Local community participation in overseas development projects as a critical ingredient for long-term program sustainability has become a central policy issue for both government and non-government organizations. It has been recognized that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are viable channels for funding participatory programs. Yet, while NGO strengths for implementing and managing participatory development projects have been extolled, there is little research to demonstrate their effectiveness at the field level. It has also been recognized that NGOs' overseas programs are influenced by the process and circumstances of identifying and obtaining program resources. What is lacking in the analysis of NGOs as channels for participatory development programs is the specific relationship between fundraising and the facilitation of community participation at the project level. / This research has sought to determine the relationship between the facilitation of local community participation and fundraising in overseas development projects. This has been accomplished through an in-depth case analysis of both the fundraising and project field experience of an NGO based in the United States. The study examines how the NGO's development policy compared with its actual field program implementation practice. A comparison was also made between the NGO's traditional small-scale community development work with a more recent large-scale project experience. / Overall, this research has demonstrated that, in the case of the NGO studied, there is a relationship between fundraising and the facilitation of community participation in the agency's overseas projects. Five primary areas of fundraising adversely influencing the facilitation of community participation were identified. / Evidence collected in the field case of the Louga large scale project in Senegal demonstrated that significant local community participation was occurring. / In comparing findings from the large-scale project experience in Louga with findings from the small-scale project research, seven similarities and six differences were identified. Identified are five areas where the small-scale sponsorship approach to fundraising adversely influences the field staffs' ability to facilitate community participation. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: A, page: 4042. / Major Professor: Sydney R. Grant. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

Thanks in large part to the influence of major donor agencies, economic analysis has become the dominant metaphor for evaluating the performance of education systems in developing countries. This dissertation examines the role of economic analysis in educational policy making in developing nations through case study of an education and human resources sector assessment conducted in the Republic of Haiti under financing from the United States Agency for International Development (AID). / In the first major portion of the study, a wide range of theoretical literature is reviewed in order to generate a series of interpretive frameworks for analyzing the contributions of economics to education. The nature of the contextual situation in Haiti and of that country's position in international relations is likewise examined. In the second major portion of the study, three aspects of the Haiti sector assessment are presented: the genesis of sector assessment methodology; the actual conduct of the assessment in Haiti; and the longer-term consequences of that work. / From comparison of the various interpretive frameworks developed with the data derived from the Haiti sector assessment experience, the study concludes that the basic tools and approaches of economic analysis can be very helpful in revealing the nature of linkages between education and the economy and contributing to better management and planning of the education system. However, heavy concentration on techniques and concepts drawn from neoclassical economics to the exclusion of other approaches detracts from the contribution of economics to assessment practice and from the contribution of sector assessment to the concerns of educational planning in developing countries. This distortion may be explained in part by the role that neoclassical economics and its particular operationalization of efficiency concepts currently play in legitimating foreign technical expertise, limiting debate about policy options and justifying retrenchment in donor assistance. Recommendations are made concerning improvements in sector assessment methodology and modified roles for economics in educational policy making. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-03, Section: A, page: 0660. / Major Professor: George John Papagiannis. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Printout. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 275-281) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Language Education, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1192. Advisers: Larry Mikulecky; Jerome Harste. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed March 22, 2007)."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Education, 2007. / Title from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 25, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0533. Adviser: Nancy Chism.

This ethnographic case study examines the experiences of five Aboriginal/Native American women faculty working in universities in Canada and the United States. By using interview, observation and document analysis the author has sought to understand the cultural negotiations of the participants. The hiring of Aboriginal faculty raises new questions about faculty roles and experiences, in much the same manner that the hiring of women and other visible minority faculty raised questions about the structures and culture of the university. These women have successfully attained status positions as tenured and tenure-track faculty. While some of their experience may be explained by their gender, their experiences as Aboriginal women are unique. These women actively work to decolonize the very structures of the university. They reconceptualize the tradition bound roles of researcher, committee member, and teacher. By doing so they make themselves hyper-visible to the lateral oppression of other Aboriginal faculty, and they are vulnerable to the structural oppression that binds a colonial organization. By telling their stories here, these women leave trail-markers for other Aboriginal people who may seek an academic path.

The focus of this study was the perceptions of preservice teachers regarding the major contributing factors in their construction of identity as readers. I wanted to explore their lives as readers and what factors, such as parental and family interactions, the telling of reading of stories, and the role of a children's literature course, influenced their reading. Qualitative methods of research and case study were used in the study. The research questions that guided the study were: (1) What are the preservice teachers' perceptions of themselves as readers? (2) How have their identities as readers evolved and what factors do preservice teachers identify as influencing them as readers? (3) What is the influence of the LRC 480 children's literature course on their identities as readers? (4) What are preservice teachers' understandings of the role of children's literature in literacy development at home and in school? The findings of the study demonstrated the positive influence of several factors in the lives of the preservice teachers, such as, the importance of family involvement in reading, early reading activities, the reading and telling of oral histories, traditions and family stories, and exposure to children's literature including multicultural literature, and the LRC 480 children's literature course. The preservice teachers grew as readers during the children's literature course. They discovered new insights into the reading process and have constructed positive attitudes toward reading. In addition, they have constructed beliefs about reading and the teaching of literature to children as a result of their literacy experiences during their lifetime and the children's literature course.

This dissertation describes interactions between tribal and federal program bureaucrats of an education and labor training program for Indian youth, and tribal members on a reservation in the western United States. The goal of the program was to prepare Indian youth to enter the workforce through education, and training and then maintain employment. This goal was undermined at the program site by non-Native executive program personnel and tribal bureaucrats whose definition of "success" and expectation of youth achievement were culturally different than that of tribal youth workers and youth. Systems in which Indian people participate are in many cases socially disruptive as well as psychologically violent---they are often, quite literally, "out of control." Yet indigenous communities resist compliance within these systems. The focus of this study is on the complex nature of this historical matrix of power, control, resistance, and compliance. This dissertation uses a combined focus of social and psychological analysis to document the social history of Indian education administered as a ritual of assimilation, the bureaucratic processes that constrain Indian people from using education as a ritual of empowerment, and critically examines the people's resistance within the bureaucracies. The primary research questions are: (a) What are the bureaucratic processes that hindered the youth workers in successfully in advocating for their youth? (b) How do the youth workers resist these bureaucratic machinations? Through participant and non participant observation and ethnographic interview I describe how the bureaucratic processes which hinder collectively manifest from a deficit paradigm projected upon the workers. The youth worker's most consistent form of resistance was to voice their opinions about what was going on, and to explicitly name the actions of oppression.

In this study, I examine ideologies of language and schooling in the Republic of Guinea (West Africa). The focus of this study is a specific language policy that favored the use of African languages in the schools as media of instruction for more than 15 years (1968--1984). I discuss this policy from the standpoint of elementary teachers using a methodological approach that combines classroom micro-ethnography, interviews, and historical research. The research questions that guided my inquiry are as follows: How do teachers remember their personal experiences with the use of African languages as means of instruction in the past? What are the themes of those who express positive experiences and how do they relate with the themes of those who express negative experiences? Do age, gender, level of education, and place of residency/work make a difference in the perspectives of teachers? This is an exploratory study that approaches teachers' perspectives as flexible meaning-making processes influenced by time, space, and audience. The theoretical framework that guides this research is informed by historical approaches to the study of language ideologies (Bloomaert, 1999; Ricento, 2440; Ruiz, 1984). The findings of this study suggest that personal experiences and memories affect teacher beliefs and practices about language choice in the schools. For example, in this study teachers with experience in the classroom before 1984 appeared to be more sympathetic toward the use of African languages as means of instruction than their younger colleagues who lacked professional experience as teachers before 1984, Guinean teachers would have to confirm these findings for themselves through systematic research in formal and informal settings. This dissertation study makes a modest contribution toward this end by focusing on the beliefs and practices of elementary teachers. Also, this dissertation study highlights the importance of including historical and interpretive approaches to the study of language ideologies in language policy studies and in teacher education programs.

This dissertation study examines urban and bilingual children's dialogue in the contexts of school and home. First and second graders talked about children's literature in literature circles throughout one academic school year. I was guided by the following main purpose in this qualitative classroom study: What issues of language diversity and culture do first and second grade students discuss in home and school contexts? Data sources connected to the children's dialogue in school included audiotapes, transcripts, response journals, and field notes. All families discussed the literature and three bilingual families consistently audiotaped their home discussions. The findings from this research demonstrate that working class bilingual children and their families do have the resources to construct rich literacy experiences through dialogue related to complex issues of language diversity and culture. Key issues that parents and children discovered to be relevant for discussion in the home and school contexts are: literacy, positionality within society, and resistance to structural inequality. Additionally, this study reveals how the home context ultimately scaffolds the child's native language by acting as a linguistically rich resource for the child. The child draws upon his or her linguistic resources from the home and has linguistic support as he/she enters the primarily English dialogue within small group literature circles in the schooling context. This study demonstrates the significance of drawing upon the home as a resource to support children in their native languages. Additionally, this study examines how one classroom uses children's native languages as a resource.