Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2009. / A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, Social Justice and Social Change Research Centre, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographies.

Developing students’ ability to think critically is an important goal of Swedish upper secondary school education. The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyse critical thinking at the classroom level from a didactic perspective. Using participant observation and interviews, two groups of students and their two course teachers are being studied during two months. The groups study philosophy and social studies respectively. The thesis explores in what way critical thinking is manifested in the classroom and how the teachers view critical thinking in relation to their teaching. Didactic decisions and challenges are identified and discussed. The findings show that critical thinking is manifested in the classroom dialogue. Focus, relevance and precision are distinctive qualities of critical discussions. The teachers use different strategies to scaffold critical thinking, such as developing what the students say, questioning assumptions and supporting with distinctions. Some of the challenges facing the teachers are finding ways of assisting students to be independent in their thinking, disputing what they say without being perceived as biased and creating the right atmosphere in the group allowing for critical thinking to take place. It’s concluded that critical thinking at the classroom level is a highly complex phenomenon that involves more than just thinking skills which is the dominant view among researchers in the field.

This diploma thesis in architecture is a book composed of a combination of embedded anthropological documentation and creative fiction, written with help from Virginia Woolf and Marcel Proust. It is a story built up, fragment by fragment, that describesregular visits to the Girls Night events at a Youth Centre in Fittja, in Northern Botkyrka, south of Stockholm, where the author went to meet and spend time with a group of local girls on Thursday evenings in the Spring of 2015. Ungdomens Hus is a Youth Centre in Fittja for locals between the ages of 15 to 22. Many boys come and play games here, including pool, ping-pong, video games, the Turkish game Okey, boxing, they also watch TV and generally hang out. The ability for girls to occupy this room, on the other hand, tends to be reduced to three hours a week, when the room becomes a space for the girls alone: A room of their own. On Thursday evenings Rädda Barnen and the municipality Botkyrka arrange the Girls Nights in the Youth Centre in Fittja. This forum is open for all girls between the ages of 15 to 20 years old who live in Northern Botkyrka. The Girls Nights exists to make it possible for young women to make their presence visible, and for them to be able to take space at the Youth Centre, developing their courage to take place in other public spaces and in the context of contemporary society more generally. / Detta examensarbete i arkitektur är en bok som fått sin form från en kombination av antropologisk dokumentation och fiktion, skriven med hjälp från Virginia Woolf och Marcel Proust. Historien byggs upp fragmentariskt och beskriver regelbundna besök på Tjejforum på en ungdomsgård i Fittja, Norra Botkyrka, Stockholm, där författaren mötte och spenderade tid med en grupp tjejer på torsdagskvällar under våren 2015. Ungdomens Hus är en ungdomsgård i Fittja för ungdomar (15-22 år) i området Norra Botkyrka. Många killar går dit. De spelar biljard, pingis, tevespel, okey, boxas, tittar på teve och umgås rent allmänt. Möjligheten för tjejer att ta plats i detta rum, å andra sidan, tenderar att reduceras till tre timmar per vecka då Ungdomens Hus förvandlas till ett rum för bara tjejer: deras eget rum. På torsdagskvällar anordnar Rädda Barnen tillsammans med Botkyrka kommun Tjejforum på Ungdomens Hus i Fittja. Verksamheten är öppen för alla tjejer (15-20 år) i Norra Botkyrka. Tjejforum finns för att unga kvinnor i Norra Botkyrka ska få synas och ta plats på Ungdomens Hus, i andra offentliga rum och i hela vårt samhälle.

Dans le cadre de la transition des sociétés vers le développement durable, le rôle des universités est de plus en plus mis en évidence. A cet égard, l’évaluation, en tant qu’outil d’accompagnement des organisations pour l’amélioration de leurs performances, peut s’avérer d’une aide précieuse.Le potentiel d’application de l’évaluation reste toutefois limité. L’université et la durabilité apparaissent comme des objets normatifs dont la définition du contenu est source de nombreuses oppositions. En outre, leur réalité est évolutive et sujette à d’importants degrés d’incertitude et de complexité paradoxale.Le présent travail vise à déterminer les conditions à travers lesquelles l’évaluation peut apporter un avantage, sinon constituer un frein, à l’amélioration des performances des universités en matière de durabilité. Il se présente en deux grandes parties.La première porte sur la construction théorique de la norme d’évaluation des « performances durables de l’université». Elle repose sur l’examen approfondi des spécificités de l’université et de la durabilité ainsi que sur une analyse empirique de plusieurs cas pratiques relevés à l’international.La deuxième partie confronte et consolide les enseignements de la première en se concentrant sur le développement d’une méthodologie opérationnelle d’évaluation. Pour ce faire, un processus participatif multi-parties prenantes a été mis en œuvre et a conduit à la construction d'un dispositif multidimensionnel regroupant plus de 50 indicateurs. Cet outil se veut être une contribution à l’édification de systèmes d’évaluation mis à disposition des acteurs académiques pour l’identification de pistes d’amélioration de leurs performances au regard du développement durable. / In the context of the transition of societies towards sustainable development, the role of universities is increasingly highlighted. In this respect, assessment, as a support tool for organizations whishing to improve their performance, can be of great assistance. Opportunities for the application of assessment remains however limited. The university and sustainability are normative objects and their definition is subject to considerable opposition. In addition, their reality is progressive and characterized by high levels of uncertainty and paradoxical complexity.This work aims to determine the conditions under which assessment practices can support, or otherwise hinder, the performances of universities toward sustainability. It comes in two parts.The first part focuses on the theoretical construction of an evaluation norm for the "sustainable performances of universities". It is based on a comprehensive review of the specific features of the university and sustainability, as well as on an analysis of several best practices identified internationally. The second part compares and strengthens those findings by focussing on the design of an operational assessment methodology. This research was conducted through a multi- stakeholder participatory process that led to the building of a multidimensional framework comprising more than 50 indicators. This tool aims to be a contribution to the development of assessment methods for academic actors willing to identify ways of improving their performances with respect to sustainability.

This Master’s Thesis establishes what motivates a group of Mississippi farmers to participate in sustainable agriculture instead of industrial agriculture. A database of sustainable farmers was constructed in collaboration with the Gaining Ground Sustainability Institute of Mississippi. This research project used social network analysis with 28 farmers and participant observation and semi-structured interviewing with a purposively selected sample of 14 farmers. This project also explores the sustainable agricultural practices of participants. A map of the social network of sustainable agriculturalists in Mississippi is presented and shows that some farmers are well connected, some moderately connected, and others are isolated. As well, grounded qualitative analysis of interviews identified 4 primary motivations among participants: economic, health, self-sufficiency and anti-government. Overall this project found that motivations are numerous, social networks are weak but growing, and diverse demographics are turning to a sustainable model for agriculture in Mississippi.

Based on the interest in the fields of leadership and outdoor education, this paper aims tovinvestigate how leadership is trained in an outdoor leadership programme in Sweden and to what extent the observed competences are consistent with the concept of transformational leadership. The transformational leadership style is considered to be the most popular leadership style and is therefore of particular interest for this study. The research is motivated by the belief that outdoors is a highly suitable place for the acquisition of (transformational) leadership skills, which has already been proven by several authors before. After a detailed literature review on transformational leadership as well as on outdoor leadership, a participant observation was conducted over the period of four days at Sjövik’s folkhögskola in the course ‘Friluftsliv-Hantverk-Ledarskap’, which can be translated as outdoor activities, crafts and leadership. The observation protocols were analysed using deductive thematic analysis, applying the transformational leadership competences ‘idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration’ developed by Bass & Avolio as clusters for the analysis. In specific terms, the transcripts were searched for situations that could be assigned to these competences. The results reveal that leadership is particularly trained on the basis of a good relationship between leader and participants as well as the space for development for the participants and can thus be classified in previous research results regarding transformational and outdoor leadership. It was shown that the observed competences can be assigned to the transformational leadership style, but at the same time there is still a need for further research.

Då jag tidigare besökt förskoleklasser i USA har jag förvånats över hur mycket tid som ägnats åt laborativ matematik. När nationella läroplanen i matematik i USA, Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, omarbetades blev fokus inom matematik att arbeta för att stärka elevers taluppfattning. Lockad av tidigare erfarenheter från det amerikanska skolsystemet beslutade jag mig därför för göra en deltagande observation med löpande protokoll för att se hur man arbetar med taluppfattning i en förskoleklass i Texas. Under observationen fokuserade jag på att se samband mellan undervisningen, läroplaner och teorier inom matematikundervisning. Resultatet av min undersökning visar att nittio minuter varje dag ägnades åt laborativa matematikaktiviteter anpassade för att hjälpa eleverna att uppnå läroplanens mål. Därtill fanns en tydlig anknytning till teorier inom matematikundervisning.Arbetet är skrivet på engelska. Detta för att termer, dialoger etc. inte ska översättas inkorrekt och för att skolan som observationen skedde på ska kunna ta del av resultatet. / As I earlier visited Kindergarten classes in the United States, I was surprised to see how much time that was set aside for mathematical activities in a hands-on fashion. In the reform of the United States Principle and Standards for School Mathematics, number sense was an essential outcome. Hence, the purpose of my study was to investigate, using participant observation with running records as a method, how number sense is taught in a Kindergarten class in Texas. During my observation, I especially looked at the educations connection to the guidelines and mathematics education theories. The result of my investigation shows that ninety minutes every day was set aside for mathematical activities in hands-on fashion, adapted to meet the guideline requirements and goals. In addition, the teaching observed in the class was closely associated with the mathematics educational theories.

The purpose of this study is to find out if teaching the students how to use the writing process will improve the content of their work.

The globalized food system poses many systemic challenges that have significant impacts on the environment and human health. In order to tackle these challenges, especially those relating to climate change, it is assumed that consumers need to be accountable for the role they play in these issues, requiring them to alter their harmful consumption habits. In terms of the food system, this means that people need to evolve into ethical consumers and become more invested in what and how much they eat, where it comes from, etc . However, throughout the literature and in policies, there remains a focus on altering what people buy, rather than reducing waste from their overconsumption. Reducing waste and consumption would have a more beneficial impact for the environment, human health, and urban sustainability, yet it remains secondary to the narrative of buying sustainable alternatives. A waste reduction narrative would encourage sustainable behaviours that would also be more accessible to households of various socioeconomic backgrounds, and would provide more tangible results in terms of money saved, reduced greenhouse gases and waste output, and increased sustainability. However, food consumption is the result of many ingrained daily food practices influenced by a multitude of factors that prevent people from consciously considering the consequences of their actions. Food consumption and waste management as a phenomenon can therefore be interpreted using Social Practice Theory (SPT), which states that all humans act autonomously and according to social norms. This means that practices are recursive and routinized, subject to change, yet somewhat unconscious. All practices lead to consumption in some way, and changing such deeply embedded routines to become more sustainable requires a full understanding of these deeply entrenched practices. Practices can be broken down into three main components that drive how practices are formed and maintained:materials, competences, and meanings. This project uses mini-ethnographic studies to highlight SPT in order to understand the factors (contextual, materials, competences, and meanings) influencing households in Edmonton, Canada as they navigate the current sustainability narrative, and how they approach sustainable food consumption and food waste management. The results from this study lend some insight into what materials, competences, meanings, and other factors drive people already somewhat aware of sustainable food consumption issues to practice such types of behaviour. These influential elements have been found in many other recently published works, and give further insight into how broad external factors and specific internal factors can drive consumption practices. Prevention and reduction behaviours were already somewhat prevalent in this group. It is important that education programs targeting sustainable food consumption behaviours understand what drives certain food related practices, and how they can target the barriers that prevent certain groups of people from adopting more sustainable habits.

Cette thèse porte sur le travail des comptables à travers la production des évaluations actuarielles de la comptabilité à la juste valeur. L’observation directe de leur activité quotidienne au moyen d’une observation participante, permet d’en saisir les conditions erratiques peu étudiées par les recherches comptables. Les résultats obtenus permettent de proposer une première formalisation conceptuelle des conditions de la préparation des comptes dans les organisations, mêlant acteurs, outils et contextes. En donnant toute leur place aux préparateurs des comptes dans l’étude de la communication financière, nos contributions suggèrent de questionner les représentations dominant la recherche comptable. Nos résultats décrivent comment certaines des qualités communément attribuées (neutralité, fidélité, …) à la comptabilité sont d’une importance discutable et l’assimilation de la communication financière à un conflit d’agence difficile. / This thesis reports a study of accountants’ everyday work. Direct observation of their daily work through participant observation allows showing erratic terms understudied by accounting research. Contributions are drawn upon financial accounting and organizing as well. I propose a preliminary conceptual formalization of the preparation of accounts in organizations, combining actors, tools and contexts. By giving enough importance to preparers in the study of financial reporting, our contributions question dominant representations in financial accounting research. Our results describe how some of the qualities commonly attributed to financial statements (neutrality, loyalty ...) are of questionable importance and how reducing financial reporting to an agency conflict is difficult.