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No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

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Is it possible to have a unique and unified sense of your own identity if you eat, sleep, work and play for most of the year within the confines of what Goffman called a "total institution"? The research, which takes the form of a case study of a group of adolescent boys who are students at an English Public School, explores the formation and presentation of unique personal identity in its subjects ' written autobiographical narratives. It seeks to answer the question: In their autobiographical writings, how far do the students in the research school construct a sense of themselves which is unified and unique? Using a narrative conception of identity derived from the work of Erikson and McAdams, the study collects a variety of biographical and ethnomethodological material in which the students present both their perceptions of themselves, and their unusual and intensive social world. The extensive biographical data are hermeneutically and minutely analysed to reveal the large number of ways in which the students ' stories achieve both idiosyncratic uniqueness as well as convincing unity. The results of these analyses are summarised in the form of a detailed Taxonomy of Narrative Differences, and a further Taxonomy of Unifying Patterns. The ethnomethodological data concerning the students 'perceptions of their private peer-group world reveal that their social world is constituted as a hierarchical "honour morality " with a "code '' of unwritten rules and values which prescribe socially-acceptable behaviour and self-presentation. Powerful though this "code" (and its associated moral lexicon) may be in regulating students' social behaviour and self-presentation amongst their peers, neither it, nor the school's official rules and values have a significant place in the students' autobiographies. The students' autobiographies demonstrate a unique and unified sense of identity which seems to be learned as a result of their personal experiences. In this way, the study's findings validate biographical learning theories such as those of Jarvis. On the other hand, they also suggest that aspects of the work of Erikson, Goffman and McAdams may need to be re-examined.

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The ultimate aim of this empirical study has been to investigate the obstacles visually impaired women in Tanzania face in their struggle for accessing and gaining education. It explores issues of culture, gender, disability, education and development, and examines the ways these interact with one another in shaping the lives of the women under discussion. These issues are conceptualised to establish the theoretical framework of the study. The epistemological and ontological position of the social model of disability has guided the conceptualisation and analysis of the problem under review. Using this model, this study critiques the way in which society perceives disabled people in general, and disabled women in particular. The social model approach emphasises a need to move society's perception of disability away from the medical model approach, which individualises disability. There are two main reasons for my choice of topic for this investigation. Firstly, the research is as much about my own experiences as it is about other visually impaired women. It is argued that the way the identity of visually impaired women is socially constructed, drawing on cultural understandings, social/economic and political barriers and society's negative attitudes towards sex and impairment, has served to inhibit their access to education. Secondly, I decided to research gender disparities in the provision of education for visually impaired persons because it has never previously (to my knowledge) been on research agendas of academics or disability activists in Tanzania. In setting the scene, the thesis starts by justifying the need for researching the problem of inaccessibility of visually impaired women to education in Tanzania. Semi structured interviews were used to generate the primary data for the study. 58 visually impaired women and 26 parents/guardians participated in the research, as well as other 36 key informants. Research findings reveal various obstacles visually impaired women in Tanzania encounter in their struggle for accessing and gaining education. These include cultural, social, economic, political and physicaldifficulties. The findings further highlight outcomes of the educational obstacles on the lives of visually impaired women; reviewing the coping strategies they use in their struggle for survival, and record their views about the ways their education could be improved. The study concludes by suggesting key issues for the way forward. Recommendations directed to all involved in the provision of education for visually impaired women are oriented toward changing attitudes and ensuring that education is their human right and not a matter of charity.

There has been a substantial level of investment in ICT in education over the last thirty years, but it has failed to have a proportionately large impact on learning. The purpose of this research was to identify ways of enhancing the impact of future investments in ICT in education. A proposition about one way to do this emerged from the literature. Empirical examination of this proposition highlighted deficiencies in the model and suggested that developing a framework for describing computer use in education would be a more productive approach. Existing frameworks were examined in the light of the data from the first three case studies, revealing significant weaknesses with them. This analysis resulted in the development of a set of criteria for evaluating frameworks for describing computer use in education. A new framework, the Computer Practice Framework (CPF), was then devised, based on key dimensions evident within the first three case studies. The CPF was evaluated against the criteria through further fieldwork in schools and higher education. This led to the refinement of the CPF and indicated that using it as a conceptual framework for thinking about computer use in education could help to create shared visions of the purposes underpinning investments in computer use in education. Using the CPF to support vision building, school development, curriculum planning, communication and shared understandings can enhance the likelihood of such investments having their intended impacts. The development of the CPF thus represents an original contribution to the field, which has the potential to enhance the impact of investments in ICT in education.

The purpose of this ethnographic study is to uncover relationships between the development of masculinities, the acquisition of early literacy and classroom processes. These processes include the early stages of the introduction of the National Literacy Strategy. The focus of the study is to examine literacy experiences in the early years classroom with reference to current anxieties about the progress and achievements of boys. The setting is a medium-sized primary school in the North of England. Data are drawn from participant and non-participant observation of adults and children, informal interviews and conversations with adults and the use of a questionnaire as the basis for informal interviews with children. Evidence is presented which suggests that boys in the class are already beginning to develop negative attitudes to literacy; possible factors to account for this are considered. These include administrative organisation, differential teacher expectations of boys and girls, the development of masculine subjectivities into resistance and boys' avoidance of literacy experiences through coping strategies. The impact of the introduction of the National Literacy Strategy on the gendered acquisition of early literacy is given detailed consideration. Findings indicate that all these factors do have considerable influence on differences in children's confidence in their approach to literacy attainment. The paper concludes that, with regard to future school policies, there is scope for greater co-operation between teachers in exploring the connections between gender, literacy attainment and classroom processes. It proposes that such explorations should be focused on both girls and boys. It explores ways in which such discussions might be begun. It proposes some ways in which practice might be modified. Suggestions for further classroom research are also made.