The proliferation of web based technologies has resulted in new forms of communities and organizations with enormous implications for design of learning and education. This thesis explores learning occurring within open source software (OSS) communities. OSS communities are a dominant form of organizing in software development with implications not only for innovative product development but also for the training of a large number of software developers. The central catalyst of learning within these communities is expert-novice interactions. These interactions between experts and novices or newcomers are critical for the growth and sustenance of a community and therefore it is imperative that experts are able to provide newcomers requisite advice and support as they traverse the community and develop software. Although prior literature has demonstrated the significance of expert-novice interactions, there are two central issues that have not been examined. First, there is no examination of the role of external events on community interaction, particularly as it relates to experts and novices. Second, the exact nature of expert help, particularly, the quantity of help and whether it helps or hinders newcomer participation has not been studied. This thesis studies these two aspects of expert-novice interaction within OSS communities. The data for this study comes from two OSS communities. The Java newcomer forum was studied as it provided a useful setting for examining external events given the recent changes in Java's ownership. Furthermore, the forum has a rating system which classifies newcomers and experienced members allowing the analysis of expert-novice interactions. The second set of data comes from the MySQL newcomer forum which has also undergone organizational changes and allows for comparison with data from the Java forum. Data were collected by parsing information from the HTML pages and stored in a relational database. To analyze the effect of external events, a natural experiment method was used whereby participation levels were studied around significant events that affected the community. To better understand the changes contextually, an extensive study of major news outlets was also undertaken. Findings from the external event study show significant changes in participation patterns, especially among newcomers in response to key external events. The study also revealed that the changes in participation of newcomers were observed even though other internal characteristics (help giving, expert participation) did not change indicating that external events have a strong bearing on community participation. The effect of expert advice was studied using a logistic regression model to determine how specific participation patterns in discussion threads led to the final response to newcomers. This was supported by social network analysis to visually interpret the participation patterns of experienced members in two different scenarios, one in which the question was answered and the other where it was not. Findings show that higher number of responses from experienced members did not correlate with a response. Therefore, although expert help is essential, non-moderated or unguided help can lead to conflict among experts and inefficient feedback to newcomers. / Master of Science

Notre thèse porte sur les élèves nouvellement arrivés en France. Il s’agit, plus précisément, de comprendre comment ces élèves s’intègrent dans les établissements scolaires français et selon quel parcours. Ainsi, cette étude se base principalement sur l’analyse des discours de treize élèves concernant leur apprentissage et leur vécu scolaire. Elle s’appuie également sur les représentations que se font ces élèves de leur apprentissage scolaire, de l’apprentissage de la langue française, d’eux- mêmes, des autres (les élèves français, les professeurs) et du contexte dans lequel ils apprennent le français. Par ailleurs, nous avons souhaité comprendre la place des langues premières des élèves dans les apprentissages scolaires. Le lien entre langue et identité a depuis longtemps été démontré par les chercheurs de différentes disciplines et de ce fait il nous a semblé indispensable d’y apporter une attention particulière. Nous avons ainsi essayé de comprendre à partir d’un projet basé sur les notions de multilittératie et de multimodalité portant sur l’autobiographie, en quoi la prise en compte de la langue première des élèves leur permet de mieux progresser dans l’apprentissage du français et les apprentissages en général. Nous avons aussi réfléchi aux apports d’une telle démarche sur le plan de la reconstruction identitaire de ces élèves. Pour tenter de répondre à notre problématique de départ, à savoir comment ces élèves s’intègrent à l’école française, nous avons souhaité également interroger d’une part le regard de l’institution scolaire à travers les témoignages de trois professeurs, de trois chefs d’établissements, et de deux inspecteurs et d’autre part le regard familial à partir des témoignages de neuf parents. Ainsi, cette étude est réalisée dans le but de contribuer à un ensemble de travaux sur la problématique de la migration en contexte scolaire et de proposer une meilleure compréhension des enjeux éducatifs actuels dans notre société mondialisée. / Our thesis focuses on newcomer students in France and aims at understanding how these students integrate into French schools and exploring the educational paths they tread. Thus, this study is based mainly on the analysis of the discourse of thirteen students concerning their learning and their school experiences. It is also based on the representations that these students have of themselves, others (French students, teachers), their learning in general, their learning of the French language in particular and the context in which this learning takes place. Our thesis also focuses on the students’ first languages and their role in the learning process. The link between language and identity has long been established by researchers from different disciplines. Therefore, we have tried to understand, through an autobiographical project based on the notions of multiliteracy and multimodality, how the first languages of the students can be taken into consideration in order to help them progress in both the learning of French and learning in general. We also considered the significance of such an approach in the reconstruction of these students' identities. Furthermore, in response to our initial question regarding how these students integrate into the French education system, we investigated two complementary perspectives: that of the institution through interviews with three teachers, three heads of school and two inspectors and that of the students’ families through questioning nine parents. The aim of this study is to contribute to the body of research on the role of migration in the French educational context and to provide a better understanding of the current educational challenges facing our globalized society.

Som en följd av flyktingvågen 2015 inleddes en satsning som syftade till att underlätta integrationsprocessen samtidigt som det skulle effektivisera matchningen mellan kompetens och efterfrågan på arbetsmarknaden. Ett av de projekt som initierades inriktades på att förmedla praktikplatser till nyanlända akademiker med kompetens inom vissa bristområden.   Studien har inriktats på arbetsgivarmotiv för att delta i praktikaktiviteter för nyanlända akademiker samt resultatet av dessa. Syftet har varit att konceptualisera arbetsgivarmotiv till och resultat av arbetspraktiken. Undersökningen har genomförts med en metodkombination av sekundärdata från arbetsgivarundersökningar samt egen insamlad empiri från intervjuer med arbetsgivarrepresentanter. Resultat presenteras under flera steg där motiven förklaras utifrån en teoretiserad motivmodell för att sedan användas för att tolka arbetsgivarmotiv ur både ett retoriskt och ett mer erfarenhetsbaserat perspektiv. Motivens relation till det ursprungliga arbetsmarknadspolitiska syftet har undersökts och slutligen har ett önskvärt resultat av arbetspraktiken identifierats och förklarats. / As a result of the refugee wave of 2015 an effort was initiated to facilitate the integration process and at the same time improve the matching efficiency of competence and demand at the labour market. One of the initiated projects focused on mediating internships for newcomer academics with competence from certain shortage areas. The study focused on employer motives for participating in internship activities targeting newcomer academics and their outcomes. The purpose was to conceptualize employer motives for and outcomes of internships. The study was carried out with a combination of methods of secondary data from employer polls and own collected empirics from interviews with employer representants. The result was presented in multiple steps where the motives was explained from a theorized model of motives to be used for analysing employer motives from a rhetorical and more experience-based perspective. The motives relation with the initial labour market policy purpose was examined and finally a desirable outcome was identified and explained.

This qualitative research used the Long Interview method to study cultural and gender influences on mental health, health beliefs, health behaviour, help-seeking and treatment expectations for mental health problems in newcomers to Canada who are members of an ethnocultural, visible minority population - the Sri Lankan Tamils. The study employed a comparative design and analyzed data from interviews with Tamil men (N=8) and Tamil women (N=8) who self-identified as having been diagnosed with depression, and service providers (N=8) who provide frontline mental health and related services to the Sri Lankan Tamil community. The objectives were to a) understand cultural and gender factors inherent in the Sri Lankan Tamil community; b) investigate how these cultural and gender factors impact mental health and influence the trajectory of help-seeking and treatment for depression in the Sri Lankan Tamil community; c) explore the intersection of culture and gender as it relates to health behaviour; and d) explore service providers’ perceptions of the influence of culture and gender in relation to help-seeking for mental health problems and the application of this understanding to service delivery. The study found that the respondents equated social function with health and that this concept informed help-seeking and treatment expectations. Socially appropriate functioning was seen as an indicator of health, and this differed by gender. Gender-differentiated social stressors contributed to depression. Women played a role as enablers of care, both for family members and acquaintances. Men were more resistant to help-seeking and tended to disengage from care. There was a distinct preference for service providers who understood the culture and spoke Tamil. Religious groups served a social support function. Family physicians and Tamil service providers in the social service sectors were identified as key players in the pathways to care. Service providers did not appear to understand the community’s holistic view of health; however, they did use their knowledge of the community to make adaptations to practice. Recommendations that result from these findings include health promotion and prevention strategies beyond the traditional health care system, targeted culture and gender-informed interventions, and the need for multisectoral collaborations.

This qualitative research used the Long Interview method to study cultural and gender influences on mental health, health beliefs, health behaviour, help-seeking and treatment expectations for mental health problems in newcomers to Canada who are members of an ethnocultural, visible minority population - the Sri Lankan Tamils. The study employed a comparative design and analyzed data from interviews with Tamil men (N=8) and Tamil women (N=8) who self-identified as having been diagnosed with depression, and service providers (N=8) who provide frontline mental health and related services to the Sri Lankan Tamil community. The objectives were to a) understand cultural and gender factors inherent in the Sri Lankan Tamil community; b) investigate how these cultural and gender factors impact mental health and influence the trajectory of help-seeking and treatment for depression in the Sri Lankan Tamil community; c) explore the intersection of culture and gender as it relates to health behaviour; and d) explore service providers’ perceptions of the influence of culture and gender in relation to help-seeking for mental health problems and the application of this understanding to service delivery. The study found that the respondents equated social function with health and that this concept informed help-seeking and treatment expectations. Socially appropriate functioning was seen as an indicator of health, and this differed by gender. Gender-differentiated social stressors contributed to depression. Women played a role as enablers of care, both for family members and acquaintances. Men were more resistant to help-seeking and tended to disengage from care. There was a distinct preference for service providers who understood the culture and spoke Tamil. Religious groups served a social support function. Family physicians and Tamil service providers in the social service sectors were identified as key players in the pathways to care. Service providers did not appear to understand the community’s holistic view of health; however, they did use their knowledge of the community to make adaptations to practice. Recommendations that result from these findings include health promotion and prevention strategies beyond the traditional health care system, targeted culture and gender-informed interventions, and the need for multisectoral collaborations.

La Thèse porte sur l’IL des nouveaux arrivants dans le contexte de Français Langue Seconde enFrance. Elle vise l’objectif suivant : décrire et comprendre le comportement linguistique du groupeenquêté. Notre démarche est micro-sociolinguistique aussi bien dans la problématique que dans laméthodologie adoptée. Ancrée en sociolinguistique et en didactique, notre recherche est articulée à lathématique de l’immigration et s’est construite à partir d’une approche empirico-inductive. Afin demieux comprendre les problématiques liées au phénomène migratoire et aux processus d’intégrationqui en découle, nous plaçons le concept d’intégration linguistique au centre de cette recherche. Lathèse emprunte une démarche qualitative longitudinale et de réflexivité qui accorde une priorité auterrain. Le but est d’analyser comment se construit et se développe le processus d’IL – processusévolutif se déroulant dans le temps – vers le français de ces jeunes à travers les réseaux sociauxcommunicationnels et d’examiner ensuite dans quelle mesure ces instances influencent les usageslinguistiques des sujets de l’enquête. Les résultats obtenus indiquent une présence importante dufrançais dans les pratiques langagières déclarées à l’intérieur de ces réseaux. De ce fait, leurintégration linguistique est amorcée. Toutefois, ces comportements ne sont pas stables. Ils sontbeaucoup plus le fait d’une « adaptation » à des réseaux sociaux et linguistiques, que celui d’un choixlinguistique personnel définitif. Il ne faut donc pas prendre ces résultats comme la matérialisation depratiques langagières définitives mais comme un état provisoire dans un processus d’intégration encours. Certaines de nos conclusions pourraient être utilisées pour l’élaboration de programmesd’enseignement/apprentissage du FLS en contexte français. D’autres pourraient grandement aider lesformateurs d’enseignants afin de mieux préparer les futurs maîtres et les enseignants en poste àintégrer dans leurs classes « normales » des ENAF. La présence de ce public scolaire dans le systèmeéducatif français implique l’urgence de concevoir une didactique du plurilinguisme qui considère lesréalités langagières des ENAF / The thesis focuses on the linguistic integration of newcomers in the context of French as a SecondLanguage in France. It has the following objectives: to describe and understand the languagebehaviour of the group investigated. Both in the research questions and in the methodology, weadopted a micro-sociolinguistic approach. Anchored in sociolinguistics and didactics, our research isarticulated to the theme of immigration and was constructed from an empirical-inductive approach. Tounderstand better the issues related to migration phenomena and the induced integration processes, wehave put the concept of linguistic integration at the centre of this research. The thesis uses alongitudinal and qualitative approach, which reflexivity gives priority to fieldwork. The linguisticintegration process is evolutionary and takes time. The aim was to analyze how this process builds anddevelops through communicative social networks for these young people learning French. Then wehave considered how these instances influence the language uses of the subjects surveyed. The resultsshow a significant presence of the French language in the practices described by the children withinthese networks. Thus, their linguistic integration is initiated. However, these behaviours are not stable.They are much more the result of "adaptation" to social networks and language, than a final andpersonal choice of a language. So these results shall not be taken as the realization of permanentlinguistic practices but as a provisional state in an integration process under way. Some of our findingscould be used to develop curricula and learning programs for French as a second language in a Frenchcontext. Other findings could greatly help teachers’ educators to prepare future and currentlyemployed teachers to integrate newcomers into their "normal" classes better. The presence of thesepupils in the French education system implies urgency in developing a didactics for multilingualism,which would take into account the linguistic realities of newcomer pupils

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of women who have migrated to Canada and were members of a Sewing Circle in Central Park, Winnipeg. It was aimed to discover if involvement at the women’s centre increased levels of self-confidence and perceived self-efficacy for members. The study involved conversations and interviews with twelve women. The study was conducted between March and November 2012. Using qualitative research methodology, questions were asked to shape a better understanding of the circumstances that led participants to seek membership with a sewing circle and what membership in such a program had meant for them. The interview design included identifying some of the gifts, assets, resources, interests, skills and abilities the women had pre-arrival to Canada. Participants were asked to share goals and dreams they held for themselves in this new country. The feminist approach used for the study’s framework set the tone for a conversational style interview process, with time set aside for the interviewer and participant to exchange ideas. The collected data identified that all of the participants who had migrated as adults had skills-specific training, careers they enjoyed and/or were entrepreneurs in their home countries or countries of refuge. The main themes that emerged from the data described how the economic realities of learning and mastering the skill of sewing were of value to participants. Peer support, feeling like a part of something and finding a sense of family in the host country were also reasons for membership. The findings from the study show a need for policies that support interventions focused on building more inclusive communities and societies. Communities where academic qualifications, skills specific training, employment and entrepreneurial experience accumulated in other countries provide trajectories to a more direct path forward for people as they transition into the Canadian economy and integrate into Canadian society.

Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med kunskap om lärarassistenters första tid i Uppsala kommuns pilotprojekt. Med utgångspunkt i vad som kallas resursteori har två forskningsfrågor ställts; 1) På vilket sätt har interna och externa resurser bidragit till lärarassistenternas socialisationsprocess? 2) Vilka konsekvenser får lärarassistenternas socialisationsprocess när den sker inom ramen för ett pilotprojekt? Genom semistrukturerade intervjuer studeras specifikt hur åtta projektanställda lärarassistenter i Uppsala kommun upplevt den första tiden som anställda och vilka resurser som varit betydande för deras socialisation. Resultatet visar att den första tiden i projektet varit försiktig och trevande, något som beskrivs som både positivt och negativt i form av mjukstart och trögstart. Å ena sidan främjas relationsutveckling av mjukstarten men å andra sidan hämmar trögstarten anpassningen till arbetet. Den negativa sidan visar dels hur viktigt det är att arbetsverktyg är klara och redo att användas när den nyanställde introduceras till det nya arbetet då det annars kan skapa negativa upplevelser och bidra till oro. Resultaten visar även en ömsesidighet i pilotprojektet där ingen riktigt visste vad lärarassistentrollen skulle innehålla, och därmed blev det en ny situation för samtliga parter att förhålla sig till. Det övergripande resultatet visade, genom ovan nämnda teman, att pilotprojektet utifrån ett socialisationsperspektiv präglades av en dubbel socialisation. / The purpose of this paper is to study the teacher assistants initial period in the pilot project of municipality of Uppsala. Based on resources theory as a theoretical framework two research questions were asked; 1) In what way have internal and external resources contributed to the socialization process of teacher assistants? and 2) What consequences does the pilot project have on the teacher assistants socialization process? Semistructured interviews were used to ask eight teacher assistants employed in the pilot project about how they experienced the first time in the new workplace and what resources were important for their socialization. The result shows that the initial period of the employment was cautious and tentative, which was described as both positive and negative in terms of a soft start or a tardy start. On one hand the soft start promotes relationship development, but on the other hand the tardy start inhibits adaptation to work. The negative side shows how important it is that work tools are ready to be used when the new employee is introduced to the new work, otherwise it can create negative experiences. The results also show that the pilot project was characterized by a reciprocity where nobody really knew what the teacher assistant role would contain, and thus it became a new situation for all parties to relate to. Through these themes, the overall results shows that the pilot project from a socialization perspective was characterized by a double socialization.

Unaccompanied immigrant youth (UIY) face obstacles that can hinder their education in their host countries. Given that educational attainment can help interrupt intergenerational cycles of poverty, the examination of support systems for UIY is critical. This study examined the role of sports-based youth development (SBYD) programs in supporting UIY students using a utilization-focused evaluation. To do this, two groups’ high school graduation rates were compared: (a) UIY participating in an SBYD program and (b) UIY not participating in a SYBD program. In addition to this quantitative analysis, UIY were surveyed and interviewed to contextualize the results of the graduation rate comparison. The graduation rate analysis demonstrated that students who take part in an SBYD program were more likely to graduate than those who did not. The participants reported that their SBYD program connected them to other people and motivated them to continue their education. In short, this study provides evidence that SBYD programs can promote social inclusion and educational attainment for UIY. Keywords: Unaccompanied immigrant youth, sports-based youth development program, utilization-focused evaluation, graduation rate