This thesis explores the university experiences of the daughters of single mothers who are first-generation students in the United Kingdom. Data was collected during spring and summer of 2013. Participants were recruited through flyers, email, and social networking sites. Participants were sought who met the following criteria: they considered themselves to have been primarily raised by their mother (or their mother raised them alone for about five years or more during their childhood); they were current or recent undergraduate university students at any university in the UK, any mode of study (full or part time), and any age (traditional age or mature students); and they were first-generation students (the first in their family to attend university, which includes students whose siblings might have gone to university). A preliminary 30-question, online questionnaire was completed by 110 respondents. Among the survey respondents, 26 participated in qualitative, semi- structured interviews. After the interview, participants were encouraged to engage in reflective writing. Data was explored through a thematic, theoretical, and autoethnographical analysis. This research examines intersectionalities of gender, socio-economic class, race, and family status as they shape the students' identities and their university experiences. The theoretical and conceptual frameworks upon which this study is built include feminist theory, intersectionality theory, and the concept of social exclusion. The findings from this study contribute to the existing literature within the area of widening participation and social identities and illuminate the ways that single mother families are constructed by the media, by politicians, and in society. Additionally, this study bridges the gap between the existing literature on the experience of single mother families and the existing literature on the experiences of students in higher education, providing a deeper understanding of access, participation, and inclusion of this specific population of students as yet unexplored within existing research.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how education in one girls' government school teaches understandings of citizenship and to identify potential links to the reproduction of identity-based violence in Pakistan. This in-depth qualitative case study was conducted in a girls' government model school. This study focuses on curriculum and school practices of the secondary school section. Data was collected through interviews with staff, a participatory workshop with teachers, focus groups with students, classroom observation, and informal discussions. I also analyzed the Pakistan Studies textbook used in the secondary section of the school. Using theories of critical education, intersectionality, and Galtung's violence triangle, I argue that despite recent political and curricular reform attempts, education in Pakistan reproduces a homogeneous concept of a legitimate citizen (male Sunni Muslim). While this evolved to unite an ethnically diverse Pakistan, it has contributed to identity-based violence (direct, structural, and cultural) against those that do not fit within this conception. In this school, the Pakistan Studies textbooks create an official discourse that promotes this gendered and exclusionary citizenship. I show how the Pakistan studies textbook uses history and constitutional lessons to promote citizenship that is based in a masculine Islam meant to oppose the Hindu ‘other' as well as to promote the exclusion of women and minorities from full citizenship. I also found that teachers own understandings of citizenship, which closely reflect the text, are deeply rooted in their understanding of their notions of the ideal Muslim woman. I find that the school rewards gendered behavior in both students and teachers. I then explore the extent to which the school reproduces other social divisions including religious, ethnicity, and class. I find that the school simultaneously reproduces, mitigates, and exacerbates these tensions. I then argue that the teachers' and students' understandings of the role of women to counter violence is rooted in the notions of middle class women's roles as mothers and supporters of men that are reproduced through school practice. This study furthers the knowledge on the links between education and violence by showing that promoting a homogeneous ideal of a citizen through education, while intended as a nation building project, can contribute to structural, cultural and direct violence against women and minorities, limiting their agency to engage in social transformation.

Submitted by Luanna Matias (lua_matias@yahoo.com.br) on 2015-02-06T10:08:46Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Eny Arruda Barbosa - 2014.pdf: 11214817 bytes, checksum: 68598ac75439704ea76da799c70a6cbd (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2015-02-19T12:36:26Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Eny Arruda Barbosa - 2014.pdf: 11214817 bytes, checksum: 68598ac75439704ea76da799c70a6cbd (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-19T12:36:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Eny Arruda Barbosa - 2014.pdf: 11214817 bytes, checksum: 68598ac75439704ea76da799c70a6cbd (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-27 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás - FAPEG / This dissertation is the result of an investigation about the Walmir Alexandre’s work from the series "Girls from Minas". Its main goal is to identify the elements of inspiration and themes that motivated the montesclarense artist to make his sculptures, as well as representative features of the work. To achieve the expected results, the study was divided into three chapters: the first, I present a brief history of the artist Walmir Alexandre’s life and work, showing his techniques work, artistic trends and material used for the preparation of his works art, seeking to understand how his work is developed and its relationship to the works as a creator; in the second chapter, I wonder about the Walmir Alexandre’s works from the emergence of gender representations, making an analogy between some ceramic works, with emphasis on the sacred and on the profane elements of these representations that escape this discourse; the third chapter, I make a reflection and analysis of the "Girls from Minas" series, contextualizing the topic in question with other authors and artists who used the female figure and her sensuality as inspiration for the creation of their works. Are also highlighted in the work of visuality marked Walmir Alexandre and the presence of potters that use this technique nowadays. The allegorical way of giving a new format is a natural tendency of the artist. The peculiar look about the riches of the land of Minas, its people, roots, is resignified by the delicacy of poetic information of figures. / Esta dissertação de mestrado é o resultado de uma investigação sobre a obra do artista Walmir Alexandre a partir da série “Meninas de Minas”. Tendo como objetivo principal, identificar os elementos de inspiração e temas que motivaram o artista montesclarense na confecção de suas esculturas, bem como os aspectos representativos da obra. Para alcançar os resultados esperados, o estudo foi dividido em três capítulos: no primeiro, apresento um breve histórico sobre a vida e a obra do artista Walmir Alexandre, mostrando suas técnicas de trabalho, tendências artísticas e material utilizado para a elaboração de suas obras de arte, buscando compreender como é desenvolvido o seu trabalho e a sua relação com as obras enquanto criador; no segundo capítulo, discorro sobre as obras de Walmir Alexandre a partir do surgimento das representações de gênero, fazendo uma analogia entre algumas obras em cerâmica, com ênfase no sacro, no profano e nos elementos dessas representações que escapam desse discurso; no terceiro capítulo, faço uma reflexão e análise sobre a série “Meninas de Minas”, contextualizando o tema em questão com outros autores e artistas que utilizaram a figura feminina e sua sensualidade como inspiração para a criação de suas obras. São destacadas, também, a visualidade marcada na obra de Walmir Alexandre e a presença de ceramistas que utilizam essa técnica na contemporaneidade. A maneira alegórica de dar um novo formato é uma tendência natural do artista. O olhar peculiar acerca das riquezas das terras de Minas, de sua gente, suas raízes, é resignificada pela delicadeza das informações poéticas das figuras.

This study examines portrayals of adolescent girls on Music Television (MTV). A content analysis of 26 hours of MTV programming was conducted and analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods. Analyzed programming was shown August-November 2001. Dates were chosen randomly; times were chosen randomly from the pools of hours in which adolescents usually watch television. Adolescent girls predominantly appear in the background of MTV programs. Many of them cheer for male celebrities, but only 12% speak. The content analysis reveals that a narrow beauty ideal is promoted on the channel-most girls are thin, White, and wearing revealing clothing. It is argued that MTV portrayals exacerbate girls' body dissatisfaction, sexual objectification, and confidence slide. This study is significant because the stories told on MTV are reflected in the lived world, and those stories suggest that girls should sit quietly in the background and be thin and White to be considered beautiful.

Thesis (M. Sc. (Statistics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2018 / TheEllisrasLongitudinalStudy(ELS)openedthepossibilitiesforunderstandingthegrowthvariationsamongchildreninruralSouthAfrica. Theaimofthe study was to analyse the growth spurt in height and weight of children using the ELS. This is part of the on going ELS and this study followed secondary analytical longitudinal study using data collected from November 1996 to November 2003. All children underwent a series of anthropometric measurements of height and weight according to the standard procedures recommended by the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry. The descriptive statistics was done for age, height, weight, velocity and acceleration by gender amongst rural children in Ellisras. Thelinearmixedmodelwasusedto analyse data. Based on the smallest values of AIC and BIC, the best model to fit the ELS data which was found to be the unstructured covariance structure model was chosen. The interaction between age and gender, which was significant at 5% level suggested that the relationship of age with growth varies depending on gender. There was also a significant positive linear relationship of age with distance. The onset of growth spurt for rural children in Ellisras was at 12.05 years for boys and at 12.32 years for girls, while the Senegalese boys took off earlier at 11.02 years. Ellisras rural boys and USA boys had their onset of growth spurt almost at the same age at 13 years for USA boys and 12.05 years for Ellisras rural boys. USA girls had their onset of growth spurt earlier at 11 years than Ellisras rural girls at 12.32 years. Newcastle upon Tyne adolescents reached ii their PHV at 14 and 12 years for boys and girls respectively, similarly with Ellisras rural children at 14.21 and 11.80 years for boys and girls respectively. Ellisras rural girls had their PHV at 11.80 years earlier than Ellisras rural boys at 14.21 years. Children in rural Ellisras in the ELS and their growth variations do not differ that much compared with other children across the world. Key words: Growth spurt, peak height velocity, boys, girls. / National Research Foundation (NRF)

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This study investigates the social function of reading Urban Literature and the role the genre serves in the lives of a family of African American women. This investigation discovered that their talk about a particular Urban Literature text reveals intertextual links among multiple "texts" and that these links relate to elements of their lived worlds and cultural models. Using a case study portrait methodology, grounded in a sociocultural approach to language and literacy, this study focuses on the following questions: 1. What do the women in an all-female African American family read? Why do they read? 2. How are these African American women's self-perceptions and identities related to their family's reading practices? 3. How do the women in an all-female African American family engage and talk to one another about books as readers, individuals, and as a family? 4. How are the intertextual links they use during their talk socially constructed as they interact and react to one another? To address the first two questions, I conducted two in-depth individual interviews of the participants and analyzed their responses for evidence that reading Urban Literature is part of larger social and cultural practices related to their self-perception and their lived worlds and cultural models. In this case, reading Urban Literature serves a larger purpose than just pure entertainment. Specifically, I found that the women in this family read Urban Literature for the following social functions: (1) as a connection to urban life; (2) as a form of entertainment; (3) as a collaborative activity; and (4) as a means of constructing and defining their own identities. To address the second two questions, I joined the family for a discussion of an Urban Literature book called Rage Times Fury (2004). After documenting the conversation on video, I analyzed a 6 min 16 sec segment of the 1 hr 17 min 11 sec discussion to explore the ways the family members' talk collaboratively constructs meaning through intertextual links. The collaborative nature of their talk about Rage Times Fury reveals that this family uses intertextual links to: (1) define themselves as readers, particularly as readers of Urban Literature, and as students; (2) strengthen their bonds as members of the same family through strategies such as repetition; and (3) identify and validate their cultural models and prior lived experiences based on their shared social and historical perspectives. The analysis within this study suggests researchers can conduct more extensive studies of how African American families with adolescents engage in various literacy practices and how those practices are embedded in their social and cultural lived worlds. This study also recommends that educators should strive more to connect family literacy skills, practices, and cultural models in students' homes to instructional skills, practices, and cultural models employed in classrooms.

Syftet med arbetet är att studera och analysera hur flickor bedöms idag inom juridiken och det sociala arbetet. Forskning visar att under tidigare versioner av lagstiftning för tvångsomhändertagande har flickor bedömts efter sin sexuella aktivitet och lössläppthet och trots att lagar förändrats kopplas fortfarande bedömningar av flickors förbrytelser till deras sexualitet. Forskning visar också att det finns ett betydande könsrollstänkande inom socialt arbete och att det tycks råda en allmän moralpanik över flickors sexualitet. Teorier och begrepp som hjälpt oss tolka de domar som vårt forskningsunderlag består av, är moralpanik och queerteorins heteronormativitet vilka ryms inom socialkonstr­u­k­tionismen. Vi har med ett feministiskt intresse och en hermeneutisk ansats gjort en kvantitativ och kvalitativ innehållsanalys av LVU-domar för att se på vilka grunder flickor omhändertas på grund av eget beteende enligt lagen med särskilda bestämmelser om vård av unga (LVU). Trots förändringar i lagstiftningen visar det sig fortfarande att en förlegad kvinnosyn och heteronormativa könsroller tycks påverka i juridiska domslut. Detta indikerar att den nuvarande praktiken upprätthåller och reproducerar könsroller.

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