This study explores the coaching component of the GPLMS over the past 3 years, how it has been implemented as well as the lessons learnt with the view to understanding the coaching conditions required to assist teachers in changing their instructional practices. The GPLMS intervention consists primarily of instructional coaching which has to mediate lesson plans to teachers. This research specifically looks at the teacher-coach relations, the nature of coaching support and monitoring and its impact on teachers. Research data were collected through interviews of teachers in one FP school and one Intersen school in the Johannesburg South district as well as from two coaches and their supervisors. A Peer Learning Group (PLG) meeting in one school and a School-Based Workshop (SBW) in the other school were observed. GPLMS documents which include lesson plans and teacher observation sheets were analysed. The data analysis reveals that instructional coaching combined with high quality lesson plans are promising interventions with potential to improve teachers’ instructional practices. Much progress, however, depends on the coaches’ interpretation of their role as well as their attributes and qualities as far as the level of their subject knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge and the respect and trust between themselves and their teachers are concerned.

The focus of this study is the formation of legal professional identity and the manner and extent to which representations of legal professionals in classroom talk could feature in and be studied as part of this process. Eclipsed for many years by the need to teach students to ‘think like lawyers’, professional identify formation is increasingly acknowledged as a legitimate concern of legal educationalists. This entails expanding the sphere of legal education beyond the cognitive aspects of the discipline of law to encompass inculcation of the purposes and values of the profession but also, more broadly, an appreciation of the forms of power legal professionals exercise, the forms of work they undertake, the relationships they establish and maintain, and the social profile of the profession they advocate for or accept. The study assumes an understanding of legal professional identity formation as a pervasive and implicit process of socialization that occurs irrespective of whether professional identity has been posited as a particular pedagogical object or not. It puts forward the thesis that representations of legal professionals in classroom talk constitute part of the socialization process. It presents a theoretical model for understanding the significance of such representations in processes of identity formation, linking them to an understanding of ‘identity regulation’ that revolves around the concepts ‘role’ and ‘discourse’. It further invokes the resources of critical discourse analysis and, in particular, the work of Van Leeuwen, to develop a set of appropriate analytical codes modeled on key elements of social practice for analyzing representational meanings relating to legal professionals in classroom talk. The development of the codes is undertaken through an iterative process that engages with a complete, verbatim transcription of classroom talk in an introductory six-­‐month course on law at a tertiary institution. The study concludes that a discursive, analytical approach to studying representational meanings relating to legal professionals in classroom talk and, in particular, a micro-­‐discursive point of entry modeled on key elements of social practice, is useful and appropriate for apprehending the richness of the representational meanings. Such an approach allows for a grounded identification of themes that can then be compared to claims made in the literature on legal professionalism and the teaching of legal ethics. It also concludes that because the representation of legal professionals in classroom talk overlaps with the power relations of the classroom, they should be regarded as a significant source of identity regulation and thus used in a manner that is both reflective and constructive.

This thesis provides a trajectory policy analysis of post-1994 appraisal systems in South Africa by capturing the dynamics of these policies between different levels as well as the reasons these policies have changed and evolved in the way they did over the past 10 years. Its aim is to understand why and how various post-1994 South African teacher appraisals were negotiated, formulated and re-negotiated with their different impact on schools, taking into account the various tensions and contestations within appraisal and between stakeholders. The study attempts to make the following claims around issues of appraisal, policy analysis, multi-method research. First, because appraisal policies are socially constructed and politically contested, they are fraught with inevitable socio-educational tensions around the balance between teacher development and accountability, coming from the negotiations between the main stakeholders at various stages of the policy process. Second, because current policy analysis approaches have failed to address the increasingly complex domain and gap of policy-practice in an era dominated by the interplay of conflicting agendas and interests of various policy communities, an eclectic approach to policy analysis is used and recommended. This approach relies mainly on a political analysis, which conceives of policies as both constraining and empowering structures and texts which create space and opportunities for policy agency and leadership. Such political approach has to conceive of three different policy powers to reveal the various tensions and contestations around policies and the conditions of possibilities as well as to unravel how stakeholders interpret and mediate policy processes which are often fragile settlements constantly re-negotiated. This study focuses on the notion of enabling policy leadership and its mediation strategies to reveal how different agencies position themselves and strategize around policy tensions in the hope of strengthening their agendas. This policy leadership is also iv critical in ensuring a sufficiently strong policy settlement between education departments, schools, teacher unions and professional bodies over how to develop teachers and make them accountable for their performance Third, it argues that, despite post-1994 South Africa embarking on an era of stakeholder democracy, various stakeholders were gradually pushed to the margin of education policymaking, leaving teacher unions (because of their privileged position in relation to the ruling party) as the main party with which the department of education consulted and bargained. This exclusion of other stakeholders involved in quality education meant that professional associations were absent even though their input was desperately needed to negotiate how appraisal could feed into the enhancement of teacher professionalism and identities in the post-1994 school system. Finally, this study uses a multi-method research approach, involving formal research instruments as well as various data collection mechanisms involving different forums with stakeholders, such as oral hearings, review teams, seminars, conferences and written evidence over a period of two years to provide a richer form of triangulated data with rather interesting results. This data was analyzed and interpreted to identify patterns of policy contestations, negotiation and mediation strategies which assisted in theorizing further the policymaking processes and politics around appraisal as well as the role and limitations of policy leadership. This multi-layered empirical research work is essential if the complex and fluid positions and strategies adopted in various policy processes over time are to be unraveled.

This research explored how white professional men talk about masculinities and their own masculine construction. The study was qualitative in nature and the data was collected via 10 semi-structured individual interviews. Qualitative content analysis was utilized whereby key themes were identified and discussed. Men in relation to self identity, women, emotions, the work environment, and the changing social context reflected the key themes that were evident in the study. These themes explored men in relation to a variety of issues and thus highlighted the multitude of influences which are thought to impact on masculine identity. Various responses from the participants based on defensive, accommodating, and progressive discourses were evident throughout and this further illustrated the diverse and complex nature of masculinities. One of the most relevant conclusions to stem from this study was that although masculine representation seems to be changing in particular spheres, certain hegemonic aspects of masculinity seem to permeate professional men’s discourses. This research highlights and explores the multiplicity of masculine and refutes the notion of masculinity being a singularly fixed concept. The social construction of masculinity is thus affirmed. Various contesting viewpoints are elicited that indicate the complex and, at times, contradictory nature of masculine construction.

Professional learning communities are receiving attention in research on in-service teacher professional development. Arguments for professional learning communities emphasize teacher learning as a long-term, continuous, developmental and collaborative process. Such learning is viewed as necessary for supporting sustained improvements in teachers’ teaching practices and learners’ learning. The study reported in this thesis drew on these ideas to investigate how mathematics teachers learned in a professional learning community, and how their learning influenced changes in their teaching practices and identities. The study was a pilot for a larger, on-going project at the University of the Witwatersrand. Using the ideas of situated learning theory and data-informed practice, the case study involved a professional learning community of five mathematics teachers and the researcher. The study was conducted in one township high school in Gauteng, South Africa. The professional learning community participated in a year-long professional development intervention, which consisted of a set of developmental and structured professional learning activities. The activities involved analyzing learner errors in mathematics, identifying learners’ learning needs, planning and teaching innovative lessons for addressing the learning needs, and reflecting on how the lessons supported learners’ learning. The study investigated how teacher participation in the opportunities for learning was linked to shifts in their teaching practices and identities. The results show changes in teachers’ practices and their identities. Two teachers made shifts in their mode of teaching, task selection and implementation, and in their ways of engaging with learners’ ideas. Two other teachers made shifts in task selection. The shifts were sustained by one teacher in her teaching of the post-intervention lessons. All the teachers shifted in their ways of identifying themselves as members of communities. During and after the intervention, the teachers identified themselves as members of the professional learning community, and expressed visions of progressively learning together and improving their practice together. The shifts in teaching practice and teacher identity are explained by the opportunities for learning in the professional learning community. The results show how the links among teacher learning, teachers’ teaching practices and teacher identity were supported or constrained by features of the professional learning community.

O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar os processos de configuração identitária profissional de docentes de um Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia. A problematização desta pesquisa se dá a partir da demanda atípica que os Institutos Federais trazem aos professores, uma vez que estes atuam simultaneamente em diversos níveis e modalidades de ensino no âmbito desta instituição educacional. Ancorado nos princípios metodológicos da pesquisa qualitativa, este estudo foi desenvolvido em dois momentos: o primeiro, por meio de revisão bibliográfica, buscou compreender os conceitos de identidade e identidade profissional com base nas contribuições de Ciampa (1997, 1998, 2017), Dubar (2005, 2009), Hall (2006) e Melucci (2004). Em particular, a abordagem da identidade profissional docente fundamenta-se em Silva (2007, 2009, 2010, 2015), Gatti (1996, 2012, 2016), Ferreira (2000) e Nóvoa (1999, 2009, 2017). No bojo do contexto contemporâneo líquido, a identidade profissional é tomada em seu caráter processual que se dá entre o individual (Eu professor) e o coletivo (Nós professores), o relacional e o biográfico; o sujeito é considerado como ser ativo no processo de (re)configuração identitária. Ainda no primeiro momento, buscamos também compreender o histórico da Rede Federal de Educação Profissional e dos Institutos Federais de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia, que foram instituídos em 2008 com a sanção da Lei 11.892. O segundo momento da pesquisa foi para realização da pesquisa de campo, em que procedemos entrevistas semiestruturadas, bem como aplicamos a escala EIPST com treze professores de um Instituto Federal. Os resultados da pesquisa foram organizados em quatro categorias de análise. Dentre os principais aspectos representativos dos processos de configuração identitária dos professores entrevistados temos que contraditoriamente os professores identificam a docência de maneira valorizada, ampliada e delimitada no âmbito do Instituto Federal. Valorizada, pois, ainda que se confirme certa tendência de intensificação do trabalho docente, as condições objetivas relacionadas à carreira, salário e jornada de trabalho são compreendidas como elementos de valorização da docência. Ampliada, pois os docentes referem à possibilidade de trabalhar com vários níveis ou modalidade de ensino como enriquecedora, além de ressaltarem o quanto são mobilizados a construírem maneiras para lidar com esta demanda atípica. E delimitada, pois, frente às incertezas do cenário político e educacional brasileiro à época das entrevistas, os professores expressaram insegurança quanto ao futuro dos Institutos Federais o que influencia de maneira restritiva em seus projetos pessoais, bem como em seus planos relacionados à profissão e à formação continuada. / The objective of this research is to analyze the identity configuration processes of teachers in an Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia. This paper examines the atypical demand that the Federal Institutes present to its faculty, since the teachers have to act simultaneously in different education levels and modalities in the institution. Based on methodological principles of a qualitative research, this study was carried out in two moments: first, the review of literature, which aimed to understand the concepts of identity and professional identity, based on the contributions of Ciampa (1997, 1998, 2017), Dubar (2005, 2009), Hall (2006), and Melucci (2004). The approach of teachers professional identity is largely based on Silva (2007, 2009, 2010, 2015), Gatti (1996, 2012, 2016), Ferreira (2000) and Nóvoa (1999, 2009, 2017). Amidst the liquid contemporary context, professional identity is understood in its processual character between the individual (I, teacher) and the collective (We, teachers), the relational and the biographic. The subject is considered an active being in the identity reconfiguration process. We sought to understand the history of the Rede Federal de Educação Profissional and the Institutos Federais de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia, which were set up in 2008 after the promulgation of the law 11.892. In the second moment of the research, we carried out semi-structured interviews, as well as applied the EIPST scale, with 13 teachers of a Federal Institute. The data collected was organized and divided into four categories of analysis. Amongst the main representative aspects of the identity configuration processes of the teachers interviewed, we have found that teachers identify the teaching experience in a conflicting way within the scope of the Federal Institute: as both valued, expanded and limited experiences. Valued, because they see the objective conditions regarding their career, salary and working hours as elements that highlight the teaching experience, despite noting a certain tendency for intensification of the work load. Expanded, because the possibility of working with various levels or modalities of teaching is referred to as fulfilling, and teachers emphasise how much they feel mobilized to search for new ways of dealing with this atypical demand. And it is seen as a limited experience, since the political and educational sceneries at the time of the interviews were filled with uncertainty, thus teachers demonstrated a sense of insecurity regarding the future of Federal Institutes in Brazil and this influences their personal projects in a restrictive manner, as well as their professional plans or continuing education.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / Supporters of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), founded in 1987, hoped that its certification process would create a cadre of publicly recognized master teachers who would take on professional roles that have traditionally been the responsibility of administrators rather than teachers. Such a change would allow teaching to become a true profession, regulated collegially instead of bureaucratically. A national survey of national board certified teachers (NBCTs) administered in 2001 found little evidence that they were in fact taking on new professional roles. This study examines fifteen schools with large numbers of NBCTs in three North Carolina school districts to determine if NBCTs in these exceptional places are gaining new professional roles, and what factors are enabling or preventing that change. Telephone interviews were conducted with state level officials in North Carolina, district level officials in each of the school districts, and one NBCT, the principal, and one non-NBCT at each school. Interviews were transcribed and coded for analysis. The results indicate that NBCTs in these schools are not taking on significant new professional roles as a result of their certification, and suggest two reasons for this lack of change. One is structural: the NBPTS, the state of North Carolina, and the three school districts studied appear to have narrowed the focus of national board certification so that it is concerned primarily with identifying and rewarding excellence in classroom teaching. This study found few explicit attempts to use NBCTs in professional leadership roles or to provide them with opportunities for professional leadership in addition to classroom teaching. Another concerns the perceived validity of the certification process: board certification is not broadly accepted among study respondents as a consistent and accurate designation of teaching excellence. The results of this study also raise questions about the persistence of egalitarian norms among teachers in schools with significant numbers of NBCTs. / 2031-01-01

Background: Previous research show that there is a need for marketing strategies in SMEs that offer professional services, such as auditing firms. Also, the combination of marketing and auditing is a fairly new concept, due to legal and ethical regulations. Besides, since marketing and auditing have different business functions, it can be challenging for the auditors to practice marketing that does not discredit the profession. Lastly, the new competitiveness in the industry, calls for a need for marketing but since these SMEs lack in resources it is believed that relationship marketing can be a beneficial strategy for these firms due to its low cost approach. Research question: How do SME auditing firms practice relationship marketing? Purpose: The study aims to describe how and why SME auditing firms use relationship marketing as a marketing strategy. Method: This study is based on an abductive approach with semi-structured interviews with twelve people with different positions at firms in Halland and Malmö. Theoretical Framework: The theory consists of four blocks, which mainly focus on relationship marketing. However, theory about SMEs, services and professional services marketing is also presented due to the choice of industry and delimitations. Findings: The findings show that many SME auditing firms lack formal plans and strategies for relationship marketing, often due to lack of resources, interest or knowledge. However,the firms practice relationship marketing even if they do not define it as such, through value adding activities or services for their customers, that lie on top of the fundamental servicethey offer.

O professor exerce uma das profissões mais estressantes devido a longas jornadas de trabalho, ritmo intenso e diversas variáveis que influenciam em sua vida profissional. As situações variadas do cotidiano da sala de aula têm como resultado fatores físicos e psicológicos, gerando problemas de saúde que podem acarretar o aumento nos índices de absenteísmo, aumentando o número de licenças médicas e a necessidade por parte da organização de reposição de funcionários, transferências e novas contratações. O absenteísmo docente é também apontado, em alguns estudos, como um dos responsáveis pela baixa qualidade da educação brasileira. O trabalho analisou o absenteísmo por doença dos Professores de Educação Básica II que engloba a Educação Infantil (crianças de 4 e 5 anos) e o Ensino Fundamental I (1º a 5º ano). Foi analisada a planilha de absenteísmo de 2014, disponibilizada eletronicamente pela Secretaria Municipal de Educação de Ribeirão Preto. Dos 991 professores de PEB II em atividade em 2014, 748 tiraram 4.324 licenças por vários motivos. Deste total, 2003 licenças foram por algum motivo de doença. O total de número de dias perdidos por absenteísmo relacionado à Licença de Tratamento de Saúde, é de 14.957 dias de ausência do docente efetivo. Os professores da faixa etária entre 30 e 40 foram os que mais se ausentaram por motivos de saúde. Os quatro principais motivos do absenteísmo por doenças são por \"fatores que influenciam o estado de saúde e o contato com os serviços de saúde\", por \"doenças relacionadas ao aparelho respiratório, por \"transtornos mentais e comportamentais\" e por \"doenças do sistema osteomuscular e do tecido conjuntivo\". Relacionado as escolas ao absenteísmo, conclui-se que quanto maior a complexidade da escola, maior o número de licenças concedidas por motivo de saúde. / The teacher plays one of the most stressful professions due to long working hours, intense pace and several variables that influence in your professional life. Every day, the varied classroom situations are resulting in physical and psychological factors, generating a high level of stress. Health problems can lead to an increase in absenteeism rates, increasing the number of medical licenses and the need for replacement of the organization of employees, transfers and new hires. Teaching absenteeism is also pointed out, in some studies, as one of those responsible for the low quality of Brazilian education. The paper analyzed the sickness absenteeism of the Basic Education Teachers II that includes early childhood education (children 4 and 5 years old) and elementary school (1st to 5th year). The absenteeism worksheet for 2014 was analyzed, made available electronically by the Municipal Department of Education of Ribeirão Preto. Of the 991 PEB II teachers active in 2014, 748 took out 4,324 licenses for various reasons. Of this total, 2003 licenses were for some reason of illness. The total number of days lost due to absenteeism related to the Health Treatment License is 14,957 days of absence of the effective teacher. Teachers in the age group between 30 and 40 were those who were most absent due to health reasons. The four main reasons for illness absenteeism are \"factors influencing health status and contact with health services\", \"diseases related to the respiratory system,\" mental and behavioral disorders \"and\" diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue\". Relating schools to absenteeism, we conclude that the greater the complexity of the school, the greater the number of licenses granted for health reasons.

A socialização profissional tem início durante a faculdade e se estende para o ambiente de trabalho dos indivíduos. Quando este processo ocorre corretamente, vários benefícios surgem, no entanto, quando ele não ocorre, sérias conseqüências negativas podem surgir, como a alta rotatividade dos funcionários e os pedidos de transferência. Shinyashiki et al. (2006) afirmam que muitos são os fatores que podem influenciar a socialização profissional dos indivíduos, e destacam a grande importância da escolha vocacional para este processo. Sendo assim, o objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar, quantitativamente, a influência da escolha vocacional no processo de socialização profissional de estudantes de enfermagem por meio dos testes de hipóteses e da criação da árvore de decisão, utilizando o algorítimo CHAID. A relação foi analisada também pela introdução dos seguintes fatores de teste: gênero, idade cronológica, status socioeconômico, tamanho da cidade em que passou a infância, religião, escolaridade dos pais, tipo da faculdade, idade da escolha pela carreira de enfermagem, ano em que o aluno estava cursando, se o aluno já trabalhou em função ou atividade relacionada à enfermagem e se a organização era da área da saúde, e se já realizou estágio em hospital. Os resultados indicaram que uma escolha vocacional consistente tende a melhorar o processo de socialização profissional dos alunos de enfermagem, e que outros fatores, como o tipo de faculdade, o ano cursado, a realização de trabalho na área e a idade em que foi feita a escolha pela a carreira, são ótimos preditores da socialização profissional. / The professional socialization begins at the university and extends to the work environment. When this happens, there is great benefit. Otherwise, there will be negative consequences such as high rotation of employees and transfer requests. According to Shinyashiki et al. (2006) there are many reasons which can influence people\'s professional socialization process specially the vocational choice. Thus, the aim of this research is to analyze quantitatively the influence of vocational choice in the professional socialization process with nursing students through hypothesis tests and the creation of the answer tree using the CHAID algorithm. The relation was also analyzed by the introduction of the following factors in the test: gender, chronological age, social economical status, the size of the city in their childhood, religion, parents education, type of College, age of the choice for the nursing career, school year, if the student has ever worked or has had any activity related to nursing, and if the organization was from the health area, and also if he has worked as a trainee in a hospital. The results showed that a consistent vocational choice tends to enhance the nursing students\' professional socialization process and also that other factors like: type of school, school year, working experience in the area and the age of the choice for the career were good predictors for professional socialization.