An examination was made of the effectiveness of cooperative learning as a strategy for enhancing the social acceptance of preschool children with disabilities who had been included in a mainstream educational setting. Preschool groups accommodating children with special needs were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions - cooperative play and social skills training, social skills training on1y, or control (no intervention). Children in the cooperative play programme received significantly higher levels of social acceptance than did those in the social-skills or regular preschool programmes. Moreover, the cooperative play group showed significantly more positive and more frequent social interactions with nondisabled peers than did the children in the other groups. It was also found that following the intervention the children in both the cooperative and social-skills treatment groups were rated significantly higher than were those in the control group on social skills and social play posttest measures. The results thus indicate that the use of structured cooperative play yielded an incremental effect over social-skills training in furthering the social integration of preschool children with disabilities in mainstream settings. The finding that increased social acceptance occurs in situations where social-skills training is undertaken within a framework of structured cooperative play was discussed terms of its implications for the social inclusion of young children with disabilities in integrated educational settings. It was noted that if participation in mainstream preschool settings is to be of real value for young children with disabilities, programmes designed to maximize social acceptance, such as structured cooperative play and social-skills training, need to be utilized to facilitate social interaction. Indeed, in the absence of strategies to enhance social integration, the placement of young children with disabilities in mainstream educational settings may well place such children at risk with respect to their social development.

This thesis investigates the ways in which concepts of binary opposition are elaborated in some of the key contemporary theories on difference and identity. This project contributes to the emerging scholarship on the notion of emancipation and empowerment in educational theory. It explores discourses of difference and identity that are engaged with constructions and re-construction of the notions of Self and Other. This thesis develops a systematic analysis of texts with arguments on political performance of representation and agency. The thesis begins with an examination of Hegel's thesis on the relationship between the lord and the bondsman which is implemented in the political discourses of John Rex and Paulo Freire. It continues to examine political theses with emphasis on the relationship between the mind and the body; examinations include theses offered by Robert Miles and Frantz Fanon. This thesis also explores the methodological value of concepts of binary opposition; it explores Claude Lévi-Strauss' theory on cultural differences and examines Iris M. Young and Chantal Mouffe's discourses on the 'politics of difference'. This thesis further explores Jacques Derrida's notions of deconstruction and différence together with analyses and critiques of Homi Bhabha's and Gayatri Spivak's reconstruction of concepts of binary oppositions. This thesis calls for a consideration of Derrida's thoughts on the political as an approach to the understanding difference and identity. I propose a double reading of the texts examined in this thesis: on the one hand, they are genealogical analyses to understand and criticise the ways in which knowledge on (racial and cultural) difference and identity have been constructed. On the other hand, they are given affirmations of political significance with their performative effectiveness that language allows them to achieve.

An examination was made of the effectiveness of cooperative learning as a strategy for enhancing the social acceptance of preschool children with disabilities who had been included in a mainstream educational setting. Preschool groups accommodating children with special needs were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions - cooperative play and social skills training, social skills training on1y, or control (no intervention). Children in the cooperative play programme received significantly higher levels of social acceptance than did those in the social-skills or regular preschool programmes. Moreover, the cooperative play group showed significantly more positive and more frequent social interactions with nondisabled peers than did the children in the other groups. It was also found that following the intervention the children in both the cooperative and social-skills treatment groups were rated significantly higher than were those in the control group on social skills and social play posttest measures. The results thus indicate that the use of structured cooperative play yielded an incremental effect over social-skills training in furthering the social integration of preschool children with disabilities in mainstream settings. The finding that increased social acceptance occurs in situations where social-skills training is undertaken within a framework of structured cooperative play was discussed terms of its implications for the social inclusion of young children with disabilities in integrated educational settings. It was noted that if participation in mainstream preschool settings is to be of real value for young children with disabilities, programmes designed to maximize social acceptance, such as structured cooperative play and social-skills training, need to be utilized to facilitate social interaction. Indeed, in the absence of strategies to enhance social integration, the placement of young children with disabilities in mainstream educational settings may well place such children at risk with respect to their social development.

This study examined a six-month implementation of the Responsibility Model (RM) in a New Zealand secondary school. Four classes were involved in the study, two classes were taught a programme based on the RM and two classes were taught using a traditional pedagogical approach to physical education. All four classes were taught by the same teacher. A mixed methodological approach was used combining case study and quasi-experimental research. Data were collected through interviews, observations, analysis of detention patterns, and regular student self-assessments. The implementation was successful in developing positive, supportive and well-behaved classes in physical education. The majority of students developed a greater understanding of personal and social responsibility and became more personally and socially responsible in class. The students were not found to be disadvantaged in meeting the physical education curriculum goals and students in the RM classes were found to be more engaged in their class work than the equivalent students in the control classes. If the true measure of success, however, is that students are able to take what is learnt in physical education and apply it in other contexts, then this implementation was less successful. For the vast majority of students the teaching and learning about personal and social responsibility was firmly associated with physical education and they generally showed little understanding of the potential for the transfer of learning to other contexts. It is possible that a longer implementation and a more consistent reinforcement of the concept of transfer would lead to students developing greater understanding of the models potential application in other areas of their lives. This study has implications for teachers who are considering introducing the RM into their teaching. It provides insights into the realities of implementing the RM into the specific context of secondary school physical education programmes. It also challenges the assumptions that teachers may have that the introduction of the RM is a relatively unproblematic process and identifies a number of areas of potential difficulty. The study concludes with recommendations for teachers contemplating introducing the RM into their practice.

This study investigates the development of a community of learners by observing the changes in teachers' and children's participation in four Year 3 / 4 classrooms. The study also explores the teachers' and children's perspectives of learning and teaching and the impact of these on the development of a community of learners. Factors enabling and constraining this developmental process are also identified. These research foci respond to a synthesis of research revealing the importance of teachers and children learning together in cohesive learning communities (Alton-Lee, 2003); a sociocultural approach that is uncommon in New Zealand primary classrooms.Sociocultural theory also informs the generation, analysis and presentation of data. Participant observations, sustained conversations and interviews with the teachers and target children were used to generate data across three cycles of collaborative action research over one school year. Analyses of these data were made by observing the teachers' and the children's transformation of participation through Rogoff's (2003) personal, interpersonal and institutional lenses. The results of this analysis process are presented according to the lens through which the transformation was observed.The findings showed a community of learners as comprising reciprocal connections across cognitive, social, emotional, spiritual and physical dimensions. Transformations of the teachers' and the children's participation in these five reciprocal connections were observed as evidence that a community of learners was developing. These new forms of participation in the classroom shaped, and were shaped by, new identities as learners and teachers, new perspectives about learning and teaching, as well as new culturally authorised values and practices for learning together. Multiple factors constrained the development of a community of learners. The most pervasive constraint was the persistence of teachers' and children's traditional perspectives that prevented understanding of the reciprocity and responsivity of shared activity. A range of factors also enabled the development of a community of learners. The opportunity for professional dialogu in this collaborative action research most enabled the teachers' to develop a community of learners in the classroom: the opportunity for guided participation with teachers and peers in shared classroom activity most enabled the children to learn together.These findings reveal the demanding, complex and mutually constituting nature of developing a community of learners in a primary classroom. The transformation of participation observed in this study provides evidence of the positive contributions sociocultural theory can make to both teachers' and to children's learning. Implications based on these findings are considered for teachers, children, researchers and education providers who together share responsibility for developing and sustaining a community of learners as accepted instructional practice in primary classrooms.

Research evidence suggests that appropriate use of formative assessment promotes effective learning. Improved learning occurs when assessment is viewed as integral to learning, and when it is supported by coherent assessment systems. Although assessment systems designed primarily around the formative purpose can provide both formative and summative information, a tension exists in practice between the summative and formative purposes of assessment. Using a theoretical framework developed by Sadler (1989), this research project investigated whether New Zealand’s new secondary school Standards-Based Assessment qualification—the National Certificate Educational Achievement (NCEA)—has the potential to satisfy both summative and formative purposes of assessment in mathematics. Theorising from a contemporary sociocultural perspective of learning, this project recognised the situated nature and interpersonal dimension of knowledge, and the impact of the social environment in promoting and directing learning. Theorising from this perspective offered opportunities to examine classroom assessment practices from a new perspective. To date, insufficient attention has been paid to the ‘students’ voice’ concerning educational matters that directly affect them. Given the situated nature of students’ engagement with formative practices a case study approach was used to investigate students’ perceptions of the formative potential of NCEA mathematics assessment tasks. Three Y12 mathematics classes from an urban secondary school formed the case study singularity for this study. Focus group interviews with nine students were conducted across the year, complemented by classroom observations, a focus group interview with the teachers, and a quantitative questionnaire with all students in each of the three Year 12 mathematics classes. An examination of the philosophical and structural design of NCEA revealed a strong potential for it to serve a duality of both formative and summative purpose of assessment. However the formative potential of NCEA was yet to be fully realised in the case study classrooms. Students’ underdeveloped knowledge of assessment criteria effectively reduced the potential for students’ independent use of self assessment strategies. This project also identified that teachers and students held differing views on preferred feedback practices. The teachers perceived that students did not read written feedback, and this perception significantly influenced the amount of written feedback that they offered to students. In contrast, students clearly displayed that they read, valued and used scaffolded written feedback to improve their learning. While the teachers preferred to offer oral feedback, students preferred to engage with their peers to use feedback to develop corrective strategies and deepen learning. The project has made a number of practical and theoretical suggestions to improve students’ understandings of the assessment criteria they are working towards, and to more effectively integrate the collaborative use of formative feedback into students’ learning experiences. In particular, it has suggested two additional perspectives on the development and use of formative assessment in a sociocultural learning environment. Firstly, that students’ knowledge of the role of formative assessment is socially and contextually situated, and develops through the social interactions that occur in the classroom. Secondly, the potential exists for formative assessment practices to stimulate collaborative learning opportunities within communities of practice.

This thesis explores how teachers develop working theories and practices for small numbers of non-English speaking background (NESB) students in mainstream classes. The investigation included eight class teachers and four different school settings. A pilot phase was conducted in one school at the end of 2000. The major phase of the study was carried out in 2002. In each of the four terms that year, a different school became the context for the study and the focus was placed on a year 1-2 class teacher and a year 5-6 class teacher in that school. The study employed a qualitative ethnographic approach. Information was collected about each class teacher's experience, knowledge, confidence, teaching strategies, the degree of stress experienced when teaching NESB students in various class groupings, and the way in which individual and class needs were balanced. An initial intensive interview with each class teacher was followed by in-class observations. These observations were interspersed by two reflective discussions which took place in the middle and at the end of the school term. Discussions took a reflective problem-solving approach that made use of a write-down, think-aloud technique, and focused on critical learning and teaching episodes from the class. In addition, a reflective journal was kept, and semi-structured interviews were carried out with teachers responsible for the English for Speakers of Other Languages programme in the school. The results of the inquiry led to the development of a theoretical model which illustrated how the evolution of teachers' praxis was influenced by dynamic interactions within and across three contextual layers: the educational community, the classroom, and the reflective practitioner. Each teacher's professional knowledge was informed by a unique background of experience and the nature of the collaboration that occurred with colleagues and parents. In turn, these factors impacted on the formation of pedagogic beliefs, perceived efficacy, and the evolution, selection and implementation of particular teaching roles and strategies. The study culminated with a number of recommendations being made for the enhancement of professional development initiatives, as well as for school and educational policies. In particular, these recommendations highlight the need for taking a broad ecological approach to addressing the professional needs of class teachers working with small numbers of NESB students.

The ramifications of school decline are profoundly serious for the students, staff and community of a school. School decline is the steady downwards spiral that some schools experience when a complex set of influences interact with negative and unresolved outcomes. This study explored the largely unresearched area of school decline and developed a set of potential predictors of decline that could assist in understanding, preventing or dealing effectively with school decline in the future. Grounded theory, selected as a methodology appropriate for exploratory research, was used to guide the process of data collection and theory development. Three schools, labeled by agencies and the media as being in serious decline or “failing”, were selected for the study. Adults who were in significant roles in the schools during the decline periods were interviewed about their experiences. As part of the data analysis and interpretation a set of propositions was drafted and was sent to these interviewees and to fourteen educational advisors who work with schools at risk and in decline. The advisors’ feedback on the propositions, analysis of school related documents, Education Review Office reports and Ministry of Education file documents provided rich additional data. The factors associated with the lead up to school decline, and the process of decline, are multilayered, contextual and complex. Each study school’s experience of decline involved a unique combination and order of occurrence of common factors and influences. Many of the issues that predispose schools towards decline are associated with, and are exacerbated by, unethical or unprofessional attitudes or behaviour by individuals, and unprofessional practices within the schools and between neighbouring schools. Once decline begins it escalates and is difficult to stop. This thesis contributes towards the development of a theory of school decline by identifying potential predictors of school decline and by describing how decline begins and escalates. It also identifies factors that are associated with interventions being insufficient or ineffective. The theory of school decline provides insights for school leaders and educational agencies that may assist in the prediction and prevention of school decline in the future.

Changes recently introduced in the administration of New Zealand education were intended to ensure that schools would become more responsive to their communities. Many aspects of school governance were devolved from a central government bureaucracy to Boards of Trustees at each school and greater choice of school was given to parents. In this thesis I examine the assumptions underlying these policy changes and propose a model of the processes necessary for the development of school responsiveness. The research progressed over four phases. In the first I survey beliefs and practices in 38 Auckland schools about the new school-community partnership established by the devolution of governance responsibility to the Boards of Trustees. This survey was followed by a second more extensive questionnaire survey on the same topic in ten of these schools. The role educational values might play in parents' choice of school and their perceptions of school responsiveness were addressed in a survey of five secondary schools in the second phase. The third phase comprised case studies of two schools which had contrasting community-school relationships. In one school the principal valued a close partnership with the community, yet the school roll had fallen steadily over a five year period. In the other school, which enjoyed a rapidly increasing roll, the principal believed educational decisions should be left to the professionals. The case studies investigated this apparent contradiction, that the partnership relationship between parents and professionals which was designed to increase school responsiveness appeared to be unrelated to roll trends, a possible indicator of responsiveness. In the fourth phase I describe and evaluate how the school with the declining roll attempted to become more responsive to its community. The research results show that the concept of responsiveness contained in the initial policy documents was simplistic in that neither a community-school partnership nor school choice was sufficient to improve responsiveness to the community. I propose a more focused concept of responsiveness than that contained in the policy documents and identify two critical attributes of this concept; the school's educational values and parents' concerns about school practice. Parents choose schools because they perceive that the professionals share their educational values. I suggest that establishing cohesive values, both between home and school and within the school itself, is educationally desirable and critical to achieving responsiveness. This cohesion, however, should be enacted in a way which respects the diversity within the school population if some students are not to be alienated by the values of the majority. The second attribute of responsiveness, acting on valid concerns of parents, involves parents in decisions about school practice of greatest importance to them. Vague calls for consultation on school policy do not achieve this aim. My proposed concept of responsiveness does not assume that parents dominate areas previously reserved for professional prerogative, but rather that parents and professionals jointly determine policy in those areas critical to achieving responsiveness. School-community partnerships and school choice will not result in responsiveness unless they serve as catalysts for professional learning about the values and concerns of the community. This learning is enhanced if schools encourage parents to exercise influence and engage in joint problem-solving. Achieving school responsiveness depends more on the attitudes and skills of the participants in the partnership than on the structural changes enacted in the recent legislation.

Changes recently introduced in the administration of New Zealand education were intended to ensure that schools would become more responsive to their communities. Many aspects of school governance were devolved from a central government bureaucracy to Boards of Trustees at each school and greater choice of school was given to parents. In this thesis I examine the assumptions underlying these policy changes and propose a model of the processes necessary for the development of school responsiveness. The research progressed over four phases. In the first I survey beliefs and practices in 38 Auckland schools about the new school-community partnership established by the devolution of governance responsibility to the Boards of Trustees. This survey was followed by a second more extensive questionnaire survey on the same topic in ten of these schools. The role educational values might play in parents' choice of school and their perceptions of school responsiveness were addressed in a survey of five secondary schools in the second phase. The third phase comprised case studies of two schools which had contrasting community-school relationships. In one school the principal valued a close partnership with the community, yet the school roll had fallen steadily over a five year period. In the other school, which enjoyed a rapidly increasing roll, the principal believed educational decisions should be left to the professionals. The case studies investigated this apparent contradiction, that the partnership relationship between parents and professionals which was designed to increase school responsiveness appeared to be unrelated to roll trends, a possible indicator of responsiveness. In the fourth phase I describe and evaluate how the school with the declining roll attempted to become more responsive to its community. The research results show that the concept of responsiveness contained in the initial policy documents was simplistic in that neither a community-school partnership nor school choice was sufficient to improve responsiveness to the community. I propose a more focused concept of responsiveness than that contained in the policy documents and identify two critical attributes of this concept; the school's educational values and parents' concerns about school practice. Parents choose schools because they perceive that the professionals share their educational values. I suggest that establishing cohesive values, both between home and school and within the school itself, is educationally desirable and critical to achieving responsiveness. This cohesion, however, should be enacted in a way which respects the diversity within the school population if some students are not to be alienated by the values of the majority. The second attribute of responsiveness, acting on valid concerns of parents, involves parents in decisions about school practice of greatest importance to them. Vague calls for consultation on school policy do not achieve this aim. My proposed concept of responsiveness does not assume that parents dominate areas previously reserved for professional prerogative, but rather that parents and professionals jointly determine policy in those areas critical to achieving responsiveness. School-community partnerships and school choice will not result in responsiveness unless they serve as catalysts for professional learning about the values and concerns of the community. This learning is enhanced if schools encourage parents to exercise influence and engage in joint problem-solving. Achieving school responsiveness depends more on the attitudes and skills of the participants in the partnership than on the structural changes enacted in the recent legislation.