This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge about the realities of women's lives in the seventeenth-century Iberian peninsula, through a socio-historical interpretation of the poetic production of five women. One is Portuguese, Violante del Cielo, and four are Spaniards: Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza, Leonor de la Cueva y Silva, Marcia Belisarda and Catalina Clara Ramírez de Guzmán. All are from the educated upper or noble classes and their lives span some one hundred and forty years, from 1566 to 1693. The thesis focuses particularly on their sonnets of love and friendship, both secular and religious. The sonnet was specifically chosen as the vehicle to study the ideas and concerns of literate, seventeenth-century women. As a difficult form of poetry requiring wit, artistry and education, sonnets enable a display of intellectual capabilities and offer opportunities for veiled criticism of contemporary systems of control. These women do not overtly rail against a system that offers them much in terms of social advancement and privilege. However, they do re-write our understanding of the Baroque by presenting their interests, pleasures and discontents from a feminine viewpoint. This detailed, contextual study of women's works, set against the philosophical, religious and moral treatises that governed their age, enables a wider interpretation of women's thought and intentions in the Iberian peninsula than may hitherto have been acknowledged, particularly in terms of relationships of affection within the family. Collectively, their individual works display a determination to demonstrate women's intelligence and moral strength. Furthermore, it becomes clear that women living within a system that utilised biological determinism as proof that they were incapable of reason, strive in their works to show that they are both capable of reason and determined to demonstrate it as undeniable fact.

This study seeks to establish how cultural change is transforming Samoan perceptions of alcohol and its role in social life by comparing understandings of, attitudes to, and patterns of alcohol use in successive generations of Samoans to establish how these are changing, and how trends in alcohol use might be expected to affect Samoan health status. It examines the complex relationships between alcohol and culture, and how such relationships interact to influence health. As well, it explores how Samoan culture, fa'asamoa, has changed since contact with Europeans, how, these changes have influenced Samoan people's perceptions and use of alcohol, and the role alcohol now plays in Samoan social life. Moreover, the thesis documents the social history of alcohol in Samoa since the nineteenth century, and explores the roles of some of the Europeans in shaping Samoan people's attitudes and behaviours towards alcohol and its use. Additionally, it examines the commercial and political economic interests of early European agencies in Samoa such as beachcombers, traders, colonial administrators, and missionaries which impacted on and influenced, to a considerable extent, Samoan people's drinking patterns. The study uses a qualitative methodological approach, utilizing qualitative interviewing as the main method of gathering data and various other methods to supplement the data. The sample population included Samoan men and women, of various religious denominations, drinkers and abstainers, born and raised in Samoa and in New Zealand. Unstructured interviews with thirty-nine participants, and eight key informants were conducted in Apia, Auckland, and Christchurch. The key informants included: a bishop of the Church of Latter Day Saints, the Samoan Police Commissioner, and the Secretary of the Samoan Liquor Authority who were interviewed in Apia; a pastor/lecturer of the Congregational Christian Church of American Samoa who was interviewed in Pago Pago, American Samoa; while two Samoan-born medical health professionals, a pastor of the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa, and one New Zealand-born woman researcher were interviewed in Auckland. The study found that alcohol and the drinking of it has secured a place in the social life of Samoans in the islands and in migrant communities such as those in Auckland, and to a lesser extent, Christchurch. It also found that while older women's and men's experiences and attitudes to alcohol differ significantly, particularly those born and raised in the islands, some similarities in the attitudes and practices of younger people towards alcohol, especially those born- and raised in New Zealand have emerged.

In acknowledging continual educational under-achievement of Maori children, this thesis investigates the relationship between education policy and Maori under-achievement. It argues that under-achievement is framed within boundaries of changing recognitions and realisations of power and difference: that conceptions of difference have influenced education policy and schooling practices for Maori. Theoretically, the thesis examines 'what counts as difference' and 'what differences count'. In recognising that unequal power relations between dominant and subordinate groups produce distinct views about difference, 'what counts as difference' encompasses the perspectives of dominant groups and 'what differences count', subordinate groups. The former view is developed to expand the basis for investigating 'Pakeha conceptions of difference', and the latter, 'Maori conceptions'. The thesis traces the interactions and relationships of 'difference' and 'power', and examines, historically, how they have contributed to and sustained Maori educational under-achievement. The contribution of these conceptions of difference to informing schooling practices is investigated through four sequential 'Classification Schemes' of Assimilation, Integration, Multiculturalism and Biculturalism. The thesis argues that Biculturalism is based on a positive view of Maori cultural differences, and examines the extent of Maori influence on four recent education policy making processes. The thesis also acknowledges a Maori focus on the importance of structural differences for addressing their needs. On the basis of those two different perspectives, the thesis develops the concepts 'Maori-friendly' and 'Maori-centred', to examine processes, and structures and the relative influence of Maori on mainstream policy forming processes. The thesis shows that Tomorrow's Schools, Education for the Twenty-First Century and the Maori Affairs Select Committee Inquiry encapsulate different degrees of both Maori-friendly and Maori-centred approaches, though arguing that ultimately, it is Pakeha conceptions of difference that inform and influence all the policy forming processes. However, the fourth policy process examined was originally a wholly Maori-centred initiative - Te Kohanga Reo. The thesis points to and traces the incorporation of Te Kohanga Reo into the mainstream education system and its consequences for Maori, and concludes that structural differences ensure continuing Pakeha control over Maori conceptions of difference and henceforth Maori educational under-achievement.

No description available.

Universities admit students from diverse backgrounds and have an obligation to accommodate all the students in various educational programmes to ensure that they acquire relevant skills and knowledge. The provision of Textile, Clothing and Design programmes to students with diverse academic backgrounds in universities of technology in Zimbabwe has led to various concerns raised by the textile and clothing stakeholders. The concerns include poor performance of students, high student failure rate, high student drop out, late completion of programmes by students, and other problems emanating from curriculum implementation approaches used by the lecturers. This study therefore, sought to find out how students with diverse academic backgrounds are catered for in the provision of TCD programmes in the two sampled universities of technology in Zimbabwe, with a view to assist the students and to enhance the quality of TCD provision. The study adopted a post-positivism paradigm and used a mixed method research approach that integrated concurrent qualitative and quantitative procedures in data collection, analysis and interpretation. A questionnaire, interviews and document analysis were used to collect data from respondents. Purposive sampling procedure was used to select 36 TCD lecturers, 2 universities’ quality assurance directors, 2 TCD faculty deans of studies, and 2 department chairpersons. Collected data were analyzed using statistical and non-statistical procedures. The study revealed that catering for students with diverse academic backgrounds was practiced in the two universities despite the absence of a curriculum implementation policy to guide the provision of TCD programmes to students with diverse academic backgrounds at university level. It emerged that catering for students with diverse academic backgrounds in implementing TCD curricular at the two sampled universities was faced with various challenges that include lack of lecturer training with regard to catering for students from diverse academic backgrounds and inadequate lecturer training in depth TCD subject content knowledge and ICT teaching technology packages. The study also revealed that there is not enough university and stakeholder participation with regards to supporting and monitoring curriculum implementation process to cater for students with diverse academic backgrounds. Although there were challenges encountered in catering for students with diverse academic backgrounds, the study reveals that there are pockets of good practice in some curriculum implementation strategies implemented by the two institutions such as use of student centered teaching and instructional approaches, university support and lecturer commitment to assist the students. The study findings conclude that although catering for TCD students with diverse academic backgrounds was being practiced in the two universities of technology, there are very critical issues observed over the programmes implementation process that include absence of curriculum implementation policy, lack of training of lecturers and inadequate participative TCD stakeholder involvement. Based on the study findings and reviewed literature, the researcher suggests an alternative curriculum implementation framework for catering for students with diverse academic backgrounds that may help improve effectiveness of university programmes implementation.

No description available.

The increasing need to select individuals for tasks suited to their personality make-up, has added to the challenge psychology faces of developing tests which can be applied to subjects from different cultures and environments. Many attempts at such designs litter the history of industrial and cross- cultural personality research. Among those to have survived years of reassessment, is the cognitive style approach developed by Herman Witkin. Intro., p. 1.

The topic of interpersonal relationships and the factors that enhance the longevity and strength of these have been well documented. Whilst there has been a steady increase in the occurrence of interracial relationships, it has not been matched by an increase in studies on the phenomenon and indeed very little empirical attention has been given to these relationships. Leslie and Letiecq (2004) highlight that the existing research on the phenomenon focuses primarily on the reasons individuals select partners outside of their own racial group. As interracial marriages are reportedly more vulnerable to divorce than marriages among same-race individuals, it seems important to examine the dynamics and quality of interracial relationships (Leslie & Letiecq, 2004). The goal of the study was therefore to explore the cross-cultural differences that inform the experiences, challenges, and strengths for partners in committed interracial relationships. In this qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual study, the author has explored and described the specific cross-cultural differences that the couple has encountered in their relationship and the impact that these differences have had on the quality of their relationship. Furthermore the study aimed to explore and describe the strengths the couple has drawn from these cross-cultural differences to enhance the quality of their relationship. A combination of purposive and snowball sampling techniques has been utilised to identify interracial couples who have been in a committed monogamous relationship of at least one year. The sample consisted of eleven individuals. Semi-structured individual interviews were utilised as the data collection tool, and Tesch‟s model of data analysis (in Creswell, 1998) has been employed. This model of data analysis consists of eight steps that have been used to analyse the data. Five themes emerged from the study: (1) cultural difference factors, (2) negative factors that influence the couple‟s coping with cultural differences, (3) positive factors that influence the couple‟s coping with cultural differences, (4) factors relating to cultural differences that strengthen the relationship and (5) recommendations to other interracial couples. The findings of the study make a meaningful contribution to couple counselling interventions for interracial couples, and also add to the body of knowledge on this sparsely researched topic.

The research literature documents the relative disadvantage of widows in coping with grief, both in a greater vulnerability themselves for mortality or ill health, but also for a sudden loss of resources from losing a spouse. Moreover, widowhood in the Canadian cultural communities may be an additional burden if met with service from mainstream care professionals and agencies at variance with their culturally-appropriate grieving practices and assumptions. Specifically, the meaning(s) of bereavement and grief for Hindu-Canadian widows are not well understood, and the goal of this study is to enhance transcultural understanding of this population in counselling and beyond. An inductive, descriptive qualitative method focusing on the subjective, lived experience of key co-researchers, using selective and nonprobability sampling was utilized to maximize the relatively small sample size typical of a phenomenological approach. This was used to describe and explain the meanings and experiences of grief for five older Hindu-Canadian widows within the context of their own cultural setting and world view. Data were collected from five female members of the Hindu- Canadian communities. An additional triangulation method of a general class of culmraUy-informed co-researchers was used to help corroborate the obtained themes. The co-researcher's responses were the data for this study, and a method of "constant comparative analysis" (I^ininger, 1985) was utilized in a search for themes through a process of higher abstraction. Data analysis of the verbatim transcripts occurred simultaneously with data collection and, guided by Leininger's (1990) 'Thases of Analysis for Qualitative Data," the process unfolded with: (a) collecting and documenting raw data; (b) identification of descriptors; (c) pattern analysis; and (d) theme formulation. Ultimately six themes were abstracted from forty-five sub-categories as a portrait of the meanings and experiences of widowhood for this group of Hindu-Canadian widows. Themes for this group of key co-researchers are as follows: First, status transition from wife to widow meant resignation to the husband's death, rather than acceptance through discrete stages of recovery: Second, meanings and expressions of grief centered on beliefs about the enduring and eternal quality of the husband's life force as intrinsic and essential to the widow's own lifeways: Third, the transition from wife to widow entailed a double affliction in status loss as well as in the personal domain of intimacy and partnership: Fourth, the meanings and expressions of both grief phenomena and status transition reflect an ethic of collective good and duty-based interpersonal morality, but with acculturation causing a nascent and generational transition in such moral orientation: Fifth, status transition can entail a degree of liminality, out of bicultural dislocation and transformational variables such as education: Finally, a fundamental meaning of their Hindu-Canadian widowhood experience is its spiritual opportunity. Despite some diversity in their Hindu diaspora and sect, the explicated themes illustrate a common experience and meaning attendant on widowhood for the co-researchers. This study investigated a portion of the underlying cultural logic of widowhood and grief phenomena for these constituents of Hinduism, and highlighted their cultural constructions of meaning and experience, allowing us to improve our transcultural knowledge and understanding of the unique needs of this population in the field of Counselling and beyond. As a phenomenological study, themes and suppositions abstracted from this relatively small sample are limited beyond the precisely-defined context of its five co-researchers. Nevertheless, a counsellor might well benefit from the potential offered here for finer-grained assessments and therapeutic relationships with widows in our Hindu communities. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This research explores how Vietnam’s embrace of capitalism and global markets has impacted consumer culture. Through ethnographic research conducted in Hanoi, Vietnam in June-August 2015, this study seeks to interrogate how the political atmosphere in Vietnam coexists with market freedoms in a country which opened its economy to the world during the 1986 Doi Moi (renovation) reforms. Vietnam now conducts a considerable amount of foreign trade with major foreign investment from countries including Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. This study emphasizes the role international relations have played in these developments as Vietnam has embraced partnerships with countries with which it was previously at war. This approach includes a self-reflexive critique of my role in the research process as a young, white American. This research engages conceptually with critical cultural studies and theories of articulation to challenge the assumed evolution of communism to capitalism within modernization theory as well as the global, homogenous spread of neoliberalism by examining how these articulations manifest in everyday life. To this end, this study seeks to explore how changing patterns of consumption brought on by open market economics are articulated with global political relationships. The analysis argues that neoliberalism is applied selectively to maintain single-party politics and an oppressive state formation, and that foreign advertising in Vietnam serves as an index of narratives of progress and economic growth. This research has significant implications for consumerism within developing countries, studies of neoliberalism, and postsocialist state formations.