Browsing by Author "Bourke, Roseanna"

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    An ethnographic study of autistic children’s social experiences at school : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2024) Narayanan, Vani
    Social experiences form a ubiquitous part of school life for all children, and this is no different for autistic children. Although these children have been described as having difficulties in social contexts within their school, this thesis challenges the notion that the social lives of autistic children are compromised. Autistic children included in educational settings indicate that positive social experiences are imperative for their sense of belonging and inclusion. However, the unique nature of the social needs and experiences for each child and the context within which these take place, requires intent listening to children and their specific experiences. Children’s rights to be heard and for their active participation in matters that affect them, including in research, are underscored by policies and conventions such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This study followed the social experiences of two autistic primary school-age boys within their school over two school terms. Foregrounding the two children’s experiences of their social lives at school was enabled by engaging them as co-researchers. An ethnographic methodology with participatory methods grounded within this approach were used, and a Children’s Research Advisory Group was consulted to facilitate children’s involvement in research as partners. The participants themselves guided the data collection process, thus enabling them to share and lead their stories. The findings showed a complex and agentic picture of the autistic children’s social world that included: multidimensional friendships; meaningful play; and self-determined interactions. The findings also showed that social inclusion and social exclusion can be viewed beyond a binary understanding of solely inclusion or exclusion. A relational understanding of social inclusion and exclusion is emphasised. Children’s awareness of how they are perceived by their peers and their motivation to engage with their peers in ways that were significant to them, played a role in how they deliberately navigated their social world at school. The ethnographic methodological approach allowed for the promotion of children as competent rights-holders through three key aspects: (i) following the child’s interests, (ii) engaging in reflexive partnership, and (iii) meaningful researcher engagement over time. Through the children’s active involvement in this research, their stories emerged authentically and organically and this facilitated new understandings of autistic children’s social experiences. This study invites a reconsideration of some existing conceptualisations of autistic children’s social experiences and assumed ideas around labels.
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    Student's conceptions of learning and self-assessment in context : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2000) Bourke, Roseanna
    This study investigates years 7 and 8 students' conceptions of learning and self-assessment and then examines these conceptions in a number of learning contexts. The study was undertaken in two phases within a sociocultural framework. The first phase used a phenomenographic approach which involved indepth phenomenographic interviews with 26 students from one school. The second phase used ethnographic methods to explore the learning and self-assessment experiences of seven students during learning activities in both school and out-of-school learning settings. Interviews and observations with these students took place over a school year period, and their teachers and parents were interviewed. The phenomenographic results indicate that students hold a range of conceptions of learning and self-assessment. The less sophisticated conceptions of learning involve learning as a process of gathering facts from the teacher or other sources (books, computers) in order to "fill up the brain". More sophisticated views of learning involve students seeing learning as understanding, identifying different ways of knowing and applying different perspectives when solving a problem. The less sophisticated conceptions of self-assessment involve learners requiring external sources such as teachers, grades, stars, stamps or stickers to confirm learning, while more sophisticated conceptions of self-assessment involve the recognition of learning through pre-established or own identified criteria, and students would measure their performance in relation to these criteria. The ethnographic phase of the study portrays how students learn and self-assess in a number of different learning contexts and settings. Specifically, the thesis identifies that both the context and the assessment practices associated with the context, play a major role in identifying how students viewed learning and, ultimately, how they approached learning tasks and the way they self-assessed their work. Out-of-school learning settings established clear guidelines for the activity, identified explicit goals for learning and encouraged a community of practice. School settings tended to encourage fragmented learning and adherence to teacher expectations, rather than students' personal goal setting. The results from this study offer insights into how students conceptualise learning and self-assessment, and how different settings and contexts impact on the learner. Learners assume different roles and responsibilities according both to the group in which they are participating and to the meaning they attribute to the task.