Although research on children's play is abundant and considerable advances have been made in young children's play, the majority of these studies have been based in western developed countries and written from adults' perspectives rather than with children. Additionally, very little research has been done on children's play with active participants from smaller developing countries. The voices of society's youngest members have been lost or are only marginally represented. The purpose of this qualitative research is to explore, understand, and describe young Jamaican children's lived play experiences as related through their eyes. The theoretical frameworks used to guide this study are sociocultural theory and narrative case study. Narrative case study focuses on a particular phenomenon and, through rich description, each participant's story relates the complexities of this phenomenon. Sociocultural theory is related to the social, cultural, and historical theory of a people and is constructed as they participate in culturally pertinent activities. The examined literature, which draws on diverse theoretical frameworks, including Vygotsky and Rogoff's sociocultural theory and Bronfenbrenner's work on socioecological theory, discusses types of play, the relationship between play and children's development, indoor and outdoor play at school, and play as perceived by children. A key theme in this literature is children's beliefs and values observed through a cultural filter. The three 5-year-old children, their teacher, and parents were purposefully selected for this single-bounded case study. The methods of data collection include video-cued interviews (VCI), a researcher's journal, and observation and field-notes. An understanding of the history of Jamaican education and its people is essential to the successful implementation of the play-based curriculum. The importance of knowing how children view their play and its manifestations and meanings is compelling to the Jamaican people and will help inform teachers, teacher education programs, parents, national and international funders, and other stakeholders as they try to fuse Jamaican culture with global elements of young children education.

This study's purpose was to investigate the kinds of instructions provided for teachers by authors and publishers of elementary music series for the development of children's voices. Specifically, the study was 1. to investigate the recommended methodology related to the development of vocal concepts in children, 2. to investigate musical aspects that could be indicators of expected vocal ability in children, and 3. to relate the findings of this study to other research results that give insight into the vocal capabilities of children. To collect the data, the teacher's editions of grades one, three, and five of music series published by the Silver Burdett Company and by the American Book Company during the period circa 1945 to 1975 were subjected to a content analysis and to a musical analysis. Three categories were established for the content analysis: Vocal Characteristics, Singing Objectives, and Teaching Strategies. Validity of the research tool was tested by the jury method and by logical validity. Reliability coefficients of .90 were determined by using two additional coders and by re-coding material.

In South Africa the death of a significant caregiver is a haunting possibility. Violence, crime, road accidents, HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes and substance abuse are household words that describe some of the causes of "untimely deaths" of parents who still have young, school-going children. These children carry their bereavement with them to school. The challenge of standing with them lies not only with their caregivers, but also with staff and children in our school community. In co-authoring conversations with children in our school who have experienced bereavement and loss, this qualitative study used research as co-search to uncover children's preferred knowledges and spiritualities about coping, hope, care and communities of concern. This study used therapy-as-research and participatory action research-as-therapy in what developed into a network of caring communities for the participants, caregivers and therapist. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

This portfolio of compositions and exegesis submitted for the degree of Master of Music in Composition, at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, comprises original creative works supported by a detailed commentary. The creative investigation has focused on ‘Composing for a Choral Spectrum.’ This was investigated through practical experiments in choral composition, designed to test the compositional limitations of the choral spectrum, and resulted in a portfolio of choral works. The portfolio includes: simple choral works for young children in one part; choral works for children in two parts; choral works for children in three parts; a choral work for teenage treble voices; a multimedia choral work for boys with changing voices with a moving image DVD; a choral work for male voices; choral works for adult female voices; a complex choral work for adult choirs of a professional standard; and a larger scale choral and orchestral work. The exegesis provides a commentary on the genesis, composition processes, limitations and solutions, for each original work included in the portfolio. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1345050 / Thesis (M.Mus.) -- University of Adelaide, Elder Conservatorium of Music, 2008

In South Africa the death of a significant caregiver is a haunting possibility. Violence, crime, road accidents, HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes and substance abuse are household words that describe some of the causes of "untimely deaths" of parents who still have young, school-going children. These children carry their bereavement with them to school. The challenge of standing with them lies not only with their caregivers, but also with staff and children in our school community. In co-authoring conversations with children in our school who have experienced bereavement and loss, this qualitative study used research as co-search to uncover children's preferred knowledges and spiritualities about coping, hope, care and communities of concern. This study used therapy-as-research and participatory action research-as-therapy in what developed into a network of caring communities for the participants, caregivers and therapist. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Pastoral Therapy)