Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Citizenship Study and teaching Australia History'

Visual arts history and criticism occupy central positions in visual arts curriculum statements in Western Australia. This status is sustained by the belief that the study of visual arts history and criticism actively contributes to the education of the student as a "whole person". In reality however, rather than attending to the holistic education of students, the application of visual arts history and criticism in Western Australian schools tends to be pragmatic and instrumental - visual arts teachers often use visual art works as "learning aids" because they don't have time, interest or experience in dealing with visual arts works in any other way. While visual arts history and criticism offer the student a valuable life-skill worth acquiring for the contribution they could make to the student's autonomy and personal welfare, this understanding often seems a foreign concept for many classroom teachers. The difference between theorists' and teachers' understandings of the place and purpose of visual arts history and criticism provides an important area of inquiry requiring urgent attention. This research makes a foray into this domain with the purpose of shedding light on the content and methods used by middle school visual arts teachers and their students' perceptions of the content and methods. A qualitative descriptive study was selected for the research taking the form of semi-structured interviews with six teachers. An interview guide was used and transcripts deriving from this methodology were coded by way of reference to the original research questions and classifications which emanated from emergent themes. The teacher interviews were complemented by a questionnaire administered to one class of students from each of the six schools. Participating teachers were selected through a stratified sampling technique. Analysis of data was undertaken from a qualitative stance in the case of interview participants. Narrative-style reporting of interview content was employed to facilitate accurate representation of the teachers' perceptions of visual arts history and criticism at the middle school level. A quantitative analysis of students' questionnaires provided triangulation of methodology, ensuring greater levels of validity than would be afforded by qualitative methods alone. With pressure being applied by the impending implementation of the Curriculum Framework for Kindergarten to Year 12 Education in Western Australian Schools (1998) for the formal inclusion of Arts Responses (aesthetics, art criticism) and Arts in Society (art history), a pressing need exists for clear information about current professional practice. Findings indicated that a misalignment appears to exist between theoretical assumptions embedded in documentation supporting the implementation of the Framework and actual classroom teaching practice. The implications of such misalignment, albeit illustrated on a small scale, are that the initiatives of the Framework may not be sustainable in the longer term, precisely because they are built upon invalid assumptions about what teachers actually do. Whilst the size of the sample and scope of the research limits the generalisability of findings, this first foray may provide impetus for a more comprehensive and evaluative study at a later date.

The work of scholars on pedagogical content knowledge has drawn attention to the importance of mastery of subject matter. Good teachers are able to make clever transitions between their knowledge of content and their pedagogy. The examples of these transitions in the literature usually assume that teachers have a large measure of control over the content: lessons are exploratory and concerned with understanding the deeper meanings and fundamental concepts that underpin the discipline base. The reality of most classrooms is otherwise; teachers are guided by syllabus statements, textbooks and end of year examinations. Sequence and pace of instruction are often implicitly or explicitly controlled. Teachers are required to make choices: either teach towards the examination or teach for deeper understanding and jeopardise the completion of the examinable content. The purpose of this study was to examine how experienced Year 12 history teachers in Western Australia managed the tension between content coverage and teaching for deeper understanding of the subject matter. To examine this question, four experienced history teachers in four high schools in Perth, Western Australia took part in the study. These teachers were observed teaching history in Year 12 during the 1994 school year and they were also interviewed on aspects of their teaching, the syllabus and the TEE examination. The students in these classrooms were also interviewed during the data collection period. The stories of these teachers are presented in four case studies. Evidence from this study indicates that the experienced Year 12 teachers have learned to make compromises in the way they teach and manage content coverage in such a way that they are able to achieve high levels of examination performance while maintaining a focus on conceptual learning. The teachers managed this balancing act by (a) representing high examination performance and conceptual understanding of the subject matter as a single objective rather than as two objectives in opposition, (b) ensuring that students had a broad conceptual understanding of the key issues contained in the examination syllabus so that the students could independently construct answers to the kinds of questions contained in examinations and (c) selectively emphasising and teaching in depth some parts of the syllabus though the whole syllabus was covered at least superficially. Though the teachers would have preferred more personal control over the selection of content and assessment procedures, they nevertheless saw the external examination to have merit; however, as this study has demonstrated, the external examination is clearly a fallible means of student evaluation.

[Truncated abstract] This thesis develops an understanding of how, historically, Education as an area of study (Education) has been constructed at each of the five universities in the State of Western Australia. The motivation for the study was the claim made by some academics that historically Education has been marginalised in certain universities in the UK, the USA and Australia, and that this marginalisation was intensified by a negative attitude towards its association with teacher preparation. Very little evidence, however, has been put forward to support this claim, thus highlighting a major neglected area of research. This thesis is a response to such neglect in relation to the situation in one state in Australia. The focus of the thesis is on the 'preactive curriculum' as represented in the plans and syllabi that outline what was included in programs and courses. An 'internal' analysis of relevant documents was conducted along with an 'external' analysis which considered the broader social, economic and political context. It was recognised that a study of the 'interactive curriculum' also needs to be conducted to gain insights into how the 'preactive curriculum' was mediated by lecturers and students. From the outset, however, it was deemed that this would constitute a further major study in itself. ... The most prominent were the 'academic', 'integrated', 'vocational', 'technical', 'pragmatic' and 'professional' orientations. The content of Education at the five universities also varied. Such variation offered breadth of opportunity for students. It also meant that, collectively, the universities served the needs of the State and their students by providing relevant and flexible curricula beyond what would have been possible in a 'one size fits all' model. Furthermore the claim that there was tension regarding the inclusion of 'Education' as an area of study within Australian universities generally, is not upheld for the Western Australian context. While this thesis contributes to an understanding of how, historically, Education as an area of study has been constructed in one State in Australia, much further research remains to be done in this field of curriculum history. In particular, future research could focus on the way in which Education, along with other areas of university study, have been constructed in the other states of Australia and overseas. The identification of areas of contestation and omissions from courses are also worthy of consideration. Finegrained studies of this nature could collectively make an important contribution to the understanding of the history of developments in the university curriculum at a macro level. Such work would, in the fullness of time, contribute to new understandings about institutionalised learning at tertiary level and provide historical insights to inform current practice as universities continue to try to find their way in a global society.

This thesis investigates the history of the construction of knowledge in the school subject media studies using the Western Australian experience as the case for the study. It seeks to explain why the subject media studies looks and sounds the way it does today through the production of a genealogy of the subject. The problems addressed are first, why was this subject introduced into the curriculum in the 1970s. Secondly, how has the knowledge in the subject been defined and contested, how and why has it changed in the course of the subject’s history. Thirdly, which knowledge attains the status of truth and becomes the accepted definition of what the subject is about.

The constitutional division of powers in Canada assigns no authority to the federal state in the area of education. In spite of this, the Canadian state has used its constitutional authority to act in the national interest to justify substantial activity in public education at all levels. One area of particular interest to the state is the education of Canadian citizens. This thesis examines state policy in citizenship education between 1947 and 1982. It focuses on the Department of the Secretary of State, particularly the Canadian Citizenship Branch, and addresses three questions: 1) What conception of citizenship formed the basis for state policy in citizenship education? 2) How did the state formulate citizenship education policy? and 3) What means did the federal state use to implement citizenship education policy given that education is an area of provincial jurisdiction? Throughout this period the state was preoccupied with questions of national unity and therefore the focus of its policy in citizenship education was the construction and propagation of a national ideal in which all Canadians could find their identity as citizens. The policy was consistent with an elitist conception of citizenship in that it excluded most Canadians from the process of constructing the national identity and relegated citizen participation to largely apolitical voluntary activities. Although the Department of the Secretary of State was rhetorically committed to scientific policy making, the process was driven not by social science research but by attempts to secure and extend bureaucratic territory in relation to both other government departments and voluntary organizations working in the citizenship sector. In the complex interplay among the interested parties the Department was sometimes a leader and sometimes a follower in the policy making process. State citizenship education policy was implemented through official agreements with the provinces as well as more direct means which bypassed provincial authorities. Bilingualism in Education programs are the best example of the former, while training programs for teachers, the production and dissemination of materials, and attempts to use voluntary organizations as surrogates for the state are examples of the latter.

Enduring misconceptions exist regarding the value of learning history. Many history teachers are engaged in lecture- and recitation-based forms of instruction that seem to be at odds with the goal of helping students to develop skills and dispositions important for democratic citizenship. This study asked whether history teachers’ most ubiquitous core teaching practice, the explanation of historical content, had the potential to support civic ends. The study analyzed transcriptions of 43 classroom observations and interviews of ten U.S. history teachers. Findings pointed to five forms of historical explanation that have the potential to make explanation meaningful for preparing students for democratic citizenship. Findings also revealed factors that influenced teachers to make decisions to explain historical content in particular ways. The study has implications for improving teacher education and professional development with the goal of helping history teachers to make explanation meaningful and contributory toward their students’ preparation for democratic citizenship.

During the last decade, Chilean high school students have exploded into the international spotlight for social organizing. They also have managed to achieve significant changes in some of the major educational policies governing their schools. In this work I examine how student political mobilization affects the ways in which these young people learn to be citizens inside and outside of public high schools. I also explore the implications of these processes for democratic citizenship education. Drawing on a year of ethnographic fieldwork in a public high school located in Chile’s capital city of Santiago, I analyze the main citizenship education practices in which these high school students engaged. I examine these practices as they occur within schools – namely, those related with the national curriculum for citizenship education and the varied ways in which it is implemented, appropriated and resisted – as well as in the streets – specifically, practices in which these young people engage in the course of their participation in student movements. I also focus on the different ways in which Chilean students make use of history in order to learn new ways of enacting their citizenship, exploring how these high schoolers’ relationships with the past and the future are significant for educational and political processes. This work reaches three main conclusions, all of them significant for researchers and educators interested in citizenship education. First, civic engagement takes varied forms and discourses of youth apathy obscure several of these forms as well as the material obstacles that hinder youth civic engagement. Second, high school students actively participate in the constant production of the state, not only as participants in social movements, but also in their everyday lives within their high schools. Third, that one of the main ways in which students participate of this production is by making use of the past and imagining the future while enacting their citizenship.

Erratum pasted onto front end paper.
Bibliography: leaves 248-260.
xii, 260, 9 leaves :
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
Examines the establishment and early history of the Adelaide medical school, which was influenced by reforms of medical education in Great Britain. Finds that the content of the Adelaide medical course conformed with British standards, and gave adequate teaching by the standards of the day. Undergraduate teaching and postgraduate opportunities can be seen as Anglo-Australian synergies made possible by formal and informal linkages with the British empire in its last century.
Thesis (M.D.)--University of Adelaide, Depts. of Surgery and History, 2000

Erratum pasted onto front end paper.
Bibliography: leaves 248-260.
xii, 260, 9 leaves :
Examines the establishment and early history of the Adelaide medical school, which was influenced by reforms of medical education in Great Britain. Finds that the content of the Adelaide medical course conformed with British standards, and gave adequate teaching by the standards of the day. Undergraduate teaching and postgraduate opportunities can be seen as Anglo-Australian synergies made possible by formal and informal linkages with the British empire in its last century.
Thesis (M.D.)--University of Adelaide, Depts. of Surgery and History, 2000

Bibliography: leaves 369-398.
xiv, 398, [19] leaves : ill., maps, ports ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
A comparative study of a selection of South Australian secondary schools during the period 1880-1919. The ideals of gender and national identity of the various schools are investigated through an analysis of archival records relating to their rhetoric, organisation and curricula.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Education, 2000

Bibliography: leaves 369-398.
xiv, 398, [19] leaves : ill., maps, ports ; 30 cm.
A comparative study of a selection of South Australian secondary schools during the period 1880-1919. The ideals of gender and national identity of the various schools are investigated through an analysis of archival records relating to their rhetoric, organisation and curricula.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Education, 2000

When Australian law teaching began in 1857, few lawyers in common-law systems had studied law at university. The University of Melbourne's new course joined the early stages of a dual transformation, of legal training into university study and of contemporary common law into an academic discipline. Victoria's Supreme Court immediately gave the law school what was known in America as 'diploma privilege': its students could enter legal practice without passing a separate admission exam. Soon university study became mandatory for locally trained lawyers, ensuring the law school's survival but placing it at the centre of disputes over the kind of education the profession should receive. Friction between practitioners and academics hinted at the negotiation of new roles as university study shifted legal training further from its apprenticeship origins. The structure of the university (linked to the judiciary through membership of its governing council) and the profession (whose organisations did not control the admission of new practitioners) aided the law school's efforts to defend both its training role and its curriculum against outside attack.
Legal academics turned increasingly to the social sciences to maintain law's claim to be not only a professional skill, but an academic discipline. A research-based and reform-oriented theory of law appealed to the nascent academic profession, linking it to legal practice and the development of public policy but at the same time marking out for the law school a domain of its own. American ideas informed thinking about research and, in particular, pedagogy, although the university's slender financial resources, dependent on government grants, limited change until after World War II. In other ways the law school consciously departed from American models. It taught undergraduate, not graduate, students, and its curriculum included history, jurisprudence and non-legal subjects alongside legal doctrine. Its few professors specialised in public law and jurisprudence, leaving private law to a corps of part-time practitioner-teachers. The result was a distinctive model of state-certified compulsory education in both legal doctrine and the history and social meanings of law.

Is the film suitable educational tool for teaching about holocaust? That is the main question and topic of the thesis. At first it im looking into general issues of holocaust in education. I'm trying to show that holocaust is not perceived only as a historical event, but as a specific demonstration of modern society in a first place. Focusing only on its historical attributes results in ignoring ethical and societal dimensions of this topic. For that i'm also suggesting that we should be teaching about holocaust not only in history, but also in civics. Further in this paper im trying to examine using film as the educational tool. I'm working here with the proposition that the film is not representing reality, but it's always just a reflexion of the reality. And as such it needs to work with the memory. Memory is constructing frames of our thinking and understanding of the world around. While using film in education, we need to keep in mind that film is a product of certain cultural memory and memory frames. This product is then retroactively helping to reinforce those memory frames which it came from. I also did some research on legislative aspects of using film in education. In the end of this paper im trying to use aforesaid statements in designing several demonstrational classes on the topic of...