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The main goal of master's paper is to explore different Lithuanian and foreing countries authors given theories and approaches of integration of disabled people to the labour market.

This study investigated friendship formations of two girls with Down Syndrome who were integrated into a unit of 34 ten and eleven-year-old girls at a residential summer camp. While acting as participant observer, in the role of co-counsellor, I recorded behavioural observations and informal interviews in a journal, friendship log and personal log. A quantitative data analysis investigated the frequency with which campers elected to be with these two girls, as well as the number of campers who chose them as their best friends, as preferred bunkmates for next year and as those with whom they would want to keep in touch. A qualitative data analysis investigated the comments made by campers and counsellors concerning the program and the two girls of interest to this study. Results indicated that these two girls formed friendships during this month-long program. Limitations of this investigation are considered and some suggestions for further research are explored.

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The purpose of this research is to understand and measure the integration experiences of Korean immigrants in Manitoba in terms of their social, political, education and employment domains. The primary theory used in this research is social capital. Theories of acculturation, ethnic economy, power and stratification are also used to situate my research. Data was collected using mixed methods comprising a survey of 260 Korean Canadians living in Winnipeg and qualitative interviews with 12 respondents. The analysis shows, among other things, high levels of racism felt by Korean immigrants in Winnipeg. While this perception and daily encounter of discrimination in the community would impede Korean immigrants’ integration into Canada, there also is a strong will to succeed in the community through accessing existing social capital and a willingness to invest in social capital. The contributions made in the development and operationalization of social capital in terms of willingness to invest and social capital mindset are documented. Several program ideas are offered for policy-makers and future research areas have been identified. The development of a political engagement index provides justification for observations made by the social capital theory and immigrant integration literature.

This research project attempts to identify teacher perceptions of school desegregation at three schools in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. A targetted selection of schools was made to ensure that three of the former apartheid era Education Departments were represented. Data were gathered from interviews with teachers and by means of questionnaires that were completed by pupils. The study attempts to replicate a study that was carried out by Verma et al (1994) in secondary schools in Britain. The Pietermaritzburg study sought to examine the experiences and attitudes of teachers in three racially desegregated schools to deepen our understanding of the complex processes of inter-racial and inter- cultural exchange within the three schools. The Pietermaritzburg (as did the Verma et ai, 1994) study focussed on the following areas: • How well did the teachers know themselves, their students and colleagues? • What, if any, relevant policy frameworks did they operate with, and how widely were these internally known and acknowledged? • To what extent were teachers equipped by knowledge, experience, training and disposition to contribute to good inter-ethnic relationships? • What were the teachers' perceptions of the state of pupil inter ethnic relationships? • To what extent did school/community links affect the pupil inter-ethnic relationships? • see page 38. The teacher interviews were used to create a profile for each school and selected data from the pupil questionnaires were used to compare the opinions of the pupils to that of the teachers. The profiles of the three schools were compared to determine similarities and differences in terms of the research questions. The major findings of the study were that: • The teachers did not know their pupils' ethnic backgrounds. • None of the schools operated with any policy frameworks with specific reference to either the promotion of inter-ethnic relationships, or the handling of racial incidents or racism in general. None of the schools were equipped by knowledge, experience, training or disposition to contribute to good pupil inter-ethnic relations. Assimilation was the primary approach adopted in response to desegregation. Very few links existed between the schools and the communities that they served. The state of pupil inter-ethnic relationships was perceived by the teachers as being poor. The comparison of the findings of the Pietermaritzburg and Verma et al (1994) studies revealed that: • The circumstances under which school desegregation took place in the United Kingdom and South Africa were different; teachers in both the studies were ill-prepared to teach in multi-ethnic schools; insufficient INSET was identified as a problem in both studies; significantly better school-community links were identified in, the Verma study as compared to the Pietermaritzburg study and; • teachers in the Verma study were better informed about macro and micro education policies as compared to the teachers in the Pietermaritzburg study. This study recommends that mechanisms need to be established to ensure that the role players involved in education work together as it is impossible to implement any form of educational reform without the participation of all the role players. The study also recommends that research needs to begin focussing on actual classroom practice to determine how racism is addressed in lessons and how it is tackled as a problem among children. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

In an effort to atone for almost two centuries of mishandling, and faced with ballooning urban Aboriginal populations, many of Canada’s governments and educational institutions have adopted policies to encourage the integration of Aboriginal perspectives in schools. Realizing that their efforts can only be given life by teachers, this study explores the perceptions of eight teachers integrating Aboriginal perspectives into their Grade 10 ELA classes in the Buffalo Stone School Division (pseudonym used). Interviews conducted with the teachers explored how personal, contextual and institutional realities have shaped the perceptions that the teachers bring to their practice.

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Integrating Lean in a process has become increasingly popular over the last decades. Lean as a concept has spread through industry into other sectors such as service, healthcare, and administration. The overwhelming experience from this spread is that Lean is difficult to integrate successfully. It takes a long time and requires large resources in the integration, as it permeates all aspects of a process. Lean is a system depending on both tools and methods as well as human effort and behavior. There is therefore a need to understand the integration process itself. As many companies have worked with the integration of Lean, there should be a great deal of accumulated knowledge. The overall intent of this research is therefore to examine how a current state of a Lean integration can be established, that takes into account the dualism of Lean regarding the technical components of Lean, as well as the humanistic components of Lean. Both issues must be addressed if the integration process of Lean is to be efficient.  Through a literature review, eight views of Lean are established. Taking into consideration historical, foundational, and evolutionary tools and methods, systems, philosophical, cultural, and management views, a comprehensive model of Lean at a group level in a process is proposed. Through two multiple-case studies, the experiences of actual Lean integrations are compared with Lean theory to establish a current state of a Lean integration. There were large similarities in the experiences but also differences due to context and the complexity of Lean as a system. The current state is described in: 9 instances of strongly positive findings. They are often simple tools and methods. 11 instances of weakly positive findings. They are often of a system nature in the dependencies between the Lean methods. 3 instances with vague findings. Seems to be due to lack of focus on the intent of integrating Lean. 3 instances of mixed findings. Can often be connected to personal commitment and the creation of efficient islands. 3 instances of conflicting findings. Seem to be connected to contextual factors. 3 instances of insufficient data. The indications are too few to draw any conclusions.  Accurately establishing the current state of the Lean integration process is seen as a necessary first step of a Lean integration of Lean.