Heidegger was not always preoccupied, as he himself would later come to believe, with the question regarding the sense of being. Eight years before he published his magnum opus, Sein und Zeit, in 1927 he was totally devoted to finding a systematic way to bringing “life” as the ultimate source of meaning to explicate itself. In the years between 1919-1923, “life”, and not “being”, is the matter of philosophy par excellence, only to be disregarded, even refuted as a “proper” matter of philosophy in the subsequent years. In this paper I examine the philosophical motives that led Heidegger from life to being. The purpose of this project isto trace the emergence of the “thinking of being” in “life philosophy.” I will show that the transition from “life” to “being” is not at all as radical as Heidegger wants it to be whenever he voices his concerns about the metaphysical grounds of life philosophy. When “life” is understood in the exact terms in which Heidegger himself understands it in the years between 1919-1923 then, I argue, the transition to being is more a radicalization, and by no means an abandonment, of life philosophy. In the process of elaborating an understanding of life so fundamentally sympathetic to life that it can claim itself to be life’s own self-understanding, Heidegger comes gradually to realize the importance of life’s own way of living understandingly, the performative sense in which it [life] itself understands itself to be, for the very effort to understand life. Life is now interpreted as a way of being for which this very being, its way of being, is an issue for itself. In the first chapter I go back to the original motives that led Heidegger to choose life, lived experience, as the proper topic of philosophy. It is here that Heidegger discovers that philosophy is ultimately about an entity that is somehow concerned with itself already in being-engaged to “something” other than itself. Intentionality is interpreted as the manner in which an entity is playing itself out, as it were, in engaging a world. In the second chapter, I follow his elaborations of this newly discovered topic, the “personal” character of experience, with a focus on the unique way in which he develops it by both rejecting the Neokantian approach to life and by critically appropriating Dilthey’s conception of lived experience. The third chapter presents Heidegger’s “insights” into life – which will remain unchanged, only put to different uses when the topic changes from life to being. The fourth chapter takes up the issue of how life is (and is itself)in being referred to its own past. Here I show how life is found to be “in need” to appropriate what it has been as the way in which it can be itself. Chapters five and six delve into the proper relation between living and philosophizing by focusing on how life is living-in-understanding. It is shown here how Heidegger elaborates, unfortunately insufficiently, his method of “formal indicators” which will enable him to interpret life as a “way of being.” Such interpretation leaves open the possibility, however, of either interpreting life as the manner in which being itself can be experienced or, as Heidegger does in the first early years, or interpreting being as the manner in which life can come to itself. Early Heidegger can only justify the former interpretation: in developing for itself a sense of being which can only be performed as a way in which life lives, life develops a genuine self-understanding.

Accidentally killing or feeling responsible for another person’s death constitutes a traumatic event that is unique from any other traumatic stressor. Considering the frequency of incidents such as deaths resulting from road traffic accidents (RTAs), it is surprising that the academic literature regarding those who have accidentally killed is almost none existent. This study therefore aimed to gain an insight into the lived experiences of drivers who have caused an accidental death. Five participants were recruited through an on-line advertisement; all were drivers directly involved in a RTA that occurred suddenly, unexpectedly, without planning or intention and resulted in the death of a person. An interpretative phenomenological approach was used to analyse data collected through semistructured interviews. Three main themes emerged from the participants’ accounts: trying to make sense of a life changing moment; struggling to cope with the trauma of causing a death and a changed sense of self. These findings are discussed in relation to the relevant literature. Clinical implications, methodological limitations and directions for future research are presented. The study provides a valuable insight for any professional working with people who have caused, or feel responsible for, an accidental death. It is hoped that this study will be a catalyst for discussion and future research.

The overall aim of the thesis was to explore the perspectives of Chinese women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) focused on their beliefs about health and illness and self-care behavior, the quality of care in China, and their lived experience.                       All the studies were conducted with qualitative methodology using individual interviews. Data were collected in obstetric clinics or wards at three different hospitals or the participants’ workplaces in the south east of China. Content analysis, according to Mayring, was used for data analysis in Study І (15 interviews) and Study II (17 interviews). Content analysis, according to Graneheim & Lundman, was used for data analysis in Study III (44 interviews). In Study IV (18 interviews), data were analyzed by using phenomenological hermeneutics, according to Lindseth & Norberg.      Three styles of beliefs about GDM among the Chinese women were explored in the thesis: GDM should be considered seriously; GDM was not a severe illness; and GDM was nothing to worry about. Correspondingly, three self-care behavior models were revealed: women strove to control GDM, and maintained their blood glucose values at a normal level; or women tried to control GDM based on the knowledge they received, but some of them felt helpless because the blood glucose level could not be maintained within the normal range; or women almost ignored GDM. They mainly sought help from professional sector and popular sector, and regarded health professionals and husbands as important people. They showed, however, that they sought a balance between following professionals’ advice and avoiding practical difficulties, which demonstrated the influence of health professionals, people around, and Chinese culture. The thesis highlighted a lack of knowledge, a lower level of risk awareness and poor self-care behavior among the women with GDM, as well as a lack of professional care resources for GDM and the lack of high-quality personalized care for the women. The core problem could be an resource imbalance between over-stretched hospitals and low-efficiency under-utilized primary healthcare centers. Their lived experience showed an eagerness to be cared for.     The thesis highlighted women’s call for caring care in China. The care of GDM for these women can most likely be improved by reform of clinical practice, particularly in primary healthcare services. It is necessary to increase the number of health professionals and material resources to a reasonable level, and to strengthen caring care in China.

Este estudo descreve as histórias de dez jovens, que vivenciaram a maternidade na faixa etária de 10-14 anos de idade, no município de Mairiporã, SP, no período de agosto de 2004 a agosto de 2005. Tendo como objetivo “(re) conhecer o significado da maternidade para jovens que vivenciaram a experiência, a partir do processo de compreensão de suas histórias de vida”, e refletir sobre as condições de vulnerabilidade, procedemos a um estudo de análise qualitativa, utilizando como procedimentos metodológicos a técnica de história oral, para coleta de dados e, para a análise do material, a técnica de análise de conteúdo. As entrevistas, gravadas e transcritas integralmente e posteriormente recortadas para análise, foram realizadas com jovens, identificadas a partir de declarações de nascidos vivos, obtidos junto ao Cartório de Registro Civil de Mairiporã. Os achados foram analisados, contemplando dois momentos: antes do nascimento do bebê e após o nascimento do bebê, adotando categorias temáticas específicas. A primeira parte aborda a vivencia da infância, a família e o relacionamento familiar, o ficar mocinha, o namoro, a gravidez, as reações à gravidez, o pré-natal e o parto. A segunda parte refere-se a vivencia da jovem após o nascimento do bebê, os cuidados com o bebê, o relacionamento com o parceiro, o relacionamento mãe-filho, as dificuldades, o significado da maternidade, os sonhos, mensagem para adolescentes e para pais. As histórias detalham como se deu o desenrolar de suas vidas dentro do seu contexto histórico e social, contemplando o processo de desenvolvimento desde a infância, a passagem pela adolescência, com as características próprias, quando engravidou até o momento presente no papel de mãe. O significado da maternidade para as jovens foi evidenciado por quatro eixos centrais: felicidade por ser mãe, senso de responsabilidade, sentimento de arrependimento e perdas e mudanças em suas vidas. Os sonhos se expressaram em vontade de estudar, trabalhar, ter uma casa e independência dos pais. As mensagens dirigidas a adolescentes foram para que se previnam para não engravidar, usando preservativo, tomando pílula, que tenham juízo e não percam a juventude; e, a pais, que conversem mais com os filhos e não sejam violentos, autoritários ou omissos, e que as mães orientem mais seus filhos. / This study describes the stories of ten young girls aged 10-14 years who experienced motherhood in the city of Mairiporã, São Paulo, during the period between August 2004 and August 2005. Once the objective was to “know the meaning of maternity of young girls who have lived this experience by considering the understanding process of their life stories”, and to reflect on vulnerability conditions, and a qualitative study was carried out by adopting oral history technique for data collection and content analysis technique for data analysis. The interviews were recorded, fully transcribed and prepared for analysis. They were conducted with young girls, identified by birth certificates from a registry office in Mairiporã. The findings were analyzed according to two distinguished periods: before and after the baby’s birth. The first one describes childhood experience, family relationship, first period, dating, pregnancy, prenatal care and delivery. The second one refers to baby care, partner relationship, mother-child relationship, difficulties, the meaning of maternity, dreams and advice for adolescents and parents. The stories detail their lives within their historical and social contexts from childhood to adolescence, including its peculiarities, and from pregnancy to the present role of mother. Four thematic categories signifying maternity were revealed: happiness for being a mother, sense of responsibility, feelings of regret and loss and changes in their lives. Wishes were expressed by the willingness to study, work, have their own home and be independent from parents. The messages addressed to adolescents draw attention to prevention: condom use, use of contraceptive pills, being reasonable and not loosing their youth. The messages addressed to parents include more dialogue with children and absence of violence, authoritarianism and negligence. Also, mothers are expected to give their children a stronger sense of direction.

Este estudo descreve as histórias de dez jovens, que vivenciaram a maternidade na faixa etária de 10-14 anos de idade, no município de Mairiporã, SP, no período de agosto de 2004 a agosto de 2005. Tendo como objetivo “(re) conhecer o significado da maternidade para jovens que vivenciaram a experiência, a partir do processo de compreensão de suas histórias de vida", e refletir sobre as condições de vulnerabilidade, procedemos a um estudo de análise qualitativa, utilizando como procedimentos metodológicos a técnica de história oral, para coleta de dados e, para a análise do material, a técnica de análise de conteúdo. As entrevistas, gravadas e transcritas integralmente e posteriormente recortadas para análise, foram realizadas com jovens, identificadas a partir de declarações de nascidos vivos, obtidos junto ao Cartório de Registro Civil de Mairiporã. Os achados foram analisados, contemplando dois momentos: antes do nascimento do bebê e após o nascimento do bebê, adotando categorias temáticas específicas. A primeira parte aborda a vivencia da infância, a família e o relacionamento familiar, o ficar mocinha, o namoro, a gravidez, as reações à gravidez, o pré-natal e o parto. A segunda parte refere-se a vivencia da jovem após o nascimento do bebê, os cuidados com o bebê, o relacionamento com o parceiro, o relacionamento mãe-filho, as dificuldades, o significado da maternidade, os sonhos, mensagem para adolescentes e para pais. As histórias detalham como se deu o desenrolar de suas vidas dentro do seu contexto histórico e social, contemplando o processo de desenvolvimento desde a infância, a passagem pela adolescência, com as características próprias, quando engravidou até o momento presente no papel de mãe. O significado da maternidade para as jovens foi evidenciado por quatro eixos centrais: felicidade por ser mãe, senso de responsabilidade, sentimento de arrependimento e perdas e mudanças em suas vidas. Os sonhos se expressaram em vontade de estudar, trabalhar, ter uma casa e independência dos pais. As mensagens dirigidas a adolescentes foram para que se previnam para não engravidar, usando preservativo, tomando pílula, que tenham juízo e não percam a juventude; e, a pais, que conversem mais com os filhos e não sejam violentos, autoritários ou omissos, e que as mães orientem mais seus filhos. / This study describes the stories of ten young girls aged 10-14 years who experienced motherhood in the city of Mairiporã, São Paulo, during the period between August 2004 and August 2005. Once the objective was to “know the meaning of maternity of young girls who have lived this experience by considering the understanding process of their life stories", and to reflect on vulnerability conditions, and a qualitative study was carried out by adopting oral history technique for data collection and content analysis technique for data analysis. The interviews were recorded, fully transcribed and prepared for analysis. They were conducted with young girls, identified by birth certificates from a registry office in Mairiporã. The findings were analyzed according to two distinguished periods: before and after the baby’s birth. The first one describes childhood experience, family relationship, first period, dating, pregnancy, prenatal care and delivery. The second one refers to baby care, partner relationship, mother-child relationship, difficulties, the meaning of maternity, dreams and advice for adolescents and parents. The stories detail their lives within their historical and social contexts from childhood to adolescence, including its peculiarities, and from pregnancy to the present role of mother. Four thematic categories signifying maternity were revealed: happiness for being a mother, sense of responsibility, feelings of regret and loss and changes in their lives. Wishes were expressed by the willingness to study, work, have their own home and be independent from parents. The messages addressed to adolescents draw attention to prevention: condom use, use of contraceptive pills, being reasonable and not loosing their youth. The messages addressed to parents include more dialogue with children and absence of violence, authoritarianism and negligence. Also, mothers are expected to give their children a stronger sense of direction.

The cost of textbooks has continued to increase, and the financial effect on students in higher education is significant. Numerous studies have been done to learn more about student and faculty perceptions toward Open Educational Resources (OER) use. Recent studies confirm that most instructors would use OER in order to alleviate the financial burden placed on students; however, OER adoption rates do not reflect this belief. In my study I sought to better understand what instructors experience when they search for OER. In this phenomenological study, I interviewed faculty who expressed a desire to use OER and to capture their lived experiences of adopting and adapting OER. I would like to better understand what is working well for these faculty and what challenges exist as they seek to find and adopt OER and identify possible solutions that could improve OER adoption rates. I learned that there is a desire to use OER to reduce the financial burden that textbooks impose on students, but that there is very little understanding on where to find quality OER and tools that are needed to adapt it. Future research may focus on ways to improve the process of finding and customizing OER so that it can be an alternative to expensive textbooks.

Despite the high incidence of violence directed at registered nurses while on duty, there is limited qualitative data that explores the lived experience of returning to the workplace after an assaultive incident. This phenomenological study sought to explore and analyze the phenomena of registered nurses who are employed in high-risk settings. The research questions considered the detailed descriptions of the experiences of nurses returning to the workplace. The conceptual framework was resiliency, as these participants continued to survive and thrive after the adverse assaultive events. Data were collected using in-depth interviews from purposeful sampling. Registered nurses working in the high risk areas of inpatient psychiatry and emergency departments provided detailed descriptions about the phenomena. Data management was an inductive, iterative analysis completed and facilitated by the use of NVivo 10 software program. The study found that participants had a brief emotional response post assault mitigated by the community of nursing personal from their immediate surroundings and that assault is "part of the job." Providing a true culture of safety would include enhancements to the internal community of bedside nursing practice. In addition, research is needed on interventions that can effectively enhance the internal community after assault by patients. This study contributes to positive social change by providing registered nurses, an oppressed group, and a "voice" to mitigate negative consequences associated with assault in the hospital setting.

Becoming Expatriate Entrepreneurs: A Phenomenological Exploration of Entrepreneuring in Taiwan The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of an important but under-researched domain of expatriate entrepreneurs¡¦ lived-experience. Heideggerian existential-phenomenology of being-in-the-world was explored as an alternative, departing from the dominant mainstream economic, personality, and behavioral perspectives in entrepreneurship and migration research. Through the phenomenological inquiry, four themes emerged from the expatriate entrepreneurs cases in Taiwan. These intriguing themes are a) adapting and engaging in the local context by enterprising, b) entrepreneuring as brokering in diverse contexts, c) the mutuality of business ventures: Co-creating with the localpreneurs, and d) constructing an entrepreneurial identity, which contribute to both migration and entrepreneurship research. Furthermore, it is proposed that the expatriate entrepreneurial becoming could be understood as situated entrepreneuring which illustrates connecting past and present, connecting to the new context, and also connecting to the material world. Finally, Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications, as well as potential areas for the pursuit of a wide array of further inquires in the field of expatriate, migration and entrepreneurship, are identified. . Keywords: Expatriate Entrepreneur, Migration, Phenomenology, Lived Experience, Situated Entrepreneuring, Taiwan

The concept of liminality describes the experiences of individuals who live "between and betwixt" as a result of their indeterminate status in society. This concept seems appropriate to describe the experiences of people who live with vision loss, because we simultaneously belong to two social or cultural groups. On the one hand we must navigate the mainstream society in which we live day to day, which we are often able to do with the vision we have left. On the other hand, our disability sets us apart from that mainstream society. This idea of living in "between and betwixt" the worlds of the blind and the sighted was the personal challenge that motivated me to pursue this autobiographic research through a heuristic framework. With heuristic research, the researcher is involved in the study as a first participant or co-researcher. The purpose of this heuristic research study was to describe and explain the graduate school experiences of a selected group of graduate students who have visual disabilities in order to help me better understand my own experiences and identity as a graduate student with a visual disability. My exploratory questions that guided this study were: 1. How do I, as a student with a visual disability, perceive and describe my social and academic experiences in graduate school? 2. How do other graduate students who have visual disabilities perceive and describe their social and academic experiences in graduate school? 3. What barriers and challenges do we as graduate students with visual disabilities encounter in graduate school? 4. What factors empower us as students with visual disabilities to achieve success in graduate school? Employing heuristic research methods, I conducted responsive interviews with three purposefully selected co-researchers who also provided related documents for my review. Alternating periods of immersion and incubation, I examined the data in order to develop an individual depiction for each co-researcher, a group depiction, a detailed portrait of one of the co-researchers, and a creative synthesis that expressed my emerging self-understanding through an artistic approach. This creative synthesis captures my improved appreciation for my liminal status as something to be celebrated rather than overcome. Analysis of the data yielded a number of common barriers or challenges faced by the co-researchers. These included a continuing lack of accessibility for both instructional materials and online content management systems, as well as feelings of social isolation, especially in relation to their non-disabled peers. To overcome these challenges, the co-researchers relied on the supportive relationships of their family members, their major professors and other staff within their departments. The co-researchers' personal characteristics of perseverance, resilience and resourcefulness also played a key role in their success, as did their ability to reframe their disabilities into a positive aspect of their lives. This reframing of their disabilities, along with their personal strengths, allowed the co-researchers to emerge as powerful advocates for themselves over the course of their graduate studies.

Introduction: Women possess characteristics and experiences unique and different from men. Menstruation, pregnancy, puberty and menopause may present challenges for self-management, a prerequisite for those living with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). The meaning and experiences of self-management have not been adequately explored from a young woman’s perspective within the diabetes literature. Purpose of the Study: Blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) values are keys for determining success in self-management among individuals living with T1DM; however, the values may enable feelings of vulnerability and worthlessness in individuals living with T1DM. Through learning about the experiences of young women, it was hoped that the meaning of self-management would be uncovered. The research question was: What are the experiences of self-management among young women with Type 1 diabetes mellitus? Methods and Methodology: Descriptive phenomenology was used to uncover the experiences of self-management. Unstructured interviews with nine young women aged 22-30 years were conducted to uncover their lived experience. Data collection and analysis followed the methodical structure outlined by van Manen (1997). Findings: Data analysis revealed five themes, and the essence of participants’ self-management experiences. Identified themes included: 1) elusiveness of control; 2) the dualism of technology; 3) forecasting and establishing routines; 4) dealing with the “ups and downs”; and, 5) interface with the health care team. The essence that emerged from the data was “being in balance”. Conclusions: Self-management encompassed the desire and need to be in balance with one’s life and blood glucose levels. Self-management was something that evolved over time, and grew in complexity as phases progressed; it was something participants were still trying to grasp. Individual attitudes, goals, and self-management strategies dominated participants’ discourse in describing their hope of achieving and sustaining balance in their day-to-day lives. / Thesis (Master, Nursing) -- Queen's University, 2012-01-24 18:35:33.911