Positive attitude change to school - Narrative inquiry into adolescent students' lived experiences
- Authors: Wojtaszek, Sylwia
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis reports on a qualitative research study that investigated adolescent students‟ experiences of positive attitude change to school. The literature review situates the research of students‟ attitude changes to school within the affective component of the multidimensional construct of student engagement and identifies this field and the phenomenon of positive attitude change to school as underresearched and under-theorised. Narrative inquiry methodology was applied in order to provide a detailed description of students‟ lived experiences and generate knowledge to fill the existing gap of how such an experience manifests itself. Eight students, who self-reported to have experienced positive attitude change to school, shared stories through in-depth semi-structured interviews of how the attitude change came about, who or what influenced it, and what meaning they attached to it in relation to its impact on their engagement and wellbeing. Students‟ attitudes to school are predominantly examined through quantitative research, whereas this study provided a unique and nuanced insight into attitude change based on the qualitative paradigm and a social constructionist view of the experience from the students‟ vantage point. Students‟ narrative accounts are compared and contrasted with each other to identify five resonant threads associated with the experience of positive attitude change to school. Data analysis suggests that positive attitude change to school has a significant impact on student engagement in learning and student wellbeing through its embodiment of perceived positive emotions associated with being at school. It consequently illustrates the relevance of broadening the understanding of such an experience to address the critical issue of disengagement in adolescent students. Key findings indicate that students develop a negative attitude to school when personal problems remain unresolved or have been insufficiently addressed within the school environment; no “helping hand” was there to assist these ambitious students who were struggling to engage in learning due to their experience of negative emotions at school. This research study has revealed that a negative attitude to school does not necessarily equate to a negative attitude to learning. Students‟ perception of the available support, both from the teachers and the services offered at school, is a critical factor in the transformation of their attitudes to school. Further, the students who participated in this study did not themselves feel that they were equipped with the required knowledge and skills to manage their personal problems effectively in order to maintain their engagement in learning. Only after having “hit rock bottom” and having sought help from outside the school environment were the students able to apply a different perspective to their circumstances that was associated with positive attitude change to school. From this research study it can be concluded that a student‟s positive attitude to school is a requirement for successful social and academic outcomes, and it is an educational goal in itself regarding the notion of developing lifelong learners. Personal problems and their impact on student engagement and wellbeing need to be acknowledged and catered for within the school environment. School support services must proactively extend a helping hand to students who have a negative attitude to school. Further, students need to develop selfefficacy regarding their personal wellbeing so that they become confident to act autonomously in solving their situations at school that are characterised by the difficult negative emotions that they are experiencing. Students‟ attitudes to school and the complexity of the multidimensional construct of student engagement need to be considered in the development of initiatives to address adolescent student disengagement and in the development of student wellbeing frameworks.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Wojtaszek, Sylwia
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis reports on a qualitative research study that investigated adolescent students‟ experiences of positive attitude change to school. The literature review situates the research of students‟ attitude changes to school within the affective component of the multidimensional construct of student engagement and identifies this field and the phenomenon of positive attitude change to school as underresearched and under-theorised. Narrative inquiry methodology was applied in order to provide a detailed description of students‟ lived experiences and generate knowledge to fill the existing gap of how such an experience manifests itself. Eight students, who self-reported to have experienced positive attitude change to school, shared stories through in-depth semi-structured interviews of how the attitude change came about, who or what influenced it, and what meaning they attached to it in relation to its impact on their engagement and wellbeing. Students‟ attitudes to school are predominantly examined through quantitative research, whereas this study provided a unique and nuanced insight into attitude change based on the qualitative paradigm and a social constructionist view of the experience from the students‟ vantage point. Students‟ narrative accounts are compared and contrasted with each other to identify five resonant threads associated with the experience of positive attitude change to school. Data analysis suggests that positive attitude change to school has a significant impact on student engagement in learning and student wellbeing through its embodiment of perceived positive emotions associated with being at school. It consequently illustrates the relevance of broadening the understanding of such an experience to address the critical issue of disengagement in adolescent students. Key findings indicate that students develop a negative attitude to school when personal problems remain unresolved or have been insufficiently addressed within the school environment; no “helping hand” was there to assist these ambitious students who were struggling to engage in learning due to their experience of negative emotions at school. This research study has revealed that a negative attitude to school does not necessarily equate to a negative attitude to learning. Students‟ perception of the available support, both from the teachers and the services offered at school, is a critical factor in the transformation of their attitudes to school. Further, the students who participated in this study did not themselves feel that they were equipped with the required knowledge and skills to manage their personal problems effectively in order to maintain their engagement in learning. Only after having “hit rock bottom” and having sought help from outside the school environment were the students able to apply a different perspective to their circumstances that was associated with positive attitude change to school. From this research study it can be concluded that a student‟s positive attitude to school is a requirement for successful social and academic outcomes, and it is an educational goal in itself regarding the notion of developing lifelong learners. Personal problems and their impact on student engagement and wellbeing need to be acknowledged and catered for within the school environment. School support services must proactively extend a helping hand to students who have a negative attitude to school. Further, students need to develop selfefficacy regarding their personal wellbeing so that they become confident to act autonomously in solving their situations at school that are characterised by the difficult negative emotions that they are experiencing. Students‟ attitudes to school and the complexity of the multidimensional construct of student engagement need to be considered in the development of initiatives to address adolescent student disengagement and in the development of student wellbeing frameworks.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Teacher pedagogies of dialogic imagination - A narrative inquiry
- Authors: Zibell, Linda
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis is a narrative inquiry to investigate teachers’ meanings for imagination and its potency for teaching and learning. Six teachers who identified it as central to their practice shared stories of how imagination is an effective pedagogy through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Imagination is a living, mercurial phenomenon contested in philosophical circles yet taken-for-granted amongst the populace. Consequently, imagination in teaching and learning is under researched and widely regarded as mere decoration - helpful for engagement but unrelated to cognition. The literature review situates the research in international discussions concerning imagination’s value for teaching and learning. Several conceptualisations of meaning for imagination lead to a theoretical framework which re-conceptualises Bakhtin’s dialogic imagination and combines his philosophy of discourse with Ricoeur’s philosophy of imagination, and Brockmeier’s narrative imagination. Data analysis to compare and contrast the teachers’ meanings to the framework strongly suggests that, contrary to existing stereotypes, imagination is cognitive: it catalyses metaphoric meaning-making events as dialogic imagination. Since an open living discourse and narrative imagination are conditions for such meaning events, the teachers’ pedagogical choices are consequently rational and supportive of learning. Australian educational policy-makers have increasingly leveraged a closed classroom discourse over past decades: teachers must ensure students comply with national testing regimes that demand monologic responses tied to finalised syllabus requirements. Over that period students’ accomplishment has either seriously declined or flatlined. The teachers in this narrative inquiry keep living discourse and imagination open and alive but in spite of, not because of existing policy: the research presented here permits their understandings and professional art to be given voice in educational debates on effective teaching. I conclude policy makers might seriously consider the impacts of policy dynamics and whether they are slowly suffocating opportunities for a living atmosphere that invites imagination – a powerhouse of learning – into their lives.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Zibell, Linda
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: This thesis is a narrative inquiry to investigate teachers’ meanings for imagination and its potency for teaching and learning. Six teachers who identified it as central to their practice shared stories of how imagination is an effective pedagogy through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Imagination is a living, mercurial phenomenon contested in philosophical circles yet taken-for-granted amongst the populace. Consequently, imagination in teaching and learning is under researched and widely regarded as mere decoration - helpful for engagement but unrelated to cognition. The literature review situates the research in international discussions concerning imagination’s value for teaching and learning. Several conceptualisations of meaning for imagination lead to a theoretical framework which re-conceptualises Bakhtin’s dialogic imagination and combines his philosophy of discourse with Ricoeur’s philosophy of imagination, and Brockmeier’s narrative imagination. Data analysis to compare and contrast the teachers’ meanings to the framework strongly suggests that, contrary to existing stereotypes, imagination is cognitive: it catalyses metaphoric meaning-making events as dialogic imagination. Since an open living discourse and narrative imagination are conditions for such meaning events, the teachers’ pedagogical choices are consequently rational and supportive of learning. Australian educational policy-makers have increasingly leveraged a closed classroom discourse over past decades: teachers must ensure students comply with national testing regimes that demand monologic responses tied to finalised syllabus requirements. Over that period students’ accomplishment has either seriously declined or flatlined. The teachers in this narrative inquiry keep living discourse and imagination open and alive but in spite of, not because of existing policy: the research presented here permits their understandings and professional art to be given voice in educational debates on effective teaching. I conclude policy makers might seriously consider the impacts of policy dynamics and whether they are slowly suffocating opportunities for a living atmosphere that invites imagination – a powerhouse of learning – into their lives.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Intersex awareness and education : what part can health and physical education bodies of learning and teaching play?
- Hunter, Lisa, Zavros-Orr, Agli, Brömdal, Annette, Hand, Kirstine, Hart, Bonnie
- Authors: Hunter, Lisa , Zavros-Orr, Agli , Brömdal, Annette , Hand, Kirstine , Hart, Bonnie
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Sport, Education and Society Vol. 28, no. 9 (2023), p. 1047-1067
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: It is well-documented that schools fail to adequately engage with contemporary content about intersex awareness and education or inclusion of people with intersex variations. Where sexuality and relationships education are the remit of Health and Physical Education (HPE) curriculum in countries such as Australia, the learning area shows little obligation/response-ability towards the needs of students with intersex variations. It also fails to pay nuanced attention to non-dominant issues, knowledge, or people with respect to sex, gender and sexuality. Similarly, the normative endosex nature/focus of HPE/PE/sport and related professional education bodies (e.g. in teaching and coaching) ignore the need for relevant and affirming content about intersex bodies. A recent project reported here, created a collective narrative addressing how such HPE bodies of learning and teaching can advocate for and enact approaches that are inclusive, affirming, visible, and supportive in promoting and upholding the human rights and health needs of students with intersex variations. The research question driving the project was: What part can HPE bodies of learning and teaching play concerning intersex awareness and education? This original empirical research draws on the methodology and theory of narrative inquiry. The narrative was created between artefacts from a cohort of second year Australian pre-service HPE teacher education students in dialogue with teacher/researcher/expert/author bodies. The paper employs a recently developed Strategic Framework for intersex inclusion that promotes a positive whole-school approach, for educational institutions to be more inclusive, humane, safe and educationally relevant for people with intersex variations. This framework assists critical reflection on project findings. We argue that such engagement, as illustrated in this project’s scope, promotes a positive and diverse understanding about intersex in educational spaces, curriculum and pedagogies, guidelines, and policies, and ultimately reflect Australian Human Rights Commission recommendations and Australian anti-discrimination legislation. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
- Authors: Hunter, Lisa , Zavros-Orr, Agli , Brömdal, Annette , Hand, Kirstine , Hart, Bonnie
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Sport, Education and Society Vol. 28, no. 9 (2023), p. 1047-1067
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: It is well-documented that schools fail to adequately engage with contemporary content about intersex awareness and education or inclusion of people with intersex variations. Where sexuality and relationships education are the remit of Health and Physical Education (HPE) curriculum in countries such as Australia, the learning area shows little obligation/response-ability towards the needs of students with intersex variations. It also fails to pay nuanced attention to non-dominant issues, knowledge, or people with respect to sex, gender and sexuality. Similarly, the normative endosex nature/focus of HPE/PE/sport and related professional education bodies (e.g. in teaching and coaching) ignore the need for relevant and affirming content about intersex bodies. A recent project reported here, created a collective narrative addressing how such HPE bodies of learning and teaching can advocate for and enact approaches that are inclusive, affirming, visible, and supportive in promoting and upholding the human rights and health needs of students with intersex variations. The research question driving the project was: What part can HPE bodies of learning and teaching play concerning intersex awareness and education? This original empirical research draws on the methodology and theory of narrative inquiry. The narrative was created between artefacts from a cohort of second year Australian pre-service HPE teacher education students in dialogue with teacher/researcher/expert/author bodies. The paper employs a recently developed Strategic Framework for intersex inclusion that promotes a positive whole-school approach, for educational institutions to be more inclusive, humane, safe and educationally relevant for people with intersex variations. This framework assists critical reflection on project findings. We argue that such engagement, as illustrated in this project’s scope, promotes a positive and diverse understanding about intersex in educational spaces, curriculum and pedagogies, guidelines, and policies, and ultimately reflect Australian Human Rights Commission recommendations and Australian anti-discrimination legislation. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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