Supporting individuals to live their best lives is the purpose of Southern Alberta Community Living Association. This thesis describes the inquiry that was designed to gather information about how the association could assist employees to enact this mission more fully. Employees were found to be dedicated, having important ideas about how the organization could assist them. This thesis reviews literature regarding the concept of best life as considered from a quality of life perspective, along with factors related to change in complex and dynamic organizations. Differing ways of viewing best life both by employees and through the literature, suggest that a shared understanding of the mission may benefit the organization, as well as strategies to strengthen and support communications and relationships. Further consideration of the concept of best life, or quality of life may be relevant to other agencies and the broader field of support for persons with developmental disabilities.

Environmental Education is becoming increasingly important as human populations expand into wildlife habitat, often resulting in human/wildlife conflicts. Meadow Creek British Columbia has experienced a long history of conflicts with grizzly bears resulting in significant bear mortalities. This qualitative research investigates human attitudes and behaviours relating to human/grizzly bear coexistence in this area. Twenty eight participants with diverse values contributed to in-depth interviews and a focus group that revealed perceived barriers and potential solutions to human/grizzly bear coexistence. Results show increased attitudes of tolerance since mid-2000s and that on-going support is needed to enable bears and humans to coexist. This research suggests coexisting with grizzly bears in Meadow Creek may serve to improve the linkage function of this area, making coexistence important to local grizzly populations. This work may be a useful study for communities in areas of high human/bear conflicts or in linkage areas between threatened populations of wildlife.

Tyrimo tikslas: Atskleisti mokinių ir mokytojų požiūrį į pamokų jaunimo mokykloje lankomumo gerinimo galimybes. Darbas skirtas pasigilinti į Jaunimo mokykloje besimokančių mokinių, mokyklos nelankymo ir mokymosi nesėkmių priežastis bei paieškoti mokiniams priimtinų šių problemų sprendimo būdų. Didžiausias indėlis į šį darbą yra praktinės, pačių mokinių pasiūlytos veiklos ir problemų sprendimo būdai, kurie padėjo jaunimo mokyklos mokiniams pasijausti svarbiais, reikalingais, atsakingais ir gebančiais rasti reikalingas strategijas jų kasdieniniams rūpesčiams spręsti. Dėl mokinių besimokančių jaunimo mokykloje unikalumo, reikalingas ir unikalus ugdomasis procesas pritaikytas prie tokių mokinių poreikių, jų gebėjimų ir galimybių. Ko reikia, kad toks procesas būtų organizuojamas geriausiai žino patys jaunimo mokyklos bendruomenės nariai; vadovai, administracijos darbuotojai, mokytojai, mokinių tėvai ir svarbiausia patys mokiniai. Todėl jaunimo mokykloje mokinių ugdymas turi būti organizuojamas atsižvelgiant į pačių mokinių siūlomus jiems aktualių problemų sprendimo būdus ir pirmiausia ne siekiant jų aukštų mokymosi rezultatų, bet padedant jiems socialiai integruotis sprendžiant tam tikras jų pačių ir visuotinai suvoktas bei pripažintas, nepageidaujamas problemas. Šis tyrimas įtraukė mokinius į procesą ieškant atsakymo ką daryti, kad pagerėtų lankomumas, pažangumas, bendravimas su mokytojais ir būtų kuriama saugesnė aplinka bei kuriami... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The work is set to look deeper into the Youth school pupils’ attendance and learning and look for reasons of the failure of students learning and find acceptable solutions. The biggest contribution of this work is practical, students proposed activities and problem-solving techniques that have helped youth school students to feel important, needed, responsible and able to find the necessary strategies to address their daily concerns. Due to the unique of students studying in the youth school, a unique educational process is necessary corresponding to the needs of these students, their abilities and capabilities. What is needed, that such a process is organized well is best known by youth school community, administrative staff, teachers, parents and most importantly the students themselves. Therefore, youth school students learning has to be organized according to the students' proposed solutions to current problems, and not primarily for their high educational achievement, but also help their social integration in solving some of their generally understood and recognized unwanted problems. This study involved students in the process of searching for an answer what to in order to improve attendance, excellence, communication with teachers so as to create a safer environment and develop better interpersonal relationships. The study is useful not only in the school it was carried out, but it can also be useful for other youth schools and non-formal education organizations that... [to full text]

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Despite advances in technology, software and planning tools that are available to project managers, information systems (IS) projects continue to fail. Storm (2005, pg 1) has suggested that management issues are a central theme in these failures, recommending more thorough training for project managers and improved management overall. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations, arguably the most complex of IS projects, are particularly costly, high risk endeavors (Davenport, 1998, pg 7). When multiple locations are involved, the projects are even more challenging (Boudreau and Robey, 1999, pg 294; Markus et al, 2000, pg 46). This remains true even when a company has completed the strategic planning, the software configuration and the required infrastructural support, as experience shows companies may still face considerable complexity in getting from the capability to the reality. Due to a configuration knowledge barrier (Robey et al, 2002, pg 40), extensive use is often made of external consultants whose services add considerably to project cost (Haines and Goodhue, 2003, pg 24). By internalising and realising the benefits of a learning process within the business, implementation teams will become more self-reliant as their experience grows, increasing the possibility of success in subsequent implementations (Chang, 2004, pg 7). The challenge is how to achieve this learning effectively and efficiently (Esteves et al, 2002, pg 3). This dissertation proposes that an action learning approach may hold the key to reducing the variability of success in successive projects. This research has benefit for all practitioners, and particularly Project and Programme Managers working in Information System projects. It shows how incorporating an action learning approach to projects results in savings through doing things cheaper, quicker and better. It further proposes a practical, workable methodology for ensuring how action learning should take place as part of standard project methodologies. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

In recent years there has been an increase in the adoption of tourism as an economic strategy in many developing nations and a growing interest in how communities and individuals engage with tourism. This parallels research which aims to uncover alternative readings of community participation in forms of economic and social development. This research uses tourism as a lens to understand the economic subjectivity of communities engaged in tourism. Focusing on how the local populations understand, experience and participate in tourism, it paints a picture of the Perhentian Islands which challenges existing understandings of individual and community participation in tourism. The research is broadly framed as a post-development project which highlights the grass-roots and bottom-up nature of small-scale developments and focuses on the ways in which local populations are actively engaged with tourism. It draws attention to the role played by discourse and subjectivity in constructing and reframing understandings of the individual within tourism development. Such discursive constructs can be actively co-opted as a political tool to empower individuals and communities by reconstructing understandings of local engagement in tourism. By recreating understandings of community engagement with tourism, it becomes possible to create new subjectivities outside of the framework of hegemonic capital. The methodology for this project incorporated participatory action research methods in order to facilitate community benefit through the research process. Research techniques involved both quantitative and qualitative methods in a number of settings. Ethnographic methods involving participant observation and in-depth interviews were complemented with focus groups, and property surveys. Research focused on key themes which were areas of interest identified by community members as well as questions which explored individual motivations for tourism work. In this situation, a number of motivations for engagement with tourism employment emerged. The individuals were actively seeking their employment, rather than passively accepting tourism from a limited number of choices. There were also similarities between hosts and guests which emerged, challenging the usual binary construction.

In Kenya, mobile technology is widely used, with more and more people gaining access to the Internet. Mobile technology has the potential to support learning and improve lives, particular those of impoverished people. In this study, 30 Kenyan runners from poor backgrounds and with limited formal education participated. They were provided with a basic smartphone and Internet data bundles for one year so that they could participate in m-learning. The participatory action research approach was used. Sources of data included interviews, observations, fieldnotes, web inquiries, and mobile log files. A sociocultural perspective was used to analyze how the participants learned informally using the smartphones. Findings indicate that the Kenyan runners’ rapid appropriation and mastery of the smartphones was based on their curiosity and interest in sports. The runners’ skills and knowledge increased over time, showing how digital resources improved their training, increased their social interactions, developed entrepreneurial skills, created awareness in and with the rest of society, and improved participation in m-learning. Sociocultural analysis showed that feedback from peers and the tool itself were both significant for learning. The participants themselves influenced the research process. From their interest emerged an online course (MOOC) about human rights. Key challenges in the process were power consumption, lack of electricity, and the availability and cost of Internet access. A lack of critical attitude about content on the Internet was also discernible. The main findings highlight how mobile technology can not only improve daily lives, but also develop new ways for people to participate in mlearning. / I Kenya är användningen av mobilteknologi och Internet utbredd och ökar stadigt. Mobilteknik visar sig ha potential att öka medborgares intressen för lärande och kunskap, och därigenom förbättra livssituationen särskilt för fattiga människor. Den här studien syftade till att med deltagande aktionsforskning analysera hur sådana processer går till. I studien deltog 30 kenyanska löpare från fattiga förhållanden och med begränsad formell utbildning. Deltagarna utrustades med en enkel smartphone med fri surf under ett år och följdes med intervjuer, observationer, webbenkäter och mobilspårning. Deras lärandeprocesser analyserades ur ett sociokulturellt perspektiv om hur teknik tillägnas – approrieras – och används i vardagliga praktiker och utvecklar lärande. Resultaten visade att de kenyanska löparna snabbt approprierade telefonerna och fann utifrån nyfikenhet och intresset för idrott olika sätt att använda dem. Kunskaper och färdigheter utvecklades över tid och de digitala resurserna förbättrade löparnas träning, ökade sociala interaktioner, utvecklade entreprenöriella färdigheter och nya synsätt på sina möjligheter i världen. Den sociokulturella analysen visade även att feedback från andra deltagare och/eller av tekniken i sig hade betydelse för lärandet. Forskningsprocessen påverkades av deltagarna och utifrån deras intresse skapades en on-line kurs (MOOC) om Mänskliga rättigheter. Problem i studien var telefonens energiförbrukning, brist på elektricitet, tillgång till och kostnad för Internet samt deltagarnas kritiska förhållningssätt till Internet. Det övergripande resultatet är att mobilteknologi kan förbättra livsvillkor och skapa nya vägar till lärande.

The purpose of this study was to understand why there is such lack of citizen participation among Asian Americans, despite the exponential growth of Asian American population in the state. Based on the literature on sense of community, citizen participation, and psychological empowerment, it was speculated that how individuals experience community may influence their motivation to participate. With the goal to understand and document how Asian Americans define community and experience sense of community, a sample of Asian Americans were interviewed. These individuals were participants of the Photovoice project conducted by a local community-based organization. The second aim of the study was to explore if and how a project like Photovoice enhanced the sense of community among participants. The findings suggested that Asian Americans defined various types and multiple communities. Also, it was suggested that because Asian American community is an imposed community of people of diverse Asian background, Asian Americans may not necessarily define it as a community or experience sense of community within the community. Based on the experiences of the participants, Photovoice seem to have great potential in bringing such diverse group as Asian Americans together as a community. Limitations of the study and future directions are discussed.