Thesis (M. P. A.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2007. / "Summer 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-97).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 176 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 152-160).

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The U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Agency provides Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding to state and local governments, giving them broad flexibility to design and implement community projects. The CDBG program emphasizes that public hearings are a requirement to obtain federal funding at the state and local levels. Also, HUD lists several other public participation methods that can be used in addition to public hearings. Further, the extant literature on public participation emphasizes the prevalent use of one method, public hearings, compared to the use of other more engaging techniques. Despite the availability of different methods that may be more engaging, administrators continue to engage the public through the use of public hearings. This study explores the motivation and identity of public administrators in local government, implementing public participation programs. Using a multi-site case study based on fifteen interviews with officials from various localities across the Commonwealth of Virginia, I found that administrators held onto their identity as public servants but might have had difficulty staying motivated to do public engagement work when they perceived that there were impediments in the work environment. Another interesting finding is that these obstacles created tensions between the public servants and their respective organization, leading to fewer performance outcomes among the administrators. Further, the administrators' characteristics (identity) such as job tenure, rank, education, age, and gender, along with their public service motivation, might have impacted their actions and behavior in the public sector environment. I also found that administrators who wanted to do more, commonly reported they were situated in a work environment that limited their ability to do more. I found that the work environment and the identity (personal characteristics and public service motivation) could influence the public service behavioral outcomes of administrators. The interview data pointed out a complex picture of the tensions existing between the institution and the individual. The research revealed that public administrators often adhered to their role as public servants but were faced with dynamics that interacted with their performances. From these findings, administrators must look pass those informal and formal influences that prevent them from staying engaged with their roles as public servants and find ways to give citizens meaningful opportunities to have input into the government decision-making process. / Doctor of Philosophy / This research sought to discover the public administrators' identities and their motivation for engaging in public participation, along with understanding their roles as public servants. To examine this further, the researcher captured how administrators have engaged the public and how they have documented this engagement in their citizen participation plans. The findings showed that public administrators were committed to their identities as public servants and continued to perform in this capacity despite some of the barriers that may have prevented them from having meaningful engagement opportunities with the public.

The aims of the research were twofold, namely, investigate challenges that hindered the implementation of inclusive education in Ethiopia and develop a framework that can enhance the inclusion of children with disabilities (CwDs). The ecology of human development has served as the theoretical lens underpinning this study to discover challenges that hindered the implementation of inclusive education. These barriers were also investigated from micro, meso, exo, and macro perspectives in the system. With this, I employed qualitative approach under the hegemony of constructivism paradigm. The hermeneutic design of the study enabled me to build knowledge about the barriers that hindered the implementation of inclusive education. Subsequently, using semi-structured interview and focus group discussion as instrument, I listened to experts in education, school supervisors, professionals in SNE and education vice heads. Thereafter, the data analysis went by transcribing the recorded interview verbatim. Then, using the transcribed and chunked data, I mapped the range and nature of phenomena, created typologies and found out associations between themes with a view to provide explanations for the findings. The process of mapping and interpretation was also guided by the original research aims as well as by the themes that have emerged from the data themselves. The participants revealed that the challenges to implement inclusive education ranged from the absence of mandatory national inclusive policy to the low income of the families of CwDs. Therefore, lack of collaboration among stakeholders of education, misconception of inclusive education, shortage of trained teachers, poor allocation of finance, poor school infrastructure and lack of mandatory inclusive policy were the few identified barriers among others. Finally, I have recommended collaborative effort among stakeholders to ensure inclusion of CwDs. / Inclusive Education / D. Phil.