Thesis
School culture, socioeconomic disadvantage, and academic attainment in an Australian state: a mixed methods study
- Abstract:
- Schools make a difference. An effective school is characterised by quality and equity. This study aims to investigate school culture and its link with academic attainment particularly with regard to socioeconomically disadvantaged students in New South Wales (NSW). The study will justify the use of mixed methods research (MMR) to investigate school culture as an element of educational effectiveness. This study analyses PISA 2015 quantitative data by completing Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to define specific school culture factors of leadership, teachers, student engagement and resourcing. These factors are placed into a linear regression model to determine their link to academic attainment in mathematical, reading and scientific literacy. The qualitative database is derived from interviews with active principals to determine their perception of the link between school culture factors and academic attainment. A particular focus in these interviews is the influence of socioeconomic disadvantage on the principal’ perceptions of school cultural change. It is found that leadership and student engagement have a significant link to academic attainment and that principals agree that leading with vision is vital but believe that developing teacher capacity is the strategy used to improve school culture. The results indicate that students who are from disadvantaged backgrounds do have improved academic attainment in positive school cultures and this relationship should be further investigated.
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Authors
- DOI:
- Type of award:
- MSc taught course
- Level of award:
- Masters
- Awarding institution:
- University of Oxford
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Subjects:
- Deposit date:
-
2025-05-02
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Alison Burke
- Copyright date:
- 2018
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