The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of education on inmates while they remained incarcerated. A total of 90 student-inmates participated in the survey research project. A self-report survey was generated for this research to measure confidence, self-esteem, communication competence, lifelong learning, and critical thinking. Descriptive statistics and open-ended comments revealed high levels of confidence, self-esteem, and communication competence among student-inmates. Respondents were also found to be developing the beginning traits of lifelong learners and critical thinkers. The results were interpreted with respect to adult education theory. Methodological implications of the findings were discussed for future research. / Department of Communication Studies

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

The purpose of this study was to determine the status of health promotion activities provided by Indiana public school corporations for their employees and the impact of corporation leadership on the provision of these activities. The subjects of this study were Indiana public school superintendents. All 291 superintendents were mailed the survey instrument created by the researcher for this study and there were 227 (78%) responses.The results showed that 54% of the responding Indiana school corporations provided some type of health promotion activity for employees on a corporation-wide basis. The primary reason school corporations provided health promotion activities for employees was to keep employees healthy. The major impediment in providing health promotion activities for employees was a lack of resources. School corporations in rural settings were less likely to provide health promotion activities for employees. School corporations were more likely to provide health promotion activities for employees as the number of full-time employees increased. This study also found a relationship between the importance a superintendent placed on providing health promotion activities for employees and the provision of those activities in a school corporation. As worksites, Indiana public school corporations have not met the national goals and objectives for worksites found in Healthy People 2010. / Department of Educational Leadership

This study is based on a semester-long qualitative study that investigates student perceptions of and interactions with social software and mobile technologies, particularly as they move between digital and physical spaces. As digital technologies become more ubiquitous, both within the classroom and without, it becomes increasingly important to investigate the ways these technologies are influencing lived writing practices, particularly if instructors are incorporating these technologies into their teaching. In particular, this dissertation investigates constructions of student identities in technology-rich environments, and the ways that digital, mobile, social, and spatial factors both afford and constrain student identities. This dissertation focuses on movement—of students and information—between academic and non-academic spaces. The research focuses on the lived practices of students as they use mobile technologies and social software as a part of their writing practices and habitus, and this study explores in depth both their physical contexts and their habits and attitudes towards the ways the digital meets the physical. This study is based on 10 semester-long qualitative case studies which followed students as they engaged in writing activities, both within class and without. The findings from this study point to the ways that contemporary students are rapidly embracing an existence which incorporates machines into their self constructions: their identities and their physical bodies. These students have adapted their writing styles to incorporate multiple kinds of physical technologies, and almost all interactions in their social sphere are mediated through social software and digital technology. This dissertation presents the findings from this study, arguing for a conceptualization of student as cyborg. / Methods and methodologies -- Findings : cyborg bodies -- Findings : cyborg identities. / Department of English

This study investigated perceptions of preservice primary student teachers of their teacher preparatory program. In particular, the study wanted to find out if the Philosophy of Kagisano, which encompasses the five national principles of democracy, development, self-reliance, unity, and botho, was integrated in the training of the preservice primary student teachers. The study addressed the following three research questions: 1. How do preservice primary student teachers perceive their preparatory program, including the integration of the national principles? 2. What pedagogical methods/teaching strategies and assessment techniques do teacher educators in primary colleges use? 3. How do primary teacher educators integrate the national principles (philosophy of Kagisano) throughout the program, including in their content, teaching strategies and assessment techniques? This qualitative case study used semi-structured, in-depth interviews with the participants, document analysis and classroom observations for collecting the data. Seventeen preservice student teachers at Fellow College of Education in Botswana were interviewed individually. These were third and final year students with a specialty in Social Studies. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and the grounded theory was used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that preservice teachers were taught “more” theory than application. The content that was taught at the College of Education was a repetition of the junior and senior secondary school content. The study also found that college lecturers do integrate the five national principles of democracy, development, self-reliance, unity, and botho in their content, and teaching strategies but did not integrate them in their assessment techniques. Furthermore, the study found that some inconsistency in the grading of students’ work existed. / Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community only / Department of Educational Studies

This paper is a qualitative case study of a Korean first grade child. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of a first grade Korean child’s oral language interactions with teachers, parents, peers, and community members and to examine how a child’s oral language impacts his literacy learning in English. The data were collected over five months from three different settings: the school, the Korean Language School, and the home. Data methods were interviews, observations, field notes, surveys, audio and video recordings, documents, and informal assessments in Korean and English. Data analysis was based on the analytical categorization and the constant comparison analysis. The results of this study revealed that opportunities to engage in social interactions between a child and his teachers, parents, and peers through oral conversation contributed to the language and literacy learning of the child observed. The analysis of the data showed that literacy development in English was influenced by three factors: individual factors, home and school environmental factors, and community and cultural environmental factors. Individual factors were personal motivation, the first language effect, and background knowledge. Home and school environmental factors included parents’ support, peer group activity, and teacher’s role. Finally, community and cultural environmental factors were mass media and Korean culture and identity. The results of the study supported Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and Bronfenbrenner’s ecology system theory that learning occurs through social interactions in cooperated groups and their environments. / Department of Elementary Education

The public participation process is a vital and necessary part of planning that provides citizens with the opportunity to express their concerns and suggestions about projects that affect the overall well-being of their community. One contemporary planning issue is brownfield revitalization, which is the repurposing of former and abandoned industrial sites into residential, commercial or recreational sites. Brownfield revitalization is a timely and relevant matter in Ontario due to a) their locations, which are often within urban centres and are close to existing infrastructure, which reduces the need to develop on greenfield lands, and b) legislation, such as Places to Grow and various growth plans that require cities to meet intensification targets while preserving greenfield land, thus making brownfield revitalization an attractive option. In addition to their anticipated benefits, brownfield revitalization is a complex matter, as it invovles environmental contamination, heritage preservation, investment and financing challenges, and undesirable surroundings. For these reasons, it is an engaging and controversial focus in public participation. There is strong evidence in the literature that brownfield revitalization consultations often address the unique environmental, historical and demographic issues that are associated with these sites. Some strategies employed at the consultation sessions include informal meetings, consultations with experts in the sector, and legal agreements between community groups and developers to ensure projects are beneficial to the community. The intent of this thesis is to discover if the public participation sessions for brownfield projects in Ontario differ from participation sessions involving other planning projects. This research includes reviewing engagement, communication and retention strategies, and any exist specific policies or guidelines that are used when planning for the public participation process. Five site-specific and two municipal case studies were selected as a focus in this thesis. All case studies are affiliated with brownfield revitalization projects throughout Ontario. Data collection for this thesis involved: 16 semi-structured interviews with 13 individuals which included planners, public consultation facilitators or representatives of community groups who either organized or participated in public participation sessions involving brownfield sites, and content analysis of transcribed consultation sessions, survey responses, anecdotal information from participants, and document or media analysis. The data was then coded, and relevant themes were selected in order to answer the research questions. The overall findings in this thesis revealed that there are few differences between public participation process for projects involving brownfield revitalization sites and other planning projects. The most common strategies that were used in the participation sessions in these case studies (such as targeted invitations to special interest groups, the usage of social media, and liaisons with community ???champions???) are also common in standard public participation processes. Policies and legislation offer guidelines for conducting efficient participation sessions, and addressing issues such as financing and environmental concerns, but do not advise how to present this information or engage people. Issues that commonly arose in the literature, such as contamination concerns and demographic differences, did not appear to have the same presence in the Ontario subtext. Recommendations for this thesis include identifying the key stakeholders in each brownfield revitalization project, and establishing trust between citizens that live near brownfield revitalization sites and planners. The use of community benefit agreements can also create an efficient and equitable participation process. These recommendations are useful as brownfield revitalization is a common and beneficial strategy for achieving sustainability in Ontario and enhancing the societal, environmental and financial vitality of a community.

In March 1994, the Jamaican Parliament passed the Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) Act, to facilitate widespread employee share ownership by granting tax incentives to companies that offer shares to their employees (GOJ 1994). The primary aims of the legislation were to (a) strengthen Jamaica's economy by enabling workers to acquire an ownership stake in their employer and (b) improve the economic performance of Jamaican companies by encouraging employees to identify more closely with the goals of their employers (GOJ 1993). Former Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley, who introduced the ESOP legislation into Parliament, explained that organizational rather than ideological goals were the primary aims of the legislation. He explained that "in due course larger goals such as broadening the base of ownership and giving workers a wider stake in the national economy will also be achieved through ESOPs. But the first objective must be to increase productivity at the company level" (Manley 1995:17). Prior to the passage of this legislation, several employee ownership schemes had been implemented by Jamaican companies on a limited and ad hoc basis without the support of legislation (GOJ 1993). Despite the introduction of these earlier schemes, however, the concept of employee ownership is still a new one to Jamaica and little research has been conducted on how the pre-legislation employee ownership schemes were implemented or how they affected the implementing companies. Although consultants to the government examined these companies and used them as models in drafting the ESOP legislation, the consultants performed no academic studies to examine the organizational impact of the employee share schemes (Golding; Maharaj Interviews). Similarly, several academic studies have been conducted on employee ownership in the US, the UK, and a few other countries, but no formal academic studies of employee ownership have been conducted in Jamaica. These omissions are unfortunate given the interest in ESOPs expressed by the Jamaican government and the desired political, economic, and organizational effects of introducing employee ownership schemes.

This thesis provides a theoretical and historical examination of the production of contested colonial-geographical knowledge. Following a critical examination of recent 'contextual' histories of geography, it is proposed that treating geographical knowledge as colonial discourse is a more fruitful line of inquiry, and the emergence of post-colonial and colonial discourse theory is discussed. This leads on to a consideration of post-structuralist theories of textuality, discourse, and reading, as the preliminary to an analysis of the archive of the regular published knowledge of the Royal Geographical Society from 1831 to 1873. The racialised representation of non-European societies and subjects denies to them any status as active subjects of knowledge or history. It is found that the sanctioned geographical knowledge produced by the R.G.S. in the mid-nineteenth century depends for its identity on the construction of certain geographical knowledges, meanings, and practices as improper and inadequate. It is argued that the writing of geographical discovery thus involved the discursive dispossession of non-European societies of authority over geographical knowledge and territory.

No description available.