My thesis examines moral and political responses to the character of work through critical evaluation of the work we do to sustain a stable social order suitable for human acting and being. My original contribution rests upon my application of Wolf s (2010) distinct bipartite value of meaningfulness (BVM) to the structure of action in work, which integrates the objective and subjective dimensions of meaningfulness when subjective feelings of attachment are united. to an assessment of the objective worthiness of the object. Work which is structured by the BVM is a fundamental human need, because it addresses our inescapable interests in autonomy, freedom, and social recognition, which are met when work is non-alienated, non-dominated and dignified. To realise the BVM, each person must possess the capabilities for objective valuing and affective attachment, in addition to their equal status as eo-authorities in the realm of value. Being able to participate in creating and sustaining positive values through meaning-making alleviates concerns that meaningful work is a perfectionist ideal which undermines autonomy. But meaning-making gives rise to interpretive differences over values and meanings which often remain as pre-political potentials unless brought into public deliberation through deliberative practices. I argue that realising the BVM in work requires a politics of meaningfulness generated by a system of workplace democracy, where democratic authority at the level of the organisation is combined with agonistic democratic practices at the level of the task. Furthermore, capability justice requires the satisfaction of two principles ~ the principle of egalitarian meaning, such that all persons must be able to experience their work as meaningful, and the threshold of sufficient meaning, such that work is sufficiently meaningful when constituted by the values of autonomy, freedom and social recognition. I conclude that the relevant capabilities for meaningfulness are realised, indirectly, through institutional guarantees for the Capability for Voice. Ruth Yeoman Abstract

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Published Article / The implementation of the outcomes-based education and training (OBET) and learner-centred approaches specifically in the health technology programmes at the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) exposed facilitators to new challenges in teaching and assessment. The current assessment environment in these programmes was established, using two questionnaires aimed at facilitators and students. The results of the study showed a trend towards innovation in assessment and the establishment of an assessment culture when compared with specific characteristics in literature on meaningful and scholarly assessment practices.

This self-study, written in narrative form, considers the design of a “pedagogy of meaning” (Cooper, 2009) that supports children’s identity-construction, as the children uniquely “appear” in the classroom. The author shares this process with the children in her Grade 1 classroom. As part of the children’s “appearance” in the classroom, “voices” which have not often been heard come to be shared in meaningful/meaning-making ways. Also, in the course of this pedagogical design process, the author explores the construction of her own “teacher identities”. The study is theoretically inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach; in particular, the central tenet of the “image of the child” as competent, capable, and resourceful (Rinaldi, 1993). This is a postmodern image of the child brought into being through the process of telling and interpreting stories of past and present. This “image of the child” is utilized as a guiding concept as the author endeavours to conceptualize and enact her own interpretation of a pedagogy of meaning in her Grade 1 classroom context. A pedagogy of meaning is conceptualized as a relational and malleable construct negotiated between the teacher and children and among the children themselves, enriched by the participants’ individual and shared identities, contexts, and experiences.

This self-study, written in narrative form, considers the design of a “pedagogy of meaning” (Cooper, 2009) that supports children’s identity-construction, as the children uniquely “appear” in the classroom. The author shares this process with the children in her Grade 1 classroom. As part of the children’s “appearance” in the classroom, “voices” which have not often been heard come to be shared in meaningful/meaning-making ways. Also, in the course of this pedagogical design process, the author explores the construction of her own “teacher identities”. The study is theoretically inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach; in particular, the central tenet of the “image of the child” as competent, capable, and resourceful (Rinaldi, 1993). This is a postmodern image of the child brought into being through the process of telling and interpreting stories of past and present. This “image of the child” is utilized as a guiding concept as the author endeavours to conceptualize and enact her own interpretation of a pedagogy of meaning in her Grade 1 classroom context. A pedagogy of meaning is conceptualized as a relational and malleable construct negotiated between the teacher and children and among the children themselves, enriched by the participants’ individual and shared identities, contexts, and experiences.

Thesis advisor: Michael G. Pratt / Evidence is mounting that recognition from others may play a critical role in shaping an individual’s experience of meaningful work; so how do workers find meaningfulness when their work is “invisible”? I examine this tension through a qualitative, inductive study of the occupation of linemen—the women and men who construct and repair power lines. By examining this invisible occupation, my research explains the conditions that foster the “recognition gap”—a disparity between the recognition linemen believe they deserve and the recognition they actually receive. This recognition gap ultimately produces meaningfulness insecurity—feelings of uncertainty or doubt about the meaningfulness of their work. Moreover, this research also explains how linemen overcome this meaningfulness insecurity through intuitive feelings of pride in beautiful completed work. Through a process motivated by a desire to avoid criticism for ugly work, linemen develop “expert schemas” that allow for intuitive—rapid, nonconscious, and affectively charged—reactions to the appearance of a completed job. When positive, these intuitive judgements foster experiences of meaningfulness. By explaining these processes, this dissertation re-casts meaningfulness from an individual accomplishment to one that is deeply dependent on social cues; and from a process requiring thoughtful reflection to one driven by intuitive judgements. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Management and Organization.

Research on the definition and conceptual understanding of meaningful work is fragmented. The purpose of this study is to better understand characteristics of people who experience meaningful work. Variables will be selected based on conceptual importance and empirical significance from a range of theoretical perspectives on meaningful work. The following constructs were studied through cluster analysis: (a) meaningful work, (b) authenticity at work, (c) career confidence, (d) work centrality, (e) religiousness, (f) meaning in life, (g) coworker satisfaction, (h) calling, (i) work engagement, (j) career commitment, and (k) work values. A sample of 437 adults who endorsed finding their work meaningful were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) online data collection service. A two-step process by Gore (2000) was followed for the data analysis. First, hierarchical cluster analysis using the “NbClust” package in R statistical software (Charrad, Ghazzali, Boiteau, & Niknafs, 2015) was used to determine the best number of clusters. Subsequently, k-means cluster analyses were used to assign individual cases to specific clusters.

Students often ask "when is this ever going to be useful?", "why are we doing this?", etc. when speaking about mathematics. If we take this as a question about 'meaningfulness', how can instructors respond and how do they even understand the terms 'meaningful' and 'meaning'? My dissertation looked at how college instructors see their instruction as meaningful or not. Drawing on social and cognitive perspectives of learning, I define four ways to think of what's 'meaningful' about mathematics. From a cognitive perspective, instructors can understand 'meaningful' as mathematical understanding versus understanding the significance of mathematics. From a social perspective where meaning is taken as the experiences of everyday life within communities, teachers can understand 'meaningful' as anything that engages students in practices the mathematics community engage in versus practices non-mathematics communities engage in (e.g. pushing computation or critical thinking as a means for maintaining social hierarchies). Using these four conceptions to categorize instructors' goals, this work focuses on how four undergraduate mathematics instructors thought of their instruction as meaningful and contextual and background factors that influenced those views. / Doctor of Philosophy / Students often ask "when is this ever going to be useful?" when speaking about mathematics. If we interpret this as seeking the meaning or purpose of their education, how can teachers respond and how do they even understand the terms 'meaningful' and 'meaning'? I wanted to look at how college instructors thought of this and how they addressed such a question in their classrooms. Drawing on different theories of learning, I outlined four ways to think of what's 'meaningful' about mathematics and then used these four ways to categorize how instructors think of their instruction as meaningful. To meet this end, I looked at some accounts of instructors' goals. My data came from college instructors of different mathematics classes: math for elementary education, math for liberal arts, statistics, and calculus. One important thing I found was that experiences with underserved communities or of not being 'a math person' corresponded with instructors' ability to attend to different kinds of 'meaningful' goals. What this might suggest is that educators may not feel prepared to respond to students' pursuit of meaning in diverse ways unless they have also personally struggled with it growing up or have personally experienced the consequences of disenfranchisement.

This is a qualitative study aiming to examine peoples’ experiences when retiring. In that purpose a criteria based sample has been used, participants have been asked in that they fulfilled the criteria’s to be a retiree within the age of 65 to 71 years of age. The reason of the age criteria was that the experiences should not be so far away in time. Data has been collected through 11 semi-structured interviews which has been recorded and transcribed ongoing during the collecting of data. Thematic analysis was used as a method of analysis under the premise that it is a flexible method which leaves room for interpretation if adequate depth exists in the material. Four overall themes emerged through the analysis, these are life changes, to leave work, demands changes and last chapter – hope or despair. The themes are founded in retirees’ own stories about their experiences and describes de different aspects of retiring which the respondents has gone through. A deeper analysis of the result gave that the central factors of the experiences is about searching for meaningful activities as a replacement for work and thereby finding a sense of meaning in life. It is also about searching for identity in the new role as a retiree. All together is a lack of meaning in life and uncertainty regarding the own identity reasons for experiencing existential anxiety, coping strategies are used to restore the imbalance sprung from retiring. With this in mind the process is also run through by a positive feeling of freedom in the new situation of being a retiree. The study finishes by proposing future research and applications, there underlying causes for the differences in the experiences and the production of a model over the process in retiring are the main proposals. / Det här är en kvalitativ studie med syfte att undersöka människors upplevelser av att gå i pension. Med den ansatsen har ett kriteriebaserat urval använts, deltagare har tillfrågats som uppfyllde urvalskriterierna att vara pensionär och i ålder 65 till 71 år. Orsaken till ålderskriteriet var att upplevelserna inte skulle ligga så långt bak i tiden. Data har samlats in genom 11 semistrukturerade intervjuer vilka har spelats in och transkriberats löpande under datainsamlingen. Tematisk analys användes som analysmetod i studien under föresatsen att det är en flexibel metod som lämnar utrymme för tolkningar om tillräckligt djup finns. Fyra övergripande teman utkristalliserade sig genom analysen, dessa är livet förändras, att lämna arbetet, kraven förändras och sista kapitlet – hopp eller förtvivlan. Teman grundas på pensionärerna egna berättelser om sina upplevelser och beskriver de olika aspekter av att gå i pension respondenterna genomgått. En djupare analys av resultatet gav att det centrala i upplevelserna handlar om att söka efter meningsfull sysselsättning som ersättning för arbetet och därigenom finna mening i tillvaron. Det handlar också om ett sökande efter identitet i den nya rollen som pensionär. Sammantaget är avsaknad av mening i tillvaron och osäkerhet kring den egna identiteten orsaker till existentiell ångest, coping strategier används för att återställa obalansen skapad genom pensioneringen. Med det i minnet är även processen genomsyrad av en positiv känsla av frihet i den nya situationen som pensionär. Studien avslutas med att ge förslag på framtida forskning och användningsområden, där bakomliggande orsaker till att upplevelserna skiljer sig åt och framtagande av en modell över processen av att gå i pension är de huvudsakliga förslagen.

In the current South African context, negative work attitude of teachers has become a phenomenon to be reckoned with as it has a detrimental effect on the education system. Although research on this phenomenon is still scarce, a growing interest in work attitude and its different underlying constructs is obvious from the increase of work attitude research. It is now time to investigate ways to improve work attitude, one of which could be to invest in meaningful work. The aim of this study is to expand on the understanding of the relationship between experiencing a sense of calling and work attitude as well as to determine the influence of meaningful work on this relationship. Through this study the researcher proposed an adapted model of Steger, Pickering, Shin and Dik (2011) which will serve as an academic tool for future research. This model will also be applicable as a management tool to understand and deal with teachers’ negative work attitude. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was used. The analysis was based on data from a representative sample of teachers recruited from primary and secondary schools in the Fezile Dabi district (n = 270) formerly known as the Northern Free State School district. The following measuring instruments were administered: The Calling and Vocation Questionnaire (CVQ), The Work and Meaning Inventory (WAMI), The Work Preference Inventory (WPI) and The Career Decision Profile (CDP). The researcher used the analytic approach of structural equation modelling by means of the statistical program Mplus. The results revealed that a statistically significant relationship existed between the experience of a sense of calling and work attitude. Results also supported the hypothesis that meaningful work has an indirect effect on the relationship between the experience of a calling and work attitude. The findings of this study indicated that positive work attitude tends to be enhanced by the addition of meaningful work. The Department of Education will have to take ognisance of ways to create meaningful work if they wish to succeed in educational transformation, as meaningful work has an indirect effect on the relationship between the experience of a calling and work attitude of teachers. Future studies should include longitudinal studies to validate the proposed adapted model and to identify more predictors of positive work attitude. / MA (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013