Questa tesi di carattere antropologico in ambito dottorale riguarda i rituali comunitari nelle comunità indigene messicane. Il principale oggetto della ricerca è il rituale della pioggia o di Petición de Lluvia, caratterizzato sia dal sacrificio animale che da una specifica relazione di causa-effetto con l’ambiente circostante. La ricerca etnografica è cominciata dall’ipotesi di voler verificare la persistenza nel tempo, e dunque nell’attualità, di procedure cerimoniali non appartenenti, almeno nella loro forma più lineare, alla religione cattolico-cristiana. Il luogo nel quale è avvenuta tale ricerca è la regione La Montaña di Guerrero, situata nel Messico sud-occidentale, e più precisamente la zona in cui vivono le comunità di etnia Nahua di San Pedro Petlacala, Acuilpa, e Xalpatláhuac che si trovano nelle vicinanze della cittadina di Tlapa de Comonfort. In un contesto ambientale profondamente rurale come quello della Montaña di Guerrero, la persistenza dei rituali evidenzia come le risorse naturali e gli agenti atmosferici - pioggia, vento, nubi - continuino a rappresentare gli elementi centrali che condizionano le variabili economiche di sussistenza e della riproduzione sociale. Il rituale di Petición de Lluvia rappresenta il momento di congiunzione tra la stagione secca e quella piovosa, tra la semina ed il raccolto del mais. Definito come una pratica religiosa nella quale il gruppo si identifica e partecipa con varie donazioni (ofrenda o deposito rituale), suddivisibili in alimenti/oggetti/preghiere ed azioni rituali, la cerimonia esprime l’auspicio di piogge abbondanti, con le quali irrigare i campi e continuare le attività umane. Il destinatario dell’offerta è la stessa divinità della pioggia, Tlaloc per le antiche civiltà mesoamericane, invocato sotto le mentite spoglie del santo patrono del 25 aprile, San Marcos. Il rituale è contraddistinto per tutta la sua durata dalla presenza del principale specialista religioso, sacerdote in lingua spagnola oppure «Tlahmáquetl» in lingua náhuatl. / This doctoral thesis concerns native’s rituals in Mexican’s indigenous communities from an anthropological point of view. The main object of the research is the ritual of the rain, or Petición de Lluvias, characterized both by animal sacrifice and by a specific cause-and-effect relationship with the surrounding environment. Ethnographic research has begun on the assumption that we want to verify the persistence of ceremonial procedures that do not belong completely to the Catholic religion. The research was developed in the region of Montaña de Guerrero, situated in South-western Mexico, where live the community of ethnic group Nahua and more precisely in the village of San Pedro Petlacala, Acuilpa, e Xalpatláhuac in the neighborhood of the small town Tlapa de Comonfort. In an environmental context deeply rural as that of the Montaña de Guerrero, the persistence of the rituals draw attention on how the natural resources and the atmospheric agents - rain, wind, clouds - continue to represent the central elements that affect economic variables of subsistence and of social reproduction. The ritual of Petición de Lluvia represents the moment of conjunction between the dry and the rainy season, between planting and harvest of corn. Defined as a religious practice in which the group identifies itself and participates with various donations (ofrenda or ritual deposit), it can be divided into food/objects/prayers and ritual actions. The ceremony expresses the hope of abundant rainfall, which irrigates the fields and continues the human activities. The receiver of the offer is the same divinity of the rain, Tlaloc to the ancient Mesoamerican civilizations, invoked in the guise of the patron saint of 25 April, San Marcos.The performance of the ritual is distinguished for its entire duration by the presence of the main religious specialist, sacerdote (minister) in Spanish language or Tlahmaquetl in nahuatl language.

Full Thesis / The purpose of this research is to assess the management of discipline by educators in selected secondary schools. There are three major objectives in this study. Firstly, the study sought to examine the major causes of lack of discipline in secondary schools. Secondly, the study sought to determine the extent to which educators are affected by lack of discipline in the classrooms. Thirdly, possible strategies and alternatives to be used by educators were investigated. Data was collected from educators in different schools situated in the Lejweleputswa district of the Free State province. The study employed both the qualitative and quantitative research approaches to gain primary data and a literature review for secondary data. Mostly qualitative data was supplemented by quantitative data and a literature review. The results have revealed that many educators struggle to manage discipline in secondary schools. Part of the problem is the lack of alternative disciplinary measures to corporal punishment as a discipline tool. Educators aim to put measures in place to manage discipline, without resorting to punitive measures (such as corporal punishment). There is a need to implement developmental workshops at schools to assist educators in managing discipline. It is therefore recommended by this study that educators should not only be introduced to alternative measures of keeping discipline, but a continuous mentoring and support programme to assist educators with these alternatives should be implemented at schools.

In questo elaborato si analizzano le politiche internazionali e nazionali e le pratiche educative e socio-sanitarie pubbliche attraverso cui la salute sessuale dei/delle giovani è costruita e gestita nel contesto italiano e, in particolare, emiliano-romagnolo. Lo studio parte da un’indagine antropologica condotta presso un consultorio per adolescenti facente parte del Sistema Sanitario italiano - lo Spazio giovani di Bologna – e da una ricerca-azione focalizzata su un progetto educativo regionale destinato alle classi della scuola secondaria di primo grado chiamato W l’amore. Attraverso un confronto con i Paesi Bassi si riflette sull’educazione alla sessualità in ambito europeo evidenziandone le criticità e le potenzialità per quanto concerne una più generale tutela e promozione della salute dei/delle più giovani. Argomenti legati all’adolescenza, all’educazione e alla sessualità si connettono a questioni socio-politiche inerenti ai diritti sessuali e alla cittadinanza intima. Se la sessualità è una componente multiforme dell’esperienza umana poiché nella sua fluidità si incarna l’interazione tra individuo, alterità e società, l’educazione alla sessualità è uno spazio fisico e simbolico in cui costruire e condividere opinioni, desideri, intenzioni e identità. Pensare alla promozione del benessere sessuale non può prescindere dal problematizzare i processi sociali attraverso cui la sessualità degli/delle ragazzi/e è plasmata e normata. L’antropologia – nella sua portata critica – può evidenziare la complessità che caratterizza la rete dei servizi socio-sanitari e educativi destinati ai/alle giovani e le intenzioni degli/delle stakeholders che vi operano. Obiettivo della ricerca è quindi decostruire l’educazione alla sessualità e presentarla come processo sociale condiviso, continuo e volto alla tutela della pluralità sessuale e relazionale. Essa, inoltre, può contribuire alla co-costruzione di una società più inclusiva e in grado di valorizzare tutte le sfumature erotiche di cui si compone. / In this dissertation I analyse international and national policies and the related Public Health educative practices through which teenage sexual health is constructed and managed in the Emilia-Romagna area and in the wider Italian context. This study starts from an anthropological survey led within a youth centre part of the Italian Health System – named Spazio giovani and located in Bologna - and from an action-research focused on a specific regional project addressed to adolescents and teachers from secondary school named W l’amore. Furthermore, through a comparison with the Netherlands’ policies and practices concerning sex education, this study aims to reflect on comprehensive sexuality education in the European context in order to highlight its critical aspects and its potentialities. Topics related to adolescence, education and sexuality in a broader sense are linked to socio-political issues concerning sexual rights and intimate citizenship. If sexuality is a complex and multidimensional component of human experiences since its fluidity is embodied in the interaction among individuals and society, sex education represents a physical and a symbolic space where to define and to share opinions, desires, intentions and identities. Thinking about sexual health and its promotion means to problematize and de-naturalize the ways teenage sexuality is publicly constructed and managed. In this sense, anthropology can help underlining the complexity of social, health and educational services addressed to teenagers and highlighting the purposes of the stakeholders involved in developing and leading sex education programs for teenagers. Aim of this research is to present sex education as a continuous social process that is supposed to promote sexual and relational diversity and that may also contribute to the co-construction of a more inclusive society where all the nuances it is made of can be appreciated and protected.

Nel presente lavoro di tesi si sostiene che la disabilità infantile si produce nelle pratiche lavorative di operatrici e operatori dei servizi il cui agire diviene dis-abilitante poiché fortemente vincolato alle forme istituzionali, materiali e simboliche, della relazione terapeutica ed educativa. Attraverso la relazione individuale con l'educatrice/ore, l'abitudine a tenere il ragazzo certificato fuori dalla classe, l'orientamento scolastico alle scuole professionali, l'impossibilità di costruire percorsi educativi continuativi e in contesti eterogenei, ma anche attraverso i numerosi documenti necessari per attivare i percorsi di integrazione scolastica e le normative emesse dal Ministero dell'Istruzione, la disabilità viene quotidianamente prodotta e riprodotta. Questa, infatti, non pre-esiste alle pratiche che vengono messe in atto ma è parte di esse. Allo stesso tempo tale riproduzione coesiste sempre con tentativi di trasformazione che il “lavoro vivo”, di relazione (di cura o educativa), necessariamente implica. Parallelamente, nel corso dell'elaborato, viene sviluppata una riflessione sul ruolo sociale della ricerca come dispositivo di trasformazione. La ricerca(trice) che riconosce questo spazio di tensione tra riproduzione e trasformazione nel lavoro di operatrici e operatori può infatti scegliere di sostenere , attraverso il metodo stesso di ricerca, l'una o l'altra tendenza. Nel caso in cui si opti per la seconda è prima di tutto la pratica di ricerca a divenire campo di partecipazione e terreno di negoziazione per le alternative possibili e percorribili. Un necessario passo verso il cambiamento parte dunque dal riconoscere che tra ricercatrici/ricercatori e soggetti della ricerca, così come tra operatrici/operatori e “utenti”, vi è un campo comune di bisogni e intenti a partire dal quale solamente si possono ri-costruire pratiche educative, di cura e di liberazione. / The present thesis states that childhood disability is produced in the everyday practices of health and social workers. Their practices become dis-abling because are strongly tied to the institutionalized forms, material and symbolic, of the therapeutic and educational relation. Through the individualization of the relation with the educator, the habit of taking the “certified” child out of the class, the tendency to orient disable students to professional schools, the impossibility of creating continuous and heterogeneous educational paths, but also through the many documents needed to start school integration programs, disability is daily produced and reproduced, it is enacted. Disability does not pre-exist workers practices, but is part of them. At the same time reproduction always coexists with the possibility of difference and attempts to transformation. This tension is in fact constitutive of “live work in action” implicated in therapeutic and educational relation. Simultaneously in the thesis, the author develops a reflection on the social role of research as a tool for transformation. The research(er) who recognizes this “field of tension” between reproduction and transformation in the practices of health and social workers may choose to sustain, through the method of the research itself, the first or the second tendency. If we decide to choose the second, the practice of research first of all becomes a field of participation and negotiation for alternative possibilities. A necessary step towards change, thus, starts from recognizing that there are common needs and intents between researchers and subjects of research, and between social/health workers and “users”. Only from this common ground it is possible to re-build practices of care, education and liberation.

Questa tesi consiste nell'analisi socio-antropologica delle risposte al sisma che il 20 e il 29 maggio ha colpito l'area nord della pianura padano-emiliana, in Italia. La zona precisa di ricerca è stata quella compresa tra i comuni di Mirandola, Cavezzo, Concordia sul Secchia e San Possidonio, della provincia di Modena. Il soggetto specifico è stato Sisma.12, un comitato di terremotati, apartitico e trasversale, che porta avanti specifiche rivendicazioni, elaborando e ponendo in essere politiche “dal basso”, che nascono dalle esperienze dei suoi membri, differenti ma partecipate, come alternative alle scelte messe in atto dalle istituzioni. / This is a contribution to the analysis of the socio-cultural responses to the earthquake that hit the area north of the Po Valley, in Emilia (Italy) on the 20 and 29 of May, 2012. The exact area of research is located in the cities of Mirandola, Cavezzo, Concordia sul Secchia and San Possidonio, all of them situated in the Modena district. The subject of the survey is Sisma.12, a committee founded by some earthquake victims, "not-partisan and ideologically cross" claiming for specific rights. Also offering solutions to such a disaster, starting from the individual experience of its members, though different but participated, as alternative to the choices made by the institutions.

This dissertation addresses the question: what should Discipline be for in Schools? It does so from a primarily philosophical and specifically neo-Aristotelian perspective. Indeed, the thesis would seem to be the first to try to derive an account of the possible purposes of modern day school discipline from Aristotle‘s works. The discussion also provides an original evaluation of the educational place and significance of Aristotle‘s intellectual virtues. The thesis proceeds from a conviction that: 1) recent policy and research concerning pupil behaviour in Scottish schools has not clearly enough articulated what discipline should be for; and 2) previous theoretical attempts to explain the purposes of school discipline have not been grounded upon sufficiently robust moral and/or epistemological foundations. The most relevant extant treatises of Aristotle are therefore explored in depth, in search of a more justifiable theory of school discipline. In this respect, particularly detailed scrutiny is given to the various traits of character (virtues) that Aristotle believed to comprise human flourishing. During this analysis and discussion, it is argued that educators should try to foster such virtuous habits of thinking, acting and feeling in pupils, in the course of seeking to instil discipline in their schools and classrooms. It is concluded that school discipline should promote pupil virtue and wisdom.

No description available.

The aim of this study was to examine the association between parental use of corporal punishment and anxiety in youth. Parental warmth, child's age, and child's ethnicity were examined in order to explore their effects on the association. Parents and their children (ages 6 – 17; N=153) completed the parent and child versions of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire [APQ-P (parent) and APQ-C (child)], used to measure corporal punishment and parental warmth, and other questionnaires assessing anxiety [Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scales parent (RCADS-P) and child (RCADS-C) versions; Revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children parent (FSSCR-P) and child (FSSCR-C) versions] and externalizing symptoms (used as a control variable). Corporal punishment was significantly associated with the child reports of anxiety even when controlling for externalizing symptoms, but was not associated with the parent reports of anxiety. The results also indicated that age, ethnicity, and parental warmth did not moderate the association.

No description available.

Following the introduction of Performance Management in schools in 2000, the rate of increase in attainment from 2001-2005, as measured by the GCSE 5A*-C percentage pass rate, is noticeably higher than in the five years prior to its introduction. The aim of this research is to consider the impact of the national policy for Performance Management (PM) of teachers on standards of attainment in secondary schools. The thesis attempts to locate and explain a potential causal link between PM and the rate of increase in attainment at GCSE. It does this from within a Transcendental Realist philosophical framework incorporating a Critical Realist sociological perspective. An extensive literature survey on both Performance Management and its precursor, Appraisal, revealed a potential for research on the link between PM and standards of attainment in schools. In considering prospective strategies for such a study, a comprehensive range of methodologies and research methods are explored and the Critical Realist perspective using a case study design was considered to be a reasonable approach in that it appeared not to have some of the weaknesses exhibited by some of the other methodologies reviewed. The Case Study was completed through a series of forty four structured interviews in schools with ‘Challenging Circumstances' (an Ofsted indicator of the demographics of a school) and with two policymakers from the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE). The structured interviews based upon an analysis of PM national policy revealed a positive response to the effect of PM on standards of attainment. This was also coherent with a wider literature survey of the effects of the various PM policy dimensions at one level and a conceptual abstraction of the policy at another. However, PM policy was introduced as part of the Standards Framework (DfEE 1998), which provided for the introduction of a plethora of policies aimed at raising standards. These, together with a number of other contextual factors, were considered to add to the complexity of the final causal analysis. It is argued that Critical Realism has the potential to provide a useful and penetrative starting point in the analysis of such complicated contexts.