The purpous of this master’s thesis is to explore how the swedish public library evolved between 1890-1911, before the state implemented the library reform in 1912. The material used to cunduct the study concists mainly of texts published during the time frame of the thesis in the form of books, booklets and articles from Folkbiblioteksbladet, a journal dedicated to the subject of the swedish public library. Drawing upon Habermas theory of the structural transformation of the public sphere and Bourdieus theories about taste as social distinction and symbolic capital, the thesis seeks to show how the public participated in the evolvement of the public library and which aspects of society that contributed to the public library’s establishment as an institution. The findings are also discussed in relation to previous research of the history of the Swedish public library. In summary, the study shows that the public library evolved as part of a larger aim to educate the masses with help from what was seen as ”good” litterature. It also shows that even though the higher classes decided the premisses for public education and the public library, some of the ideas were shared by the working class despite their different political goals.

The California State Legislature passed Assembly Bill 97 in June 2013 and Governor Brown signed it into law on July 1, 2013. The legislation created the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP). The LCFF changed the way that school districts in California receive education funding from the state, shifting from a complex categorical program towards a per-pupil based formula. Furthermore, school districts receive “supplemental” and “concentration” funds based on the number of English learners, low-income students and foster youth in the district. The LCAP is a key component of this new funding system and requires that school districts create an accountability document showing how they intend to allocate funds and how they propose to track student outcomes. The 2014-15 academic year was the first full-year of policy implementation, and this thesis investigates how districts around the state created their LCAP. Drawing from research reports, press coverage, and a case study of Claremont Unified School District, this investigation finds that the LCAP has the potential to make the California public education system more equitable and adequate.

Survey research was used to conduct a formative evaluation of Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology Services (QIAT) by 120 leaders in the field of assistive technology. Survey respondents represented five different types of assistive technology interest and responsibilities: consumers of assistive technology services and family members, district and regional assistive technology leaders, state and national assistive technology leaders, assistive technology leaders in higher education, and assistive technology policy leaders. Respondents reviewed QIAT and completed either print or online electronic versions of a survey in which they provided their perspectives on the need for quality indicators, the importance of each quality indicator contained in QIAT, the clarity of each accompanying intent statement, and the usefulness of QIAT to people with assistive technology interests and responsibilities similar to their own. Results of this investigation suggested that quality indicators are needed to guide the development and delivery of assistive technology services, that the 39 quality indicators contained in QIAT are important, and that QIAT would be useful to people with varied interests and responsibilities in assistive technology. The perceptions of the majority of the participants about QIAT were positive. Analysis of the rankings indicated that every quality indicator contained in QIAT was considered important by greater than 92% of the participants and every intent statement was considered clear by greater than 82% of the participants. Results also indicated that participants believed that some revisions in the wording and reordering of the items contained in QIAT would increase clarity and that the identification and development of training and products aligned to QIAT could aid in the development and delivery of effective assistive technology services. Proposed revisions were made in QIAT as a result of respondent recommendations. Implications for practice, future development, and additional research also were proposed.

The purposes of this study were, 1. To develop a documented history of the founding of the town of Islip. 2. To trace the development of public education within the town and to parallel this development with state-wide developments in the field.

The problem investigated by this study was that of understanding types of behaviors exhibited by participants in negotiations processes and impact of behaviors on collective bargaining in Nigeria. The study's three purposes were to describe the nature and extent of interpersonal conflict that occurs in collective bargaining, to determine the consequences that stem from such conflict, and to suggest the behaviors and performances during the face-to-face negotiations that should exist to enhance labor-management relations in Nigerian public education. This study examined behavior in negotiations by using simulation, i.e., a quasiexperimental method. Four outcomes of negotiations--time required to reach agreement, terms of agreements, verbal behavior exhibited during negotiations, and satisfaction derived by negotiators in negotiations—were examined.

The focus of this thesis is to seek and observe the patterns of economic development around local public schools of varying quality. The Greater Richmond Region (consisting of the City of Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico) were used as the basis of the study. The scores for the schools were derived from an equation that took into account some of the main quality aspects. The factors that went into the equation were graduation rates, dropout rates, standardized test scores and AP (Advance Placement) enrollment. The basis of the economic development evaluation is based on a set of indicators published by the King County (Washington) Department of Planning. These indicators include real wages per worker, poverty rate and high school graduation rate. Using GIS, these two data sets were observed for patterns and trends. The findings of this study show that not only do the economic development indicators change based on quality but also on geographic location. This study ends with recommendations for cities to improve both their education systems as well as their economic development opportunities.

Alternating traditional classroom-based teaching techniques with hands-on learning activities outdoors is beneficial for children of all ages. The purpose of this thesis was to explore whether and how teachers may negotiate the constraints to facilitating hands-on learning opportunities outdoors. A snowball sample was used to identify twelve outdoor educators for semi-structured interviews documenting their characteristics, skills and experiences, perceptions of the constraints to outdoor education and recommendations for building interest in and supporting outdoor education. The findings suggested that participants’ childhood experiences outdoors were influential on their decisions to start teaching outdoor education, and that the participants’ perceptions of the constraints varied dependent on their experiences, objectives and attitudes. The participants’ recommendations were focused on what teachers could do to help themselves and each other to succeed. Altogether, the participants’ experiences suggest that passionate and engaged outdoor educators can have a lasting impact on students’ relationships with the natural world. / October 2016

The primary objective of the study is to identify the extent to which the current school choice policy in New Orleans has afforded students in underserved neighborhoods or city planning districts the opportunity to attend quality schools elsewhere in the city. Though all students in New Orleans have access to schools outside their neighborhood, more than two-thirds (68%) of public school students attended a school within their planning district or in the adjacent planning district in the 2011-12 school year. In staying close to home, just one-fifth (22 percent) of students attended a quality school. A clear relationship existed between a planning district’s service level and its socio-economic and racial make-up as well as the performance level of its students’ schools. The results of this analysis suggest that the lack of quality schools in low-income and minority areas significantly limits those families’ access to quality schools even under New Orleans’ far-reaching school choice policy.

This dissertation examines a commercial media culture as articulated by a television production company in Stockholm, Sweden, and is based on nine months of extended fieldwork. The dissertation discusses the production process, its problems and constraints, and the role of the producer using a theoretical framework elaborated by Pierre Bourdieu. The TV producers are involved in a constant process of interpretation, evaluation and negotiation related to the symbolic and economic power relationships that determine the field. The practical production cannot be reduced to a one-way communication system. Commercial TV production involves more than supplying the channels with those programs they demand and attracting the desired target groups; programs produced at the company must be "good" and give a "value" to the viewers. The production process implies a tightly interwoven relationship between the producer and the audience, conceived of in terms of "the average person". The producers create an image of an audience based on statistical figures, reference persons, viewer ratings and of themselves functioning as surrogate audience. This constructed viewer wants something more than pure entertainment. The public-educator ideal that has been a reason for the Swedish public-service-television's authority and legitimacy, has come to be an important component of the television produced at the described television company. A public-service tradition is reformulated to fit into a modern, commercial context, at the same time as it legitimizes and gives meaning to its own enterprise. The created viewer's demand for entertaining knowledge and information is satisfied.

[pt] A dissertação visou acompanhar um pouco da evolução do sistema de ensino público no Brasil, partindo da década de 1930 até a atualidade buscando compreender as possíveis causas de seu persistente déficit qualitativo, não obstante os avanços alcançados, quanto à expansão do acesso ao ensino, desde o final da década de 1980. Identificamos como um dos importantes componentes para sua condição qualitativamente deficitária a forma conservadora como veio se desenvolvendo o sistema de ensino no país, a qual se mostrou relacionada à forma invertida como se desenvolveram os direitos de cidadania no Brasil. Partiu-se da premissa neste trabalho de que a educação pública como está constituída não se apresenta como democrática, dado que não capacita a todos em igualdade de condições, a despeito de suas diferenças culturais, de renda, gênero, cor ou região, o que acaba permitindo que as desigualdades sociais se reflitam nas desigualdades escolares e sejam reproduzidas fora da escola. A compreensão da educação como e para o exercício dos direitos de cidadania, associada à percepção de que um dos motivos para sua qualidade deficitária seja justamente o esvaziamento de sua condição de direito, nos levou a concluir que uma das possíveis alternativas para o problema do déficit educacional público seria o estabelecimento de uma educação orientada pelos direitos humanos e de cidadania, haja vista que esta favoreceria o fortalecimento dos grupos desfavorecidos na sociedade civil, tornando-os potenciais sujeitos políticos conscientes de seus direitos e deveres de cidadania, mais aptos à participação política e à luta por realização de direitos. / [en] This dissertation has analyzed the Brazilian Public eaching System since the 30`s until nowadays and tried to understand some causes of its quality deficit despite the improvements on the access to basic education observed since the 80`s. Considering the causes of this deficit it is possible to stress that Brazilian education has been developed in a conservative pattern, which is following the inverted citizenship rights development in Brazil. This work followed the idea that public education, as constituted, is not democratic, as it does not make all individuals capable under the same conditions, despite their cultural, income, color or regional differences, what allows the social inequalities to reflect on the school inequalities, becoming natural inside school and reproducing the inequalities outside it. In this case, the comprehension of education as and to the exercising of citizenship rights, associated to the realization that one of the reasons to its deficient quality is exactly the exhaustion of its condition of being a right, lead us to the conclusion that one of the main alternatives to the deficiency of public education in Brazil would be the establishment of education oriented by the human and of citizenship rights. Education that, by having its structure and pedagogical practice oriented by rights, besides stimulating the development of critic, autonomous and reflexive pedagogic individuals, would favor the strengthening of the unprotected groups in civil society, making them potential political subjects aware of their rights and duties if citizenship, more capable to political participation and to fight for their rights.