This qualitative comparative case study examined factors related to politics that might explain the notably different active transportation (AT - walking, cycling, and public transit use) rates achieved in Helsinki, Finland (a leading European city in AT, where 77 per cent of people use primarily AT for daily transportation) and Ottawa, Canada (a leading North American city in AT, but where the AT rate is 28.5 per cent). Applying the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) - a policy process theory - individual focused interviews were conducted with 47 active transportation experts from the two cities. Document review was employed as a secondary method. The results are discussed in three articles written for peer reviewed journals – the first two concentrating on the findings from Helsinki and Ottawa respectively, and the third article comparing the findings from both cities. Overall, differences stemming from the ACF category of relatively stable parameters (i.e., stable background-level factors) including land use, transportation planning traditions, and political systems were identified as likely important in explaining the discrepancy in AT rates.

This study examined the effects of the Self-Advocacy Strategy delivered via the CD (i.e., SACD) on self-advocacy skills of fifteen middle school students with mild and moderate disabilities. A pre-/and posttest experimental design with random assignment to treatment or wait-list control groups was employed to investigate changes in student participation and level of self-determination post-intervention. The SACD instruction addressed essential self-advocacy skills, including knowledge of self and communication. Results showed significant differences in favor of the treatment group when compared with the wait-list control group concerning student participation, as measured by student responses to a set of 10 IEP related questions. In addition, generalization data indicated positive results for student participation, as measured by student use of SHARE behaviors, for the majority of students in the treatment group in informal educational meetings with their special educators. The results provide additional support for the use of SACD to teach self-advocacy and active student participation in the IEP process to middle school students with disabilities.

The essence of human rights and their dimension goes beyond national level. It is universal because it is inherent to human kind. The main source of human rights norms is international human rights instruments. The concern for human rights has grown worldwide and therefore they have been given priority by most nations. They are more and more integrated into national legal frameworks mainly in states constitutions with more or less enforcing mechanisms. As far as the realization of rights is concerned various mechanisms are involved on different levels: international, regional and national. Each of the three levels has its advantages and disadvantages. Yet, the local mechanisms appear to be more effective and adequate given the fact that they are closer to the real subject of the rights (the individuals). In point of fact, human rights involve mainly the relationships between individuals and states but sometimes also between individuals living somewhere in a nation. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2011. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / nf2012 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Denver, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 269-280).

In this study, special needs teachers and students with reading and writing difficulties in an upper secondary school are in focus. The research questions strive to answer how special needs teachers work in upper secondary school with students with reading and writing difficulties and what special needs teachers experience when working in upper secondary school with students with reading and writing difficulties. What do students with reading and writing difficulties experience and perceive in the transition between primary school and upper secondary school, and further studies in upper secondary school? The method has been interviews with three special needs teachers and four students in upper secondary school. The conclusive results are that the special needs teachers work with students with reading and writing difficulties in their original groups, in smaller groups and individually. Their tasks also include pedagogical assessment and assistance. Their work is complex, with many corresponding colleagues. The students face countless obstacles in school every day and ask for help to understand and overcome them.

In an American democracy, created by the people and for the people, contemporary political women remain a marginalized voice in policy making and governance. My dissertation celebrates personal politics, and posits a landscape for thinking about democracy and advocacy in terms of political feminism. Specifically, I am concerned with how theorizing feminist interventions in the rhetorical canon operationalize material advancements for women in the political public sphere. To that end, this dissertation will introduce two systemic obstacles for political women, including, first, an ideological problem, where the political infrastructure and the press apparatus exacerbate a patriarchal gendered game; and second, an epistemological problem, where gendered language and gendered journalism are used to discipline political women. In the search for how political women can challenge and thwart political hegemony, I build from feminist rhetorical theory, political theory, and public sphere theory to offer rhetorical care as a vehicle for feminist political advocacy in the American political public sphere. Operationalizing feminist care through the case study chapters of Hillary Clinton and Wendy Davis, respectively, I argue that both political women successfully shifted gendered narratives for women in political leadership. / text

The research was carried out during a time when residential provision for people with learning difficulties in the north of Scotland was changing from being hospital based towards being community centred. The aim was to utilise an understanding of the dynamics of past provision to shed light upon present practice and planning for the future: focussing upon that form of ‘difference’ which has been given the name ‘learning difficulty’. The research utilised records, interviews, narratives and discussion groups to explore the experiences of providers of services, service users and those who were close to them. The research sought to go beyond description; to facilitate respondents in sharing their understanding of the organisation of care services and how it had an effect upon their life chances and self concept. The design of the research, which made use of multiple sources of evidence, was qualitative in its approach. It was undertaken within four ‘sites of interest’:  The archive or the historical record of provision at Lhangbyde Hospital..  Through semi structured interviews with ‘Providers’  A ‘Punters’ discussion forum located within a self advocacy group.  A set of ‘Intimate Narratives’. The method had its roots in constructivist, reflective and post modern currents of thought which confronted the difficulty inherent is making an epistemological distinction between what is out there in the world and the categories of meaning which are resident in the human mind. The goal was to produce texts which promoted dialogue rather than monologue, were evocative rather than definitive, In chapter 8 some ‘Intimate Narratives’ from the researcher’s own life experience as a father and as a facilitator and adviser within a self advocacy organisation were presented directly as stories of everyday experience. In the final two chapters of the thesis an attempt was made to synthesise the overall findings of the research, and to assess their implications for future policy and practice. In chapter 9, under the heading of ‘Reading the Chart: understanding the past and present as a foundation for future planning’ the findings from the four ‘sites of interest’ were gathered together under seven explanatory themes, with the section entitled ‘Gaining a Voice’ achieving an overall pre-eminence.. The last chapter in the thesis (Chapter 10), under the title of ‘The Future Course’ detailed a plan for change and development based on a synthesis of findings. In addition the role of future research in promoting change was examined. The thesis concluded with a ‘plain language’ summary of recommendations.

Professional ethics in legal practice Key words: ETHICS, ADVOCACY, PROFESSIONAL ETHICS The primary subject of my diploma thesis is professional ethics related to carrying out advocacy in the Czech Republic and institutions related to the ethics of solicitors. The reason for my choice of the aforementioned subject is mainly my experience in a legal office, where I have encountered many positive and negative approaches to carrying out this profession, and also the public's interest in the ethics of advocacy, which is growing concurrently with the rising needs of citizens to use services by legal consultants and representatives. In the first chapter of my work I describe the key terms (ethics, morals, law), definition of which is fundamental for understanding the issue of professional ethics and I also outline the mutual relations between these terms. In the second chapter I briefly present the short but varied history of advocacy in the Czech Republic, which began in the 12th Century. The third chapter focuses on definition of the institute of professional ethics. The first part concerns professional ethics as a set of moral standards valid for a specific profession and the second part defines professional ethics in relation to carrying out advocacy. The third part of the third chapter is called the...

This research adds the growing body of literature on the role of celebrities as emergent spokespersons in climate advocacy and the process and consequences of its effects on public attitudes and behaviors to resolve the climate crisis. By applying social cognitive theory in conjunction with emotional appeals and language styles as message frames, the study examines the effects of role-modeling in adoption of eco-attitudes and behaviors. In a 2 x 2 design, the independent variables were emotion frame (fear, hope) and celebrity involvement frame (first person pronouns; FPP, non-first person pronouns; NFPP). For the manipulation check, the tweets were pilot tested. The main study was an experiment that asked participants to read tweets attributed to Leonardo DiCaprio or Pharrell Williams. Four main dependent variables were attitudes toward climate change mitigation and three behaviors, including support for government action, intention to engage in sustainable behavior, and intention to participate in activism for climate change mitigation. The role of two mediating variables (risk awareness, response efficacy) and one moderating variable, parasocial interaction (PSI) with the celebrity, were also examined. First, one-way ANCOVAs compared the effects of emotion frames to the control group. No evidence of the effects of emotion frame over unrelated messages on any dependent variables was found. Second, 2 (fear vs hope) x 2 (FPP vs NFPP) ANCOVAs found that fear-framed messages were more effective than hope-framed messages in driving intention for participation in activism, but emotion frame did not affect any other variables. The results also found that FPP frames led to more positive attitude (compared to NFPP frames), but had no effect on behaviors. Third, regression analyses found no evidence that risk awareness or response efficacy mediated the effect of emotion frames on attitudes or behaviors. In addition, the study discovered that PSI was a strong positive predictor of attitudes and all behaviors, but PSI did not moderate the impact of the celebrity involvement frame. The findings provide empirical evidence of the potential for celebrities to serve as role models in climate advocacy by psychologically involving people, which can be translated to the adoption of attitudes and behaviors.

Choices are often difficult to make by patients with Alzheimer Dementia. They often become acutely confused when faced with too many options because they are not able to retain in their working memory enough information about the various individual choices available. In this case study, we describe how an essentially simple benign task (choosing a dress to wear) can rapidly escalate and result in a catastrophic outcome. We examine what went wrong in the patient/caregiver interaction and how that potentially catastrophic situation could have been avoided or defused.