The participation of parents in the schooling of their children has become a central policy objective of the education sector in Australia as well as other parts of the developed world. The discourse of parent participation emphasises a need for parents to be involved in order to maximise the benefits of their child’s education. Parent participation includes such practices as parents and schools working as partners to improve the well-being and achievements of an individual child to formal participation of parents in decision-making forums. This thesis approaches the issue of parent participation through a study of parent advocacy bodies as they deal with policy issues and interface with parents as the school level and governments at the policy level. The policy area of gender equity is used as an illustrative example to analyse parent advocacy bodies’ structures and ways of operating. As a result of the empirical work that involved semi-structured interviews, observation techniques and extensive use of archival material, this thesis revisits the theory of positional goods as it reflects the notion and understanding parents have broadly that education is positional in that only few can achieve the highest levels of education and hence effort is exerted in ensuring their child achieves as highly as possible. This thesis argues that gender equity is caught in this thriving to capture a positional good that is elusive for most but appears enhanced by the use of adequate gender equity strategies. The action of parents within parent advocacy bodies reflected the fight over scarce resources that were perceived to be enhancing educational outcomes for girls at the expense of boys. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/182316 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Perry-Indermaur, Astrid, University of Western Sydney, College of Social and Health Sciences, School of Applied Social and Human Sciences |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Source | THESIS_CSHS_ASH_Perry-Indermaur_A.xml |
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