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Research-at-work seminars 2006
Presented by: Barbara Comber and Helen Nixon
Topic: Researching the teaching and learning of spatial and critical
literacies
This presentation drew on aspects of the project Urban renewal from the
inside out (2004-2005) funded by the Myer Foundation and undertaken by
researchers and students from the departments of Architecture, Education
and Journalism at the University of South Australia. Project members
worked together to construct a space that connected the school, its
pre-school and community and incorporated garden beds, a water feature,
benches and shade structures. The presentation focused on our attempts
to analyse children’s textual and other semiotic practices as evidence
of their developing repertoires of spatial and critical literacy
practices.
Presented by: Helen Ovsienko and Renate Quinn
Helen Ovsienko: A study of teachers’ professional identities when
struggling to do justice against the grain
This honours research was attached to the Redesigning Pedagogies in the
North ARC Linkage project and was conducted in 2005. The study is based
on interviews with eight teachers in schools of Adelaide’s northern
suburbs. It depicts dispositions, conflicts and contradictions within
the professional identity structures of teachers whose testimonies
indicate career commitments to pursue socially just education for
students traditionally marginalised by the educational system. Data
analysis shows that while these teachers’ efforts are sustained by
capacities for self-renewing commitment to socially just education, they
also experience tensions and contradictions in struggling to do justice
‘against the grain’ of mainstream institutional constraints. These
struggles bring out the complexities of socially just education, and how
such work entails deep ambivalences, as well as potentials for growth,
in teachers’ senses of self as ‘professionals’.
Renate Quinn: Putting the home back into homework: a case study of one
school
In recent times, homework has emerged as a site of controversy, with
differing views on the need for homework and the possible links between
homework and academic achievement. While implementing homework in the
post-compulsory years is an accepted part of educational practice, those
interested in education contest the nature of homework in the middle
years of schooling. This presentation reports on an honours research
study that focuses on the attempts of one school to implement new
homework practices by introducing the ‘Homework Grid’ designed by Ian
Lillico (2001) to encourage strong connectedness between homework and
life outside of school. The presentation reported on the implementation
of the Grid, teacher and student perceptions as well as emergent
insights for those interested in micro school reform.
Presented by: Marie Brennan, Eleanor Ramsay, Alison Mackinnon, Rochelle
Woodley-Baker, and Katherine Hodgetts
Topic: Pathways or cul de sacs? The causes, impact and implications of
part-time senior secondary study
This seminar focused on a current research project being conducted by
UniSA - an ARC Linkage project 2003-2006 with partners DECS, SSABSA and
the Social Inclusion Unit. The research investigates the factors that
contribute to the relatively high proportion of South Australian
students who undertake their senior secondary studies part time. It
explores the implications for students and their communities in terms of
educational and employment outcomes. It also maps the geographic gender
and socio-economic dimensions of the phenomenon and identify whether
there is a relationship between part time senior secondary study, early
school leaving and re-entry pathways. The project draws upon recent
state and national research and educational policy analyses and on
qualitative and quantitative data at state and regional level to enhance
understandings of these issues and inform the development of educational
and youth policy at the state and national levels.
Presenters: Phil Cormack, Sue Nichols, Monica Behrend, Jenni Carter,
John Collins, Christine Davis, Lyn Kerkham and Ann Luzeckyj
Topic: Connecting the dots: mapping the field of discourse by reading
across texts
This session was designed for research students, supervisors and anyone
interested in the practices of reading in and for research. In the
seminar, members of the ‘Discourse and text analysis’ postgraduate
reading group in the LPLC presented different ‘mappings’ of the field of
discourse theory. Members of the reading group made brief presentations
that described how their reading across the field of discourse theory
informs their understanding of a particular theorist within that field.
These presentations arose from the work of the reading group which has
focused not only on texts which present the particular views of
theorists, but also on texts which develop maps to represent the
position of those same theorists within the field. Such works showed
that the position of a particular theorist in the field is not
necessarily fixed and is open to debate.
PowerPoint presentation
PowerPoint audio files:
Reading Pt 1
Reading Pt 2
Drawing discussion
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