Social services and violence in close relationship in a sami context A qualitative study of the social services opportunities to provide support to women exposed to violence in a sami culture in Sweden  Background: There is a lack of studies in Sweden that includes and describes violence against Sami women and how important the social worker's ambition is to create and maintain basic knowledge and efforts to support Sami women who’s exposed to domestic violence.  Aim: The aim of this study is to clarify how the social services in Sweden work for the Sami women to be able to get the help they need.  Methods: The study is based on four individual qualitative interviews with social workers from Norrbottens och Västerbottens län. For analysis intersectionality and postcolonial theory has been used.  Results: The results have shown us that there are both similarities and differences for social workers who’s involved with Sami women as clients. What all social services had in common was that they all had to seek cultural knowledge by themselves. What differd was the view of cultural relevance. Some of the social workers thought there should be more of importance to have cultural knowledge when working with Sami women who’s exposed to domestic violence, others had the opinion that the aim is to treat every client based on the guidelines that have been determined at the social service office and is directed to all abused women. / Socialtjänsten och våld i nära relation i en samisk kontext En kvalitativ studie om socialtjänstens möjligheter att ge stöd till våldsutsatta kvinnor inom samisk kultur i Sverige  Bakgrund: Det saknas studier i Sverige som inkluderar och beskriver våld mot samiska kvinnor och hur viktig socialsekreterarens ambition är för att skapa och upprätthålla grundläggande kunskaper och insatser för att stödja samiska kvinnor som är utsatta för våld i hemmet.  Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att skapa en förståelse hur socialarbetare i Sverige arbetar för att de samiska kvinnorna ska kunna få den hjälp de behöver.  Metod: Studien bygger på fyra individuella kvalitativa intervjuer med socialsekreterare från Norrbottens och Västerbottens län. För analys så har intersektionalitet och postkolonial teori använts.  Resultat: Resultaten har visat oss att det finns både likheter och skillnader för socialarbetare som är engagerade i samiska kvinnor som klienter. Gemensamt för alla socialtjänster var att de alla var tvungna att söka efter kulturell kunskap själva. Det som skilde sig var synen på relevans av kulturell kunskap i arbetet. En del av socialsekreterarna tyckte att det borde vara viktigare att ha kulturell kunskap när de arbetar med samiska kvinnor som är utsatta för våld i hemmet, andra menade att syftet är att behandla varje klient utifrån de riktlinjer som har fastställts på socialtjänsten och som riktas till alla våldsutsatta kvinnor.

The purpose of this study was two-fold. The first was to determine the degree of culturally responsive teaching practices and level of cultural competence of participants who teach upper elementary (grades three through six) STEM educators of predominantly Native Hawaiian students. The second purpose was to identify differences in cultural competence and culturally responsive teaching practices of those same participants identified above. These two participant groups were from the State of Hawaiʻi Department of Education’s Keonepoko and Pāhoa Elementary Schools. Both schools are from the Keaʻau-Kaʻu-Pāhoa Complex Area. The educators from Keonepoko were afforded knowledge and experiences from a culture-based professional development program known as the Moenahā School Program, while the educators from Pāhoa were not afforded these same knowledge and experiences. Using a quantitative, quasi-experimental design, data were collected via an online survey using three instruments: the Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy Inventory (CRTSE), the Cultural Competence Self-Assessment Questionnaire (CCSAQ), and the Cultural Competence Self-Assessment Scale Demographic Information (CCSASDI). The data were analyzed using mean scores and those mean scores were compared for differences using a Mann-Whitney U test. The findings indicated the Moenahā participants had a statistically significantly higher level of cultural competence and higher degree of culturally responsive teaching practices than the non-Moenahā participants suggesting the importance of cultural competence professional development iii opportunities. These findings are applicable for teachers in schools with an higher Native Hawaiian student population. / Ph. D.

Recent surveys of international business professionals indicate that foreign language abilities and cultural sensitivity are important competitive advantages in today's globalized economy. The current study interviewed 71 practicing global professionals currently working in cross border transactions in diverse fields. Biographic, demographic and second language data were collected, including information on experiences and opinions on the use and importance of foreign language and cultural awareness abilities in the professional world. Research questions include: (1) Who are the global professionals applying L2 abilities at work? (2) How do they apply these abilities? (3) What are the profiles of advanced and non-advanced proficiency users? (4) How important are linguistic abilities and how much of a competitive advantage do they represent? (5) What language strategies and communication strategies are used? (6) What are the most common beliefs on the role of foreign languages and culture awareness in business? (7) How well do intercultural communication models explain the culture views and experiences reported by working professionals? Results indicate that learners with self-reported advanced proficiency regularly apply the four language abilities (listening, reading, speaking and writing) at work, albeit in varying degrees, depending on the level of complexity of the task (phone, email, face-to-face meeting, etc.). For the majority of informants, foreign language and culture abilities are considered important for professional effectiveness. For those who reported advanced foreign language abilities, they also exhibited a greater appreciation for increased exposure to foreign language learning, had received more foreign language instruction, and had more experience working and living abroad. Those advanced in foreign language abilities were also more likely to be non-native speakers of English, have earned a university degree while using an L2, had family or community connections to the target language, have emigrated, or have a spouse with a different L1. The study also ranks and identifies the informants' strategies used to deal with language and culture issues. Participants' anecdotes were analyzed in light of current cultural analysis models applied in International Business Communications. Suggestions are presented for curricula changes to improve foreign language proficiency in professional settings. / text

This thesis project explored how study abroad program administrators can help Japanese students develop intercultural competence through predeparture and ongoing intercultural training so as to improve their capacity to adapt effectively to American cultural norms. The ultimate purpose of this thesis project was to help Japanese students who were studying in the U.S. balance their involvement with their peer group from Japan and build relationships with people in the U.S. in order to fully experience American culture. To provide a context for this study, a review of the literature was conducted regarding the challenges faced by Japanese students while studying in the United States. It also examined literature concerned with elements relevant to the experience of Japanese students as well as literature on the intercultural training that I put together at the end of this project; those elements included: cultural issues, intercultural competence, training design, transformative learning, and intercultural training. Interviews were conducted with international education professionals who work with Japanese students in study abroad programs to find out how their Japanese students adapted their Japanese cultural norms while in the U.S. Based on the literature, some existing intercultural training programs, and the interviews, I designed an intercultural training program for a group of Japanese students who will attend a ten-month study abroad program in the northwest part of the U.S. The training program includes the following elements: learning about ones own culture and other cultures, observing and experiencing switching cultural behaviors, and reflecting critically on the interactions with peer Japanese students as well as American students during the study abroad.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:05:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3952.pdf: 2039842 bytes, checksum: 13562902fbbd07a996facebf66d35dd7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-10-21 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / In this research, we describe how common sense knowledge with machine translation can help the communication among people with different cultural background. In order to evaluate this possibility, we developed a bilingual chat called Culture-to-Chat or C2C that provides a communication channel and has resources that help its user to create messages in a second language. In the computer-mediated communication field, it is possible to notice that people are crossing geographic borders and having opportunities to share experiences among different cultures. Sharing information in a non native language can be difficult to some users. Some computational tools that support communication uses machine translation to aid users that need to work with different language. C2C also uses this approach and adopts a semantic network of cultural knowledge, collaboratively built on the Web through the Open Mind Common Sense in Brazil project (OMCS-Br) to work with cultural expression, in other words, terms whose meaning depends on user‟s culture. Following a user-centered design approach that focuses on prototyping, we present the development of C2C passing by low, middle and high fidelity prototypes. In order to observe how this computational tool is used and collect the opinion of target users, we perform a pilot study involving Brazilian and Canadian users. This study showed some enhancements for the tool and pointed evidences that this chat contributes to the communication between people with different cultural backgrounds. / Neste trabalho é descrito como o conhecimento de senso comum em conjunto com a tradução automática pode apoiar a comunicação entre pessoas de diferentes culturas. Para verificar a viabilidade do senso comum foi desenvolvido um chat bilíngue chamado Culture-to-Chat ou C2C, que, além de prover um canal de comunicação, possui mecanismos que auxiliam o usuário na criação de mensagens em língua estrangeira. No campo da comunicação mediada por computador, percebe-se que as pessoas estão cruzando as fronteiras geográficas e tendo oportunidades de troca de experiências entre diferentes culturas. Para alguns usuários, essa troca de informações é feita em uma língua não nativa, o que pode ser uma tarefa difícil para eles. Algumas ferramentas computacionais que apoiam a comunicação propõem o uso de tradução automática para trabalhar com usuários falantes de diferentes línguas. O C2C, além de adotar tal estratégia, adota a rede semântica de conhecimento cultural construida colaborativamente via Web do projeto Open Mind Common Sense no Brasil (OMCS-Br) para trabalhar com expressões culturais, ou seja, termos cujo significado depende da cultura do usuário. Utilizando uma abordagem centrada no usuário focando-se em prototipação, o desenvolvimento do C2C e suas funcionalidades são apresentados por meio de protótipos de diferentes níveis de fidelidade (baixa, média e alta). Com o intuito de observar o uso dessa ferramenta computacional e coletar opiniões de usuários, foi realizado um estudo piloto envolvendo usuários brasileiros e canadenses. Tal estudo mostrou possíveis melhorias pra a ferramenta e apontou indícios de que este chat contribui na comunicação entre pessoas de diferentes culturas.