Thesis advisor: Diana Pullin / Parents are the primary educators of their children and the consistent teachers throughout their lives. However, with raised expectations through curriculum state standards and high stakes testing for students, teachers and schools, families are being left behind. A particular turning point in students' education is during the middle school years when intellectual, character, social and emotional transitions occur and habits are formed. Therefore, this qualitative, single case study uses data sources of interviews, observations and artifacts to determine the appropriate role of parents at the middle school level as perceived by administrators, teachers with administrative duties, teachers and parents. Additionally, this research sought to determine the unique factors that impede more effective partnerships between home and school and analyze the current situation using the sociocultural theory to determine if beliefs and values match the social structures in place at this particular school and provide implications for practice. Findings reveal the parent role is defined by consistent communication between home and school for unified adult expectations. Unique factors impeding parent participation at this level are based on this particular age of the students. Using sociocultural theory, it is evident that the school community culture prevails over individual beliefs and is impeded by two underlying sub cultures of rationalizations and assumptions, which allow participation to remain infrequent. There are additional overarching issues discussed that go beyond sociocultural theory. Finally, recommendations for practice are made for this particular school and the middle school level. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

As sociedades mundiais passam por mudanças substanciais que repercutem nas áreas da educação, administração e políticas públicas. Apesar de avanços, o desempenho do sistema educacional brasileiro ainda é deficitário. Nesse sentido, merece destaque a iniciativa do governo em disponibilizar o banco de dados da educação para investigações científicas. O objetivo deste estudo é identificar pistas para políticas públicas educacionais a partir do posicionamento de pais/ responsáveis e estudantes de escolas com diferentes índices de Ideb, em Ribeirão Preto e Sorocaba, estado de São Paulo, tendo como pano de fundo a teoria do habitus, segundo a abordagem de Pierre Bourdieu. As dimensões de análise do estudo são: a Participação dos pais/ responsáveis na vida escolar dos estudantes; o Conhecimento dos pais/ responsáveis da realidade escolar; a Dedicação dos estudantes às atividades escolares; o Ambiente familiar; o Contato com estímulo ao estudo; a Admiração pela escola; o Encorajamento da escola à participação dos pais/ responsáveis na vida escolar; e a Crença na escola e na educação. Para tanto, realizou-se uma pesquisa aplicada, quantitativa, descritiva, através de procedimentos de levantamento, por meio de questionários, seguindo abordagem comparativa. Foram aplicados 208 questionários a estudantes e pais/ responsáveis, escolhidos por amostragem aleatória e provenientes de nove escolas, escolhidas conforme a média do Índice de Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica (Ideb) dos anos de 2005 e 2007. A pesquisa dividiu-se em levantamento bibliográfico; elaboração de instrumentos de coleta; e trabalho empírico. Foram testadas hipóteses de pesquisa por meio da técnica estatística nãoparamétrica de Mann-Whitney. Utilizou-se o software SPSS, versão 17. Os resultados apontam para conclusões similares a de outros trabalhos quantitativos quanto à relação entre características demográficas e desempenho. Quanto às análises que buscaram extrapolar os fatores demográficos, encontraram-se diferenças de posicionamentos dos pais/ responsáveis de estudantes de escolas com Ideb alto e baixo no que diz respeito à crença na educação e na escola; à admiração da atuação de gestores e da equipe escolar; e ao contato com situações de estímulo ao gosto pelo estudo. Dessa forma, sugere-se que a criação ou (re) significação dos sentimentos parentais para com a escola, para com a educação e para com a atuação da equipe gestora como pistas de caminhos a serem buscados pelas políticas de atuação conjunta entre escola e famílias, superando o entendimento de participação parental como acompanhamento das tarefas de casa e presença em reuniões de pais e mestres. / World societies face several changes with implications for the areas of public education, administration and policies. Despite advances, the performance of the Brazilian educational system is still unsatisfactory. Therefore, it is important to mention the governments initiative to make available educational data so that scientific investigations can be lead ahead. The aim of this paper is to identify hints for educational public policies from students, and their parents / guardians from schools with different levels of Basic Education Development Index (Ideb) in the municipalities of Ribeirão Preto and Sorocaba, São Paulo state, taking the habitus theory as a base theory, according to Pierre Bourdieus approach. Analyzed dimensions are: Parents / guardians school life students participation, Parents / guardians school reality knowledge, Students dedication to school activities, Family atmosphere; Studying stimulus contact, Parents school admiration School encouragement to parents / guardians involvement\', and \'Belief in school and education\'. It has been developed an applied, quantitative, descriptive and survey research, following a comparative approach. It have been applied 208 questionnaires to students and parents/ guardians chosen by random sampling coming from nine schools chosen according to the Ideb average from the years of 2005 and 2007. The research was divided into three parts: theoretical reference, data collection instrument development, and empirical work. Research hypotheses were tested using the Mann-Whitney nonparametric statistical technique. It has been used the SPSS software, version 17. Results point on similar conclusions to other papers related to demographic characteristics and educational performance. But those analyses beyond demographics found out differences between high and low school Ideb related to belief in education and school; admiration to school managers and staff; and contact to studying stimulus situations. It is suggested a school, educational, managerial and staff parental feeling creation or (re)signification as a trace to be fallowed by school-family policies so that it is possible to overcome the comprehension of parental participation as homework help and parent-teacher conference.

ABSTRACT Introduction The parents involvement in the physical therapy treatment of their child diagnosed with congenital muscular torticollis is crucial for a positive outcome. The parents’ role has been mentioned as valuable in many studies, but there is a lack of studies that solely focus on the parents. Purpose The purpose was to interview Vietnamese parents at Ho Chi Minh City Children's Hospital in Vietnam, focusing on what the parents believe to be their role in the treatment of their child with congenital muscular torticollis. Design and method This study had a qualitative and exploratory research design with eight semi-structured interviews. To process the data a qualitative inductive content analysis were used. Results There were a will from the participants to be involved in the physical therapy treatment but there were also a need and desire for more knowledge. The participants experienced role in the treatment were regarding knowledge, trust, support and involvement. Conclusion All of the participants saw their importance to the treatment and wanted to be involved in the intervention. Despite the will to be involved there are a need of more support from the hospital. / SAMMANFATTNING Bakgrund I den fysioterapeutiska behandlingen för barn med kongenital muskulär torticollis är det viktigt att föräldrarna involveras. Föräldrarnas delaktighet i behandlingen är avgörande för att uppnå positiv effekt. I ett flertal studier tas föräldrarnas roll i behandlingen upp som viktig, trots detta finns det i nuläget ingen studie som enbart ser till föräldrarnas roll. Syfte Syftet med studien var att intervjua vietnamesiska föräldrar på Ho Chi Minh Children’s Hospital i Vietnam angående deras upplevda roll i behandlingen som deras barn med kongenital muskulär torticollis genomgår. Design Studien hade en kvalitativ explorativ forskningsdesign med 8 semistrukturerade intervjuer. I analysprocessen användes en kvalitativ induktiv innehållsanalys. Resultat Resultatet delades in i 4 kategorier och 14 subkategorier. Resultatet visade att det fanns en vilja från deltagarnas sida att vara involverad i den fysioterapeutiska behandlingen men det fanns också ett behov och en önskan av att få en ökad kunskap. Konklusion Alla deltagarna såg sig själva som en viktig del i behandlingen och ville vara involverade. Trots viljan att vara delaktig så finns det ett behov av ökat stöd från sjukhuset.

Technical developments are increasing at an accelerated rate, which means that IT service providers must focus on customer relationships and the quality of services they provide in the same way they handle their strategic features and processes. The management of IT services is often related to IT Service Management (ITSM) that helps IT organizations become more adaptable, flexible, cost-effective and service-oriented. ITIL is the most accepted and used process reference model within ITSM. However, many organizations experience difficulties in implementing the framework. Much of ITIL's research is about understanding, identifying and determining which factors have the greatest impact on a successful implementation. Previous research shows that there are three key aspects that all success factors fall within: senior management involvement, organizational commitment and group efficiency. Much of the research, however, has a qualitative character and takes the form of case studies, which are limited in their contributions. However, several case studies combined together can contribute to an increased understanding in the field because they can confirm or contradict other studies. This study aims to explore whether and, if so, how the above-mentioned aspects have influenced an ITIL implementation on a medium-sized IT company. The method used was a qualitative method that took the form of a case study and with semi-structured interviews, it revealed that all aspects affected the implementation in different ways and that there was an interaction between them. The senior management involvement influenced the implementation process by providing the project group with support in the form of necessary resources, enabling implementation. The management's absence also affected the implementation process, more specifically its scope, which made process use being limited to only one specific customer at the beginning, but also the use of inappropriate tools for the implemented processes. Group efficiency had influenced the implementation process, with an emphasis on understanding why the changing work methods results in better structure. This understanding was valued higher than the "traditional hard education", but also experience and knowledge in the field of work where the process acts, was considered a contributing factor. Understanding that change in work methods leads to better structure established an organizational commitment. This research contributes with increased knowledge of implementation factors in ITIL.

A corrida é um dos esportes mais acessíveis atualmente, pois sua prática não requer alto investimento financeiro, sendo praticável em academias ou ao ar livre. Indivíduos sedentários alegam falta de tempo, outras obrigações e outros fatores para não praticar exercícios físicos. Estratégias de negociação de barreiras às práticas esportivas se fazem necessárias para que indivíduos comecem ou continuem suas práticas de exercício físico. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivos:(1) descrever as principais barreiras que corredores de rua têm que superar para continuar correndo, (2) descrever as principais estratégias de negociação usadas por estes corredores para superar tais barreiras, (3) comparar corredores orientados com corredores autônomos nas suas estratégias de negociação para continuar correndo e (4) verificar se diferentes estratégias de negociação podem explicar a variância no envolvimento e no comprometimento de corredores amadores com a corrida de rua.. A escala de barreiras foi baseada em Alexandris, Tsorbatzoudis e Grouios (2002). A escala de negociação foi baseada em Alexandris, Kouthouris e Girgolas (2007). A escala de envolvimento foi traduzida a partir de Beaton et al. (2011) e a escala de comprometimento foi traduzida a partir de Pritchard, Havitz e Howard (1999), Funk et al. (2011) e Ridinger et al. (2012). Os corredores amadores (n = 437) eram, na sua maioria, do sexo masculino (60,1% homens), 45% eram alunos de assessoria de corrida, com idade média de 39,9 anos (DP = 11,6) e tinham experiência média em corrida de 6,79 anos (DP = 7,19). As principais barreiras encontradas por corredores amadores foram a falta de tempo (M = 2,93; DP = 1,22) e a falta de local adequado (M = 2,65; DP = 1,31). Os corredores investigados informaram que utilizam estratégias para continuar correndo baseadas na negociação para falta de vontade (M = 5,93; DP = 0,8) e na flexibilidade de local, dias e horários para correr (M = 4,26; DP = 1,16). Com relação ao envolvimento, os respondentes informaram que se tornam mais envolvidos com a corrida principalmente por valores hedônicos (M = 5,9; DP = 1,13). O nível de comprometimento com a corrida de rua informado pelos corredores foi moderado (M = 4,89; DP = 1,56). Os resultados dos testes t mostraram que não houve diferença entre corredores autônomos e corredores orientados nas estratégias de negociação de flexibilidade e de negociação para dor, mas eles diferiram nas estratégias de negociação de tempo (t=-6,605; p<0,001), na busca de parceiros e informação (t=-10,613; p<0,001) e na negociação para falta de vontade (t=-3,243; p =0,001). A partir do modelo de regressão, foram explicadas pelas cinco dimensões da negociação: 25,3% do envolvimento hedônico, 42,2% da centralidade, 21,6% do valor simbólico e 30,2% do comprometimento. As dimensões negociação para falta de vontade, e busca por parceiros e informação foram preditores significantes em todas as análises. Conclui-se que corredores amadores que utilizam estratégias de negociação para superar barreiras são mais envolvidos e comprometidos com a corrida de rua. / Running is one of the most accessible sports currently, because its practice does not require high financial investment, once it can be performed in gyms or outdoors. Sedentary individuals claim they do not have enough time to exercise, besides other personal obligations and reasons not to practice physical activities. Because of these excuses, it is necessary to create negotiation strategies to overpass these constraints and make people start or continue practicing exercises. The purposes of this study are: (1) describing the main constraints which street runners must overcome to keep running, (2) describing the main negotiation strategies used by these runners to surpass those constraints, (3) comparing runners who are coached by a running club to those who practice running autonomously in their negotiation strategies to keep running and (4) to verify if different negotiation strategies can explain the variation of amateur runner\'s involvement and commitment with the running.. The scale of negotiation was based on Alexandris, Kouthouris e Girgolas (2007). The scale of involvement was translated from Beaton et al. (2011) and the scale of commitment was translated from Pritchard, Havitz & Howard (1999), Funk et al. (2011) and Ridinger et al. (2012). The amateur runners (n = 437) were mostly male (60,1% men), 45% of them were coached by a running club, their average age was of 39,9 years old (SD = 11, 6) and they had been running for an average of 6,79 years (SD = 7,19). The main constraints that were faced by amateur runners were: lack of time (M = 2,93; SD = 1,22) and the absence of a suitable place (M = 2,65; SD = 1,31). The studied runners told that they make use of the strategies to keep on running based on negotiation due to the lack of will (M = 5,93; SD = 0,8) and on the flexibility of place, days and time to run (M = 4,26; SD = 1,16). Regarding involvement, the studied runners informed that they become more concerned to the running activity mainly because of the pleasant factors (M = 5,9; SD = 1,13). It was observed an average level due to the commitment with the street running (M = 4,89; SD = 1,56). The results of the t tests showed that there were no differences between the autonomous runners and the coached runners regarding the flexibility and pain strategies of negotiation. On the other hand, they differed in the time strategies of negotiation (t=-6,605; p<0,001), in the search of partners and information (t=-10,613; p<0,001) and in the negotiation for the lack of will (t=-3,243; p =0,001). Through regression model they were explained through five negotiation dimensions: 25,3% of involvement by pleasure, 42,2% of centrality, 21,6% of symbolism and 30,2% of commitment. The factors \'negotiation for the lack of will\' and \'negotiation for the search of partners and information\' were very important predictors for the analysis. It was possible to conclude that amateur runners who make use of negotiation strategies to overpass constraints are more engaged and committed to running.

Research suggests parental home and school involvement improves multiple outcomes for middle school students, including academic achievement, school engagement, motivation, self-efficacy, and prosocial behaviors. Little is known, however, about multilevel factors associated with Latino/a parental involvement in the middle school learning environment. In the current study, multilevel analysis was used to explore student, family, and school factors associated with Latino/a parental involvement. Results from the hierarchical linear modeling analyses found (a) Latino/a parental home and school involvement varied within schools and between schools, (b) student gender, prosocial behavior, and academic achievement were positively associated with parental home involvement, and (c) student gender, problem behavior, prosocial behavior, academic achievement, and family socioeconomic status were positively associated with parental school involvement. Percentages of Latino/a students and low-income students in schools did not significantly moderate the average parental home or school involvement across students and across schools. The results of this study have implications for educators and policy makers to promote Latino/a parent-teacher collaboration in the middle school learning environment.

Via six published papers, this thesis assembles a body of work by Simmons on user participation and involvement in the governance and delivery of public services in the UK. Collectively, the papers examine how users are able, and what makes them willing, to interact with public services in order to maintain or improve them. Cumulatively, the published papers contribute to a more detailed and nuanced understanding of user involvement and participation, enabling deeper understanding of users’ motivations and experiences, the choices available to them and how these are constrained. The published papers are contextualised in a linking narrative. This locates the papers within wider debates about the place and role of service user involvement and participation and how this has evolved over the last fifty years (Section 3). It then considers a range of broader literatures, selected to capture key elements of the conceptual and theoretical questions to which the papers are addressed (Section 4). A summary of each publication is provided, detailing its individual contribution to the participation literature (Section 5). The papers’ cumulative contribution is then considered (Section 6). Together, the six publications contribute to deeper understandings of both user involvement (establishing nuances in user attitudes and behaviour), and the possibilities that arise within different spaces for involvement (according to such factors as who the participants are, what they connect with (service, service providers, service context), and how these connections form distinctive ‘fields' of relationships). This thesis suggests these things all matter when it comes to users finding their voice - and user knowledge being incorporated into the governance and delivery of public services. It concludes that users’ ‘projects’ of involvement and participation (and the environments for those projects) are often complex, bringing together a range of different forces that must be balanced within the public service system.

A criança estabelece as primeiras relações com a família e é com ela que aprende a maior parte de seu repertório comportamental. A partir do início da vida escolar, a escola também passa a exercer papel importante de agência educacional. A maneira como se desenvolve a relação entre escola e família pode alterar o resultado que todos os envolvidos podem obter deste contato. Torna-se, portanto, importante investigar como se dá essa relação. Além disso, a escola, em especial o professor, pode liderar um processo que tem como objetivo aumentar o envolvimento desta instituição com as famílias dos alunos. Tais considerações norteiam este trabalho, cujo objetivo foi avaliar se a participação de professores em uma intervenção baseada no ensino e na aplicação da análise funcional aumenta a frequência com que esses profissionais emitem comportamentos de comunicação com os responsáveis pelos estudantes. Participaram da pesquisa três professoras de Ensino Fundamental I (P1, P2 e P3) de uma escola pública da Grande São Paulo. O delineamento utilizado foi o de linha de base múltipla entre sujeitos. Os comportamentos dos professores foram avaliados semanalmente por meio de um checklist que avaliou seu autorrelato sobre a frequência de emissão de comportamentos que dizem respeito à comunicação com os responsáveis de seus alunos. A pesquisa foi realizada na escola em que as professoras lecionam, sendo que cada uma delas participou de seis encontros os quais se propuseram a ensiná-las a fazerem análise funcional dos seus próprios comportamentos, dos de seus alunos e dos pais destes. Em função das diferenças entre as educadoras no que se refere aos efeitos da participação nos encontros sobre os comportamentos de comunicação, os resultados obtidos não foram conclusivos. A participante P1 aumentou a emissão de comportamentos da classe comunicação com os pais após a participação no estudo. Quanto à P2, não foi possível analisar seu comportamento. P3 teve uma leve diminuição na emissão dos comportamentos desta classe. Apesar disso, o estudo permite compreender variáveis relevantes para melhor entendimento acerca do envolvimento parental com a escola. Traz também discussão sobre a dificuldade de se realizar pesquisa em análise do comportamento aplicada na comunidade / Children establish their first relationships with family and is in this context that they learn most of its behavioral repertoire. From the beginning of school life, school also exercises an im-portant role as an educational agency. The way the relation between school and family devel-ops may alter the result that all the involved people may obtain from this contact. Then, it becomes important to investigate this relation. Besides, the school, especially the teacher, may lead a process that aims to enhance the involvement of this institution with students families. These considerations guide this work, which objective was to evaluate if the partici-pation of teachers in an intervention based on the teaching and application of functional anal-ysis of behavior enhances the frequency in which this professionals emit communication be-haviors with the people responsible for the students. Three public elementary school teachers (P1, P2 and P3) were the subjects of this research. The experimental design was multiple base-line between subjects. Teachers behaviors were evaluated weekly with a checklist that eval-uated teachers self-report of the frequency of emission of behaviors of communication with their students families. The study occurred at the school where the participants work and each one of them participated of six encounters where it was aimed to teach the how to ana-lyze functionally their own behavior, their students and their parents. The results found were inconclusive about the effect of the participation in the study on the communication behav-iors, since participants behaved differently. Participant P1 increased the emission of behavior of the class communication with parents after enrolling in the study. It was not possible to evaluate Participant P2s response to participating in the study and P3 showed a small de-crease in frequency of behaviors in this class. Besides these results, the study helps under-stand relevant variables in parent involvement

Introdução: O acompanhamento do parceiro no pré-natal, parto e pós-parto de sua companheira mostram resultados positivos em relação à saúde materna, infantil e também relacionados à saúde do homem. É uma importante estratégia de aproximar os futuros pais dos serviços de saúde e melhorar o vínculo destes com a paternidade. Objetivo: Avaliar se a implementação da tecnologia SMS através do programa PRENACEL para o parceiro como um programa de educação em saúde é um suplemento útil ao acompanhamento pré-natal padrão. Método: Ensaio aleatorizado controlado por conglomerados representados por unidades de saúde. Selecionamos 20 unidades de saúde que foram aleatoriamente alocadas segundo critérios pré estabelecidos, 10 sendo controle e 10 como intervenção. Os parceiros das gestantes que iniciaram o pré-natal antes da 20ª semana de gestação foram a população do estudo. Os parceiros inscritos no PRENACEL receberam periodicamente mensagens curtas de texto via celular com informações sobre gestação e parto. Nas unidades do grupo controle os parceiros receberam, junto com suas companheiras, o pré-natal padrão. Resultados: 186 parceiros foram entrevistados, 62 do grupo PRENACEL, 73 do grupo intervenção, mas que não optaram pelo PRENACEL e 51 do grupo controle. Encontramos um perfil com idade média de 30 anos e a maioria dos entrevistados (51%) se declarou como raça/cor parda. Grande parte dos entrevistados (39,7%) relatou ter em média de 9,3 anos de estudo. A maioria dos homens (57,5%) coabita com a companheira e foi classificada como classe C (63,7%). A adesão ao programa PRENACEL foi de 53,4%. Houve uma maior participação dos parceiros do grupo PRENACEL nas consultas de pré- natal, assim como foi observada uma maior presença destes no momento do parto como acompanhante quando comparado aos demais grupos. Conclusão: O estudo mostrou que uma estratégia de educação em saúde utilizando as tecnologias de comunicação parece ter boa aceitabilidade e um papel promissor no engajamento de homens aos cuidados pré-natal, parto e pós-parto de suas companheiras. / Introduction: The partner accompanying the prenatal care, birth and postpartum care of the woman has presented positive results in relation to mother and child health and also in relation to the health of the man. This is an important strategy to bring future fathers closer to health services and to improve their link with paternity. Aim: To evaluate whether the implementation of SMS technology, through the PRENACEL program for the partner as a health education program, is a useful supplement to standard prenatal monitoring. Method: A parallel cluster randomized trial, with the clusters representing health units. The partners of the pregnant women who started prenatal care prior to the 20th week of gestation were the study population of the intervention group. The participants received periodic short text messages via mobile phone with information about the pregnancy and birth. In the control group units the partners, together with the women, received the standard prenatal care. Results: 186 partners were interviewed, 62 from the PRENACEL group, 73 from the intervention group that did not opt for PRENACEL and 51 from the control group. A profile with a mean age of 30 years was found and the majority of respondents (51%) declared themselves as brown race/color. The interviewees presented a mean of 9.3 years of study. The majority of the men (57.5%) cohabited with their partner and 63.7% were classified as socioeconomic class C. The adherence to the PRENACEL program was 53.4%. There was a greater participation of the PRENACEL partners in the prenatal consultations, as well as a greater presence of them accompanying the woman at the moment of the birth when compared to the other groups. Conclusion: The study showed that a health education strategy using communication technology seems to have good acceptability and a promising role in engaging men in the prenatal care, birth and postpartum care of their partners.

The thesis focuses on the impact of the EU Directive (2002/14/EC), which was incorporated into UK employment law, with its phased implementation starting on 6th April 2005. The empirical evidence is based on a survey and predominantly on case-study research that involved interviews with: managers, employees and trade union representatives, together with the collection of relevant documentary evidence. The empirical findings, especially for the non-unionised sector, indicate that the reflexive nature of the Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations has mainly stimulated the development of organisation-specific or tailor-made information and consultation arrangements, which minimally comply with the legislative provisions. Moreover, the development of such arrangements is primarily based on the ad hoc momentum that is generated by business pressures (i.e. collective redundancies, transfer of undertakings etc) and can be viewed as reflecting the conceptual framework of legislatively prompted voluntarism. The ICE Directive is aimed at bringing a consistency to the establishment of basic and standard information and consultation arrangements across the workplaces in Great Britain. Subsequently, it should promote the harmonisation of employee participation practices amongst the UK and other EU countries, as it has the goal of ensuring that there is a minimum floor of rights in relation to information sharing and consultation with employees. Nevertheless, the Europeanisation of British industrial relations cannot instantly take place through the adoption of such EU directives. With regard to this research endeavour, it emerges that the extant national idiosyncrasies cannot be substantially altered, whilst business pressures and employers’ goodwill continue to be key drivers in the development of employee participation and consultation arrangements in Great Britain, albeit within the newly adopted legislative and statutory framework.