A participant-observation study was carried out of
a centre providing intensive English instruction for
newly arrived, migrant adolescents. This study was
conducted during a period of fifteen months from late
in 1978 to the end of 1979, by which time the Intensive Language Unit had been operating for three and a half
years.
Part of the study traced the establishment of the
Unit as an independent body within the A.C.T. secondary
education system. This involved an examination of the
process by which the Unit was set up in 1976, and of the
context in preceding years of general developments in
migrant education throughout Australia and, in particular,
those occurring in the A.C.T.
Data collected during 1979 dealt with this background
and also with the Unit's operation and role in the A.C.T.
in 1979. Some of this data was documentary evidence but
a considerable part consisted of interview material obtained
from key individuals associated with the Unit. From this
material was gained an understanding of their perceptions
and actions in the establishment and operation of the new
institution.
Analysis of the data indicated a distinct pattern of
continuity in the first years of the Unit's existence.
It became apparent that this continuity had been maintained
by several factors. These were the existence, from the start,
of a clearly defined rationale and the presence
at the Unit of a selected group of dedicated teachers
who strongly supported it. The outcome was that in 1979
the rationale had become entrenched to such an extent that
Unit teachers were prepared to protect the Unit's
threatened integrity with considerable effort.
It was possible to relate these features of the Unit
to the general context in which it emerged. This study
revealed how, in the early 1970's, increasing awareness
of the inadequacy of migrant education as well as the
significant roles of the Schools Commission and the individual
who set up the Unit, produced a situation in which
the new centre developed its distinctive features which
still existed at the end of 1979.
A general overview was developed of how a new institution
with a high degree of autonomy was introduced into
an existing system, of the advantages and difficulties
which resulted, and how it was able to maintain its
independence and particular character during the early
years of its existence.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219183 |
| Date | January 1982 |
| Creators | Martin, Elizabeth, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Elizabeth Martin |
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