Canada’s official languages policy makes English and French the country’s official languages in federal institutions. The policy has succeeded in fostering equitable representation of both official languages groups in the federal public service and has improved capacities for the public service to serve the citizenry in its official language of choice. It is a puzzle however, that despite these advances, the Canadian federal public service continues to operate predominantly in English when both official languages on paper are equal languages of work. To explore this puzzle this dissertation asks: why, despite the promise of the Official Languages Act (OLA) 1969 for choice in language of work and the OLA 1988 that made the choice a claimable right, is there inequitable access to French as a language of work in the federal public service? Framed through a historical institutionalist approach and layering, this project analyzes the implementation of the official languages program in the federal public service from 1967-2013. This thesis argues that the implementation of the official languages program could not challenge the federal public service’s path dependency to operate predominantly in English. By analyzing the roles of actors and institutions that influenced the process, this dissertation finds that lack of structural change, inadequate managerial engagement and a false sense that official languages are engrained in the public service, can explain the persistence of English as the dominant language of work.

The diploma thesis is concerned with the education of officials of local government. The introductory part of the thesis summarizes theoretical knowledge about the education of employees of private corporations and analyses requirements on the education of officials of local government under the act No. 312/2002. The practical part of the thesis presents empirical knowledge based on original research in a selected local government office. The current education framework of officials of the office is examined, strengths and weaknesses are identified and specific recommendations for its enhancement are offered. Based on the acquired knowledge an improved comprehensive concept of education of local government officials is recommended.

The subject of this thesis is recent development of credit evaluation industry and analysis of rating agency`s behaviour in relation to official rating changes. In the first chapter, fundamental limitations of analytical ratings are defined. Stating both advantages and disadvantages arising mainly from market defficiency, the second one introduces credit default swap as an alternative manner for credit risk measurement. Next part summarizes existing academic activity in context of rating informatory value, highlighting abnormal and asymmetric market reactions. Based on Moodys` approach, the fouth chapter provides reader with the concept of market implied ratings that are consequently used to analyse relation between CDS-IR and official ratings. The last subchapters investigate sensitivity ratio of how rating gap level determines prospective response of rating agency.

Esta dissertação de mestrado apresenta como tema as propostas de práticas didáticas de ensino de literatura no Ensino Médio. A escolha desse tema se justifica pela necessidade de se analisar e refletir sobre as propostas de trabalho pedagógico que organizam, em sala de aula, o ensino e aprendizagem de literatura, especialmente considerando a atual crise no ensino de literatura, confirmada por dados de avaliações em larga escala, como o Saresp. Para esse estudo, estabeleceu-se, como objetivo geral, discutir a proposta para o ensino de literatura do EM a partir do material didático oficial da Secretaria de Educação do Estado de São Paulo. Para o desenvolvimento desse objetivo geral, foi estabelecido, como objetivo específico, analisar as adequações e inadequações das atividades e dos exercícios do material didático oficial em relação aos aspectos teórico-metodológicos que fundamentam esta dissertação. Esse objetivo específico realizou-se por meio de uma pesquisa nos material didático de Língua Portuguesa - Códigos, Linguagens e suas Tecnologias, distribuído pela Secretaria da Educação de São Paulo, para os três anos do Ensino Médio. A pesquisa, quanto à metodologia, dividiu-se em duas partes: a primeira, de caráter quantitativo, focalizou a frequência de textos pertencentes à esfera literária no material didático e forneceu o recorte do objeto de estudo. A segunda parte, de natureza qualitativa, analisou o desenvolvimento didático do estudo de textos literários a partir de seis amostras dos exercícios e atividades apresentados aos alunos. A pesquisa, de base bakhtiniana, insere-se no âmbito da Linguística Aplicada por focalizar a linguagem em situações de uso. A partir da pesquisa realizada, pôde-se concluir que, embora se manifestem leves alterações quanto a modelos superados de ensino de literatura, a proposta do material didático ainda não incorporou avanços consistentes com relação ao ensino de literatura e à formação do leitor reflexivo e crítico. / This work approaches the issue of proposed teaching practices in teaching literature in high school. The choice of this subject is justified by the necessity to reflect on the proposals for organizing educational work in the classroom, the teaching and learning of literature , especially considering the current crisis in the teaching of literature, confirmed by data from large-scale assessments, as Saresp. For this study, it was established as a general objective to analyze the proposed practice for the teaching of literature in secondary education from the official lecture notes distributed by the Education Department of the State of São Paulo. For the achievement of this general goal, it was established, as a specific objective, analyzing the adequacies and inadequacies of activities and exercises in official lecture notes in relation to theoretical and methodological issues underlying this work. This specific objective was accomplished by means of a research in the official lecture notes in Portuguese - Codes, Languages and its Technologies, distributed by the Secretary of Education of São Paulo, for the three years of high school. The research was divided into two parts: the first one was a quantitative approaching, focused on the frequency of texts belonging to the literature in the official lecture notes and provided the selection of texts to study. The second part, a qualitative approaching, analyzed the didactic development of the study of literary texts from six samples of exercises and activities inserted in the official lecture notes. The research, according to Bakhtins theory, is inserted within the scope of Applied Linguistics due to focusing on language use situations. From the survey, it was concluded that, although slight changes related to obsolete models of teaching literature, the proposal of the official lecture notes has not incorporated yet consistent advances related to the teaching of literature and the development of reflective and critical reader .

This thesis deals with some specifics of communication in the construction industry. Specific area of thesis is a communicating with the building authorities in the Czech Republic. The theoretical part is focused on defining characteristic of public administration, activities and building authorities. The thesis is also aimed on determination of communication concepts and principles of right form communication. There are basic types of requests, through which citizens communicate with the authorities. The practical part is a questionnaire survey of building offices throughout the Czech Republic. The research deals with communication between authorities and citizens. The result of the research is a proposal to improve communication and efficient work of building offices. Especially in the form of recommended changes in current Building Act, to improve the negative view of citizens to manage, search for objective information rather than misleading reports in the media or delegate representation to communicate with authorities by professionals.

Orientador: Renata Cristina Geromel Meneghetti / Resumo: Essa dissertação tem como objetivo investigar as habilidades em potencial do Pensamento Computacional no contexto da Educação Matemática no quesito das questões de Matemática dos vestibulares do estado de São Paulo, ENEM e dos documentos oficiais. Além disso, pretende contribuir com a discussão sobre o papel ou não do Pensamento Computacional na Educação Básica. Isso porque muitas habilidades estão próximas de conceitos matemáticos e o processo de ensino e aprendizagem através do Pensamento Computacional pode contribuir com o desempenho de estudantes da Educação Básica. A importância de se buscar uma melhora no desempenho dos estudantes é baseada na avaliação realizada pelo Programa Internacional de Avaliação de Alunos (PISA 2015) que apontou uma grande dificuldade por parte de estudantes em questões que exigem conclusões diretas e fórmulas básicas, sendo que sua maioria está cursando o Ensino Médio e buscando o ingresso no Ensino Superior. A partir disso, essa pesquisa explora argumentos para justificar a inclusão das habilidades do Pensamento Computacional na Educação Básica, especificamente na disciplina de Matemática. Enquadrando-se como uma pesquisa qualitativa, essa investigação utilizou da metodologia de Análise de Conteúdo para analisar os documentos oficiais como complemento de possíveis habilidades em potencial do Pensamento Computacional exploradas nestes. Também fez-se a análise das questões de Matemática das avaliações de ingresso do Ensino Superior público como ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This dissertation aims to investigate the potential skills of Computational Thinking in the context of Mathematics Education in the area of Mathematics questions regarding the admission exams of the São Paulo state universities, the ENEM and the official documents. In addition, it intends to contribute to the discussion about the role, or not, of Computational Thinking in Basic Education, because many skills are close to mathematical concepts and the process of teaching and learning through Computational Thinking can contribute to the performance of Basic Education students. The importance of seeking an improvement in student performance is based on the assessment carried out by the International Student Assessment Program (PISA 2015), which pointed out that students face great difficulty in issues that consider basic guidelines and formulas, the majority of whom are attending High School and trying to join Higher Education. Based on that, this research explores arguments to justify the inclusion of Computational Thinking skills in Basic Education, specifically in the Mathematics subject. Being a qualitative research, this investigation used the Content Analysis methodology to analyze the official documents as a complement to the potential Computational Thinking skills explored by them. Mathematics questions of the admission exams to join public Higher Education, such as ENEM and the admission exams of state universities of São Paulo, such as USP, UNESP and UNICAMP, for the y... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

M.Com (Economics) / The role of foreign aid in promoting economic growth and improving welfare has been the subject of much debate among development specialists, researchers, aid donors as well as recipients in general. Two very strong views have emerged in the literature; proponents of aid posit that foreign aid contributes to higher welfare levels and economic growth while also improving the socio economic conditions of the poor in the receiving countries. Detractors of the idea that foreign aid promotes growth have argued that aid is not the solution to deep rooted economic problems of recipient countries. According to the latter, aid does not breed an environment that allows nations to themselves develop local strategies to improve growth. The country selected for this study, South Africa, poses an interesting case study given the fact that while the country is not aid- dependent, it still receives a significant amount of official development assistance (ODA). In spite of the above fact and the perceived benefits of foreign aid for growth and development, there are few empirical studies that have investigated the nature of the relationship between foreign aid and economic growth in South Africa. The study found that while foreign aid has positively affected growth in South Africa, the impact is insignificant. Although such aids has ensured a good macroeconomic environment which have been growth- enhancing for the country.

The master thesis titled China as the Enemy? : Representations of China in the U.S. Security Discourse explores discursive foundations of American policies towards China in military, economic and political sector. First chapter introduces concepts used in the formal analysis of China representations. It departs from post-structuralist theory of discourse by Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe and Lene Hansen and combines it with several other authors including the classical work of Carl Schmitt On the Political. The second chapter offers historical overview of key events and discourses that preceded George W. Bush Administration. One part is devoted to Evelyn Goh's analysis of internal official discourse of the "rapprochement" period between China and the U.S. Third chapter contains sections on basic characteristics of the official discourse in recent years including signifiers of China, the concept of "responsible stakeholder" and the geopolitical shift to Pacific in U.S. identity construction. Chapter 4, 5 and 6 follow the sectoral division and are further subdivided into individual themes. These are analyzed in three steps. First, the basic elements of China representation are introduced and their dynamics in the period 2001-2011 analyzed. Second, elements of the U.S. identity in the given context...

This thesis analyses the official narrative of the Homeland war which is supported by the Croatian state. The thesis follows its development from the very beginning when the war broke out until nowadays. At the same time the thesis deals with the state promotion of this official narrative in the four areas of the politics of memory. Concretely, these areas are: legislation, state institution Croatian memorial and documentation Centre of the Homeland war, education, state holidays and commemorations. Within the thesis, a special focus is put on the activities of the aforementioned Centre of the Homeland war which represents one of the tokens of the state promoted politics of memory as well as one of the main proponents of the official narrative. For research of the official narrative and politics of memory the thesis draws on the theoretical concepts of narrativization and institutional memory. This thesis is a one case study chronologically dealing with the period from the parliamentary elections in 1990 to nowadays events. On the basis of the analysis of the official narrative the main conclusion is that its interpretation of war event from the 90's has not almost changed and still the narrative presents exclusively Croatian narrative. The research of state influence over the perception of the...

This study investigates the relationship between official development assistance (ODA) and human development indicators (HDIs) in 49 sub-Saharan African countries over the period of 1995 to 2017 using 3-stage least squares (3SLS). The four key sub-classes of HDIs considered for this research include education, health, government and civic society, as well as environmental indicators. Of all these HDIs, the results of the analysis show that health aid is the most effective form of aid, significantly reducing the incidence of HIV, the infant mortality rate and the maternal mortality rate, as well as leading to improved life expectancy. Education aid has a significant effect on the progression to secondary school followed by adult literacy rates. Government and civil society aid significantly affects the ability of girls to access education at primary, secondary and tertiary levels while environmental aid is found to increase the carbon efficiency of production. Hence, this study demonstrates that aid is most effective on the health, education and environmental human development indicators.