This thesis focuses on how reproductive health is made meaningful in the context of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Kentucky. Using ethnographic field methods, including participant observation and semi-structured interviews, the paper explores how staff members negotiate definitions of reproductive health as employees of Planned Parenthood health center. The analysis addresses reproductive health discourse among the clinic staff and how reproductive health is used as a site of intervention. It also explores the sociocultural processes and interactions the staff members engage in at the national and local levels and the role these play in shaping the conceptualization of reproductive health and how it is deployed at the clinic level. This analysis illuminates the fluid nature of reproductive health meanings and the ways in which health care delivery is contextually and socially mediated.

Academic research in 360-degree feedback continues to be dominated by a positivist approach with analyses of the feedback ratings. In contrast, this qualitative study explores how people make sense of 360, across the chain of meaning making involving not only raters and feedback recipients but also HR managers, facilitators and external consultants. Two corporate case studies in the pharmaceutical sector show how 360 evolves as a social process and carries a variety of meanings in different organisations and management contexts. Quasi-scientific rituals are revealed, demonstrating the existence of pseudo-anonymity and of complex use of numerical ratings and narrative comments. Woven alongside these corporate case studies is an autoethnography, which examines emotional and cognitive responses to two rounds of 360 asking for feedback on coaching performance. The autoethnographic thread allows insights into the dynamic relationship between academic and practitioner perspectives, as the researcher moves between both worlds. This PhD makes three contributions: the conceptualisation of 360 as a social process; the questioning of taken-for-granted customs within 360; and a methodological contribution to the development of autoethnographic practice.

This qualitative research project is a narrative inquiry into the loss experiences of four bereaved individuals who have lost an immediate family member; one of them is myself. In particular, the meanings assigned to the losses and how those meanings impacted the grieving process were explored by listening to in-depth narratives of the participants’ experiences of loss and grief. A narrative methodology was used, based on a constructivist epistemology that describes a human tendency to put events in narrative forms in order to give them a sense of continuity and meaning. Four narratives, along with their respective analysis, were presented in separate chapters, with my own narrative presented as the last narrative chapter. Of the four of us, two are males: one from Jewish-American and the other from German-Romanian descent, and two are females: both from Persian descent. The four participants ranged from 39 to 71 years of age at the time of the interviews, with the losses occurring 3 to 25 years before the interviews. Findings of this research reveal the unique and complex grieving processes of the participants. A variety of meanings were assigned to the losses with each meaning having its own possible impact on the course of bereavement. Each participant expressed her/his own personal assumptions about the nature of life, love, suffering, human vulnerabilities, and death stemming from their life experiences and culture. We all expressed in our own unique way that the loss of a special person, a loving bond, and a significant relationship will always remain painful, but their memories, legacies, and love will continue beyond their deaths, which can help us in finding meaningful, productive, and hopeful paths. Hopefully this research project will provide some validation and inspiration for other grieving individuals and contribute to the current understanding of bereavement and grief.

This qualitative research project is a narrative inquiry into the loss experiences of four bereaved individuals who have lost an immediate family member; one of them is myself. In particular, the meanings assigned to the losses and how those meanings impacted the grieving process were explored by listening to in-depth narratives of the participants’ experiences of loss and grief. A narrative methodology was used, based on a constructivist epistemology that describes a human tendency to put events in narrative forms in order to give them a sense of continuity and meaning. Four narratives, along with their respective analysis, were presented in separate chapters, with my own narrative presented as the last narrative chapter. Of the four of us, two are males: one from Jewish-American and the other from German-Romanian descent, and two are females: both from Persian descent. The four participants ranged from 39 to 71 years of age at the time of the interviews, with the losses occurring 3 to 25 years before the interviews. Findings of this research reveal the unique and complex grieving processes of the participants. A variety of meanings were assigned to the losses with each meaning having its own possible impact on the course of bereavement. Each participant expressed her/his own personal assumptions about the nature of life, love, suffering, human vulnerabilities, and death stemming from their life experiences and culture. We all expressed in our own unique way that the loss of a special person, a loving bond, and a significant relationship will always remain painful, but their memories, legacies, and love will continue beyond their deaths, which can help us in finding meaningful, productive, and hopeful paths. Hopefully this research project will provide some validation and inspiration for other grieving individuals and contribute to the current understanding of bereavement and grief.

This thesis is an auto-ethnographic study of teaching methods proposed to be effective in developing thinking skills that advance meaning making in my middle school art classes. The study explored the use of Visible Thinking Routines Ritchart et all, 2001) and Art Investigations (Herz, 2010) in middle school art classes.Reflections and other field texts reveal the extent to which I found these methods effective in guiding students to develop higher order thinking skills that support more meaningful outcomes in art and could be beneficial in other areas of their lives.

The recent history of computer-mediated textual art has witnessed a controversy surrounding the aesthetics of these texts. The practice-based research described by this thesis responds to this controversy by posing the question - Is there an aesthetic of computer-mediated textual art that can be used as the basis for a positive evaluation of contemporary practice? In exploring answers to this question, it poses three further questions that investigate the role played by materiality, participation and earlier claims for emancipation in the formation of an evaluation. This thesis develops its answer to these questions by turning first to the work of Bakhtin and the Bakhtin Circle to provide a generalised, architectonic model of meaning-making which serves as a conceptual framework for understanding computer-mediated textual art. This model describes meaning-making as a participative event between particularised individuals, which is defined, in part, by the addressivity oftheir shared utterance. This thesis then draws on the work of Ken Hirschkop to argue that the addressivity of print-mediated utterances contributed to the obscuring of participation of the reader-participant in the event of meaning-making during the period ofthe national culture of print. It also argues that this obscuring of participation had an effect on the development of democratic consciousness during this period. This thesis extends the concepts of the utterance and addressivity to describe computer-mediated textual art. It describes the historical context and the variety of aesthetic interests underpinning contemporary practice. It then argues that a sub-set of these texts exhibit a mode of addressivity that is different from the norms of the national culture of print. It draws on these differences to develop the original contribution ofthis thesis by describing an axiology (a theory of value) of computer-mediated textual art predicated on role played by their addressivity in raising awareness ofthe participation of the reader-participant in meaning-making. This thesis then illustrates the theoretical assessments derived from these questions through practice. It details the methodology employed in this research programme. It then describes the motivations for this research, the course of study, the preparatory practice and provides a social evaluation ofthe technology deployed. It argues for a 'contingent' model of practice in which the design process is framed as a reflective experiment. It then provides an analysis ofthe design process of the computer-mediated textual art work 'Homecoming' to illustrate the arguments made in thesis. This thesis concludes by placing the new axiology into the wider cultural context by arguing that it provides a valuable but non-exhaustive, nonexclusive evaluation ofthese works.

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The overall aim of this thesis is to contribute to the debate about Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and provide a practical tool for teachers with which they can relate to ethical and moral learning in the ESD context. This aim is based on the ambition to develop an approach that takes its starting point from our practical experience of ethics and morals, inspired by the later works of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the transactional perspective developed by John Dewey. This implies that ethics and morals are regarded as a human tendency that is observable in action. The central method used to clarify ethical and moral meaning-making is, by the use of examples, to remind of common experiences of how this meaning-making appears in everyday situations. These clarifications are made in order to dissolve (rather than solve) philosophical problems, as well as to create new knowledge. The approach has been applied to four different studies. The first study focuses on the differences between three selective traditions in environmental education: fact-based, normative and pluralistic, with regard to the relationship between facts and values. It is argued that a pluralistic approach can be seen as way of relating facts and values in practice, and consequently that the democratic process neither precedes nor succeeds education but is an integral part of it, and that students therefore are constituted as citizens participating in the progress of sustainable development. The purpose of the second study is to suggest an approach that allows in situ analysis of how individuals’ prior experiences are included in the processes of moral meaning-making. A concrete example shows how individuals can transform the moral discourse in different situations. In the third study, it is suggested that the ethical tendency can be recognised as a communication in which certain values and actions are treated as if they were universally good and right. Three different kinds of situations in which this communication appears are highlighted: personal moral reactions, norms for correct behaviour and ethical reflections.The diverse conditions for learning in these situations are discussed, and specific notice is taken of the risk of indoctrination in ESD. The fourth study addresses the question of how to understand and deal with criticism in a pluralistic educational approach. Through reminders of how criticism appears in everyday practice, it is argued that criticism does not necessarily have to be understood theoretically. Criticism can also be seen as the diverse ways in which human beings morally react, encounter different norms and ethically reflect.

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The thesis presents the analytical process and the findings of a study on: lecturers teaching practice with first year undergraduate mathematics modules; and lecturers knowledge for teaching with regard to students mathematical meaning making (understanding). Over three academic semesters, I observed and audio-recorded twenty-six lecturers teaching to a small group tutorial of two to eight first year students, and I discussed with the lecturers about their underlying considerations for teaching. The analysis of this thesis focuses on a characterisation of each of three (of the twenty-six) lecturers teaching, which I observed for more than one semester. I chose the teaching of three experienced lecturers, due to diversity in terms of ways of engaging the students with the mathematics, and due to my consideration of their commitment to teaching for students mathematical meaning making. The distinctive nature of the study is concerned with the conceptualisation of university mathematics teaching practice and knowledge within a Vygotskian perspective. In particular, I used for the characterisation of teaching practice and of teaching knowledge the notions tool-mediation and dialectic from Vygotskian theory. I also used a coding process grounded to the data and informed by existing research literature in mathematics education. I conceptualised teaching practice into tools for teaching and actions with tools for teaching (namely strategies). I then conceptualised teaching knowledge as the lecturers reflection on teaching practice. The thesis contributes to the research literature in mathematics education with an analytical framework of teaching knowledge which is revealed in practice, the Teaching Knowledge-in-Practice (TKiP). TKiP analyses specific kinds of lecturer s knowing for teaching: didactical knowing and pedagogical knowing. The framework includes emerging tools for teaching (e.g. graphical representation, rhetorical question, students faces) and emerging strategies for teaching (e.g. creating students positive feelings, explaining), which were common or different among the three lecturers teaching practice. Overall, TKiP is produced to offer a dynamic framework for researcher analysis of university mathematics teaching knowledge. Analysis of teaching knowledge is important for gaining insights into why teaching practice happens in certain ways. The findings of the thesis also suggest teaching strategies for the improvement of students mathematical meaning making in tutorials.