La professió periodística afronta una època de canvis, experimentació i innovació. En el context actual, una de les principals dinàmiques dels mitjans és la convergència de redaccions. L'ensenyament del periodisme té davant seu el repte d'adaptar-hi el seu currículum, però, ¿s'està duent a terme, aquest ajustament? Aquesta recerca pretén definir un marc teòric per a la reflexió sobre el significat del concepte de convergència i la seva importància en la formació del periodista integrat. Analitzarem com s’estan introduint els conceptes d’integració de redaccions i convergència de mitjans en els plans docents dels Estudis de Periodisme a l'estat espanyol amb l'objectiu de determinar com s'ensenya la convergència de mitjans en la formació reglada universitària. També presentem l’estudi d’un cas concret: el Taller Integrat de Periodisme; una assignatura que es desenvolupa al voltant de quatre eixos: la convergència de redaccions, la simulació professional, el vincle entre la universitat i l’empresa i la internacionalització. / The journalistic profession is facing a time of change, experimentation and innovation. In today’s world, one of the principle driving forces behind these changes in the media is newsrooms convergence. Those involved in the teaching of journalism have to face the challenge of adapting its curriculum to these new dynamics. Are these readjustments being carried out? This research will construct a solid theoretical framework concerning the meaning of convergence and the training of a fully integrated journalist. In this thesis we analyse how this newsroom integration and media convergence is being taught within Journalism faculties in Spain. In addition a study case will be highlighted: the “Taller Integrat de Periodisme” from Pompeu Fabra University. A 24 ECTS subject that has been developed around four key axes: newsrooms’ convergence, professional simulation, the links between university and industry and internationalization.

Tesi doctoral centrada en l’anàlisi i l’evolució de la Diplomatura en Infermeria a Catalunya d’ençà de 1990 i fins al moment que s’extingeix. L’objectiu de la recerca és avaluar la implantació i el desenvolupament dels estudis superiors d’infermeria en el context de la Catalunya autonòmica (1980-2012) i les seves polítiques de descentralització acadèmica i institucional. Atesa la incidència sanitària, social i econòmica de la infermeria i la seva repercussió en la formació professional, se n’examina la implantació a les diferents universitats catalanes a partir de les respectives escoles universitàries d’infermeria, el model formatiu, teòric i pràctic, i l’evolució del mapa de l’oferta i la demanda fins a la implantació del Grau d’Infermeria.

Over the past 20 years reflective practice has maintained a firm presence in health professional education and practice. The notion that reflection enhances learning and professional practice is widely reported in the literature. With the continuing changes in health care, it is vital that midwives, like other professionals, develop the skills to critically evaluate care provision. Reflection is considered to be deliberate, complex processes for enhancing professional development, linking theory and practice, learning from experience, and for .promoting critical thinking and lifelong learning skills. Drawing on the work of leading theorists in the field, theoretical concepts relating to professional knowledge, learning, professionalisation and reflection were utilised to inform the empirical study. Reflective journal writing is one learning strategy used in professional education to develop reflective practice. Extensive review of literature about its use revealed limited investigation specifically relating to midwifery. The aim of this study was, therefore, to establish the perceived influence of reflective journal writing in pre registration midwifery students' experiential learning in a singularity. An ethnomethodological approach was adopted as it entailed investigating individuals interacting in an ordinary setting, and in a holistic way. Phenomenological ideas about conducting research supported the methods used to construct and give meaning to participants' actions within this social context. Multiple research methods were used to ascertain students', midwives' and lecturers' perception of how critical reflection was facilitated. Qualitative data were gathered through, for example, structured group discussions, semi-structured interviews, the analysis of journal entries and secondary data sources. A purposive sample of students (n 105), midwives (n 25) and lecturers (n 12) were chosen on the basis of convenience and accessibility within the research timeframe. The study revealed that both midwives and students had a superficial understanding of reflection. A key finding was that although students experienced some difficulty with journal writing they identified many benefits, particularly in relation to acquiring midwifery knowledge. Both mentors and lecturers played a pivotal role in students' development as reflective practitioners. However, the research identified some inconsistency in the approach to facilitating reflective practice and concluded that the quality of students' reflective writing would improve with better preparation and ongoing support. Having engaged in reflective journal writing during the course, newly qualified midwives viewed reflection as a necessary part of their day-to-day practice, assisting them with structured, thinking about practice issues. Overall, the implications for midwifery practice raised by the findings relate to how a culture of reflective practice could be better promoted, the conditions required for students to utilise reflective journal writing effectively, and the importance of consistency in approach when implementing this learning strategy.

This is an ethnographic study of student politics relating to Palestine-Israel within British universities. Palestine-Israel has been a focal issue within British campuses for over four decades, manifesting in intense, high profile conflicts, which have been subject to competing political and media framings. In this thesis, I identify this as a case of what Nancy Fraser (2008) describes as 'abnormal justice', a situation of incommensurable, spiralling conflicts over the 'what', 'how' and 'who' of political community. I show how students' engagement with Palestine-Israel raises spectres of entangled histories of the Holocaust and colonialism, and tensions over the national versus global boundaries of the polity. Moving beyond abstract portrayals of this as a conflict between discrete ethno-religious groups or autonomous moral actors, I attend to students' complex personal experiences of these political dynamics. My central argument is that PalestineIsrael exerts discomforting, at times irreconcilable, claims over participating students, arising out of violent histories, ongoing racisms, complex transnational attachments and " the rationalism of post-imperial British universities. I trace how unsettling ambiguities and a desire for moral coher.,e nce are enacted within this campus politics, analysing how institutional practices of containment and shaming lead to 'tragic' moments of passionate aggression, which then circulate in the media. Contributing to a cross-disciplinary turn towards affect, aesthetics and ethics in the study of public spheres, I stake a claim for responsive ethnography with ethical ambitions. I do so by drawing our attention beyond spectacular political conflicts, showing how students cultivate reflexive practices and express uncertainty, care and commitment within overlooked, 'ordinary' spaces of the campus. In these ways, I show how attending to intersubjective political experience provides vital insights into the motivations and desires at stake in justice conflicts, and operis up expansive possibilities for reflexivity and creativity within the public institutions of democratic societies.

This thesis provides a case study of a new approach to courseware design described as a mixed approach. This mixed approach is based on orientation to a problem (or opportunity) and rounds of design, implementation and evaluation. The mixed approach is informed by principles of being iterative, understanding the perspective of users, listening to feedback, being stakeholders, and involving users from the commencement and draws on an understanding of instructional design, user-centred design and participatory design. The context in which the study took place is the support of international students with English as a second or foreign language following Masters degree programmes at an Institute of Education within a local university. Courseware was developed which aimed to develop students’ reading skills and fluency in reading academic texts. The context is a topical issue, with increasing numbers of international students coming to study in universities in the UK. In the orientation phase of the courseware development, the nature and scope of the problem were explored through interviews with students and tutors. A wider orientation to the problem was then achieved through a review of learning theory (general orientation), reading and language issues (linguistic orientation) and the main ICT themes (applied orientation). Drawing together the orientation enabled the design and development of the first version of the courseware 2006-2007. This was evaluated through mixed methods: interviews with users (n=6), observations and computer test scores. Interviews, however, were the primary source. Data was coded and aggregated, then compared and contrasted. It was found that students reported positively on their use of the courseware product (titled CAR 1), however suggestions for improvement were made including providing more guidance and more explicit reading skills support. The courseware was adapted in line with this feedback and further evaluated (2007-2008). The revised product (CAR 2) was more positively received. A key difference between the two versions was the adoption of an explanation, practice, feedback model in CAR 2. Issues relating to the design of courseware are discussed. Two models of courseware development are provided. The first is a prescriptive framework set out the steps to be undertaken when following the mixed model. The second is a holistic model developed after the study which sets out the various factors which came together to shape the design and implementation of the courseware. It was found that the design is not ‘value free’ but shaped by the context and by the designer’s past experiences and tacit beliefs about teaching and learning. Issues relating to the development of reading skills are discussed throughout the thesis, though it is stressed that the trials were too short and the methodology was not appropriate for identifiable gains in reading fluency to be evidenced. The mix of cultural and social problems, language processing problems, L2 acquisition and training background problems, support problems which students faced are, however, described. The research showed that there were particular features of academic texts which students should not be assumed to understand. It was also found that some tutors felt that the language demands were too intense for some students. As regards the courseware, students felt that it was useful in supporting the development of reading skills. They valued the explicit teaching of skills and strategies and modelling of strategies such as skimming, scanning and speed reading. Useful features, or affordances, within the courseware were interactive feedback, easy access to several authentic texts, repeated practice, and links to opportunities for further study. However, the courseware needed to be integrated more fully into the course programme, and there needed better branching so that users could follow personal routes to and through material. Context remained important and online support might only mitigate the structural difficulties which international students’ face. Recommendations are made towards better support for international students.

This thesis focuses on the lived experience of a group of post-graduate drama students as they undergo a one year vocational Master of Arts in Acting at a major London Drama School. It attempts to understand why mature and well qualified adults sacrifice financially rewarding and secure employment in order to train for an industry in which they have little chance of even a subsistence level of paid employment in the years following graduation. The project was conducted from a non-positivistic basis where knowledge, truth and reality are seen as the subjective, context-bound, normative and political products of a social community, and not as the value-neutral products of a disinterested researcher. The research design was based on a series of 14 extended semi-structured interviews with current and ex-students, formal participant observation over a period of a year, and both formal and solicited documentary evidence covering a four year period. The epistemology is phenomenological. It is a descriptive, hermeneutic, longitudinal, single case study and a reflexive commentary on the research process. Data are presented in two forms; firstly through themes and elements in relationship to the relevant literature, and secondly as a dramadocumentary screenplay, charting the experience of the students as they progress through the course. The findings suggest that the participants are searching for selfactualisation through personal integrity and a creative purpose. The research proposes that face-to-face relationships, reflexive and sensitive pedagogy, a permissive, non-judgemental ‘safe space’ and the disciplined development of the histrionic sensibility through the study of action is productive in developing individuals able to selfactualise and flourish creatively within the increasing demands and conflicting ideologies of a highly competitive creative industry.

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There is a need to develop a clear understanding of the knowledge used by mental health nurses in day to day practice. Knowledge relating to holistic/therapeutic activities form the basis of mental health nurse education, however various studies have consistently shown the majority of mental health nurses activity relates to administrative and routine tasks and containment. This disparity between the knowledge bases prescribed, those described and the inability of education reforms to resolve such inconsistencies suggests other influences are at work. Concepts of power and knowledge figure largely in the evolution of nursing per se and mental health nursing in particular. Michel Foucault proposes that power forms knowledge and produces discourses. A body of knowledge is not formed by a `subject who knows' but rather through the processes and struggles that transverse that subject. Thus mental health nurses do not produce a regime of knowledge but rather power relations inscribe on the nurse and sustain forms/domains of knowledge. To gain access to these inscribed knowledges two approaches are adopted and integrated - Genealogy and Q-methodology. Genealogy provides a detailed account of the power relations surrounding mental health nursing and the knowledge bases programmed by these. These power relations are evident in the discourses concerning mental health nursing generated by psychiatrists, `nursing in general', and society. The Qmethodology facilitates the identification of subjectivities in relation to the knowledges inscribed on mental health nurses. The knowledges programmed by the power relations and evident within the subjectivities relate to mental health nurses' regimes of practice as `doctors' assistants', `controller of patients, environment and self, and `therapeutic activities'. It is proposed that mental health nurses' knowledge is task orientated, related to `knowing how' to do things rather than the `knowing that' of evidence based practice.