Thesis (M.A.B.S.)--Multnomah Graduate School of Ministry, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-116).

Thesis (M.A.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, Mass., 2000. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-96).

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of History, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

This diploma thesis deals with the problematic of internationalisms and the possibility of their utilization in language education. It concerns broadening the vocabulary by internationalisms of German speakers learning Czech. The theoretical section is devoted to the history and perspectives of Czech language and especially it?s vocabulary. This section provides information about the current condition of foreign language education, and mentions The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, which determines the modern schooling of languages. Furthermore, the work is interested in the problems and difficulties of adopting internationalisms. One chapter is dedicated to the, so called ?false friends? that complicate understanding between speakers of different languages. The practical section consists of a couple of thematic chapters into which the internationalisms are divided. In each section, there are model exercises that can be applied in Czech language schooling of foreigners. When selecting exercises, it is necessary to consider the grammatical ability of students. The work is concluded with a vocabulary of internationalisms gathered from the lexicon of different textbooks of Czech language for foreigners.

The Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, began their witness in the 1600s during a time of religious debate when competing doctrines reflected the political, social and intellectual turmoil of seventeenth-century England. George Fox (1624-1691), the founder, preached that people are guided by God's inner light which is present in the hearts and conscience of all people and reflects God's 'divine' will. The Quakers form a small religious membership not larger than 200,000 people sect, its world-wide. Yet, historically, the group's impact on social issues has always outweighed its numerical strength. The earliest Quakers to reside more permanently in South Africa were British settlers, several of whom became outspoken civic leaders. Quaker humanitarian gestures led to the opening of a multi-racial school for poor children in Cape Town (1840) and investigations into the treatment of Afrikaner women and children in concentration camps during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). Early Quakers are also credited with initiating the Joint Council Movement of Europeans and Africans (1920s), forerunner to the South African Institute of Race Relations. This study traces the Quaker presence in South Africa from its earliest history to the present, with particular emphasis on the twentieth century. Specifically, the examination of the Quaker presence addresses the group's reaction to South African society and politics in reference to segregationist and apartheid legislation. The study includes a comparative analysis of the response among South African Quakers to these issues with Quaker response in England and the United states. The purpose of this analysis is to attempt an assessment of the extent to which South African Quaker practices were consistent with the philosophies of their world-wide religious fellowship. Relevant to the Quaker belief in peace and justice for all, with no discrimination, specific issues that involved South African Quakers and for which sufficient primary sources were available are closely examined. Of particular interest is the opening of a Quaker boarding school during the early 1930s, the Quaker response to the Defiance Campaign in 1952, and South African Quaker response to the call for international sanctions and boycotts against South Africa. More recent Quaker activities, including mediation between the African National Congress and the government, provide significant data. South African Quakers have defined themselves as members of a religious body whose belief of pacifism and commitment to non-violence dictates to a certain extent their obedience to a higher authority -- which some call their conscience and others call God -- if a civil law is deemed immoral and unjust . Thus, the study seeks to define the individual and corporate Quaker witness in South Africa in relation to the Society's principles.

This thesis examines Walt Whitman's friendships with many of his contemporaries in New York, Boston, Washington and Camden, and highlights the differences among them.

Through a second look at the now twenty-five-year-old literature on guanxi, a form of reciprocal relationship making and using in China, I examine how the kinds of opportunities and challenges possible for young people intersect with who they know and how this has changed (with its own set of reflections on and consequences for a still-rapidly changing China) since China’s rural to urban transition. My dissertation project examines how young people in contemporary urban China form and produce guanxi ties (resource-full relationships) through the theoretical lens of practice and possibility, inspired by de Certeau’s conceptualization of practice, productive consumption, and strategies versus tactics (1984). Drawing on qualitative data gathered through participant observation and unstructured interviews, I sought to both describe and analyze when, where, and how social networks became consequential. Central to my methodology is an emphasis on people and their practices rather than the common sense categories used to describe them. The people in my field research were predominantly aged 18-30 and came from a range of ethnic, professional, and education backgrounds. In so doing, I was able to examine the moments and contexts within which some people have opportunities and others do not, as well as when some are vulnerable while others are less so. I found that social networks can be formed in a variety of spaces, and sometimes most saliently in moments of serendipity. Chance encounters in spaces of play, without the artifice of traditional and structured gift-giving practices of building guanxi, provided people with opportunities and potential alternatives outside of more stringent work hierarchies. Ultimately, who people knew – their social networks – shaped the ways in which they experienced circumstances of precarity, instability, and possibility.

The present study examined whether an individual’s own implicit theory of relationships predicts how s/he perceives his/her friend’s romantic relationship. Implicit theories of relationships are based on destiny beliefs (DB), the belief that a relationship is meant to be, and growth beliefs (GB), the belief that relationships require work. Each participant was randomly exposed to one of three relationship scenarios where the participant’s hypothetical friend discusses a partner displaying negative, mixed, or positive relationship behaviors. We found the participants high in DB were less approving of the relationship, and those high in GB were more approving. Those high in DB also made more relationship-damaging attributions when asked to select reasons why the partner engaged in said behaviors but surprisingly perceived the couple as more satisfied overall. Anticipated interactions between DB and GB were not found.

The work emphasizes that the roots of inequality find fertile breeding grounds on the educational systems and focuses on classroom aiming to understand possible sources of inequality among mates because it is an environment where students interact, sharing much time together. In detail, I investigate how hierarchies, networks of friends, and classroom peers influence students’ motivations, aspirations, academic competences, behaviors, and educational choices. In chapter I of this work, I outline a theoretical framework arguing that classroom inequality is a result of varying characteristics of the interacting actors such as their gender, age, ethnic origin, socioeconomic background as well as academic competencies. The classroom sorting of students with specific characteristics broadly depends on formal and informal institutional rules. To shed light on these patterns of educational systems, I rely on three distinct concepts, such as inequality, diversity, and sorting. In chapter II of this work, I test whether teachers’ grading is an inequality-enhancing factor in Italy. Previous contributions suggest that teacher’s grading is biased by preferences and stereotypes. My idea is that teachers’ grading standards might produce a hierarchy among students, even among equally able students. This hierarchy, in turn, could have a pervasive influence on students’ perception of their own competencies, thereby influencing their academic achievement, motivation, and self-stigma. In chapter III, I investigate the extent to which extent smoking and drinking friends lead to emulate the same behavior in a critical age like the adolescence. Unhealthy habits dramatically affect life expectancy, above all, when rooted in the early stage of individual development. In addition, I analyze if non-reciprocal friendship matters more or not as a driver of the behavior emulation because adolescents desire to be accepted. In final chapter IV, I test to what extent the presence of students with a migration background affects several outcomes in classrooms, including students’ attitudes and anti-social behavior. Italy is dealing with a dramatic increase of immigrant students since the late ‘80s, but a series of data suggest that the school is not well equipped for this challenge. Overall, the thesis aims to contribute to important theoretical debates in the sociology and economics of education, such as the role of relative positions in the social environment (chapter II), peer effects in critical developmental stages (chapter III), and the social integration in heterogeneous contexts (chapter IV). However, it aims also to inform policymakers on possible side effects of current widespread educational practices such as grading on a curve (chapter II), the actual role of peers in the spreading of unhealthy behaviors among adolescents (chapter III), and the need of imposing interventions devoted to optimizing classrooms compositions (chapter IV).

Detta examensarbete belyser hur svenska skolor arbetar mot mobbning. Mobbning är ett stort problem som orsakar stor oro bland skolbarn. 1969 ville läkaren Peter-Paul Heinemann uppmärksamma mobbning då han upptäckte att många barn blev mobbade och att vuxna inte brydde sig. 1973 forskade psykologen Dan Olweus kring pojkars beteende kring mobbning. Detta var början till antimobbningsarbetet. Det finns ett flertal antimobbningsprogram och jag har valt att undersöka Friendsprogrammet och Olweusprogrammet. Skolverket har även sammanställt en rapport rörande effekterna av dessa program. Jag ville också undersöka hur barn definierar ordet mobbning. För att komma fram till undersökningsresultat rörande dessa två ovanstående antimobbningsprogram och barns definiering av begreppet mobbning har jag forskat i vetenskapliga  undersökningar och litteratur samt även utfört intervjuer med barn i åldrarna 7-9 år och skolpersonal. Jag valde två skolor som arbetar med dessa två program och barnintervjuerna gjordes med tillåtelse av barnens föräldrar. Intervjusvaren jämfördes sedan med de vetenskapliga rapporterna och litteraturen. Slutsatsen av min undersökning är att dessa två program har både för- och nackdelar. Olweusprogrammet kräver resurser och tid. Friendsprogrammet involverar barnen som riskerar att få en utsatt position. Barnen kunde utan problem definiera innebörden av mobbning.