This thesis explores the chaotic, dynamic, ambiguous, complex and confusing world of the insider researcher. The proliferating species of insider researcher is common in public sector organisations and is particularly prevalent among post-graduate students who have combined study with work. Insider researchers range from the in-house researcher employed to conduct research to those who are conducting research in addition to their normal duties. This thesis, through five illustrative case-studies, discusses, reflects upon, explains, and clarifies the possibilities, limitations and the issues arising from a consideration of the practice of professionals conducting research in the large government education system in Victoria. The central focus of this thesis, that of exploring issues arising from professionals conducting research in their own working environments, has an importance that hitherto has had little direct recognition in the qualitative education research literature. And yet the practice of insider research is common and has a potentially large impact on the nature of the decision making process in public sector organisations. This relative invisibility in the social research literature of a discussion of issues relating to insider research demands to be made more visible. It is both useful and necessary to explore the particular possibilities, conditions and challenges of insiders conducting research in public organisations as the practice of insider research contines to grow. This thesis adds to the literature by locating insider research in a discussion of the wider soial context of ideology, culture, relationships, politics, language and meaning, and the decision-making process.

Twenty years after the first pilot projects began to develop Student Active Learning (SAL) in Indonesia, and four years since it was adopted for use in the last provinces, this research investigates the implementation of Student Active Learning in Indonesian primary mathematics classrooms. A study of the relevant literature indicates that teaching based on constructivist principles is unlikely to be implemented well in mathematics classrooms unless there are high quality teachers, readily available manipulative materials, and a supportive learning environment. As Indonesian schools often lack one or more of these aspects, it seemed likely that Student Active Learning principles might not be ‘fully’ implemented in Indonesian primary mathematics classrooms. Thus a smaller scale, parallel study was carried out in Australian schools where there is no policy of Student Active Learning, but where its underlying principles are compatible with the stated views about learning and teaching mathematics. The study employed a qualitative interpretive methodology. Sixteen primary teachers from four urban and four rural Indonesian schools and four teachers from two Victorian schools were observed for four mathematics lessons each. The twenty teachers, as well as fourteen Indonesian headteachers and other education professionals, were interviewed in order to establish links between the background and beliefs of participants, and their implementation of Student Active Learning. Information on perceived constraints on the implementation of SAL was also sought. The results of this study suggest that Student Active learning has been implemented at four levels in Indonesian primary mathematics classrooms, ranging from essentially no implementation to a relatively high level of implementation, with an even higher level of implementation in three of the four Australian classrooms observed. Indonesian teachers, headteachers and supervisors hold a range of views of SAL and also of mathematics learning and teaching. These views largely depended on their in-service training in SAL and, more particularly, on their participation in the PEQIP project Typically, participants’ expressed views of SAL were at the same or higher level as their views of mathematics learning and teaching, with a similar pattern being observed in the relationship between these latter views and their implementation of SAL principles. Three factors were identified as influencing teacher change in terms of implementation of SAL: policy, curricular and organisational, and attitudes. Recommendations arising from this study include the adoption of reflection as an underlying principle in the theory of SAL, the continuation and extension of PEQIP type projects, changes in government policy on curriculum coverage and pre-service teacher training, and more support for teachers at the school and local authority levels.

The integration of disabled children into regular schools is a current educational and social issue causing widespread interest, concern and debate throughout Australia. The most controversial and innovative adoption of integration policy has occurred in Victoria since the release of the Collins Report in 1984. The present study was conducted in 26 State primary schools in the Bendigo area of the Loddon Campaspe Mallee region of Victoria where disabled children had been integrated in regular classrooms with the assistance of a paid teacher aide during 1988. The purpose of the study was to survey the concerns of those teachers into whose classes children with disabilities had been integrated. The Stages of Concern (SoC) dimension of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (C-BAM) was chosen as the research methodology. C-BAM was developed at the Research and Development Center for Teacher Education, University of Texas at Austin, and for the purpose of this study, the methodology consisted of a questionnaire of 35 standardized items (the Stages of Concern Questionnaire), and a School Survey. The study set out to identify the concerns of teachers (ii) toward integration, and to establish reasons why teachers are at particular stages of concern. Factors included teachers' age, gender, number of years of teaching experience, qualifications and in-service training. Other issues related to the disabled children themselves, the school, and factors such as availability of resources, funding levels, and access to support systems. This study developed from the policy document Integration in Victorian Education (the Collins Report, 1984). Since then, the Ministry of Education has published two additional booklets (in January and February, 1987), which partly address some of the issues included in this thesis. These include resourcing, in-servicing and the legal implications of the innovation. The analysis of the data points to major shortcomings which will jeopardize the implementation process and the likely success of the innovation. A number of recommendations have been suggested, with particular reference to the pre-service and in-service training of teachers, and issues relating to funding and resources. The findings have implications for all classroom teachers, as potentially all are required to accept disabled children into their classes. The results and recommendations also have relevance for the Ministry of Education, whose responsibility it is to ensure that the integration of disabled children into regular classes is fully supported at a government level, and for training institutions, whose task it is to provide appropriate pre-service and in-service programs for present and future classroom teachers.

Despite the considerable significance of publicly funded education in the making of Australian society, state school histories are few in number. In comparison, most corporate and private schools have cemented their sense of community and tradition through full-length publications. This history attempts to redress this imbalance. It is an important social history because this school, Mac.Robertson Girls' High School can trace its origins back to 1905, to the very beginnings of state secondary education when the Melbourne Continuation School (MCS), later Melbourne High School (MHS) and Melbourne Girls' high School (MGHS) was established. Since it is now recognised that there are substantial state, regional and other differences between schools and their local communities, studies of individual schools are needed to underpin more general overviews of particular issues. This history, then, has wider significance: it traces strands of the development of girls' education in Victoria, thus examining the significance and dynamics of single-sex schooling, the education of girls more generally, and, importantly, girls' own experiences (and memories of experiences) of secondary schooling, as well as the meaning they made of those experiences. 'Girls, Education and Empowerment: A History of The Mac.Robertson Girls' High School 1905-2005', departs from traditional models of school history writing that tend to focus on the decision-makers and bureaucrats in education as well as documenting the most 'successful' former students who have made their mark in the world. Drawing on numerous narrative sources and documentary evidence, this history is organised thematically to contextualise and examine what is was like, and meant, to be a girl at this school (Melbourne Continuation School 1905-12; Melbourne High School 1912-27; Melbourne Girls' High School 1927-34, and Mac.Robertson Girls' High School from 1934) during a century of immense social, economic, political and educational change.

Bibliography: p. 367-392. / xv, 392 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / This thesis takes an overview of urban waste disposal practices in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide since the time of their respective settlement by Europeans through to the year 2000. The narrative identifies how such factors as the growth of representative government, the emergence of a bureaucracy, the visitation of bubonic plague, changed perceptions of risk, and the rise of the environmental movement, have directly influenced urban waste disposal outcomes. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Geographical and Environmental Studies, 2002

The thesis examines the relationship between public health and questions of housing and poverty, in Melbourne, 1888- 1918. It is concerned with the way that with certain groups of people - local council workers, tenants of houses referred to as ‘slums’, and the owners of those houses - represented their experiences. And it seeks to place those representations in the context of the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century concern about the ‘housing problems’. It compares the public rhetoric of the housing reformers and politicians with letters written to the Melbourne City Council by landlords and tenants, and in doing so seeks to show that there were a whole range of housing ‘problems’ not addressed by the public discourse. (For complete abstract open document)

<p>In the Kisumu District, Kenya, unreliable rainfall pattern has been identified as one of the main causes for poverty in rural areas. The negative effects of such unreliable patterns could be mitigated through improved water resource management and planning. However, estimates of current (and future) water availability will likely differ depending on whether managers draw upon data gathered at a local-scale or regional-scale. This is particularly important in developing regions where, due to lack of data availability, managers are often limited in their choice of data resolution. This study investigates the potential effect of spatial resolution of data on water management and planning by comparing hydro-climatic trends in local-scale data with trends in regional-scale data. The influence of adopting local-scale versus regional-scale data is further demonstrated by estimate the storage requirements of proposed irrigation ponds for farmers in the Orongo village of the Kisumu District located in Kenya, Africa. Results indicate a low correlation between local and regional hydro-climatic trends. Data spatial scale directly influences water resources management leading to a 300% difference in estimated storage requirement for the average farmer.</p>

<p>Attention to participatory watershed management is increasing across the developing world<em> </em>as<em> </em>soil erosion continues to degrade agricultural land; reservoirs and irrigation infrastructure are clogged with sediment. The realization of the importance of watersheds is crucial for sustainable utilization especially in developing countries where rural livelihoods and economies are highly dependant on the exploitation of natural resources. The Lake Victoria basin is characterized by high population pressures, low productive subsistence agriculture, poor farming methods, loss of soil fertility and deforestation due to demand of fuel wood and charcoal, timber and building materials that are posing serious threat to watersheds. High population density in the basin also means new needs emerge too fast to which rural societies cannot respond in time leading to more area expansion for agricultural land. In spite of positive efforts under the Lake Victoria Basin Commission, there remains a huge gap between policy and institutional framework development at the top level and the actual implementation of actions on the ground to prevent land degradation, soil erosion and decrease sediment load. The study focused on Kagera and Nyando catchments of Lake Victoria Basin and aiming to establish if there exist and the extent to which participatory watershed management has been implemented on the ground to decrease land degradation and sediment load. It therefore provides an insight into watershed management in the Kagera and Nyando catchments by illustrating the link between policy formulation and actual implementation and enforcement.</p>

In the Kisumu District, Kenya, unreliable rainfall pattern has been identified as one of the main causes for poverty in rural areas. The negative effects of such unreliable patterns could be mitigated through improved water resource management and planning. However, estimates of current (and future) water availability will likely differ depending on whether managers draw upon data gathered at a local-scale or regional-scale. This is particularly important in developing regions where, due to lack of data availability, managers are often limited in their choice of data resolution. This study investigates the potential effect of spatial resolution of data on water management and planning by comparing hydro-climatic trends in local-scale data with trends in regional-scale data. The influence of adopting local-scale versus regional-scale data is further demonstrated by estimate the storage requirements of proposed irrigation ponds for farmers in the Orongo village of the Kisumu District located in Kenya, Africa. Results indicate a low correlation between local and regional hydro-climatic trends. Data spatial scale directly influences water resources management leading to a 300% difference in estimated storage requirement for the average farmer.

Attention to participatory watershed management is increasing across the developing world as soil erosion continues to degrade agricultural land; reservoirs and irrigation infrastructure are clogged with sediment. The realization of the importance of watersheds is crucial for sustainable utilization especially in developing countries where rural livelihoods and economies are highly dependant on the exploitation of natural resources. The Lake Victoria basin is characterized by high population pressures, low productive subsistence agriculture, poor farming methods, loss of soil fertility and deforestation due to demand of fuel wood and charcoal, timber and building materials that are posing serious threat to watersheds. High population density in the basin also means new needs emerge too fast to which rural societies cannot respond in time leading to more area expansion for agricultural land. In spite of positive efforts under the Lake Victoria Basin Commission, there remains a huge gap between policy and institutional framework development at the top level and the actual implementation of actions on the ground to prevent land degradation, soil erosion and decrease sediment load. The study focused on Kagera and Nyando catchments of Lake Victoria Basin and aiming to establish if there exist and the extent to which participatory watershed management has been implemented on the ground to decrease land degradation and sediment load. It therefore provides an insight into watershed management in the Kagera and Nyando catchments by illustrating the link between policy formulation and actual implementation and enforcement.