Public schooling in the Unites States of America has long been the site of more than just meeting the academic needs of the country’s youth. Among the many roles the school house has played in the history of public schooling in the United States is the mechanism to deliver non-instructional services to students. School-delivered, non-instructional services are those services that extend beyond addressing the academically-disposed, educational needs of children and aim to meet the social, emotional, and physical needs of young people while they are in the care of educators. Through an historical example grounded primarily in archival research, I establish a genealogy of school-delivered, non-instructional services by examining how staffing developed in the Cobb County School District in Cobb County, Georgia during the 1938-39 to 1976-77 time period. I will point to the role of federal involvement in public education and the professionalization of social services during this time period to connect the changes that occur in the instructional employees and non-instructional employees, with a specific examination of lunchroom employees and counselors, in one school system.

Nel Noddings’ 1984 publication, Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education was the first formal introduction of the concept of an “ethic of care”. It is a concept that stresses the importance of compassion in any relationship. For the purpose of this dissertation, the ethic of care was studied in a specific educational community. This research focused on the role of care ethics in a secondary school (The Ransom School for Boys) from 1903 to 1974. The researcher identified this school as one that operated with an ethic of care and collected and analyzed data from historical school documents as well as from 60-90 minute individual interviews with six alumni, five retired faculty, and two administrators. The case study addressed how students and faculty experienced care ethics within the school and how it has been maintained throughout the adult lives of alumni. An a priori coding rubric was used to examine the presence of care ethics at the Ransom School for Boys and in the adult lives of its alumni. This rubric was generated using information taken from the literature review and encompasses 36 different words to identify the presence of care ethics. The primary research question was: How have alumni incorporated care ethics into their personal and professional lives? Secondary questions included: How did the ethic of care present itself over the span of 71 years? Was character education part of the formal curriculum at the Ransom School? Was character education part of the hidden curriculum at the Ransom School? Did the presence of care ethics support the values being taught in the home? While there has been research done on the importance of care ethics in an educational institution, the research is void of direct evidence associated with care ethics in a school community, specifically, an all-boys, private school. Through deductive analysis, care ethics was found to be present and utilized at the school. The interviews and historical documents suggested that moral education was an integral part of the informal curriculum and helped to integrate the ethic of care within the community.

This dissertation explores the contribution to opera in South Africa by The Black Tie Ensemble. The research follows a qualitative research design. It is a historical case study which is conducted against an interpretivist philosophical perspective. Data were collected through interviews conducted with prominent role-players in The Black Tie Ensemble and through various articles from newspapers and magazines. From the data collected, specific themes crystallized; the impact of performance and training opportunities flourished during the twelve years of the existence of this unique programme, the development of singers and sponsorship to the arts contributed significantly to the success or failure of this phenomenon and outreach programmes introduced the genre to the broader community. Recommendations from this study could lead towards the planning and guidance of sponsorships for similar programmes in the future and indicate the need for more training facilities of young singers throughout the country, whilst gaining performance experience in a theatre. Such training and experience could ensure a future career in singing and hence job creation. / MA (Musicology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

This dissertation explores the contribution to opera in South Africa by The Black Tie Ensemble. The research follows a qualitative research design. It is a historical case study which is conducted against an interpretivist philosophical perspective. Data were collected through interviews conducted with prominent role-players in The Black Tie Ensemble and through various articles from newspapers and magazines. From the data collected, specific themes crystallized; the impact of performance and training opportunities flourished during the twelve years of the existence of this unique programme, the development of singers and sponsorship to the arts contributed significantly to the success or failure of this phenomenon and outreach programmes introduced the genre to the broader community. Recommendations from this study could lead towards the planning and guidance of sponsorships for similar programmes in the future and indicate the need for more training facilities of young singers throughout the country, whilst gaining performance experience in a theatre. Such training and experience could ensure a future career in singing and hence job creation. / MA (Musicology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015