Thesis (Ph. D)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 127 p.: ill. Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: David S. Stein, School of Physical Activity and Educational Services. Includes bibliographical references (p. 120-127).

In the past 30 years, there has been an increase in the number of hours spent in the workforce, and as a result, work stress has been a prominent factor in the increased health problems found in the working population (Briner, 2000). The Job Content Questionnaire (i.e., JCQ) is a self-administered instrument that implements the Demand-Control and Demand-Control-Support models to assess and measure the social and psychological aspects of the work force (Karasek et al., 1998). Thus, the JCQ provides information as to the health of employees. It has been translated and validated in several languages; however each study has only examined the JCQ in terms of Classical Test Theory methods. The current study accumulated validity evidence for the JCQ using Item Response Theory. The results suggested that each of the scales did not contain items that fully measured the latent trait. The analysis also indicated that more items need to be developed. Future research may want to examine other polytomous models, examine males and females separately, and assess the JCQ by the use of Differential Item Functioning (i.e., item bias).

In the past 30 years, there has been an increase in the number of hours spent in the workforce, and as a result, work stress has been a prominent factor in the increased health problems found in the working population (Briner, 2000). The Job Content Questionnaire (i.e., JCQ) is a self-administered instrument that implements the Demand-Control and Demand-Control-Support models to assess and measure the social and psychological aspects of the work force (Karasek et al., 1998). Thus, the JCQ provides information as to the health of employees. It has been translated and validated in several languages; however each study has only examined the JCQ in terms of Classical Test Theory methods. The current study accumulated validity evidence for the JCQ using Item Response Theory. The results suggested that each of the scales did not contain items that fully measured the latent trait. The analysis also indicated that more items need to be developed. Future research may want to examine other polytomous models, examine males and females separately, and assess the JCQ by the use of Differential Item Functioning (i.e., item bias).

Thesis--Hamburg.

Britain has a culture of long working hours, resulting in significant levels of work-related stress. Teachers are arguably the professional group most likely to experience pathological stress and burnout as a result of working long hours. Research in schools suggests that teachers’ work orientations are strongly influenced by factors of personal identity, social background, career stage and personal resilience to stress. In Further Education (FE) research hitherto has emphasised the impact of Government policy and managerial style on teacher behaviour, and notions of teacher professionalism. There has been less research into the impact of FE teacher identities and attitudes towards work upon their working lives. This thesis investigates the relatively under-researched area of work culture within a single FE College, in an attempt to discover the reasons underlying teacher’s reactions to the pressures of overwork. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 13 teachers and managers to investigate teacher responses to the work culture of the College. Based upon existing theoretical models of stress and burnout, three groups of potential determinants are explored: personal identity, the social context of the College, and the impact of external political, economic and social factors. The research confirms the existence amongst College teachers of a culture of working long hours, and identifies examples of stress and burnout. Interview responses support previous research findings concerning the central importance of teacher identity. Interview data underline the importance of personal factors in determining teachers’ responses to workload and their resilience to stress. A model is developed which summarises potential teacher responses to workload stress, and proposes ways in which these may be linked to factors of teacher identity and work cultures. The findings also highlight the pivotal role of managers and work teams in supporting teachers, particularly those most emotionally susceptible to stress.

The purpose of the thesis is to investigate a specific case of curriculum change; that of organizing teacher training courses around learner outcomes in line with the Bologna process. The investigation is an example of a practitioner research case study and looks at how official Bologna policy messages are re-interpreted and recontextualised at the local micro level. A variety of methods are used to collect and analyse the data produced. A form of discourse analysis, as well as a survey of research literature, is used to identify policy discourses connected with the Bologna process. At the local micro level, local documentation as well as teacher talk in planning meetings are analysed to throw light on how the Bologna process was implemented. A number of discourses were found in policy documents; including the need to modernize higher education and to move towards a more student centred approach to learning. The thesis shows that these discourses were mediated locally by a regulative discourse portraying teachers as role models who have the task of passing on knowledge that is essential for the students to obtain before entering the profession. Instead of challenging the pedagogic identities for teachers and students, the introduction of learning outcomes acted to strengthen the fundamental vertical relations between teachers and students, cementing and confirming the level of control that teachers had over all aspects of the curriculum. Changes made in connection with the introduction of learning outcomes had a minimal influence on practice and were contested by some teacher educators. Teacher educators resisted and mediated the changes made by continuing to use their traditional practices. / <p>Akademisk avhandling som med tillstånd av utbildningsvetenskapliga fakulteten vid Göteborgs universitet för vinnande av doktorsexamen i pedagogiskt arbete framläggs till offentlig granskning Fredagen den 20 september, kl. 13.15 vid Högskolan i Borås.</p>

Initially the overall aim of this thesis was to describe and analyse what was happening in the educational activities when teachers at a school that I have called Tower School introduced the computer as a tool for helping pupils who were learning to write and read. Key questions concerned the issue of improvement. Did introducing the computer as a tool in the teaching and learning process help the pupils with their learning or not and, if so, in what ways. The research approach chosen was an action research approach. Action research is concerned with professional practice and improvement. It is contextual and oriented toward action processes and change. The initial phase of the research went more or less according to plan. I followed the development process of the introduction and use of the computer as a learning tool, met regularly with the teachers and together with them developed a good working relationship. After about a year things changed. With the restructuring that was taking place in the region changes began to take place also at Tower School and this had effects on the research. In addition to the initial aim to research changes related to student learning a second purpose developed. This purpose was to describe and analyse how political governance and underlying societal forces might influence what happens in school development. There were two reasons for this new extra dimension. One was a methodological interest in relation to planning action research projects at times of political change in the education sector. The other was an educational theoretical interest connected to the school as a policy-driven organization. My interest here was for changes in the political economy at the macro level and how the network of macro-political and economic relations affected the micropolitical level of the school, its classrooms, participating teachers in these classrooms, their students and me as a researcher? / <p>Akademisk avhandling som med tillstånd av utbildningsvetenskapliga fakulteten vid</p><p>Göteborgs universitet för vinnande av doktorsexamen i pedagogiskt arbete</p><p>framläggs till offentlig granskning Fredagen den 14 juni, kl. 13-16 vid Högskolan i Borås, sal C203</p>

O presente estudo inicia-se com uma reconstituição da história dos cursos superiores de administração de empresas no Brasil, visando um objetivo preciso: localizar, no interior das hierarquias existentes no ensino superior e, especialmente, no ensino da administração, uma escola superior do setor privado em São Paulo (capital). Nessa escola aqui designada como Universidade A é que se inserem os formandos de administração de empresas que participaram desta investigação. A partir do lugar ocupado no campo acadêmico pela administração lugar no qual são combinados paradoxalmente saberes e práticas que se encontram na tensa fronteira entre dois mundos antagônicos (o do homo academicus e o do homo oeconomicus) , afirma-se que a Universidade A está localizada num espaço ainda mais fronteiriço (do ponto de vista científico) do que o ocupado pelas escolas de administração tradicionais e/ou de prestígio neste campo específico do ensino superior. Considerando-se que as escolas de administração ocupam uma posição subordinada no mundo da academia, a Universidade A, tida como uma escola sem tradição no ensino da administração, localiza-se, portanto, em um lugar duplamente subordinado, situado na margem da margem do sistema institucional de ensino superior. Depois de definir a posição da Universidade A no campo do ensino superior em geral e, posteriormente, no campo do ensino da administração, este estudo explora qualitativamente os sentidos da educação superior e, em particular, do ensino de administração, junto a alunos formandos com baixo capital econômico e sem tradição escolar que se encontram nesse campo acadêmico duplamente marginal. Por fim, o trabalho aqui apresentado busca compreender como esses formandos em administração de empresas respondem e reagem individualmente isto é, no plano micro de sua experiência específica às recentes transformações macro-sociais (decorrentes do processo mais amplo de reestruturação produtiva) em termos de práticas, escolhas e expectativas a partir dos espaços sociais nos quais eles estão situados e transitam. / The present study begins with the reconstitution of the history of Higher Education Business Administration courses in Brazil, and aims at localizing one specific São Paulo-based private-sector school within the existing hierarchies in Higher Education and within the Business Administration Education field. All the students who took part in this investigation belong to this school referred to as University A. In regard to the position of Business Administration within the academic field a field which paradoxically combines knowledges and practices found in the tense boundaries between two antagonist worlds (homo academicuss and homo oeconomicuss) University A stands in an even more (scientifically) borderline space, in comparison to traditional or more prestigious schools. Considering that Administration Schools remain in a subordinate position in the academic world, a less traditional school such as University A is held in a doubly subordinate position, on the margins of the established Higher Educational system. After defining the position of University A within the Higher Education field and, subsequently, within the Business Education field, the present research explores qualitatively the senses of Higher Education and, specifically, Business Administration Education by students with low-economic capital and without schooling tradition, who find themselves in this doubly marginal field. Finally, the research aims at understanding how such Business Administration students respond and react individually i.e. in the micro-plan of their specific experience to recent social macro-changes (due to the broader process of productive restructuring) in terms of practices, choices and expectations, based on the social spaces in which they are situated.

FundaÃÃo de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Cearà / A presente pesquisa expÃe nossa caminhada na compreensÃo dos escritos de CÃlestin Freinet, que, no Brasil, à considerado por uma grande maioria dos pedagogos e educadores como um representante tÃpico do escolanovismo, apartando de sua obra a dimensÃo polÃtica e inovadora, assim como à ignorada muitas vezes sua base revolucionÃria. NÃo temos a pretensÃo de transformÃ-lo em um teÃrico ortodoxo do marxismo, que seguiu apenas um caminho, ou de justificÃ-lo valendo-se dos seus primeiros escritos. Temos, contudo, a intenÃÃo de compreendÃ-lo como um sujeito histÃrico, que propÃs uma teoria que tinha preocupaÃÃo com sua efetivaÃÃo, de modo que a escola do povo fosse possÃvel. Discutiremos seus escritos ricos de conceitos marxistas, da mesma forma que refletiremos sobre os escritos em que hà certo distanciamento do partido comunista e o autor adota uma postura, para muitos, condizente com os ideais da escola nova ou, atà mesmo para alguns outros, uma postura romÃntica da educaÃÃo. Pontuamos nosso objetivo central como a tentativa de encontrar um possÃvel fio condutor em suas principais obras â Ensaio de psicologia sensÃvel I (1976); Ensaio de psicologia sensÃvel II (1978); Pedagogia do bom senso (1998) e Para uma escola do povo (2001) â, com o fim de entender a proposta de sua Escola do Povo, sob a base de uma educaÃÃo pelo trabalho. Essa proposta foi construÃda e aplicada, na FranÃa, por Freinet, levando em consideraÃÃo o ponto de partida e para quem se destina a educaÃÃo, assim quais sÃo as suas bases fundamentais. AlÃm disso, buscamos compreender o motivo pelo qual a pedagogia popular de Freinet, quando chega ao Brasil na segunda metade do sÃculo XX, distancia-se tanto de suas raÃzes populares e polÃticas. Trata-se de uma pesquisa de natureza teÃrico-bibliogrÃfica, descritiva e exploratÃria, que tomou como perspectiva teÃrico- -metodolÃgica o materialismo histÃrico-dialÃtico.

O presente estudo inicia-se com uma reconstituição da história dos cursos superiores de administração de empresas no Brasil, visando um objetivo preciso: localizar, no interior das hierarquias existentes no ensino superior e, especialmente, no ensino da administração, uma escola superior do setor privado em São Paulo (capital). Nessa escola aqui designada como Universidade A é que se inserem os formandos de administração de empresas que participaram desta investigação. A partir do lugar ocupado no campo acadêmico pela administração lugar no qual são combinados paradoxalmente saberes e práticas que se encontram na tensa fronteira entre dois mundos antagônicos (o do homo academicus e o do homo oeconomicus) , afirma-se que a Universidade A está localizada num espaço ainda mais fronteiriço (do ponto de vista científico) do que o ocupado pelas escolas de administração tradicionais e/ou de prestígio neste campo específico do ensino superior. Considerando-se que as escolas de administração ocupam uma posição subordinada no mundo da academia, a Universidade A, tida como uma escola sem tradição no ensino da administração, localiza-se, portanto, em um lugar duplamente subordinado, situado na margem da margem do sistema institucional de ensino superior. Depois de definir a posição da Universidade A no campo do ensino superior em geral e, posteriormente, no campo do ensino da administração, este estudo explora qualitativamente os sentidos da educação superior e, em particular, do ensino de administração, junto a alunos formandos com baixo capital econômico e sem tradição escolar que se encontram nesse campo acadêmico duplamente marginal. Por fim, o trabalho aqui apresentado busca compreender como esses formandos em administração de empresas respondem e reagem individualmente isto é, no plano micro de sua experiência específica às recentes transformações macro-sociais (decorrentes do processo mais amplo de reestruturação produtiva) em termos de práticas, escolhas e expectativas a partir dos espaços sociais nos quais eles estão situados e transitam. / The present study begins with the reconstitution of the history of Higher Education Business Administration courses in Brazil, and aims at localizing one specific São Paulo-based private-sector school within the existing hierarchies in Higher Education and within the Business Administration Education field. All the students who took part in this investigation belong to this school referred to as University A. In regard to the position of Business Administration within the academic field a field which paradoxically combines knowledges and practices found in the tense boundaries between two antagonist worlds (homo academicuss and homo oeconomicuss) University A stands in an even more (scientifically) borderline space, in comparison to traditional or more prestigious schools. Considering that Administration Schools remain in a subordinate position in the academic world, a less traditional school such as University A is held in a doubly subordinate position, on the margins of the established Higher Educational system. After defining the position of University A within the Higher Education field and, subsequently, within the Business Education field, the present research explores qualitatively the senses of Higher Education and, specifically, Business Administration Education by students with low-economic capital and without schooling tradition, who find themselves in this doubly marginal field. Finally, the research aims at understanding how such Business Administration students respond and react individually i.e. in the micro-plan of their specific experience to recent social macro-changes (due to the broader process of productive restructuring) in terms of practices, choices and expectations, based on the social spaces in which they are situated.