This study was designed to bring to the fore the reasons for introducing peace education in pre-service teacher education in Zimbabwean teachers colleges in order to establish the foundations for positive peace in Zimbabwe. The focus of the study was on the preparation of Zimbabwean pre-service teachers in peace education as an effective approach for building durable peace in Zimbabwe. The main research question that guided this study was: Why and how should peace education be introduced at pre-service teacher education colleges in Zimbabwe? The overall aim of the research is to develop an appropriate peace education programme for Zimbabwean teachers’ colleges which will be employed as a strategy for constructing positive peace in Zimbabwe. A phenomenological methodology blending Edmund Husserl’s descriptive phenomenology and Martin Heidegger’s interpretive phenomenology was used to elicit participants’ views on the challenges and possibilities of introducing peace education at pre-service teacher education colleges in Zimbabwe. Data for the study were gathered using semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews and documentary analysis. Key themes emerging from the data analysis were that (a) there is an absence of positive peace in contemporary Zimbabwe (b) Zimbabwean teachers’ colleges are not offering courses in peace education (c) peace education would benefit Zimbabwe as a country, (d) peace education is implementable at pre-service teacher education colleges in Zimbabwe, (e) there is need to develop an appropriate peace education curriculum that reflects the needs of Zimbabwean citizens and (f) college principals, lecturers, student teachers, policymakers and programme-makers have important roles to play in peace education initiatives. Through this study, the researcher established that peace education is a plausible and sustainable mechanism for building positive peace which has remained obscure in Zimbabwe despite thirty-four years of hard won independence. This shows the necessity for introducing peace education in Zimbabwean teachers colleges as a strategy for positive peace building. It is therefore, recommended that teachers’ colleges in Zimbabwe should introduce peace education in their pre-service programmes in order to build prospective teachers’ capacities to establish an infrastructure for positive peace in their future classrooms, the immediate communities and Zimbabwean society as a whole. / Philosophy of Education / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

This research addresses the effect of pedagogical ways-of-knowing in higher education design programmes such as Graphic Design, Interior Design, Fashion, and Industrial Design. One problematic aspect of design studio pedagogy is communication between teachers and students about the aesthetic visual meaning of the students’ designed objects. This problematic issue involves ambiguous and divergent ways-of-knowing the design meaning of these objects. The research focus is on the design teacher role in design studio interactions, and regards pedagogical ways-of-knowing as the ways in which teachers expect students to know visual design meaning. This pedagogical issue is complicated by the fact that there is no agreed-upon corpus of domain knowledge in design, so visual meaning depends greatly on the social knowledge retained by students and teachers. The thesis pursues an explanation of pedagogical ways-of-knowing that is approached through the philosophy of critical realism. How it is that particular events and experiences come to occur in a particular way is the general focus of critical realist philosophy. A critical realist approach to explanation is the use of abductive inference, or inference as to how it is that puzzling empirical circumstances emerge. An abductive strategy aims to explain how such circumstances emerge by considering them in a new light. This is done in this study by applying Luhmann’s theory of the emergence of cognition in communication to teacher ways-of-knowing in the design studio. Through the substantive use of Luhmann’s theory, an abductive conjecture of pedagogical ways-of-knowing is mounted. This conjecture is brought to bear on an examination of research data, in order to explain how pedagogical ways of-knowing constrain or enable the emergence of shared visual design meaning in the design studio. The abductive analysis explains three design pedagogical ways-of-knowing: design inquiry, design representation and design intent. These operate as macro relational mechanisms that either enable or constrain the emergence of shared visual design meaning in the design studio. The mechanism of relation is between design inquiry, design representation and design intent as historical knowing structures, and ways-of-knowing in respect of each of these knowing structures. For example, design inquiry as an historical knowing structure has over time moved from ways-of-knowing such as rationalistic problem solving to direct social observation and later to interpretive cultural analysis. The antecedence of these ways-of-knowing is important because communication about visual meaning depends upon prior knowledge, and teachers may then reproduce past ways-of-knowing. The many ways-of-knowing that respectively relate to design inquiry, design representation and design intent are shown to be communicatively formed and recursive over time. From a Luhmannian perspective, these ways-of-knowing operate as variational distinctions that indicate or relate to the knowing structures of design inquiry, design representation and design intent. This is the micro-level operation of pedagogical ways-of-knowing as relational mechanisms in design studio communication. Design teachers’ own ways-of-knowing may then embrace implicit way-of-knowing distinctions that indicate the knowledge structures of design inquiry, design representation and design intent. This implicit indication by distinction is the relational mechanism that may bring design teachers’ expectation that this and not that visual design meaning should apply in communication about any student’s designed object. Such an expectation influences communication between teachers and students about the potential future meaning of students’ designs. Consequently, shared visual design meaning may or may not emerge. The research explanation brings the opportunity for design teachers to make explicit the often implicit way-of-knowing distinctions they use, and to relate these distinctions to the knowing structures thus indicated. The study then offers a new perspective on the old design pedagogical problem of design studio conflict over the meaning of students’ designs. Options for applying this research explanation in design studio interactions between students and teachers are therefore suggested.

Doctorat en sciences sociales, politiques et économiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This research explores constructions and understandings of fluctuating or recurring impairments in Higher Education in the UK. It considers ways in which institutional discourses within one UK University have shaped policy and provision for disabled students, and how students with fluctuating or recurring impairments negotiate and enact identities in this context. For many students, impairments such as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)/ myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), epilepsy or diabetes, for example, have the potential to vary in intensity, and thus impact, on participation in learning activities and on self-perception/ identity. With increasing disclosure, yet limited recognition, of such types of impairment comes a need for institutions to better understand changing impact in terms of inclusion and in observing anticipatory aspects of legislation, as well as furthering insight into how student identities are negotiated and constructed in an educational context. This research uses a social constructionist framework to explore constructions and subjectivities as regards fluctuating or recurring impairments, and comprises both staff and student perspectives. The staff perspective is based on the thematic narrative analysis of interviews with three members of staff, and is presented in conjunction with an example of institutional policy to highlight discourses drawn upon in constructing disability and disabled students. The impact of these discourses on institutional constructions and practice is key to the analysis. The student perspective is based on two phases of data collection: firstly, 24 semi-structured interviews with students who self-described a fluctuating or recurring impairment; and secondly, five students’ responses to six bi-weekly emails over the course of one academic trimester (January – April 2011). Summary data from the first phase is used to frame discussion on issues raised by students regarding institutional constructions and support. A ‘hybrid’ narrative analysis framework incorporating positioning analysis as well as both ‘big’ and ‘small stories’ has been used in analysing the phase two data. The approach considers the influence of institutional discourses on how students are positioned institutionally and position themselves, as well as ways in which performances of identity may be shaped. The thesis concludes by considering the implications of the research outcomes for Higher Education. In so doing, it notes the significance of policy implementation and cultural change, and makes recommendations for areas of focus in raising institutional awareness of fluctuating or recurring impairments within existing constructions of disability.

School vouchers.

The purpose of this study is to discover how courses in world history and United States history are taught in Southern California secondary schools. At this stage of the research the study of the history course instruction will be generally defined as an exploratory and investigative inquiry involving the interviews of the history faculty, analysis of their course offerings and syllabi content, and the overall teachers' course content preparation and knowledge.

The purpose of this project was to test the hypothesis that student enthusiasm, participation, and comprehension would increase when using cooperative learning techniques in a classroom context.

This research investigates the vision of excellence in secondary schools leadership in Ekurhuleni East District (Gauteng East District) and the existence of a vision of excellence in schools. A literature study investigated models of leadership related to vision of excellence and aspects of vision of excellence in school leadership. An empirical investigation used both a quantitative and qualitative research design to collect data from a purposefully selected and stratified sample of participants and secondary schools in the Ekurhuleni East District (Gauteng East Education District). A questionnaire and focus group interviews were used to gather data from the respondents. Data were analysed and interpreted using quantitative and qualitative approach. The findings of both the literature study and the empirical research on the above-mentioned vision of excellence in secondary schools leadership in Ekurhuleni East District revealed that there is a lack of support from school leadership and the School Management Team (SMT) in realising a vision of excellence in secondary schools leadership. The main challenges that were identified by qualitative method were the lack of support by both the district office and school management or school leadership. The realisation of the vision of excellence is dependent on how the information is managed and disseminated by the school leadership, principals and SMTs. It appears that the realisation of the vision of excellence would enhance the level of understanding of new developments in the education system including the curriculum change and technological advancement. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Education Management)

The purpose of this research was to explore the subject of integrating philosophy of education and the goals of education in education practice at the high schools in Kenya. It is stated that the impact of education practice is hinged in the statement of philosophy of education and the goals of education which has been neglected by researchers and scholars in Kenya. An intensive literature review which was undertaken revealed that philosophy of education and the goals of education are flouted in education practice. The sources of literature review were books, journals, policy documents, dissertations, theses, newspapers, and websites. In this qualitative research, phenomenology was selected as suitable theoretical framework to situate education practice as a human activity which is shaped by philosophy of education and the goals of education. A qualitative design was used, and purposive sampling was identified to select the schools and the respondents. The respondents in this research included the school principals, teachers, education officers, board of governors, and the parents-teachers’ representatives. The main qualitative research methods involved literature review and interviews. In this study, ideograms were utilized in the process of analysing the responses acquired from the respondents. According to the respondents, the statement of philosophy of education is foreign in the high schools, but the goals of education are printed in the syllabi, and this explains why the study focused on the goals as the familiar items. The views obtained from the respondents emphasized on what is envisioned to occur at the high schools, and this explains that the students are estranged from philosophy of education. It was concluded that high school pedagogy is exposed to conflicts in relation to integrating philosophy of education and the goals of education. In this case, the study recommended the following insights to improve the process of integrating philosophy of education, the goals of education, and education practice in Kenya: The necessity of revising the content and material resources of high school syllabi to comprise the attributes of philosophy of education in pedagogical activities.  Another suggestion emphasized on restructuring evaluation strategies to integrate the attributes of social cohesion, human progress and economic development.  The final recommendation is that the teaching and learning activities are necessary to intensify knowledge transfer which articulates the attributes of philosophy of education and the goals of education. / Teacher Education / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education))

L’enjeu de la thèse peut-être situé à partir du domaine qu’on appelle aujourd’hui « pédagogie universitaire ». Dans ce domaine, une préoccupation majeure tient aux difficultés que rencontrent beaucoup d’étudiants, notamment au début des études supérieures. Ainsi, au sein d’une littérature désormais abondante, des recherches s’intéressent à l’origine sociale et au passé scolaire des étudiants, d’autres examinent leur attitude face aux études ou bien leurs stratégies d’apprentissage ou encore les dispositifs didactiques mis en place par les enseignants, etc. L’originalité de ce travail est d’entrer dans ce problème en s’interrogeant sur la nature des savoirs enseignés.<p><p>Le « savoir enseigné » se révèle d’emblée un objet difficile à cerner et même insaisissable :s’agit-il des paroles de l’enseignant, des supports écrits divers auxquels il confronte les étudiants ?Faut-il y inclure ce que les étudiants doivent accomplir par eux-mêmes ?Comment rendre compte de ce qu’il est ?<p>Ce problème conduit à affirmer qu’on ne peut identifier ni même simplement décrire un savoir sans référence à des pratiques. Il s’ensuit une analyse fine et rigoureuse de cette notion de pratique. Si cette notion doit beaucoup aux travaux que Latour et Stengers ont conduits à propos des savoirs et pratiques scientifiques, elle est reconstruite au regard de la spécificité de la pratique enseignante et permet notamment de décrire le processus de réappropriation que la pratique enseignante opère sur des objets et des savoirs qui lui viennent d’autres pratiques. Dès lors, ce que nous appelons couramment « savoir » n’est pas un objet qui aurait une existence propre et indépendante, mais il est toujours pris dans une pratique comme ce qui constitue une réponse pertinente aux contraintes dont elle est constituée. Ainsi le savoir enseigné est le produit d’une construction au sein de la pratique enseignante. On ne peut le concevoir comme un objet qui serait le résultat d’une transmission ou d’un appauvrissement par rapport à un autre objet qui lui préexisterait et qui serait le « savoir savant ».<p>Ces analyses ont un certain nombre d’implications :elles conduisent inévitablement à une ré-interrogation de la notion de transposition didactique. Elles remettent en cause la vieille, mais tenace dichotomie entre théorie et pratique.<p>Elles obligent à penser le savoir comme ce qui s’inscrit dans une pratique et qui est porteur d’enjeux pour ses acteurs.<p><p>Pour appuyer ces considérations, la thèse contient le compte-rendu de l’observation de l’intégralité de huit cours d’enseignement supérieur (pris à l’université, dans l’enseignement supérieur court et dans la formation continue). Il s’agit, dans cette partie empirique, de mettre à l’épreuve les concepts construits et de voir, sur un ensemble d’unités d’enseignement suffisamment ouverts, s’ils sont assez précis pour rendre compte à chaque fois de la spécificité de la pratique enseignante et du savoir enseigné.<p>Ces huit études de cas conduisent à poser un problème didactique fondamental :sachant que l’étudiant ne peut porter intérêt à un cours que s’il fait l’expérience des enjeux auxquels le savoir enseigné peut répondre, comment lui faire partager ces enjeux ?Cette question conduit à un examen critique de la notion de « situation-problème » et à une ouverture des formes possibles de problématisation, mais également à proposer le concept de « dramatisation » pour désigner les infinies manières de faire partager aux étudiants les enjeux d’un savoir.<p><p>Il s’ensuit qu’on ne saurait concevoir de méthode pédagogique ou didactique qui pourrait « s’appliquer » indifféremment à n’importe quel contenu de savoir, puisqu’à la fois la dramatisation d’un savoir ne peut s’envisager indépendamment de ce qu’il est ni indépendamment des pratiques de l’enseignant, et qu’en retour il ne saurait y avoir de savoir enseigné qui préexisterait à la pratique d’enseignement. / Doctorat en sciences de l'éducation / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished