The aim of this thesis is to investigate how presenteeism research can be reconciled with positive psychology through exploring the relationship between organizational attendance pressure-and adjustment norms, work engagement and presenteeism. The working model this thesis uses to look at this adapts the job demands–resources (JD-R) model to predict whether workers will choose to exhibit presenteeism or be absent in the context of Johns’s dynamic model of presenteeism and absenteeism (2010). Participants were 280 workers from a wide variety of sectors who answered a questionnaire that asked about their psychosocial work environment. The design was cross-sectional. Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. The results suggest that the motivational process of the JD-R model does not explain presenteeism to a statistically significant degree. However, the positive relationship between organizational adjustment norms and work engagement was significantly greater for workers with a high level of perceived organizational attendance pressure norms versus those who perceived it to be low. This thesis concludes that how presenteeism is measured and from what sectors workers are recruited to be respondents may influence the results and interpretations of it. Future research that investigates the relationship between work engagement and presenteeism may be warranted for finding new ways of measuring presenteeism and to recruit respondents who work in places where presenteeism is less likely to be perceived as negative for their health (e.g.,knowledge workers in universities).

The purpose of this study was to explore how Dual Credit (DC) programs at Ontario high schools impacted the persistence of students when they are in college and what specific features of these programs affected the participating students’ academic performance. This study focused on the Dual Credit students enrolled full-time at Sir Sandford Fleming College who successfully completed one full-time semester of academic study. Fleming College is one of the 24 Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts & Technology. This was a case study based on both qualitative and quantitative data collected by a number of methods including survey questionnaires, audio-recorded phone and face-to-face interviews, and document analysis. There were a number of findings related to persistence at College. For example, the DC student group persisted at the same rate as did all College students and DC students who enrolled in a College program that was “related” to their DC program were more likely to persist at college. Although there was no attempt to compare the data for the two groups because of uncontrollable variables, this study found that DC students (as a group) did not achieve academically quite at the same level, as did all Fleming College students. However, considering that the DC target group was “at risk” students, the overall academic achievement (64%) of the DC students (2011) was similar to the academic achievement of all College students (68%). The participants in this study recommended that the DC program be as much like college as possible. This study supports previous research, which indicates that the DC courses should be delivered at the college campus (rather than in the high school) and DC students should be integrated with other college students. Although this was a case study of DC students at only one Ontario College and the findings are not generalizable to other sites, the findings of this study will partially address a gap in the research literature and add to the body of knowledge about the impact of DC programs in the areas of student engagement, integration and persistence with respect to DC programs elsewhere.

International development non-governmental organizations (INGOs) in the United Kingdom and Canada have demonstrated a distinct withdrawal from education programming towards campaigns and fundraising. This study explores how the nature of INGO global education programming has shifted over time. The purpose of this research is to gain a better understanding of a) the place of INGO-produced global education within the context of international development and the field of global education, and b) what type of role (if any) INGOs have to play in future global education programming. The shifts in INGO global education over time are identified through a comparative historical analysis of the socio-political and funding conditions affecting INGO-produced global education programming in Canada and the UK including the embedded case studies of two sister organizations, Save the Children UK and Save the Children Canada. This study looks broadly at the fifty year history of INGO global education, then focuses on the current experiences of two INGOs that are representative of conditions of INGO dependency within their country contexts. A conceptual framework based on the work on the educational typologies of Askew and Carnell (1998) and the ethical positionings of Barnett and Weiss (2008) is used to analyze, evaluate, explore, and describe the global education programming mechanisms prioritized by INGOs. The trend of INGO global education programming as fundraising campaigns lacks the commitment to relationship building, and the acquisition of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are important for developing informed and capable constituencies who would understand systemic inequalities. This begs the question as to whether INGOs are satisfied with the short-term, socially regulatory outcome of fundraising when they have the potential to facilitate the dialogical, equitable relationships that can increase the possibilities for social transformation.

The purpose of this study was to explore how Dual Credit (DC) programs at Ontario high schools impacted the persistence of students when they are in college and what specific features of these programs affected the participating students’ academic performance. This study focused on the Dual Credit students enrolled full-time at Sir Sandford Fleming College who successfully completed one full-time semester of academic study. Fleming College is one of the 24 Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts & Technology. This was a case study based on both qualitative and quantitative data collected by a number of methods including survey questionnaires, audio-recorded phone and face-to-face interviews, and document analysis. There were a number of findings related to persistence at College. For example, the DC student group persisted at the same rate as did all College students and DC students who enrolled in a College program that was “related” to their DC program were more likely to persist at college. Although there was no attempt to compare the data for the two groups because of uncontrollable variables, this study found that DC students (as a group) did not achieve academically quite at the same level, as did all Fleming College students. However, considering that the DC target group was “at risk” students, the overall academic achievement (64%) of the DC students (2011) was similar to the academic achievement of all College students (68%). The participants in this study recommended that the DC program be as much like college as possible. This study supports previous research, which indicates that the DC courses should be delivered at the college campus (rather than in the high school) and DC students should be integrated with other college students. Although this was a case study of DC students at only one Ontario College and the findings are not generalizable to other sites, the findings of this study will partially address a gap in the research literature and add to the body of knowledge about the impact of DC programs in the areas of student engagement, integration and persistence with respect to DC programs elsewhere.

What kinds of engagement might be possible for young people through the creation and experience of a cyberdrama? How do you create a cyberdrama? These were the questions that underpinned the process for creating the cyberdrama www.cleo-missing.com – a drama that was created to be experienced through a fully mediated form on the Internet. The background for this project involved: exploring the context for creating a web-based cyberdrama with young people; defining cyberdrama, the nature of the work and possible processes and forms; and examining the notion of engagement, looking for possible links between aspects of the aesthetic and the immersive. The process of creating the drama utilised aspects of process drama, a form emerging from the field of drama education as one that offers up huge potential for the creation of on-line interactive drama. The project research suggests that the context for experiencing the work through the Internet means that the experience of “diversion” needs to be considered and is much more likely for many users than that of “immersion”. This is particularly so in view of the ways many young people use the Internet, with common interactions taking on aspects of Bakhtin’s “carnival” (a subversive or alternative order). The experience for participants in creating the drama was characterised by a number of features, but engagement seemed particularly strong when aspects of control were involved or possible. The framing of this experience through the use of various recording technologies was of key significance to this experience of engagement; the possibility of creating a presence that may affirm a participant’s sense of existence seems to engage participants solidly in the process. The research also suggested that for those creating drama on-line the use of a fairly linear narrative structure may still be desirable, and that the more significant experiences of engagement occur when a number of pleasures are experienced in combination. The findings of this research may be of relevance to those interesting in exploring the possibilities of creating drama with young people utilising mediated forms.

Zugl.: Halle (Saale), Univ., Diss., 2005

Zugl.: Aschaffenburg, Fachhochsch., Diplomarbeit, 2004 u.d.T.: Ebert, Florian: Bedingungen für kooperatives Verhalten in Unternehmen

Konstanz, Univ., Diss., 2008.

Zugl.: Tübingen, Univ., Diss., 2007 / Hergestellt on demand

Zugl.: Kassel, Universiẗat, Diss., 2007.