This thesis addresses the need for schools to provide a method for young people to come to terms with the complexity of their changing world as they seek to make meaning for themselves. It begins by tracing the theoretical foundations for an increased focus on meaning in Australian schooling and its establishment as a stated pedagogical principle in federal and state policies, syllabi and Catholic Church documentation on education. It analyses the literatures of the future direction of schooling, youth spirituality and the foundation documentation on Catholic education. It proposes that there is a degree of overlap in these literatures and the common discourse and the emerging paradigm addresses the need for students to develop a sense of personal meaning. The thesis provides an historical overview of schooling in terms of the societal contexts and the educational and philosophical assumptions that underpin the curriculum and pedagogical activities. It develops a model that identifies changes in the process of meaning-making and proposes a framework that could help schools become more effective resource agents for students in the development of their meaning-making capacities. It uses this framework to investigate the key documents of one Catholic system of secondary schools. It identifies the extent to which the system actually puts into action this pedagogical principle through its policy, research material, strategic planning, school culture (charism) and religious education programmes. Finally the thesis relates the findings of the specific school system to the overall process of secondary schooling within a Catholic context in Australia and proposes some issues for further consideration.

In studying leading as a way of changing meaning, this research documents a journey of inner exploration amongst five self-nominated leaders in education. In contrast to change limited by outer dimensional structure, changing meaning in an inner dimension was seen as the necessary complement in creating real difference in educators and in educating. Over a period of almost a year, the leaders participated in an online project, travelling together through email dialogue focused around leading, changing and meaning. In this, they experimented with a changing way of researching, developing a personalised space of changing in which they could truth-test their thoughts and feelings about the multiple facets of leading and meaning. Such a space - interstitial to their outer working and inner personal lives, but deeply connective of both - was found useful in supporting coherent change processes in the participant leaders. (Please note that frontispiece and endpiece illustrations have been not been included as they are subject to copyright.)

This thesis is an investigation into the appropriation and assimilation of meaning by examining the relationship between the technique and meaning of the musical sample and meaning and memory in architecture. As a previously recorded sound integrated into a new work, the sample has a dual identity as both detail and artifact. It is a detail of two or more wholes: an original condition and the new condition, and an artifact from the context of the work from which it was taken. In architectural design, each recognizable form and spatial arrangement is a sample from a prototype with its own context and history. Each time a known form or spatial arrangement is sampled meaning is communicated from the prototype to the new work. The decontextualization of the sample, its manipulation and recontextualization into a new work provides the architect a means for reinterpretation and reinvention. Through an exploration of the use of the sample in music, art and architecture this thesis shows how sampling can alter the meaning of the physical environment.

This thesis comprises two articles based on qualitative empirical studies and a theoretical introduction. All three texts deal with the same problem area concerning musical meaning making and the concept development process in the course of composition learning. Each text could be read separately. The composition tasks in the empirical studies are both in electroacoustic music but the research problems and findings concern a broader sense of composition learning and even musical learning in general. The corpus of music education research on composition, rarely takes the body of artistic research and development literature into account, which means that contem- porary techniques and aesthetic discussions commonplace in composition education practice are not considered in music education research. This the- sis contributes to the research field of music education by acknowledging some of the fundamental research on composition, and discussing it from an education perspective. As a consequence, a contribution salient in the arti- cles is to begin to develop research methodology accordingly. The introduc- tion takes on a quest to map out the field in a new way by bringing together research in music education with artistic research on composition, writings on music philosophy, semiotics and cognitive psychology. The boundaries and interplay between semantic significance and syntactic meaning are ex- amined and discussed, as is the relation between aesthetic meaning making and learning. The articles deal with these issues in the context of composi- tion learning at a music program in upper secondary school. The one entitled Synthetic Activity is about fundamental aspects of soundgeneration and hence directed towards semiotics in the form of phonology and significance in connection to musical gesture and spectral content. The learning and meaning making processes of two composition students are studied as they engage in additive synthesis to build sounds, musical phrases and eventually a short musical composition. One of the most striking results is that the pro- ject came to be as much a listening experience as one of creative music mak- ing, and that the concept development process included rehearing and reas- sessing familiar sounds and music. The article Creative Structures or Struc- tured Creativity deals with form and syntactic structure, as the students learn to develop and apply composition algorithms to further their creative think- ing. The results show that there are several different layers to the concept development processes in this project. One layer concerns to be able to struc-7ture musical parameters on an aggregate level; to learn to plan musical de- velopments as space of possibility rather than as a determined linear se- quence of musical events. Another layer comprises problems of learning the programming environment and how to embody the musical algorithms in working computer-code. A third layer concerns letting the algorithmically generated materials influence your creative thinking. Tokens of the concept development process as described by Vygotskij (1987, 1999) in language- based learning were prominent also in the music composition learning of these studies. Implications for further research include formalizing criteria for the developmental phases of the concept development process in musical contexts.

This dissertation examines the relation between emotional functioning and meaning making in bereavement. Emotional functioning (i.e., awareness, expression, and regulation of emotions) has been traditionally considered crucial in grief coping (Pennebaker, 1990; Raphael, 1983). At the same time, bereaved people who were able to find a meaning in their loss experience were found to show better adjustment and were less likely to develop grief complications than those who did not find a meaning (Davis, Wortman, Lehman, & Silver, 2000; Tolstikova, Fleming, & Chartier, 2005). The present research aimed to build a more inclusive model of grief coping by examining the interplay of emotional functioning and meaning making in grief in the same sample of people. The emotionally focused approach to human functioning developed by L. Greenberg (Greenberg, 2004) forms the theoretical foundation for the study. This approach proposes that emotional arousal, awareness, expression, and regulation provide grounds for meaning construction and eventually help to assimilate a shattering event. Following Greenbergs conceptualization (Greenberg, Auszura, & Herrmann, 2007), the first set of studies of the present dissertation examined productive and unproductive emotional functioning in grief. Three hundred and fifteen bereaved people were recruited through the online bereavement support websites to help develop and validate the Productive-Unproductive Emotional Processing in Grief questionnaire (PUG). The PUG scores were further used to predict meaning making in grief. It was shown that bereaved individuals who were engaged in productive emotional processing of grief and demonstrated good emotional regulation were more capable of making sense of their loss six months later.<p> The data for the first set of studies were collected via the Internet. While the Internet method of data collection has been previously used in grief research, its validity and reliability had not been assessed. Thus, Study 4 of the present dissertation reviewed the use of the Internet in bereavement research and examined the reliability and validity of online data collection. The demographic characteristics and grief scores of the Internet participants were compared to those completed by traditional paper-and-pencil method. The study demonstrated that the online survey results were comparable to the traditional paper-and-pencil survey method.

This thesis aims to analyze the similarity of the change in Nietzsches and Wittgensteins approaches to the meaning of life. The main argument is that their approach to the meaning of life changed from a metaphysical perspective to an anti-metaphysical one. Nietzsche gave a metaphysical interpretation of the meaning of life in the Birth of Tragedy. In this book Nietzsche conceived of Ancient Greek culture as the ideal culture since it was the product of the union of the two artistic deities: Apollo and Dionysus. This Primordial Unity (Ur-Eine), for Nietzsche, was the metaphysical essence of the world and the meaning of life was to be found in this unity. Nietzsche, later, with his new preface to the Birth of Tragedy called An Attempt at a Self-Criticism and Human All Too Human, criticized his earlier metaphysical approach to the meaning of life and shifted to an anti-metaphysical perspective. Wittgenstein had a similar shift in his thought. The Tractatus was written to explore the nature of reality and the world, and explain the relationship between the world and language. The Tractatus gave a metaphysical explanation of the nature of reality by dividing it into two levels, the world the lower and the mystical the higher. Logic, ethics, aesthetics and religion are the mystical which is the scaffolding of the world. Language, on this view, can only state the worldtotality of facts and cannot state what is higher. Ethics is about the meaning of life thus the meaning of life is higher and cannot be attained within the limits of this world. Later Wittgenstein in Philosophical Investigations argued against this metaphysical interpretation of the meaning of life. From an anti-metaphysical point of view, Wittgenstein argued that the meaning of life can be found within the limits of this world.

This thesis aims to analyze the similarity of the change in Nietzsches and Wittgensteins approaches to the meaning of life. The main argument is that their approach to the meaning of life changed from a metaphysical perspective to an anti-metaphysical one. Nietzsche gave a metaphysical interpretation of the meaning of life in the Birth of Tragedy. In this book Nietzsche conceived of Ancient Greek culture as the ideal culture since it was the product of the union of the two artistic deities: Apollo and Dionysus. This Primordial Unity (Ur-Eine), for Nietzsche, was the metaphysical essence of the world and the meaning of life was to be found in this unity. Nietzsche, later, with his new preface to the Birth of Tragedy called An Attempt at a Self-Criticism and Human All Too Human, criticized his earlier metaphysical approach to the meaning of life and shifted to an anti-metaphysical perspective. Wittgenstein had a similar shift in his thought. The Tractatus was written to explore the nature of reality and the world, and explain the relationship between the world and language. The Tractatus gave a metaphysical explanation of the nature of reality by dividing it into two levels, the world the lower and the mystical the higher. Logic, ethics, aesthetics and religion are the mystical which is the scaffolding of the world. Language, on this view, can only state the worldtotality of facts and cannot state what is higher. Ethics is about the meaning of life thus the meaning of life is higher and cannot be attained within the limits of this world. Later Wittgenstein in Philosophical Investigations argued against this metaphysical interpretation of the meaning of life. From an anti-metaphysical point of view, Wittgenstein argued that the meaning of life can be found within the limits of this world.

The following collection, Unquiet Things, consists of original poetry written between 2007 and 2012, and an introduction, “The Poems We Want to Live With,” which discusses sincerity and meaning in contemporary poetry.

Title: Recreating Meaning Through Cultural Investments – A Case Study of Volvo IT in France Swedish Title: Återskapa Mening Genom Kulturella Investeringar – En Fallstudie av Volvo IT i Frankrike Authors: Pegah Esmaeili and Filip Holmdahl Tutor: Lena Andersson Background For what reasons do organizations invest in culture? Could it be seen as an initiative from management to create some form of control and to manage the reality of employees? A company that systematically is working and investing in their organizational culture is Volvo IT by creating a cultural network consisting of a Cultural Manager, Cultural Navigators and Cultural Ambassadors. The question is if the rest of the organization share the efforts made in these investments? This thesis will investigate if the investments made by the management, to manage a wanted meaning, are shared by the lower level personnel.Purpose To create an improved understanding between managements strive, through cultural investments, to recreate and manage a wanted meaning and how the employees perceive these investments. Method The empirical data was collected through interviews and ethnographical observations at Volvo IT in Lyon. This study takes on an explorative inception by looking at if a company putting lots of effort into their organizational culture actually manages to deliver the same meanings throughout the organizational levels. Additional methods used include field notes, photography and participant observation. Results Organizational culture is both a structure and a process. It is needed to provide a structure of how to make sense of reality for every employee but is not only shaped by management. It is a process, which is always under constant change and must accept diverse meanings and hence there must be space for diverse meanings in the shared ones resulting in a recognizing instead of a blaming culture. Symbolic aspects, such as symbols, rites, slogans and stories, will increase the cultural understanding between management and employees but they should be so invisible that they become visible in daily behavior. Keywords Volvo IT, Organizational culture, meaning, symbolism, management, employees

This dissertation examines the relation between emotional functioning and meaning making in bereavement. Emotional functioning (i.e., awareness, expression, and regulation of emotions) has been traditionally considered crucial in grief coping (Pennebaker, 1990; Raphael, 1983). At the same time, bereaved people who were able to find a meaning in their loss experience were found to show better adjustment and were less likely to develop grief complications than those who did not find a meaning (Davis, Wortman, Lehman, & Silver, 2000; Tolstikova, Fleming, & Chartier, 2005). The present research aimed to build a more inclusive model of grief coping by examining the interplay of emotional functioning and meaning making in grief in the same sample of people. The emotionally focused approach to human functioning developed by L. Greenberg (Greenberg, 2004) forms the theoretical foundation for the study. This approach proposes that emotional arousal, awareness, expression, and regulation provide grounds for meaning construction and eventually help to assimilate a shattering event. Following Greenbergs conceptualization (Greenberg, Auszura, & Herrmann, 2007), the first set of studies of the present dissertation examined productive and unproductive emotional functioning in grief. Three hundred and fifteen bereaved people were recruited through the online bereavement support websites to help develop and validate the Productive-Unproductive Emotional Processing in Grief questionnaire (PUG). The PUG scores were further used to predict meaning making in grief. It was shown that bereaved individuals who were engaged in productive emotional processing of grief and demonstrated good emotional regulation were more capable of making sense of their loss six months later.<p> The data for the first set of studies were collected via the Internet. While the Internet method of data collection has been previously used in grief research, its validity and reliability had not been assessed. Thus, Study 4 of the present dissertation reviewed the use of the Internet in bereavement research and examined the reliability and validity of online data collection. The demographic characteristics and grief scores of the Internet participants were compared to those completed by traditional paper-and-pencil method. The study demonstrated that the online survey results were comparable to the traditional paper-and-pencil survey method.