The purpose of this study was to develop a model for impacting decisions on agricultural biotechnology practices in food production among African policymakers. The research focused on three African countries, namely, South Africa, Malawi and Ghana. Taking into consideration the different stages and levels of engagement in biotechnology, these countries were assumed to be representative of the current heterogeneous environment of Africa regarding biotechnology adoption. Policymakers, primarily government officials, civil servants and activists, journalists, business leaders, religious leaders, farmers' leaders, and extension workers were involved as respondents and discussants in the study. Of the total number of 174 respondents, 69 were from Ghana, 76 from Malawi, and 29 from South Africa. The research instrument entitled "Communication Factors Affecting Africa Policymakers' Decisions about Agricultural Biotechnology" was designed to provide scales by which to measure understanding, knowledge, and perceptions of agricultural biotechnology, three important constructs of the overall study. These three constructs were used to design questions for 12 specific scales to measure African policymakers' socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, education level, occupation, geographic location); worldviews and values (moral values, labeling, regulation, consumers' rights, willingness to pay); information sources (interpersonal, print, and electronic forms); understanding of agricultural biotechnology practices; perceptions of agricultural biotechnology use in food production; and attitudes toward agricultural biotechnology policies. Significant differences occurred in policymakers' understanding of biotechnology, perceptions about biotechnology, and attitudes when compared by country of origin. Respondents from Malawi had significantly less knowledge about agricultural biotechnology, held significantly lower perceptions about agricultural biotechnology, and held significantly lesser attitudes about agricultural biotechnology than did respondents from Ghana or South Africa. No significant differences existed in policymakers' understanding, perceptions, or attitudes toward biotechnology when compared by gender. The study revealed that significant moderate positive relationships occurred between the dependent variables worldviews and values, and understanding, and attitudes. These associations suggested the existence of some level of complementarities between worldviews and values, and understanding, and attitudes of African policymakers toward biotechnology for agricultural development. Other findings showed significant moderate associations between the independent variable education level and worldviews and values, and low positive associations between occupation and worldviews and values, understanding, and attitudes toward biotechnology. On the other hand, no significant associations occurred between the dependent variables and gender or country of origin in this study. In conclusion, the study showed that a critical gap exists in the understanding of biotechnology between policymakers in Africa. Educating the African public in general and those of low educational backgrounds in particular, is strongly recommended. Taking into consideration the differences in understanding agricultural biotechnology, it is further suggested that a need exists to adopt a target group approach in educating Africa policymakers about biotechnology. Another recommendation resulting from this study is the need for close collaboration between university scientists and mass media professionals as a means for raising the public's levels of trust for media, as well as accessing university scientists to the societies which they serve.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- McMaster University, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 241-249). Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisors: Stephen McDowell, John K. Mayo, Florida State University, College of Communication, Dept. of Communication. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 15, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 302 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

<p> With the recent attention being paid to student success and student equity, as well as outcomes for historically and currently disadvantaged students including those who begin at community colleges, this study examines the extent to which positive changes have been observed that are favorable to community college student success after transfer. Data from the 2005-2012 administrations of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) are examined to determine the extent to which out-of-class student faculty interaction &ndash; a known contributor to student success &ndash; has increased over time for community college transfer students at a subset of bachelor&rsquo;s-granting institutions. Corresponding data from the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE), as well as IPEDS data, are used to identify institutional conditions that positively impact institutional change over a period of at least three years in a measure of out-of-class student-faculty interaction with community college transfer students. The overall purpose of the current study is to explore what baccalaureate colleges and universities can do to enhance the outcomes of students who transfer from community colleges. Results confirm that overall positive changes in out-of-class student-faculty interaction for community college transfer students have occurred in the group of institutions examined. In addition, the number of institutions that report an increase of practical significance in out-of-class student-faculty interaction for community college transfer students is about double the number of institutions reporting a significant decrease. Selected additional findings show that the institutional proportion of full-time undergraduates, as well a measure of campus support, help lay the groundwork for positive future changes in out-of-class student-faculty interaction for community college transfer students. Future quantitative and qualitative research is recommended to further examine the practices and attributes of institutions where positive changes in community college transfer student-faculty interaction have been observed.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 316-329). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1975. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

隨著政治民主化以及公共議題的多元化，政府溝通能力逐漸受到重視。許多政策推動的失敗被歸咎於政策溝通成效不彰外，文官更是被迫到第一線與民眾進行溝通互動以滿足逐漸高漲的溝通需求。然而，對於文官政策溝通行為的規範性及經驗性研究均相當匱乏，本研究從政府與民眾的互動關係、不同政府運作模式的邏輯，釐清並建構文官與民眾溝通的脈絡以及影響其溝通途徑與行為之因素，並試圖解釋文官參與政策溝通對於政治行政二分的意涵。 本研究以原能會為個案，透過訪談17位原能會文官、記者以及社運團體，蒐集原能會在不同溝通場域中的溝通經驗作為歸納與分析的素材。經過經驗資料的堆砌與歸納，建構政策溝通系統用以解釋影響原能會組織溝通途徑的選擇及其文官個人溝通行為的因素。研究發現行政組織有趨於選擇單向溝通的傾向，及趨於偏好使用間接管道溝通的傾向，並提出環境、制度、組織與個人層面對於溝通途徑選擇及溝通行為的影響因素。最後，本研究提出幾項建議，首先，原能會未來應重視記者對於政策資訊的理解；其次，應避免跨途徑溝通；其三，應正視反核態度的民眾，提供適當的溝通途徑；最後，未來應以團隊為政策溝通的行動單位，團隊應涵蓋不同層級的成員，以面對各式樣的問題，進而避免溝通困境的產生。 / In recent years, government communication capacity has become important as political democratization and public issues have diversified. Policy failures are often attributed to the lack of policy communication and force the civil servant to communicate with the public directly. However, some of the communication behavior of civil service policy literature suffer from the lack of attention to the perspective of normative and empirical researches. This research intents to explore the communication context between civil servant and the public, and to find out the determinant factors which affect communication approaches and communication behavior. This research uses the methods of in-depth interviews with key informants to investigate the key factors in the policy communication system that have substantial affected the choice of organizational communication approaches and communication behavior of civil service in Atomic Energy Council. The result indicates that: First, the public sector still has a tendency to choosing one-way communication and using indirect channel to communicate. Second, this research offers critical factors from the level of environment, institution, organization and individual that affect the choice of communication approaches and communication behavior. Finally, this research suggests that: First, Atomic Energy Council should pay more attention to understanding of policy information from reporters. Second, Atomic Energy Council should try to avoid cross-approaches communication. Third, Atomic Energy Council should face up to anti-nuclear groups and provide suitable communication approaches. Finally, Atomic Energy Council should design a policy communication team which concludes different levels of members, in order to build up an effective coordinating channels.

Thesis (M(Political Policy Studies))-University of Pretoria, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references and summary.

This document is a comparative synthesis of the reports on regional case studies written by PERCEIVE's partners. Each report is based both on an original data collection and on the analysis of the focus group's section that addresses communication issues. Each partner collected national and/or regional communication plans, which were mostly used for the first chapter of this report: "Communication strategy at different levels and LMAs' organization."

This study explores Palestinian university teachers' beliefs regarding the concepts of culture and intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and the impact of their perception on classroom teaching practices. The study argues that in the age of globalization, spread of English as a lingua franca, and growing opportunities of intercultural communication, the focus on linguistic competence or literary competence may not be adequate to enable Palestinian university students to use English communicatively and interculturally. Further, the current objectives of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL), which seem to exclude the cultural/intercultural dimension, can be expanded through integrating ICC into English language classes. Using a case study of one of the leading Palestinian Universities, the study explores the aforementioned assumptions and investigates teachers' beliefs regarding the concepts of culture and ICC in the Palestinian university context. Analyzing data from interviews, observations, and documents, the study reveals that EFL Palestinian participants perceived culture as a way of life that comprises a shared system of values, beliefs, ways of thinking, and behaviors. To them, language and culture are interwoven components, and without culture, language acquisition might be difficult to achieve. Additionally, ICC was perceived as the ability to communicate with people from other cultures through gaining cultural knowledge about English /American culture and promoting personality traits. Data analyses disclose that the linguistic competence had the upper hand in classroom teaching practices, and that the target culture(s) was used as a background to assist language learning. However, ICC was absent in EFL Palestinian university classes, and it was perceived, to some extent, as an equivalent to communicative competence. The study concludes with sets of recommendations to local Palestinian English departments, teachers, international textbooks designers, and future research.