The statement by the Director of the Australian
Institute of Family Studies - that Australia needs a
Family Policy in order to make Australians more aware of
the crucial role of the family in the development of human
competence - provides the benchmark for this study,
A content analysis of Australian and overseas family
policy documents reveals that present approaches are ad hoc
and fragmented - although there is a definite move towards
a developmental and integrated approach.
In this study it is argued that family policy has a
valid role in providing the context of education throughout
the life cycle of individuals, simply because, together with
education (in its widest sense of human development) it
provides the construction of social reality for members of
Australian society.
Three metaphorical models of reality promoted by
different education approaches are delineated:
(i) The Clockwork world of the megamachine and
the image of education as a means of production,
(ii) the Secular Humanistic world of dichotomies and
the image of education as a means of intellectual
growth, and
(iii) The World of Interrelationships and Wholeness
and the image of education as a life long
journey
A review of the literature on the relationship
between family and education reveals an historial development
from separation, through collaboration to integration of
these two important influences in human development.
The central issue identified for policy is that of
the twin horns of a dilemma. Either the terms of policy are
so strictly defined that it becomes a self-limiting selffulfiling
prophecy, or there is no basis at all for
constructive discussion because of the present mass of
unorganised detailed material.
A way out of this dilemma is proposed with the design
of an integrated perspective on the family for use by policy
makers, educators and families themselves. Six interrelated
models of the family (Cultural, Functional, Survival,
Developmental, Legal and Structural) are defined and their
links to the dynamics of an actual family are described.
The implications of this new conceptual tool are
briefly discussed and it is argued that any approach in
policy or practice that ignores the mutlifaceted dimensions
of this integrated perspective on the family is incomplete.
Attached to this Field Study are:
(A) A content analysis of twenty years of family
policy with an emphasis on Australian
material;
(5) A comprehensive bibliography cf Australian
and overseas material.
Each of these attachments could act as source
documents in themselves for further research in this area.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219144 |
| Date | January 1984 |
| Creators | O'Flaherty, Patrick, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Patrick O'Flaherty |
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