The field of study abroad for language learning has drawn extensively on related fields such as applied linguistics and psychology to conceptualize learners' experiences, which then informs how practitioners go about designing programs for those learners. Research has encouraged practitioners to increase learners' access to the target language (e.g., through speaking partners, content courses), but it has also become clear that while access might be necessary, it does not guarantee learner engagement and growth. This dissertation explores two unique conceptual frameworks for understanding language learners and presents empirical research that demonstrates the kinds of findings that these frameworks can produce. The common subject of analysis involved the experiences of participants who struggled to engage in speaking during an Arabic study abroad program. The first framework emerged from a grounded theory analysis and characterizes participants' struggles as a clash of expectations that required negotiation. The findings fit well with a recent "ecological turn" in language learning, and a review of study abroad research from an ecological perspective suggested avenues of research that would further develop the field's understanding of access, engagement, and the learners themselves. The second framework built on interdisciplinary insights to present a hermeneutic moral realist account of the same participants who struggled to engage in speaking activities. This approach revealed a moral ecology of unstructured speaking with unique moral goods, reference points, and tensions that the participants had to navigate as they tried to find good speaking opportunities for themselves. This dissertation positions these findings within current second language study abroad experiences, offering an ecological perspective and recommendations for students and faculty alike.

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El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar cómo se adopta el rol materno en mujeres que tienen hijos con habilidades diferentes de acuerdo a su entorno familiar y social. Para este fin, se desarrolló un estudio cualitativo utilizando la técnica de la entrevista semiestructurada en ocho mujeres de nivel socioeconómico alto, entre 45 y 55 años de edad, madres de jóvenes adultos con habilidades diferentes. Los principales resultados indican que la identidad materna es construida en distintos estadios a lo largo de la interacción madre-hijo y que el apoyo familiar y social cumplen un papel importante en la consolidación de dicho vínculo. Se concluye que para que las mujeres con las características de esta muestra construyan y adopten un rol materno equilibrado y saludable, necesitan de la participación activa de su entorno inmediato, es decir, de un microsistema comprometido y promotor de asistencia abocada al bienestar tanto de la madre como del hijo. / The objective of this research is to analyze how the maternal role is attained in women who have children with different abilities according to their family and social environment. For this purpose, a qualitative study was developed using the semi-structured interview technique in eight women of high socioeconomic status, between 45 and 55 years of age, mothers of young adults with different abilities. The main results indicate that maternal identity is constructed at different stages throughout the mother-child interaction and that the family and social support play an important role in the consolidation of this bond. It is concluded that for women with the characteristics of this sample to build and attain a balanced and healthy maternal role, they need the active participation of their immediate environment, a committed microsystem and promoter of assistance aiming the well-being of both the mother and son. / Tesis

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Klinger's (1997) ecological theory of policing addresses the intersection of environment and police organizational structure on police patrol practices. It argues that officer actions can be characterized along a continuum of formal authority ranging from vigorous to lenient, where arrest represents more vigor than non-arrest, filing a report more vigor than not filing a report, and so forth. The theory has the potential to explain the spatial patterning of police behavior by incorporating both formal and informal organizational practices and community characteristics. Although the theory has been cited extensively, evaluations have been limited. The single existing direct assessment of Klinger's theory was qualitative, on a small scale, and resulted in findings both consistent with, and in disagreement with, key theoretical postulates (Hassell, 2006). This dissertation is an extensive quantitative examination of this key policing theory, which addresses the following research question; "Is police response to calls for service and self-initiated activity influenced by the level of serious violent crime?" Police responsiveness was measured by the final disposition given to a case and the number of arrests made for low seriousness events; self-initiated activity was measured by the level of traffic enforcement. Additional questions are also addressed such as: Does the relationship between police workload and responsiveness and police workload and self-initiated activity vary over time? If there is a cross-sectional relationship found between these factors, is it contingent upon socio-demographic or land use characteristics of where the events occur? If Klinger's ecological theory of policing is correct it is expected that police will expend less vigor towards low seriousness events and self-initiated activity if there is a great deal of serious crime demanding their attention. The current work also extends the ecological theory in two ways: by expanding and clarifying the impact of environmental factors and by examining the proposed relationship between crime level and vigor within a longitudinal framework. These questions were addressed using data supplied by the Philadelphia Police Department, demographic data from the U.S. Census, and environmental data drawn from a number of sources. Three dependent variables quantified police vigor at different stages of case processing; (1) the number of incidents that resulted in a final disposition of unfounded; (2) the number of low seriousness incidents that ended in an arrest; and (3) the number of traffic stops. These count outcomes were measured at both the census block group level and at the police district level of aggregation. Low seriousness offenses present the greatest opportunities for officer discretion and, therefore, provide officers the most latitude in selecting the vigor of their response. These data were analyzed using both cross-sectional multilevel model (MLM) design and a repeated measure MLM design. Additionally, exploratory spatial data analyses (ESDA) investigated the spatial distributions of these dependent variables. Findings generally support key propositions of Klinger's ecological theory of variations in policing behavior. Vigor varied as a result of officer workload (the number of serious crime incidents) and resource constraint (the number of officer hours assigned to patrol duties). Yet other findings suggested that further conceptual development is still required. The relationship between vigor and key theoretical variables was frequently sensitive to the way vigor was operationalized. More problematically, variations in vigor were expected to be greatest in events of low seriousness. Yet, crime types fall along a continuum of seriousness and imposing arbitrary cut points between low seriousness events and high seriousness events was a difficult task that required either arbitrary distinctions between crime types or value judgments about the seriousness of a crime. Furthermore, these findings suggested that the spatial and temporal resolution through which vigor is investigated will have potentially dramatic impacts upon whether the findings support, or are in contradiction to, key theoretical relationships. These findings, taken a whole, suggest that the ecological theory of policing has strength and utility in explaining patterns of police activity but also that a number of issues could benefit from further conceptual development. / Criminal Justice

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the understandings and perceptions that West Indian parents and caregivers residing in the U.S. have about U.S. public schools. A second purpose of this study was to examine the consistency between these findings and the cultural-ecological theory advanced by Ogbu (1974) which posits that immigrant minorities to the U.S. hold different perceptions and expectations in relation to U.S. schools. Using interviews with 13 families in the Tampa Bay area, the study examined West Indian parents' and caregivers' understanding of the American public schooling process, expectations for education, role beliefs, and roles they played in their children's schooling. Several themes emerged from the interviews regarding these areas. These themes included: families viewed education in very instrumental ways (a finding that aligned with Ogbu's cultural-ecological theory), families had overwhelmingly positive perceptions of resources and opportunities offered by U.S. public schools, and most families were satisfied with the home-school relationship. A minority of families described negative relationships with schools. In addition, families reported that they believed school-based involvement was important. However, they reported very low levels of school-based involvement, but high levels of home-based involvement. Obstacles to parent involvement included logistical barriers, and lack of familiarity with the U.S. school system. Implications of the findings for school personnel are discussed and suggestions for further research are offered.

Kindergarten students who are identified as at risk in reading often enter school with deficiencies in early reading skills. Little research exists for this vulnerable population on reading instruction in large, urban, school systems. The purpose of this multiple case study, which was guided by Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory of human development, was to describe urban kindergarten teachers' beliefs about the environmental factors that contribute to students' at-risk reading status, instructional practices employed to remediate reading, and teacher reports about systems in place to support student reading development. The multiple case study design included (a) structured interviews, (b) observations of kindergarten instructional practices in reading, and (c) a review of documents relevant to the delivery of instruction and home literacy assignments in 3 schools situated in 3 northeastern districts in the United States of America. The constant comparative method utilized included data coding, category development, and identification of themes. Findings indicated that (a) teachers believe parental involvement would influence the development of kindergartners' early reading skills; (b) teachers used a core and phonics curriculum within a print-rich environment to teach early reading skills, with variation in approaches seen within and across school sites; (c) there is a lack of professional development within the schools to enhance kindergarten reading instruction; and (d) the schools' instructional practices may not be part of a coherent instructional philosophy. This study contributes to positive social change by providing educators with a deeper understanding of how to remediate reading with attention to the environmental factors at-risk readers experience at home and school.

Identifying high-risk areas for child maltreatment to ultimately aid public health agencies for interventions is necessary for protecting children at high risk. Rates of substantiated neglect and physical/emotional abuse in 2000-2002 are computed for the census tracts in the urban area of five counties in Metro Atlanta, Georgia, and analyzed using spatial regression to determine their relationships with twelve risk variables computed from the Vital Records births and the 2000 Census data. After accounting for multicollinearity among risk variables and spatial autocorrelation among observations for neighboring locations, it is found that high percentages of (1) births to non-married mothers, (2) births to mothers who smoked or drank alcohol during pregnancy, (3) unemployed males and females, and (4) single-parent families with children under age six best predict the rates of substantiated neglect, and that high percentage of births to mothers who smoked or drank alcohol during pregnancy best predicts the rates of substantiated physical/emotional abuse.

Two current positions in the field of human development are presented. On the one hand, Scarr' s theory abour the effects of genotype on environment is discussed. On the other hand, the ecological theory of Bronfenbrenner, which describes human developmenr as an interaction between the developing person and his/her environment. The author discusses some aspects of both positions that need furrher study in order ro prevent negarive effects and have a better understanding of child development, in third world countries. / El artículo presenta dos posiciones actuales que buscan explicar el desarrollo humano desde perspectivas diferentes. Por un lado, se presenta la posición de Scarr acerca de los efectos de los genotipos sobre el ambiente, donde el peso de la interpretación está dado en los aspectos hereditarios. Por otro lado, la teoría ecológica sustentada por Bronfenbrenner que define al desarrollo humano como una interacción entre la persona en desarrollo y su medio ambiente. La aurora discute algunos aspectos de ambas posiciones en los que sería importante profundizar para prevenir negativos y tener una mejor comprensión del desarrollo del niño, en países en vías de desarrollo.

This study was designed to identify possible risk factors about physical activity in middle-aged disabled African American women (AAW) aged 45 to 64 years. Disabled middle-aged AAW has a disproportionate prevalence of obesity and chronic illness than nondisabled women. Most disabled middle-aged AAW leads a sedentary lifestyle, and they do not meet the recommended physical activity (PA) guidelines. Little is known about this group, and a social ecological model was used to explain PA patterns. Data were extracted from the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (N = 1,599) for women who responded yes to indicate that they needed specialized equipment. This cross-sectional quantitative study used univariate and multivariate analysis to assess the relationship between age, education, and income among middle-aged disabled AAW. A general linear model revealed younger disabled AAW (ages 45 to 54) engaged in more physical activity time per week than did their older counterparts (estimate = 76.012, p = .001). Individuals with less education reported more minutes of physical activity than college graduates (estimate = 142.522, p = .001). Respondents with annual incomes from $35,000-$49,999 (estimate = 184.590, p = .000) were more physically active than their more affluent counterparts. Smoking, demographic variables, and emotional well-being did not affect minutes of moderate physical activity. This research may contribute to positive social change by suggesting that programs intended to increase physical activity among disabled AAW be targeted toward those who are older, are more educated, and have higher incomes.