Dissertations / Theses: 'Preschool education – Western Australia'

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Millei, Zsuzsa. "A genealogical study of 'the child' as the subject of pre-compulsory education in Western Australia." Millei, Zsuzsa (2007) A genealogical study of 'the child' as the subject of pre-compulsory education in Western Australia. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2007. http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/203/.

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The study produces a genealogy of 'the child' as the shifting subject constituted by the confluence of discourses that are utilized by, and surround, Western Australian precompulsory education. The analysis is approached as a genealogy of governmentality building on the work of Foucault and Rose, which enables the consideration of the research question that guides this study: How has 'the child' come to be constituted as a subject of regimes of practices of pre-compulsory education in Western Australia? This study does not explore how the historical discourses changed in relation to 'the child' as a universal subject of early education, but it examines the multiple ways 'the child' was constituted by these discourses as the subject at which government is to be aimed, and whose characteristics government must harness and instrumentalize. Besides addressing the research question, the study also develops a set of intertwining arguments. In these the author contends that 'the child' is invented through historically contingent ideas about the individual and that the way in which 'the child' is constituted in pre-compulsory education shifts in concert with the changing problematizations about the government of the population and individuals. Further, the study demonstrates the necessity to understand the provision of pre-compulsory education as a political practice. Looking at pre-compulsory education as a political practice de-stabilizes the takenfor-granted constitutions of 'the child' embedded in present theories, practices and research with children in the field of early childhood education. It also enables the de- and reconstruction of the notions of children's 'participation', 'empowerment' and 'citizenship'. The continuous de- and reconstruction of these notions and the destabilization of the constitutions of 'the child' creates a framework in which improvement is possible, rather than a utopian, wholesale and, thus revolutionary, transformation in early education (Branson and Miller, 1991, p. 187). This study also contributes to the critiques of classroom discipline approaches by reconceptualizing them as technologies of government in order to reveal the power relations they silently wield.

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au, Zsuzsanna Millei@newcastle edu, and Zsuzsa Millei. "A genealogical study of the child as the subject of pre-compulsory education in Western Australia." Murdoch University, 2007. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20081002.80627.

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The study produces a genealogy of the child as the shifting subject constituted by the confluence of discourses that are utilized by, and surround, Western Australian precompulsory education. The analysis is approached as a genealogy of governmentality building on the work of Foucault and Rose, which enables the consideration of the research question that guides this study: How has the child come to be constituted as a subject of regimes of practices of pre-compulsory education in Western Australia? This study does not explore how the historical discourses changed in relation to the child as a universal subject of early education, but it examines the multiple ways the child was constituted by these discourses as the subject at which government is to be aimed, and whose characteristics government must harness and instrumentalize. Besides addressing the research question, the study also develops a set of intertwining arguments. In these the author contends that the child is invented through historically contingent ideas about the individual and that the way in which the child is constituted in pre-compulsory education shifts in concert with the changing problematizations about the government of the population and individuals. Further, the study demonstrates the necessity to understand the provision of pre-compulsory education as a political practice. Looking at pre-compulsory education as a political practice de-stabilizes the takenfor-granted constitutions of the child embedded in present theories, practices and research with children in the field of early childhood education. It also enables the de- and reconstruction of the notions of childrens participation, empowerment and citizenship. The continuous de- and reconstruction of these notions and the destabilization of the constitutions of the child creates a framework in which improvement is possible, rather than a utopian, wholesale and, thus revolutionary, transformation in early education (Branson & Miller, 1991, p. 187). This study also contributes to the critiques of classroom discipline approaches by reconceptualizing them as technologies of government in order to reveal the power relations they silently wield.

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Wakholi, Peter. "African cultural education : African migrant youth in Western Australia /." Access via Murdoch University Digital Theses Project, 2005. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20050705.104626.

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McKenna, Tarquam. "Heteronormativity and rituals of difference for gay and lesbian educators." University of Western Australia. Graduate School of Education, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0129.

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This research provides an ethnographic and phenomenological study of how lesbian and gay educators in Western Australia employed adaptive rituals of conformity and nonconformity within their educational culture. This thesis depended on these educators telling their own story and it became a more complex study of their perception of and adaptation to homophobic distancing and repression. Through private interviews and collaboration with the co-participants in the research the study makes sense of the roles lesbian and gay educators enact in the educational culture in Western Australia around the time of Law Reform in 2002. The study is not an historical account but presents data from a specific historical context as a contribution to knowledge of how lesbian and gay educators view themselves and construct themselves in educational settings. The stories of everyday experience of Western Australian lesbian and gay educators present layers of gestured meanings, symbolic processes, cultural codes and contested sexuality and gender ideologies thereby reconstructing the reality of lesbian and gay educators. The research provides a range of embodied narratives and distinctive counter-narratives experienced by this group of educators in Western Australia. The study demonstrates that there are social practices in schooling that assist in the recognition and construction of their own gender identity even though the law in Western Australia at the time of writing, precluded the public promotion of lesbian and gay activities, and by association, silenced what many take to be their preferred mode of public behaviours. More importantly the study maps the extremely subtle processes involved in generating and expressing homophobia resulting in a sense of double invisibility, a constitutive silencing of personhood, which makes even the identification of rituals problematic. The very different stories reveal various interpretive strategies of belonging to the dominant homophobic culture, furthering our understanding of the contemporary identity formation issues of a hitherto invisible and silenced group of educators.

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au, p_wakholi@yahoo com, and Peter Wakholi. "African Cultural Education: A dialogue with African migrant youth in Western Australia." Murdoch University, 2005. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20050705.104626.

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African Cultural Education: A dialogue with African migrant youth in Western Australia, examines cultural issues that concern a specific group of African migrant youths. The ten youth participants three of whom are male and seven female share their concerns and desires about issues relating to their cultural identity. As a minority group in a predominantly Eurocentric society they are faced with cultural challenges, which influence their being namely: Racism and the pressure to assimilate. The thesis adopts an Afrikan1 Centred Cultural Democracy approach: which proposes that African people must construct a new African identity and must begin to perceive and interpret the world in its entirety from an African psychological, spiritual, and cultural frame of reference. This approach requires an ongoing critical assesement of both subjective lived experience and objective conditions. Through the Ujamaa circle process the youth participants along with the facilitator examined challenges to their cultural identities and alternative liberatory options. Growing up in a culturally alienating Eurocentric culture, they felt the need for an African cultural space, in which they could explore issues affecting them as African descendants. In particular racism and assimilation were of major concern to them. They were of the opinion that there should be an ongoing African Cultural Education Program to facilitate cultural re-evaluation and continuity. It is the studys conclusion that cultural education for a minority African migrant group in a dominant Eurocentric culture is essential for their identities and continued root-cultural connectedness. Within the African Cultural Education conceptual framework, in addition to African cultural re-evaluation, it is possible to critically explore oppressive and domineering practices of the mainstream culture. It is also possible that the African migrant youth may become equipped with alternative worldviews from an African perspective, which will enable him/her to make informed judgement and response towards inappropriate mainstream attitudes and values. Participation in the arena of cultural politics will therefore be based on informed practice.

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Gillan, Kevin P. "Technologies of power : discipline of Aboriginal students in primary school." University of Western Australia. Graduate School of Education, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0183.

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This study explored how the discursive practices of government education systemic discipline policy shape the behaviour of Aboriginal primary school students in an urban education district in Western Australia. First, this study conducted a Foucauldian genealogical discourse analysis of the historical and contemporary discursive forces that shaped systemic discipline policy in Western Australian government schools between 1983 and 1998 to uncover changing discursive practices within the institution. This period represented a most turbulent era of systemic discipline policy development within the institution. The analysis of the historical and contemporary discursive forces that shaped policy during this period revealed nine major and consistent discursive practices. Secondly, the study conducted a Foucauldian genealogical discourse analysis into the perspectives of key interest groups of students, parents and Education Department employees in an urban Aboriginal community on discipline policy in Education Department primary schools during the period from 2000 to 2001; and the influence of these policies on the behaviour of Aboriginal students in primary schools. The analysis was accomplished using Foucault's method of genealogy through a tactical use of subjugated knowledges. A cross section of the Aboriginal community was interviewed to examine issues of consultation, suspension and exclusion, institutional organisation and discourse. The study revealed that there are minimal consistent conceptual underpinnings to the development of Education Department discipline policy between 1983 and 1998. What is clear through the nine discursive practices that emerged during the first part of the study is a strengthened recentralising pattern of regulation, in response to the influence of a neo-liberal doctrine that commodifies students in a network of accountability mechanisms driven by the market-state economy. Evidence from both genealogical analyses in this study confirms that the increasing psychologisation of the classroom is contributing towards the pathologisation of Aboriginal student behaviour. It is apparent from the findings in this study that Aboriginal students regularly display Aboriginality-as-resistance type behaviours in response to school discipline regimes. The daily tension for these students at school is the maintenance of their Aboriginality in the face of school policy that disregards many of their regular cultural and behavioural practices, or regimes of truth, that are socially acceptable at home and in their community but threaten the 'good order' of the institution when brought to school. This study found that teachers and principals are ensnared in a web of governmentality with their ability to manoeuvre within the constraints of systemic discipline policy extremely limited. The consequence of this web of governmentality is that those doing the governing in the school are simultaneously the prisoner and the gaoler, and in effect the principle of their own subjection. Also revealed were the obscure and dividing discursive practices of discipline regimes that contribute to the epistemic violence enacted upon Noongar students in primary schools through technologies of power.

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Sterling, Stephanie A. "Preschool teaching experience and special education support systems a survey of western Pennsylvania /." Morgantown, W. Va. : [West Virginia University Libraries], 1999. http://etd.wvu.edu/templates/showETD.cfm?recnum=715.

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Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 1999.
Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iii, 30 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 29-30).

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Reid, Bryan. "Implementing curriculum change within a state education department region : analysis and conceptualization." Murdoch University, 1986. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20060829.160229.

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The major aim of this study was to develop a conceptual model representing the implementation process of a curriculum change occurring in a State Education Department region. This development had its genesis in the now extensive body of literature related to the organizational phenomenon of planned change. Since its early development in the 1960ts, the study of planned change occurring i n organizations has grown in sophistication, encompassing a steadily evolving number of theoretical constructs. Such a construct, of recent origin, was that of perceiving implementation of the innovation as a discrete process within the total planned change process. Although stillinits infancy, this concept has attracted a steadily growing body of research, The present study co-ordi nated some of these findings to form the basis for a four-stage model representing the implementation process under a special set of circumstances. The application of the model was tested under field conditions. A longitudinal case study design was adopted because this was ideally suited to test the assumption of implementationas a process. The design was divided in to four sections : concepts related to the decision to change; concepts related to the effect the rationale for implementation had on teachers' behaviour; concepts related to the sequence of involvement of implementers; and finally, concepts related to the measurementof the degree of implementation for teachers and pupils. Field work was applied inarural educational region of the State of Western Australia. This region was established in 1979 as part of an Australia-wide trend. I t is well documented that at the commencement of the 19701s, Austral ian governmentcontrol led education systems were highly centralized. By the beginning of the 1980ts, all were facing major change, each incorporating some form of decentral ization. In Western Australia, a shift in power from central authorities to Regional Superintendents occurred. With the increase i n power, the Regions received more duties and became more complex organizations. To meet the demand of testing a complex theoretical model in the intricate field setting of a State Education Department region, a wide range of data-gathering techniques was used. Questionnaires were employed, some specifically designed to suit this study and some selected from other research. The breadth and depth of the data collected was extended by the use of interviews, both focused and unstructured. Information from a wide variety of perspectives was gathered by using direct observation. This was applied to the testing of the theoretical model and also used to validate data drawn from other sources. Content analysis techniques were also used to triangulate the findings from questionnaire and interview techniques. The findings of the analysis of the data,within a matrix of hypotheses and sub-hypotheses, provided powerful statistical evidence indicating that the innovation was judged as being implemented by the teachers and the pupils. Data collected were also analysed as part of the research plan incorporating four major hypotheses and twenty six sub-sections. Each sub-section has been investigated empirically. This strategy was used to test the applicability of the conceptual model as a technique to represent the process of implementation followed by an innovation in Oral English introduced into a rural region of a State Education Department. The model proved to be a very effective device, aiding in the comprehension of an implementation process that occurred under the particular conditions described in the thesis.

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Sharplin, Elaine Denise. "Quality of worklife for rural and remote teachers : perspectives of novice, interstate and overseas-qualified teachers." University of Western Australia. Graduate School of Education, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0211.

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[Truncated abstract] It is essential to attract, recruit and retain quality teachers in rural and remote schools for provision of quality education to rural and remote students. A robust body of research confirms that teacher quality contributes to quality of education (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Hay McBer, 2000; Kaplan & Owings, 2002; OECD, 2002; Ramsay, 2000). Staffing histories of rural and remote schools identify persistent difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers, but previous research has failed to address the experiences and perspectives of rural and remote teachers from the earliest phases of appointment, tracking their experiences over time. In times and places of persistent teacher shortages, teacher quality of worklife issues are paramount. Factors impacting on teacher quality of worklife may impact on teacher retention, staffing levels and ultimately the quality of education for children. For these reasons, this study aimed to develop substantive theory about the experiences of teachers commencing appointments in rural and remote schools by investigating the perspectives of novice, interstate and overseas-qualified teachers. The study sought to develop understandings of rural and remote teachers quality of worklife. In order to achieve this aime, the experiences of 29 teachers were examined, in four categories of teachers likely to be appointed to rural and remote locations: young novices; mature-aged novices; interstate; and overseas-qualified teachers in a qualitative collective case study. ... Awareness of the variety of factors in multiple environments, and the complex interplay between them, helps to account for the diversity of perspectives and quality of worklife outcomes for rural and remote teachers. Two theories were generated from ten propositions. The first theory, Quality of Worklife for Rural and Remote Teachers: Person-Environment Fit to Multiple Environments, identified protective and risk factors associated with workrole, workplace, organisation, geographic and socio-cultural community environments. The theory recognises spillover between work and non-work life experiences, impacting on quality of teacher worklife; however, factors directly associated with worklife impacted most significantly on quality of worklife. The second theory, Processes of Adaptation to Multiple Rural and Remote Environments, identified processes (teacher expectations, evaluations of environments, responses to environments) and coping strategies (direct-action, palliative and avoidant) as leading to one of four outcomes: integration; resilient integration; disequilibrium; and withdrawal. The case study findings offer original understandings of experiences of teachers newly appointed to rural and remote schools, through the development of theory about multiple environments teachers encounter and processes of adaptation associated with their relocation to rural and remote areas. The findings have implications for theory, policy and practice, and contribute new dimensions to the general quality of worklife literature.

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Reilly, Lucy. "Progressive modification : how parents deal with home schooling their children with intellectual disabilities." University of Western Australia. Graduate School of Education, 2007. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0035.

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While home schooling is by no means a new phenomenon, the last three decades have seen an increasing trend in the engagement of this educational alternative. In many countries, including Australia, a growing number of families are opting to remove their children from the traditional schooling system for numerous reasons and educate them at home. In response to the recent home schooling movement a research base in this area of education has emerged. However, the majority of research has been undertaken primarily in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, with very few studies having examined home schooling in Australia. The existing corpus of research is also relatively small and incomplete. Also, certain categories of home schoolers and the processes involved in their undertaking of this modern version of a historically enduring educational alternative have been overlooked. In particular, children with disabilities appear to be one of the home schooling groups that have attracted very little research world wide. This group constituted the focus of the study reported in this thesis. Its particular concern was with generating theory regarding how parents deal with educating their children with intellectual disabilities from a home base over a period of one year. Data gathering was largely carried out through individual, face-to-face semi-structured interviewing and participant observation in the interpretivist qualitative research tradition. However, informal interviews, telephone interviews and documents were also used to gather supplementary data for the study. Data were coded and analysed using the open coding method of the grounded theory model and through the development and testing of propositions. The central research question which guided theory generation was as follows: 'How do parents within the Perth metropolitan area in the state of Western Australia deal with educating their children with intellectual disabilities from a home base over a period of one year?' The central proposition of the theory generated is that parents do so through progressive modification and that this involves them progressing through three stages over a period of one year. The first stage is designated the stage of drawing upon readily-available resources. The second stage is designated the stage of drawing upon support networks in a systematic fashion. The third stage is designated the stage of proceeding with confidence on the basis of having a set of principles for establishing a workable pattern of home schooling individualised for each circumstance. This theory provides a new perspective on how parents deal with the home schooling of their children with intellectual disabilities over a period of one year. A number of implications for further theory development, policy and practice are drawn from it. Several recommendations for further research are also made.

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au, marnev@cygnus uwa edu, and Neville James Green. "Access, equality and opportunity? : the education of Aboriginal children in Western Australia 1840-1978." Murdoch University, 2004. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20071218.141027.

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This thesis is a history of schooling for Indigenous children in Western Australia between the commencement of the first Aboriginal school in Perth in 1840 and 1978. The thesis represents the view that, for most of this period, and regardless of policy, education for Indigenous children was directed towards changing their beliefs and behaviours from being distinctly Aboriginal to recognizably European. Four major policies for Aborigines provide the framework for the thesis, these being amalgamation (1840-1852), protection (1886-1951), assimilation (1951-1972) and self-determination (1973- ). The amalgamation of the Indigenous popuIation with the small colonial society in Western Australia was a short-lived policy adopted by the British Colonial Office. Protection, a policy formalised by Western Australian legislation in 1886, 1905 and 1936, dominated Aboriginal affairs for the first half of the 2ofh century. Under this policy the Indigenous population was regarded as two distinct groups - a diminishing traditional population to be segregated and protected and an increasing part-Aboriginal population that was to be trained and made 'useful'. In 1951 Western Australia accepted a policy of assimilation, coordinated by the Commonwealth government, which anticipated that all people of Aboriginal descent would eventually be assimilated into the mainstream Australian society. This policy was replaced in 1973 by one of Aboriginal community self-determination, an initiative of the Commonwealth government and adopted throughout Australia. The attempts at directed cultural change were evident in the 'Native' schools that opened in Perth, Fremantle and Guildford in the 1840s where it was assumed that the separation of children from their families and a Christian education would achieve the transition from a 'savage to civilized' state. For another century the education of Indigenous children on missions and in government settlements was founded upon similar assumptions. The thesis acknowledges that the principal change agents, such as the Chief Protectors of Aborigines, mission administrators and the teachers in direct contact with the children, seriously underestimated both the enduring nature of Indigenous culture and the prejudice in Australian society. Between 1912 and 1941 a few government schools in the southern districts of Western Australia refused to admit Aboriginal children. The exclusion of these children is examined against a background of impoverished living conditions, restrictive legislation and mounting public pressure on the State and Commonwealth governments for a change in policy. The change did not begin to occur until 1951 when the Commonwealth and States agreed to a policy of assimilation. In Western Australia this policy extended education to all Aboriginal children. The thesis explores the provision of government teachers to Aboriginal schools in remote areas of Western Australia between 1951 and 1978. The final chapter examines Indigenous perceptions of independent community schools within the fust five years of the policy of self-determination and contrasts the objectives and management of two schools, Strelley in the Pilbara and Oombulguni in the Kimberley.

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Gardiner, Diane. "A historical analysis of the construction of education as an area of study at university-level in Western Australia." University of Western Australia. Graduate School of Education, 2009. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2009.0183.

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[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.

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Baudains, Catherine Mary. "Environmental education in the workplace : inducing voluntary transport behaviour change to decrease single occupant vehicle trips by commuters into the Perth CBD." Access via Murdoch University Digital Theses Project, 2003. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browser/view/adt-MU20040310.121357.

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Shanks, Pamela-Anne. "A critical policy analysis of the Crossroads Review : implications for higher education in regional Western Australia /." Shanks, Pamela-Anne (2006) A critical policy analysis of the Crossroads Review: implications for higher education in regional Western Australia. Masters by Research thesis, Murdoch University, 2006. http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/304/.

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This work is a critical policy analysis of the Crossroads Review, especially those aspects of it that are most likely to have a significant impact on higher education in regional Western Australia. It aims to understand the place of higher education in regional Western Australia historically with a view to critiquing current policy directions and the potential consequences of Crossroads. The thesis argues that the ideologies of marketisation and corporatisation are driving current higher education policy and this may significantly damage the long-term viability of regional campuses and learning centres as well as public and private funding allocations. The implications for the dismantling of the social contract (or social democratic settlement) in the knowledge economy is an important issue for regional populations for their continued growth, health, education and welfare. The issues examined here are relevant to regional higher education in this State. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the potential policy effects with regard to accessibility of higher education in regional Western Australia. The thesis analyses the advantages and disadvantages of studying in regional WA in the current policy environment where there has been a dramatic shift in ideology from the welfare state to economic rationalism. Factors that impact on higher education in regional Western Australia include the provision of telecommunications services for access to and participation in the knowledge economy. The thesis considers the evolution of higher education in Australia in general and more particularly in Western Australia, as it has evolved since its foundations in the mid-nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century. In this time there have been radical changes in higher education in Australia in line with changes to our society and its place in an increasingly globalised environment. The thesis concludes by considering some possible options for the future such as the development of learning communities and branch campuses. In discussing such possible alternative forms of delivery of higher education to regional Western Australia, this thesis seeks to raise awareness in relevant government bodies and in rural and remote communities of their particular higher education needs. It is hoped also to encourage regional communities to become more confident and pro-active in their own endeavours to gain greater access and equity in higher education.

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Piercey, Carol Ann. "Nurse education in Western Australia from 1962-1975 : a historical perspective of influences and changes /." Curtin University of Technology, School of Nursing and Midwifery, 2002. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=12685.

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National trends in nurse education have changed from the Nightingale system of on-the-job training to a professional preparation in institutions of higher learning. Western Australia was one of the first States in Australia to commence a professional preparation of nurses at an institution of higher education in 1975. Graduates of the program were presented with their Bachelor of Applied Science from the Western Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University of Technology), in March 1979. This thesis seeks to answer the question concerning the genesis of such an event. The focus of the study is primarily to follow the progress of general nurse education in Western Australia and to highlight the accompanying influences that shaped its development. The purpose of this study was to explore, analyse, interpret and describe the history of nurse education in Western Australia from 1962-1975. The study used a pluralistic approach employing a variety of historical methods. The research commenced with broad questions and ideas developed from documents and people. The process of data collection, historical criticism and analysis took place simultaneously. The synthesis was written as a chronological narrative. The material of the study thus 'spoke' for itself by providing answers to questions raised during the investigation. The history of nurse education from 1962 to 1975 revealed visible milestones that represented nurse education reform. Beginning from the antecedents of the study these were the sanctioning of a review of nurse training in 1960 together with the commencement of the Western Australian Nursing Survey and the appointment of the Nurses Registration Board Education Officer. In 1962 the survey was completed.
It exposed the deficits of nurse training which led to the development of a new Hospital Based Diploma curriculum and an Associate Diploma in Nursing in 1966. The establishment of the College of Nursing Australia Western Australian Branch in 1966 paved the way to solve the shortage of tutors to implement the Hospital Based Diploma. The Nurses Act in 1970 enhanced the plans for implementing the Hospital Based Diploma and conferred autonomy to the Nurses Registration Board. In 1973 the first independent school of nursing came into being. The Western Australian School of Nursing carried the hopes of a continuation of hospital nurse training. In 1974, however, the entry of students to the Western Australian Institute of Technology School of Nursing saw a turn of events that led to a degree for nurses in 1975 and a decision for the transfer of all nurse education in Western Australia to the Western Australian Institute of Technology. These milestones did not emerge as an accident of history. There were forces that facilitated and impeded the perceptibility of the reform landmarks. These were crucial in the shaping the history of nurse education in Western Australia from 1962-1975.

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Spyker, Geert M. "The upper secondary school mathematics curriculum in Western Australia from 1950-1998 : implementation and evaluation." Curtin University of Technology, Science and Mathematics Education Centre, 1999. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=9514.

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The study upon which this thesis is based aimed, first of all, to document the history of mathematics curriculum change in Western Australia. Although curriculum development in mathematics in this State has been an ongoing process for at least two decades, the outcome of an extensive literature review conducted as part of the study revealed that only a cursory evaluation of the current upper school mathematics curriculum change process had ever been undertaken. Neither has any formal appraisal of the suitability or otherwise of the variety of new upper school mathematics courses introduced during the last decade ever been carried out.This study was designed to 'fill these gaps' by not only documenting the history of the change process, but also by seeking out teachers' and other educators' views about those curriculum and strategy changes as well as the views of the students who were so intimately involved in the process.Tertiary lecturers' perceptions regarding the mathematical preparedness of first year university students were also considered a relevant source of information in this quest to first, record the events that preceded the establishment of the current State mathematics curriculum, and second, record those events that occurred subsequently. Major reports which have influenced the direction of mathematics education were examined, and underlying didactical principles were identified to determine the origins of previous and current educational policy.To determine upper school mathematics teachers' attitudes to curriculum and strategy changes, and the impact of the present curriculum upon students' choice of mathematics subjects, use was made of a variety of instruments - questionnaires and interview proformas - which were used to interview students prior to questioning them on such matters as their reasons for selecting specific units.Upper school ++
mathematics teachers were also surveyed and interviewed in order to obtain the practitioners' views on new topics which were introduced, such as complex numbers and vectors. Five of Western Australia's most high profile mathematics educators who played significant roles during the period of this study were interviewed to determine their recollections of major points of discussion and concern in mathematics education at that time. Feedback from these interviews was used to compile a questionnaire for upper high school mathematics teachers to determine their opinion on such issues as the introduction and practicality of the new courses, teaching and learning strategies introduced, and the degree of support for the new curriculum.Ten teachers were interviewed one year after the survey to determine any changes in their perceptions about the new upper school mathematics courses. By means of a questionnaire, students' reasons for choosing specific mathematics subjects in either Year 11 or 12, and their perceived success in mathematics in general were sought. In order to determine the effectiveness of the new curriculum in terms of further studies, students' level of mathematical preparedness was investigated by means of a questionnaire for university mathematics staff. The results of this research indicate that the most recent curriculum change in the upper high school has been successfully introduced by the Education Department of Western Australia, although this has not always been the case with curriculum change in this State.Though initially daunted by the number of new topics which were to be taught, teachers were appreciative of the in-service courses available, the resources present and the general support they received from the Education Department. Traditional teaching strategies, such as 'drill-and-practice' and teacher-centred environments have been largely ++
replaced by a problem-solving and investigational approach to mathematics in a student-centred classroom environment. Clearly, the constructivist theory of learning has been a major influence on current teaching and learning strategies used in the upper school mathematics classroom. Teachers' opinions about the practicality of the new courses and approaches to teaching them were positive, though the view was held that previous traditional teaching methods should not be discarded.Specific weaknesses in the various mathematics courses introduced were identified (for example, inadequate attention paid to basic algebra and, in particular, to trigonometry), and many teachers were adamant that certain changes should be made for the benefit of the students (for example, reorganisation of parts of the course content). Improvements in the nature of the information provided to students at the time they make their upper school mathematics subject choice were strongly recommended. Information on influential factors regarding students' subject choices was obtained, and interviews with university mathematics staff showed that many first year students remain underprepared because of incorrect mathematics subject choices made in either Year 10 or 11.

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au, lasko2nd@yahoo com, and Tomaz Lasic. "Experiences of schooling of students with former Yugoslav ethnic background in a Western Australian secondary school." Murdoch University, 2007. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20080812.150558.

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Ethnicity is an important social construct mobilised in the discourses of multicultural education. At present, little research exists on the way ethnicity impacts on the schooling experiences of students with former Yugoslav background (SFYB) in Australia. This qualitative study looks at the daily realities of twelve SFYB at a Western Australian government secondary school. Particular attention is paid to the management of their ethnic identities to achieve their educational, social and other goals. Data gathered from the twelve in-depth, guided interviews with SFYB is analysed through the lens of critical multiculturalism, posited as one of several notions of multiculturalism and one with a specific social justice agenda. Theories of hybridity developed by Homi Bhabha and Stuart Hall are translated into the critical multiculturalist framework and provide a further development of the analysis of the data in which hybridity is seen as both experiences and enactments. The study findings suggest that these SFYB embody the principles of critical multiculturalism as skilful managers of contingencies of ethnic identities, aspirations and challenges they encounter at the school. The study also proposes that the notion of critical, power conscious hybridity could be useful as a conceptual tool in the future work of critical multiculturalists.

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Griffiths, Joanne. "Curriculum contestation : analysis of contemporary curriculum policy and practices in government and non-government education sectors in Western Australia." University of Western Australia. Graduate School of Education, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0178.

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[Truncated abstract] The aim of this study was to analyse the changing dynamics within and between government and non-government education sectors in relation to the Curriculum Framework (CF) policy in Western Australia (WA) from 1995 to 2004. The Curriculum Council was established by an act of State Parliament in 1997 to oversee the development and enactment of the CF, which was released in 1998. A stated aim of the CF policy was to unify the education sectors through a shared curriculum. The WA State government mandated that all schools, both government and non-government, demonstrate compliance by 2004. This was the first time that curriculum was mandated for non-government schools, therefore the dynamics within and between the education sectors were in an accelerated state of transformation in the period of study. The timeframe for the research represented the period from policy inception (1995) to the deadline for policy enactment for Kindergarten to Year 10 (2004). However, given the continually evolving and increasingly politicised nature of curriculum policy processes in WA, this thesis also provides an extended analysis of policy changes to the time of thesis submission in 2007 when the abolition of the Curriculum Council was formally announced - a decade after it was established. ... The research reported in this thesis draws on both critical theory and post-structuralist approaches to policy analysis within a broader framework of policy network theory. Policy network theory is used to bring the macro focus of critical theory and the micro focus of post-structuralism together in order to highlight power issues at all levels of the policy trajectory. Power dynamics within a policy network are fluid and multidimensional, and power struggles are characteristic at all levels. This study revealed significant power differentials between government and non-government education sectors caused by structural and cultural differences. Differences in autonomy between the education sectors meant that those policy actors within the non-government sector were more empowered to navigate the competing and conflicting forms of accountabilities that emerged from the changes to WA curriculum policy. Despite both generalised discourses of blurring public/private boundaries within the context of neoliberal globalisation and specific CF goals of bringing the sectors together, the boundaries continue to exist. Further, there is much strategising about how to remain distinct within the context of increased market choice. This study makes a unique and significant contribution to the understanding of policy processes surrounding the development and enactment of the CF in WA and the implications for the changing dynamics within and between the education sectors. Emergent themes and findings may potentially be used as a basis for contrast and comparison in other contexts. The research contributes to policy theory by arguing for closer attention to be paid to power dynamics between localised agency in particular policy spaces and the state-imposed constraints.

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Smith, Connie. "A Preschool Outdoor Curriculum and Playground Design, Teacher Education." TopSCHOLAR®, 1985. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1417.

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The writer proposes the utilization of a developmentally based outdoor curriculum and playground designed for young children. The curriculum consists of an overview, objectives, curriculum methodology, playground designs and evaluation. Cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains are each included in the objectives. A curriculum methodology focusing upon approaches for individualization and development of the total child is presented. The playground designs are based upon current research. Play value, development appropriateness and safety were considered in developing playground designs and curriculum. Evaluation of the curriculum and playground will be measured through assessments of the individual child, the class, and the staff. Numerous approaches to evaluation are described. This project is intended to assist preschool teachers in establishing and maintaining a program based on current research and literature. Ideas to assist other preschools in adaptation are presented. Included in the ideas are steps in developing a curriculum and playground design as well as a suggested approach to training parents and staff in the rationale and appropriate use of the curriculum.

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Duncan, Pearl, and n/a. "An analysis of post-secondary Aboriginal support systems." University of Canberra. Education, 1991. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060706.112807.

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An overview of Aboriginal education in the last two hundred years reveals that Aborigines have had a depressingly inadequate education, also marked by inequity of opportunity and participation. The developmental pattern of Aboriginal education has been characterised by four broad periods or eras related to specific government policies. These periods are identified successively as The Protection Era, the Segregation Era, The Assimilation Era and The Integration Era. The Protection Era began with the early frontier settlement of Europeans in Australia and extended until the 1860's. The Segregation Era marked the full development of Aboriginal reserves from 1860 to 1940. The Assimilation Era extended from the 1940s to the mid 1960s. Finally the period of Integration began in the late 1960s and gathered momentum in the 1970s. Throughout the periods of protection, segregation and assimilation very little effort was expended in the provision of adequate education for Aborigines. It was not until the late 1960s that concerted attempts were made to redress the many decades of neglect and apathy. Researchers uncovered glaring problems needing urgent redress. Aboriginal pupils persistently achieved very poorly in comparison with others and left school at an earlier age. As a consequence Aborigines left school lacking the knowledge and skills to compete with other Australians and had much poorer prospects of employment. In the early 1970s the National Aboriginal Education Committee and the state Aboriginal Education Consultative Groups, combined with support and funding from DAA, Commonwealth Education and The Schools Commission, were very influential in establishing programmes. In response to the growing numbers of Aborigines who were denied adequate schooling, three general types of adult programmes were developed: a) enclave/support systems; b) pretertiary/bridging courses and c) off campus centres. It was these programmes operating at WACAE that DEET commissioned me to evaluate. The existence of these programmes is the result of WACAE's prompt response to the need for redressing Aboriginal educational imbalance. The programmes developed following the commencement of the Aboriginal Teacher Education Programme at Mt Lawley College in 1973. The first enclave was established in 1976, external AEEC commenced in 1978 and G.E.C. in 1980, the first off campus centre was set up in 1983, and the Tertiary Preparation Course (internal AEEC) began operation in 1985. Commonwealth money has provided the financial basis for the programmes, but WACAE was the first institution in Australia to implement programmes and its achievement is significant. The terms of reference for this project required that the method of research should be through data gathering by means of interviews and examination of documentary evidence during a three week period in Perth. The evaluator consulted DAIS staff, students and, as particularly requested in the brief, Aboriginal community members. Findings revealed that WACAE's enclaves, on campus and off campus, have made progress towards educational equity for Aborigines, provide good support and are valued by students and Aboriginal community members. Aboriginalisation was found to be essential to maximum enclave effectiveness. Staff, students and Aboriginal community members would like to see increased Aboriginal representation, contract hiring of staff not being conducive to employment security or staff continuity. It is recommended that rationalisation of enclaves would achieve a more efficient pooling of resources. During the last thirteen years considerable amounts of external funds have been injected and it is recommended that WACAE take greater institutional responsibility for enclaves, using funds from normal Commonwealth sources, as distinct from special course funding. The existing staffing patterns and conditions of employment should be regularised in regard to salary, tenure, study leave, superannuation, etc. Such a measure is necessary to ensure staff continuity, security and inclusion in the power structure of the institution. WACAEs external pretertiary courses (AEEC and GEC) have achieved a small measure of progress towards equity of access and participation in education for Aborigines. The wide geographical distribution is significant in providing availability of courses. The courses are valued by Aboriginal community members and there is a need for external courses of this nature to continue in the future. However, progress towards equity has been extremely slow and time taken for completion of courses is unduly long considering the basic nature of GEC, and the fact that the courses are designed for completion in one year. The courses are preceived as enhancing employment performance and prospects as well as being preparation for tertiary study. There has been a shift in opinion regarding Aboriginal education during the 1980s towards the view that education should not be seen in isolation but in combination with employment and training. It is recommended that DEET take immediate steps to implement the Aboriginal Employment Development Policy in Western Australia, considering how best the benefits of external AEEC and GEC can be maintained and expanded. On the other hand, the Tertiary Preparation Course (internal AEEC) has achieved commendable results and is assessed as being worthy of increased resources and energy. Difficulty was encountered in efforts to determine exactly how DEET funding was used. It seems that this type of enquiry would necessitate the services of a qualified accountant. Enclave/support systems and pretertiary/bridging courses will be needed for some time to come. Many Aboriginal people stated that they envisage the time when these programmes will no longer be needed, 'when inequity of education has been addressed' and 'equality' achieved. Until this goal is reached the programmes will remain necessary. The achievement of the broad objectives of the AEDP, i.e. employment and income equity with other Australians and equity of participation in all levels of education, will see Aboriginal aspirations becoming a reality.

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au, Editech@iinet net, and Pamela-Anne Shanks. "A critical policy analysis of the Crossroads Review: Implications for higher education in regional Western Australia." Murdoch University, 2006. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20061019.134304.

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This work is a critical policy analysis of the Crossroads Review, especially those aspects of it that are most likely to have a significant impact on higher education in regional Western Australia. It aims to understand the place of higher education in regional Western Australia historically with a view to critiquing current policy directions and the potential consequences of Crossroads. The thesis argues that the ideologies of marketisation and corporatisation are driving current higher education policy and this may significantly damage the long-term viability of regional campuses and learning centres as well as public and private funding allocations. The implications for the dismantling of the social contract (or social democratic settlement) in the knowledge economy is an important issue for regional populations for their continued growth, health, education and welfare. The issues examined here are relevant to regional higher education in this State. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the potential policy effects with regard to accessibility of higher education in regional Western Australia. The thesis analyses the advantages and disadvantages of studying in regional WA in the current policy environment where there has been a dramatic shift in ideology from the welfare state to economic rationalism. Factors that impact on higher education in regional Western Australia include the provision of telecommunications services for access to and participation in the knowledge economy. The thesis considers the evolution of higher education in Australia in general and more particularly in Western Australia, as it has evolved since its foundations in the mid-nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century. In this time there have been radical changes in higher education in Australia in line with changes to our society and its place in an increasingly globalised environment. The thesis concludes by considering some possible options for the future such as the development of learning communities and branch campuses. In discussing such possible alternative forms of delivery of higher education to regional Western Australia, this thesis seeks to raise awareness in relevant government bodies and in rural and remote communities of their particular higher education needs. It is hoped also to encourage regional communities to become more confident and pro-active in their own endeavours to gain greater access and equity in higher education.

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McGowan, Wayne S. "Thinking about the responsible parent : freedom and educating the child in Western Australia." University of Western Australia. Graduate School of Education, 2004. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2005.0014.

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This study is concerned with how educational legislation shapes and uses freedom for the purpose of governing the parent. The key question guiding the study was: How does the Act constitute the ‘parent’ as a subject position responsible for schooling the child? Central to the work is an examination of the School Education Act 1999 (the Act) using Foucault’s thinking on governmentality. This is prefaced by historical accounts that bring together freedom and childhood as contrived styles of conduct that provide the governmental logic behind the Act. The study reveals how the Act shapes and uses the truth of freedom/childhood to construct the responsible parent as a style of conduct pegged to a neo-liberal political rationality of government. It is this political rationality that provides the node or point of encounter between the technologies of power and the self within the Act which forms the ‘responsible’ identity of the parent as an active self-governing entrepreneur made more visible by the political construction of ‘others.’ This is a legal-political subjectivity centred on the truth of freedom/childhood and a neo-liberal rationality of government that believes that any change to our current ethical way of being in relation to educating the child would ruin the very freedoms upon which our civilised lifestyle depends. In essence, the Act relies on the production of ‘others’ as the poor, Aboriginal and radical who must be regulated and made autonomous to constitute the ‘parent’ as an active consumer whose autonomous educational choices are an expression of responsibility in relation to schooling the child

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Hutton, Heidi C. "Evaluation of the outcomes for students undertaking an externally provided physical activity programme." University of Western Australia. School of Human Movement and Exercise Science, 2007. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2007.0166.

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[Truncated abstract] Many primary schools in Western Australia do not employ a specialist physical education (PE) teacher, leaving the teaching of this subject to the class teacher. There are concerns that some of these teachers lack the skills, confidence or knowledge to successfully implement a developmentally appropriate PE programme. A potential solution to this problem involves utilising an externally provided physical activity programme (EPPAP). Before considering this option, it is important to ensure these programmes adequately meet the needs of students, teachers and the educational curriculum. Outcomes for one such EPPAP were evaluated and compared against the outcomes attained in regular primary school PE classes. These outcomes were then compared to the Health and Physical Education (HPE) learning area outcomes (LAO) within Outcomes Based Education (OBE) of the Western Australian Curriculum Framework (CF). Approximately 460 primary school students in the Peel Region of WA participated in the EPPAP and subsequent research in 2004. In addition, approximately 135 students from the same area were invited to participate as controls. All students completed self-report questionnaires pre and post-participation in the EPPAP. ... Although not originally promoted as a programme to replace PE, the EPPAP is delivered within curriculum time with some schools intending to replace their traditional PE programme with the EPPAP. Therefore, reference to the CF is warranted. There were few opportunities to develop `skills for physical activity? (SPA) transferable to the sporting context and explicit teaching points were not consistently provided, or reinforced through teacher feedback. Activities in the lessons were generally delivered uniformly to all participants across Year 4-7 with no developmental theme, negating the opportunity for differentiation, progression or extension. In summary, the main objectives of the EPPAP was to provide students with a range of fun activities and games that were inclusive and encouraged participation. These objectives were fulfilled in this two-term evaluation. The disadvantages of the programme were it?s uniform delivery across all year groups, lack of developmental progression in both skills and games and a teacher centred approach that did not allow for student differentiation. The programme delivery and content was most suited to the students within Years K-3.

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Nicholson, Lindsay P. "Educational productivity of an open learning environment within the vocational education and training sector in Western Australia." Curtin University of Technology, Faculty of Education, 1997. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=11060.

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Rapid reform in the vocational education and training sector within Australia has driven the need for a more flexible approach to the delivery of education and training. One facet of such flexibility is Open Learning. Currently there is little research on Open Learning within the training sector on which planning decisions can be based.A model of educational productivity (Walberg,1981) has been proposed in the research literature to investigate relationships between key factors such a student antecedents, learning environments and learning outcomes. The Walberg model has been employed in this current study to explore how these factors may be studied in an Open Learning environment and a more Traditional Learning environment within the vocational education and training sector. The research design is a comparative description, utilising techniques from both quantitative and qualitative paradigms.A major aspect of this current study has been to investigate the constructs proposed by Walberg's Productivity Model and source appropriate instruments to measure these constructs. Where the appropriate instruments were not available, a process of instrument development and validation was conducted.The research has identified Walberg's model as being a valid frame of reference within the Vocational Education and Training sector. As expected, significant differences between the Open Learning environment and the Traditional Learning environment were apparent for the measures of Classroom Environment. Of interest, however, was that the productivity factor of Quantity, for students studying in both learning environments, was shown to have a negative relationship with achievement. While small differences were apparent for other factors, generally, the relationship between productivity factors and educational achievement was seen to be similar for both the Open Learning and the ++
Traditional Learning environments.The findings of the study should be of significance to a range of people involved in the Open Learning environment, including decision makers in the areas of educational policy, curriculum design and implementation, administration and teaching.

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Mckenna, Eugene. "The influence of ecclesiastical and community cultures on the development of Catholic education in Western Australia, 1846-1890." Murdoch University, 2005. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20070326.142406.

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Historians have generally tended to represent the pioneering Catholic mission in Western Australia as an homogenous ecclesiastical entity with little cultural diversity. With a few notable exceptions the nature of the Western Australian colonial Catholic mission is portrayed as a 'hibernised' form of Catholicism with an Irish clergy taking care of the pastoral needs of a predominantly working class Irish Catholic constituency. This thesis challenges the traditional paradigm as restrictive, and argues that it ignores significant contextual influences and veils the wider cultural tapestry in which the Western Australian pioneering Catholic mission proceeded. The traditional analysis of the internal dynamics of the Catholic mission implies that there was a beneficial, almost symbiotic relationship between sympathetic bishops and their 'valiant helpers.' Internal conflicts concerning administrative issues have been represented as little more than mere personality clashes. The thesis takes a more critical contextual approach and argues that the manifestation of internal dissension during this period can only be fully explained by taking account of external influences rather than local conditions. These influences include both Gallican and Ultramontane ecclesiastical perspectives as well as the individual community cultures that were transported from Europe to the Perth diocese by missionary personnel. This new perspective corrects the more traditional approach which overlooked the different ecclesiastical approaches, orientations and community cultures that were represented within the colonial Catholic mission. This expansion of the existing interpretative paradigm through which historians view the West Australian Catholic mission in general and the development of the school system in particular marks a significant shifi in the existing historiography. As a consequence, scholars will in future take a more critical approach to the study of not only the Catholic education system but also the Western Australian Catholic mission in general. Rather than representing the definitive closing chapter it is intended that this work will invigorate renewed historical interest in the development of the Australian Catholic mission.

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McKenna, Eugene. "The influence of ecclesiastical and community cultures on the development of Catholic education in Western Australia, 1846-1890." McKenna, Eugene (2005) The influence of ecclesiastical and community cultures on the development of Catholic education in Western Australia, 1846-1890. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2005. http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/198/.

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Historians have generally tended to represent the pioneering Catholic mission in Western Australia as an homogenous ecclesiastical entity with little cultural diversity. With a few notable exceptions the nature of the Western Australian colonial Catholic mission is portrayed as a 'hibernised' form of Catholicism with an Irish clergy taking care of the pastoral needs of a predominantly working class Irish Catholic constituency. This thesis challenges the traditional paradigm as restrictive, and argues that it ignores significant contextual influences and veils the wider cultural tapestry in which the Western Australian pioneering Catholic mission proceeded. The traditional analysis of the internal dynamics of the Catholic mission implies that there was a beneficial, almost symbiotic relationship between sympathetic bishops and their 'valiant helpers.' Internal conflicts concerning administrative issues have been represented as little more than mere personality clashes. The thesis takes a more critical contextual approach and argues that the manifestation of internal dissension during this period can only be fully explained by taking account of external influences rather than local conditions. These influences include both Gallican and Ultramontane ecclesiastical perspectives as well as the individual community cultures that were transported from Europe to the Perth diocese by missionary personnel. This new perspective corrects the more traditional approach which overlooked the different ecclesiastical approaches, orientations and community cultures that were represented within the colonial Catholic mission. This expansion of the existing interpretative paradigm through which historians view the West Australian Catholic mission in general and the development of the school system in particular marks a significant shifi in the existing historiography. As a consequence, scholars will in future take a more critical approach to the study of not only the Catholic education system but also the Western Australian Catholic mission in general. Rather than representing the definitive closing chapter it is intended that this work will invigorate renewed historical interest in the development of the Australian Catholic mission.

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Karginoff, Simon P. "A study of attendance and classroom participation among Aboriginal (Nyungar) students in a West Australian metropolitan senior high school." Curtin University of Technology, Faculty of Education, 1999. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=9561.

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My thesis combines an analysis of the reasons behind changing attendance and participation of Aboriginal students at a West Australian metropolitan senior high school with an appraisal of the role of Aboriginal students in its school curriculum, 1993-1997. This study also incorporates an examination of teacher attitudes towards Aboriginal students and culture with an ethnographic study as well as a qualitative survey of the attitudes of Aboriginal students towards school and the curriculum process.This thesis begins with an explanation for the choice of Aboriginal students and their experience at school as my research topic. Some autobiographical details of the author and my position on staff at school, 1994-97, then follows. A general background to Aboriginal Education and metropolitan senior high school is provided, with a specific discussion of the role of Aboriginal students and the place of Aboriginal Studies in the life of the school. A concise analysis of the secondary literature is then undertaken which provides, inter alia, a knowledge base for the 'ethnographic' interviews. The various strategies introduced in an attempt to improve the attendance and participation at school of Aboriginal students are then analysed, including an assessment of the success of the Aboriginal Studies programme.The next section focuses on the attitudes and actions of Aboriginal students and their teachers, giving a detailed account and appraisal of a series of interviews.My thesis then concludes by outlining some of the major factors influencing Aboriginal attendance and participation at school, as well as examining some of the key areas where Aboriginal education may be improved. My thesis does not purport to provide definitive answers to these issues, but rather points to an embryonic strategy for improvement, based upon the necessarily limited focus provided by this research.A ++
series of appendices follow my written conclusions. No manuscript collections were consulted in the course of undertaking this research. However, many interviews and questionnaires have been extensively used with a voluminous selection of secondary source material, a selection of which is detailed in the bibliography.

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Scott, Shelleyann. "Professional development: a study of secondary teachers' experiences and perspectives." Curtin University of Technology, Faculty of Education, 2002. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=12478.

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This research was undertaken to explore professional development in Western Australia secondary schools from the perspective of the classroom teacher. A study that bridged quantitative and qualitative methodology, it drew upon teachers' perspectives and reports of professional development activities in which they had been involved over an eighteen month period.The major focuses of the study were in exploring teachers' perceptions of their professional development activities across the following dimensions: choice, the influence of career stage, rationale for choice, equity in relation to access, levels of participation, gender factors, perceptions of effectiveness, influence of school/educational culture.The conceptual framework in this study (refer to Figure 2.1) acknowledges the teacher as the central point of reference due to his/her importance in the classroom as the architect of the learning experiences for students (Fogarty, 1999. Four aspects were identified as influences on teachers. These were professional development; factors affecting teachers' capacity to develop professionally; technological change in education; and the education system in which teachers work. Literature related to these four aspects was explored.The findings of this study, based upon in-depth interviews with teachers, indicated that the respondents were expending significant amounts of time engaged in professional development. Results demonstrated that half of the reported hours (150 hours/person/year) involved personally selected professional development. Teachers' rationale for choosing professional development was in order to become a more effective practitioner resulting in increased learning opportunities for their students. Effectiveness of professional development was predominantly related to the relevancy to teaching, level of interaction within the session, opportunities to ++
obtain and discuss teaching materials, and the opportunities for reflection on their practices with colleagues.Career stage did indeed appear to influence teachers' choice of professional development, perceptions of effectiveness and quality, personal teaching philosophies, and perceptions of the school and educational culture. Less experienced teachers and those in the final career stage were more focused on increasing their repertoire of teaching strategies. Experienced teachers in the middle career stages were largely concerned with increasing subject knowledge, and expertise required to assist them in their additional duties other than teaching.Equity in accessing professional development was a distinct issue for rural teachers information technology teachers in this study. Information technology teachers reported experiencing frustration with the expense involved, and difficulties in accessing targeted professional development that catered to their specific requirements. Teachers situated in rural areas expressed concern with the lack of choice available to them in the rural situation. This was largely due to extensive travel time to the metropolitan area to attend specific programs, expense involved in accessing professional development and the lack of support by administration in their schools related to professional development.The teachers in this study displayed gender differences in relation to their perceptions and choices of professional development. Female teachers were generally more focused on professional development that directly related to their teaching whereas their male counterparts were overtly seeking professional development that would advance their career aspirations. Family commitments were more frequently cited by male respondents as the reason for non-attendance at out-of-hours professional development.School culture was acknowledged by ++
teachers in this study as having an impact on professional development. Teachers resoundingly indicated they desired more self-determination in decision-making related to professional development. They expressed the perspective that the employer was demonstrating a lack of trust in teachers' professionalism and was not providing professional development to meet their teaching needs. It appeared that the professional development being provided was ad hoc and a more systematic approach was needed.As a result of this research a model of systematic professional development has been proposed that encompasses the expressed needs of teachers in this study, the literature on effective professional development to improve student learning, and the quality assurance and accountability mechanisms required by the employer.

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Danaher, Patrick Alan, and danaher@usq edu au. "Learning on the Run: Traveller Education for Itinerant Show Children in Coastal and Western Queensland." Central Queensland University. Education and Innovation, 2001. http://library-resources.cqu.edu.au./thesis/adt-QCQU/public/adt-QCQU20060830.110820.

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Learning on the Run refers to the educational experiences of the primary school children travelling along the agricultural show circuits in coastal and western Queensland. This thesis examines those educational experiences by drawing on the voices of the show children, their parents, their home tutors and their teachers from the Brisbane School of Distance Education, which from 1989 to 1999 implemented a specialised program of Traveller education for these children (in 2000 a separate school was established for them). The thesis focusses on the interplay among marginalisation, resistance and transformation in the spaces of the show peoples itinerancy. It deploys Michel de Certeaus (1984, 1986) concept of tactics of consumption and Mikhail Bakhtins (1986a) notions of outsiddness and creative understanding to interrogate the show peoples engagement with their absence of place, the construction of their otherness and forms of seemingly unproblematic knowledge about their schooling. Data gathering techniques included semi-structured interviews with forty-two people between 1992 and 2000 in seven sites in Queensland - Mackay, Bundaberg (over two years), Emerald, Brisbane, Rockhampton and Yeppoon - and document collection. The thesiss major finding is that the show peoples resistance and transformation of their marginalising experiences have enabled them to initiate and implement a significant counternarrative to the traditional narrative (and associated stereotypes) attending their itinerancy. This counternarrative has underpinned a fundamental change in their schooling provision, from a structure that worked to marginalise and disempower them to a specialised form of Traveller education. This change contributes crucially to understanding and theorising the spaces of itinerancy, and highlights the broader significance of the Queensland show peoples learning on the run.

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Owen, Julie. "Development of a culturally sensitive program delivering cardiovascular health education to indigenous Australians, in South-West towns of Western Australia with lay educators as community role models." University of Western Australia. School of Population Health, 2006. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2006.0061.

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[Truncated abstract] Indigenous Australians suffer cardiovascular disease (CVD) at a rate six times greater than the general population in Australia and while the incidence of CVD has been reduced dramatically amongst the majority of non-indigenous Australians and amongst Indigenous populations in other countries in the last 30 years, there has been little change in the figures for Aboriginal Australians, showing that heart health campaigns have little impact, for this group of people. Aims : The principal aims of this study were firstly, to determine and record the barriers to the development and delivery of CVD prevention programs amongst Indigenous Australians and secondly, to develop an alternative, effective and culturally sensitive method of delivering heart health messages. Methods and results : The study was qualitative research undertaken in three South-West towns of Western Australia where the incidence of CVD was high amongst the Aboriginal community members. The use of semi-formal interviews, informal individual consultation, observation, and focus groups were methods implemented to obtain information. The first phase of the research was to identify the barriers which affected the Aboriginal Health Workers’ ability to deliver specialist educational programs. Questionnaires and interviews with the Aboriginal Health Workers and other health professionals in the towns, and community focus groups were undertaken in this phase of the study. The second phase of the research was aimed at developing an alternative strategy for delivering heart health messages. The focus changed to adopt more traditional ways of passing on information in Indigenous communities. The idea of small gatherings of friends or family with a trusted community member presenting the health message was developed. The third phase of the research was to implement this new approach. Lay educators who had been identified within focus groups and by Aboriginal Health Workers were trained in each of the towns and a protocol involving discussions of health issues, viewing a video on CVD, produced by the National Heart Foundation, sharing in a ‘heart healthy’ lunch and partaking in a ‘heart health’ knowledge game which was developed specifically for the gatherings. Several of these gatherings were held in each of the towns and they became known as ‘HeartAware parties’.

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Berber, Mujgan G. "The role of the principal in establishing and further developing an independent Christian or Islamic school in Australia." View thesis, 2009. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/46255.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2009.
A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Education, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographies.

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Hawley, Georgina. "A phenomenological study of the health-care related spiritual needs of multicultural Western Australians." Curtin University of Technology, Science and Mathematics Education Centre, 2002. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=13369.

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This study was designed to identify the spiritual needs of multicultural Australians with a health problem, in order to understand the educational implications for health care professionals. The rationale for the research was supported by the Australian Council for Health Service (1997) requirement that health care professionals meet the spiritual needs of their patients and clients'. At the commencement of this study, no research had been published on what these spiritual needs might be. To discover what health care professionals needed to be taught in order to meet the spiritual needs of their patients, I required a suitable group of patients. Then, after identify their spiritual needs, I wanted to explore ways in which these needs could be met. For this to occur, I also needed to identify factors that would fulfill patients' spiritual needs or prevent them from being met. This research proceeded in two stages. The first involved collecting data from all spiritual groups in Western Australia. The second involved the recruitment and interviewing a small number of ex-patients to gain their perspective of health care related spirituality and needs. To gain data about the various spiritual groups in Western Australia, I wrote to all organisations and associations, asking for information and reference material. This data was analysed using HyperResearch (1995), and themes common to all spiritual groups were developed. The inter-relationship between these themes provided the framework for an emergent model of spirituality.
For the second part of the research which involved a case study of health care patients, a qualitative methodology was used. This approach enabled me to explore the phenomenon of spirituality from the perspective of eight participants, which involved identifying their spiritual needs, the care they desired, and the rite of passage they underwent when receiving health care. The qualitative methodology enabled me to explore the subject from a sensitive holistic perspective, and to protect the integrity of the participants. I wanted to know what patients understood about their spirituality and how spiritual care could be implemented not only in clinical practice but also into health care education programs. The participants' detailed subjective experience was especially important, because I wanted to know how they identified their spiritual needs, how they had requested their needs be met by health care professionals, and the extent to which health care professionals had reacted to those cues. I formulated an 'interpretive phenomenology research' design based on the philosophical writings of Heidegger and Bakhtin. Heidegger argued that people gain knowledge of a subject from their own subjective experience, and of the person being in their world (simultaneous past, present and future thoughts). Bakhtin stated that to bring about social change, the researcher needed to understand the social context of the people's language including their culture, politics, government-provided amenities (such as education and health care), employment and social interaction, both within and outside their communities in which they live. The eight participants were interviewed a number of times in order to explore the phenomenon of spirituality beyond the notions already published in the literature (i.e. from multicultural Australian's perspective).
They told of hospital or health care experiences that included: health care for childbirth, mental and psychiatric illnesses (depression, manic-depression, and anxiety), immunology (lymphoma), stroke, detoxification of alcohol, arthritis, coronary occlusion, hypertension, and peritonitis; surgical procedured/s such as repair of hernia, bowel obstruction, eye surgery, orchiopexy (removal of testes from inguinal canal into the scrotal sac), caesarian birth, appendectomy, and oophorectomy (removal of ovaries); treatments such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and physiotherapy; and hospital experiences in both large and small public and private acute hospitals, private and public mental health/psychiatric hospitals, intensive care and coronary care units. These situations demonstrate the diversity of contexts which people want their spiritual needs met. The study revealed that it is not only dying patients who have spiritual need; spiritual needs exist in widespread ordinary conditions and across a wide range of health care services. The eight participants - Ann, Athika, Garry, Red, Rosie, Scarlet, Sophie, and Tom (pseudonyms) - were drawn from many of the multicultural groups resident in Western Australia including Aboriginal, Chinese, English, European, Indian, and Irish peoples. Their spiritualities encompassed Judeo-Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Pagan Romany, Society of Friends (Quaker), Humanist, Socialist, and Communist values and beliefs. The results of the research give insight into the eight participants' perspectives on being a person, their understanding of spirituality, perceived spiritual needs, their desired levels of spiritual care, and the rite of passage they experienced when undergoing health care treatment in hospital.
The participants' spiritual needs comprised of four categories: 'mutual trust', 'hope', 'peace' and 'love'. The levels of spiritual care spoke of desiring were: 'acknowledgement', 'empathy', and 'valuing'. Recommendations are given for health care professionals to provide spiritual care for the eight participants, and implications are considered for the spiritual education of future health care professionals in order to sensitise them to the wide range of healthcare related spiritual needs they might encounter in local multicultural communities. It is recognised that the scope of the implications is contingent on further research establishing the incidence of health-care related spiritual needs among the broader population of multi-cultural Western Australians. The richness and depth of the data and the very sensitive nature of the material that came from the eight people who shared their experiences with me has rendered this thesis an important document. The nature of the various incidents and situations they shared with me, I believe, demonstrated their preparedness to tell their story so that health care can be improved. On many occasions, I felt honoured that they had sufficient trust in me to enable them to report such deep and personal suffering. For example, Rosie told me of her mental torment and of not knowing if she was alive or dead; of how she burnt her legs to try to feel pain in order to see if she was alive. It was stories such as this that gave me the passion to write this thesis well in order to do justice to all people who want spirituality included in health care treatment.

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Melville, William Ian. "An historical analysis of the structures established for the provision of Anglican schools in the diocese of Perth, Western Australia between 1917 and 1992." University of Western Australia. Graduate School of Education, 2006. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2006.0032.

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[Truncated abstract] Within the State of Western Australia, from its early years, education has been provided not only by the State, but also by religious denominations, particularly the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church and other Christian groups. This thesis is concerned with Anglican education in the State from the years 1917-92. The particular focus is on the structures established for the provision of Anglican education in the Diocese of Perth throughout the period. The central argument of the thesis is as follows. During the period 1917-92, the structures established for the provision of Anglican education in the Diocese of Perth changed across four subperiods: 1917-50, 1951-60, 1961-80 and 1981-92. During the first subperiod, provision was made under structures which allow for the schools which existed to be classified according to three ‘types’: ‘religious-order schools’, ‘parish schools’, and ‘schools of the Council for Church of England Schools’. The first two types continued during the second subperiod and were joined by two new types, namely, ‘Perth Diocesan Trustees’ schools’ and ‘synod schools’, while ‘schools of the Council for Church of England Schools’ceased as a type. During the third subperiod ‘synod schools’ continued as a type, but the other three types ceased to exist. At the same time, one new type emerged, namely, ‘schools of the Church of England Schools’ Trust’. During the fourth subperiod there were also two types of schools within the Diocese, but the situation was not the same as in the previous subperiod because while ‘synod schools’ continued as a type, ‘Perth Diocesan Trustees’ schools’ ceased to exist. Furthermore, a new type was established, namely ‘schools of the Anglican Schools Commission’. This two-type structure for provision which was established during the sub-period 1981-92, is still that which exists to the present day for the provision of Anglican education within the Diocese of Perth.

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O'Donnell, Brian Charles. "A model for registering teachers, accrediting teacher education and awarding advanced certification in Australia : a means for advancing the status of teaching as an autonomous profession /." Milperra, N.S.W. : [University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, Faculty of Education and Languages], 1999. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030604.092549/index.html.

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Hadley, Fay. "The 5th discourse the connectivity role for early childhood services : meaningful support for families /." View thesis, 2007. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/21066.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2007.
A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Education, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographies.

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Paul, Suzanna. "Comparative assessment of the effectiveness of online vs paper based post graduate courses in occupational and environmental safety and health at Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia." Connect to thesis, 2006. http://portal.ecu.edu.au/adt-public/adt-ECU2007.0030.html.

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Dixon, John. "The reform of the Australian Public Service : commercialisation and its implications for public management education /." View thesis, 1995. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030818.114628/index.html.

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Tyler, Mark A. "Critical spirit manifestations in TAFE teachers and their work." University of Southern Queensland, Faculty of Education, 2009. http://eprints.usq.edu.au/archive/00006204/.

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This thesis reports on research conducted with Technical and Further Education (TAFE) teachers from Queensland and Western Australia. The research is located atthe intersection where teachers’ identities met the discourse of new vocationalism. Scholars have highlighted the tensions that this discourse has produced in therelationships between TAFE and its teachers, and noted that TAFE teachers are pressured to change their subjectivities to reflect themselves more effectively asworkers in an educational market focused on economic imperatives. This is often in contrast to these teachers’ personal notions of themselves as liberal educators, with afocus on lifelong learning, personal transformation, collaborative relationships and social responsibility. This research was driven by the possibility that the concept of ‘critical spirit’ might provide a means for TAFE teachers to stand their ground in relation to the continued reshaping of the TAFE teacher terrain produced by the adoption of the new vocational discourse.This interpretative research was conceptualised by synthesising sociocultural perspectives of discourse as a reality building tool (Gee, 2005) with notions of criticalthinker dispositions referred to as critical spirit (Siegel, 1988; Oxman-Michelli, 1992). The elements of critical spirit: openmindedness, independence of mind,wholeheartedness, intellectual responsibility and respect for others (Oxman-Michelli,1992) were used as central components to the development of a coding framework forthe explication of critical spirit from TAFE teacher artefacts and in positioning critical spirit as a discourse. An examination of 12 TAFE teacher case narrative artefacts revealed that elements of critical spirit were evident. Subsequent participantcredibility checks and semi-structured interviews provided diverse data related to teacher embodiment of a critical spirit in relation to the building of certain teacher identities. In some cases participants expressed that their identities were bolstered by engaging in a critical spirit discourse, others cautioned its public embodiment, suggesting that deploying critical spirit made them more visible to surveillance and control. The major finding of this research was that an explicit engagement with acritical spirit discourse was of value to these TAFE teachers. Furthermore, this critical spirit discourse was seen to perform the work of a borderland discourse (Gee, 2005; Alsup, 2006). It afforded a means to traverse the terrain “between disparate personal and professional subjectivities” (Alsup, 2006, p. 5).The research also uncovered other discourses pertinent to participant artefacts. These were identified as a test of fortitude discourse and a community of support discourse.It was postulated that these would extend the critical spirit discourse by adding to Oxman-Michelli’s (1992) five elements of critical spirit. The findings suggested littleevidence to support this position.The significance of this research was in: (a) the production of a methodological construct for explicating particular notions of critical spirit; (b) its contribution to furthering understandings of the professional lives of TAFE teachers and their workworld; and (c) the value that a critical spirit discourse had in strengthening these TAFE teachers’ notions of themselves and their effectiveness. Its contribution tosubstantial knowledge was in its expansion of our understanding of teacher identities within the Vocational Education and Training sector in Australia.

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Wang, Ting, and n/a. "Understanding Chinese educational leaders' conceptions of learning and leadership in an international education context." University of Canberra. Education and Community Studies, 2004. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20050630.090724.

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This thesis presents an interpretative study of an Australian offshore education program in educational leadership conducted at Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province in China from 2002 to 2003. It is a study of the influence of international education on the conceptions of the participants in a particular context, where Chinese culture and Western cultures came into contact. The study is significant because it investigated a relatively new aspect of international education, offshore education, this time from the perspective of the participants. It explored the conceptions of learning and leadership brought by a group of Chinese educational leaders to the course and investigated the perceived influence of the course upon their conceptions and self-reported leadership practice. It employed a culturally sensitive approach which recognizes that a complex interaction between Chinese and Western cultures is occurring in the participants of this study. This interpretative study was inspired by the phenomenographic approach. Phenomenography is an approach to research that has been used to help understand the key aspects of the variations in the experiences of groups of people (Marton & Booth, 1997). The study examined the experiences and understandings about learning and leadership of Chinese leaders in an offshore program, a Master of Educational Leadership. The program was delivered in a flexible mode in three intensive teaching brackets of six subjects. The study employed a semi-structured and in-depth interview technique. Twenty participants were interviewed twice over a 12-month period. The study sought a better understanding of their conceptions by making a comparison between their perceptions prior to and after undertaking the course. Participants were from schools, universities and educational departments. Potential differences across the three sectors were also considered in the analysis. The findings showed that most participants developed more complex understandings of learning and leadership throughout the course. Comparison of conceptions prior to and after the course indicated an expanded range of conceptions. There was reportedly a movement towards more complex and diversified perspectives. Prior to the course, participants reported comparatively traditional conceptions of learning and leadership in quite a limited range. Learning experience and exposure to Western educational ideas and practices seems to have led participants to reflect on their inherited assumptions and to expand their conceptions. They generally increased their awareness of key aspects of variations in learning and leadership. This study identified a general shift from content/utilitarian-oriented learning conceptions to meaning/developmental-oriented conceptions after undertaking the course. There was also a shift from task/directiveorientated conceptions about leadership to motivation/collaborative-oriented leadership conceptions. Many participants reported that they expanded their leadership practice after the course. The findings also revealed some differences regarding conceptual and practice changes across the three sectors. The study contributes to understanding of learning and leadership in an international education context. The learning and leadership conceptions and self-reported practices are context and culture dependent. The study illustrates the tensions between different cultural forces in the process of teaching and learning. The methodology which explores the subjective understandings of participants renders more complex understandings of intercultural processes than cross-cultural comparisons which have been predominant in the educational leadership field in the past. The results highlight the need for appreciation of local contexts in designing international programs. The discussion questions the universal applicability and transferability of Western ideas, and also highlights the importance of critical reflection and adaptation on the part of educational practitioners from non-Western cultures. It highlights the potential for growth of change in both providers and recipients of international education as a result of very different cultures and traditions coming into contact. Intercultural dialogue and integration of educational ideas and practices are likely to come about when East meets West in an open and reflective dialogue.

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Walker, Roz. "Transformative strategies in Indigenous education a study of decolonisation and positive social change." Click here for electronic access, 2004. http://adt.caul.edu.au/homesearch/get/?mode=advanced&format=summary&nratt=2&combiner0=and&op0=ss&att1=DC.Identifier&combiner1=and&op1=-sw&prevquery=OR%28REL%28SS%3BDC.Identifier%3Buws.edu.au%29%2CREL%28WD%3BDC.Relation%3BNUWS%29%29&att0=DC.Title&val0=Transformative+strategies+in+indigenous+education+&val1=NBD%3A.

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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2004.
Title from electronic document (viewed 15/6/10) Presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Western Sydney, 2004. Includes bibliography.

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Hadley, Fay, University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, and School of Education. "The 5th discourse : the connectivity role for early childhood services : meaningful support for families." 2007. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/21066.

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The recognised benefits of social capital have resulted in a focus on ways to provide support to families within their context or community. At the same time there has been an emphasis on the interplay between environment and experiences in the early years of life and long term physical, neurological, psychosocial and emotional/behavioural developments for humans. Coincidentally the use of out of home care for young children has expanded rapidly. These issues have resulted in a call to reconceptualise the role of early childhood services as a nexus of the community. Researchers are increasingly referring to early childhood services as hubs from which multi-sectoral supports can be developed and delivered. This thesis reviews the current literature about the importance of the early years; the experiences within the early childhood service; the renewed focus on supports for families; and the role of early childhood services as community hubs. Despite a growing body of literature about early childhood services as community hubs and as the basis for developing relationships with families, it was found that there is a dearth of information about the ways in which families and early childhood staff interface in defining what constitutes ‘quality’ within services. Indeed it is shown that the voices of families are rarely, if ever, taken into account in the development of curriculum and assessment practices in early childhood services. Subsequently the supports that could assist staff in undertaking meaningful connections with families are not prominent in the current literature. This thesis addresses this gap in the knowledge base about early childhood service delivery. A sociocultural approach is used to investigate the level of shared perspectives, meaningful participation and other forms of meaning making between a small sample of families in diverse situations and their early childhood service. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are applied in the analyses of how early childhood services enhance or inhibit connectivity for families with preschool-aged children. In Phase One, an in-depth study of three families with diverse situations in one urban centre of Australia (An Aboriginal1 family; a culturally and linguistically diverse family; and a family wherein the father has a physical illness) is conducted. Data collection methods involve purposeful sampling, video taping, semi-structured and structured interviews and non participant observations in both the home and early childhood setting. Findings from Phase One identify six continua of issues, reported by parents to be meaningful in terms of experiences for their children. In Phase Two these findings are incorporated into a questionnaire entitled “Experiences that are valued in the early childhood service”. The questionnaire is administered to staff and families in diverse socio economic and geographical regions in order to test for generalisability of the original findings. This thesis indicates that the role of early childhood services as community and family support services is not well articulated nor well understood by staff or families. The findings from the study include: 1. Rather than supporting families, some forms of information dissemination from early childhood services actually increase pressure on families. 2. Staff and families have differing perceptions about the frequency of communication and the experiences occurring in the early childhood service. Families report that the experiences they value highly are not valued by the service. 3. Despite a strong emphasis on a multicultural approach to early childhood service delivery, not all families value this notion. Rather, families want early childhood services to ‘teach and reflect’ the dominant cultural ways of knowing and learning because this is associated with school success. 1 The researcher uses the term Aboriginal not Indigenous throughout the thesis as this as this is the main term the family used to identify themselves. 4. Some common and widely used measures assessing quality early childhood services do not include measures associated with family and community support. This thesis concludes with a set of recommendations for service delivery and policy decision makers. These focus on the need to embrace a ‘fifth discourse’ for early childhood services – one which defines the sector as the vehicle for providing safe ‘meeting places’ where families and staff participate in meaningful ways that result in true support for the complex role of parenting.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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Sojkowski, Shannon. "Sensory Exploration of Seasonally and Locally Available Vegetables and its Effects on Vegetable Consumption of Western Massachusetts Head Start Children." 2012. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/858.

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The current exploratory study, as part of the Massachusetts Farm Fresh (MAFF) research project: 1) examined the effect sensory attributes (i.e. taste profile, color, shape, texture, growth pattern) of the target vegetables have on children’s willingness to explore and consumption and 2) compared these outcomes for: facilitator-guided (FG), vs. children’s self-guided (SG) exploration. We conducted a 6-week multi-sensory nutrition education intervention with Western Massachusetts Head Start preschoolers (3-5 years of age; n=94 children) using eight vegetable pairs; outcome measures were recorded by observers. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Results are reported for 50 children with complete data at both baseline and follow-up. Willingness improved from baseline (40-50% of children = SCORE O) to follow-up (20-40% = SCORE 0) for all vegetables. Willingness scores (1) increased for “lower-sugar” vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, green bean, radish) (p=.013) (2) were lower for white vegetables (cauliflower, parsnip) versus the other color categories (red, green, orange) and (3) were higher for both pod (sugar snap peas, green beans) and long-root (carrot, parsnip) versus root vegetables (beet, radish). Pre-post mean (SE) consumption (g) increased for carrots (p=.013) (2.45+/-.39 vs 3.49+/-.43) and radishes (p=.023) ( .90+/-.22; vs 1.45+/-.29) ). At follow-up consumption of ”higher-sugar” vegetables was greater (p=.000) and carrot-parsnip pair was higher than broccoli-cauliflower (mean difference 1.49+/-.51) (p=.005) and beet-radish1.01+/-.55) (p=.071) pairs. Overall, children’s willingness and consumption varied by sensory attributes of the vegetables. The multi-sensory approach successfully activated children’s senses while providing exposure to a variety of local vegetables in the Head Start setting.

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Botha, Zelda. "Kurrikulumdifferensiasie in die vak Wiskunde Graad R vir leerders met erge intellektuele gestremdheid in inklusiewe Wes-Kaapse spesiale skole." Diss., 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/10495.

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Text in Afrikaans
In hierdie studie het die navorser die probleem van kurrikulumdifferensiasie vir Wiskunde Graad R aangespreek, sodat leerders met erge intellektuele gestremdheid ook sukses in Wiskunde Graad R kan ervaar. Die primêre vraag wat aangespreek is, is hoe die vereiste begrippe en vaardighede van die Kurrikulum- en Assesseringsbeleidsverklaring (KABV), vir Wiskunde Graad R aangepas kan word vir leerders met erge intellektuele gestremdheid. Die belangrikheid van die studie lê in die verskil wat differensiasie kan maak aan 'n leerder se geleentheid om sukses te ervaar volgens sy vermoë. Die doel hiervan is om leerkragte wat leerders met erge intellektuele gestremdheid onderrig, te bemagtig. Dit word gedoen deur aanpassings en aktiwiteite voor te stel wat tot voordeel van hierdie leerders in hul onderrigprogram geïmplementeer kan word. Dit sal daartoe bydra dat hierdie leerders die vereistes wat in die kurrikulum gestel word, in ’n beperkte mate kan bereik. Die navorsing is onderneem vanuit 'n inklusiewe perspektief aan die hand van 'n literatuurstudie en kwalitatiewe navorsing (gevalle-studie) wat semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude ingesluit het. Die resultate toon dat differensiasie wel moontlik is en dat daar verskeie aanpassings en aktiwiteite is wat leerkragte kan gebruik om hierdie leerders die geleentheid te bied om sukses te kan ervaar.
In this study the researcher addressed the challenges of curriculum differentiation for Mathematics Grade R to ensure that learners with severe intellectual disability may experience success. The primary question addressed was the manner in which the concepts and skills requirements of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), for Mathematics Grade R can be adjusted to suit the needs of learners with severe intellectual impairment. The importance of this study lies in the significant impact that differentiation can make in providing the opportunity for a learner to experience success according to his abilities. The purpose of this study was to empower teachers of learners with severe intellectual disability with the necessary knowledge, enabling them to successfully implement adaptations. This would allow the learners to achieve the requirements of the proposed curriculum, to a limited extent. Qualitative (case study) research was conducted from an inclusive perspective using a literature review and semi-structured interviews. The results showed that differentiation is possible and that there are several adaptations and activities that could be used by teachers to offer these learners the opportunity to experience success.
Inclusive Education
M. Ed. (Inklusiewe Onderwys)

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Preschool education – Western Australia'

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