The major purposes of this Field Study are twofold:
firstly, to examine, briefly, the major issues in the transition
of Australian secondary students from school to the world of
work, and secondly, to examine one school-based and school-developed
program which has been produced in response to perceived student
needs in one particular school within one particular community.
Whilst the emergence of school to work transition has only
recently been recognized as being of major importance, it is now,
as an educational issue, receiving widespread attention both in
Australian and overseas. Transition programs are now also receiving
considerable funding from Commonwealth Government Sources. The
opening two chapters of this Field Study focus on the process of
this raising of consciousness, both from the point of view of the
initiating forces in Australian Society, as well as from some of
the policy proposals and recommendations emerging from a national
examination of the problem of transition. In addition some attempt
is made to establish a particular philosophical stance - a stance
which embodies those characteristics of a program considered, by
this writer at least, to be essential components of any attempt
by schools to come to grips with the needs of their students who
are facing the process of transition.
The middle section of this Field Study examines the approach
that one particular school has adopted in the development of
such a program - an examination which highlights such areas as
the process of curriculum change, the clarification of expressed
student needs, development of philosophical bases, sources and
significance of Commonwealth funding and the political ramifications
of program adoption.
The final section of this Field Study commences an evaluation
of this particular school's transition program based loosely
upon evaluation guidelines developed by Robert Stake. Whilst this
can only be a part evaluation (both because of the on-going nature
of the program and the writer's involvement in the program as its
director. )it is hoped that such an evaluation will produce a
set of useful recommendations - useful both for the effective continuation
of the program and useful for the implementation of possible
future programs designed to assist Australian youth facing this
major, and often traumatic, transition form school to the "real
life world" outside school.
The reader's attention is drawn to the range of possible
future audiences of this report - audiences ranging from the
academic examination of the project as part of a masters' degree
to the clients of the actual program reported. Given this range of
audience, it has been the intention of the writer to produce as
"readable" a document as possible. It is the hope that in so doing
all audiences will be served.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219454 |
| Date | January 1982 |
| Creators | White, Peter J., n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Peter J. White |
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