The disproportionate number of police-involved shootings reflect the underlying conditions of traditionally conservative, racist policing. Recent updates and communication refinements to police training methodologies could improve training processes, which in turn, may improve societal perceptions of police in the United States. Law enforcement officers in the United States have become the focus of public policy outcry and generalized distrust, further complicating the dangers of contemporary policing. Concealed weapons and the close proximity of civilians policing the police with cellphone cameras complicate issues of officer safety. State and national incidents have resulted in police processes and behaviors being broadcast and violently challenged. In response to these challenges, Texas police academies and law enforcement training agencies are changing the way police learn to police. During the preparation of this study, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement adopted a legislatively mandated update to the Basic Peace Officer Certification training. After a three-year revision process, in late 2019, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement replaced the former 643-hour Basic Peace Officer Course with the newest Basic Peace Officer Course #1000696. Through its goals, definitions, and instructional guides, the Course #1000696 could potentially stimulate occupational identity, unify community policing culture, and foster community perception repair.

A large segment of society is either preparing to enter the work force, or is already engaged in some chosen line of work. Preparing to enter the work force takes a considerable amount of time and effort. The decision to follow one career path over countless others may, on the surface, appear to be discretely individual. But when viewed from a sociological perspective, occupational choices are implicitly and explicitly reached through a consensus of contributing factors. Consequently, an occupational identity is not how an individual describes a personal work-related self, but is rather dialectic. It is the merging, albeit, negotiation of viewpoints which causes persons to view themselves in relationship with how others think of them. It is expected that students newly enrolled in music education degree programs will, with time, replace erroneous lay conceptions of music teaching with those presented in curricula and espoused by significant role models. However, the professional socialization process, characteristic of music education degree programs, has not always been successful in transforming students’ personal perspectives of music teaching. This transformation process is critical toward the development of occupational identities that are congruent with school music teaching positions. There has been an established line of research in music education that examines who school music teachers are from a sociological perspective. When pursuing this literature, however, it became evident that, over time, the term identity had been used under many different guises, incorporating mixed perspectives from among the social sciences. The studies that have dealt with occupational identity have done so for different purposes, employing different theories and methodologies. While any of these previous research protocols may be useful for particular purposes, the reality is that the terms identity and occupational identity have become interchangeable. The term identity is sometimes used to denote self-concept or role concept without being clear about what these mean or how or if they are different from occupational identity. The underlying issue here, and a principle concern for music education, is whether or not music education degree programs are guiding preservice music teachers toward an occupational identity that matches with the occupation. The purpose of this study was to contribute to the field of occupational identity by developing a researcher-designed measurement tool for occupational identity in music education. This study focused solely on preservice music teachers, their perceptions and demonstrable behaviors, associated with the changes that might occur over the course of their professional preparation. The data in this investigation, subjected to principal components analysis, resulted in a 5-component solution rotated to simple structure using oblique Oblimin rotation. Thirty-five items from a pool of 106 with component loadings >.35 explained 57% of the total variance. Reliability estimates using Cronbach’s alpha were .93 for all 35 items and ranged from .92 to .66 for the five components.

This thesis presents a method for identifying resonant cultural phenomena and uses it to identify themes in the representations of millers, tailors, and weavers in early modern English proverbs, jests, and ballads. It then examines whether these stereotypes appear in the records of defamation and abusive language from four different contemporary courts. It argues that all three trades were associated with habitual occupational dishonesty, that millers had a reputation for super-sexuality, and that tailors were considered to be poor and inferior to other men. However, it also argues that these stereotypes were conditioned by generic characteristics of proverbs, jests, and ballads and therefore that stereotypes should be assessed within and across different media. Finally, it argues that the dishonesty, super-sexuality, and inferiority associated with millers, tailors, and weavers suggest that perceived moral character played a more important role in the creation of stereotypes than perceived economic or social position, political or religious allegiance, or ethnic or regional background.

No description available.

This narrative inquiry examines the stories told by eight young New Zealanders who have experienced specific difficulties with learning. At the time of being interviewed, they were aged from 9-14 years and participating in regular school classes. For the purposes of the study, being a student was identified as a key occupational role and failing to achieve tasks associated with this role was viewed as failure to achieve role competency. The issue of learning difficulties has been extensively researched but rarely from the perspective of young people. A primary goal of the study was to obtain young people's perceptions of the experience of learning difficulties. This is consistent with international moves to obtain the views of young people through research. Narrative interviewing procedures were used and participants were invited to talk about the things they enjoyed doing and felt they are good at doing, as well as the things they had trouble doing. They proved to be capable informants and provided a rich range of narrative data. Interviews were audio taped, transcribed and interview transcripts were synthesised into a story format. Each participant had the opportunity to check their story and give their final consent to its use as data in this thesis. As part of the analytical process, core narratives were constructed to capture the essence of each participant's story, their unique narrative voice, relationship with others and fundamental message. These narratives are presented in full, introducing participants as characters in their own story and revealing the nature of the stories told. In addition, thematic narratives drawn from the stories have been collated into three key categories, which relate to self and learning efforts, relationship with the social world and being occupational. The narrative analysis found that learning difficulties occurred as a negative interruption in the progressive course of participants' story, with the potential to compromise their sense of identity and well-being. However, the study also found that when participants chose to characterise themselves in relation to occupations or roles in which they felt most successful, they were able to express a more positive and holistic identity than that of being "learning disabled". Furthermore, in the context of an occupational narrative that included their talents and abilities, learning difficulties were not necessarily the determining factor in how life was for them or where their lives might go. The implication of the study's findings relate to the importance for young people of not only experiencing competency in significant occupations and roles, but also being seen to be competent. This underpins a positive sense of identity and well-being, which is likely to link to their future. They need to understand for themselves and for those around them to understand, that it is possible to be intelligent yet have trouble with basic numeracy and literacy skills. Empathetic adults have a vital role to play in providing the information, opportunities and supportive context in which young people develop an understanding of their occupational competencies and become competent human beings. There is a place for further narrative research with young New Zealanders; there are many stories from other perspectives yet to be told. Ongoing research conducted through an occupational lens is needed to understand the way in which young people with learning difficulties develop, or fail to develop, an understanding of themselves as competent occupational beings and how this supports or constrains their transition through adolescence into adulthood.

This study examines former newspaper photographers' experience with being laid-off from their staff positions. The purpose was to identify emerging themes within the context of involuntary job loss, job satisfaction, and occupational identity via interviews with 8 photojournalists who experienced the phenomenon of being laid-off. The newspaper industry has long been considered both the starting point for young and aspiring photojournalism careers and the most consistent and stable venue for an income. Yet recent changes in the media landscape, particularly economic stress on traditional business models and rapid adoption of digital technology sway the occupational future of photojournalism within newsrooms. The research method employed for this study includes in-depth interviews with a hermeneutical phenomenology approach focused on involuntary job loss, job satisfaction, and occupational identity.

This qualitative study used interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore the question, How do women cigarette smokers experience and perceive their occupational transition from smoker to non-smoker? The sample consisted of seven women, aged 35-55, living in New Brunswick, Canada, who quit smoking for at least twelve months, but no longer than 24 months. Data were collected through in-depth, face-to-face interviews. The occupation of smoking was shown to be a valued and meaningful occupation with both positive and negative aspects that influenced the occupational transition process. The occupational transition of smoking cessation was described as a cyclical journey that required building skills and occupational competence, not only to support occupational adaptation and engagement in meaningful occupations, but also to overcome barriers and occupational losses throughout the transition process. This also fostered the occupational identity of non-smoker, by allowing the women to become and express the self they wanted to be.

This narrative inquiry examines the stories told by eight young New Zealanders who have experienced specific difficulties with learning. At the time of being interviewed, they were aged from 9-14 years and participating in regular school classes. For the purposes of the study, being a student was identified as a key occupational role and failing to achieve tasks associated with this role was viewed as failure to achieve role competency. The issue of learning difficulties has been extensively researched but rarely from the perspective of young people. A primary goal of the study was to obtain young people's perceptions of the experience of learning difficulties. This is consistent with international moves to obtain the views of young people through research. Narrative interviewing procedures were used and participants were invited to talk about the things they enjoyed doing and felt they are good at doing, as well as the things they had trouble doing. They proved to be capable informants and provided a rich range of narrative data. Interviews were audio taped, transcribed and interview transcripts were synthesised into a story format. Each participant had the opportunity to check their story and give their final consent to its use as data in this thesis. As part of the analytical process, core narratives were constructed to capture the essence of each participant's story, their unique narrative voice, relationship with others and fundamental message. These narratives are presented in full, introducing participants as characters in their own story and revealing the nature of the stories told. In addition, thematic narratives drawn from the stories have been collated into three key categories, which relate to self and learning efforts, relationship with the social world and being occupational. The narrative analysis found that learning difficulties occurred as a negative interruption in the progressive course of participants' story, with the potential to compromise their sense of identity and well-being. However, the study also found that when participants chose to characterise themselves in relation to occupations or roles in which they felt most successful, they were able to express a more positive and holistic identity than that of being "learning disabled". Furthermore, in the context of an occupational narrative that included their talents and abilities, learning difficulties were not necessarily the determining factor in how life was for them or where their lives might go. The implication of the study's findings relate to the importance for young people of not only experiencing competency in significant occupations and roles, but also being seen to be competent. This underpins a positive sense of identity and well-being, which is likely to link to their future. They need to understand for themselves and for those around them to understand, that it is possible to be intelligent yet have trouble with basic numeracy and literacy skills. Empathetic adults have a vital role to play in providing the information, opportunities and supportive context in which young people develop an understanding of their occupational competencies and become competent human beings. There is a place for further narrative research with young New Zealanders; there are many stories from other perspectives yet to be told. Ongoing research conducted through an occupational lens is needed to understand the way in which young people with learning difficulties develop, or fail to develop, an understanding of themselves as competent occupational beings and how this supports or constrains their transition through adolescence into adulthood.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of occupational identity in undergraduate music education majors using a Symbolic Interactionist theoretical framework. Three research problems were formulated: (1) The identification of occupational norms and values of undergraduate music education majors; (2) The determination of the commitment of under graduate music education majors to specific skills and knowledge of music education; (3) The determination of career commitment to music education by undergraduate majors. The sample consisted of undergraduate music education majors enrolled in North Texas State University; Denton, Texas, during 1981 and 1982. A questionnaire and interview schedule, which had been developed in a pilot study, were used to gather data. Questionnaire responses from 165 students were analyzed by comparing selected variables by area and by class year. These data were further clarified by information from thirty-eight interviews conducted by this researcher.

This thesis explores tentative hypotheses relating to four conceptually related factors of potential importance in young people's lives; factors which it argues are little acknowledged in the mainstream British literature of psychology and psychiatry. These factors are: 1) young people's 'Relationship with Reality' ( - this is a new concept proposed by this thesis - ) which is characterised by the content, intention and effect of an individual's accumulated cognitive and behavioural traits and to what extent these traits invest in real-life or distort or avoid it. 2) young people's sense of having an 'Occupational Identity'. 3) young people's experience of Careers Education and Careers Guidance. 4) young people's experience of being 'mentored'. The thesis explores whether these factors are self-reported as potentially important in the lives of some young people, and whether such self-reports differ significantly between individuals. A cross-sectional, retrospective comparative study of 18 to 22 year olds is presented, in which non-randomly sampled participants were assigned to three groups according to their apparent levels of measurable achievement (academic, professional and extra-curricular}: High-Achievement, Moderate-Achievement, and Under-Achievement (Imprisonment). As part of an initial exploration, 50 HAs and 18 UAs were each interviewed for two hours; a 75 minute self-completion questionnaire was then administered to a new set of participants: 68 UA individuals (Imprisoned Young Offenders), 75 MA individuals (Undergraduates), 94 HA individuals (Undergraduates). The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and also the Short Imaginal Processes Inventory (a well-established measure of daydreaming) were administered among 50 UAs and 50 HAs to gauge the possible overlap of these established scales with the proposed concept of a 'Relationship with Reality' personality dimension and its component factors. Only moderately low correlations were found. It is acknowledged that adequate levels of validity and reliability are difficult to achieve when investigating the self-report of sensitive and complex issues, and that generalisations cannot be made from a non-random sample. With these caveats, the findings support the concept of a Relationship with Reality personality dimension, and suggest that all 4 factors studied in this thesis may be amenable to scientific research, are conceptually related, and were self-reported as potentially important in at least a substantial minority of the participants' lives. The thesis is inspired by and is integrated into a body of existing literature that includes psychoanalytic, humanistic, cognitive and behaviourist perspectives on 'forensic', 'normal', and in particular 'high-achievement' psychology and psychiatry from Britain and the United States.