A descriptive, phenomenological research design was used to gain a deeper understanding of the nature and meaning of couples’ experiences as they made the transition to parenthood. Specifically, this study examined what is the lived experience of couples making the transition to parenthood and what meaning do they ascribed to the experience of brief, couple-focused, preventative interventions? Five couples who were expecting their first baby participated in this study. From the data provided, two major categories emerged. The first was the couples’ experiences with becoming new parents and the second was the couples’ experiences with therapy. Under the first category, five major themes emerged: (1) physical and emotional challenges, (2) bonding with baby, (3) satisfaction in roles and new identity, (4) impact of social support, and (5) stability of relationship satisfaction. Three themes were discovered under the category related to the couples’ experience with therapy: (1) facilitated communication, (2) stress management, and (3) preparation for the transition. This study concluded by discussing the essence of the phenomenon of couples’ experiences with the transition to parenthood and the meaning they ascribed to therapeutic interventions along with clinical implications of these findings.

Students of color experience numerous educational disadvantages compared to White students. These disadvantages begin in elementary school and continue into college and adulthood. Ethnic minority students typically have less resources available to them than White students and are typically less prepared for college—academically and financially. Once students of color enroll in college, they face additional barriers due to discrimination and negative attitudes towards diversity. These factors play a key role in student engagement and persistence. The campus racial climate of a university, defined as the overall racial environment of the campus, has been shown to strongly influence students’ feelings of belonging to an institution. This study examined the links among experiences of discrimination, campus openness to diversity, multicultural experiences, academic success, and feelings of school belonging for students of color, in order to identify ways in which we can improve the educational experiences of disadvantaged students. The current study found evidence that many diversity-related experiences such as cross-racial interactions, campus racial climate, cocurricular diversity activities, and discrimination, strongly influenced feelings of school belonging for students of color. These findings add support to previous research that suggests that diversity experiences on college campuses play a significant role in making students feel welcome at an institution. However, diversity-related experiences examined in this study appeared to have little correlation to academic performance and retention. School belonging did not correlate with academic performance. It seems students’ grades may be better explained by internal factors, like motivation, rather than external factors, like the campus environment. Perceptions of more negative cross-racial interactions and more discrimination experiences were linked with more negative perceptions of the campus racial climate. Campus racial climate was linked to students’ desire to pursue higher education in the future. As the amount of positive cross-racial interactions students experienced increased, so did the amount of negative cross-racial interactions. This suggests that higher levels of cross-racial interactions result in both positive and negative experiences. More cross-racial interactions and cocurricular diversity activities were associated with more experiences of discrimination. This suggests that students of color are likely to experience discrimination when interacting with persons of different racial backgrounds or engaging in conversations related to diversity. Overall, diversity-related experiences linked to feelings of school belonging more than academic performance. Findings provide guidance for college-based initiatives to improve campus racial climates, in order to create more welcoming environments for students of color.

Magister Curationis - MCur / The frequent readmission of patients in psychiatric hospitals is caused by the relapse in their different psychiatric conditions. With a shortage of professional nurses, lack of resources, and an ever-increasing workload, the frequent readmission of psychiatric patients further worsens the situation.

The consistent academic underperformance of students from diverse backgrounds is a national concern and the subject of study by numerous researchers. Some scholars suggest this underperformance indicates teacher lack of preparation to address the needs of a highly diverse student population (Hollins & Guzman, 2005; Ford, 2008; Darling-Hamond, 2004). Central to the overall efforts for improving achievement outcomes should be a focus on the educational experiences of the segment of population that is underperforming, namely students of color, from diverse cultural and linguistic background. Policies of immigration are particularly relevant for the students who are immigrants to the United States or are the first generation born in the United States, given that these policies directly impact their social security and stability, potentially altering their educational experiences. This exploratory study employed a multiple case study methodology (Stake, 2006) framed within critical theory (Carspeken, 1996) focused on how students experience and negotiate their parent being ordered deported and in what ways their schooling experiences are impacted by the threat of parental deportation in one of the largest Cape Verdean immigrant communities in Southeast New England, the community of Brockton, Massachusetts. Participants for this study were purposefully selected through the Consulate of the Republic of Cape Verde. Three youth participants, their parents and 3 community leaders were interviewed using Seidman's (2006) three series interview format, and using Madison's (2005) six types of question variations. Data was collected in the form of participant interviews, document analysis, participant and community observations, and field notes. Data analysis was done using Madison’s (2005) five level of analysis. The findings of this study highlight the impact of immigration policies on youth and the importance of school districts that serve large immigrant populations developing structures responsive to the issues of immigration, addressing teacher ideologies in professional development and teacher preparation programs.

This research identifies the experiences, behaviours, attitudes, values and beliefs of Australia's most successful franchise owners in order to understand the reasons for their outstanding success in a business environment designed to encourage replication and uniformity. In this study, twelve of Australia's best franchisees have been interviewed to find out their personal qualities that have enabled them to succeed in the franchise business environment. A qualitative methodology within a constructivist ontology and interpretivist epistemology has been used. Interviews were conducted, coded, analysed and models developed using NVivo software. The coding and analysis led to the development of six key characteristics or behaviours of successful franchisees. Australia's best franchisees are successful because they are highly motivated, have outstanding business skills, are committed to franchising, demonstrate remarkable personal qualities reflected in highly ethical leadership with exceptional communication skills and create a business environment that has real customer focus. Human qualities are difficult to isolate and quantify. This research highlights those necessary to succeed in franchising and business generally. The findings from this research have been presented as a framework for franchisee success. The framework provides the basis of human characteristics and elements to consider in franchisee selection and business skill development. The title of this research is in many ways its conclusion. The contribution of franchising to Australia's entrepreneurial spirit is the growth and development of the business skills of franchisees, many of whom are entrepreneurs in the making.

This novel is about Jess, a left wing trade unionist and student lawyer who, caught up in a fast-paced Sydney inner city life, goes to a hypnotist in an effort to drink less and instead has an experience of God. Her conscious self cannot cope with this and she represses it, but it still exists in a deeper part of her and the novel tracks the path by which she finally hauls and hacks her way back to it. The novel is divided into four parts, David, Jane, Padma and Jess. The first three parts tell of her emotionally dependencies on other people, and in the last section she finally finds a kind of hard-won peace and self-acceptance, and a love of God that is rooted in the small joys of her daily life. / Master of Arts (Hons) (Creative Writing)

How important is the social experience of learning in the postgraduate classroom? This thesis explores what eight postgraduate students judged to be their ‘best’ classroom experiences within one New Zealand university. The researcher started from the assumption that the students’ ‘best’ classroom experiences would correspond with what the literature characterises as ‘communities of learners’ in which the students felt that their past experiences were valued and personal relationships were respectful and relatively equal. This assumption was, for the most part, accurate. Problematic areas, such as assessment, were also identified. International students’ experiences were a key part of the research. Six of the students were studying in their second language yet that alone was not the main indicator of classroom participation as personality (such as shyness)also affected how students engaged with the course content, the lecturers, and with each other. The case study approach raises possibilities and questions as well as recognising trends that suggest that postgraduate students value interactive learning within meaningful classroom contexts.

The literacy experiences of a small group of culturally-diverse children were examined in this study. The experiences, too, were diverse – and influential. The children, five girls aged four – five years, attended the same Preschool, in an inner suburb of a large city in Australia. Data were gathered at home, during the last two months of the preschool year and, for three of the children, during writing sessions in the first six months of Year One. Vygotskian ideas on meaning-making were integrated with other perspectives on development, literacy learning and teaching from a sociocultural, theoretical framework. The purpose was to identify dimensions of children’s literacy experiences and provide insight into ways in which children negotiate culture, literacy, and schooling, challenge current perspectives, contribute to research knowledge and determine how teachers might take account of cultural diversity in classrooms to better support children in literacy learning. A grounded theory method was employed using multiple data collection tools and techniques in both home and school contexts. Data were coded using a process of constant comparison to identify features, characteristics and dimensions of children’s literacy experiences. Independent inter-rater agreement on the coding of features at home, Preschool and school was 98.4%. Findings included a variety of values, beliefs and perspectives amongst parents and between teachers in relation to literacy learning, roles and relationships, and home-school connections. Children’s literacy experiences at home differed in terms of nature, frequency and resources and experiences in each of the settings were very different. A major finding was that children acted as agents of their own learning: mixing, transferring, trying out, adapting, and experimenting to determine appropriate practices and make decisions including when to exercise choice to enact agency. These assimilation and accommodation adaptations were identified as akin to code-switching, labelled as culture-switching, and identified as areas requiring further research.

This study explored the experience of shame in nursing using an interpretive phenomenological approach as described by van Manen (1997). Shame is a concept that has been extensively theorised within the social sciences as important in the development of individual identity, self esteem and role performance but overlooked in nursing. The purpose of this research was twofold; to gain an understanding of how shame influences and shapes nursing identity and to produce knowledge and stimulate dialogue about what that means for nursing culture. Participants were asked to discuss significant interactions with colleagues. Significantly, all disclosed the experience of shame. Further, four major themes emerged from this study to deepen understanding of what appears to be a cultural experience. The experience of shame involves: self appraisal, professional identity in conflict, the experience of isolation and recrimination. Within each theme a number of sub themes were identified including feeling dumb, being incompetent, withdrawing and going quiet and seeking revenge. The study concluded that in relation to nursing, internalised shame is not readily recognised although negative emotions that are linked to it are clearly felt. When these emotions are left unprocessed or unidentified as shame, then they are likely to have negative consequences. But recognising this hidden shame and bringing it to conscious awareness can express and perhaps relieve shame. Further, shame's adaptive functions, to provide moral direction and teach respect, could be acknowledged or reclaimed. It is argued therefore that acknowledging and discussing shame openly in nursing, such as through future research, scholarships and education, will facilitate consciousness raising and the potential for cultural change.

Doctor of Philosophy / This study addresses the situation of adults who become deafblind. To date, their everday lives have received little attention in the research literature. Of the few studies conducted many involve surveys, the findings of which present the characteristics of people who are deafblind such as their rates of employment, need for support, or use of equipment. There are also a small number of qualitative studies that have explored the effects of having dual sensory impairment, and particularly in relation to communication and psycho-social wellbeing. Important as these research efforts have been, there is little empirical information available about the everyday lives of people who become deafblind and their concerns, nor any systematic attempt to theorise their experiences. There are however many personal anecdotes typically presented at conferences or through community publications and newsletters. This project aimed to redress the gap in the literature by developing a theoretical framework to explain the everyday experiences of adult who become deafblind. In doing so, it built upon the research and anecdotal literature with an overall purpose of presenting, through rigorous research, the experiences of adults who become deafblind and to do so within the broader discourse on disability and disablism. The study was informed by the social relational understanding of disability developed within the Nordic countries. Grounded theory was the method of choice to examine the lives of adults who become deafblind from their own perspective.Participant observation was employed through direct engagement in shared experiences with adults who have become deafblind both at a social group and via an e-mail list group. Mulitple in-depth interviews were undertaken both face to face and by e-mail with a smaller group of eight participants.The core finding from this study is that people who become deafblind are rendered interactionally powerless in a society predicated on seeing and hearing. The powerlessness that they experience comes from having this dual impairment in a world in which being able to see and hear are expected both in the physical and social environment. The inability of people who become deafblind to 'know and be' in the world in the same way as others results in them feeling, and experienceing, interactional powerlessness. In response, people who become deafblind actively engage in trying to minimise or remove their powerlessness. They do so by working to negotiate a place in this hostile world. They adopt four interrelated strategies, namely, doing things differently, managing support relationships, survivings others' perceptions and presenting sides of self.This study, with its central tenet that interactional powerlessness drives ongoing attempts to negotiate a place makes a theoretical contribution to understanding the experience of becoming deafblind. The findings support the concept of disbaility as social relational. Disability is not the same as the sensory impairment, rather it is expressed in the organisation of personal relations in society which render some more powerful than others and in this case, some less powerful due to their inability to use the natural means of communication of hearing and sight. Moreover, the study findings propose that professionals working with people with this dual sensory impairment must endeavour to reduce their part in the hostile world by providing information about options and support available; recognising the complexity of these adults support requirements; and considering the link between psycho-emotional issues and disablism. Further research is needed to understand empirically and theoretically the relative contribution of personal relationships vis a vis organisational or structural relationships in disabling people who become deafblind.