Confirmation of Candidature - Marian Shakhovskoy

Using cogenerative dialogues to investigate how parent engagement with their adolescent children can be enhanced at home and school

ABSTRACT

Educational outcomes for youth through international testing have seen Australia’s results slipping in the last 20 years despite major investment by government in education. Perhaps more importantly the rate of self-harm and suicide is becoming much more prevalent and suicide is increasing amongst adolescents and young adults.  When parents engage with their adolescent child and their learning through the middle and secondary school years, particularly through academic socialisation, outcomes are measurable for school achievement which is a major benefit, but significantly this also has value for wellbeing, including resilience and self-esteem in young people.  Parent engagement at home has been described as “the greatest lever for child achievement” (Goodall, 2013) and this is a point of research focus that would benefit the future of this society.  Unfortunately, though, while parent engagement research is recognised in Australia as valuable, very little has been published regarding adolescents. 

Cogenerative dialoguing was developed by Wolf-Michael Roth and Kenneth Tobin in recent decades to assist pre-service teachers. This research will use co-generative dialogues to investigate how parent engagement in student learning at home and at school can be enhanced. This research will also investigate the effectiveness of cogenerative dialogues for enabling the engagement of middle school students. This will be an empirical, qualitative case study, also using the tools of Activity theory to analyse parents’ responses to the dialoguing process.  Findings will centre on the meaning and understanding developed by the parents from the cogenerative process.   

Date:                           31 July 2018

Time:                           12.30pm – 1.30pm

Location:                    Room 103/Building 31A

PANEL:                     Assoc. Prof. Liz Mackinlay (Chair)

                                    Dr Cam Brooks

Principal Advisor:    Dr Linda Willis

Associate Advisor:    Dr Jenny Povey