This thesis examines the situation for archivists within the context of e-government in three Swedish authorities. The discussions that are brought up concern the archivists role, professional development and the perspective of information in the context of e-government. Since the purpose with this thesis was mainly concerning the situation for the archivists, the method chosen was a qualitative research method, and it was used in combination with interviews with the archivists at the chosen authorities. The results show that the archivists within the examined authorities are seen as experts on information management and legislation surrounding it. Problems connected to e-government are that they face prejudice about their capability concerning new technology and digital information. This problem has been handled differently within the authorities, change of official titles has been one tactic. Their tasks and professional development have been slightly changed as they are working in a higher capacity ahead of the information being created. The change that can be seen in the context of e-government is that archivists are being more visible within their work places, which can be correlated to the e-government that encourage team work and collaborations to create an efficient and accessible authority. What this means for the archivists is that they can use these collaborations to further their own projects and tasks within the organisation in a better way. Contrary to the belief that archivists can only manage information on paper the participants in this research prove they have adopted well to the way of e-government partly through the Record Continuum Model. They are aware about the different perspectives necessary for handling the new ways of structuring and seeing information, which became clear with the development and structure of e-archives within two of the authorities and the preparation for being connected for the third. Finally, this thesis shows that archivists are beginning to be able to compete with other departments and professions on the same terms and that they are starting to find their own place within the area of IT and information management. This is a two years master's thesis in archival science.

<p>Research shows that there is a literacy crisis in many South African primary schools, especially in the Foundation and Intermediate Phases (Grades 1 &ndash / &nbsp / ). The latest Annual National Assessments (ANA) results released in 2011 indicate that learners performed below the acceptable literacy levels as&nbsp / the national pass rate for Grade 3 learners was 35% and was 28% for Grade 6 learners (ANA, 2011:6). Research on literacy focuses on reading and&nbsp / there is little known about how young learners develop writing skills. This qualitative ethnographic study investigated how writing skills are developed in Grade 1 learners by looking at the writing processes as well as the teaching methods used by teachers to develop learners&rsquo / writing skills. The research also&nbsp / analyzed the texts produced by Grade 1 learners and the languages used in their written texts. The sample group in this research was the Grade 1 learners&nbsp / to a multicultural school in Cape Town. Data were collected by means of classroom observations, interviews and document analysis. The thematic&nbsp / arrative approach was used to analyze data and the analysis was informed by the Writing Developmental Continuum model and the Multimodal&nbsp / Approach to literacy in order to gain a better understanding of how young learners use language and other forms of writing such as visuals and gestures to&nbsp / onstruct and convey meaning.&nbsp / The findings of this research show that Grade 1 learners make use of semiotic resources including the language(s)&nbsp / &nbsp / &nbsp / available in their immediate context to create multimodal texts that incorporate both visual and written features. This shows that young learners represent&nbsp / their world experiences through interpersonal and experiential meanings in language(s) exposed to them. The teacher has a big role to play in developing&nbsp / learners&rsquo / writing skills and has to employ a variety of pedagogical strategies that support learners to move through the different writing phases before they develop into early writers. The study concludes that writing is not a linear process but it is a gradual process which depends on a variety of resources and&nbsp / factors which build on learners&rsquo / prior experiences and creativity.</p>

<p>Research shows that there is a literacy crisis in many South African primary schools, especially in the Foundation and Intermediate Phases (Grades 1 &ndash / &nbsp / ). The latest Annual National Assessments (ANA) results released in 2011 indicate that learners performed below the acceptable literacy levels as&nbsp / the national pass rate for Grade 3 learners was 35% and was 28% for Grade 6 learners (ANA, 2011:6). Research on literacy focuses on reading and&nbsp / there is little known about how young learners develop writing skills. This qualitative ethnographic study investigated how writing skills are developed in Grade 1 learners by looking at the writing processes as well as the teaching methods used by teachers to develop learners&rsquo / writing skills. The research also&nbsp / analyzed the texts produced by Grade 1 learners and the languages used in their written texts. The sample group in this research was the Grade 1 learners&nbsp / to a multicultural school in Cape Town. Data were collected by means of classroom observations, interviews and document analysis. The thematic&nbsp / arrative approach was used to analyze data and the analysis was informed by the Writing Developmental Continuum model and the Multimodal&nbsp / Approach to literacy in order to gain a better understanding of how young learners use language and other forms of writing such as visuals and gestures to&nbsp / onstruct and convey meaning.&nbsp / The findings of this research show that Grade 1 learners make use of semiotic resources including the language(s)&nbsp / &nbsp / &nbsp / available in their immediate context to create multimodal texts that incorporate both visual and written features. This shows that young learners represent&nbsp / their world experiences through interpersonal and experiential meanings in language(s) exposed to them. The teacher has a big role to play in developing&nbsp / learners&rsquo / writing skills and has to employ a variety of pedagogical strategies that support learners to move through the different writing phases before they develop into early writers. The study concludes that writing is not a linear process but it is a gradual process which depends on a variety of resources and&nbsp / factors which build on learners&rsquo / prior experiences and creativity.</p>

The research presented in this thesis is about recordkeeping in the public sector, focusing especially on the relationship between the public administration and its archives, and selected aspects affecting the way this relationship is developing in the digital era. Two research questions are addressed: RQ1: What are ‘archives’ and ‘recordkeeping’ in the digital context and the developing e-government? RQ2: What are the indications of current and future challenges regarding the cooperation between public administration and archives? Six studies resulting in six papers form the basis of the thesis. Each study explores a unique aspect of how current developments, discussions, and decisions affect contemporary understanding and practices regarding archives and recordkeeping. Public records are authoritative information resources, crucial in the everyday lives of citizens. Public recordkeeping develops continuously alongside administrative practices, technological achievements, and political goals. Examples include the development of shared services within the public sector and the involvement of the private sector in public infrastructure projects through outsourcing. These processes are currently affected both by digital technologies, which offer new possibilities to create, use, and preserve records, and by e-government, characterized by the combination of information and communication technologies with organizational change to improve public services and democratic participation. In these processes, existing practices are reviewed and revised, and the concepts of ‘archives’ and ‘recordkeeping’ redefined. The research was pursued using an interpretive approach. The research methods used were concept analysis; discourse analysis; literary warrant analysis; phenomenography; critical theory; and the records continuum model as a theoretical structure. The results shows that common usage of the terms ‘archive’ and ‘recordkeeping’ is fluid and changing, which can make decision-making challenging and affect the relationship between archives and administration. Efforts to develop recordkeeping strategies may be hampered by factors related to the different ways in which the nature and role of archives and recordkeeping are perceived, including differing understandings of related concepts; varying discourses on what an archive (or e-archive) is or should be, and different ways of interpreting legal frameworks and their significance. / <p>Vid tidpunkten för disputationen var följande delarbeten opublicerade: delarbete 6 accepterat.</p><p>At the time of the doctoral defence the following papers were unpublished: paper 6 accepted.</p> / God informationsförvaltning / En effektiv digital informationshantering

Magister Educationis - MEd / Research shows that there is a literacy crisis in many South African primary schools, especially in the Foundation and Intermediate Phases (Grades 1 – ). The latest Annual National Assessments (ANA) results released in 2011 indicate that learners performed below the acceptable literacy levels as the national pass rate for Grade 3 learners was 35% and was 28% for Grade 6 learners (ANA, 2011:6). Research on literacy focuses on reading and there is little known about how young learners develop writing skills. This qualitative ethnographic study investigated how writing skills are developed in Grade 1 learners by looking at the writing processes as well as the teaching methods used by teachers to develop learners’ writing skills. The research also analyzed the texts produced by Grade 1 learners and the languages used in their written texts. The sample group in this research was the Grade 1 learners to a multicultural school in Cape Town. Data were collected by means of classroom observations, interviews and document analysis. The thematic arrative approach was used to analyze data and the analysis was informed by the Writing Developmental Continuum model and the Multimodal Approach to literacy in order to gain a better understanding of how young learners use language and other forms of writing such as visuals and gestures to onstruct and convey meaning. The findings of this research show that Grade 1 learners make use of semiotic resources including the language(s) available in their immediate context to create multimodal texts that incorporate both visual and written features. This shows that young learners represent their world experiences through interpersonal and experiential meanings in language(s) exposed to them. The teacher has a big role to play in developing learners’ writing skills and has to employ a variety of pedagogical strategies that support learners to move through the different writing phases before they develop into early writers. The study concludes that writing is not a linear process but it is a gradual process which depends on a variety of resources and factors which build on learners’ prior experiences and creativity. / South Africa

Since conflict studies became its own independent field, it has developed rapidly. Some argue conflict researchers must demonstrate that while conflict occurs at different social levels (e.g., inter-personal to international), there must be sufficient common attributes to justify its existence as an independent field. This justification requires formal theory based on a multi-disciplinary approach. Since its introduction in 1964, the substantive Dual Concerns Model (DCM) and subsequent iterations, have provided the basis for instruments used to research conflict management, behavior, mode, and style outside the narrow scope of its original sample group of Caucasian male managers within a large American industrial plant. Instruments based on the DCM were used to represent conflict behavior within, between, and across cultures. An emic theory was expanded to etic theory and used in place of formal theory. Therefore, this theoretical dissertation fills this void and develops formal (etic) theory. This researcher used comparative analysis to examine 187 quantitative studies from a variety of disciplines, with a cumulative sample size from these studies of 63,619 individuals. These studies examined conflict resolution behavior individually or with 274 other variables to provide the framework for developing a formal theory. The finding of this research is the development of the Pierre-Louis Conflict Continuum Model (PCCM), which examines behavior through the dimensions of cultural values, as represented by individualism and collectivism, and legitimacy of power and ideology. This research contributes a new theoretical paradigm to the field of conflict studies.

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Metadata is essential to how (digital) archives, collections or databases operate. It is the backbone to organise different types of content, make them discoverable and keep the digital records’ authenticity, integrity and meaning over time. For that reason, it is also important to iteratively assess if the metadata is of high quality. Despite its importance, there is an acknowledged lack of research verifying if existing assessment frameworks and methodologies do indeed work and if so how well, especially in fields outside the libraries. Thus, this thesis conducted an exploratory case study and applied already existing frameworks in a new context by evaluating the metadata quality of audiobooks. The Information Continuum Model was used as a way to capture the metadata quality needs of customers/end users who will be searching and listening to audiobooks. Using a mixed methods approach, the results showed that the frameworks can indeed be generalised and adapted to a new context. However, although the frameworks helped measure, identify and find potential solutions to the problems, they could be better adjusted to the context and more metrics and information could be added. Thus, there can be a generalised method to assess metadata quality. But the method needs improvements and to be used by people who understand the data and the processes to reach its full potential.

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