The present research is based on the analysis of educational resources (human, financial, and material) and their use for the education of schoolchildren with special needs in comprehensive schools. The theoretical first and second part of the research analyses government documents (the Law on Education of the Republic of Lithuania, the Law on Special Education of the Republic of Lithuania, the guidelines of education in Lithuania in 2003 – 2012, the sponsorship documents referring to special education of schoolchildren, and others) as well as works of famous Lithuanian scientists such as Želvys, Galkienė, Adomaitien��, Ambrukaitis, Ruškus that have performed research in the field under investigation. The research focuses on the teachers that work with schoolchildren with special needs, their qualification refreshment, demand for specialists (speech therapists, typhlopedagogues, special teachers, and others), financial problems, material resources. The thesis introduces works of foreign scientists (Gray, Jenkner, Kaufman, Fletcher-Campbel and others), shows the experience of such countries as Bulgaria, Island, Poland, Luxemburg, Great Britain, France, Romania, and others. The object of the research is educational resources and their use for the education of children with special needs in comprehensive schools. The aim of the research is the evaluation of educational resource formation and use organizing special help in comprehensive schools in Utena region. The... [to full text]

This dissertation research examines how shared aspects of identity are constructed among the Druze in Lebanon and how it contributes to conceptualizations of heritage. Assessing the educational resources focused on aspects of Druze heritage, the barriers to cultural preservation were elucidated. Utilizing a number of qualitative research methods, participants’ feedback constructed a narrative that considers what they believe to be at risk for their community. These issues included addressing a perceived knowledge gap wherein the majority of Druze expressed a need to expand the educational resources in their community. Participants defined the kinds of resources and social supports that are lacking and explained how existing texts, lectures, and seminars should be improved, increased, and made more accessible. This dissertation is a result of ethnographic fieldwork which I conducted throughout 2014. Having lived in the town of Aley, Lebanon, I conducted research interviews with individuals that represented a broad spectrum of society, taking into account women and men of different ages with diverse social, economic, and educational backgrounds. Through participant observation, I shared many of the daily experiences of research participants and observed the Druze in their regular lives, their social gatherings, and at sites of historical significance. Using a political economic theoretical framework, this research also explored the diversity of ways in which social phenomena are contested among the Druze in Lebanon. While much of the anthropological and social science research on heritage focuses on its material components, utilizing pre-established models that conflate heritage with tangible symbolic expressions, a political economic approach insists that the context of social structures are taken into account. This also lends itself to a conceptualization of heritage as a process by which individuals create meaning in their lives, which are shaped by social contexts such as history and contemporary culture. This research highlights the fact that a priori models that fail to consider both social structures and the fundamental perspectives of participants are based upon ideologies that lack a critical academic lens. This dissertation demonstrates that while Druze particularism often necessitated a level of conformity and ascription to traditional values, the diversity of individual approaches to shared identity contributed to the plasticity of cultural forms and varieties of self-expression. As well, expanded and improved educational resources that encourage individuals to learn more about their history and the basic tenets of their faith were widely seen as a valued means of ensuring the society’s continuation.

A key component of Open Education movement are Open Educational Resources (OER), which are defined as any digital objects that are commonly shared in online repositories and can be freely accessed, reused and adapted by a community of users for educational purposes using an open license scheme. This broad definition includes a lot of different artefacts, such as digital learning objects, software tools like wikis or authoring systems, electronic textbooks, and lesson plans. Existing research on OER has focused on how to make digital objects available and re-usable for educators and learners. Currently, there are millions of resources for basically all subjects, education level. However, their adoption has been limited, the consumption of them is passive, and there are still many barriers towards the uptake of OER. Amongst those, are the not-invented-here syndrome and the lack of involvement and recognition of users who feel that they do or cannot contribute appropriately. In our research, we focus on tweaking the steps that are accomplished before having the resources complete and shared. In particular, in situations when ideas are initiated, shaped, and shared with like-minded people in order to create new educational outcomes, such as OER.

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