At the heart of this dissertation project is my interest in the internal conflict that emerges in the mundane navigation and maintenance of relational and contextual penalty and privilege. That is to say, I am interested in how individuals maneuver their/our concurrent identity/ies as oppressor and oppressed. I argue that this simultaneous identity is a holistic embodiment that demands complex maneuvering and that requires our vigilant attention. In addition, I am interested in the critical potential of such maneuvering for activism. In this vein, I introduce my intent to queer the limits of identity research in critical intercultural communication research while contributing to, and drawing on, what others have referred to as queer intersectionality (Bilge, 2012; Rosenblum, 1994). I envision queer intersectionality as an ontological modality that yields heuristic potentiality that can aid critical intercultural communication researchers explore the ways in which we embody a simultaneous oppressor-oppressed identity. In order to understand queer intersectionality as an ontological modality, I offer embodied contexts that give rise to oppression and power in given and fleeting moments. Halualani and Nakayama (2010) remind us that “critical work recognizes that there is no theory in advance and no social process of culture without some theoretical sense-making; it travels through a trajectory of theory from and towards context” (p. 9). Centralizing the directed attention upon the significance of context, I intend queer intersectionality to be an embodied modality that critical intercultural communication researchers can use to explore and theorize simultaneous oppressor-oppressed identity performances and critically envision the co-constitutive relationship between privilege and disadvantage.

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The past several years have witnessed significant interest in the role that residential neighbourhoods play in shaping child development. There is evidence that contextual attributes of neighbourhoods exert an influence on development, over and above compositional characteristics. These findings suggest that neighbourhood-based interventions may be successful at improving population-level child development outcomes, over policy aimed at individual-based change. However, the reliance on respondent perception of neighbourhood attributes in the existing research is vulnerable to bias. Thus this research employing a quantitative approach to the study of the neighbourhood built environment addresses a significant gap. Drawing from independent sets of data, linked geographically (Early Development Instrument, Google Street View-Systematic Social Observation of a random sample of street segments in each census tract, and the Canadian Marginalization Index), I use correlation and regression analysis to examine the link between neighbourhood physical disorder and child-friendliness, structural disadvantage, and child development at the census tract level in Victoria, B.C. Results indicate physical disorder is the neighbourhood attribute having the most salient impact across multiple domains of child development. Furthermore, the link between neighbourhood child-friendliness and most EDI domains was not in the direction or as significant as hypothesized. This may suggest the need for a more detailed measurement tool to assess quality of each feature as well as presence or absence. Findings also indicate that physical disorder and structural disadvantage may be on the same causal pathway towards shaping children’s health and wellbeing.Overall, this research improves our understanding of the complex interaction between children and their neighbourhoods, and its contribution to healthy development. By identifying the need for a more detailed measurement tool, this research provides evidence for the design of future studies. Furthermore, findings from this study provide evidence in support of population-level intervention to promote healthy child development through improvement of neighbourhood aesthetic. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

This thesis examines policy and service delivery issues in the development of health and support for families at risk. The research focuses on families with children less than 7 years of age living in some of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods of metropolitan Adelaide. The thesis draws on evidence of (a) barriers to service support perceived by these families and (b) their strengths and resources in order to identify and develop arguments related to key issues of policy and service delivery.

Developmental age differences were studied between a group of Head Start children and a group of preschool children attending the Utah State University Child Development Laboratory. The Lowenfeld Mosaic Test was used to make distinctions between the child whose developmental age was below his age in years. The results were compared to the four-year and five-year chronological age level of the Armes and Ilg scoring criteria. Although behavior in response to the Mosaic test developed in the same way for both the disadvantaged children and the advantaged children, the products or Mosaic designs of the disadvantaged children were less mature and developed more slowly. It was fairly evident from the data that the Utah State University children responded at a more mature level than the Head Start Children. The data seemed to substantiate the fact that there was a difference in maturity of design between all the males and all the females treatment of patterning the Mosaic.

Nationwide, housing authorities demolish public housing communities and relocate the existing residents in an attempt to create more favorable neighborhood environments and to promote safer and more efficacious social interactions for public housing residents. Yet, studies of public housing relocation do not find strong evidence of beneficial social interaction occurring between relocated residents and new neighbors. Despite increased safety and relative increase in neighborhood economic standing, studies find relocated residents socialize outside of their new neighborhoods or else limit existing neighborhood interactions as compared to living in public housing communities. This raises the question of why relocated residents either do or do not choose to interact with their new neighbors within their new residential settings. In an effort to answer this question, I have conducted a study focused on neighborhood social interactions using public housing residents relocated from six of Atlanta, Georgia’s public housing communities. As a backdrop to the study, I present relevant literature concerning both the study of neighborhoods and the study of prior relocation endeavors. I argue that neighborhoods do provide important social landscapes for attempting to benefit public housing residents, though more research and a different framework of analysis are needed in order to manifest theorized outcomes of relocation for all residents involved. I then employ the use of both quantitative survey data from 248 relocated residents and qualitative in-depth interview data from 40 relocated residents to provide further insight into social interaction patterns after relocation from Atlanta’s public housing. This research finds that prior to relocation residents in public housing communities differed in terms of their ideal zones of action and preferred levels of inclusion and engagement in the neighborhood setting and in terms of their surrounding community scene. By examining these different ideal-types of residents in detail, I argue that prior to moving the residents, a better fit between resident and neighborhood can be constructed by housing authorities such that more beneficial social interaction outcomes can be achieved overall in the relocation process.

From politics to sports to business, people are quick to categorize those at a considerable competitive disadvantage as "underdogs." Moreover, there is ample support that most unattached observers do not hesitate to align themselves with underdogs, a phenomenon termed "the underdog effect." While most dictionary definitions state that underdogs are "especially expected to lose," the present investigation argues that people often attribute optimistic qualities to underdogs and the exceeding of expectations. A series of studies was conducted to examine the lay-person definition of what an underdog means, as well as what motivations may play a role in the underdog effect. Study 1 investigated people's spontaneous definitions of underdogs by exploring the semantic network of the underdog construct through the use of the discrete associations method. Study 2 explored the hypothesized looming success component of being an underdog by asking participants to evaluate future success of underdogs vs. disadvantaged entities. Study 3 utilized the false recognition paradigm to explore schematic memory of success associated with the underdog construct, while the last study assessed whether people do truly support those at a competitive disadvantage or merely root against the favorite, as well as explored the possible role of the self in the underdog effect. Support for the looming success of the underdog was found in the first two studies while the last study demonstrated that strong self-identification with the underdog was highly correlated with support for it. Overall, the results of the current study suggest that people in American society believe that underdogs are unique exemplars which are expected to do significantly better than the initial expectations.

Portuguese-Canadians have historically faced disadvantages in the Canadian education system (Coelho, 1973, 1977; Fonseca, 2010; Morgado, 2009; Noivo, 1997; Nunes, 1999; Ornstein, 2000, 2006; Santos, 2006). While there have been studies conducted into this phenomenon, these disadvantages remain relatively unexplored by the research community and unknown to mainstream society. Furthermore, many of those studies have focused primarily on the various manifestations of the problem of educational disadvantage and have not explored the specific programs or practices adopted by the community to address these issues. Community based educational organizations have been shown to assist in the cultural adjustment process of immigrant youth. These organizations provide youth with the necessary cultural capital to allow them to construct high academic and vocational aspirations, and to cope with the various discouraging experiences they may have in schools (Bielenberg, n.d; James, 2005; James & Haig-Brown, 2001; Zhou, 2005). The purpose of this study was to describe a community-based tutoring and mentoring program and to examine the stakeholders' perceptions of the program's impact on the Portuguese-Canadian students whom it serves, to respond to the educational disadvantages this group faces. This program was established by members of the Portuguese-Canadian community in Toronto as a reaction to data outlining this group's educational disadvantages. Document and transcript analysis provided a rich description of the program and revealed how the program impacted the students whom it served. Specifically, this program supports its students during transitions, helps to address negative schooling experiences, and fosters their acquisition of English. This ultimately results in improvements in these students' academics, social skills, and self-esteem and is having an overall positively impact on their attitudes and perceptions of education. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2012-09-19 18:09:53.088

Syftet med studien är att undersöka elevers uppfattning av hur datorer används i undervisningen. Frågeställningen var att se om det finns fördelar, nackdelar och om det finns förändringsområden för att använda datorer i undervisningen Dataanvändandet ökar i dagens samhälle och i de flesta skolor får eleverna en egen elevdator att använda i undervisningen. Studier visar att dataanvändandet behöver vara individanpassad för att bättre hjälpa den enskilde eleven. I målformuleringar i skolan står det att eleverna ska lära sig IT för sitt kommande yrke och för att bättre kunna diskutera med sina brukare/patienter. Metoden som har använts är intervjuer. Sex elever i årskurs tre på Vård- och omsorgsprogrammet på gymnasiet har intervjuats. Fyra intervjuer har genomförts i studien, tre enskilda intervjuer och en gruppintervju. Resultatet tyder på elevdatorn innebär tillgång för eleven då den underlättar möjligheter att anteckna på. Datorn hindrar eleverna i undervisningen då det tittas på sociala medier på lektionstid, vilket medför svårigheter att fokusera på läraren under lektionen. Datorn underlättar för eleverna att organisera sina elevdokument på ett bättre sätt. Möjligheterna till förändring fokuseras på att förbättra sina anteckningar / The purpose of this study is to investigate students' perception of how computers are used in teaching. The question was to see if there are benefits, drawbacks, and if there are areas of change to use computers in teaching. Data Usage is increasing in today's society and in most schools, students get a private student computer use in education. Studies show that data usage will need to be individualized to better help the individual student. The wording of their school says that students should learn IT for their future profession and to better discuss with their consumers / patients. The method used is interviews. Six students in grades three to Health and care program in high school were interviewed. Four interviews were conducted in the study, three individual interviews and group interviews. The results indicate student computer means access to the student when it facilitates the ability to take notes. The computer prevents students in the teaching when it is watched on social media during class, making it difficult to focus on the teacher during the lesson. The computer makes it easier for students to organize their student records in a better way. The possibilities for change focused on improving their notes.

By 18 months children demonstrate a range of social-cognitive skills that reflect their emerging capacity to understand and engage in intentional relations with others. Intention understanding is a critical component of children’s social cognition at this age. Although individual differences in social cognition have been linked to neurocognitive maturation, socio-cultural models of development suggest that environmental influences operate in the development of intention understanding, with distal factors operating through proximal processes. In the current study of 501 children and their mothers, we tested and found support for a model in which an accumulation of distal environmental risks was associated with lower maternal responsivity, which was in turn associated with lower social-cognitive competency at 18 months. In addition, part of this effect operated through children’s concurrent language ability. Findings are discussed with respect to the Vygotskian themes of internalization and semiotic mediation.