I was impressed by a comment made by Cherry Collins during the presentation of the 1999 AARE Doctoral Thesis Award(s) at the recent conference in Melbourne. Reflecting on the increasingly busy lives of academics, she noted in her introductory comments that some of the best research in education is currently being conducted by our doctoral students and she challenged her audience to take note of their work. In this issue of the Newsletter we re-introduce a popular segment, first instigated by John Knight when he was on the executive a few years ago, in which abstracts from recently awarded doctoral theses (PhDs and EdDs) in education were reproduced.
It's going to be difficult to restrict the segment to a reasonable size; ACER records (see the Bibliography of Education Theses in Australia) indicate that 203 education doctorates were awarded by Australian universities in 1998 alone. (How's that for outcomes-based education!) But it still seems a worthwhile task, even if we only skim the surface, reporting titles and abbreviated abstracts to whet the appetite. I would very much like this segment to contain current (within the last 6 months) details as well as be a space in which to acknowledge the very real and substantive contribution made by Australian researchers in education to the production of knowledge; an acknowledgment that seems somewhat absent from the recent Kemp White Paper.
If you would like to volunteer on behalf of your institution to pass on details of recently awarded doctoral theses in education, please register your interest by emailing me at t.gale@cqu.edu.au. Depending on volume, submissions will probably need to be restricted to 100 words plus title, etc. Of course, full current details can be made available on AARE's web site, where there will also be a link to ACER's database (the Australian Education Index compiled by ACER's Cunningham Library) covering previous years. ACER is currently collecting 1999 data and I am grateful to its Cunningham Library for supplying the information below from this data collection.
So. to kick things off, below are four titles and three abbreviated abstracts of doctoral theses awarded during 1999. It is a very random or, should I say, idiosyncratic sample and I trust my truncations 'do justice' to these theses. Congratulations to the authors, and others not listed for reasons of space, not just for receiving doctoral awards but also for the quality of the research that led to them. And thank you, Cherry, for drawing our attention to this rich and valuable body of work.
Trevor Gale
Executive Member
Dr Bruce Burnett (PhD), Deakin University, A narrative analysis of female student 'resistance ' in a Japanese private university.
Dr Brian O'Donnell (PhD), University of Western Sydney, A model for registering teachers. accrediting teacher education and awarding advanced certification in Australia. A means ol advancing the status of teaching as a professron
Dr Barry Schwarzer (EdD), Charles Sturt University, Teachers as believers. A case study of teachers ' ability to describe their reaching practice.
Dr Debra Panizzon (PhD), University of New England, Senior secondary and early tertiary science students' developmental understandings of diffusion and osmosis:+ A neo-Piagetian approach.
Dr Sean Regan (PhD), University of New England, The post-Dawkins idea of a university. A Tory pragmatist interpretation of Australian university reform 1987-1996.
The subject of this thesis is determination of an appropriate theoretical framework for the analysis of Australian higher education reform from 1987 to 1996. Its intended original contribution to knowledge is twofold. In proposing a new investigatory context in which competing claims about the significance and implications of the labor Government's reforms may be usefully articulated, it aims not only to demonstrate the nature and consequences of those claims ... but also ... to present, by example, a general renovation of public policy methodology and critique of existing Australian work in this field. The methodological context is established by a critical review of recent developments in postpositivist policy analysis. leading to a qualified perspective of 'Tory pragmatism'. Blending concepts and arguments from the philosophical work of Porty and Oakeshott, this provides an analytical focus on significance and meaning rather than empirical reconstruction or causal analysis ... The empirical application explores the proposition that Australia may be usefully viewed as a 'postmodern' societ)-. Diagnosed in terms quite distinct from those of postmodernist theory itself, this provides a picture both of the national priorities which officially underlay Government policy on tertiary education and of the several ways in which the traditional 'idea' of university identity and purpose may be redescribed. ...
Dr Jill Sanguinetti (PhD), Deakin University, Within and against performativity.' Discursive engagement in adult literacy and basic education.
In this thesis I teaching, surviving, resisting, and 'living the contradictions' (Seddon 1994) in the context of struggles to comply with and resist the requirements of performativity. Following Foucault and a number of feminist poststructuralist authors, I have applied the notions of'discursive engagement' and 'the politics of discourse' (Yeatman 1990a) as a way of theorising the interplay between imposed change and teachers' practice. I explore the discursive practices which take place at the interface between the 'new' policy discourses and older, naturalised discourses: how teachers are engaged by and are engaging with discourses of performativity; how teachers are discursively constructing adult literacy pedagogy; what new, hybrid discourses of 'good practice' are emerging; and the micropractices of resistance which teachers are enacting in their speech and in their practice. My purpose was to develop knowledge which would support the reflexivity of teachers; to enrich the theoretical languages that teachers could draw upon in trying to make sense of their situation: and to use those languages in speaking about the dilemmas of practice.... This research provides grounds for hope that, by becoming more self-conscious about how we engage discursively, we might become more strategic in our everyday professional practice. Notwithstanding the constraints ... there is space for teachers to become more reflexive in their professional, pedagogical and political praxis. Development of more deliberate, self- reflexive praxis might lead to a 'postmodern democratic politics' (Yeatman 1994: 112) which would challenge the performative state and the system of globalised capital which it serves.
Dr Patricia Thomson (PhD), Deakin University. 'Doing justice'.+ Stories of everyday life in disadvantaged schools and neighbourhoods.
In this study I asked colleagues from sixteen schools in the northern and western suburbs of Adelaide to co-theorise about changes in their neighbourhood, school populations and programs, now that their schools are no longer recognised by policy as 'disadvantaged'. I explore the use of narrative method and arts based approaches by constructing a 'literary' research text that uses conventional sociological forms together with Images, poetry and personal stories. ... After examining the literature on poverty in Australia, I am eventually prepared to call this space class, understanding that this is a sociological metaphor. ... I indicate how each school is differently able to 'do more with less', because of their unique neighbourhood and its narratives, knowledges, histories, teleologies and people. I show that the common coercive regimes of market devolution, new public management and the 'distributive curriculum' frame the work of teachers, students and administrators in ways that are not conducive to 'doing .justice', despite the policy rhetoric of equity and community. I provide evidence that the neoliberal imaginary of context free schooling enshrined in effective schools literatures is utopian and irrational.... I conclude by speculating on the kinds of policy and research agendas that might take account of both the commonalities and differences amongst 'disadvantaged schools', and what might be included in a comprehensive and systematic approach to 'doing justice'.
Trevor Gale
Editor "Recent Doctoral Theses in Education"