This study examined the relationships between international students’ ethnic identity, self-efficacy, uncertainty avoidance, and their socio-cultural adjustment. A total of 65 international students (aged 18 to 33 years) from seven countries completed the online questionnaire. As hypothesized, path analyses demonstrated a positive relationship between students’ self-efficacy and their socio-cultural adjustment. International students’ uncertainty avoidance had a negative relationship with their self-efficacy, but a positive relationship with ethnic identity. The hypotheses that international students’ ethnic identity and uncertainty avoidance are negatively correlated to their socio-cultural adjustment were not supported in the present study.

<p>This thesis combines theories from cross-cultural psychology with literature on group faultlines to understand cultural barriers to communication and cooperation experienced in multinational emergency management teams. The aim is to investigate whether the faultline concept is a viable theoretical vocabulary for addressing cultural differences in communication and cooperation (in the domain of emergency management). Culture is defined as a relatively organized system of shared meanings which influences people’s cognition, values, behaviors, and so on. Group faultlines are hypothetical dividing lines that may split a team into homogeneous subgroups based on demographic characteristics. Three papers are included in the thesis, all of which investigate various aspects of group behavior in relation to emergency management. Results suggest that faultlines can be formed not only by demographic characteristics, but also by culturally-driven behavior. The results presented in the papers and in this thesis are meant to supply emergency management personnel with general knowledge of cultural differences and ideas for future ‘cultural awareness’ training. The thesis contributes to the scientific community by taking cross-cultural research into the applied domain so that its findings can be made relevant to people in multinational organizations.</p>

The topic of this study is left-handedness as a phenomenon in violin playing and classical violin pedagogy. The aim of the study is to investigate what kind of knowledge and approaches are crucial for taking left-handedness into account when teaching left-handed violinists in the normatively right-handed violin pedagogy. The body of knowledge arises from literature on hemispheric lateralization, left-handedness, attributes of violin playing, and earlier studies on hand-preference and musical performance, hemispheric adaptations to musical training, and children’s conceptions of left and right. A background-study was carried out on left-handedness in guitar playing. The study employs abductive reasoning, has an auto-ethnographic thread and draws on the hermeneutical epistemology. The theoretical framework rests on the cultural-psychological perspective on music education. The data was collected in two parts using qualitative ethnography-inspired methods. First qualitative thematic interview was used for gathering strategically sampled data from expert respondents on violin playing, pedagogy and violin-making. Secondly non-participant observation and follow-up interview was used for examining a beginner violin lesson. The findings of the study suggest that violin pedagogues need knowledge of the lateralization effects on violin playing and methodological understanding for pupils’ handedness and maturity of motor development. The data suggests that left-handedness is not a disadvantage in violin playing when provided with education that recognizes it. Reversed violin playing is considered as an alternative for strongly left-handed pupils. The data shows that violin education needs open discussion on left-handedness in terms of prejudices in orchestras, and raised awareness on the availability of left-handed instruments.

The Irrational Beliefs Inventory (IBI) was built to measure self-defeating beliefs as conceptualized in Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy. The IBI has five factors: worrying, rigidity, problem avoidance, need for approval, and emotional irresponsibility. A three-phase cross-cultural study was conducted to translate and adapt the IBI from English to Icelandic, and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) approach was used for a test of factorial validity and cross-cultural invariance. In Phase 1, the IBI was translated from English to Icelandic, using a forward-translation and back-translation. Two forward-translators and two back-translators were recruited. In Phase 2, qualitative interview methods were used in both the U.S. and Iceland to gain insights into the meaning of the items on the IBI. In the U.S., 21 university students provided insights in a group discussion, and four students were individually interviewed in depth about individual items on the IBI. In Iceland, four university students were interviewed in depth about the meaning of individual items. Three Icelandic psychology professionals were recruited to evaluate the appropriateness of the IBI for the Icelandic culture. In Phase 3, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted to check factorial validity and cross-cultural invariance of the IBI. The total sample size in Phase 3 was N=1547, all college students, with n=827 in the U.S. and n=720 in Iceland. Overall, the CFA did not support the fit of the IBI's original five-factor model, although the fit was slightly better in the Icelandic version. Fit indices conflicted; the chi-square and comparative fit index (CFI) showed poor fit, while the RMSEA and SRMR showed acceptable fit. Correlated error was found between 85 item pairs in the U.S. model, and between 68 item pairs in the Icelandic model. Modifications were attempted to the original model by including the correlated errors, and a multigroup CFA was conducted. Adding the correlated errors slightly improved the fit of both models, but only 11 out of the IBI's 50 items were found to have equivalent item factor loadings and intercepts between the countries. Results from the psychometric analysis and qualitative interviews indicated that the IBI needs to be rewritten if the measure is to be used for research in Iceland. The results were discussed in light of a recent analysis of REBT-based measurement instruments, and implications for cross-cultural research on highly abstract constructs such as irrationality were discussed.

No description available.

This dissertation presents a comparative case-study of how two groups of culturally diverse elementary school students engage with particular forms of narrative practice shared by cultural educators through First Nations cultural education programs. The project develops the argument that different cultures afford different symbolic resources useful in “structuring” and “organizing” experience for individuals and that one important way in which these “possible worlds” are shared in a community is through storytelling. To develop this argument the project was structured around two main research questions: 1) what are the forms and functions of narrative practices that children experience during the First Nations cultural education programs? And 2) how do children “echo” and “transform” these narrative practices through their participation in the narrative activities organized around the programs? Participants in the project were two First Nations cultural educators conducting cultural education programs in public schools who participated as research partners, as well as 16 students from a grade 1 classroom (Class A) who participated in the first educator’s program and 15 students from a grade 4 classroom (Class B) who participated in the second educator’s program. Data for this project came from a multiple sources and analysis focused especially on stories told from the cultural educators during their programs as well as retellings of these stories from students in the two classrooms. Additional data was included from interviews and discussions with the cultural educators and student participants, field notes on the cultural education programs, and the classroom communities, as well as discussions with classroom teachers. This additional data was integrated into the project at various points to support interpretations. An ethnopoetic or verse analysis (Hymes, 1981, 1996, 2003) of stories told by the cultural educators revealed recurring patterns in the stories that both educators employed for particular rhetorical effects. In addition, these patterns revealed a number of “cultural features” of the storytelling performances that the educators used to emphasize specific points, to make parts of the stories especially memorable for the audience and to share lessons with the audience. Verse analyses of students’ story-retellings revealed a number of ways in which these students echoed and transformed these cultural features and made use of them to share the meaning or lesson of the stories. Finally, comparative analyses of story-retellings from the differently aged students in the two classrooms through a number of analytical frameworks showed that the retellings from grade 4 students were more complex in a number of ways, but also that students in both classrooms skillfully employed these different forms of narrative resources. The results reported in this study suggest that students were making use of the space provided in the cultural education programs to explore particular forms of narrative practice shared by the cultural educators and that they were making use of these narrative resources in meaningful ways. / Graduate / 0620 / jwallen@uvic.ca, james_w_allen@hotmail.com

This thesis combines theories from cross-cultural psychology with literature on group faultlines to understand cultural barriers to communication and cooperation experienced in multinational emergency management teams. The aim is to investigate whether the faultline concept is a viable theoretical vocabulary for addressing cultural differences in communication and cooperation (in the domain of emergency management). Culture is defined as a relatively organized system of shared meanings which influences people’s cognition, values, behaviors, and so on. Group faultlines are hypothetical dividing lines that may split a team into homogeneous subgroups based on demographic characteristics. Three papers are included in the thesis, all of which investigate various aspects of group behavior in relation to emergency management. Results suggest that faultlines can be formed not only by demographic characteristics, but also by culturally-driven behavior. The results presented in the papers and in this thesis are meant to supply emergency management personnel with general knowledge of cultural differences and ideas for future ‘cultural awareness’ training. The thesis contributes to the scientific community by taking cross-cultural research into the applied domain so that its findings can be made relevant to people in multinational organizations.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:28:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-09-21Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:58:26Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 mesquita_am_me_arafcl.pdf: 1363942 bytes, checksum: 4fbbe1d23de9ae7ee7d35d17c974381a (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O debate em torno da motivação para a aprendizagem remonta às críticas da Escola Nova à Escola Tradicional. Para a primeira, a educação deveria ser funcional, o que equivale a dizer que deve ser fundada nas necessidades dos alunos. O processo pedagógico verdadeiro é o que toma como ponto de partida, eixo e referência central, as necessidades espontâneas dos aprendizes. O ensino torna-se não-diretivo, pois a escola exime-se dessa função. A instrução dos alunos é orientada por eles mesmos, de acordo com suas inclinações e interesses pessoais. Os escolares não devem mais aprender, mas “aprender a aprender”. A Pedagogia Histórico-Crítica revela o que está escondido detrás dessa aparente democratização do ensino. Os métodos escolanovistas questionavam a própria validade do ato de ensinar. Contribuindo assim, para o rebaixamento da qualidade do ensino. A Pedagogia de orientação marxista retoma a transmissãoassimilação dos conhecimentos clássicos como centro do processo pedagógico. A questão é que isso não implica na renúncia à motivação para a aprendizagem. Ao contrário, ela é considerada um elemento importante do processo pedagógico. Trazemos contribuições da Psicologia Histórico-Cultural nesse sentido, para demonstrar como a motivação se desenvolve ao longo da ontogênese. Partindo da teoria da atividade de A. N. Leontiev, vemos que os motivos para qualquer atividade humana são edificados socialmente. A força motora de seu desenvolvimento encontra-se nas relações sociais do indivíduo, isto é, a chave para a compreensão da motivação (o aparecimento dos motivos) é a natureza social do psiquismo. Isso significa que os motivos para aprender, bem como todo e qualquer motivo, não são dados invariáveis da vida individual, mas dependem em grande medida da qualidade das relações sociais e dos processos educativos vividos ao largo... / The debate around motivation for school learning makes us return to the criticism of New School for Traditional School. The first one thinks that education should be functional, which means that it should be founded on students needs. The true teaching process is the one that takes as starting point, axis and central reference, the spontaneous needs of learners. Teaching becomes non-directive, since the school refuses itself to perform this task. Students’ instruction is guided by them, according to their personal interests. Scholars should no longer learn, but “learn to learn”. Historical-Critical Pedagogy reveals what is ridden behind this apparent democratization of school. The New School methods questioned the very validity of the act of teaching. Thus contributing to the depreciation of educational quality. The Marxist-oriented Pedagogy retakes the transmission and assimilation of classical knowledge as center of pedagogical process. The point is that it doesn’t imply on renouncement of motivation to learn. Rather, it is considered an important element of the pedagogical process. We bring contributions from Historical and Cultural Psychology to demonstrate how motivation develops along ontogeny. Starting from activity theory of A. N. Leontiev, we see that reasons to any human activity are socially edified. Reasons’ development driving force lies in person’s social relationships, that is, the key to comprehend motivation (the rise of reasons) is the social nature of psyche. This means that reasons to learning, as any reason, are not invariable on a person’s life, but depend largely on the quality of social relationships and educational processes experienced offshore development. Wherefore, to be motivated to learn is, first of all, to be in school. Besides this condition, knowledge must be the object that stimulates the activity of the learner... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Orientador: Sueli Terezinha Ferrero Martin / Resumo: A presente pesquisa teve por objetivo analisar a determinação social do consumo de drogas por uma perspectiva marxista conjugando as contribuições teórico-práticas da Saúde Coletiva e da Psicologia Histórico-Cultural. As drogas, consumidas milenarmente na história humana, a partir do modo de produção capitalista tornaram-se mercadoria e como tal passaram a atender necessidades advindas da exploração do trabalho sob condições de alienação e assalariamento, bem como a sua produção-distribuição-consumo tornou-se subordinada à reprodução ampliada do capital. O consumo de drogas passou a ser objeto de intervenção do Estado a partir de práticas no campo da medicalização social, hegemonizado pela perspectiva epidemiológica multicausal e de políticas proibicionistas, que compreendem o consumo entre o campo do transtorno mental e desvio moral. Com vistas à superação destas perspectivas, foi realizada uma investigação teórica articulada com pesquisa de campo, com observação participante, grupos focais e entrevistas com dezenove pessoas que realizam consumo de drogas, vinculadas a um serviço da rede pública de saúde. Com isso, buscou-se entender, por meio da dialética singular-particular-universal, a determinação social do consumo de drogas nas histórias de vida. A análise teve como ponto de partida a caracterização dos valores de uso e valores de troca das drogas na história e na sociedade capitalista em sua fase atual. Também identificamos processos críticos nas dimensões do trabalho,... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This paper had by objective the study of the social determination of the drugs consumption in a marxist perspective, including theoretical and practical contributions from two fields of knowledge: the Colective Health and the Historic-Cultural Psychology. Within the capitalist mode of production the drugs, consumed by humanity since ancient times, became commodities and so started to atend necessities from the work exploitation under conditions of alienation and salaried work, and its production-distribuition-consumption became subordinated by the extended reproduction of the Capital. State interventions started to aim the drugs consumption with practices from the field of the social medicalization, hegemonized by the perspective of the multicausal epidemiology and prohibicionist policies, that understands the consumption as consequence of mental disorder or moral deviation. Aiming to overcome such conceptions, an theoretical insvestigation was conducted with a field research, participant observation, focal groups and nineteen interviews with drugs users who benefited from a service from the public health system. With these resources the aim was to understand, by the singular-particular-universal dialectic, the social determination of the drugs consumption in the life stories. The analysis had as its starting point the description of the use value and exchange value of the drugs in history and in the capitalist society in its current stage. We also identified critical process... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

A presente pesquisa investigou diferentes usos e sentidos atribuídos ao conceito de contextualização na educação científica e explorou um modelo teórico para pensá-lo, baseado na psicologia cultural de Michael Cole. A partir desse modelo expandimos a ideia de contextualização, frequentemente utilizada apenas para designar descrições explícitas de situações relacionadas a algum exercício ou conceito científico em uma tarefa de ensino-aprendizagem. Ao invés disso, o modelo propõe pensar nas relações de múltiplos contextos com tais tarefas, não apenas aqueles descritos explicitamente, mas também a própria situação em que as tarefas são realizadas e o conjunto de traços culturais e normas próprios dos sujeitos (idiocultura) nela engajados. O modelo propõe ainda que há uma relação de constituição mútua entre esses diferentes níveis de contexto: a tarefa necessariamente ocorre em uma situação e em uma idiocultura, porém também ajuda a formá-las. Essas ideias foram utilizadas para analisar como diferentes níveis de contexto influenciaram o desenvolvimento de situações de ensinoaprendizagem em três estudos de caso: (1) um estudo sobre resolução de problemas com diferentes tipos de descrições de contextos com estudantes de Ensino Médio, no qual foi feita uma análise quantitativa das resoluções desenvolvidas; (2) um estudo sobre concepções de interdisciplinaridade nas ciências da natureza entre professores de escolas do campo, a partir de interações discursivas entre eles e com docentes da Universidade em uma discussão em grupo; (3) um estudo sobre as expectativas sobre a atividade docente e a construção de planos de ensino por licenciandos em Física e em Educação do Campo, a partir de suas respostas a um questionário aberto e suas produções de trabalhos em grupo. Nos três estudos foi possível inferir a influência de diferentes níveis de contexto analisados no desenvolvimento das atividades, sendo que em alguns essa influência foi mais forte que em outros. No estudo 1 verificou-se influência da descrição do contexto em alguns problemas, enquanto em outros não. Nos estudos 2 e 3 ficou clara uma forte influência de uma idiocultura da Educação do Campo no desenvolvimento das atividades. Ficou clara também, nesses dois últimos estudos, a necessidade de se considerar a idiocultura dos sujeitos no planejamento de atividades de ensino, e a possibilidade de utilizar a diversidade de idioculturas como recurso didático para pensar a educação científica situada em contextos. / This study investigates different uses and meanings attributed to the concept of contextualization in science education and explores a theoretical model to think about it, based on Michael Cole's cultural psychology. From this model we expanded the idea of context, often used only to designate explicit descriptions of situations related to some exercise or scientific concept in a teaching-learning task. Instead, the model proposes thinking in multiple contexts relations in which these tasks are embedded, not only those explicitly described, but also the very situation in which tasks are performed and the set of distinctive cultural traits and standards (idioculture) of the subjects engaged in it. The model also suggests that there is a mutual constitutive relationship between these different levels of context: the task necessarily occurs in a situation and in a idioculture, but also helps to form them. These ideas were used to analyze how different context levels influenced the development of teaching-learning situations in three case studies: (1) a study on problem solving with different types of descriptions of contexts with students from high school, in which a quantitative analysis of the resolutions was performed; (2) a study of interdisciplinary conception in natural sciences from the peasant schools teachers, through discursive interactions between them and with University professors in a group discussion; (3) a study of the expectations about teaching activity and the construction of teaching plans for undergraduates in physics and in peasant education, made from their responses to an open questionnaire and their productions of group works. In the three studies it was possible to infer the influence of different levels of context in the development of activities, and in some cases such influence was stronger than in others. In study 1 we found influence of the description of the context in some problems, while not in others. In studies 2 and 3 became clear a strong influence of a peasant education idioculture in the development of activities. It was clear, too, in these last two studies, the need to consider idioculture of subjects in the planning of teaching, and the possibility of using the diversity of idiocultures as a teaching resource to think of science education embeeded in contexts.