1. Project presentation
2013 MUPSA Conference
October 2013
Murdoch University
Perth
Western Australia
Presented by
Tomaz Lasic
PhD Candidate
School of Education
Murdoch University
Parents and NAPLAN
2.
3. What is NAPLAN?
National Assessment Programme – Literacy And Numeracy
Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (spelling, grammar, punctuation), Numeracy
Years 3, 5, 7, 9
Since 2008
Compulsory in ALL Australian schools
School results shown on MySchool website
Parents receive individual report for each child
The publication of performance data of literacy and numeracy tests on MySchool
website and the public accountability of schools for their NAPLAN results justify calling
NAPLAN a high stakes test (Lingard, 2010; Lobascher, 2011).
4. "If the some (parents) vote with their feet that’s
exactly what the system is designed to do”
"Of course, we expect this information to provoke
frank and robust discussions between parents, their
child’s teacher and school principals.”
Paucity of research.
Personal.
Why parents?
6. … a type of design in qualitative research that may be an object of study,
as well as the product of the inquiry. Case study research is a qualitative
approach in which the investigator explores a real-life, contemporary
bounded system (a case) or multiple bounded systems (cases) over time,
through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of
information (eg. observations, interviews, audiovisual material, and
documents and reports), and reports a case description and case themes.
The unit of analysis in the case study might be multiple case studies or a
single case.”
(Cresswell, 2013, p. 97)
Methodology – Case Study
7. Redtail Primary School Carnaby Primary School
ICSEA 943 ICSEA 1138
Low SES High SES
Aspirational Established
Changing Reputable
The two cases
Parents of children attending …
8. 4 Year 3 parents
Semi-structured interviews - initial
Semi-structured interviews – follow up
10 other parents (Year 4 – 7)
Semi-structured interviews - initial
Semi-structured interviews – follow up
7 Parent & Community Assoc. members
Focus Group (1)
8 School Board members
Focus Group (1)
1 Principal
Semi-structured interview
Sampling & methods: Carnaby PS
9. 4 Year 3 parents
Semi-structured interviews - initial
Semi-structured interviews – follow up
7 other parents (Year 4 – 7)
Semi-structured interviews - initial
Semi-structured interviews – follow up
7 Parent & Community Assoc. members
Focus Group (1)
3 School Board members
Focus Group (1)
1 Principal
Semi-structured interview
Sampling & methods: Redtail PS
10. Document analysis
• School newsletters
• MySchool profile
• School Annual Report
• School Plan
Research Journal
Methods (continued)
11. A ‘post’ …
Michel Foucault
We are effects of power and knowledge, produced through discourses.
We are not governed, we govern ourselves from within.
Theoretical lens
12. Discourse - language; determines who, what, when, how
Power creates knowledge creates power creates knowledge … not top-down, multidirectional
Subjectivity – way we see, understand, value the world produced by discourses
The way we speak, think about reality is our reality. This is
used to reinforce or subvert power and knowledge.
Theoretical lens: Key ideas
13. As subjects in advanced late-capitalist, liberal democracies we are governed not by oppression
and top-down coercion but through our freedoms and choices that we make.
Regulated ‘from inside’, knowing what free but ‘right’ choices we need to make.
Theoretical lens: Key ideas
14. How does NAPLAN produce and shape parent subjectivities?
• How do parents internalise these subjectivities?
• How do parent enact these subjectivities?
• What is the role of numerical data produced by NAPLAN in producing
and enacting parental subjectivities?
Key research questions
15. market free choice
customers privatisation
efficiency market-based
Accountability value for money
key performance indicators
competitive audit
return on investment enterprising
de-regulation market-share
Neoliberal moment – markets and enterprising selves
16. Intensely governed space 'from within' through freedoms and expertise
provided to make 'the right', optimising choices or suffer guilt, anxiety of ‘not
doing our best’ for our children.
Family – ‘free’?
17. Performativity – what’s measured counts
Complex realities reduced to simple, seemingly objective, neutral indicators by
which individuals, organisations become known by and which they (are
expected to) care about and perform to accordingly.
18. Checking on certain indicators in a complex field, created and privileged to act
as a measure of trust we can place on an individual or organisation to get
expected returns.
Audit – checking on trust, investment
19. Putting it all together – How do parents parent in this situation?
20. Academic
Complement ‘Effects of NAPLAN’ project
Add to HS testing literature
Inform policy discussions, evaluations
Parents
Interrogate ‘common sense’, show freer than we think
Schools
Insight into parent community
Theoretical
Improved understanding of subject formation based on statistical, numerical data.
Implications, outcomes …
21. References:
Cresswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches (3 ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:
SAGE Publications.
Image credits:
Sharman, J. (2013) Jigsaw puzzle [Digital photograph]. Retriened from
http://www.thefairtradestore.com.au/store/components/com_virtuemart/shop_image/product/Jigsaw_Puzzle_Di_4f4b5c792a
165.jpg
Anon (2011) Self discipline [Digital photograph]. Retrieved from
http://www.yoga24x7.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/self-discipline.jpg
Pickles, E. (2013) NAPLAN practice [Digital photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/parents-
turn-naplan-into-bestseller-20130508-2j83n.html
Dawson, D. (2010) Carnaby in flight [Digital photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.birdlife.org/community/2010/03/the-
noose-tightens-carnabys-black-cockatoo
Nicholson
McCracken
Bennet
References and credits
Hinweis der Redaktion
MUPSA Conference - Parents and NAPLANWhat is NAPLAN?Why parents?Study:Effects of NAPLAN project, timelineKey research questionsMethodology – Case studyMethodology – Two casesMethodology – SamplingMethodology – MethodTheoretical lens – Foucault’s power/knowledge, discourse, subjectivities Theoretical lens - GovernmentalityTheoretical lens – Rose – soul, familyTheoretical lens – Ball – performativityTheoretical lens – Power – auditPutting it together – governed through freedomImplications, outcomes
The preferred strategy when ‘how’ or ‘why’ questions are being posed, when the investigator has little control over events, and when the focus is on a contemporaryphenomenon within some real-life context (Yin, 2003, p. 1)Not there to discover the one and only truthOut there to collect stories, interpret them and provide a narrative rich, trustworthy enough to make informed judgements about the cases Generalise at your own peril
French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault theorized that "discourses" (meaning the ways in which we speak and think about our reality or some aspect of that reality) actually structure our reality and iin most instances are used to reinforce hierarchies of power, but can also be used to subvert these same hierarchies.
French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault theorized that "discourses" (meaning the ways in which we speak and think about our reality or some aspect of that reality) actually structure our reality and iin most instances are used to reinforce hierarchies of power, but can also be used to subvert these same hierarchies.
French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault theorized that "discourses" (meaning the ways in which we speak and think about our reality or some aspect of that reality) actually structure our reality and iin most instances are used to reinforce hierarchies of power, but can also be used to subvert these same hierarchies.We are not governed, we govern ourselves instead. Normalised
Checking on certain indicators in a complex field,created and privileged to act as a measure of trust we can place on an individual or organisation to get expected returns.
What parents do is discursively produced, subjectivities through which they see the world, their realities Parents choose to do certain things (buy NAPLAN packs, encourage kids, withdraw kids, talk to friends about NAPLAN …) discourses speak through them and at the same time they create those discourses they are a part ofGovernmentalityGovernment of populations, capturedPerformativityStart performing what the numbers say about usAuditManaging education risk (agency?)