This study was designed to identify the spiritual needs of multicultural Australians with a health problem, in order to understand the educational implications for health care professionals. The rationale for the research was supported by the Australian Council for Health Service (1997) requirement that health care professionals meet the spiritual needs of their patients and clients'. At the commencement of this study, no research had been published on what these spiritual needs might be. To discover what health care professionals needed to be taught in order to meet the spiritual needs of their patients, I required a suitable group of patients. Then, after identify their spiritual needs, I wanted to explore ways in which these needs could be met. For this to occur, I also needed to identify factors that would fulfill patients' spiritual needs or prevent them from being met. This research proceeded in two stages. The first involved collecting data from all spiritual groups in Western Australia. The second involved the recruitment and interviewing a small number of ex-patients to gain their perspective of health care related spirituality and needs. To gain data about the various spiritual groups in Western Australia, I wrote to all organisations and associations, asking for information and reference material. This data was analysed using HyperResearch (1995), and themes common to all spiritual groups were developed. The inter-relationship between these themes provided the framework for an emergent model of spirituality. / For the second part of the research which involved a case study of health care patients, a qualitative methodology was used. This approach enabled me to explore the phenomenon of spirituality from the perspective of eight participants, which involved identifying their spiritual needs, the care they desired, and the rite of passage they underwent when receiving health care. The qualitative methodology enabled me to explore the subject from a sensitive holistic perspective, and to protect the integrity of the participants. I wanted to know what patients understood about their spirituality and how spiritual care could be implemented not only in clinical practice but also into health care education programs. The participants' detailed subjective experience was especially important, because I wanted to know how they identified their spiritual needs, how they had requested their needs be met by health care professionals, and the extent to which health care professionals had reacted to those cues. I formulated an 'interpretive phenomenology research' design based on the philosophical writings of Heidegger and Bakhtin. Heidegger argued that people gain knowledge of a subject from their own subjective experience, and of the person being in their world (simultaneous past, present and future thoughts). Bakhtin stated that to bring about social change, the researcher needed to understand the social context of the people's language including their culture, politics, government-provided amenities (such as education and health care), employment and social interaction, both within and outside their communities in which they live. The eight participants were interviewed a number of times in order to explore the phenomenon of spirituality beyond the notions already published in the literature (i.e. from multicultural Australian's perspective). / They told of hospital or health care experiences that included: health care for childbirth, mental and psychiatric illnesses (depression, manic-depression, and anxiety), immunology (lymphoma), stroke, detoxification of alcohol, arthritis, coronary occlusion, hypertension, and peritonitis; surgical procedured/s such as repair of hernia, bowel obstruction, eye surgery, orchiopexy (removal of testes from inguinal canal into the scrotal sac), caesarian birth, appendectomy, and oophorectomy (removal of ovaries); treatments such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and physiotherapy; and hospital experiences in both large and small public and private acute hospitals, private and public mental health/psychiatric hospitals, intensive care and coronary care units. These situations demonstrate the diversity of contexts which people want their spiritual needs met. The study revealed that it is not only dying patients who have spiritual need; spiritual needs exist in widespread ordinary conditions and across a wide range of health care services. The eight participants - Ann, Athika, Garry, Red, Rosie, Scarlet, Sophie, and Tom (pseudonyms) - were drawn from many of the multicultural groups resident in Western Australia including Aboriginal, Chinese, English, European, Indian, and Irish peoples. Their spiritualities encompassed Judeo-Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Pagan Romany, Society of Friends (Quaker), Humanist, Socialist, and Communist values and beliefs. The results of the research give insight into the eight participants' perspectives on being a person, their understanding of spirituality, perceived spiritual needs, their desired levels of spiritual care, and the rite of passage they experienced when undergoing health care treatment in hospital. / The participants' spiritual needs comprised of four categories: 'mutual trust', 'hope', 'peace' and 'love'. The levels of spiritual care spoke of desiring were: 'acknowledgement', 'empathy', and 'valuing'. Recommendations are given for health care professionals to provide spiritual care for the eight participants, and implications are considered for the spiritual education of future health care professionals in order to sensitise them to the wide range of healthcare related spiritual needs they might encounter in local multicultural communities. It is recognised that the scope of the implications is contingent on further research establishing the incidence of health-care related spiritual needs among the broader population of multi-cultural Western Australians. The richness and depth of the data and the very sensitive nature of the material that came from the eight people who shared their experiences with me has rendered this thesis an important document. The nature of the various incidents and situations they shared with me, I believe, demonstrated their preparedness to tell their story so that health care can be improved. On many occasions, I felt honoured that they had sufficient trust in me to enable them to report such deep and personal suffering. For example, Rosie told me of her mental torment and of not knowing if she was alive or dead; of how she burnt her legs to try to feel pain in order to see if she was alive. It was stories such as this that gave me the passion to write this thesis well in order to do justice to all people who want spirituality included in health care treatment.

Over past decades, the face of Australian early childhood education and care (ECEC)has changed substantially. It has been shaped by two dominant policy discourses: the discourse of market theory, and, more recently, the discourse of parent and community participation. The intertwining of these two seemingly opposing discourses has led to the positioning of parents both as consumers of ECEC and as participants in ECEC. Each of these perspectives promotes a particular way of fulfilling the role of parent in ECEC. Reflecting general marketing principles, the primary role of parent as consumer is seen as selecting the right service for their child and family. In contrast, while arguably more ambiguous in meaning, the role of parent as participant promotes a partnership approach, and, increasingly, parental involvement in decision making at both service and public policy levels. Each of these roles has been constructed for parents by governments and policymakers, with little reference to the views and experiences of parents using ECEC. Seeking to address this gap in the ECEC knowledge base, the present study investigated the qualitatively different ways in which parents constitute their role in Australian ECEC. The study focused on two related aspects of the role of parents: (1) the role of parents in using ECEC services; and (2) the role of parents in shaping ECEC public policy. To describe these roles, as viewed and experienced by parents, and to reveal possible variation therein, the study engaged a phenomenographic research approach (Bowden & Walsh, 2000; Marton & Booth, 1997). Twenty-six parents participated in the study. Data were gathered through semistructured interviews with individual parents and subjected to a rigorous process of phenomenographic analysis. The study results are presented in two parts. With respect to the role of parents using ECEC, the study led to the construction of five categories of description, denoting five distinctly different ways of seeing and experiencing this role. The role of parents was seen as: (1) selecting and using the best service for their child (the service user conception); (2) knowing what's happening for their child in the service (the informed user conception); (3) paying for a service, and, thereby, enacting certain consumer rights (the consumer conception); (4) supporting their selected service and having some say in what happens for their child at the service (the partnership conception); and (5) working as a member of the service community for the benefit of all concerned, which includes participating in decision making (the member of a service community conception). Taking a broader perspective, the study again revealed variation in how parents constituted their role in shaping ECEC policy, leading to the construction of four categories of description. The role of parents was seen as: (1) no role in shaping ECEC public policy (the no role conception); (2) being informed about policy that affects their child and family, raising any concerns and/or seeking a change to current or proposed policy (the raising concerns conception); (3) having some say in policy matters that affect their child and family (the having some say conception); and (4) participating in policy decision making, particularly where this is likely to affect their child and family (the participating in policy decision making conception). The study highlights variation in how these roles are constituted by parents, inclusive of the basic concepts of parent as consumer and parent as participant. In addition, the study offers an insider perspective on these two "dominant common-sense understandings" (Vincent & Martin, 2000, p. 2) of the role of parents, prompting questions about their future in ECEC policy. As an example of "developmental phenomenography" (Bowden, 2000b, p. 3), the study also identifies factors perceived by parents as influencing their participation at various levels, and discusses implications for both policy and practice. Finally, the study extends the general phenomenographic area of interest, from education to public policy research. Within this area, phenomenography is seen to offer a useful and pragmatic research tool, facilitating the identification and consideration of different constituent views and experiences, and, thereby, signifying more possible options for action.

The introduction of a universal, full-time Preparatory Year in all Queensland schools from 2007 is a significant reform in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in that state. Rapidly increasing enrolment of children in full-time Preparatory Year programs in non-government schools has been a feature of the Queensland context over the past decade. These trends, along with efforts towards consistency of services and universal school starting ages across Australian states and territories have prompted this important reform to early education in Queensland. Constructions of the role of parents as consumers of early childhood services and/or partners in their children's early education suggest that consideration of parent views of this reform is both timely and strategic. This thesis reports the findings of a research project investigating parent conceptions of a Preparatory Year in a non-government school in outer urban Queensland. The research used a phenomenographic approach to elicit and describe the qualitatively different ways in which a group of 26 parents viewed the Preparatory Year. Analysis revealed that the range of parent conceptions of the Preparatory Year demonstrated varying emphasis on parent needs, child needs and preparation for future success in school and beyond. The study led to the construction of five categories of description outlining five different ways of understanding the Preparatory Year. The Preparatory Year was viewed in relation to (1) the current needs of the parents, (2) the current needs of the child, (3) preparation for Year One, (4) providing an advantage in primary school, and (5) preparation for future success beyond school. These five categories were linked and differentiated from each other by two central themes, or dimensions of variation: (1) a beneficiary dimension in which either the parent or the child were seen to benefit from the program, and (2) a temporal dimension in which the program was viewed in relation to meeting current needs or preparing for the future. The results of the study suggest that variation exists in the ways that parents may conceptualise the phenomenon of the Preparatory Year in Queensland. Analysis of the data further suggests that tensions exist around whether the Preparatory Year ought to emphasise preparation for the future and/or meet current needs of children; and whether those programs should meet the needs of the parent and/or the needs of the child. This thesis opens up the possibility of future tensions, with the potential for parent preferences for a formal interpretation of the Preparatory Year curriculum being at odds with the new play-based Early Years Curriculum Guidelines. Results of the study suggest that more attention be given to engaging parents and eliciting their views of the early childhood programs experienced by their children. Moreover, it provides an approach for ways in which parent views might be generated, analysed and incorporated into future policy developments and reforms.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2003. / "A thesis submitted to the School of Applied Social and Human Sciences, University of Western Sydney in fulfilment of the Doctor of Philosophy". Includes bibliography : leaves 248 - 270.

Thesis (M.S.)--Medical College of Ohio, 2005. / "In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Nursing." Major advisor: Jane C. Evans. Includes abstract. Document formatted into pages: iv, 85 p. Title from title page of PDF document. Bibliography: pages 66-70.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1983.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1981.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1982.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1983.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1975.