Academic researches suggests that Rroma face challenges of overcoming poverty, improving access to education, increasing employability and improving health. This thesis describes a qualitative investigation into the role of education to ensuring upward mobility for Rroma. Using a purposive sample, the research analysed the ethnic make-up of Rroma individuals and found that contrary to uninformed perceptions, Rroma community is immensely diverse and can be described through two generic types: a Traditional Gypsies type and a Modern Rroma type. The Traditional Gypsies type would generally describe the Gypsies who at individual or collective level still preserve in their day to day life a collection of Gypsy ethnic practices. By contrast, the Modern Rroma type would refer to those Rroma who having began recently or generations back a process of ethnic transition and/or assimilation into the wider Romanian community now share only a few traditional ethnic practices. Next, the research classified occupations encountered, analysed whether intra-generational and inter-generational social mobility occurs and found that Rroma community experiences a dynamic pattern of multi-directional and multi-speed social mobility as well as a distinct process of ethnic transition. Ethnic transition describes the process through which respondents shed ethnic practices and move away from distinct Gypsy ethnic identities towards "symbolic" identities. Thirdly, the research analysed the impact of education on social trajectories and found that contrary to uninformed prejudice, a majority of Rroma tend to hold education in high esteem and that they do benefit socially from it. Far from questioning its relevance or fearing it, formal education is accepted and aspired to by Traditional Gypsies who understand its potential impact upon their living standard. Modem Rroma too, value education though their ideal attainment levels tend to be higher than those of Traditional Gypsies. The gap between abstract preferences and real school participation is maintained less by discrimination alone but by a rational choice evaluation through a cost (including discrimination) benefit analysis. Formal education is essential for Rroma's social mobility though Traditional Gypsies necessitate lesser levels than Modern Rroma who, to compete in the Gadje world, require the same amount of education for comparative occupation levels as other members of the wider community.

Owing to immigration and natural growth, there has been a significant increase in Chinese children in English-speaking societies. When these children are brought up and educated in Britain and the USA, Chinese parents are quite anxious that their children should maintain the Chinese identity and some traditional cultural values through the learning of the Chinese language. In order to satisfy Chinese parents' aspirations, there has been a growth of Chinese supplementary schools within the Chinese communities in both Britain and the USA. To respond to the 1977 EEC (European Economic Community) Directive which requires the teaching of the official language(s) of the host country and the mother tongue/culture of the migrant/ immigrant children in schools of the member states, some British state schools in London have made Chinese language education available during or after school hours since the early 1980s. Despite the provision of Chinese language education by the voluntary and maintained sectors, problems of underachievement at school and cultural adjustment of some Chinese children remain unsolved and ignored. The intent of the thesis is to investigate some of these problems of the Chinese pupils in British schools and see the extent to which that education provision within the Chinese community and the maintained sector has met the needs of Chinese pupils and the aspirations of Chinese parents in Britain. i Similar education provision is also found in San Francisco and New York City. The two American cities are therefore chosen for the comparative study to see how far that some of the American bilingualbicultural education policies can be successfully incorporated into the British (London) system to improve the education of Chinese pupils.

No description available.

Within contemporary Scotland there are two distinct language systems which may be considered to be threatened with extinction. These are the Germanic system of Scots, decended from the Northumbrian dialect of Old English, and the Celtic system of Gaelic, one of the languages of the Goidelic branch of Celtic. Both systems are dominated by English, in the written form and through the spoken forms of Received Pronunciation and Standard Scottish English. The common ancestry of Scots and English, both being derived from dialects of Old English, suggests that the form of domination in this relationship could be distinguised from the influence of English on Gaelic. This is paralleled in the distinction made between the processes of 'language suicide' (ie the gradual assimilation towards a similar system) and 'language murder' (ie the displacement of one language by another). This is considered in terms of register and domain. Interference is analysed within various registers and domains in terms of phonology, morphology, syntax, lexis and orthography. Further studies assess the extent of usage for Gaelic in the Isle of Lewis and Scots in Banffshire. The main conclusion that is drawn from the study is that the broad distinction between language suicide and language murder has some validity, but the process of language death, as evidenced by Scots and Gaelic, is more complex than that. In both languages there is evidence of assimilation towards English through interference in the system, and of displacement in terms of the number of speakers and the domains in which the languages are used. Assessment of the state of Gaelic reveals that, despite an apparent increase in the number of speakers, there is evidence of greater English dominance amongst present day speakers, who use English in more situations and include more English features in their Gaelic. A similar picture is found for Scots.

No description available.

The role of ethnic minorities in present day Quebec is clearly one of the important topics which many researchers and social players of diverse political and cultural allegiances have addressed and still continue to address. The study which follows, attempts to show the importance which is given to French by certain non-francophone youths attending French schools and colleges in the regions of Montreal and Hull. The analysis of socio-linguistic attitudes and behaviours of these youths, as well as their vision of the future with respect to the French or English reality is especially needed, as school aged youth are the ones who will soon become important actors in a Quebec which is becoming more and more multicultural. This kind of analysis is also important because it allows for a better understanding of the causal factors underlying these attitudes and behaviours. It is therefore the achievement of these objectives with which the following study is concerned.

A comparative study of the development of places of worship in Sydney was conducted primarily through the collection of data from development applications to construct or to use premises as a place of worship over a five year period from 2000-2005. The data indicated that a greater and disproportionately higher number of applications by religious minorities were rejected. The significance of the findings does not lie exclusively in identifying the likelihood of development applications gaining approval. The process of determining development applications and the impacts of the outcome of the process were also important. This is why the content of the objections raised to development applications was analysed. The underlying themes in the opposition to development applications related strongly to citizenship, particularly how the boundaries of local forms of citizenship are negotiated. In establishing places of worship religious groups seek to have their citizenship claims recognised. These citizenship claims include: the right to access, mark and use space (Dunn 2005), equality of citizenship with local residents and with other religious groups, and importantly, the right to freedom of worship. One of the main assertions made in this thesis is that by restricting access to sites that people can worship and by restricting the practice of religion, the right to freedom of worship is compromised. Churches dominate the religious landscape of Sydney. This dominance can be partially attributed to the significant levels of historical assistance from the state with the building of Churches. This included access to land, free labour, support for clergy and income support which assisted in the development of early Churches. The appropriateness of giving this type of assistance is not debated in this thesis. However, the assistance itself is significant for two main reasons. Firstly it is emblematic of the privileged relationship between the Church and the state in Australia, and secondly, it raises questions over the lack of privileges afforded to religious minorities. In responding to the question of whether secularism is likely to assist religious minorities, the establishment of places of worship demonstrates how pluralising the Church state link may be of greater utility to religious minorities than strict forms of secularism. The examination of this issue introduces the importance of an equal relationship between the state and religious groups to equality of citizenship for religious minorities. The extent to which multicultural citizenship can assist religious minorities in realising their right to freedom of worship was critically examined in this thesis. The adequacy of the institutional responses to religious diversity was assessed. This included an examination of local government, courts, the media, heritage programs and the planning profession. The planning process demonstrates how a supposedly neutral or colour-blind approach can generate uneven outcomes, which discriminate against religious minorities. The broader policy and legislative responses to religious diversity were examined in order to identify how deficiencies in the multicultural framework contributed to difficulties for religious minorities establishing places of worship.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1988. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 193-211).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Interdisciplinary Studies. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-140). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR19741