published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

This study investigated cultural bias in the 46 Verbal items of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA). Two separate approaches to the examination of item bias were utilized. The first approach examined item bias empirically by comparing performance differences in terms of correct item responses given by examinees from Anglo and Mexican-American cultures. The second approach addressed the issue of face validity by obtaining the opinion of Anglo-American (AA) and Mexican-American (MA) judges regarding their perception of item bias for AA and MA examinees. The two criteria used to judge item bias were examinee opportunity to learn item content and examinee familiarity with the language used in the items. The Verbal items of the McCarthy Scales were administered to 59 Anglo-American and 59 Mexican-American examinees matched for age and sex. Ability differences were controlled by generating common ability intervals for both groups based on overall Verbal scale score. The obtained data was tested utilizing procedures for the analysis of contingency tables. Two statistical analyses applied to the data were Scheuneman's modified chi-square and the log-linear technique using the likelihood ratio chi-square statistic. Statistically significant performance differences between the two groups, identified by both analyses, were found for only two items of the Word Knowledge II subtest which measures vocabulary comprehension. The differences in perception of the two groups of judges in terms of opportunity to learn item content and familiarity with item language across AA and MA examinees was examined. The obtained ratings of item bias were tested with the chi-square statistic. Significant differences in ratings of two groups of judges on the opportunity to learn dimension were found for 16 items. It was revealed that more AA judges perceived 14 of these items to be fair for both groups of examinees in terms of opportunity to learn, while more MA judges perceived the AA child as having more opportunity to learn the content of these items. However for two of the 16 items the statistically significant difference between the two groups reflected the perception of MA judges that bias favored the MA examinees. There was a high degree of agreement between the two groups of judges in their rating on the familiarity dimension, with both groups indicating more familiarity with item language for AA subjects for most items. Significant differences in the ratings of the two groups were identified for four items. These items were from the Word Knowledge and Verbal Memory subtests. For three of these items the obtained data indicated that the greater number of MA judges perceived these items as favoring AA subjects. For the remaining item the results pointed out that more MA judges perceived that MA subjects seemed to have greater familiarity with the item language as compared with their Anglo counterpart. There was no discernible pattern of judgment in terms of item difficulty, with easier items perceived as more biased than more difficult ones in some cases. Judge responses appear more related to specific item content than level of difficulty or verbal complexity. The findings from both studies led to the conclusion that the majority of the verbal items in the McCarthy Scales seemed to be fair for Anglo and Mexican-American subjects. Implications of these findings were discussed and recommendations were made for future studies intended to examine item bias.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The existence of national minorities in the multicultural society matters of great concern, because blending into the multicultural surroundings, the nation may lose its national identity, which is educating in family, community of school and public organizations. This is the relevant problem for national minorities of today. Therefore herein is seeking to establish significance of Jewry national school as nurturance of ethnic mentality in the community. The subject-matter of this work encapsulates national education in community and at school, statutory order in the community of national minorities, scientific approach on education history of Jewry in Lithuania, the philosophy of activities at the secondary school of „Šolom Aleichem“ and the possibility of existence for Jewish national school in the multicultural society. With the intention to explore significance of national school in multicultural space, there were made empirical researches. The essays of pupil, predicted projects and the results of questionnaire quiz helps to find out, that the community of „Šolom Aleichem“ secondary school enshrines traditions and customs of Jewish nation, propagates its national identity and stimulates pupil and their parents to follow the national language, traditions and culture. Underway projects and the made researches show that there is a sporting chance to blend into the multicultural community by holding national identity and fostering singularity of national school.

Pastaruoju metu ir Lietuvoje, ir visoje Europoje labai aktualus tiek žmonių, priklausančių tautinėms mažumoms, tiek neįgalių asmenų klausimas. Tačiau integracijos problema dar aktualesnė ir sudėtingesnė, kai žmogus priklauso dviem diskriminuojamoms grupėms vienu metu. Viena vertus, valstybinės institucijos ne visuomet pajėgios tenkinti neįgalių asmenų poreikius, susijusius su negalia, antra vertus, nekreipiamas dėmesys į jų tautinę tapatybę. Paprastai dominuojanti grupė į šiuos žmones žiūri per negalios prizmę, o jų tautinė priklausomybė ir su ja susiję integracijos aspektai pamirštami. Siekiant išsiaiškinti, ar nežymiai sutrikusio intelekto tautinių mažumų atstovai suvokia savo tautinę priklausomybę ir kiek svarbus šiomis dienomis jų tautinio pagrindo išsaugojimas, buvo atliktas šis tyrimas. Tyrimo tikslas - išnagrinėti skirtingų tautybių nežymiai sutrikusio intelekto vaikų socialinės integracijos tautinį aspektą. Tikslui pasiekti buvo užsibrėžti šie uždaviniai: išsiaiškinti skirtingų tautybių nežymiai sutrikusio intelekto vaik�� žinias apie savo tautinę tapatybę bei santykį su Lietuvos kultūra; nustatyti mokinių savijautą įvairiatautėje aplinkoje; išsiaiškinti mokytojų požiūrį į nežymiai sutrikusio intelekto vaikų ugdymo tautiniu aspektu galimybes bei tęstinį ugdymą. Tyrime dalyvavo 44 rusų, lenkų ir lietuvių tautybės mokiniai, turintys nežymų intelekto sutrikimą, bei 7 mokytojai, kaip ekspertai. Tyrimo metodu buvo pasirinkta anketinė apklausa. Gauti tyrimo rezultatai... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Nowadays the situation of people who belong to national minorities and disable people is very important in Lithuania and all the countries of Europe. Bul integration becomes rnore complieated when a person belongs to both of these groups contemporaneously. From one side government institutions are not capable to meet all cases about disability, from another side they don't pay attention to ethnicity of these people. To understand the relation between mentally retarded children and their ethnic dependence this rescarch was earried out. Its aim is to find out an ethnic aspect of sočiai integration of mentally retarded children from national minorities. To reach this aim such tasks wcre raised: to find out what mentally retarded children know about their ethnic and national culture; what teachers think about the possibilities to integrate mentally retarded children within ethnical context. The method used in the paper is questionnaire survey. 44 pupils and 7 teachers were polled. The results obtain during the research show that major part of mentally retarded children know about their nationality. Teachers also agree ethnical aspects to be vcry important in the process of sočiai integration and attention shouid be payed to them.

Tautinių mažumų apsauga – viena iš labiausiai diskusijas sukeliančių temų Baltijos valstybių visuomenėse. Jų pilietinių teisių užtikrinimas – vienas iš įstojimo į Europos Sąjungą kriterijų, kuriuos turėjo įgyvendinti šalys kandidatės. Tyrimo objektas – ES poveikis tautinių mažumų pilietinių teisių pokyčiams Baltijos valstybėse, įvykusiems po jų nepriklausomybės atkūrimo. Tikslas – išanalizuoti kaip ES reikalavimai ir rekomendacijos paveikė teisinį tautinių mažumų traktavimą Baltijos valstybėse. Darbo uždaviniai: pateikti pagrindinius teorinius tautinių mažumų apibrėžimus ir analizuoti tautinių mažumų situaciją Baltijos valstybėse pagal šiuos modelius; analizuoti ES reglamentuotus teisės aktus ir nuostatas dėl tautinių mažumų apsaugos; aprašyti tautines mažumas Lietuvoje, Latvijoje ir Estijoje ir palyginti jų teisės aktus bei jų atitikimą ES teisės aktams; analizuoti ir palyginti tautinių mažumų kilmės šalių poveikį Lietuvai, Latvijai ir Estijai. Darbe naudojami metodai: lyginamasis ir analitinis. Naudojant šiuos metodus pasiekti rezultatai – panašumų ir skirtumų Lietuvoje, Latvijoje ir Estijoje tautinėms mažumoms suteiktose teisėse atskleidimas bei valstybių pažangos šioje srityje įvertinimas. Didžiausios problemos Baltijos valstybėse iškyla dėl išorinių tautinių mažumų, kaimyninėse valstybėse sudarančių daugumos visuomenę. Lietuva priėmusi nulinės pilietybės įstatymą nesusidūrė su tokiomis problemomis, kaip Latvija ir Estija, kuriose daugelis gyventojų liko be pilietybių... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / There are not many pure ethnical states in the world. Due of very different reasons, for example, changing of states borders or collapse of one state and emerging of other and many other political factors, a lot of people find home for them selves not in their ethnical countries. This way they become national minorities. It means, they are groups of peole living not in their home-land and they compound minority in that country. They differ from majority on their culture, languige, traditions and so on. Sometimes these people are discriminated by majority, even enslaved. Nowadays all means necessery for keeping they rights are taken, but not in every state. Not all nations behave with national minorities in the same way. Will Kymlicka explaines where is the difference between the Western democracy states and Eastern postcomunist states. The common model in the first ones – territorial autonomy and in the second ones – cultural autonomy. Now then they are members of EU the situation should change into the good – they must preserve all human rights including the rights of the ethnic minorities. Anyway, the civic rights of national minorities is still very controversial topic in the Baltic states. This determined choice of the theme of this paper. The subject of this work is the EU impact on the civic rights of national minorities in the Baltic states and their changes after regaining the independance and preparing for joining EU. The goal of this work is to analyse how EU... [to full text]