The thesis focuses on the analysis of a dispute regarding home birth and discourses associated with it. The thesis focuses on the analysis of a dispute regarding home birth and discourses associated with it. The thesis focuses on the analysis of a dispute regarding home birth and discourses associated with it. Choice of location and proces sof giving birth in czech environment remains very limited and domestic deliveries are subject of controversy among professional medical community and state institutions on the one hand and midwives, civil movements and comitted mothers on the other hand. Theme divides laical and expert public. It's established through discourses, reflect the views and opinions of the two quarreled groups - supporters of medically controlled childbirth and supporters of natural birth. In the context of media reporting can be identified two main streams of discursive formations, scattering of concepts, thematic choices, objels and modalities of coming to the statement - medical discourse and natural discourse. The controversy both discourses in the Czech media escalated with court case with midwife Ivana Königsmarková, who in 2009 assisted at home birth that ended tragically - serious damage and subsequent death of a child. Just on the case of Ivana Königsmarková and its...

This research examines problematic and taken for granted issues in Scottish Secondary Education, from a critical community psychological perspective. Young people are positioned as central to the research, in particular young people experiencing exclusion being the most disempowered group in education, and to fully understand problems they experience the thesis develops a standpoint with young people. Methodologically the research is grounded in a particular approach to praxis. Critical reflection, action and knowledge construction all influence one another cyclically in complex relationships, at times conflicting and at others developing together dialogically and these relationships are embraced and reflected upon carefully. Power and knowledge are viewed as being inextricably linked and knowledge, what is legitimated within a certain frame of reference as ‘truth’ or ‘reality’, is viewed as being constructed by dominant groups with the power to do so. Ethnography was carried out in three educational settings: a mainstream High School; a Special School in a city centre catering for young people experiencing exclusion; and a Youth Project where permanently excluded young people were on an alternative curriculum. Qualitative methods were used in a varied and tailored way for each setting and group of people and included Participatory Action Research and group work with young people, interview and group work with teachers, active participation in settings leading to fieldwork notes, and collection of textual information. Analysis involved careful examination of a wide variety of material, drawing on various methods of discourse analysis. The research material was analysed for the ways in which education made possible and placed limits on legislation, social practices, ways of speaking and ways of being. The assumption that adults must be in control of young people in education was found to be absolute and pervasive, stemming from societal ideas of young people, but also perpetuating them. This emerged throughout my research, from practices in mainstream school to ways of speaking available to adults and young people. Inclusion, while often spoken of in relation to equality and social justice, in practice is often conditional, and is re-positioned in this thesis as a form of control. School exclusion is often described in education as being expelled or suspended, but is repositioned in this research more generally as being excluded from learning and peers, and is argued as inherently problematic. Problematic, institutional, educational discourse is constructed as often placing limits on ways of speaking, such that critical reflection and action within secondary education becomes very difficult for adults and young people. Ways of speaking available to young people are examined and demonstrate that while education imposes particular ways of speaking and being, young people find opportunities to resist and reconstruct. Ways of being are examined, between adults and young people in educational settings, and an account of performance of resistance and compliance between young people and adults is developed. This research draws on a complex and multi disciplinary use of theory, literature, methodology and methods, and in doing so constructs an account of young people’s experiences in education that is based on a standpoint with young people. By grounding the research in the interests of young people, particularly those experiencing school exclusion, it challenges assumptions of dominance and control that have implications for education as a whole and all those operating within.

There are a large number of character speeches in Acts. Scholars have used various means and methods to contribute to a feasible and plausible answer regarding the functions of speeches in Acts. Unfortunately, the studies have often been focused on the authenticity of the speeches: were they Luke's creation or simply his compilation? This dissertation presents another set of tools for scholars to revisit Luke's speeches in Acts in order to add insight into their questions, and also to broaden the realm of this narrow focus. In particular, I will implement and demonstrate how to use modern linguistics, namely discourse analysis based on Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics. The present study ventures to apply this linguistic insight by focusing on two speeches in the Acts of the Apostles, Acts 2:14-36 and 17:22-31. If scholars wish to study the speeches of Acts further, or any New Testament speeches, hopefully this dissertation will provide a helpful approach to meet their needs. Thus, analyzing and comparing the author's functionally linguistic choices in these two speeches with regards to similarities and differences will describe his specific use of these speeches. The most notable contribution of the dissertation will be found in implementing a new approach to the study of speeches in Acts. I also hope such a due recognition of the language will motivate and inspire further linguistic explorations into various areas, which remain perplexed by other approaches.