Introduction: In this investigation I have illustrated, teacher treatment in a mono-cultural pre-school class and in a multicultural pre-school. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to illustrate how educators go about it when they face bilingual children to see how they work in a comparative perspective. The purpose was answered, based on four questions relating to how teachers relate to the meeting with bilingual children, the approach teachers use, which operation mode the use, if the take advantage of children's traditions, and if there is any different in the teachers’ treatment of bilingual children in the mono-cultural pre-school class and in the multicultural pre-school. Theories: The theory is linked to the concepts like operation mode, inter-cultural approaches and communications. Methodology: The used methods are qualitative interviews with four pre-school, teachers where an interview guide with formulated questions and observations were used. The purpose of the working methods was to highlight teacher treatment of bilingual children to discover different approaches to meet the bilingual children. Conclusion: The study has shown that the multicultural pre-school working inter-culturally, they are taking advantage of children's home language that is lifted in the nursery and the children's background, while in the mono-cultural pre-school class, they meet bilingual children foremost to develop the Swedish language and they also show interest to the children's traditions. Teachers’ treatment leads to a growing confidence in the children and knowledge for the cultural background.

THE DISSERTATION IS IN AFRIKAANS: The multi-linguistic and multi-cultural population of South Africa poses some unique challenges for valid and reliable service delivery by South African audiologists and acousticians, specifically when conducting valid and reliable speech audiometry evaluations. This is examined in the South African context, and set the base for the main aim of this study, namely the comparison of the ideal criteria for speech audiometry with the South African clinical practice of speech audiometry. Many variables can be identified in the course of the test stimuli and subsequent response when conducting speech audiometry. These variables can be divided into two categories, namely stimulus related variables (test content and test procedure) and test subject related variables. The variables are examined in light of the multi-linguistic and multi-cultural South African context, because of the challenges posed by this context to the South African audiologist. The study is conducted in three different phases, according to three sub aims. A thorough review of the subject literature was done to identify ideal criteria for speech audiometry. A questionnaire was sent to South African audiologists and acousticians, to examine the present clinical practice of speech audiometry in South Africa, and compare it to the criteria suggested in the literature in order to investigate the attainability of criteria and to identify problem areas. The results show low comparison regarding test content between the ideal criteria and South African clinical practice, especially because South African audiologists do not use a test battery consisting of different types of test material. Low comparison can be seen regarding the selection of test items, length of lists and degree of difficulty. Low comparison can also be seen with test procedure, mainly because audiologists rarely use pre-recorded test materials. High levels of comparison are found regarding presentation levels and test environment. With test subject variables, a discrepancy is also found between the ideal criteria and South African clinical practice, mainly because tests are not always conducted in the test subjects’ first language. By using the identified deficiencies in the clinical practice of speech audiometry in South Africa as a starting point, one can use further research to reach the ideal, namely the ideal criteria of conducting speech audiometry. The conclusions of this study can be used as suggestions for solutions for the unique problems that the practicing audiologist in South Africa has to deal with. The complexity of these problems will need further attention from researchers in this and other fields of study. / Dissertation (MCommunication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / Unrestricted

Submitted to the faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Zululand, 2001. / In this study the researcher looked at the problems which African learners encounter when they are at the White schools. The aim of this study is to provide scientifically grounded information about the situation in which an African child finds himself / herself and existence of racism in White schools. It seeks to ascertain what role South African Human Rights () South African South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to fight racial discrimination in South African multi-racial schools can play. The first aim is to bridge the gap in our substantive knowledge regarding the situation faced by an African child in White schools. The second aim is to ascertain the reasons why some of the white educators declare African child s colour-blind. The third aim is the statistically measure, describe and explain the nature and extent racism as a social phenomenon and its negative impact on an African child's future. The fourth aim is to establish the demographic particulars of the victims an African child of racism with regard to their age, sex and religion. The fifth aim is to render socio-educational concrete recommendations with regard to what could be done to address pervasiveness of racism. A questionnaire was compiled and used as an attitude rating scale and the questionnaire was administered to a representative sample of twenty-four white high school learners from six schools at Empangeni Region. Statistical analysis was conducted to fulfil the aims of the study and to rest the research hypothesis stated. This study revealed that the African learners at white high schools had problems with racism, apartheid at these schools. The African learners move from the African schools to white schools is due to their parents' choice and different perceptions and expectations by African parents are revealed in this study. The recommendations for this study was that educators be taught about aspects of multiculturalism and also anti-racism training to all education stake holders, including district officials, school governing bodies, educators, learners and clustering of schools to encourage sharing of resources between privileged and under-privileged schools. The Minister of Education should intervene in the white schools especially in racially representation of educators, governing bodies.

Modern conflict transformation emerged after World War II as a discipline and a field of academic research. Since the early 1990s it has increasingly concerned itself with psycho-social issues (e.g. trauma treatment or reconciliation) in the aftermath of violent protracted social conflicts. Within this psycho-social space there has been a growing interest in the use of music in conflict transformation to improve relationships between in and out-groups. However, the field of music and conflict transformation is still nascent, with little in-depth research available. The majority of studies have been undertaken by interested parties or relies on anecdotal evidence from organisers and musicians with little concern for the context of the music use. Participants, whose attitudes and relationships to out-groups are the focus of conflict transformation interventions, are largely overlooked and their views are rarely discussed. Furthermore, there are few detailed studies on exactly how music affects conflict transformation outcomes. Instead allusions are often made to terms such as “the power of music” which act as a black box intended to explain how music “works”, but patently fail to do so. This thesis attempts to fill these two gaps in the literature by focusing on the participants’ experiences in two different conflict transformation contexts, a multi- cultural music project for school children in Noway and the casual music use in a settlement of internally displaced persons in Sudan. Through qualitative research methods, rich descriptive data from different parties is gathered. The data is analysed using grounded theory. As a result a very different and more complex picture emerges that enriches the current understanding of how music is used and perceived in conflict transformation contexts. In particular, how participants view these activities and how power relationships, though rarely mentioned, affect the music use is explored in detail. Some tentative suggestions indicate that music works best when used in longitudinal bottom-up activities and that music can augment conflict transformation activities rather than replace them. Additionally, it is proposed that music may work as a form of benign interruption in conflict transformation activities and that musical events provide a liminal space where the real work lies in the process of bringing any changes in attitudes from the liminal space into everyday life.

Multicultural education in counselor education is a popular topic among counselor educators and scholars. To date, scholars have focused on understanding the experiences of counselor educators who teach dedicated multicultural courses. However, less attention has been given to other counselor educators who are required by ethical and training standards to address multicultural issues across the curriculum. The purpose of this study was to understand counselor educators’ experiences addressing multicultural issues in courses that do not have a specific multicultural or diversity focus. I used phenomenological methodology to explore the experiences of counselor educators who hold doctoral degrees in counseling or a related field, have taken a multicultural/diversity course in their graduate training, are full-time clinical or tenure-line faculty members in CACREP-accredited programs, and have never taught courses dedicated to multicultural or diversity issues. Twelve participants (six men and six women), ranging in age ranged from 31 to 65, participated in the study. Ten participants identified as White, one African-American, and one Hispanic. The research team identified eight themes: (1) reasons for avoidance, (2) constraints, (3) qualities and practices, (4) educator as a factor in student development, (5) infusion, (6) personal background, (7) awareness of biases and assumptions, and (8) counselor educator responsibility/gatekeeping. Findings from this study will add to the literature regarding infusion of multicultural issues across the curriculum. Additionally, the implications offered will serve as a resource for counselor educators as they experience unique personal and professional challenges when addressing multicultural issues in classrooms beyond the main multicultural or diversity course offered in counseling programs. Implications for this study may lead to development of more focused guidelines on how to increase the increase the comfort of counselor educators as they facilitate multicultural discussions and assist counselors-in-training in working toward cultural competence.

Two curricular needs exist for the elementary art classroom: multi-cultural lessons which are customized to address North Texas ethnicities, and art history materials for early grades, whether taught by art teachers or regular classroom teachers. This thesis addresses both of these concerns by developing lesson plans to meet the needs, and executing an evaluative study with North Texas art and regular classroom teachers of kindergarten and first grade. The teachers represent four districts, including rural, suburban, and urban demographic populations. Findings address time limitations for public school teachers, cultural exchange differences between demographic groups, and differences between presentation of the units by regular classroom teachers versus art teachers.

Rationale: The importance of well developed phonological awareness and the effect of poor phonological awareness skills on reading and spelling have long been recognised. However, a dearth of research exists regarding populations in multi-cultural, multi-lingual contexts both nationally and internationally. This issue is of particular importance in the South African context where many Black learners in the school setting have no other choice than English as the Language of Learning and Teaching (ELoLT). Aim: The purpose of the study was to explore the effect of a multi-cultural, multi-lingual context on the English phonological awareness skills of a group of Black Grade 4 learners in a primary school setting in South Africa. Method: An exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design was implemented, which incorporated both quantitative and qualitative paradigms. An assessment battery consisting of formal and informal assessments was used to determine levels of development. The researcher endeavoured to find statistical correlations between the participants' phonological awareness skills on the one hand, and their phonological abilities, their expressive and receptive language abilities, and their reading and spelling abilities in ELoLT on the other. Participants: Fifteen Black Grade 4 learners, each with a Black language as mother tongue, who attended a mainstream school where English was the language of learning and teaching (ELoLT), participated in the study. The participants' ages ranged between 9 years 11 months, and 10 years 11 months. Results: The participants’ phonological abilities in English as LoLT showed that 47% of the participants produced the target consonants with a consonant approximation, and vowel approximations were produced by all of the participants in single words. All fifteen the participants’ expressive and receptive language abilities in English as their LoLT, were on a below-average level and their expressive language abilities were more advanced than their receptive language abilities. All the participants evidenced problems in terms of their phonological awareness skills. Based on the results obtained for reading decoding abilities, only one third of the participants could be considered to be readers of an average standard. The reading comprehension abilities of all the participants were on a lower level than those of first language speakers of Standard South African English. Furthermore, the participants’ spelling abilities in English as LoLT were not age-appropriate. Even though no significant correlation could be determined between the participants’ reading comprehension and phonological awareness skills (due to the fact that memory probably played a role in their reading comprehension), it was statistically determined that their poor phonological awareness skills could be associated with their below-average phonological, receptive and expressive language, reading decoding, and spelling abilities. Conclusions: The results of this research have implications for the role of speech-language therapists in terms of collaboration, prevention, assessment, and intervention where the development of these learners' phonological awareness skills is concerned. Clinical implications focus on the dissemination of information, therapy planning, and EAL learner support. The need for further research in this field is emphasised. / Dissertation (M (Communication Pathology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / M (Communication Pathology) / Unrestricted

PhDr. Jana Gombárová Islamic Culture in Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue and its Reflection in the Czech Lands Abstract The general aim of the present Ph.D. thesis is a reflection of Islamic culture within the Euro-Mediterranean multi-cultural dialogue. Its specific aim is a study of reflection of the Arab and Islamic communities in the Czech Republic. The first chapter provides methodological and theoretical analyses of the conceptions of "end of history" by Francis Fukuyama and "clash of civilisations" by Samuel P. Huntington, which provoked a wide and controversial discussion both around the world and in our country. It also provides an analysis of more recent "catastrophic scenarios" (Laqueur, Spencer, Rodrígez, Sarazin). The Islamic culture within the Euro-Mediterranean dialogue and with the history of Barcelona process of cooperation of the European Union with the South- Mediterranean countries, which culminated in founding of the Union for Mediterranean in 2010, are also included in the chapter. Anna Lindh Foundation as a European non- government organisation and its network in the Czech Republic is an object of special interest. The last part of the chapter includes the controversial results of the "Arab Spring" characterized by the rise of Islamists to power. The second chapter is focused on...

Despite the impact of Information Technology (IT) in today's service economy, its nature and role are elusive or ambiguous to say the least. This ambiguity has made it so difficult to measure the value of IT. To clarify the ambiguity, this study, with a focus on the strategic dimension of IT application in the web of organizational activities, proposes a conceptual model that relates IT application to Knowledge Management and then to Strategy. In this effort, incorporating the Co-alignment model as a theoretical binding agent, the role of IT is defined as a facilitator of organizational knowledge management that is regarded as the core of strategic management. The conceptual model proposed is further developed into a structural model for empirical testing. The goodness of fit of the model is assessed through the technique of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) along with first-order and second-order confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) using the survey responses of unit managers of multi-unit restaurant companies of the U.S. and Korea. Since the mail survey was conducted in two different nations, relevant multi cultural issues are also addressed to justify the use of combined samples for the study. The results of the statistical analyses indicate that IT application can be incorporated successfully into the domain of strategic management of restaurant companies as the facilitator of Knowledge Management activities. The hypotheses of the links between IT application and financial performance remained unsolved due to invalid data. However, this study made a certain degree of contribution in identifying the dynamics of IT application in the process of strategic management incorporating the principle of the Co-alignment model. / Ph. D.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:20:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Waway.pdf: 7692570 bytes, checksum: e3ff52bc09dd27266283099cd22e606f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-05-14 / The major cultural changes that are emerging nowadays present a new identity and a sharp interrogation of its theories apart from social-relational tensions. In this respect, the object of this research presents a scientific theme in general for curiosity purposes. Brought to the camp of Religious Sciences, it aims at integrating the debate process about different dimensions of cultural pluralism and religious phenomenon of the contemporary society. The study base itself on a multi-cultural catholic religious group: The Comboni Missionary Institute. In its derivation, the thesis analizes the paradigm of the inter-cultural experience of Daniel Sorur Pharim Deng, of the Dinka African ethnic group, as an anthological illustration of cultural identity of a black man in the context of this multi-cultural catholic institution. In this context, the cultural identity of the black African must be understood in its inter-cultural relation, as collective and plural. Secondly, the thesis not only dares to discuss cultural identity and inter-cultural concepts pointing to its academic insufficiency and ambiguity in its ecclesial and neo-liberal use, but also aims at its living validity. Lastly, after reflecting about the fundamental conditions for this intercultural dialogue, the research proposes the inter-culturation paradigm that will get rid of the silence between ethnocentric acculturation and inculturation in the multi-cultural context. The inter-culturation helps to understand the theme in a concomitant, articulate and various ways, guarding all the lived experiences and expressions of the group s common ideal and at the same time safeguarding the wishes of all in the partiality of each cultural identity. In this way, the discussion of this thesis aims not only at operational horizon that is capable of facing the major challenges of cultures living together peacefully, but also a presentation of research sector in Religious Sciences, where many aspects are yet to be explored. Basically, this study operates in the interface between Anthropology, Religious Sciences and Theology and makes an appeal to discuss the problems raised by the religious phenomenon in the inter-cultural and inter-disciplinary horizon / As grandes mudanças culturais que ocorrem nos tempos atuais dão à questão das identidades um novo colorido e lhe conferem agudas interrogações em áreas teóricas, além das tensões sócio-relacionais. Nesse sentido, o objeto desta pesquisa constitui de modo geral um tema de curiosidade científica. Trazido para o campo das Ciências da Religião, pretende integrar-se aos debates sobre diferentes dimensões do pluralismo cultural e do fenômeno religioso na sociedade contemporânea. O estudo se refere a um grupo religioso católico pluricultural: o Instituto dos missionários combonianos. No seu procedimento a tese analisa a experiência intercultural paradigmática do negro-africano do grupo Dinka, Daniel Sorur Pharim Deng, como uma ilustração antológica da identidade cultural do negro no contexto dessa instituição católica pluricultural. Nesse contexto, a identidade cultural negro-africana deve ser entendida em sua relação intercultural, como lugar coletivo e plural. Em um segundo passo, a tese sabatina os conceitos de identidade cultural e do intercultural apontando para a sua insuficiência acadêmica e ambigüidade em seu uso eclesial e neoliberal, mas indica também sua validade vivencial. Em fim, depois de refletir sobre as condições fundamentais para o diálogo intercultural, a pesquisa propõe o paradigma da interculturação que rompe o silêncio entre a aculturação etnocêntrica e a inculturação no contexto pluricultural. A interculturação ajuda a entender o tema de uma maneira concomitante, articulada e diferenciada, guardando em um todo vivido de experiências e expressões o ideal comum do grupo e, ao mesmo tempo, resguardando na parcialidade de cada identidade cultural os anseios que são de todos. Assim, a discussão da tese aponta não apenas para um horizonte operacional capaz de enfrentar os grandes desafios da convivência pacífica entre culturas, como também para um setor de pesquisa em Ciências da Religião, onde muitos aspectos restam ainda a explorar. O estudo se move basicamente na interface entre Antropologia, Ciências da Religião e Teologia e constitui um apelo a discutir a problemática posta por esse fenômeno religioso no horizonte intercultural e interdisciplinar