Previous research studies have demonstrated that international graduate students experience various challenges adapting to academic situations within a new university community. This thesis reports on an interview study with six international graduate students who use English as a second language studying Master’s degree at one Canadian university. This study addresses the academic assessment and evaluation experience of international graduate students in the following four aspects: (1) their enjoyable and challenging assessment practices; (2) understanding of assessment expectations; (3) reflections on previous educational experience; and (4) psychological and physical factors in relation to assessment and evaluation. The findings indicate that these students’ experiences of assessment and evaluation procedures are varied and the academic acculturation process towards assessment depends on different yet interrelated factors: English language competence, cultural and educational awareness, and assessment literacy. All six research participants adapted to the host academic assessment practices and procedures fairly well despite the fact that they were not familiar with the expectations and requirements regarding assessment and evaluation at the beginning of their studies. These students learned about the host academic culture regarding assessment and evaluation through their own examination failure, instructors’ feedback, and peers’ observation. The findings also indicate that international graduate students need more coordinated support from university supportive services and easier access to information about assessment and evaluation expectations and requirements. Implications of the findings for effective learning and positive academic experience for L2 international graduate students, faculty and supportive staff, and for future research are discussed. It is suggested to organize workshops and seminars devoted to assessment literacy for international and domestic graduate students, instructors and supporting staff in order to enhance learning experience and outcomes. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2012-10-09 17:43:27.833

Background: Integration of immigrants is an interactive process of learning a new culture, an obtaining of rights, access to a position and status and building of personal relations between migrants and the receiving society.  Their ability to reciprocally adjust to intercultural encounters is one of the most important factors of successful integration. Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate Swedish young adults perception and attitudes towards immigrants and immigrants’ integration into the Swedish society. Furthermore the aim is to study their perception of social interaction of immigrants and the Swedish host society. How Swedish young adults perceive their country’s immigration policy. Method:  A qualitative research, using an online open-ended questionnaire and in-depth telephone interviews were applied to collect the data about Swedish young adults perceptions and attitudes. The transcribed data were subjected to thematic analysis. Result:  The results of the qualitative research helped to understand Swedish young adults perceptions and attitudes. The findings showed that two of the biggest reasons that Swedish young adults support immigration are: humanitarism and labor force. Swedish young adults are very aware of immigrants’ integration in Sweden. They socialize with immigrants and have contact with them in daily basis. Swedish young adults, have a negative opinion regarding Sweden’s immigration policy Conclusion: Swedish young adults define immigrants as a people born in one country but move to another (particularly in Sweden) with an intention to reside there permanently. Regarding their acculturation expectations, they support integration as the best acculturation strategy. They think that immigrants in Sweden are “half way” integrated, geographically segregated, discriminated, prejudiced in different degrees and immigrant woman are the most excluded category.

Une étude de l’histoire du jazz en Tunisie montre une interaction entre des facteurs culturels intrinsèques, comme la réceptivité vis-à-vis les cultures d’autrui et le développement de la productivité culturelle locale, et des facteurs culturels extrinsèques liés à la mondialisation de la musique. Ce phénomène, ayant ensuite fait l’objet d’une étude statistique et sociologique, sous-tend de nouvelles tendances d’écoute, d’apprentissage et de pratique musicale chez les jeunes musiciens des Instituts Supérieurs de Musique en Tunisie (ISM-s). Les intérêts enregistrés pour les musiques improvisées extra-arabes – comme notamment la musique turque et le jazz – sont corrélés avec des tendances de métissage musical. L’analyse d’un corpus d’improvisations réalisé auprès d’un échantillon de trois jeunes pianistes/claviéristes orientaux diplômés des ISM-s montre un discours particulièrement acculturé, révélateur d’un disfonctionnement de l’appareil didactique local, mais au demeurant rattaché à une identité culturelle endogène. Enfin, la dernière phase du travail a été consacrée à l'étude d’un corpus de métissage expérimenté. L’analyse approfondie d’une musique du `ûdiste/compositeur Anouar Brahem accompagné par le contrebassiste de jazz Dave Holland, dévoile un processus créatif original et conceptuel, basé sur une fusion musicale multi-référentielle, subtile et cohérente. Ce processus, synonyme de diversité culturelle, est toutefois entravé par des enjeux commerciaux et d’uniformisation esthétique. / This historical study of jazz in Tunisia reveals an interaction between intrinsic cultural factors, such as receptivity to other cultures and the development of local cultural production, and extrinsic factors related to the cultural globalization of music. First, this dissertation includes a statistical and sociological study concerning the new listening, learning, and performance trends among young musicians at the Higher Institutes of Music in Tunisia (ISM-s). These students’ interest in non-Arab improvised music – especially Turkish music and jazz – is correlated with their tendencies towards musical hybridity. Next, this work includes an analysis of a collection of improvisations by a sample of three young pianists / oriental keyboard players graduating from ISM-s. Their improvisations reveal a particularly globalized discourse; and although defaults in their work stem from problems in the local pedagogical system, their improvisations are nevertheless linked to their endogenous cultural identity. The final section of the dissertation examines a collection of experimental, hybrid recordings by ûdiste/composer Anouar Brahem, accompanied by jazz bassist Dave Holland. An analysis of these recordings unveils a creative process that is original and conceptual, based on a musical fusion that is multi-referential, subtle, and coherent. This process is synonymous with cultural diversity, yet it is hampered by issues of commercial and aesthetic uniformity.

Background: Arab Americans, a growing population in the U.S., tend to have high rates of smoking and low rates of smoking cessation. Arab Americans and their families are at a high risk for poor health outcomes related to smoking. Objective: The purpose of this study is to better understand the smoking behaviors of Arabs in the U.S., using the two publishable manuscripts format. The first manuscript is a systematic review of the literature exploring the smoking behavior, prevalence and use among Arab Americans and examining studies addressing the effect of acculturation on this behavior. The second manuscript is a cross-sectional quantitative study investigating factors influencing desire to quit smoking among Arab Americans, and their association with acculturation and health beliefs. Results: The majority of the studies included in the first manuscript focused on smoking prevalence and cessation. Some discussed the impact of acculturation and health beliefs only two smoking cessation programs have been developed. Thus a cross-sectional descriptive study among adult Arab American smokers was conducted to measure tobacco use, nicotine dependence, desire to quit smoking, acculturation, and health beliefs. The desire to quit smoking was positively associated with perceived severity and susceptibility to cancer, perceived benefits of quitting smoking; and negatively associated with smoking barriers and nicotine dependence. Being female, having lower level of nicotine dependence, and higher perception of cancer severity predicted higher desire to quit smoking. Conclusion: Smoking cessation intervention studies need to target appropriate health beliefs, especially cancer severity of smoking among male Arab Americans.

The purpose of the thesis is to examine how adult immigrants in Romania describe the learning strategies that have helped them integrate in the new culture. To be able to draw conclusions about migrants' learning strategies and what has made them work, I have looked at the experience of five immigrants who speak Romanian and who have successfully integrated in the Romanian culture. The study employs a qualitative methodology, information has been collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis and a framework approach to data analysis. The key findings of the thesis are that integration through education, specifically through language learning, takes place more effectively if migrants are driven by intrinsic goals or if they internalize the extrinsic rewards that they expect upon completion of their goals. These findings can be put into practice to form better strategies and actions steps in organizational programs that aim at integrating migrants. They can also be brought to the knowledge of migrants looking to successfully integrate, to make them aware of how their choices and goals, even those apparently unrelated, can impact the outcome of their integration efforts.

Throughout history, wild green vegetables have played a significant role in human diets around the world, coevolving alongside agriculture and changing land use patterns (Wilson, 1990). Wild greens such as purslane (Portulaca oleracea), lambquarters (Chenopodium spp.) and amaranth (Amaranthus spp.), wild ancestors of crop plants, are prehistoric foods that are cultural and nutritional mainstays in many parts of the world including the Arizona-Mexico borderland region. While consumption of these foods is commonplace on the Mexican side of the border, on the American side their use is less frequent. In this study, I explore the patterns of and barriers to consumption of wild green vegetables by Latinos living in the Arizona (AZ)-Mexico (MX) borderland city of Tucson, AZ. I use Weber's rationalization theory, as well as human agency theory, to guide my exploration of how the dominant food system contributes to dietary acculturation and the loss of agency among Latinos living in Tucson. In-depth interviews and naturalistic observations are employed across a diverse array of market settings, which include a farmers' market, several carniceri­as (Mexican butcher shops), a corner store/tortilleria with procurers and purveyors of Latino and indigenous foods, and a more conventional supermarket. The findings reveal a reduction in knowledge and consumption of heritage greens by Latinos concurrent to their adoption of more mainstream American foods. I consider this pattern and its various implications in the context of the rationalization of the dominant U.S. food system, which leads to a dynamic that favors efficiency and productivity over authenticity and aesthetics.

This thesis presents a study of changing constructions and perceptions of cultural identity over the period 300 BC to AD 100 in the region of northern central Spain known in antiquity as Celtiberia. Its primary focus is iconography, with images of male and female figures of particular interest. The iconography is used to map the continuities and discontinuities in a sense of Celtiberian identity, and considers the effect that interaction with non-Celtiberians, including Celts and Iberians but especially with Romans, had on this identity. A theoretical framework in which to study 'cultural identity' is proposed in the Prolegomena. After the Prolegomena, the thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapter One, Celtiberia in its Historical and Cultural Context, examines the development of Celtiberian culture and Celtiberian settlements over time, and the changes that occurred after the arrival of Romans. Chapter Two, Metallurgy and Metal Objects, looks at three categories of metal objects (fibulae, hospitium tesserae, and armaments) and asks whether the horseman motif, an important iconographic element in this thesis, is emblematic of a 'warrior aristocracy'. Chapter Three, Human and Animal Figures on Painted Pottery, studies the range of human figures found on Celtiberian ceramic vessels, considering the types of scenes and figures that were most popular. Chapter Four, Coins from Pre-Roman and Early Imperial Celtiberia, traces the development of numismatic images in the region. This chapter emphasises the so-called transitional coins, which represent the first time that Celtiberian cities were publicly identified with Roman authority on official media. Chapter Five, Men's Funerary Monuments, returns to critical analysis of the horseman motif, focusing on stelai with relief images of male figures on horseback. Chapter Six, Women's Funerary Monuments, examines the most popular visual language for Celtiberian women, the 'funerary banquet,' and places stelai bearing this theme in their wider social context. A concluding section discusses Celtiberian iconography as a whole. It also considers the role that language - Celtiberian and/or Latin - played alongside the images, and whether the phenomena of bilingualism and Latinisation of names bear 'cultural identity' significance.

Thèse diffusée initialement dans le cadre d'un projet pilote des Presses de l'Université de Montréal/Centre d'édition numérique UdeM (1997-2008) avec l'autorisation de l'auteur.

The present study investigates the phenomenon of organisational acculturation of Egyptian Host Country National middle managers working in three foreign subsidiaries of US, UK, and Swedish MNCs. Host Country National staff (HCNs) are those who work in foreign subsidiaries established in their own countries. HCNs are exposed to the organisational culture of the MNC which is affected by the national culture of the parent company. Accordingly, the concept of cultural adaptation, or organisational acculturation, has been stressed as an essential process for MNCs to deal with problems arising from cultural differences and achieve cross-cultural effectiveness. The topic of the present study is an understudied topic and only few studies addressed the acculturation of HCNs, most of which within the context of Asian-only cultures. The study used a multiple case design and the data were collected using a mixed methods design in which both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. The study was conducted in two phases; the first phase was to compare the work values of the Egyptian middle managers and their UK, US, and Swedish expatriates using a questionnaire on work values, in order to find similarities or differences in work values between the Egyptian managers and their expatriates. To measure the work values of the host national culture, the study used a comparison group of Egyptian middle managers in three local Egyptian firms. In the second phase, in-depth interviews and observation were conducted with a number of Egyptian middle managers who were found to have work values significantly similar to or different from their expatriates work values in the three subsidiaries. This phase was conducted in order to further examine the acculturation phenomenon, and to understand the influence of the Egyptian national culture and the type of control mechanisms used by MNCs on the acculturation process. The results showed that some acculturation effects might have occurred in some work values of Egyptian managers, while other work values might have not been influenced due to the strong effect of the Egyptian national culture. Also, the study found that Egyptians needed both formal bureaucratic and informal cultural mechanisms of control, though with more stress on the formal bureaucratic ones.

In the area of positive youth development, mentoring programs are often looked upon to help disadvantaged youth connect with caring adults in order to increase positive behaviors and decrease negative behaviors. The benefits of these programs were often assumed and it was not until recently that large-scale research has examined their effectiveness. The results of the research are modest, at best, suggesting that youth mentoring programs provide only minimal benefits to its participants. A closer examination of the research reveals that the effectiveness of the programs increased if they adhered to specific practices, in particular specific aspects of the mentoring relationship. The aspects of the mentoring relationship that contributed to greater effects include emotional expressiveness by the youth and non-hierarchical collaboration between the youth and mentor. Although theories on mentoring have not been well-established, many point to the life-span development literature as the basis for their effectiveness. However, these theories may be based on a Western worldview of mentoring relationships that contradict with Eastern values of emotional moderation and hierarchical relationships. Current mentoring programs may be less salient to Asian populations, specifically the notion that successful mentoring requires emotional expressiveness and non-hierarchical relationships. This study examined the acculturation level of Asian participants and its impact on distress disclosure, willingness to emotionally-self-disclose to peers and mentors during early adolescence, and relational health with peers and mentors during early adolescence. Values acculturation significantly predicted distress disclosure but did not predict emotional self-disclosure. However, the number of years lived in the U.S. did predict emotional self-disclosure. No interactions were found for relational health and emotional self-disclosure across values acculturation level and relationship type; main effects were found for both variables in that relational health and emotional self-disclosure tended to be less with mentors than with peers. Exploratory analyses using behavioral acculturation found an interaction for emotional self-disclosure across relationship type; those who were less acculturated were more willing to disclose emotions to mentors during early adolescence, a finding in an unanticipated direction. The behavioral and values aspect of acculturation is discussed as well as the cultural influence of the community in mentoring.