The Career and Technical Center in Coalfield County School Division (pseudonym) has maintained a history of student enrollment in career and technical education (CTE) courses and programs that are traditional by gender. That history has changed very little over the years, and students, both male and female, continue to enroll in CTE courses at the career center that are traditional for their gender. This trend persists despite Virginia Department of Education support for non-traditional enrollment and Carl D. Perkins Act legislation which encourages non-traditional enrollment in CTE. The purpose of this qualitative research was to explore the perceptions of students, parents, teachers, administrators and counselors about student enrollment at the career center in CTE courses that are non-traditional. Through the use of individual interviews, the researcher gathered information from participants regarding their perceptions about barriers to non-traditional enrollment in CTE and also obtained participants' ideas about strategies for increasing non-traditional enrollment in CTE courses, courses that have the potential to positively impact students' career opportunities along with successful entrance into the work force. The results of this research will be shared with the school division as a potential resource for increasing non-traditional enrollment in CTE courses and programs at the career center. / Doctor of Philosophy / The Career and Technical Center in Coalfield County School Division (pseudonym) has maintained a history of student enrollment in career and technical education (CTE) courses and programs that are traditional by gender. That history has changed very little over the years, and students, both male and female, continue to enroll in CTE courses at the career center that are traditional for their gender. This trend persists despite Virginia Department of Education support for non-traditional enrollment and Carl D. Perkins Acts legislation which encourages nontraditional enrollment in CTE. The purpose of this qualitative research was to explore the perceptions of students, parents, teachers, administrators and counselors about student enrollment at the career center in CTE courses that are non-traditional. Through the use of individual interviews, the researcher gathered information from participants regarding their perceptions about barriers to nontraditional enrollment in CTE and also obtained participants’ ideas about strategies for increasing non-traditional enrollment in CTE courses, courses that have the potential to positively impact students’ career opportunities along with successful entrance into the work force. The results of this research will be shared with the school division as a potential resource for increasing nontraditional enrollment in CTE courses and programs at the career center.

Yes

This study examines the term beur as well as the category it defines, both in terms of individuals who identify as beur, and the genre of literature that stems from the beur population in contemporary France. I begin by first suggesting that the notion of beur as a category and label serves as a third space in the binary of French culture and Maghrebi culture. This third space is necessary as the children of Maghrebi immigrants in France find themselves in between each culture and the sphere of influence that follows. The term is then problematized. The theme of binaries and the third spaces that emerge because of the problematic nature of the binaries is recurring throughout my study. I explore what these third spaces are by examining four contemporary French novels: Faïza Guène’s Kiffe kiffe demain and Un homme ça ne pleure pas, Ahmed Djouder’s Désintégration, and Brahim Metiba’s Ma mère et moi. The characters in each of these works struggle with their identity as they forge their own third spaces as solutions to various binaries that they discover they cannot fit into. In my study, I demonstrate this in three realms: integration and engaged citizenship; familial relationships, primarily parent-child relationships and the generational difference that further complicates pre-existing cultural difference; and gender roles. Each of the narratives and the main characters conveys the problematic nature of viewing French and Maghrebi culture in a binary. In my explication of the text, I argue that each narrative works towards the creation of a new third space in varying ways. / Master of Arts

This study extends the Theory of Planned Behavior by drawing on research investigating the 'halo effect,' which posits that physically attractive people are more likely to be hired, get a raise, perceived positively, and/or live happily within certain professions. Extant work has shown this trend is not generalizable across all fields. For example, scientists who are viewed as relatively unattractive and unsociable are perceived as producing higher quality research compared to their more attractive and sociable counterparts. The fitness industry, and the bodybuilding community in particular, presents an interesting issue where muscularity is an indicator of expertise and credibility, however, for female bodybuilders a muscular physique may diminish her perceived attractiveness and diminish such evaluations. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior, this study examines how muscularity influences assessments of attractiveness, credibility, and homophily and indirectly influences participants' attitudes and perceived control over theory own weight lifting behavior. Though the hypothesized model was not a good fit, an exploratory respecification of the proposed model shows physical attractiveness plays a central role in assessments of homophily, credibility, and attitude. / Master of Arts

In Bolivia, potato production and marketing is important for farmers' livelihoods and anecdotal information shows that cell phones and women are extremely important in the potato marketing chain. Efforts to improve incomes of poor highland potato producers should recognize roles of different actors within the chain and access to market information. This study explores the effects of access to information and gender relations within the potato chain; on farmers' market channel choice in the Tiraque Watershed (Bolivia). The analysis of qualitative information was useful to deepen the understanding of the subject and complement quantitative analysis outcomes. The main source of data comes from a survey of 400 households from the watershed. Additionally, Rapid Market Appraisal and Case Studies were used to collect qualitative data. These data was used to estimate two econometric models (Logit and MNL) to evaluate the importance of farmers and marketing characteristics on market choices. This analysis demonstrates that the determinants that affect market channel choice include marketing (time to reach the markets and the nearest paved road), production (number of plots owned by farmers) and household related variables (access to loan, cell phone ownership, location and age of the head of the household). On the other hand, some results were different than expected, that is the case of motorized transport ownership, and literacy. Another unexpected result is that even though the qualitative analysis shows that gender plays an important role in marketing activities; the econometric analysis shows that gender has no effect on farmer's market choices. / Master of Science / LTRA-3 (Watershed-based NRM for Small-scale Agriculture)

Today’s stream of information is massive. Children and teenagers are exposed to information and advertising daily. The requirement to be able to sort and review the messages behind the advertising is fast becoming more important. This study has been made on 8- year-old pupils, in which they studied analysing advertisements for one lesson and then they were interviewed individually. The purpose of this study was to see if eight-year-old children are aware of the way advertisements describe gender and how you in a pedagogical way can teach children to critically examine media, above all advertising.   One of the questions asked is: Can eight-year-old children see specific gender roles in advertising? By studying former research and carrying out this study the writer of this essay has tried to answer the questions.   Through the study it was apparent that the 8- year- old pupils had difficulties to grasp the gender roles and see the messages behind advertising. It is important to learn more about media and advertising in early ages to be able to criticize the messages in media. / Dagens informationsflöde är stort. Barn och ungdomar exponeras för information och reklam dagligen. Det ställer stora krav på att kunna sortera informationen och kritiskt kunna granska budskapen bakom reklam. Tidningsreklam är något som barn träffar på ofta och många gånger ter sig dessa reklambilder stereotypt för könsroller.   Undersökningen har gjorts genom en kvalitativ studie på elever som är i åtta års ålder, där de hade ett lektionstillfälle i reklamanalys som sedan följdes upp med enskilda intervjuer.   Syftet var att se om barn i åtta års ålder är medvetna om reklamens framställning av könroller och hur man på ett pedagogiskt sätt kan ge barn verktyg att kritiskt granska medier, framför allt reklamen.   En av frågorna som har ställts är: Kan barn i åtta års ålder utläsa specifika könsroller i en reklambild? Genom studier av tidigare forskning och den genomförda undersökningen har författaren sökt svar på frågorna.   I resultatet kan man utläsa att respondenterna i studien hade svårt att se könsrollerna och se till reklambildens bakomliggande budskap. Det är viktigt att lära sig mer om media och reklam i tidiga åldrar för att kritiskt kunna granska dess budskap.

Clara Wieck Schumann sits at a particularly thorny juncture in musicological scholarship, as her career mirrors a period of nineteenth-century transformative social and musical change. The concept of public and private spaces came to be codified, and women's musical interactions, somewhat unsurprisingly, followed suit. In accordance with the now bourgeois concerns for social cultivation and primacy, concert structures were destabilized, programs moved away from an emphasis on miscellany, virtuosity was soundly rejected, and serious musical efforts came to dominate critical inquiry and commentary. The philosophy of Romantic listening hinged on the primacy of absolute, "serious" musics and, similar to the morals of the public bourgeoisie, privileged "masculine" expression. Within these strictures, a female pianist developed into the preeminent symbol for all that was ideal in the public piano recital. Clara Schumann has, for scholars of nineteenth-century music, come to embody the serious music aesthetic: whether it be through her role as interpreter, more homogeneous recital structuring, or allegiance to the goals of transcendental listening, she remains a figure who performed out of duty to her higher, artistic "calling." Nevertheless, scholars have rarely attempted to consider how, in a restrictive gender society, Clara was able to maintain such a successful and highly respected public career. My dissertation seeks to tease out the dynamics of Clara Schumann's reception, in order to elucidate ways she, as a woman, was able to perform in this preeminent public space, and, in fact, embolden (rather than degrade) the ascendancy of the masculine. With a career spanning some 60 years, Clara's 794 German concerts allow us a window into the complex negotiations that permeated her public performances and celebrated personality. For the first time in English translation, Appendix I gives a complete listing of Clara's programming in Germany and Vienna. By considering a wide range of sources--visual images, concert reviews, and programs--I hope to unearth ways that Clara, while challenging the hegemony of the male pianist, nonetheless continued to entrench the mores of the musical masculine to an even greater degree. / text

The following project serves to question the effects of capitalism upon modes of eroticism, misogyny and sexism by focusing upon the black masculine female (butch/stud) within Street Lit. Chapter one defines Street Lit, its importance, and Trick(Ster)ing as a concept. Chapter 2 is a close analysis of two primary texts utilizing Trick(Ster)ing as a method of survival and resistance in a capitalist society. The final chapter discusses the relationship between black female masculinity and misogyny. / text

<p>The aim of the study was to develop an understanding of how adolescent South African girls in institutional care perceive their female gender role, in the past, the present and future.</p><p>The research question was: How do adolescent girls living in institutional care in South Africa perceive their female gender role in the past, the present and future? A mixed design, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, was used in order to answer the research question. The quantitative part of the study consisted of a questionnaire, and the qualitative part of the study contained seven interviews. To interpret the analyzed data a theoretical framework was used, consisting of the theory of social constructionism and gender theory. The final result of the quantitative and the quantitative parts of the study showed that the perception of the female gender role among the respondents is more stereotyped/ traditional when it comes to the area of relationships and sexuality, but more equal in the field of future occupation and the professional role. The result shows that a majority of the respondents have one view of gender roles in general, a more traditional picture of how things are supposed to be, and another, less conservative when they express their own desires of how they want their future life and household.</p>

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur genus skapas och upprätthålls hos barn i ung ålder som går i förskolan. Vi har valt att fokusera på två olika förskoleavdelningar för att analysera hur personalen talar med barnen, men även hur barnen kommunicerar i leken. Två avdelningar på samma förskola, som arbetar med barn i åldrarna tre till fem år, observerades och intervjuer utfördes med fyra förskolepersonaler. De centrala delarna i undersökningen är hur det biologiska könet upprätthåller könsrollerna, och den konflikt som då uppstår mellan de olikheter som det biologiska könet bär med sig och arbetet kring könsneutraliseringen. Undersökningen syftar även på hur pojkar och flickor kategoriseras in i olika roller och hur dessa isärhålls och hur ojämlikheten upprätthålls, men också hur den hierarkiska ordningen ser ut samt om dessa stereotypa könsroller går att motverka. En slutsats som kunde dras av studien var att personalen ville ha en jämställd avdelning, vilket endast har uppnåtts till en viss del. Detta visar på att de stereotypiska könsrollerna fortfarande exiserar i förskolans miljö och att det finns svårigheter med att ta sig ur och motverka dessa. I diskussionen tas problematiken upp angående dubbelheten mellan att bemöta könen utifrån deras biologiska skillnader och behandla pojkar och flickor lika. Det blir även tydligt hur dessa två tankesätt kan användas i förskolan liksom i det sociala arbetet. / The purpose of this study was to examine how gender is created and maintained among children at a young age who attend preschool. We have chosen to focus on two different departments, at the same preschool, to analyze how the staff is talking to the children, but also how the children communicates while they are playing. The two departments are working with children aged three to five years. We observed the departments and performed interviews with four staff members. The most essential in this study is to show how the biological sex sustains gender roles, and the conflict that arises between the differences that the biological sexes is carrying around and the work around gender neutralization. Also how boys and girls are categorized into different roles and how these are separated depending on the gender, and how inequality is maintained. But also to see what the hierarchy looks like and if these stereotypes can discourage. A conclusion that could be drawn from this study was how the staff wanted a gender equal department, and that they have partly achieved this. This indicates that the stereotypical gender roles still exists in the preschool environment and that it is very difficult to think and act gender neutral and counteract these gender roles. In the discussion it was brought up how the duality between treating the sexes by their biological differences or treating boys and girls the same can be problematic. It also becomes clear how these two ways of thinking can be used in preschools and in social work.