Literatura académica sobre el tema "Brisbane Girls' Grammar School"

The under-representation of women entering into Information and Communication Technology (ICT) programs is a long-standing and increasing problem, commonly referred to as the shrinking IT pipeline. Over the past two decades, numerous studies have investigated the low and declining female participation in the ICT educational and vocational pipeline and have identified various factors that may influence female ICT career decisions. Some of the factors identified include national and organisational culture, lack of, or poor quality ICT career information, societal influences, discriminatory work environments, practices and policies, along with the need for appropriate ICT role models. If you add to this mixture the changing and individual needs of the students, the problem becomes increasingly complex. While some studies in this area have contributed by identifying issues and making recommendations for change, some of which have been instituted, many of the efforts have centred on senior secondary school and tertiary students. However, many of the decisions that affect future career choices have already been made by this stage and there is a lack of research exploring Australian primary and lower secondary student ICT experiences and attitudes, prior to their elective subject selections. This thesis, conducted in the emerging transdisciplinary field of Social Informatics, involves an embedded single case study of metropolitan Brisbane middle-school students. It explored the ICT attitudes and perceptions of Year 4 and Year 8 students, their ICT experiences at home and at school and the influence that these ICT perceptions, attitudes and experiences have on girls’ ICT study and career choices. This study drew on literature from a variety of research disciplines including IS and computer science, education and educational psychology, career psychology, psychology, gender science and sociology. The setting for the case study involved three school types, with strong links between the Year 4 and Year 8 levels, including a government (free tuition) coeducational school, a private (tuition charged) female single-sex school and a private (tuition charged) coeducational school. In total, 58 Year 4 and Year 8 classroom visits took place. The classroom observations lasted from one lesson block (approximately 1 hour) up to a full day, depending on the availability of the students and the type of activities planned. Eleven semi-structured group interviews were held involving 49 Year 4 students and 20 Year 8 students, and individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with six teachers. These interviews generally took place at the end of the respective school term and lasted for approximately thirty minutes each. Information about classroom ICT artefacts and documents that provided information about curriculum, subject availability and subject selection options were also collected as they became available. The main findings were that middle-school girls' study and career choices take place in an environment specific to the culture in which the choices are made, in this case the Australian context, and involve social and structural factors and individual attributes. Socioeconomic factors further shaped ICT access, ICT resources and teaching to impact on the middle-school girls’ interest in ICT study and careers. The social factors included socialisers such as family and peer groups who act as positive and negative role models and share gender and ICT stereotypes. Parents also offered career advice to the students, but none of the parents encouraged the students to be involved in ICT pathways. The girls were enthusiastic and confident users of ICT, but some of the Year 8 girls were observed downplaying their scholastic ability, possibly to fit in with their peers. The media was also found to influence and reinforce the negative perceptions of gender roles and ICT stereotypes. Structural factors, including the teacher's interest and training in ICT, the curriculum content and teaching practice, and reliability of ICT resources, had a positive or negative influence on the students' ICT experiences. These experiences were important to the students’ motivation to choose ICT study and career paths. The Year 8 Computer Studies classes seemed to be used as a form of electronic babysitting, with the content and delivery given little importance. Moreover, this research confirmed that ICT subjects are regarded as being synonymous with computer literacy, and low-level skills are being taught in these classes. This study also demonstrated how the teachers’ ICT interest and enthusiasm influenced the implementation of ICT in their classroom and the enthusiasm of their students. All of the students in this study had access to computers at school and most had at least shared access at home. However, poor quality and unreliable ICT resources had a strong negative impact on the students’ desire to engage in ICT study or career paths. These ICT resources differed between schools, with low socioeconomic status schools having unreliable and poorly maintained ICT resources. Individual attributes, such as personality, aptitude and attitudes; goals and general schemata; subjective task value and interpretations of experience, were identified as being influential to girls’ ICT study and career choices. This study demonstrated that, by encouraging peer support and allowing exploration, the teachers increased the girls’ confidence and enthusiasm for ICT. Unlike the boys, the girls did not explore the computer, were generally compliant with the rules and concentrated on completing their work. However, the girls’ demonstrated compliance with classroom expectations and being careful with resources may discourage tinkering, which has been linked to increasing ICT interest and preparation for future ICT studies. While the girls were interested in using ICT, they expressed an ‘I can, but I don’t want to’ attitude towards ICT or being involved in the ICT field. Finally, the girls did not enrol in the ICT subjects as they felt that they did not fit the stereotypical image of someone who was interested in ICT. This research has shown that interest in ICT wanes in the late middle-school years and it is highly probable that most of the students in this study will not pursue an ICT career. As a result of this research, a Model of Girls’ ICT Study and Career Choices has been developed to illustrate the factors, and their interrelationships, that influence middle-school girls’ study and career choices. Furthermore, a number of recommendations for education authorities, schools and teachers have been proposed to address the problem.<br>Thesis (PhD Doctorate)<br>Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)<br>School of Information and Communication Technology<br>Faculty of Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology<br>Full Text

The amalgamation of Broadland House C.E.G.G.S. and the Launceston Church Grammar School was announced, as a fait accompli, in April 1982. The merger was to be in two stages; the separate operation of both schools under the one Headmaster from June 1982 and the completely merged schools from the beginning of 1983. Both Broadland House and the Launceston Grammar claim to be the oldest continuing schools in Australia, having been founded in 1845 and 1846 respectively. The fact that many families had been involved with either or both schools for four or five generations led to period of bitter conflict and resistance to change, which was largely overcome by the end of the first year of operation. Diminishing enrolments at both schools had been brought about largely through the rural recession in Tasmania during the 1960's, together with the provision of better school facilities and roads in the rural areas of Tasmania. The Launceston Church Grammar had become co-educational in 1972, largely as a means of survival. Previous approaches to Broadland House, by the Grammar School, to consider amalgamation had been rejected. This study endeavours to determine the strategies which led to the almost total acceptance of the amalgamation between the Broadland House Church of England Girls Grammar School and the Launceston Church Grammar School, and to explain those strategies through reference to the literature on the management of change. This involved rationalising resources, setting up new academic courses, providing physical facilities, considering the traditions of both schools, the gaining of financial, support and of developing acceptance of the change within the school community and within the community at large. The study follows the period covering the eight months of preparation prior to the amalgamation together with its first 5 years of operation, during which time the School has grown considerably and enjoys wide confidence and support. As amalgamations are occurring more regularly across the nation, it is hoped that the lessons learned through this educational innovation will be of benefit to others.

Students who identify as being from an ethnic minority are under-represented within school geography in England at Key Stage 4 (ages 14 – 16) and Key Stage 5 (ages 16 – 18). At these stages geography is an optional subject and how students view geographical knowledge may influence their GCSE and A level subject choices. This study uses an intersectional theoretical lens to explore representations of geographical knowledge by students of different ethnicities, the stories that relate to these representations and how the students accounted for the GCSE and A level subject choices that they made. The first part of the study reveals a lack of empirical and contemporary research into ethnic minority students’ views of geographical knowledge and subject choices. This is followed by a two-strand exploratory case study at one girls’ grammar school in England. The practitioner-researcher strand was two phase; in the first phase, 314 sixth form students (aged 16 – 18) completed a questionnaire to gauge initial views of geographical knowledge. During the second phase, eight of these students represented their views of geographical knowledge through collages, critical incident charts and semi-structured interviews that explored their stories in depth. In parallel, a group of Year 10 (aged 14 – 15) students as researchers used questionnaires to investigate the influence of parents and other factors contributing to students’ subject choices at GCSE level. In the study, geographical knowledge was represented in different ways given different methods. It was found to be diverse and individual, although it was possible for specific themes to be identified. The representations reflected the characteristics and concepts from students’ recent formal experiences of geography. Informal experiences also featured but these were not always explicit or straightforwardly definable. Unless students could see the intrinsic usefulness of their view of geographical knowledge then they were unlikely to choose the subject past GCSE level. This study expands theoretical conceptualisations of how students represent geographical knowledge and the factors affecting subject choice, engages students as researchers in a methodologically innovative way and provides a rich and detailed account of post-14 subject choice by ethnic minority students which otherwise does not exist in an English context.