This study investigated the perceived strategies used to deal with mixed ability classes of four English teachers, two working at a year 4-9 compulsory school, and two at an upper secondary school in Sweden. The same teachers were asked about their attitudes towards and experience of ability grouping. The findings of the latter part of this investigation were discussed in reference to research concerning the field of ability grouping.Semi structured interviews were used. Strategies used by teachers included grouping devices, issues of communication, giving individual attention inside and outside the classroom and encouraging self- and peer reviewing. Two teachers in the 4-9 school used ability grouping sparingly but clearly and had experienced an ability grouping of a year nine class which was perceived to have predominantly positive results in academic terms and both positive and negative results in social areas. The teachers of upper secondary school did not use ability grouping – either on democratic grounds or because it was perceived to be unacceptable in the particular school climate. Because the research in ability grouping is diverse, many of the teachers’ attitudes could be supported, and refuted in the research. The teachers using ability grouping felt themselves to be going against research made, but were confident in the decisions they made. Further investigations about maximum numbers of students in heterogeneous classes and time spent with an extra teacher contra own teacher were encouraged.

This dissertation deals with the classification of varieties according to their Mal'cev properties. In general the so called Mal'cev-type theorems illustrate an interplay between first order properties of a given class of algebras and the lattice properties of the congruence lattices of algebras of the considered class. CHAPTER 1. A survey of some notational conventions, relevant definitions and auxiliary results is presented. Several examples of less frequently used algebras are given together with the important properties of some of them. The term algebra T(X) and useful results concerning 'term' operations are established. A K-reflection is defined and a connection between a K-reflection of an algebra and whether a class K satisfies an identity of the algebra is established. CHAPTER 2. The Mal'cev-type theorems are presented in complete detail for varieties which are congruence permutable, congruence distributive, arithmetical, congruence modular and congruence regular. Several examples of varieties which exhibit these properties are presented together with the necessary verifications. CHAPTER 3. A general scheme of algorithmic character for some Mal'cev conditions is presented. R. Wille (1970) and A. F. Pixley (1972) provided algorithms for the classification of varieties which exhibit strong Mal'cev properties. This chapter is largely devoted to a modification of the Wille-Pixley schemes. It must be noted that this modification is quite different from all such published schemes. The results are the same as in Wille's scheme but slightly less general than in Pixley's. The text presented here, however is much simpler. As an example, the scheme is used to confirm Mal'cev's original theorem on congruence permutable varieties. Finally, the so-called Chinese var£ety is defined and Mal'cev conditions are established for such a variety of algebras . CHAPTER 4. A comprehensive survey of literature concerning Mal'cev conditions is given in this chapter. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1991.

This study investigates nine youths' understanding of Olympic Ideals (Olympism) and their perceptions on whether these ideals have importance within the practice of sport. A qualitative case study is used in conjunction with a humanistic-critical theoretical framework to gather and analyse data. Using purposive sampling, nine students are selected from four schools in Christchurch, New Zealand to participate in one individual and one paired semi-structured interview. Currently there is a paucity of national and international research into youth's perceptions and understanding of Olympism through the practice of sport. The research that does exist tends to be quantitative in nature with a focus on Games knowledge, thus, this study provides a contribution to the current research domain regarding qualitative conversations about Olympism in youth sport.

This thesis is divided into two chapters. First, we want to study particularclasses of power ideals, with particular attention to their relation with the Fröberg conjecture on the Hilbert series of generic ideals. In the second part,we study a generalization (introduced by Fröberg, Ottaviani, and Shapiro in 2012)of the classical Waring problem for polynomials about writing homogeneouspolynomials as sums of powers. We see also how the theories of fat points andsecant varieties of Veronese varieties play a crucial role in the relation betweenthose chapters and in providing tools to nd an answer to our questions. The main results are the computation of the Hilbert series of particularclasses of power ideals, which in particular give us a proof of the Fröberg conjecturefor generic ideals generated by eight homogeneous polynomials of thesame degree in four variables, and the solution of the generalized Waring problemin the case of sums of squares in three and four variables. We also beginthe study of the generalized Waring problem for monomials.

The purpose of this study is to compare students (both male and female), from the Linnaeus University in Kalmar, about their perceptions with a particular focus on identity and self-esteem. In regards to the current societal problem concerning obesity and beauty ideals, this paper aimed to study the student’s opinions concerning health and diets in order to fully answer the purpose of the study. The theory used in this paper is in particular regards to identity and self-esteem. In order to answer the study questions, a qualitative approach was conducted in the form of various focus groups. The result depicts that beauty ideals have a large impact, hence the choice of people using diets, fashion and fitness as well the informants' perceptions regarding their identity and self-esteem when looking at their own daily lifestyles.

Following is a study of fathers 'experiences of balance between work and home life. The method the researchers used was based on qualitative interviews aimed at describing father’s own experiences and values, which affects them. The researchers chose to specifically study situations where the fathers were faced with situations where their children needed to be cared for in the home because of a cold or similar illness since this is a situation that directly affects the time that was meant for work, but now risk being moved to areas of life that the researchers define as home life. This is to see whether the respondents felt that this situation affected the balance between work- and home life. The result shows that there are many values of masculinity and fatherhood that influence the respondents when they create their identities. It is those values that come into conflict, as different roles floats into other areas of life, which results in an imbalance between work- and home life. This means that fathers experience distress as they try to compensate by working from home or at other times. It also creates a conflict in ideal gender-equal relationships in which men and women in theory, try to act on values of gender-equality but in practice, solve these situation based on traditional gender patterns.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed June 12, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 214-219).

Thesis (M.S.)--Missouri State University, 2008. / "August 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaf 53). Also available online.

This thesis critically explores the role of consumer culture in young women’s understanding of self. Drawing on media and cultural studies literature as well as post-structuralist and critical perspectives, this study asks: how does consumer culture guide or influence a young woman’s way-of-being in everyday life? Despite arguments that consumer culture, underpinned by neoliberal principles of personal responsibility and individualism, has become the institution of reference for young women, consumer research on the experiences of women, and from feminist perspectives, is generally sparse. Moreover, claims that consumer culture may covertly subjugate young women by encouraging practices of self regulation are in contention with consumer research that emphasises consumption as a means of self-expression and agency. Therefore, a qualitative, feminist study was conducted in which, over 18 months, fifteen women, aged 20 to 34, engaged in multiple in-depth interviews. The data generation process typically consisted of four interviews over a nine-month period: the first interview covering life history and background was followed by an in-home ‘show-and-tell’ interview about the participant’s ‘stuff’. The third interview addressed participants’ engagement with digital technologies also through a ‘show-and-tell’ approach and the final interview was semi-structured, addressing themes emerging from previous interviews. This generated 50 interviews lasting two hours on average, as well as data from observation, photographs and engagement with social network sites. From a critical thematic analysis, four significant findings emerged. Firstly, in relation to being a woman, participants felt pressure to ‘have it all’ in terms of both traditional (e.g., getting married, raising children, being attractive) and progressive (e.g., achieving career success) ideals. Whilst some disagreed that women continue to be subjugated, most participants experienced a sense of mounting pressure and expectations compared to men and subscribed to neoliberal principles of personal responsibility in combatting gender inequality. Secondly, participants reflexively experienced being a consumer as an unavoidable, often burdensome and anxiety-provoking position that encouraged the making of the self through appearance, as well as adherence to hegemonic feminine ideals. A consumer orientation was further reinforced by increasingly pervasive digital spaces, particularly social media, infused with advertising and consumption. From this, a third finding emerged related to the understanding of self: participants often experienced or expressed a sense of self as a task, an individualistic project for which they felt responsible. Constantly comparing themselves to others to benchmark the project of the self, participants worked to continually craft a story of success and agency despite unpredictability of the life course and contradictory events sometimes conspiring. Moreover, participants who did not feel they had achieved career goals placed greater emphasis on crafting an ideal appearance. The fourth finding addresses the importance of others in understanding the self. Rather than experiencing an ‘identity’ as formed individually, participants looked to others (e.g., family, peers, media, ideologies) to understand the self. Focusing on the opinions of others was associated with anxiety, which varied in degree but was part of all participant accounts. This study suggests that consumer culture is indeed an institution of reference for young women as they experience a sense of self through consumption practices, increasingly digitally mediated. In this sense, the findings align with theorisations in consumer research. However, for the participants of this study, the experience of living the subject position ‘consumer’ is anxiety provoking, particularly in light of postfeminist, neoliberal discourses that encourage experiencing the self as a ‘project’ for which the individual is responsible. As reflected in the data, a self-as-project orientation triggered anxiety given disjointedness between the desire to manage or control the self fostered by dominant discourses, and the impossibility of doing so as reflected by lived experience. This positioning engendered alienation from the self and therefore anxiety that was further sparked by increasing individualism and competition with others; feelings of shame and envy; and a forward-looking temporal positioning. Therefore, findings suggest that consumer research’s conceptualisations of ‘identity’ as a ‘project’ in which individuals can express themselves through marketplace resources is problematic, if not further perpetuating the subjugation of women by rendering them as ‘free’ to consume their way into being. This calls into question individual agency and the role of cultural influences in the making of subjects. Therefore, findings suggest that, from an emancipatory perspective, consumer research examining processes of subject constitution might be more productive to understandings ‘identity’ and the ‘self’ in a particular space and time, with attention to implicit power relations.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The main purpose of this dissertation is the study of ideals of multilinear mappings and homogeneous polynomials between linear spaces. By an ideal we mean a class that is stable under the composition with linear operators. First we study multilinear mappings and spaces of multilinear mappings. We also show how to obtain, from a given multilinear mapping, other multilinear mappings with degrees of multilinearity greater than, equal to or smaller than the degree of the original multilinear mapping. Next we study homogeneous polynomials and spaces of homogeneous polynomials, and we also show how to obtain, from a given n-homogeneous polynomial, other polynomials with degrees of homogeneity greater than, equal to or smaller than the degree of the original polynomial. Next we study ideals of multilinear mappings, or multi-ideals, and ideals of homogeneous polynomial, or polynomial ideals, giving several examples and presenting methods to generated multi-ideals and polynomial ideals from a given operator ideal. Finally we dene and give several examples of coherent multi-ideals and coherent polynomial ideals. / O principal objetivo desta dissertação e estudar os ideais de aplicações multilineares e polinômios homogêneos entre espaços vetoriais. Por um ideal entendemos uma classe de aplicações que e estavel atraves da composição com operadores lineares. Primeiramente estudamos as aplicações multilineares e os espaços de aplicações multilineares. Mostramos tambem como obter, a partir de uma aplicação multilinear dada, outras aplicações com graus de multilinearidade maiores, iguais ou menores que o da aplicação original. Em seguida estudamos os polinômios homogêneos e os espacos de polinômios homogêneos, e mostramos que, a partir de um polinômio n-homogêneo, tambem podemos construir novos polinômios homogêneos com graus de homogeneidade maiores, iguais ou menores que n. Posteriormente estudamos os ideais de aplicações multilineares, ou multi-ideais, e os ideais de polinômios homogêneos, exibindo varios exemplos e apresentando metodos para se obter um multi-ideais, ou ideais de polinômios, a partir de ideais de operadores lineares dados. Por m, denimos e exibimos varios exemplos de multi-ideais coerentes e de ideais coerentes de polinômios. / Mestre em Matemática