There is a strong theme of access, equity and diversity running through most of the doctoral thesis abstracts below, particularly in relation to school and university students. These are important issues, not least because of the persistent evidence that large numbers of marginalised students continue to be unrepresented in areas of academic achievement. For example, while Australians from low socio-economic backgrounds constitute 25% of the total population, the Higher Education Report for the 2003 to 2005 Triennium (DEST, 2003) notes that their representation among university students has fallen from 14.7% in 1991 to 14.5% in 2002. It appears that Connell's observation in 1993 - that 'the best advice we can give to a poor child keen to get ahead through education is to choose richer parents' (p. 22) - continues to ring true.
Several of the abstracts below take up the issue of student diversity by focusing on those with backgrounds other than European. It if wasn't before, educational provision in Australia needs to be cognisant of this diversity in relation to its curriculum and its pedagogy, not least because of the growing numbers of overseas students studying in Australia. Many Australian universities now rely heavily on the income from their full-fee paying international students. Secondary schools (and even some primary schools) are also increasingly targeting full fee paying international students, particularly in Victoria, which is one of the world's largest providers (per capita) of education to overseas students. I am excited that the theses below have taken up some of these and related issues and I extend my congratulations to the authors for their respective contributions.
A quick word about submissions to this column. Please continue to submit them to me at Trevor.Gale@education.monash.edu.au However, submissions can only be accepted if they meet the following conditions:
Finally, I offer half an apology for the dominance in the collection below of doctoral thesis abstracts from Monash. My supply does not always equal my demand! Please encourage recently completed education doctoral students in your faculties and departments to submit their abstracts.
Trevor Gale
Executive Member
Dr Ruth Arber (PhD), Monash University, Mapping silent narrations: Racism and multiculturalism in a Melbourne school - 1988 - 1998.
Over the past decades Australian society has been transformed by changed immigration patterns. Schools in large cities such as Melbourne have been irretrievably altered by changed demographic trends. In this dissertation, I examine the ways that teachers and parents in one Melbourne secondary school speak about race and ethnic relations in the midst of these changes. I found that race and ethnic relations were seldom, and only reluctantly, broached. Yet, and at the same time, notions of ethnic and race relations remained as the central background to the discussion, approached indirectly through discussions about policies and programs of multiculturalism. In analysing these conversations about multiculturalism, it is possible to describe the categories, conditions and logics of race and ethnic difference and the terms and conditions that shape the ways such groups can belong within the school and within the school community. This thesis argues that the logic of these terms and conditions derives from deep-seated notions about the relation between self and other, and the ways in which those who are one-of-us can define their identity though the definition of that which they are not. These logics remain in place even as in an increasingly globalised and post-modern world people negotiate between raced and ethnic identities in ways that seem increasingly unconstrained and fluid. I found that while, at one level, individual negotiations between identities become confused and frightening, considerations of ethnic relations remains underpinned by taken-for-granted understandings of the ways people belong, and do not belong. The other person remains the focus of conversations about race and ethnic relations, even as he or she remains not quite known and out of reach. I argue that the conceptual and material domain of 'multiculturalism' becomes the rhetorical field of the thing to be discussed, even as that of 'racism' becomes the field, which is difficult to discuss or cannot be discussed at all.
Dr Bernard Holkner (PhD), Monash University, Developing computers for professional collaboration.
This thesis documents the development of computer communications applications in educational settings and examines the ways in which a group of education professionals adopted and modified the technologies and their own ways of working. It identifies areas of concern for the application of communication technologies in professional settings.
Dr McClintock Dandava (PhD), Monash University, Computer assisted mathematics learning in distance education in Papua New Guinea.
Many developing countries see distance education as the only viable option to solving the problem of access to education, particularly at the tertiary level. This study investigates the teaching of a distance education mathematics course using computer-assisted instruction (CAI) at the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education in the University of Papua New Guinea. The study sought to explore the viability and the applicability of a computer-assisted instruction mode of teaching and learning in a mathematics course in comparison to the traditional text and face-to-face modes. Findings suggest that a computer-assisted instruction mode of teaching and learning mathematics in PNG is viable and can be effective. Students in a CAI tutorial group performed as well as students who did the course through the traditional methods in a mathematics achievement test. The study has important implications for the adoption and implementation of computer-based learning systems in PNG.
Dr Angela Hao Chun Lee (PhD), Monash University, The development of school music education in Taiwan (1895 - 1995).
This thesis documents the development of music education in Taiwan between 1895 and 1995. The research focuses on three successive periods: the Japanese protectorate (1895-1945), the restoration of Taiwan to the Republic of China (1945-1968), and the most recent period of reform (1968-1995). This study considers elementary and secondary school music, teacher education and the school music syllabi and texts. In Taiwan, before the Japanese protectorate, Western religious music was influential. This influence continued under the Japanese who established schools and imposed a curriculum. During the Chinese restoration and the subsequent period of consolidation, schools maintained and extended many established practices including a strong influence from the West. Recently music education in Taiwan has been influenced by the approaches of Dalcroze, Kodály and Orff. The music curriculum in Taiwan was essentially a Western invention. The texts for school songs reveal social change in the different periods and advocates were influential in the development of school music.
Dr Nattavud Pimpa (PhD), Monash University, Marketing of international education: The influence of normative referents on Thai students' choices of international education.
The study researches Thai students' choice of international education (the decision to go abroad, country city, university field of study) in terms of the varying degree and kind of influence exercised by family, peers, and agents. Its qualitative approach identified five categories of personal influence, in relation to finance, information, expectation, persuasion and competition. These influences were investigated as hypotheses using a survey of Thai tertiary students in Australia. Family referents exercise relatively strong influence with postgraduate students and over decisions to study abroad, country and city. Peers and agents exercise relatively strong influence with undergraduate students and over decisions about institutions and field of study. Students from nuclear families are subject to higher family expectations than those from other family types. The study concludes with discussion of the marketing implications of the findings, and its contribution to the literature on student choice, including theorisation of the decision-making paradigm.
Dr Janette Ryan (PhD), University of Ballarat, University education for all: Teaching and learning practices for diverse groups of students
This study investigates university staff and students' views about teaching and learning practices for diverse groups of students in Australia and the United Kingdom, in the period following the introduction of mass higher education in both countries in the early 1990s. It argues that equity and widening participation policies in universities have not significantly impacted on teaching and curriculum practices, and that a gap exists in the perceptions of staff and students about how well the learning needs of diverse groups of students are being met. These gaps in perceptions existed most particularly in regard to two groups of students, students with disabilities and international students, who were more likely to have a lower concordance with their teachers' views on how well their learning needs were being catered for. The study compares responses to the massification of higher education in Australia and the United Kingdom, and reports that changes to teaching and curriculum practices that are initiated by teaching staff themselves are more likely to be supported and maintained even through changes in university policies and imperatives. The study aims to show why catering for the learning needs of diverse groups of students will be of benefit to all learners, and provides an rationale for this based upon educational, not policy, imperatives. The data for the study arises from a series of research projects undertaken in universities in Australia and the United Kingdom about teaching and learning practices for diverse groups of students, focussing upon students with disabilities and international students. The study examines the marginalisation and exclusion often reported by such students, and possible root causes of these, in terms of their implications for their learning. The study argues for a new, 'universalist', approach to teaching that encompasses, and has as its core feature, the diversity of all learners within university environments.