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This thesis reports on qualitative case study research into the experience of six novice English teachers in Hong Kong (HK). It describes their perceived experience, particularly the problems and challenges they encountered, as well as the induction and mentoring support they received during the first year of teaching. While the benefits of different forms of induction support (mentoring in particular) have been established, few studies have focused on specific factors that affect the perceived effectiveness of mentoring, from the point of view of both the mentors and the mentees. The current study therefore breaks new ground in investigating the perspectives of different stakeholders in the mentoring process. What is more, the majority of research reports the nature of the first year of teaching in one snapshot, often not paying attention to the professional development and changes throughout the year. The study follows a group of novice language teachers for the whole of their first year in teaching. The purpose of the case study is to give voice to the perspectives of individual novice teachers within the complex wider sociocultural context that these teachers have to negotiate. Consequently, the thesis begins by establishing key aspects of the HK context that impact on the experience of HK teachers and especially that of novice teachers in their first year. It then provides a literature review that details important contributions to an international understanding of induction and mentoring, as well as relating these to the specific HK situation. After presenting the research methodology and the issues involved, the thesis provides a discussion that both details the needs and challenges of the six participating novices and investigates the provision and perception of school-based induction and mentoring, as well as the roles these mechanisms play in their professional development, support and socialisation. As a subsidiary research question, the project also investigates whether and how the Induction Tool Kit (ACTEQ, 2009), the first official document supporting HK schools in providing support for beginning teachers, is used in schools the participants teach in. It also examines how challenges of first-year teachers, support for them, and professional development are understood by ACTEQ, the commission that advises the HK government on teacher education and development policies, manifested in the design and language of the tool kit. These are compared to the actual experience of the participating novices in the case study. The thesis concludes by suggesting the implications of the findings, as well as providing recommendations on how ACTEQ, teacher-training universities and schools can better support novice English language teachers and their mentors. The limitations of the project and ways of disseminating the findings will also be discussed after outlining these contributions.

L’obiettivo del lavoro di ricerca consiste nell’analisi dei dati archeologici della sinagoga di Bova marina (RC). Dopo una veloce descrizione della presenza ebraica in Italia, attraverso i reperti archeologici, si è passati ad analizzare i dati degli scavi degli anni ’80 del Novecento e successivamente si è proceduto a delle nuove analisi stratigrafiche per definire la cronologia della sinagoga e dell’intero sito di S. Pasquale. Nella tesi sono riportati i nuovi dati inerenti il rilievo della sinagoga, le nuove ipotesi interpretative delle due aree sepolcrali e la lettura di un nuovo edificio collegabile alla stessa fase di vita della sinagoga. / The target of the research is the analysis of archaeological data of the Bova Marina (RC) synagogue. After a quick description of the Jewish presence in Italy, through the archaeological finds, it moved to analyze the data of the excavations of the 80s of the twentieth century and then we proceeded in the new stratigraphic analysis to define the history of the synagogue and the entire site of St. Pasquale. The thesis shows the new data concerning the importance of the synagogue, the new possible interpretations of the two burial grounds and reading a new building connected to the same phase of life of the synagogue.

La tesi ha per oggetto la cultura ebraica cretese nei secoli XIV-XVI e, in particolare, l’influsso esercitato su di essa dalla cultura e dalle tradizioni degli ebrei sefarditi e ashkenaziti che cominciarono a stabilirsi sull’isola a partire dalla metà del Trecento. La tesi si basa da un lato su fonti amministrative e notarili e, dall’altro, sui manoscritti ebraici prodotti o portati a Candia nel periodo considerato. Il primo capitolo tratta della comunità ebraica nel primo Cinquecento e porta nuove notizie a proposito della geografia della zudeca, delle sue sinagoghe, della sua composizione sociale, dell’entità della sua popolazione e della biografia del principale leader spirituale e culturale attivo a Candia a quell’epoca: Elia Capsali. Il secondo capitolo offre una panoramica sull’immigrazione ebraica a Candia nei secoli XIV-XV. Il terzo capitolo esplora alcune particolarità della liturgia sinagogale elaborata dagli ebrei candioti sotto l’influsso della tradizione ashkenazita. Il quarto capitolo tratta di due liste di libri databili alla seconda metà del Quattrocento (Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria, ms. 3574 B) e suggerisce di considerarle come indicative del peso che ebbero alcuni immigrati ebrei catalani nella diffusione della cultura medica sefardita a Candia. Il quinto capitolo è dedicato al medico, filosofo e astronomo Mosheh ben Yehudah Galiano, il quale visse a Candia tra la seconda metà degli anni Venti del Cinquecento e il 1543. L’ultimo capitolo tratta degli effetti provocati dall’epidemia di peste del 1592-95 all’interno della zudeca di Candia. / The thesis investigates the culture of the Cretan Jews in the XIV-XVI centuries and concentrates on how the Sephardi and Ashkenazi immigrants who began to settle on the island around mid-XIV century contributed in shaping a shared culture. The thesis is based both on the administrative and notarial documents preserved in the State Archive in Venice and on the Hebrew manuscripts produced by Candiote Jews or brought there by the new settlers. The first chapter offers a reconnaissance of the Jewish community of Candia in the early XVI century and brings new information on the geography of the zudeca, its administration, its social composition, the amount of its population, and the biography of its main leader at the time: Elijah Capsali (d. 1550). The third chapter illustrates some of the peculiarities that the Candiote synagogal liturgy developed under the influence of Ashkenazi settlers. The fourth chapter deals with two lists of books found in a manuscript preserved in the University Library of Bologna, and shows how they can be viewed as a testimony of the role played by Catalonian immigrants in the spread of Sephardi medical lore among Candiote Jews. The fifth chapter is dedicated to Mosheh ben Judah Galiano, a physician, philosopher and astronomer who settled in Candia in the late ’20s of the Sixteenth century and left the island on 1543. The sixth chapter offers an examination of the plague that struck Candia in 1592 and its impact on the Jewish community.

published_or_final_version / Mathematics / Master / Master of Philosophy

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The study explores the process and outcome of a mentoring programme for newly appointed school leaders in a Scottish Case Study Local Authority (CSLA). This research contributes to professional knowledge and practice in school leadership as it takes an employer perspective and offers a conceptualisation of post-appointment mentoring in Scotland. This study is contextualised by two conflicting accepted realities which are reflected at a local, national and international level. Firstly, that it is widely accepted that school leadership makes a difference and secondly, due to the reported challenges of the job, the recruitment and retention of school leaders has attained crisis status in some areas. Accepting that it is important to prepare people for school leadership roles, the focus of this thesis turns to supporting teachers in the transition to headship. Mentoring is a frequently used approach in the development of school leaders but there is lack of agreement on the concept of mentoring and empirical evidence demonstrating the benefit of mentoring is inconsistent. A conceptual framework of socialisation and development is used to explore mentoring in this study. Forty-two interviews were undertaken with newly appointed headteachers and depute headteachers and their mentors with the aim to establish whether there was a consistent interpretation or implementation of the mentoring policy and whether the claims about anticipated outcomes were substantiated. Assumptions about the mentoring policy in the CSLA were tested in order to build understanding and make meaning about how mentoring worked in practice. This research suggests that experiences of formal employer-led mentoring, as operating in the CSLA, were mainly positive and valued by both mentors and mentees. Findings indicated that mentoring supported self-confidence, wellbeing, independence and effectiveness in the novice school leader, particularly in relation to leading and managing people. The policy assumptions that experienced headteachers would agree to mentor others because there were professional gains for them, and that mentoring offered something extra to other forms of leadership and management support, were supported by the findings of this study. However this research also found that there was a lack of shared understanding over the purpose of mentoring with differing views on the importance of psychosocial or career related functions. Data indicated there were differences in how primary and secondary school dyads enacted the mentoring relationship. This thesis explores the motivations for mentoring, the characteristics that make a good mentor and the place of mentoring compared to other forms of leadership preparation and support. The findings of this study indicate that mentoring in the CSLA is understood both as a form of psychosocial support and as context specific training which prepares the mentee for the role of headteacher as it exists now and socialises them into that view. A conceptualisation of mentoring as a form of initiation which supports the prevailing orthodoxy is challenged in this thesis. It is proposed that this work progresses knowledge about mentoring as it offers two models: a chronological model to explain how mentoring relationships can evolve and a model to explore the learning that takes place. Each model provides a schematic which can be challenged and adapted to help share understandings of mentoring, an umbrella term which has morphed over the centuries from Greek myth to urban mythology in the corporate human resource world. The thesis highlights tensions and ambiguities for the local education authority as it attempts to meet its legal duty for educational provision while interpreting national policy, employing teachers and meeting Government‘s expectations for schools. This study identifies the complexity over the role of the employer in managing a formal strategy which is predicated on a personal relationship; recommendations are offered which may be of significance to those with an interest in school leadership development and organisational mentoring. This research set out to advance practice in managing a real-world leadership problem. This thesis proposes that leadership development does matter in Scotland today; the scale of the task to make our public services fit–for-purpose and fit-for-purse is considerable. Tomorrow‘s leaders should be prepared for this new landscape with vision and pragmatism.

The Scottish Government has highlighted the important role of personal and social development in primary education to promote the social inclusion of children who have poor life experiences (Scottish Office, 1999a). HMIE reports however suggest that there are few opportunities in primary schools in Scotland for pupils with social difficulties to develop personal and social skills (HMIE, 1999, 2001a, 2001b). This study explored the historical development of provision for personal and social development in primary education in Scotland, and carried out a survey of current perceptions and provision for pupils with personal and social needs in primary schools in Scotland. Following this, an investigation of the organisation and impact of three personal and social development initiatives for pupils with personal and social difficulties was carried out. Results of the historical review revealed that in the 1960s teaching methods became increasingly child-centred but it was not until later, in the 1980s, that personal and social development became part of the school curriculum. Results of the survey of primary schools showed that schools introduced a range of personal and social development initiatives but that few of these were intended to specifically meet the needs of individuals with personal and social difficulties. The investigation of three initiatives for pupils with personal and social difficulties revealed that initiatives were generally valued by staff, pupils and parents in those schools and that initiatives had a positive impact on a number of personal and social development factors, such as self-esteem.

No description available.

No description available.