This study explores parental involvement in basic education in two school communities in rural Ghana. There has been relatively little previous research on parental involvement in school governance in Ghana generally and in poorer rural areas in particular. In such contexts, the term ‘parent' often extends beyond the biological parent to wider family and community networks and in this research, parental involvement is understood as a construct and practice that is both contextually located and produced through the intersecting spheres of influence between school, family and community (Epstein, 1995, 2001). The study starts from an understanding that when it comes to parental involvement in rural Ghana, there is a continuum of involvement that begins with basic decisions such as whether to send a child to school or not. It also recognises the importance of relational matters and issues of equity (Baquedano-Lopez, Alexander and Hernandez, 2013). Developed as a small-scale qualitative case study, focus group discussions and individual interviews were used to explore the inter-relationships between parents, staff and communities. The decentralised system of education delivery in Ghana assumes an important role for school management committees and parent teacher associations and the focus group discussions therefore involved community participants who were members of school management committees or parent teacher associations as well as head teachers and teachers in each of the two rural case study schools. Additional data were collected from individual interviews with parents. A key finding of the study was that although the formal structures for parental engagement in school governance were in place, in practice many members of the school management committee were unable to contribute fully to school management. The specific barriers to parental involvement unearthed in the study included socioeconomic factors such as the cost of equipping children to attend school but also the loss of income to the family. The practice of corporal punishment was identified as a potential source of misunderstanding between parents and school authorities and as something that could discourage involvement. Tensions in school governance situations also arose from the use of the English language. The study concludes that policies designed to encourage parental involvement in school governance must reflect not only important contextual differences but also the dynamics between structures and participants.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet. Also issued online.

Thèse (M.R.S.) -- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 2002. / Bibliogr.: f. 186-201. Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 1994. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 726-750).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 307-323).

No description available.

L’objet de cette recherche est de comprendre la nature de la critique portée par les journalistes de l’environnement en Chine et d’analyser comment leur activité peut se déployer dans un régime autoritaire qui s’appuie sur le progrès et l’idéologie de la modernisation pour asseoir sa légitimité. Paradoxalement, cette forme de journalisme, qui contient un fort potentiel critique face à la quête effrénée de croissance économique promue par le PCC, est née d’une impulsion interne à l’administration et au Parti dés les années 1970-1980. Cette origine fait peser un doute constant sur la finalité de la critique environnementale, et expose les journalistes à l’accusation de faire le jeu du pouvoir en dénonçant des abus locaux. Par une étude historique et sociologique de la pratique et des questionnements des journalistes de l’environnement chinois sur leur activité, j’analyse comment ils prennent en charge la tension inhérente à une critique qui ne peut jamais se placer en extériorité complète par rapport à un système de pouvoir susceptible à tout moment de la réduire au silence. Si elle est limitée par les conditions de son exercice, je soutiens que cette critique contient néanmoins une puissance réelle de changement, et j’essaie de mettre au jour l’évolution des moyens par lesquels les différents acteurs (journalistes, cadres, associations) contribuent au maintien de l’édifice tout en cherchant à le déséquilibrer en leur faveur. Je montre que la recherche d’autonomisation du journalisme environnemental a d’abord conduit à l’émergence d’un journalisme militant, puis, par réaction, à l’affirmation d’une forme de professionnalisation qui valorise le modèle de l’expert objectif, mais complique le rapport à l’engagement qui reste pourtant déterminante dans leur pratique. / The object of this research is to understand the nature of the criticism expressed in environmental journalism and to examine how this journalistic domain can spread under an authoritarian regime leaning on the progress and the ideology of modernization to establish its legitimacy. Paradoxically, this journalism, which contains a high critical potential regarding the economic growth promoted by the PCC, arose from an internal impulse within the administration and the Party since the 1970’s-1980’s. This origin sheds a constant doubt on the final end of this criticism and it exposes the journalists to the accusation of helping the Party by denouncing local abuses. Through a historic and sociological study of the practice of environmental journalists and their questioning of their own activity, I analyze how they deal with the tension inherent to a criticism that can never take place in complete exteriority to a system of power prone to silence them at any time. If this criticism is limited by the conditions of its exercise, I argue that it contains nevertheless a real power of change. I try to bring to light the evolution of how the various actors (journalists, officials, associations) contribute to the preservation of the system while trying to destabilize it in their own interest. I show that the search for empowerment of environmental journalism led at first to the emergence of militant journalism, then, in reaction, in the assertion of a form of professionalization which values the model of objective experts, which complicates the relationship to their own practice and makes their commitment difficult. Yet, it remains one of their deepest aspiration.

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Work

Il s'agit d'une analyse de l'action publique destinée à prévenir le sida en Belgique dans le contexte de normalisation du sida. La prévention du sida a été reliée à la nouvelle question sociale et aux modes d'action publique qui se donnent à voir, en passant par le recours à des pratiques qui individualisent et subjectivent la relation aux usagers en situation de précarité et de vulnérabilité. La phase d'élaboration et la phase de mise en oeuvre (via quatre associations thématiques, analysées au travers des notions de capacitation, responsabilisation et confiance)sont étudiées et approchées au moyen d'un travail d'enquête mobilisant une observation et des entretiens. Dans les deux phases, une approche pragmatique de l'action publique est développée, puis l'analyse se prolonge en utilisant des modèles d'Etat pour comprendre et décrypter ces deux phases de l'action publique.