The purpose of the study was to examine the development of Learning for Everyday Living, the Indiana curriculum guide, for the adult performance level (APL) program in the State of Indiana and to determine its use and value to adult basic education (ABE) programs throughout the State of Indiana.An examination of the Guide and its usefulness was undertaken in four areas: First, administrators' judgments of the management aspects of the Guide and its ease or difficulty of use by teachers. Second, teachers' and administrators judgments of the Guide's curriculum value. Third, teachers' judgments of the value of the auxiliary materials in the use of the Guide. Fourth, the degree of administrators' and teachers' inservice and/or preparation prior to the use of the Guide. Respondents were asked to respond to Part A of the questionnaire if they used the Guide, to Part B if they didn't. The respondents consisted of 24 directors and 81 adult basic education (ABE) teachers working in 28 programs.Findings1. Fifty-eight percent of the administrators responding indicated that Learninq for Everyday Livinq material was used in their programs.2. Approximately 93% of the administrators judged that the Guide was effective with students.3. Both teachers and administrators viewed the auxiliary materials as inadequate in working with adult basic education (ABE) students.4. Opportunity for additional staff development opportunities were judged valuable to both teachers and administrators in further use of the Guide.Conclusions1. A general updating of the Guide was recommended by both teachers and administrators with attention directed to the addition of activities and objectives in several content areas, i.e. family, lifelong learning, parenting, problem-solving, etc.2. The Guide was judged by both teachers and administrators to be effective as a curriculum guide and is very manageable in the areas of record-keeping and preparation of lessons. It allows adult students easy entry and exit to Adult Basic Education(ABE) Programs.3. Staff development workshops to acquaint new teachers and administrators with the materials are needed if the Guide is to be further implemented throughout the state.

While credibility perception on the Web is a well-researched topic across multiple disciplines, extant studies have not considered nonvisual modalities of Web access. This research explores how Web users who are blind or visually impaired perceive the credibility of online information and how the screen reader used by them to interact with the Web mediates the process. Credibility perception was studied in the context of the screen reader users’ everyday information practices, examining in depth the effect of Web accessibility on their online information interactions, information practices and credibility perception. Adopting an exploratory approach, a sequential multimethods research design was used. Between April and July 2008 data were collected from adult screen reader users residing in Ontario, Canada through an electronic questionnaire survey (N=60) to identify salient issues, which were then examined deeper through semi-structured interviews with a subsample (N=13) during June 2009. Hands-on online information activities (with participant observation and think-aloud protocol) were also conducted during the interview session. Primary findings emerged through qualitative content analysis of descriptive data, with quantitative results guiding and supplementing the analysis. Online information credibility perception is found to be a dynamic and social process. It is governed by users’ assumptions based on their past experiences, personal knowledge/beliefs and social inputs. Assumptions evolve over time and usage into personal heuristics. The credibility perception process spans three phases—prediction, evaluation and corroboration—permeating the information seeking, using and sharing practices of users. Evaluation of website and web content depends on users’ online interaction proficiency and is bounded by the interface affordances provided by the screen reader and the amount of meta-information provided by the websites for interpreting visual/spatial features. Community support scaffolds users towards more effective technology management and credibility perception. Therefore, promoting inclusion in the online participatory culture will enhance the information practices of screen reader users.

While credibility perception on the Web is a well-researched topic across multiple disciplines, extant studies have not considered nonvisual modalities of Web access. This research explores how Web users who are blind or visually impaired perceive the credibility of online information and how the screen reader used by them to interact with the Web mediates the process. Credibility perception was studied in the context of the screen reader users’ everyday information practices, examining in depth the effect of Web accessibility on their online information interactions, information practices and credibility perception. Adopting an exploratory approach, a sequential multimethods research design was used. Between April and July 2008 data were collected from adult screen reader users residing in Ontario, Canada through an electronic questionnaire survey (N=60) to identify salient issues, which were then examined deeper through semi-structured interviews with a subsample (N=13) during June 2009. Hands-on online information activities (with participant observation and think-aloud protocol) were also conducted during the interview session. Primary findings emerged through qualitative content analysis of descriptive data, with quantitative results guiding and supplementing the analysis. Online information credibility perception is found to be a dynamic and social process. It is governed by users’ assumptions based on their past experiences, personal knowledge/beliefs and social inputs. Assumptions evolve over time and usage into personal heuristics. The credibility perception process spans three phases—prediction, evaluation and corroboration—permeating the information seeking, using and sharing practices of users. Evaluation of website and web content depends on users’ online interaction proficiency and is bounded by the interface affordances provided by the screen reader and the amount of meta-information provided by the websites for interpreting visual/spatial features. Community support scaffolds users towards more effective technology management and credibility perception. Therefore, promoting inclusion in the online participatory culture will enhance the information practices of screen reader users.

PEDESTRIAN is inspired by my daily walking routines and my relationship to the spaces in which I walk. Through additional instruction-guided walks with volunteers, this project examines the seemingly mundane travels of walkers and their relationship to and absorption of the space around them, and encourages a reconsideration of the environmental everyday into a venue for play and discovery.

Vårt syfte med denna studie är att undersöka organisationskulturen på Getinge Sterilization AB för att se om det förekommer skillnader i grundläggande antaganden för arbetarna, tjänstemännen och ledningen d.v.s. om det skiljer sig åt avseende deras uppfattning om sin vardagsverklighet, vilka dessa skillnader är och varför de uppstår. Vi vill även förstå hur dessa skillnader kan påverka organisationers möjlighet till framgång. Vi har tillämpat en kvalitativ ansats i syfte att nå en djupare förståelse för hur informanterna uppfattar organisationskulturen på fallföretaget. För att nå en sådan förståelse har vi sammanlagt gjort 12 semistrukturerade intervjuer med elva olika personer samt tre observationer. Vi har även granskat olika interna och externa dokument. Vi har valt ett abduktivt förhållningssätt i vår undersökningsprocess. Genom hela forskningsprocessen har vi använt en kartläggningsmodell (Scheins trefaktormodell) och vid analysstadiet har denna använts som ett verktyg för att bearbeta den insamlade datan. Vi har funnit att arbetarnivån uppvisar några unika drag i organisationskulturen som till viss del delas av tjänstemannanivån medan ledningen uppvisar en relativt ordinär ledningskultur. Detta innebär att det finns tydliga skillnader i grundläggande antaganden mellan de olika nivåerna i företaget. De tydligaste skillnaderna finns mellan arbetarnivån och ledningsnivån med tjänstemannanivån ofta någonstans emellan. Skillnaderna beror troligtvis på att arbetarna, tjänstemännen och ledningen har olika vardagsverkligheter att förhålla sig till. Dessa skillnader kan medföra problem i framtida förändringsarbete när företaget behöver anpassa rådande organisationskultur till mer moderna omständigheter. Organisationskultur, vardagsverklighet, grundläggande antaganden, subgrupper, kvalitativ. / The aim of this study is to examine the organizational culture at Getinge Sterilization AB to see if there were differences in the basic assumptions for the workers, the clerical staff and the management, that is; Is there a difference regarding their everyday reality? What are these differences and why do they occur? We also want to understand how these differences affect the company’s ability to succeed. We have applied a qualitative approach in order to reach a deeper understanding of how respondents perceive the organizational culture at Getinge Sterilization AB. To reach such an understanding, we have made a total of 12 semistructured interviews with eleven different people. We have also conducted three observations. Finally we studied various internal and external documents. We have chosen an abductive approach in our research process. Throughout the research process, we used a mapping model (Schein’s three factor-model) and at the analysis stage has this been used as a tool to process the gathered data. Our findings shows that the working level exhibits some unique features in the organizational culture, which to some extent is shared by the clerical staff-level while the management show a relatively ordinary management culture. This concludes that there are clear differences in the basic assumptions between the different levels in the organization. The most obvious differences exists between the working level and the management level with the clerical staff-level somewhere in between. The differences likely occur because workers, clerical staff and management relate to different everyday realities. This differences can cause problems in future organizational change processes when the company needs to adapt the existing organizational culture to more modern circumstances. Organizational culture, everyday reality, basic assumptions, subgroups, qualitative.

The aim of this study is to draw attention to the fact that daily practices which tend to be overlooked due to their taken for grantedness actually signify power coming into existence here and now as well as that everyday problems bring along accordingly ordinary coping ways. In this respect, resistance in everyday life means a refusal that does not identify itself as political and organized, and who intends to make do with the rule by finding immediate and effective solutions to negative effects power generates rather than overtly challenging it. In order to render visible this type of resistance, to understand how it is experienced and perceived, the implementation of smoking ban in enclosed areas was covered in entertainment venues. Participant observations and semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted in Nevizade Street that is located in Beyoglu district of Istanbul and consists of meyhanes as well as beerhouses. Although customers resist based on pleasure principle, managers in order not to go bankrupt and employees not to fall out of work, it is concluded that what is thwarted here is not public health that the related law aims to protect but rather the troubles that the implementation of the law brings about.

No description available.

This thesis considers ordinary Swedish teenagers and their everyday use of,and views on, music. The aim of the study is to analyse the relationship between identity and adolescents’ use of music in their daily lives. Theories are employed that hold identity to be a process, and that comprise the social as well as the psychological aspects of the individual (Giddens,1991; 1997; Jenkins, 2008). Since for both Giddens and Jenkins the reflexive identity process takes place in everyday life, it is a concept that is essential to this study. The idea that people are active, not passive, in their day-to-day use of cultural products ultimately leads to Small’s (1998) definition of musicking. The empirical part of the study was carried out among fifteen eighthgraders (14–15 years) in two schools in two Swedish cities. An initial questionnaire provided outlines of the adolescents’ musical preferences, and were followed by focus group conversations centred on six music examples. Later, interviews were carried out to chart the informants’ individual relationships with music and their personal use of it. The material is analysed thematically in three chapters on music and ‘them’, music and ‘us’, and music and ‘me’. In the final chapter, a competent musicking agency is held to be a combinationof individual and social factors. Whether these aspects can coexist boils down to the question of authenticity: much like Giddens’s competent agent, the competent musicking agent moves between life sectors, maintaining balance between uniqueness and normality, and is therefore perceived as authentic by both herself and others. In school, pupils tend to choose music that promotes their public image. Instead of yielding to a tussle between self-image and public image, it is suggested that music education should become a free zone where the well known is looked at in newways, and where one could get to know the unknown.

Syftet med studien var att beskriva det dagliga livet för yngre kvinnor med urininkontinens. Sju stycken kvinnor intervjuades och en öppen fråga ställdes för att få fram studiens syfte. Kvalitativ innehållsanalys genom Lundman & Hällgren Graneheim(2012) användes som analysmetod. Studiens resultat visade att urininkontinens förde med sig en rad konsekvenser för den unga kvinnan. I det dagliga livet innebar det att livet blev mindre aktivt och då var det främst påverkan på den fysiska aktiviteten kvinnorna tog upp och upplevde som ett problem. Upplevelsen att känna sig ensam, okvinnlig och mindre sexuellt attraktiv förekom och rädslan fanns ständigt där att läckaget skulle upptäckas. Kvinnan låg steget före och tänkte förebyggande genom att planlägga vart toaletter fanns, dricka minimalt och anpassa sin klädsel. Urininkontinens upplevdes svårt att prata om och var inget självklart som delades med sin närmaste familj eller vänner. Sammanfattningsvis blev konsekvenserna och anpassningarna att den unga kvinnan med urininkontinens levde i ständig beredskap i vardagen. / The aim of the study was to describe the daily lives of younger women with urinary incontinence. Seven women were interviewed and one open question was asked to produce the study's purpose. Qualitative content analysis by Hällgren Graneheim & Lundman (2012) was used as the analysis method. The study results showed that urinary incontinence entailed a number of consequences for the young woman. In daily life it meant that life became less active and then it was mainly the effect on the physical activity women took up and experienced as a problem. Experience to feel alone, unfeminine and less sexually attractive occurred and the fear was constantly there that the leakage could be detected. The woman thought prevention by designing their everyday lives. Urinary incontinence was experienced hard to talk about and were no obvious shared with their immediate family or friends. In summary, the consequences and the adjustments to the young woman with urinary incontinence lived in constant readiness in everyday life.

Rationale and study aims: Persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) experience declines in everyday functioning and cognitive performance greater than what is experienced in normal aging but less than that of dementia. Daily stress and daily memory complaints associated with cognitive deficits may contribute to greater psychological distress in the day-to-day experiences of persons with MCI. However, research examining the occurrence of daily stressors, daily memory complaints and psychological distress in MCI is limited, and it is not clear how the daily processes of stress and affect in persons with MCI compare to cognitively healthy older adults. This dissertation examined the occurrence of daily stressors, daily memory complaints, retrospective and daily well-being in persons with MCI compared to cognitively healthy controls. Main analyses examined whether daily stressors and daily memory complaints were associated with worse daily affect in MCI participants compared to controls, and whether increased daily stress was associated with a greater number of memory complaints. Methods: The study used a short-term repeated measures design, and included MCI and control participants recruited from a university-based memory clinic. The interviews consisted of a baseline interview and up to eight consecutive days of brief daily phone interviews. The interviews included both retrospective and daily measures of psychological well-being, daily stressors, daily memory complaints, and open-ended questions about daily experiences. Results: Persons with MCI reported a greater number of daily memory complaints and worse psychological distress, as measured by both retrospective and daily reports. There were no significant differences between MCI and control participants, however, in the frequency of daily stressors. In both unadjusted and adjusted analyses, on days when a participant reported more daily stressors, they had higher negative affect. The stress-negative affect relationship was stronger for MCI participants compared to controls. MCI and control participants who reported more memory complaints, on average, had higher negative affect. Discussion: Daily stressors were disproportionally associated with greater psychological distress in MCI participants as compared to cognitively healthy controls. Interventions targeting the potential distress associated with daily life may be beneficial for psychological well-being in persons with MCI. Future research should examine other potential mechanisms of distress in daily lives of persons with MCI in order to inform relatives and caregivers of persons with MCI, clinicians who give diagnoses to their patients, and individuals providing community support for individuals living with MCI.