This research examines and describes the ways psychotherapists address ethical dilemmas through a hermeneutic analysis of how they responded to a portrayal of a therapy session represented in a television series. Interview transcripts were analyzed and assessed for both how therapists navigate difficult ethical terrain, and upon what, thematically, they tend to direct their thought and concern. Moreover, particular consideration is given to the role of imagination in the development of ethical meaning, intention, and understanding in the clinical context, which intersects with a critique of the American Psychological Association's ethics code and its underlying philosophical assumptions. Such theoretical underpinnings suggest a view of therapists as rational agents capable of applying ethical rules and codes to resolve dilemmas in a logical, formulaic manner, a view which is questioned for its failure to account for the empathetic, vitalizing, and hermeneutic value of imaginative thought, rehearsal, and reflection in practice. Finally, implications for therapy, pedagogy, and interpersonal understanding are explored. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Clinical Psychology / PhD; / Dissertation;

This qualitative study defined the hermeneutic approach as a strategy for developing museum education programs, and examined its implementation in two museum settings. A hermeneutic research methodology was used to design, interpret, and explain the hermeneutic approach to museum education program development and its implementation by two museum educator research participants, a codeveloper and an implementer. Four sequential stages comprised the study that addressed the following questions: What is the hermeneutic approach to museum education program development? How does the hermeneutic approach to museum education program development work? What does the hermeneutic approach to museum education program development offer to museum educators? In Stage One, elements of hermeneutics, curriculum theory, pedagogy, and museology were drawn from a review of the literature to define the hermeneutic approach. The hermeneutic approach was aligned to an interpretive curriculum theory paradigm. After establishing its theoretical foundation, the hermeneutic approach was diagrammed as a template for guiding the development of museum education programs that included the following components: curriculum topic, museum's mandate, storyline, themes, artifacts, and program: pre-understanding, meaning in-context, connectedness, process, experience, and communication. Stage Two continued with the introduction of the co-developer, a seasoned museum educator who assisted in refining the hermeneutic approach template by piloting its implementation in the development of a museum education program. Insights gained from this stage were used to modify the hermeneutic approach for Stages Three and Four of the study. The hermeneutic principles of pre-understanding, meaning-in-context, connectedness, process, experience, and communication were used as a format for conducting a workshop to teach the hermeneutic approach to seasoned and novice museum educators in Stage Three. According to the study's design, the Stage Four museum educator implementer autonomously developed a museum education program using the hermeneutic approach. A back and forth interplay between the experiences of the co-developer in Stage One and the implementer in Stage Four was mediated by the researcher to examine the template and its components. Results of the study indicate that the hermeneutic approach forces museum educators to move away from an objectives-based program planning strategy, thus redefining the role of artifact interpretation.

The idea of the essay is to give a glimpse of the how the tranfunction of the ninth grade students’ grades in transition from high school to the gymnasium. The model used in the analysis is hermeneutic and this has permeated the paper strong. The issues I wanted the paper would answer was: What problems may exist in the assessment of pupils at the end of grade nine in Swedish and mathematics? How does this affect the transition between high school and the gymnasium? What individual differences can arise? The problems surrounding the assessment of students in the ninth grade are not only the objectives of the different rates that affect the assessment. Students' relationship with teachers is an important factor that plays into how they are assessed. The high school teachers admit that students can get approved in Swedish A and Mathematics A, although they have not achieved all the objectives of the substances. Students cannot see any connection between this and the difficulties they have to cope with the courses in Swedish A and Mathematics A. Gymnasium teachers, however believe that this may be a factor that students do not reach the intended targets. The analysis also shows that it is difficult for teachers to know what skills students bring to school. The two high school teachers think that the knowledge they assessed and rated is not necessarily the consolidation of the pupil. It is very possible that the knowledge which they exhibit is constant. The survey also shows how students can be affected both positively and negatively by the problems associated with a nicer grad than they diserve. The two student examples highlighted in this paper shows, for example, that students may have trouble keeping up with the teaching and understand what teachers go through this saw Simon as very tough. It can also give students the benefits when they get the chance to attend the gymnasium and continue their studies immediately after high school.

Thesis (M.C.S.)--Regent College, 2000. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 206-214).

Communication in all its various forms has one common goal: expressing and deciphering ideas. Education in recent years has taken a move towards more global approaches to learning/teaching. Within this context, more innovative and inclusive methods of communication need to be created. This study investigated the meaning-form connections in a modern dance experiment. Based on a poem, a dance was created and then performed for various audiences. Responses were recorded through survey and focus group interviews; and analyzed based on grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin, 1998; Charmaz, 2006). GT analysis coupled with hermeneutic constructivism offered an instructive and inclusive means of looking at the data. The results of the analysis along with inductive reasoning led to the result of six categories through which modern dance produces meaning and audiences decipher meaning from modern dance: Conflict Resolution, Personal Experience/Trait, Linguistic Structures, Abstract Concepts, Compatibility, and Technical Ability. The last stage of the study looked at a constructivist communication model “ecology of meanings model”, utilized its basic concept to build a communication for modern dance, and configured the newly found categories within it. My aim in this thesis project is to shed light on the manner in which a non-verbal means of communication, namely dance, is used to convey a message. The end result is a prototype of a possible communication model for modern dance which could afford choreographers/dancers/dance educators/dance spectators the ability to understand not only what modern dance means but also how. By illuminating this process, I hope that dance and communication experts will be able to enhance their educational procedures.

 This study examines the early Praj??p?ramit? s?tras through the theory of “chiasmus”. Chiasmic methodology analyses a text into two parallel halves, identifying complementary “prologue” (A) and “conclusion” (A’), and highlighting the critical “central point” (X), with sub-themes paralleled in the two halves (A-B-C-D…X…D’-C’-B’-A’). Through chiasmus theory, many ancient texts formerly considered fragmentary and incoherent have been shown to be structurally sophisticated wholes. The modern text-critical approach has re-written the traditional account of the Praj??p?ramit? s?tras. Several scholars have proposed theories regarding a pre-textual “ur-s?tra”, though with little consensus on this. In general, most agree that after the formation of an “ur-s?tra” the main body of the text was then chaotically compiled from various fragmentary sub-texts, with the Sad?prarudita Avad?na finally appended at the end. The result is the presently extant smaller s?tra. This modern scholarship then claims gradual growth through expansion into the medium and larger s?tras. The modern academic “discourse on emptiness” portrays the Praj??p?ramit? as focusing on the doctrine of “emptiness” (??nyat?). This study challenges many of these claims. On analysis, primary and secondary chiasmi were identified in the first two chapters of the s?tra. Their scope is the authority of teaching and training in the Praj??p?ramit?, and maintenance of the lineage of the Buddhas. Their central climax is definitions of “bodhisattva”, “mah?sattva” and “mah?y?na”, in the rhetorical formula “XY is ~Y”. Clearly paralleled sub-themes include “sam?dhi”, “the illusory”, “M?ra” and “entrance into certitude”. A second chiasmus comprising the entire Avad?na at the end of the s?tra was also identified. The scope is Sad?prarudita’s quest for Praj??p?ramit?, “to see and hear the Tath?gatas”. The central climax is his seeing and hearing the “Tath?gata” as one who has realized “suchness” (tathat?) or “dependent origination” (prat?tyasa?utp?da), again expressed in the form “XY is ~Y”. Paralleled sub-themes include “sam?dhi”, “M?ra” and “giving”. These two chiasmi are similar in scope, centers which define key terms through the rhetorical formula “XY is ~Y”, and sub-themes. This suggests a larger chiasmus which spans the entire text, with these chiasmi as prologue and conclusion respectively. While not conclusive, there is evidence for a central climax centered at “suchness” (tathat?), attainment of which results in the bodhisattva’s status of irreversibility. This connects the prologue and concluding chiasmi, “bodhisattvas” to “Tath?gatas”, respectively. Numerous paralleled sub-themes are more or less salient. There are major implications from the discovery of chiasmus in the Praj??p?ramit?. Critically, it suggests that the s?tra was initially composed as a complete chiasmic whole, rather than from accumulated fragmentary parts. Hermeneutically, the core message may be understood more systematically than earlier methods. It proposes “suchness” (tathat?) as the central theme, rather than “emptiness” (??nyat?). It also rejects the genre designation of the Praj??p?ramit? as a “philosophical” rather than “religious” text. This study also offers direction for uncovering other cases of chiasmus in early Mah?y?na and Buddhist literature in general, with examples. If a range of chiasmi can be analyzed, a general theory of Buddhist chiasmus can be established for use as a standard Buddhological tool. / published_or_final_version / Buddhist Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Background and Purpose: Progressive cerebellar ataxia is a rare neurological condition characterised by uncoordinated movement, and impaired speech articulation. Rehabilitation and physiotherapy in particular, form the cornerstone of healthcare intervention. Little qualitative research has been undertaken to understand the subjective experience of this complex condition. This study explored the experience of progressive cerebellar ataxia, physiotherapy and physiotherapy services from the perspective of people living with this condition. Method: Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis underpinned this inductive qualitative enquiry. Twelve people with a progressive cerebellar ataxia participated in semi-structured interviews. All participants had some experience of physiotherapy. Interviews were transcribed. A case by case idiographic analysis was undertaken followed by a cross case analysis. Findings: Five super-ordinate themes were identified. ‘The embodied experience of progressive cerebellar ataxia’ emphasised the foregrounding of the body, and the disruption of the skilful interaction between body and world. ‘Identity, stigma and disrupted embodiment in public spaces and places’ encapsulated how participants made sense of actual and perceived stigma and discrimination. ‘Lifeworld meets biomedicine: a complex juxtaposition’ described participants’ problematic relationships with healthcare practitioners and their disease-centric world. ‘Wresting control in the face of uncertain and changing forces’ portrayed participants’ attempts to understand and reinterpret their condition on their own terms. ‘Exercise: a multifaceted contributor to managing life with ataxia’ captured the meaning of exercise and physical activity. One over-arching theme, ‘Retaining a homelike way of being-in-the-world’, cautiously indicated that whilst participants described ‘unhomelike’ lifeworlds (uncomfortable and disturbing); they simultaneously held onto, and sometimes realised, the possibility of ‘homecoming’, for example through the generation of new modes of belonging. Conclusion: This study provided a detailed, phenomenological account of the lived experience of progressive cerebellar ataxia. New insights were developed that have the capacity to inform not only physiotherapy practice but also other healthcare disciplines. New avenues for future research were also identified.

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Educational programs are typically guided by complex overarching aims that demark broad expectations for program graduates. In practice, these aims tend to become operationalized into specific, measurable learning objectives, which form the basis for assessment of student learning. Research suggests that this practice limits the accuracy and validity of overarching program aims and may result in misrepresentation of student competency. This limitation is in part due to the use of traditional assumptions of measurement that operate on a validity of correspondence that is linear, singular, and value-free. Accordingly, through this research, I construct a framework for understanding the validity of complex program aims by drawing on contemporary validity theory. Specifically, I use an interpretive, argument-based approach to validation to connect, analyse, and evaluate multiple interpretations towards a program’s overarching aims. Methodologically, I draw on hermeneutics to collect validity evidence for the construction of a multiple perspective validity argument. I contend that this framework for validation results in a complex articulation of the quality of program coherence between program users’ interpretations of complex aims and their practices. In this dissertation, I apply this validation framework to one teacher education program and its aim to promote inclusivity as a fundamental pedagogical principle. In doing so, I provide a complex description of the multiple ways inclusivity is interpreted by diverse program users (i.e., senior program administrators, faculty members, and teacher candidates) and through various program structures. Thus in addition to articulating a validity argument for one teacher education program, this work also contributes a framework of inclusivity towards broader educational discourse. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2010-08-19 20:41:24.683

As a psychotherapist, my work with thousands of clients over the last two decades has illuminated a theme––when there is a misalignment between one’s values and beliefs and one’s lived experience, dis-ease, discomfort, dissonance and self-alienation take hold. The corollary often being true: An authentic life––living closely aligned with one’s beliefs and values––promotes experiences of health and happiness. Psychological research supports the notion that well-being and happiness are products of living authentically (Brown, Ryan, Laguardia, & Rawsthorne, 2005; Kernis & Goldman, 2006; Wood, Linley, Maltby, Baliousis, & Joseph, 2008). This qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study was a response to my curiosity about the practice of living an aligned life and answered the overarching question: “What is the experience of the conscious practice of authenticity?” with the sub-question: “How does the conscious practice of authenticity relate to transformative learning?” Relevant literature is reviewed in the areas of transformative learning, authenticity, and complexity thinking: particularly the quality of emergence represented in the methodological orientation of the hermeneutic circle. Data collection strategies including interviews, an experiential component of “in the moment” recording, researcher field notes in the form of a commonplace book, and a web-based forum, as well as close readings of relevant literature. Data interpretation was based on a six stage integrative and creative hermeneutic analysis (adapted from Ajjiwa & Higgs, 2007). The stages of interpretation were (1) immersion, (2) understanding, (3) abstraction, (4) synthesis and theme development, (5) illumination and illustration of the phenomenon, (6) integration and critique. The research findings introduced the terms querencia (home or source in a person) and querencetic living (living from one’s inner source or knowing). The findings indicate that querencetic living generates wellness, happiness and peace and is comprised of four parts: 1) knowing our querencia (values, beliefs, needs, feelings), 2) being attuned to our querencia, 3) trusting our knowing/not knowing/changing knowing and 4) enacting our querencia through voice and action. The nature of our querencia is emergent (ever-changing and fluid) where our relationship to our querencia (being attuned, trusting and enacting) is unbending. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2014-05-29 11:15:55.339