It is inevitable that campus-based higher education will adopt some form of a hybrid learning approach. For schools and their faculty members, this means the acknowledgment and acceptance of these changes are required. Campus-based higher education faculty members wish to change how they teach courses due to societal demands to better suit the next generation of students. Initially, schools began offering new technology to faculty that wished to use the technology; however, over the years, due to the demands of competition with other schools and next generation, tech-savvy students entering academia, schools are starting to require the use of technology that was once only an option for faculty members. This implementation of incorporating technology into the classroom has faced several roadblocks because what was once considered a simple transition has become more complex due to faculty resistance to new technology, which stems from various limitations, barriers, and perceptions, such as low computer self-efficacy, high computer anxiety, and time to learn new technology. The purpose of this study was to understand how in-service faculty experience individualized training as a method of teaching faculty how to use the technology and integrate it into their courses. The lived experiences and perceptions of in-service faculty regarding individualized training were specifically focused on to determine how individualized instruction was perceived to help or hinder integrating technology into their courses. The focus was the experience Harper College and McLennan Community College’s in-service faculty, who experienced training through the group training currently offered by the schools, as well as the proposed individualized training. Higher education faculty from general study areas, such as English, math, and science were invited to participate. The study consisted of a 6-week individualized training program for 12 in-service faculty members (seven completed the study) who previously participated in a group training program about Blackboard. The study was a phenomenological approach in that used interviews to gather information regarding the lived experiences as the basis of analysis. The data for this study were gathered, horizonalized, and analyzed through a 7-step data processing method for phenomenology studies. After the data were analyzed, the findings show how developing a good individualized training program can help in-service faculty members not only integrate technology into their course designs but address any of the limitations or barriers the faculty faced. These findings coincide with the recommendations that training programs need to be developed into a phased approach in which the existing group training should continue but a secondary training program should be developed that incorporates andragogy-based principles and the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework.

Obesity is a worldwide problem which affects individuals regardless of age, culture or ethnicity. Obesity is associated with health risks, financial implications, and social consequences. There are numerous explanations for obesity, although even with these explanations, long-term treatment for obesity has not been highly effective. Focussing on the lived experiences of obese individuals may illuminate different understandings which could aid in explaining this. Phenomenology, as a branch of philosophy and employed in this dissertation is concerned with individuals’ lived experiences. The present study conducted a qualitative systematic literature review on phenomenological research on individuals’ experiences of obesity. Nine studies were analysed using a qualitative systematic literature review methodology. The data analysis revealed obese individuals’ experiences in three main themes: control, acceptance, and restriction. The three themes were understood to have an interrelationship with one another, and to be in a continuous dynamic interplay, which cannot be separated and understood in isolation, regarding the participants’ experiences. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmchunu2014 / Psychology / unrestricted

Master of Arts / Department of Communications Studies / Timothy J. Shaffer / Defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as “limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods,” food insecurity is a symptom of systematic disempowerment and represents one of the most prevalent social ailments to impact first-world countries. In a county where one in eight individuals does not have regular access to meals, food insecurity is far from a problem typically associated with college students. However, Feeding America, the largest emergency food assistance network in the nation, reports that one out of every ten people they serve is a student. In total, half of all students will find themselves unable to afford to eat at least once within their academic career; consequently, 1 in 4 will drop out. This thesis argues that the voices and narratives of food insecure students have been absent from the very research meant to represent them. Consequently, little is known of the situational nuances that accompany student hunger, reifying the dominant discursive structure. This research employs Photovoice, a participant-led methodology which invites members of marginalized groups to photograph places, things, and events representative of, or crucial to, their daily life. This study examines the narratives of seven college students, ranging from their first-year to PhD status, in an effort to fill the gap in the knowledge regarding student hunger and food insecurity. This research found that students who experience food insecurity engage in self-blaming practices and, thus, do not believe they have the right to be hungry or ask for help. Instead, food-insecure students employ several strategies, including face negotiation and disclosure, to minimize the severity of their situation and mitigate tensions between their health, finances, and convenience. This study concludes with a discussion of implications, limitations and areas for future research.

Early conceptions of schizophrenia suggest that it is a disorder of consciousness, primarily manifested as a disturbance of self-experience. However, it is only recently that researchers are focusing on the experience of self in schizophrenia. Several recent phenomenological researchers argue that the disorders of self-experience represent the experiential core of schizophrenia, suggesting that the basic defects in self-experience are already subtly present in schizotypal or schizoid like personality traits typically present in schizophrenics (Parnas&Handest, 2003; Sass&Parnas, 2003). These authors argue that schizophrenia is primarily a disorder of consciousness clinically manifested as a disturbance of the sense of self. Authors investigating schizophrenia from a phenomenological perspective seem to have developed some consensus regarding the central role of autism, intentionality, ipseity and intersubjectivity – central constructs in phenomenological conceptions of the structure of consciousness. However, the focus of phenomenology on the entire person develops insights that are circular since all points of exploration reveal a close relationship between various dimensions of self/world experience, thus leading to a circular argument. The aim of this dissertation is to explore the relationship between the aforementioned constructs in a manner that addresses the circular logic implicit in the phenomenological structure in which certain researchers have embedded schizophrenia. A further aim is to provide a phenomenologically oriented conceptual framework in which the seemingly bizarre nature of schizophrenia may be made intelligible: that the symptoms may be interpreted as attempts at re-establishing a unified sense of self and a connection with the world of others. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Psychology / unrestricted

Place is disguised, hidden or simply ignored in much sociological research. Belonging, however, has become a focus of sociological concern. This thesis proposes that one way of belonging is through belonging-in-place leading to a sociological positioning of place as an active participant in social life. In much sociological research places have been seen as fixed and essentialised. To avoid this problem, this study turned to geography and anthropology for suitable frameworks incorporating an open, fluid and relational understanding of place. In particular, Ingold’s (2000) concept of the ‘taskscape’ has been used to understand the connections between place, people, activity and time. The thesis argues that ‘imagined’ and narrativised places create only an ‘outer layer’ of belonging and that it is through embodied connections to other people in the place (what I call a ‘peoplescape’) and through inalienable connections to material places over time that a three dimensional ‘ontological belonging’, as a way of being (and doing) in the world, can develop. Belonging, often spoken of as a sense or feeling, is here shown to be the outcome of social practices, by embodied beings, in a material place.The research took a phenomenological approach in order to see the life-world of the participants from within. A multi-dimensional belonging was uncovered through various user driven qualitative methods: biographical interviews and photo and written diaries with families who have lived in one place, Wigan, for at least three generations. The diaries detailed social encounters which revealed that knowing other people and being known are crucial to an embodied belonging-in-place. Taking photos alongside the diaries enabled specific places of importance to the respondents to be discussed and these revealed that places can be passed on, as inalienable gifts, from one generation, or one life phase, to the next. Inalienable traces of previous generations of Wiganers are present in the material place. The phenomenological methodology and the mix of qualitative methods enabled an inductive analysis which disclosed the everyday life-world of these people in this place. Diaries, both written and photographic, together with other respondent directed methods could be used more widely to explore seemingly mundane aspects of social life from the perspective of the participants. The research found that place is not merely a backdrop to social life but is an integral part of the social practices carried out by embodied and emplaced people. A greater emphasis on both place and materiality as they impact social life could enhance much sociological research.

Improvements in diagnostic measures over the years have resulted in more accurate diagnosis of ADHD. Whilst many studies have focused on ADHD as a disorder, few studies have looked at the experience of raising a child with ADHD. The aim of this study was to explore the experience of Black parents raising children with ADHD. The sample consisted of five Black parents who live the experience of raising children, between the ages of six and twelve years, with ADHD. An interview schedule with semi-structured open-ended questions was used. The study followed a qualitative research design with descriptive phenomenology as the worldview. The themes that emerged from the data were around the experience of their child, the experience of ADHD and the experience of self. Black parents experienced their children’s behaviour as hyperactive and uncontrollable. They also believed their children were socially withdrawn and isolated. Problems with inattention, not listening and being unable to concentrate were highlighted as experienced at school and at home. Black parents also stated that their children were clever and popular at school and at home, but had problems with speech. However, most were hopeful for their children’s future. Black parents raising children with ADHD had a reasonable understanding of ADHD as a disorder, even though the results of the study suggest that ADHD is still misunderstood in the Black population. Black parents experienced others as insensitive and blaming. The support from professionals was experienced as not satisfactory and there were concerns about the medication. Black parents experienced their style of parenting as harsh but accommodating. They experienced guilt and shame, blaming themselves for their children’s condition. They also felt trapped, frustrated, alone, lonely, helpless, in despair and even depressed at times. However they viewed themselves as generally coping well. Core values such as respect for others, discipline and boundaries have remained in how they parent. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Psychology / unrestricted

This qualitative research study explored the perceived experiences of doing science with an artistic spirit through the voices of living scientists who also engage in the arts. The purpose was to understand how accomplished scientists who engage in the arts make sense out of their experience of doing science and to gain the scientists’ perspectives on the context of their experience. Four highly able scientists (ages 31-61) with expertise in their field who also self-identified as actively engaged in the fine arts were given a voice on the following issues: 1) What are your perceived experiences of doing science? As such, what can we infer about the role of the arts in doing science? 2) Based on personal experiences, are there implications for the integration of the arts and sciences in education? Through hermeneutic phenomenological methodology using thematic analysis, four major themes emerged: 1) Risking Success in a Scientific Vocation; 2) Feeling Healthy through the Arts (Satisfying an Inner Drive; Coping in a Stressful World); 3) Gaining and Giving Different Perspectives through the Arts (Complementary Tools of Perception; Complementary Processes of Perception); 4) Feeling Connected to Something More through the Arts. Each theme alluded to some aspect of aesthetic experience or extracognition, emphasizing the role of the arts in attaining such experiences. Educational implications are discussed in light of aesthetic experience, extracognition, and also interdisciplinary education in today’s context of science education. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

The notion of ineffability (of that which is, in principle, resistant to conceptual formulation and therefore literal linguistic articulation) has been largely ignored by philosophers. The notion is clearly a central one in the Christian mystical tradition and in more recent apophatic theological developments. Mid-twentieth-century philosophical discussions of mysticism invoked the idea and a number of phenomenologists share a sense that the meaningful human world is answerable to some 'background' that is inarticulable and mysterious. But, despite this, the logical implications of the notion of ineffability for religious experience, language and practice have not been explicitly and systematically thought through. This thesis, restricted to a dual focus on twentieth-century and contemporary philosophy and on the Christian religion, attempts to address this neglect. After reviewing the philosophical, and some theological, literature on the notion of ineffability in religion, this thesis identifies a philosophical tension between the notions of 'ineffability' and 'answerability', between the idea that the ineffable is beyond conceptualization and that some kind of experience, language or practice connected with it is required if the notion is to be meaningfully invoked, let alone (as in a religious context) serve as the measure for the meaning of the human world. In this connexion, the meaning of the word 'God' is interpreted as a reference to the concept of ineffability. A recent philosophical defence of the concept is endorsed which, rooted in existential phenomenology and Heidegger's later philosophy, resolves this tension. The detail of theological attempts, by Paul Tillich and John Macquarrie, to accommodate this line of thought as directly inherited from the phenomenologists (especially Heidegger) is examined and criticized, as, eventually, is a more promising theological possibility represented by the neglected philosophy of Karl Jaspers. The rational status of existential phenomenology (its relation to discourse conditioned by the subject-object dichotomy) is examined more closely in the light of the latter criticism. It is concluded that phenomenology's specifically philosophical way of evoking the ineffable is necessarily that of a rationally-based dialectic. The final chapter points to spheres outside philosophy, aesthetic and ritual, which cultivate the experience of the ineffable without such dialectic. It offers an 'aesthetic account of ritual meaning' and concludes by showing how the Eucharistic rite can be philosophically understood as a vehicle for religious experience and expression - the evocation and invocation of the ineffable God.

A Day With The Mountain is an inquiry that ventures into the experience of self-movement through the context of freeskiing. This inquiry focuses on both my experience with three freeskiers; Leah Evans, Josh Dueck, and Mark Abma and my personal experience with freeskiing. The intention behind this inquiry is to challenge, celebrate, and evoke the self-movement experience in order to gain understandings of something so fundamental to human development. This intention is met by asking the main research question; ‘What is the experience of self-movement?’ Self-movement was fleshed out in this inquiry within a phenomenological approach. Phenomenology aims to evoke human experience through descriptive writing, which also proved to be the main challenge of this study. Stories, poetry, and images within a narrative entitled A Day With The Mountain were used to address this challenge and to invite the reader into deeply textured experiences of self-movement. A Day With The Mountain is a day of freeskiing where accumulation, threshold, breakthrough, and release make up the rhythms of the experience; these same rhythms also serve as the chapters of this text. Woven within the evocative writing of the experience of freeskiing are theoretical insights into self-movement, movement itself, of wonder. Emerging from this inquiry are ideas and questions about self-movement and movement that challenge the ground of formal physical education. I sense a potential pedagogical approach that combines movement, self-movement, and wonder as presented in this text. The emerging pedagogical approach focuses on evoking wonder, situates movement as a realm of possibility, and self-movement as possible freedom. The margins of self-movement and movement itself remain beyond the horizon of this text, and those margins are in need of more evocative description. Continuing to inquire into self-movement may reveal new possibilities and expanded understandings of self-movement, which may have significant pedagogical potential.

The aim of this study was to explore psychotherapists‘ practice of mindful acceptance. I employed the hermeneutic phenomenological approach with the intention of creating thick descriptions of how mindful acceptance is performed in therapy sessions with clients by psychotherapists with backgrounds in mindfulness. The findings for this study came from a variety of sources including, pre-interview questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, field notes, and feedback from member checks with participants. The results pointed to four themes: 1) recognizing, 2) allowing, 3) befriending, and 4) accepting self and others. The participants‘ practice of mindful acceptance was facilitated by various psychological processes including 1) decentering, 2) exposure, 3) emotion regulation, 4) self-acceptance, and 5) compassion. In their descriptions of mindful acceptance, the participants were able to simultaneously demonstrate acceptance of their internal processes and acceptance of their clients. The participants‘ accounts suggest that intrapersonal and interpersonal processes of acceptance are one and the same and that, in effect, to accept ourselves is to accept others. This study, in a context-specific way, provides accounts of how acceptance of clients can be done. The results of this study have implications for future therapist training and as well as therapist self-care.