of culture as what people should do, than it is with the anthropological notion that culture is what the people do. The meaning of I3antock's assertion about education's 'ultimate concern' is then examined with respect to his recommendations on curriculum. Bantock usefully distinguishes between 'cognitive' and 'affective' learning. Yet this distinction is not as sharp as one might expect: the criterion of the rational - or cognitive - as the arbiter limits his recommendations affecting curricula. If education is to be transmitted, this entails a discussion of how the transmission is to take place. �3sntack rejects 'discovery methods' as a mesas to transmit cultural values. The validity of his rejection is disputed both on the grounds of his failure to perceive the structure underlying discovery methods and the motivation of these methods. Transmission has to be undertaken by someone: thus, the role of school and not - school is examined, and the role of the teacher is explored. The former is affected by the whole area of the responsibility of the educator to his society; the latter is complicated by the fact, not explored by Bantock in any depth, that the teacher himself is necessarily involved in the wider community. lf cultural transmission is to be seen as the ultimate concern of education, then other claimants need to be described and assessed. The thesis examines the claims of self-realization, social improvement and social .usefulness, and proceeds to examine what claim cultural transmission knight have against other claims. The thesis examines the contribution which cultural transmission has over and against other claimants: its complementary nature, its sense of continuity with the past and for the future, and its dynamic spirit are explored. Finally, the thesis seeks to assess the contribution of G. H. Bantock to educational thinking. Negatively. there is a criticism of his failure to recognise the pluralistic nature of modern society, and his tendency to over-simplify the attitudes of those with whom he disagrees. But, positively, he does draw attention to the need for educational discourse to identify aims, his open-ness to a changing society, and his identification that the decisions affecting education are less and less in the hands of educators.