abstract: This project draws on sociocognitive rhetoric to ask, How, in complex situations not of our making, do we determine what needs to be done and how to leverage available means for the health of our communities and institutions? The project pulls together rhetorical concepts of the stochastic arts (those that demand the most precise, careful planning in the least predictable places) and techne (problem-solving tools that transform limits and barriers into possibilities) to forward a stochastic techne that grounds contemplative social action at the intersection of invention and intervention and mastery and failure in real time, under constraints we can't control and outcomes we can't predict. Based on 18 months of fieldwork with the Sudanese refugee diaspora in Phoenix, I offer a method for engaging in postmodern phronesis with community partners in four ways: 1) Explanations and examples of public listening and situational mapping 2) Narratives that elucidate the stochastic techne, a heuristic for determining and testing wise rhetorical action 3) Principles for constructing mutually collaborative, mutually beneficial community-university/ community-school partnerships for jointly addressing real-world issues that matter in the places where we live 4) Descriptions and explanations that ground the hard rhetorical work of inventing new paths and destinations as some of the Sudanese women construct hybridized identities and models of social entrepreneurship that resist aid-to-Africa discourse based on American paternalism and humanitarianism and re-cast themselves as micro-financers of innovative work here and in Southern Sudan. Finally, the project pulls back from the Sudanese to consider implications for re-figuring secondary English education around phronesis. Here, I offer a framework for teachers to engage in the real work of problem-posing that aims - as Django Paris calls us - to get something done by confronting the issues that confront our communities. Grounded in classroom instruction, the chapter provides tools for scaffolding public listening, multi-voiced inquiries, and phronesis with and for local publics. I conclude by calling for English education to abandon all pretense of being a predictive science and to instead embrace productive knowledge-making and the rhetorical work of phronesis as the heart of secondary English studies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2012

abstract: The dynamic nature of Navajo or Diné culture is continuing to be constrained by a mechanistic planning paradigm supporting delivery of colonial subdivisions across the land. Poor housing and subdivision conditions levy pressures on the Navajo People that reduce their ability to cope with environmental, financial and social pressures. This study has taken this complex social justice related health challenge to heart through a 2015-2016 school year of Arizona State University dissertation driven, community-based participatory action research with high school students from Navajo Preparatory School (NPS) in Farmington, New Mexico and community participants from the Shiprock Chapter of the Navajo Nation. Fieldwork focused on case study analysis of cluster settlements across the Navajo Northern Agency and existing subdivisions within the town of Shiprock to develop the Framework for a transformational Navajo model of the Pattern Language (Alexander et al, 1977) for new neighborhood design. Pattern data supporting the Framework was generated at the linked scales of the Navajo nuclear Family Camp, the extended family Cluster Camp, and the community-scaled Constellation Settlement “spatial model” that is proposed by this study as new neighborhood planning model. An ethnographic research methodology was employed with students, faculty, Board leadership and neighboring Shiprock Chapter and Shiprock Planning Commission research participants. The study’s research methodology was anchored by a pioneering Indigenous Planning high school course that was housed within the School’s International Baccalaureate curriculum. Goals for student education in Indigenous Planning theory and much needed Diné planning-based language building were married with practical aims for use of the Diné Pattern Language and Constellation Settlement spatial model for anticipated Shiprock Chapter housing projects. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Design 2017

A participação de usuários de serviços de saúde mental em pesquisas acadêmicas é uma tendência recente que vem, de forma incipiente, sendo adotada no Brasil. São iniciativas interessantes na medida em que promovem a democratização da produção de conhecimento, conferindo a grupos populares a oportunidade de ter se colocarem frente às suas necessidades específicas. Rose (2003) coloca que existem vários níveis de participação e essas iniciativas não representam necessariamente a emancipação dos usuários, sendo necessário que se observe e qualifique o protagonismo dos participantes. A presente tese visa avaliar quais os efeitos do envolvimento de uma associação de usuários (a AFLORE) junto a uma aliança internacional de pesquisa (a ARUCI-SMC). Nos utilizamos da metodologia da pesquisa ação participante afim de que os membros da associação pudessem se envolver diretamente em diferentes etapas desta pesquisa, como a formulação de perguntas de pesquisa e a sistematização da experiência. As análises aqui propostas baseiam-se no conceito de paridade participativa em Nancy Fraser, que é composto por três dimensões interligadas: o reconhecimento, a redistribuição e a representação. Partiremos destas dimensões para avaliar em que medida a parceria de pesquisa promove a paridade participativa dos envolvidos. A participação de usuários em pesquisas na aliança em questão parte do reconhecimento dos mesmos enquanto sujeitos portadores de um saber único, que advém da experiência. No entanto o contrato entre universidade e comunidade e reforça estruturas sociais que bloqueiam a paridade participativa, promovendo a desigualdade. É necessário que a academia se disponha a rever aspectos como a vinculação formal com a universidade e a possibilidade de remuneração para pesquisadores comunitários. Além disso a linguagem é apresentada como aspecto que dificulta a participação de membros da comunidade. Uma estratégia de linguagem adotada nesta pesquisa é a produção audiovisual realizada de forma dialógica entre técnico do audiovisual e pesquisadores, potencializando a sistematização do conhecimento a partir das demandas do grupo de pesquisadores comunitários / The participation of mental health service consumers in academic research is a recent trend that has being adopted in Brazil. Such initiatives promote the democratization of knowledge production. This way popular groups have the opportunity to put forward their specific needs. Rose (2003) states that there are several levels of participation and these initiatives do not necessarily represent the empowerment of consumers, being necessary to observe and qualify the role of the participants. This thesis aims to assess what effects the involvement of an association of consumers (AFLORE) next to an international research alliance (the ARUCISMC). The use of participatory action research methodology enables consumers to be directly involved at different stages of this research. Consumers were involved in the formulation of research questions and the systematization of experience. The analysis proposed here is based on the concept of participatory parity in Nancy Fraser, which consists of three interrelated dimensions: recognition, redistribution and representation. We leave these dimensions to assess to what extent the research partnership promotes participatory parity of those involved. Consumers participation in the alliance research is based on the recognition that they are subjects with a unique knowledge that comes from experience. However, the contract between the university and community reinforces social structures that block the participatory parity, promoting inequality. Academy has to review aspects such as the formal link between the university and community researchers. Also the language is presented as an aspect that hinders the participation of community members. A language strategy adopted in this research is the audiovisual production

The use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in developing countries like Tanzania is considered to be a necessity in order to overcome the challenges that are hindering the country from developing in all sectors and also from reducing the digital divide. As ICT is becoming more and more integrated in societies world wide, its effects are clearly seen i.e. on peoples’ lives, on countries’ economy, opens doors to new opportunities, change how people learn etc. Applying ICT to empower education is one of the national strategies in eradicating poverty in Tanzania. This licentiate research is about the use of ICT tools in the secondary schools arena particularly in the development of e-Learning content and delivery for self learning environment. The main aim is trying to reduce the long time existing problems of lack of learning and teaching resources and inadequacy of qualified teachers in rural secondary schools in Tanzania. The research is focused on two secondary schools as pilot schools at Kibaha district Pwani region. The licentiate research involves multidisciplinary principles in the development of the e-Learning resources. The knowledge of instructional design, learning objects, theories in pedagogy and software engineering principles has been acquired in the course of this study. The licentiate research is also based on the participatory action research methodology throughout the conduction of the research. The licentiate thesis is developed based on the data obtained from the two surveys conducted in a number of secondary schools in Tanzania, data from the readily available reports, literature review and from the participatory activities with the stakeholders. The main stakeholders are students, teachers, head teachers, and Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) officials. This is an applied type of research designed to solve a practical problem, the outcome of this study is a trial package of e-Learning material for secondary schools at the pilot site. The end product of the whole e-Learning research is the e-Learning Management System (e-LMS) and the proposed name for the system is TanSSe-L (Tanzania Secondary School e-Learning) system. The e-Learning contents will be delivered using a blended mode approach. Three delivery options are considered, first, of using the e-LMS (TanSSe-L) or local server for online delivery, second of using Compact Disc Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) for offline delivery and third of using face to face (F2F) for classroom delivery. This licentiate research is part of the on going e-Learning research work which will lead to a doctoral thesis.

Abstract The purpose of the study was to describe and analyze the process of developing community employment of psychically disabled people and its significance for the participants' quality of life. The following research tasks were addressed: 1) What is the process of developing community employment of psychically disabled people like? 2) What is the significance of community employment for the quality of life of psychically disabled people? The study was carried out as action research with recruited participants, and it was part of the Community Employment project of Keski-Pohjanmaa Association for Social Psychiatry in 1998-2000. A qualitative approach was used. The study was carried out in two stages. The purpose at stage I was to elicit information about the baseline situation before the implementation of community employment. Representatives (N=49) of the collaborators in the Community Employment project (N=23) were recruited to participate in an unstructured interview and psychically disabled workshop clients (N=14) to participate in a thematic interview. The data were analyzed with method of content analysis. The stage I results showed that community employment should be developed as a new type of occupational rehabilitation, and that work was a significant and important aspect of quality of life for psychically disabled workshop clients. At stage II, the aim was to obtain information about the implementation of community employment and its significance for psychically disabled workers. The following persons were recruited to participate: the coordinator of the Community Employment project was recruited to keep a diary during 30.3.1998-31.12.2000 and workers who had moved from workshop into community employment (N=4) to participate in repeated (2) unstructured interviews. The data were analyzed with content analysis, and the QRS NVivo computer software was used to analyze the contents of the diary. Based on the results, participation in community employment helped psychically disabled persons to have meaningful employment, to construct his/her self and everyday life by means of this employment, to become established as a member of the working community and to be able to cope with the tasks at work. Community employment involved factors that both promoted and impaired the persons' capacity to cope with their tasks. The most important conclusion was the empowering significance of employment for psychically disabled persons if the occupational rehabilitation services, such as workshops and community employment, are arranged with a focus on the client. The community employment model developed here did not suit all candidates willing to try it. It is therefore necessary to have a sufficiently large range of different occupational rehabilitation services available, from among which each client can choose one suitable for him/herself. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli kuvata ja analysoida psyykkisesti vajaakuntoisten avotyötoiminnan kehittämisprosessia ja merkitystä osallistujien elämänlaadulle. Tutkimustehtävänä oli vastata kysymyksiin 1) Millainen on psyykkisesti vajaakuntoisten avotyötoiminnan kehittämisprosessi? 2) Mikä on avotyötoimintaan osallistumisen merkitys psyykkisesti vajaakuntoisen elämänlaadulle? Osallistavana toimintatutkimuksena toteutettu tutkimus oli osa Keski-Pohjanmaan sosiaalispsykiatrisen yhdistyksen Avotyöprojektia vuosina 1998-2000. Tutkimuksen lähestymistapa oli laadullinen. Tutkimus toteutettiin kaksivaiheisena. Vaiheessa I tavoitteena oli saada tietoa lähtötilanteesta ennen avotyötoiminnan toteutusta. Tällöin tutkimustehtäviksi määriteltiin: Millaisia näkemyksiä on Avotyöprojektin yhteistyötahojen edustajilla psyykkisesti vajaakuntoisten työkuntoutuspalvelujen järjestämisestä? Millainen on psyykkisesti vajaakuntoisen työsalin asiakkaan elämänlaatu? Tutkimukseen osallistettiin Avotyöprojektin yhteistyötahojen (N=23) edustajat (N=49) avoimella haastattelulla sekä psyykkisesti vajaakuntoiset työsalin asiakkaat (N=14) teemahaastattelulla. Aineistot analysoitiin sisällönanalyysilla. Vaiheen I tuloksista todettiin, että avotyötoiminnan kehittäminen oli perusteltua yhtenä puuttuvana työkuntoutuspalvelumuotona, ja työ oli merkittävä ja keskeinen elämänlaadun osatekijä psyykkisesti vajaakuntoiselle työsalin asiakkaalle. Vaiheessa II tavoitteena oli saada tietoa avotyötoiminnan toteutuksesta sekä avotyötoimintaan osallistumisen merkityksestä psyykkisesti vajaakuntoiselle osallistujalle. Tutkimustehtäviksi määriteltiin: Millainen on avotyötoiminnan kehittämisprosessi yhden kehittämiseen osallistuneen näkökulmasta? Mikä on avotyötoimintaan osallistumisen merkitys psyykkisesti vajaakuntoiselle? Tutkimukseen osallistettiin Avotyöprojektin projektivastaava päiväkirjan kirjoittamisella 30.3.1998-31.12.2000 sekä työsalilta avotyötoimintaan siirtyneet avotyöntekijät (N=4) toistetuilla (2) avoimilla haastatteluilla. Aineistot analysoitiin sisällönanalyysilla, jossa päiväkirja-aineiston osalta käytettiin apuvälineenä QSR NVivo-tietokoneohjelmaa. Tulosten perusteella avotyötoimintamallin kehittämisessä oli keskeistä asiakkaan aktiivinen osallistuminen arviointi- ja valmennusjaksolle valintaan, yhteistoiminta arviointi- ja valmennusjakson toteutuksessa, avotyökyvyn selvittäminen arviointi- ja valmennusjakson ytimenä, avotyötoimintaan siirtyminen yhteistoiminnassa asiakkaan kanssa sekä avotyöntekijän ja työyhteisön tarpeenmukainen tukeminen. Tulosten perusteella avotyöhön osallistuminen merkitsi psyykkisesti vajaakuntoiselle osallistujalle mielekästä työtä, itsen ja arjen rakentumista työn avulla, työyhteisöön ankkuroitumista ja työssä jaksamista. Työ rakensi avotyöntekijää ja hänen arkeaan rytmittämällä arkea, lisäämällä työtehtävien hallintaa ja vastuun-kantoa sekä vahvistamalla itsetuntoa ja aikuisen roolia. Avotyöhön kuului työssä jaksamista edistäviä ja ehkäiseviä tekijöitä. Tutkimuksen tärkein johtopäätös on työn voimaannuttava merkitys psyykkisesti vajaakutoiselle, kun työkuntoutuspalvelut kuten työsali- ja avotyötoiminta toteutetaan kuntoutujalähtöisesti. Kehitetty avotyötoiminta ei soveltunut kaikille siihen hakeutuneille. Siksi tarvitaan riittävän kattava valikoima erilaisia työkuntoutuspalveluja, joista kuntoutujaa tuetaan valitsemaan itselleen sopivin.

Riot Grrrl, Girls Rock camps and Ladyfest as social movements act as intermediaries in cultural production spaces, where music focused artefacts are made, collaborations forged, distribution networks established and reception practices enacted to create new conventions which can be understood as feminist art worlds. The growing literature on gender and cultural production, particularly in music communities such as Riot Grrrl, frequently speak of networks in qualitative narrative terms and very little is known about Ladyfest as a feminist movement and as a distribution network. This thesis offers an original contribution to cultural sociology by: employing a novel participatory action research approach to gathering social network data on translocal feminist music based cultural organisations; exploring how these networks can challenge a gendered political economy of cultural production in music worlds; understanding who participates and why; investigating how network structures impact the personal relationships, participation and collaboration opportunities for those involved. Engaging with Howard Becker’s Art Worlds theory as a framework, this thesis explores how music and art by women is produced, distributed and received by translocal networks. It takes into account contemporary issues for feminist music-based communities as well as the historical and international context of these overlapping and developing social movements. The literature suggests that one of the most pressing tasks for a sociology of the arts is to understand how organisational structures negotiate the domains of production, distribution and reception, with distribution modes being the most the most under-researched of the three. By focusing on UK Ladyfest festivals as case study sites, this research serves to address these gaps. Primary data sources include on-line social media, surveys, documents, focus groups and multi-mediainterviews. Findings indicate that those involved with Ladyfest tend to be motivated by a desire to challenge gender inequalities at a local level whilst drawing on local and international movements spanning different time periods and drawing on the works of feminist musicians. Homophily and heterophily both have important roles to play in the longitudinal development of Ladyfest networks. Participants show an awareness of intersecting inequalities such as ethnicity, class and disability with sexuality playing an important underlying role for the development of relationships within the networks. For some, Ladyfest involvement is a gateway into feminist activism and wider social and cultural participation, and for many it leads to lasting friendships and new collaborative artbased ties.

Multiliteracies theory extends the notion of literacy well beyond the traditional linear text-based definition of reading and writing (New London Group, 1996). It addresses the saliency of cultural and linguistic diversity and the multiplicity of communication channels and media available in our rapidly changing world. Multiliteracies involve engagement with multiple design modes, linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, spatial, and multimodal being a combination of the different modes. This research emerged from the need to open a space for students in an international languages school teaching Arabic language to engage in creative, aesthetic, alternative, and multimodal forms of literacy that involve the integration of the various semiotic resources in their meaning-making and design of texts. It is about a lived teaching-learning journey that draws on the concept of living pedagogy and dwelling in the in-between spaces of curriculum-as-plan and curriculum-as-live(d) (Aoki, 1991). In this research journey, I share the possibilities that opened up when students between the age of eleven and fourteen years old engaged with multiliteracies in an international languages classroom that teaches heritage language. This research journey also presents how the participative type of inquiry and collaboration between the researcher and classroom teacher contributed to the enhancement of their knowledge and learning about multiliteracies practices. After listening to and discussing a literary text presented by the teacher, students responded by creating their own texts to show their understanding of the narrative genre. They produced multimodal arts-based (Barton, 2014; Sanders & Albers, 2010) and digital based texts (Knobel & Lankshear, 2013). Through a multiliteracies/multimodalities theoretical, epistemological, and methodological perspective (Albers, 2007; Jewitt & Kress, 2008; Morawski, 2012; Rowsell, 2013), and drawing from approaches such as participatory action research (Chevalier & Buckles, 2013), and bricolage (Kincheloe, 2004), I developed this research story through a process of braiding and interweaving of various modes of texts and genres to produce a métissage (Hasebe-Ludt, Chambers, & Leggo, 2009) of the live(d) narratives of my research praxis. This inquiry offers a glimpse as to how opening the space for creative approaches in the teaching of literacy engages students in the design of texts using both linguistic and non-linguistic semiotic resources and incorporating multiple modes of representation from which they produce arts, digital, and multimodal texts.

This document serves as a mini dissertation in the professional Master of Architecture degree in the Department of Architecture at the University of Pretoria. It focuses on the educational ecosystem within the context of South Africa, with emphasis placed on the economically distressed environment of Mamelodi East. Mamelodi is a township situated in the north east of the City of Tshwane, Gauteng. Due to the location of the University of Pretoria’s Mamelodi Campus, this area has been a study of investigation for many faculties over the years. The spatial consequences of architecture on the educational ecosystem are questioned, with focus placed on the shift in the learning environment towards lifelong learning. The dissertation deals with this concept from the perspective of the holistic development of a person through the qualitative social activities of learning. Lifelong learning is explored throughout the dissertation from a spatial and non-spatial point of view. The spatial conversation deals with the intersection between architecture and education, whilst the non-spatial conversation advocates for a relationship between a community and its school, as integral in achieving lifelong learning. The study is grounded in a typological understanding of the schooling environment that arises as a result of South African educational policy documents. A critical stance is taken where the resulting school typology is challenged in relation to context. The intention is to redefine the current teacher-centric classroom and corridor typology. It is proposed that the schooling environment should be publicly redefined and serve as a support structure within its context, instead of isolating the educational experience. This is explored through the concepts of building as a boundary and building for pedagogy with the resulting development of a spatial matrix to provide architectural definition to South African educational policy. Tsako Thabo Secondary School was used as a case study school for the application of the matrix principles, however it is intended that these principles could be applied to other schools within similar contexts and typologies to achieve lifelong learning potential. Both the research and design process of the dissertation has been directed through the lens of Participatory Action Research (PAR) involving co-design and spatial agency theories. Particular focus within the co-design process was given to the development of design games as a mediation tool. An intimate use of both analogue and digital design games has been applied throughout. / Mini Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Departmental National Research Foundation (NRF) project titled, Stitching the city: From micro-data to macro-views (STINT), aimed at establishing a “transdisciplinary collaboration” to develop a “methodological framework and digital platform for the collection, storage, and sharing of spatial, socio-economic data at a street and precinct level” (Roussou, Brandao, Adelfio & Thuvander 2019). The STINT project was a collaborative effort between the University of Pretoria (UP), South Africa (Departments of Architecture and GeoInformatics) and Chalmers University in Gothenburg, Sweden (Department of Architecture) from 2019 to 2020. In particular, the collaboration was between the Unit for Urban Citizenship (UUC) and the Social Inclusion Studio (SIS) from Chalmers University’s architecture department. / Architecture / MArch (Prof) / Unrestricted

The purpose of this youth participatory action research (YPAR) project was to challenge the pedagogy of traditional literacy instruction for low-income Latino/a students, particularly the overuse of scripted curricula and standardized tests mandated through the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Twelve student participants served as co-teachers and co-researchers as they created, implemented, and evaluated a critical literacy class based on the theoretical frameworks of critical pedagogy and critical literacy and the methodology of youth participatory action research (YPAR). The YPAR Critical Literacy Group and research took place at one of a network of small, independent-study alternative schools called Future Horizons Charter High School (FHCHS, a pseudonym), located in southern California. Critical pedagogy and critical literacy formed a theoretical foundation upon which the students and teacher built a class based on the tenets of dialogue, problem-posing, and generative themes based on the interests of the student co-researchers. This alternative practice of co-creating knowledge with students was paramount in facilitating young peoples’ learning to think critically about their positionality within their political and social spheres. Critical literacy does not focus simply on the development of decoding and comprehension skills for reading, but students of critical literacy must “read the word and the world” (Freire & Macedo, 1997), grounding their acquisition of literacy skills through their own experiences and social contexts. This research examined the capacity of critical literacy and YPAR methodology to transform both learner and teacher. The YPAR Critical Literacy Group at FHCHS positively impacted the student coresearchers. Elements of qualitative research, including interviews and transcription positively impacted the students co-researchers’ traditional literacy skills. Student coresearchers evaluated the course as a positive experience throughout, and engaged in and comprehended texts far above their traditionally-defined decoding and reading comprehension reading levels. Attendance and engagement in the class for the 4-month period was consistently higher in the critical literacy class than in other reading classes offered at the school. The students experienced preliminary transformation and early stages of critical consciousness from the beginning to the end of the course, evidenced by the evolution of their reflective writings and progressively sophisticated analyses of social injustice at the school and within the broader community.

No description available.