Main target of this master thesis is to determine ways of cooperation between Office for Social and Legal Protection of Children and nonprofit non-governmental organisations (NGOs) active in the same professional area in Ústí nad Labem and its surroundings. The paper introduces a case study aiming for deeper understanding of views and attitudes of workers from both institutions, their interconnectedness and interaction, identifying shortcomings and suggesting areas with potential of improvement. The theoretical framework consists of different typologies of government - NGOs relations, which are then applied to the context of the chosen location that represents a town with many socially excluded areas and other negative phenomena. This results in a specifically divided society and tense atmosphere in which both institutions operate as representatives of government and civil society.

The objective of this research is to explore the perceptions of rural Samburu women in Kenya with regard to HIV/AIDS in terms of their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and opinions; to examine several HIV/AIDS awareness channels that have been used to communicate HIV/AIDS messages to the Samburu women to determine how effective they have been in effecting behaviour change.This study is an example of how a communication audit can be carried out on a certain sub-group of a community in order to suggest a tailor-made communication strategy in an effort to stop the spread of HIV among the Samburu women. This study is also a confirmation that the prevention strategies that have been in use to communicate to Samburu women have been inadequate and need to be revised to address the knowledge gaps that exist. The study is located within a relatively new field of health communication where health messages are evaluated to determine whether target audiences are receiving these messages and changing their behaviour in order to live healthier lives. This area of study is also supported by behaviour change models such as the Health Belief Model (HBM), the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), Diffusion of Innovations Theory, Cultural Models, and Strategic Communication. A qualitative study was undertaken in 2008 by way of ten focus group discussions with Samburu women and eleven in-depth interviews with professionals who ran HIV/AIDS programmes in the Samburu district. The focus groups were constituted by means of convenience sampling whereas the snowball strategy was utilised for the selection of participants for in-depth interviews. The questioning route for the focus group discussions for the Samburu women was guided by five themes namely: knowledge levels of the women; cultural aspects that made the women vulnerable to HIV/AIDS; beliefs about HIV/AIDS; attitudes towards HIV/AIDS; and the different channels of communication used to convey HIV/AIDS messages. The interview schedule for the professionals consisted of open-ended questions and face-to-face interviews were carried out using this schedule. / Communication Sciences / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

Dissertation / This study explores the role of the principal in the management of parent involvement in secondary schools in Northern Province. A literature study investigated existing theories and models of parent involvement; parent involvement in the South African context and the provision of education in South Africa in historical perspective. It also investigated the managerial role of the principal in parent involvement. A qualitative investigation in three secondary schools in Northern Province was done. Data were gathered by means of participant observation in-depth interviews with principals and focus-group interviews with teachers and three parents on the school governing bodies. Analysed data revealed the following findings: principals lack knowledge on parent involvement and schools lack policies and organisational structures dealing with parent involvement as well as home-school relations. As a result of these findings, there is a need to equip principals with ways in which they can involve parents in their schools. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Educational Management)

The debate in the media on a new Swedish sex education movie sparked our interest in this study. The twenty-eight minutes long movie “Sex on the map” is the first of it’s kind in twenty-five years. It is also part of a bigger sex educational project that contains, apart from the movie, a book about sex education, a documentary and a teachers guide. The project is a co-production between the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company (UR) and the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU). We were interested in how teachers received information about the project, and what their attitudes were towards it. In the starting phase of the launching of the project, UR and RFSU sent out a promotional box to all Swedish high school headmasters. This was a way to inform schools about the new educational material. Our finding’s showed that most of the respondents did not obtain the box. They recognized parts of the project but had not formed any attitudes towards it. Despite this, the teachers were positive and thought the material could be a great tool to develop and modernize Swedish sex education.

The modern hospice movement emerged in the 1960s as a grassroots social movement that attempted to restore an holistic and contextualised approach to the care of people at the end of life. This approach embraced the lived experience of the dying person at the centre of care across physical, emotional, social and spiritual domains of life. To achieve this, the care of dying people was largely removed from mainstream health care systems to promote more holistic and socially contextualised dying. In recent decades, the evolution of palliative care demonstrates the gradual return of palliative care services to the mainstream. It has been asserted that, in this process, palliative care services have progressively abandoned the social context of dying people, increasing instead an emphasis on "physical care [while] simultaneously de-emphasizing psychological, social and spiritual care" (Kellehear, 1999a, p.76). Kellehear and others have proposed that the repositioning of palliative care within mainstream health care systems has increased a focus upon illness and disease at the expense of health and wellbeing. Subsequently, conventional palliative care services have been criticised for not adequately locating end of life care within the social contexts in which death and dying take place. In an attempt to address this problem, Australian sociologist Allan Kellehear proposed an approach to end of life care that brought together the core concerns of palliative care with the principles and practices of health promotion (Kellehear, 1999b). Whilst their congruence is not immediately apparent, these two fields have been increasingly examined for their potential benefits in the provision of end of life care. In the current policy climate in Australia, there is an imperative to consider how end of life support services might be improved through adopting a health promoting palliative care approach. The aim of this study has been to investigate the integration of health promotion principles and practice by a selected palliative care service by examining the qualitative impact of this change on the organisation. Specifically, it endeavoured to identify the factors that advanced or impeded this integration by examining how the structures and processes of, and outcomes for, the organisation reflected a health promoting approach. To meet these aims, this study undertook an in-depth examination of the implementation of a health promoting palliative care model by a community based palliative care organisation. Based in a constructionist-interpretivist paradigm, a mixed-method (QUAL+quant), instrumental case study research design was utilised to capture multiple perspectives of the implementation process. Data collection comprised examination of 127 organisational documents, 32 in-depth interviews with staff, volunteers and consumers, 5 focus groups with staff and volunteers, and 25 carer questionnaires. Qualitative data were subject to thematic analysis, with supplementary quantitative data analysed to generate descriptive statistics. The findings demonstrated a large number of complex and interrelated enabling and impeding factors to the implementation in the case study site. These factors have been grouped into four key themes which have been examined in light of the aims of this study and the issues identified in a comprehensive review of the literature. This study found that: ◦ Conceptual congruence between health promotion and palliative care was a fundamental starting point in the implementation of a health promoting palliative care model. ◦ Where conceptual congruence was clear, activities associated with the model that were regarded as beyond conventional approaches to palliative care core business were viewed favourably by stakeholders and were less likely to encounter resistance within the organisation. ◦ When systematic approaches to organisational change, such as quality improvement systems, were rigorously applied, the impact of the transition upon stakeholders was qualitatively less. ◦ Where this transition had been effectively made, consumers, staff, volunteers and members of the wider community were seen to benefit. This study adds to the current discourse regarding the intersection between end of life support and health promotion, and provides insight into how palliative care organisations might undertake the transition from conventional models to a health promoting palliative care approach.

The objective of this research is to explore the perceptions of rural Samburu women in Kenya with regard to HIV/AIDS in terms of their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and opinions; to examine several HIV/AIDS awareness channels that have been used to communicate HIV/AIDS messages to the Samburu women to determine how effective they have been in effecting behaviour change.This study is an example of how a communication audit can be carried out on a certain sub-group of a community in order to suggest a tailor-made communication strategy in an effort to stop the spread of HIV among the Samburu women. This study is also a confirmation that the prevention strategies that have been in use to communicate to Samburu women have been inadequate and need to be revised to address the knowledge gaps that exist. The study is located within a relatively new field of health communication where health messages are evaluated to determine whether target audiences are receiving these messages and changing their behaviour in order to live healthier lives. This area of study is also supported by behaviour change models such as the Health Belief Model (HBM), the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), Diffusion of Innovations Theory, Cultural Models, and Strategic Communication. A qualitative study was undertaken in 2008 by way of ten focus group discussions with Samburu women and eleven in-depth interviews with professionals who ran HIV/AIDS programmes in the Samburu district. The focus groups were constituted by means of convenience sampling whereas the snowball strategy was utilised for the selection of participants for in-depth interviews. The questioning route for the focus group discussions for the Samburu women was guided by five themes namely: knowledge levels of the women; cultural aspects that made the women vulnerable to HIV/AIDS; beliefs about HIV/AIDS; attitudes towards HIV/AIDS; and the different channels of communication used to convey HIV/AIDS messages. The interview schedule for the professionals consisted of open-ended questions and face-to-face interviews were carried out using this schedule. / Communication Sciences / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

Dissertation / This study explores the role of the principal in the management of parent involvement in secondary schools in Northern Province. A literature study investigated existing theories and models of parent involvement; parent involvement in the South African context and the provision of education in South Africa in historical perspective. It also investigated the managerial role of the principal in parent involvement. A qualitative investigation in three secondary schools in Northern Province was done. Data were gathered by means of participant observation in-depth interviews with principals and focus-group interviews with teachers and three parents on the school governing bodies. Analysed data revealed the following findings: principals lack knowledge on parent involvement and schools lack policies and organisational structures dealing with parent involvement as well as home-school relations. As a result of these findings, there is a need to equip principals with ways in which they can involve parents in their schools. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Educational Management)

The study focused on the use of social media marketing in the telecommunication business in Zimbabwe, as it has received limited attention in the literature available to date. The study aimed to explore the use of social media marketing in a telecommunications business- Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Limited. The study took on an exploratory research design which was qualitative in nature. A case study approach was applied with Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Limited as focus of being studied. Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Limited was chosen because it is the market leader in the telecommunications industry which has adopted the use of social media marketing in its business. Data collection was done through in-depth interviews with judgement sampling being used to choose the participants for the interviews. The data collected was analysed using thematic analysis. It was found that Econet Wireless Limited is using social media marketing to communicate with its customers, for their brand to be visible. They also use it because it is an inexpensive way to promote their business with a possibility to reach a large number of people in a short space of time. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

Faculty have been identified as critical players in the implementation of textbook affordability efforts at community colleges. Furthermore, emerging lower-cost alternatives to traditional textbooks present a wide and growing range of options that may help further efforts. This study sought to examine more closely the role of faculty with respect to textbook cost-lowering initiatives. The researcher utilized in-depth interviews to gain a rich picture of the experiences, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of nine full-time community college faculty as they confronted textbook affordability efforts and textbook alternatives. The interview data were analyzed using a thematic analysis process. Five major themes and three minor themes were identified. The five major themes were: (a) campus administrators support, but do not mandate, efforts; (b) frequent edition revisions frustrate faculty; (c) departmental approaches to textbook selection vary; (d) content, then affordability, drive selection choices; and (e) faculty have mixed feelings about textbook alternatives. The three minor themes were: (a) faculty efforts to save students money are thwarted by campus bookstores and financial aid policies; (b) English faculty benefit from public domain readings; and (c) more faculty participating in textbook selection means more difficulty deciding on a text. Implications and recommendations were offered for community college leaders, campus bookstores, publishers, and future researchers.

Den våldsamma konflikten på Moluckerna (1999-2002) porträtteras ibland i termer av motsättningar mellan kristna och muslimer. Denna studie problematiserar den bilden genom att analysera flera konfliktfaktorer som belyses ur två perspektiv.Det första syftet med denna studie var att jämföra tidigare forskning gällande konfliktfaktorer i Moluckerna med lokala ungdomars perception. Det finns en forskningslucka rörande ungdomarnas upplevelser av konflikten, vilket denna studie syftar till att överbrygga. Ett andra syfte var att analysera diskrepansen mellan den akademiska litteraturen och ungdomarnas underifrånperspektiv.Det avslutande syftet var att applicera teorin om kollektiv skuldkänsla för att förklara och analysera ungdomarnas minnen och uppfattningar om konfliktfaktorerna i Moluckerna. En kvalitativ fallstudieansats har valts eftersom den kan inkludera både djupintervjuer och en litteraturgenomgång. Sex djupintervjuer genomfördes i Indonesien som utforskade ungdomarnas uppfattningar. Den källkritiskt granskade litteraturgenomgången användes för att erhålla data från sekundärkällor angående samma konfliktfaktorer, som undersöktes I samband med intervjuerna.Den första delen av analysen visade att det finns en diskrepans mellan de två perspektiven när det gäller några av konfliktfaktorerna. Analysen av kollektiv skuldkänsla visade att ungdomarna bara upplevde en begränsad känsla av kollektiv skuld. Detta berodde på att alla strategier som minskar den kollektiva skuldkänslan var representerade i ungdomarnas uppfattningar. Den mest använda strategin var att beskylla några "svarta får", eller i detta fall, några provokatörer för skadan den egna gruppen orsakat den motsatta gruppen. / The violent conflict in the Moluccas (1999-2002) has occasionally been portrayed in terms of animosities between Christians and Muslims. This study problematizes that statement by analysing several conflict drivers seen through two perspectives.The first purpose of this study was to contrast previous research regarding conflict factors in the Moluccas to the perceptions of the local youths’. There is a research gap regarding the youths’ experiences of the conflict, which this study aims to bridge. A second purpose was to analyse discrepancy between the academic literature and the youths’ bottom-up perspective. The final purpose was to apply the theory of collective guilt to explain and analyse the youths’ memories and perceptions regarding the conflict factors in the Moluccas. A qualitative case study approach was adopted since it could include both in-depth interviews and an assessed literature review. Six in-depth interviews were conducted in Indonesia which explored the youth’s perceptions. The critically assessed literature review was used to obtain data from secondary sources regarding the same conflict factors, as was explored by the interviews.The first part of the analysis exposed a discrepancy between the two perspectives regarding some of the conflict factors. The collective guilt analysis found that the youths only seem to experience a rather limited feeling of collective guilt. This is because all strategies to reduce collective guilt were represented in the youths’ perceptions. The most used strategy was to blame a few ‘black sheep’, or in this context a few provocateurs for the harm inflicted by the in-group, towards the out-group.