University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities. / Department of English

This manuscript contains discussion and analysis of the growing number of public schools in the state of Florida that are increasingly more segregated than at the height of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Further discussion and analysis on the influence that standardized testing, like the FCAT, has on the resegregation of public schools and the economic conditions of our Florida schools are also included. Interviews, field observations, and research data are provided and illustrate the burden that high stakes testing has on Florida's K-12 public schools, its teachers, principals, and the students who attend those schools. For the purposes of this study, I have explored the realms of Florida's deteriorating public education system through direct field study and observation in public schools across the state of Florida, as well as collecting published available data regarding funding, race, ethnicity, gender, and standardized test scores. I have visited schools in Miami-Dade County, Orange County, Seminole County, as well as Broward County, Florida, in order to better analyze the gap between the "have's" and the "have not's," across Florida's public schools. This research project has permitted my investigation to further dissect the linkage between school funding, standardized testing, school environments, and cultural conditions and roles played by economics, race, demographics, family income, social environment, and standardized testing.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Representative democracy is undergoing a period of transformation, because while it is the political system of government adopted in most countries, has been the subject of much critique. There is a perception of a gap between citizens and representatives, deviations of public funds and corruption, situations that refer to the six broken promises of democracy brought by Norberto Bobbio. In order to change this scenario, the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), particularly the Internet, appear as a new element that can attract public participation around government affairs. This is the construction of cyberdemocracy that, however, shares opinions of authors and researchers of the transformer potential of internet. In this scenario, there is the e-Democracy Website, linked to the Chamber of Deputies, that incites the popular participation to contribute in the forums, chats and wikilegis with the law projects pending in the Legislature or to suggest new projects. This research aims to analyze the manifestations of a specific Community Legislative of this Portal related to the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet in order to address an overview of popular participation in law projects online in Brazil. The research problem concerns the conditions for mass demonstrations on the internet and the effectiveness of such propositions, to check whether they are obeyed and considered by deputies when the deliberation of the projects in plenary. It is employed the hypothetical-deductive method of approach, formulating two main hypotheses. The first is the sense that the use of the internet is the most appropriate way to strengthen representative democracy. The second refers to the digital divide as the greatest obstacle to that popular online participation. Among the variables, there are the access rates to computers and the internet, public interest in accessing government portals and if the popular participation in the Portal is effectively considered by deputies. Are used the monographic and comparative methods of procedure and, as a research technique are used direct, systematic and non-participant observation of e-Democracy Website and Digital Culture blog, considering that the construction of the draft bill of the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet also occurred collaboratively. The conclusion is that the scenery around the popular online participation in law projects is still in the beginning, with a minority of the demonstrations was considered in the adoption of law projects, showing that the spaces have as main feature the spread of the subject and the promotion of debates among citizens themselves. / A democracia representativa atravessa um período de transformações, pois ao mesmo tempo em que é o regime político de governo adotado na generalidade de países, vem sendo objeto de muitas críticas. Há a percepção de afastamento entre cidadãos e representantes, de desvios de verbas públicas e de corrupção, situações que remetem às seis promessas não-cumpridas da democracia trazidas por Norberto Bobbio. Com a finalidade de alterar esse cenário, as Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC), em especial a internet, surgem como um novo elemento que pode contribuir para atrair a participação popular em torno de assuntos governamentais. Trata-se da construção da ciberdemocracia que, no entanto, divide autores e pesquisadores acerca desse potencial transformador da internet. Em meio a esse cenário, vislumbra-se no Portal e-Democracia, vinculado à Câmara dos Deputados, a incitação à população para que, dentre os fóruns, bate-papos e wikilegis contribua com projetos de lei em trâmite na Casa Legislativa ou sugira novos projetos. A presente pesquisa objetiva analisar as manifestações de uma Comunidade Legislativa específica do referido Portal referente ao Marco Civil da Internet , com a finalidade de abordar um panorama geral da participação popular online em projetos de lei no Brasil. O problema de pesquisa refere-se às condições para a manifestação popular na internet e à efetividade de tais proposições, objetivando verificar se as mesmas são acatadas e consideradas pelos deputados federais quando da deliberação dos projetos em plenário. É empregado o método de abordagem hipotético-dedutivo, formulando-se duas hipóteses principais, sendo a primeira no sentido de que a utilização da internet é o caminho mais indicado para o fortalecimento da democracia representativa. A segunda refere-se à inclusão digital como o maior entrave a essa participação popular online. Dentre as variáveis, há os índices de acesso ao computador e à internet, o interesse da população em acessar portais governamentais e se as manifestações esboçadas no Portal são, efetivamente, consideradas pelos deputados federais. São utilizados os métodos de procedimento monográfico e comparativo e, como técnica de pesquisa, a observação direta, sistemática e não participante do Portal e-Democracia e do blog Cultura Digital, tendo em vista que a construção do anteprojeto de lei do Marco Civil da Internet também ocorreu de forma colaborativa. Conclui-se que ainda é incipiente o cenário em torno da participação popular online em projetos de lei, sendo que uma minoria das manifestações foi considerada na aprovação do referido Projeto de Lei, denotando que os espaços possuem como principal característica a difusão do tema e a promoção de debates entre os próprios cidadãos.