Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemArtistry, identity and the drama teacher: a case study using performance ethnography as mode of enquiry( 2017)Drama is a compulsory subject in secondary schools in Victoria, Australia, with a rich history of dedicated and passionate educators. Despite this, little research has been done in recent times that investigates the professional lives of these drama teachers, and even fewer studies use drama as a method through which to do so. This research project reveals that drama teachers often experience feelings of being perceived by others as teaching a subject which is inferior, and whose value to schools lies more in extra-curricular activities than in the academic realm. This can result in teachers who are marginalised, yet whose time outside of the classroom is in demand. This thesis presents the results of a qualitative case study, which investigated the experiences of seven drama teachers in Victoria, Australia who engaged in a process of ethnographic performance making about their professional lives, drawing on their own lived experiences as data. Interview transcripts, participant journals, creative artefacts and researcher observations were analysed to interrogate the responses and reflections of these teachers as they undertook a process of generating, analysing and presenting their lived experiences through performance. Findings from the case study suggested that the process of ethnographic performance-making was invaluable to these teachers, bringing them to new understandings about their professional lives, as well providing insights into the context of their work. The ethnographic process gave them agency to find a voice through which to communicate the importance of their subject to others. Furthermore, it was found that the role of the audience was significant; the audience for the associated live performance came to new understandings about the drama teachers’ role and subject, and their responses energised the drama teachers to continue to advocate for the importance of their subject and identity within the school . This study forms part of a growing body of research on the identity of the drama teacher, and contributes a crucial new dimension to the scholarship that supports professional development for teachers more broadly. Furthermore, it highlights how ethnographic performance-making can provide a framework through which all teachers may reflect on, and come to meaningful understandings of, their professional lives and possibilities for the future.
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ItemThe constructivist learner: towards a genealogy( 2016)This thesis traces the genealogy of constructivism in Australian primary mathematics education. I place my focus on the mathematical learner and consider how this learner has been shaped, in turn and together, by three significant forms of the discourse—Piagetian, radical and social constructivism. Motivated by my own experiences as a primary teacher and educational publisher, I investigate how it has been possible for the constructivist learner to become a leading learner subjectivity in mathematics education today and analyse the effects of this predominance. To study this ‘problem’ of the constructivist learner, I follow Michel Foucault’s genealogical approach to discourse analysis, and undertake a history of the present. Drawing on a range of documents including curriculum frameworks, mathematics education association material and teacher education texts, I study the constructivist learner of three different eras—1965–1975, 1985–1995 and 2005–2015. I examine the conditions of possibility for each learner, consider who this learner is allowed to be, and, who is allowed to be this learner. Taking a step back from taken for granted assumptions about constructivism, I reflect upon what this opens up and closes down for learners and learning. The thesis analyses the constructivist learner as a shifting subject, emerging from historical-cultural contexts, and in response to theoretical shifts in—and pedagogical recontextualisations of—the constructivist discourse. However, the thesis also finds certain continuities in the conceptualisations: the constructivist learner is engaged, active, a rational thinker and a collaborative problem-solver. I propose that this subjectivity embodies Australia’s hopes for the ideal 21st century citizen and fears for those who fail to attain this ideal. While these aspirations are future-oriented, I claim they attach to our progressivist past as well as our neoliberal present. In understanding subjectivity as both discursively produced and mutable, I argue that the constructivist learner is neither a natural, nor necessary, subjectivity and that its dominance has closed down the possibility of other learner subjectivities. Rather than arguing against constructivism, I seek a consideration of other types of learners and space for other learning theories.
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ItemA political malaise: education for political understandings in Australian curriculum: history( 2016)This study examines the notion that Australia has entered a condition of political malaise. It seeks to find explanation for this development in a particular domain: Australian history education. Recent developments therein are assessed for the extent to which political understandings have been made available to students. On this basis the newly implemented Australian Curriculum: History is evaluated. The study employs a methodology of discourse analysis. Perspectives of politicians, experts and theorists are collected to examine contemporary political conditions. Theories regarding the manner in which history and education are harnessed for the purpose of constituting political and national identities are considered. Australian Curriculum: History is scrutinized in the context of the contestation that surrounded its creation and reception. The study posits the notion that the historical discourse has been coopted into the ideological conflicts of Australian party politics; that Australian Curriculum: History is constitutive of ideological predilections of antagonistic parties rather the historically informed critical faculties necessary for useful democratic participation.
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ItemIdentifying the factors that support or restrict the use of open education resources by higher education academic staff at a vocational education institute( 2015)This thesis investigates the factors that facilitate the use of Open Education Resources (OER) by higher education staff at a public Tertiary and Further Education Institute (TAFE). By using a case study methodology, academic staff were interviewed regarding their use or non-use of OER, their perceptions of OER, as well as what they regarded as the challenges and enablers in using these resources. This study provides an Australian perspective to research already undertaken in this area, as well as an insight into the contemporaneous use of OER with emerging teaching pedagogies such as Web 2 technologies. For the purpose of this research, OER are defined as resources that are freely available for use, reuse, modification, and sharing in educational contexts, with intellectual property requirements ranging from public domain through to creative commons licensing arrangements. The research found that OER provides a number of benefits, including facilitating the use of extensive and cost effective education resources, supporting learners through Web 2 technologies and allowing academic staff to engage with professional bodies and the broader community. Conversely, a number of issues were also identified that inhibit the use of OER. These include difficulty in sourcing appropriate teaching resources, awareness of copyright and intellectual property legislation, access to technology, cultural and language barriers along with a perception that OER are not academically rigorous. The implications for institutions arising from this research therefore include the requirement to develop an OER culture within the institute; capitalise on existing knowledge; explore the use of web 2 technology and pedagogy; and finally, staff professional development. This research has also found that there are a number of benefits for institutes in utilising OER including: academic delivery cost reductions, marketing and commercialisation opportunities, developing enhanced learner experiences, and being able to leverage off existing blended learning pedagogies.
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ItemReshaping design education: teaching graphic design online and onsite( 2014)The ways in which embodied relations between student and teacher in the design studio may contribute to design pedagogy is little understood. The development of the online design studio is thought to pose a risk to design learning and teaching as it separates student and teacher bodies and, therefore, may ‘block’ these little understood practices. Previous studies of the online design studio have tended to focus on instrumental concerns, such as curriculum delivery and online communication, rather than on the ways the configuration of learning spaces influences design pedagogy, or how the embodied practices of the design studio are translated into digital spaces. This study, set in the graphic design studio in a private, US-based art and design university, unearths fresh understandings of the material practices that characterise graphic design teaching in onsite settings, and how these practices are translated/transformed when design teaching moves online. It provides a fine-grained understanding of how human bodies, things, and the spaces of the onsite, online, and blended graphic design studio produce particular kinds of pedagogies. This research directly compares online and onsite practices in the same kinds of classes, showing the continuity between the online, onsite, and blended practices and challenging the received view that what takes place online is radically different to what occurs onsite. More specifically, the graphic design critique is shown by this study to be composed socio-materially—made up of people, talk, spaces and things, assembling in various ways—and displays a variable ontology as it moves from onsite to online. In this movement, there is a shift from a more embodied pedagogy, to more textual knowledge practices. This results in online pedagogy that is more structured and reflective. This shift has significant implications for the ‘good practice’ of graphic education in the online environment.
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ItemReporting on school performance in Victoria, an international perspective and implications for school leadership( 1996)Social, economic, cultural and political trends can change in nature and importance over time and influence government schools systems. The degree of precision and the style with which the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a government school system monitors school performance varies over time and can be inconsistent with that which has been used by his predecessor. The government school systems of England and Victoria are examples of school systems that appear to have experienced similar stages of development and have shared similar social, economic, cultural and political trends. These changes have produced inconsistencies for schools in those systems over time. Employees within government school systems are required to respond quickly to changes in their roles and responsibilities. Field officers who work with schools on behalf of the CEO can become a liability to the school system as ambivalence towards their role develops in schools and as technology for reporting on financial matters as well as student achievement and other aspects of school performance improves. The feelings of those employed within a school system can be a major barrier to their coping with inconsistencies brought about by change. One view is that adaptation to this inconsistency can be assisted by having access to incentives to adjust to change or by having an understanding of one's own inconsistencies. Government school system organisation as well as leaders can influence the behaviour of teachers and students and therefore, arguably, influence school performance and how it is reported. Possible changes in the cognitive activity of principals and teachers that might be influenced by feelings and associated with ambivalence, can also be connected with the concepts of transactional and transformational leadership and school system organisation. It appears that, ultimately, the continued existence of government school systems might well depend upon the extent that schools within those systems accept the authority of the CEO.
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ItemHow leadership is manifested in Steiner schools( 2005)The purpose of this research was to determine how leadership is manifested in Steiner schools. These are schools with no principal or formal leadership structure. An intensive study was conducted of one independent, fee-paying Australian Steiner school catering for children aged 5 to 18. A descriptive case study methodology was used employing individual interviews with 10 staff members of the school, and document analysis. The administrative structure of the school was found to be much more complicated than that of a traditional school, although similar to Steiner schools in general. There were 21 mandated groups that existed in order to administer the school, the most notable being the College Of Teachers. The operation of the school was best described as a democracy. Benefits of the school structure included a feeling of inclusion in the leadership and management of the school, the opportunities for many staff to assume roles of responsibility in mandated groups and an adaptability of the organisation. Problems found included a lack of clarity of roles, resistance to leadership and the time to make decisions. Leadership was found to be highly democratic, with no official leader in the organisation. However, there was found to be an unofficial leadership structure based on merit and experience, with several prominent individuals identified, and one in particular. The research is significant in that it has explored an alternative school leadership structure - one that is problematic but also has significant benefits.
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ItemAn investigation into early childhood science within an emergent curriculum framework( 1997)A considerable interest in the concept of emergent curriculum has been generated by the early childhood centres of Reggio Emilia in Italy. This study traces the progress of a science project on spiders in an Australian early childhood centre which purports to have an emergent curriculum. In particular, this study sought to answer the question: What form does a science learning project take in an early childhood class that purports to have an emergent curriculum philosophy? What are the processes involved? What are the roles of the main players? Was this curriculum truly an emergent one? How did it fit with the different perspectives being taken to emergent curriculum in the literature? Did science learning take place? How did this learning fit with current views on science learning in the literature? Using a participant observation approach, this study looks at factors that characterise the processes and the players in this project and considers these in the context of current views on emergent curriculum and early childhood science. Results indicate that while the curriculum in this centre was clearly ‘emergent’, it differed in some minor aspects from both the Reggio Emilia model and the American model of emergent curriculum. The approach used was consistent with the social constructivist approach to science teaching and was clearly conductive to the children's science learning. The study shows that emergent curriculum is a very appropriate approach for science learning.
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ItemThe network nation : the relevance of this for possible educational and general public administrative structures and strategies in the 1980s and 90s( 1983)In this thesis consideration is given to the inter-relationships between a number of key concepts and reports in educational and general public administration which have been produced over the last decade. Networking is the inter-connecting concept. In the first half of the thesis the emphasis is on the current relationships between the key themes and educational and general public administrative structures and strategies. In the second half a variation on the “brainstorming” technique (involving purely the author rather than a group of individuals) has been used to produce a scenario of possible educational and general public administrative structures and strategies in the 1980s and 90s (with and emphasis on the possible inter-relationships between these structures and strategies, the key themes, and communication networks) A case study then follows which links the key themes and the scenario by including discussion of one senior educational administrator’s perceptions of probable futures for a particular education system. It is concluded that there is great potential for new technologies to assist with the restructuring of educational and general public administration. Recommendations on how this could be achieved are given.
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ItemThe work of the denominational and national boards of education in Victoria 1850-1862( 1965)Any historian has many difficult decisions to make concerning his choice of material, for the educational historian the problem is no less difficult. Should be concentrate on the complex issue of relations between church and state which influence both education and the life of the whole community, or should he allow his educational interests to anchor him in the classroom itself, and so develop a history of pedagogies which only rarely asks what is happening in the wider community? Should he take some issue, such as teacher training or inspection, and trace it through a period of time, or should he endeavour to see the way in which various activities are carried on in a more limited period? Both these vertical and horizontal views of history are necessary, for without the one history can appear static, and without the other the interaction of various forces can often be ignored.