In recent decades, reflective practice and mentoring have become vehicles for endorsing professional development and competency among student teachers during their induction into the teaching profession. This research study aims to explore the extent to which peer-mentoring can inform reflective practice among student teachers within a community of practice. The mentoring concepts illuminated within this study suggest a move away from hierarchical expert-novice approaches towards mentoring, in exchange for more reciprocal endeavour where power dynamics are removed and both participants become equal receivers and disseminators of knowledge regarding teaching and learning. A qualitative approach was employed through a four-phase, sequential data collection strategy to gather the narrative data collated. Interviews, reflective pro-formas, workshops and open-ended questionnaires were used as instruments to collate narrative data concerning the peer-mentoring experiences of four student teachers. The data was analysed utilising an interpretive phenomenological analysis approach. The student teachers involved in this study were selected from a purposive sample. Importantly, the participants selected demonstrated professional characteristics which resonated with the aims of this study. A conceptual framework was designed to capture and examine six dimensions of collaborative mentoring in which student teachers could explore aspects of their own teaching practice through action research. The findings generated within the study point towards a range of contexts and challenges concerning peer-mentoring. The findings revealed that the mentoring dimensions used to stimulate meaningful reflection influenced professional development, while the challenges presented issues concerning; trust, power and time. However, the findings also indicate that challenges to peer-mentoring are not insurmountable. This particular study contends that further research is recommended into: firstly, how educational institutions can create supportive, collaborative learning cultures; secondly, how can reflective practice be encouraged throughout professional teaching careers; and finally, how can the challenges of peer-mentoring be minimised in attempting to encourage such endeavour among student teachers.

Studien var en uppföljning på ett 1-årigt projekt för kompetensutveckling i Svenskfinland. Med anledning av att pedagogisk dokumentation ingick i projektet var det angeläget att följa upp pedagogernas utveckling av pedagogisk dokumentation, samt se hur pedagogerna uppfattade praktiken. En enkätundersökning utgjorde underlag för öppna riktade intervjuer i de fyra förskolor som ingick i projektet. Resultatet visade att praktiken implementerats i samtliga förskolor och att pedagogerna i varierande grad arbetade med pedagogisk dokumentation. Pedagogernas praktikvanor och åsikter om pedagogisk dokumentation undersöktes också. Tidsbrist upplevdes som en utmaning medan pedagogerna såg möjligheter till föräldrasamverkan, professionsvalidering och barns delaktighet. Studien utfördes som flermetodsforskning med hjälp av teorin om Communities of Practice.

As a potential main player in the primary health care sector and the impending National Health Insurance (NHI), community pharmacists could make a significant contribution to easing the health care burden in South Africa. Recent legislative and organizational changes related to the corporatization of pharmacy in South Africa have impacted significantly on the profession and stand to weaken the already ‘tenuous’ professional identity of pharmacists in the country. Since community pharmacists are viewed as potential main players in the primary health care sector, the influence of corporatization on pharmacists’ identities and their concomitant ability to contribute to easing the health care burden in South Africa need to be considered. In this regard, this study examined the influence that corporatization has had on the professional identity of community pharmacists practicing in the Nelson Mandela Bay area of South Africa. That is, in an effort to understand the influence that corporatization has had on changing professional identities and practices the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours of community pharmacists regarding the philosophy and practice of pharmacy were explored. This included ascertaining community pharmacists’ self-perception of their professional identity and the perception of users of these community pharmacies. The study was conducted from an interpretative epistemological paradigm, based on a philosophy of pragmatism. Data collection was conducted in two phases and a qualitative approach, which included in-depth and semi-structured interviews, was adopted as a design. Phase one investigated the self-perceptions of sixteen community pharmacists, equally distributed between independent and corporate pharmacies in the Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB). Phase two examined the perceptions of thirty-two end-users of the pharmacies included in the study. Data from both phases were then analysed and interpreted. Following the identification of seven core professional identities, namely pharmacists as custodian or keeper of medicines; primary health care givers; confidante and carer; jaded; astute and credible; corporate; and independent, it was determined that corporatization has, to various degrees, had an effect on the undermining of Nelson Mandela Bay community pharmacists’ view of themselves as skilled professionals in the health care sector. In short, it was found that corporatization is believed to have blurred the boundaries related to what it means to be a pharmacist and what role pharmacists should play in the provision of public health care. Corporatization does not appear to have influenced the patients’ or pharmacy end-users’ perceptions of the pharmacist, and furthermore does not play a major role in their choice of pharmacy. It is the perception of pharmacists in this study that with the introduction of legislative changes, more so corporatization, they experienced an undermining of their professional skill and disregard for costs involved in becoming a pharmacist. The perceived undermining of the professional skill of pharmacists threatens the valuable contribution that community pharmacists can make to balancing the country’s socio-economic status by appropriately and efficiently assisting in preventing, managing and/or reducing the disease burden in South Africa. Corporatization of the community pharmacy sector seems to have realized the government’s intention of making medication affordable to its citizens, however, the certainty of whether corporatization benefits patients that are in need of access remains to be seen. Community pharmacists could in fact, capitalize on the identification and enactment of their clinical skill (pharmaceutical and social caregiving) as this skill appears to be a tool that will allow pharmacists meaningful transition to being real contributors of primary health care in the imminent introduction of the NHI. At the same time, recognition of the role a pharmacist plays in primary health care will be supporting the government in its endeavours to making medicine accessible and affordable to all South African citizens without compromising their health needs. Ultimately, pharmacists can assist in the balancing and/or improvement of the socio-economic status of our society and the country.

Em comunidades de prática, a aprendizagem ocorre por meio da interação e colaboração constante de seus participantes, o caráter social destes ambientes é fundamental para a construção do conhecimento. Por este motivo, esta dissertação busca compreender a forma como os usuários interagem em comunidades de prática e propõe a estruturação destas informações em torno de um perfil dinâmico de usuário. A aplicação de perfis de usuário neste contexto permite entender o indivíduo, seus interesses e necessidades. A partir da representação dos participantes de comunidades de prática é possível desenvolver sistemas de aprendizagem inteligente, sistemas de recomendação, elementos de gamificação e sistemas de acesso e recuperação de informação personalizados. Estes mecanismos procuram estimular o engajamento dos participantes e promover a aprendizagem colaborativa. A representação das informações neste trabalho será apoiada pelo uso de tecnologias da web semântica e de ontologias para a formalização das relações em comunidades de prática. O desenvolvimento de softwares educacionais baseados na web semântica amplia a capacidade de implementação de novos mecanismos de aprendizagem, contribuindo para a análise das interações e a inferências sobre as informações dos usuários. O uso de ontologias permite a formalização das informações e torna possível a elaboração de uma rede de conhecimento que pode ser processada e consumida por agentes de software, contribuindo para a interoperabilidade do sistema. / In communities of practice, learning is built through constant interaction and collaboration of their participants, the social aspect of these environments is crucial for the knowledge construction. For this reason, this work intends to understand how users interact in communities of practice and proposes a dynamic user profile to structure this information. An user profile applied in this context allows us to understand the person, his interests and needs. The representation of participants in communities of practice allow us to develop intelligent learning systems, recommender systems, gamification elements and systems for personalized access and personalized information retrieval. Those mechanisms intend to stimulate participant engagement to promote collaborative learning. In this work, semantic web technologies and ontologies are used to represent this informations. The development of educational software based on the semantic web expands the capacity to implement new learning mechanisms, contributing to the analysis of the interactions and the inferences about user informations. The use of ontologies allows the formalization of information and enables the elaboration of a knowledge network that can be processed and consumed by software agents, contributing to the system interoperability.

O serviço público passa por um período de reinvenção e mudança em busca dos valores da Nova Gestão pública baseados na aproximação com as demandas da sociedade e incentivo a um ambiente aberto, transparente e inovador. Em consonância, o servidor público se posiciona cada vez mais de maneira ativa e consciente do seu papel, disposto a participar de um desafio aberto, diferente do imposto por um ambiente burocratizado e desumanizado. Nesse contexto, esta pesquisa apoiou-se em um estudo de caso que se utilizou de uma observação participante permeada por um estudo teórico dos saberes necessários para entendela e pesquisá-la, envolvendo os conceitos de: inovação no setor público, intelectual orgânico e comunidades virtuais de prática. Para isso, foram acompanhadas e analisadas durante dois anos as interações da comunidade virtual de prática do Núcleo de Gestão Ambiental Integrada da reitoria do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia Sul-rio-grandense que se utilizou do e-mail e do ambiente virtual de aprendizagem Moodle para desenvolver práticas no setor público Nesse contexto, a pesquisa sobre a realidade prática durante o período foi permeada pelo estudo teórico que identificou a postura do servidor público como intelectual orgânico, agente da mudança, aberto para a aprendizagem e inovador que se utiliza das Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação atuando em comunidade virtuais de prática. Ao final, a pesquisa delimitou um quadro teórico para identificar, caracterizar e posteriormente auxiliar na organização, condução e análise de experiências com comunidades virtuais de prática como ambiente de inovação no serviço público visando o desenvolvimento da postura de intelectual orgânico. / The public service is undergoing a period of invention and changes in search of the New Public Management values-based approach to the demands of society, and encourage an open, transparent and innovative environment. Accordingly, the civil servant positions itself increasingly active and conscious of its role, willing to participate in an open challenge, other than imposed by a bureaucratic and dehumanized environment. In this context, this research was based on a case study that was used a participating observation permeated by a theoretical study of knowledge required to understand it and research it, involving the concepts of innovation in the public sector, organic intellectual and virtual communities of practice. For this, they were monitored and analyzed for two years the interactions of virtual community of practice of the Núcleo de Gestão Integrada of the rectory of the Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia Sul-rio-grandense which used e-mail and virtual learning environment Moodle for to develop practices in the public sector In this context, the research on the practical reality during the period was permeated by theoretical study that identified the attitude of civil servants as organic intellectual, change agent, open to learning and innovator who uses of Information and Communication Technologies when working in virtual communities of practice. At the end, the survey identified a theoretical framework for identifying, characterizing and subsequently assist in the organization, conduct and analysis of experiences with virtual communities of practice and innovation environment in the public service for the development of the organic intellectual’s posture.

abstract: The National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs (NACCTEP) was established to promote the community college role in the recruitment, preparation, retention, and renewal of teachers. NACCTEP is led by a 13-member executive board consisting of community college teacher education administrators and faculty members from across the United States. Board members expressed concern that their first year consisted of them trying to learn their role as a board member including how to participate in board activities. By the time they became fully knowledgeable about their role and became more active participants, their two-year term was completed. They also indicated that initially they felt disconnected from veteran board members. To address this issue, an orientation/leadership suite was developed for new board members to assist them in transitioning from peripheral roles to full active roles. The suite included activities such as an association orientation web page, participation in monthly board conference calls, a face-to-face leadership session, and mentoring by veteran board members. The communities of practice (CoP) framework shaped this action research study and the activities of the suite were designed to foster a CoP. This action research study utilized a mixed-method research approach in which both qualitative and quantitative instruments were used to gather data. The descriptive statistics indicated that on average, new board members perceived mentoring was effective, understood their role on the board, experienced a sense of a community of practice, considered themselves as active on the board, and believed the leadership orientation suite was effective. An analysis of the qualitative data resulted in four themes: community, communication, participation, and efficacy. Overall, the findings indicated that the new board member orientation/leadership suite assisted new board members transition from peripheral roles to active leadership roles through developing a sense of community; facilitating and sustaining communication; defining, supporting, and encouraging participation; and increasing efficacy in their roles. Through the learning of their roles, the new board members became knowledgeable, comfortable, and confident in serving as board members, which facilitated their participating in the NACCTEP board's CoP. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2013

The aim of this study is to examine knowledge processes in online spaces. It focuses on threeparticular cases: the Bonfireside Chat podcast, the community around the computer game Europa Universalis 4, and the Supernatural fandom. By applying the frameworks of Wenger’s (1998) communities of practice and Hall’s (1980) modes of reading, it examines how these spaces and their communities engage with their respective media artifacts. It concludes thatthese processes display high levels of complexity and literacy, and that a deeper understanding of such processes is useful in developing future educational efforts, online as well as offline.

O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar o processo de adoção do Software Livre na Universidade de São Paulo. É de especial interesse o estudo dos aspectos culturais e organizacionais que contribuíram para a adoção do Software Livre entre os administradores de sistemas. O estudo de adoção, não se limitou à adoção individual, mas se estendeu à adoção organizacional uma vez que a adoção de inovações tecnológicas em organizações difere de modo especial da adoção individual. A adoção organizacional aborda aspectos como a extensão do uso da inovação e, o quão profundamente o uso da tecnologia altera processos, estruturas e cultura organizacional. O fenômeno de adoção na Universidade revela-se particularmente importante por ter se tratado da adoção de uma nova tecnologia, em grande escala e bem-sucedida. Esta pesquisa estuda quais são os fatores condicionantes e os que favoreceram a adoção da nova tecnologia, bem como o contexto social e cultural desta adoção em diferentes Unidades da USP. / The objective of this work is to study the adoption of Free Software in the University of São Paulo. It is of special interest the study of the cultural and organizational aspects that contributed to the adoption of the Free Software among the systems administrators. The adoption study, was not limited to the individual adoption, but it extended to the organizational adoption once the adoption of technological innovations in organizations differs in special ways from the individual adoption. The organizational adoption examines aspects as the extension of the use of the innovation and, how deeply the use of the technology affects processes, structures and organizational culture. The adoption phenomenon in the University is particularly important for having it been a voluntary adoption of a new technology, in great scale and well succeeded. This research studies which factors restricted or favored the adoption of the new technology, as well as the social and cultural context of this adoption in different Units of USP

Orientador: Dario Fiorentini / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-24T22:42:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Batista_AdrianaCorreiadeAlmeida_D.pdf: 4678099 bytes, checksum: 40a123a8cc0aac4424edcb1235044ffc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: A pesquisa em questão tem como objetivo identificar, problematizar e compreender a aprendizagem que ocorre nas aulas de matemática de um 6º ano de uma escola pública. Para tanto, foi tomado como objeto de estudo a prática pedagógica de uma professora de matemática, pesquisadora e autora desta tese, e as interações com seus alunos de uma turma de 6º ano, ao longo de um ano letivo (2009). A sua questão central é Que aprendizagens são produzidas no interior de uma comunidade de aprendizes de matemática e como esses participantes se transformam identitariamente, apropriando-se de saberes/práticas nessa/dessa comunidade? Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa, com algumas características da etnografia. O processo de coletas de dados e de documentação teve por objetivo fornecer subsídios para as interpretações e análises acerca das práticas e indícios de aprendizagem dos alunos e da própria comunidade de aprendizes. Os procedimentos metodológicos foram: questionário do início do ano letivo; videogravação de algumas aulas; pequenos relatos sobre as aulas; carta relato sobre uma aula de grandezas e medidas enviada a um destinatário a ser escolhido pelo aluno; produções dos alunos e diário de campo da pesquisadora. Os principais aportes teóricos são aqueles relativos à teoria social da aprendizagem em comunidade de prática, tendo como interlocutores privilegiados Ettiene Wenger e Jean Lave, os quais, a grosso modo, tomam a aprendizagem como prática social. Outros autores permeiam as análises e discussões, como João Felipe Matos e R. Brown, ao tratarem da sala de aula como comunidade de prática; Barbara Rogoff, ao discutir a sala de aula como comunidades de aprendizagem e os processos de aprendizagem guiada e compartilhados entre os sujeitos. O processo de análise de dados é o de análise narrativa, o qual procura-se analisar e interpretar narrativamente as práticas vividas, apresentando, como produto final desse processo, outra narrativa. A categoria principal de análise da presente pesquisa é a aprendizagem situada na comunidade de aprendizes de matemática do 6º B e a partir dela, foram construídas quatro subcategorias: participação; produção e negociação de significados; apropriação de saberes/práticas e constituição de identidades. Estas subcategorias não devem ser compreendidas como autônomas ou independentes entre si. Ao contrário, elas se inter-relacionam ao longo do processo narrativo de análise e interpretação das práticas de aprendizagem, formando um conjunto que auxiliam a produção de análises e interpretações acerca de aprendizagem situada em prática social e humana. As análises desta pesquisa permitiram constatar que os alunos ao trabalhar em grupos, sejam estes pequenos ou que envolvem a turma toda e sob à ótica de uma comunidade de aprendizes de matemática, podem compartilhar saberes e práticas que trazem de seu mundo social, integrando-as com os saberes escolares. O papel do professor nesta comunidade é essencial, pois ele é responsável pela articulação dos saberes desses jovens daqueles produzidos na/pela escola, além de lhe caber, ainda, a elaboração e escolha de práticas pedagógicas e gêneros textuais específicos para àquela comunidade. Os diferentes papéis dos alunos na comunidade de aprendizes do 6ºB e suas participações, mobilizaram processos de negociação de significados e transformação de suas identidades ao longo das aulas de matemática / Abstract: The research project aims to identify , discuss and understand the learning that occurs in a 6th year math classes in a public school . Thus, it was regarded as an object of study the pedagogical practice of a math teacher , researcher and author of this thesis , and interactions with their students in a 6th year class, over a year ( 2009) . Its central question is what learning is produced within a community of learners in mathematics and how these participants become , appropriating knowledge / practices that / this community ? This is a qualitative research , with some characteristics of ethnography . The process of data collection and documentation aimed to provide support to the interpretations and analyzes about the practices and evidence the student learning and their own community of learners. The methodological procedures were the beginning of the school year questionnaire; video recording of some classes; small stories about classes; Letter report on a class of quantities and measurements sent to a recipient to be chosen by the own student , students' productions and field journal of researcher . The main theoretical contributions are those relating to the social theory of learning in a community of practice, having as main interlocutors Ettiene Wenger and Jean Lave , which , roughly speaking , take learning as social practice . Other authors permeate the analyzes and discussions , as Felipe Matos and R. Brown , to treat the classroom as a community of practice , Barbara Rogoff , discuss the classroom as learning communities and the processes of learning and guided sharing between the subjects. The process of data analysis is the analysis of narrative , which seeks to analyze and interpret the lived narrative practices , presenting , as the final product of this process, a another narrative. The main category of analysis of this research is situated learning of learners in mathematics 6th B community considering this, were built four subcategories : participation , production and negotiation of meanings ; appropriation of knowledge / practices , and identity construction . These subcategories shouldn¿t be understood as autonomous or independent. Rather, they are interrelated throughout the narrative process of analysis and interpretation of learning practices , forming a set that assist the production of analyzes and interpretations of situated learning in social and human practice . The analyzes in this study showed evidence that students to work in groups , whether small or involving the whole and under the eyes of a community of learners math class , can share knowledge and practices that bring their to the social world , integrating them with school knowledge . The responsibility of the teacher in this community is essential as it is responsible for the articulation of knowledge of these young people from those produced in / by the school, and will also fit the design and choice of pedagogical practices specific to that community and textual genres. The different responsibility of the students in the 6th B apprentices and their participation in community mobilized processes of negotiation of meaning and transformation of their identities along the math classes / Doutorado / Ensino e Práticas Culturais / Doutor em Educação

Early phases of Kolomoki’s occupation have been characterized as relatively egalitarian, with little evidence for status differentiation. However, patterned variability in lithic raw material use and intensity of production in domestic areas suggests heterogeneity in the community at multiple scales. In light of Kolomoki’s emphasis on communal ceremony, internal divisions between groups of households highlight the tension between public and private expressions of status and social solidarity. New radiocarbon dates from the southern margins of the village have allowed us to assess the contemporaneity of this pattern, and by extension, the chronology of village aggregation.