A pesquisa aqui relatada foi realizada com 08 casais inférteis em tratamento na Unidade de Medicina Reprodutiva e Imaginologia de um hospital-escola do interior paulista. A fim de compreendermos o instigante fenômeno da infertilidade, acessamos a vivência desses colaboradores mediante uma questão norteadora: Gostaria que você contasse para mim a sua vivência afetivo-sexual durante o namoro, a partir de seu casamento, quando decidiram engravidar, quando perceberam que tinham dificuldade de engravidar e durante a trajetória clínica da investigação e tratamento da infertilidade. Para análise de seus relatos, utilizamos a metodologia qualitativa, alicerçada na fenomenologia, que consiste na leitura e releitura dos depoimentos, discriminção das unidades de significado, elaboração de categorias e identificação das convergências e divergências encontradas em seus discursos. Para o entendimento de suas declarações, nos apoiamos nas perspectivas psicológica, biológica, sociocultural, histórica e da sexologia. Ao analisarmos os depoimentos, destacaram-se as seguintes categorias de significado: 1) Lembranças do tempo de namoro; 2) A arte do convívio a dois; 3) Desvendando a intimidade sexual; 4) A busca por uma ajuda especializada; 5) O estigma da infertilidade; 6) O filho como projeto de vida; 7) A menstruação como marcador de (in)sucesso do tratamento. Como resultado, percebemos que os casais planejam uma família com filhos biológicos, ou seja, uma família nuclear: pai, mãe, filho, partindo do pressuposto que eles têm o controle da função reprodutora. Entretanto, ao deparar-se com a dificuldade de engravidar, buscam um culpado pela infertilidade. Tornam o sexo mecânico, voltado só para a procriação, sentem-se estigmatizados por sua importência e veem a menstruação como sinônimo de fracasso do tratamento. A perda do controle da função procriadora os leva a buscar por novas tecnologias de RHA. E diante do insucesso do tratamento, muitos casais partem para a adoção, construindo uma família adotiva. / The research reported here was conducted with 08 infertile couples undergoing treatment at the Reproductive Medicine and Imaginology Unit of a teaching hospital in the countryside of Sao Paulo state. In order to understand the intriguing phenomenon of infertility, we assessed the experience of these couples by one question: I would like you to tell me your experience during sexual-affective relationship when you were dating, after getting married, when you decided to get pregnant, when you realized you had difficulty to get pregnant and during the course of clinical research and treatment of infertility. For analysis of their reports, we used a qualitative methodology based on phenomenology, which consists of reading and rereading of testimonies, discrimination of the units of meaning, development of categories and identification of similarities and differences found in their speeches. In order to understand their statements, we rely on the psychological, biological, sociocultural and historical perspectives as well as sexology. In reviewing the testimonies, the highlights are the following categories of meaning: 1) Memories of time of dating, 2) The art of living as a couple, 3) Revealing sexual intimacy; 4) The search for expert help, 5) The stigma of infertility, 6) The child as a life project; 7) The menstruation as a marker of (un) successful treatment. As a result, we realized that couples plan a family with biological children, that is, a nuclear family: father, mother, son, assuming that they have the control of reproductive function. However, when faced with the difficulty of getting pregnant, they seek something to blame for infertility. Sex becomes mechanic, aiming at procreation only; they feel stigmatized by their impotence and see menstruation as a synonym for treatment failure. The loss of control of the procreative function leads to the search for new AHR technologies. And faced with the failure of treatment, many couples decide to adopt a child, building an adoptive family.

The Adult Protective Services Program is tasked with enforcing the standards and policies created at the federal level relating to how provider agencies should respond to elder abuse. What has yet to be explored is whether the Adult Protective Services Program is efficiently responding to the issue of elder abuse through its monitoring and evaluation protocols, which are based on the current policies. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of the 13 planning and service areas in their response to elder abuse. The response to elder abuse is guided by the current policies and funding strategies and has determined that there is a need for a policy change. The primary research questions sought to determine if the current policies were effective in every aspect, from planning to execution of the policies as well as the funding in guiding the level of response to elder abuse. The narrative policy framework was used to assess the feelings and opinions of the 13 directors of the planning and service areas regarding the current policies and response strategies to elder abuse. The study utilized a qualitative methodology that procured data through methods such as interviews and secondary data. Content analysis and coding were the two main strategies for analyzing the data for this study. Key results indicated that the directors felt restricted in term of the current policies, while funding has remained stagnant despite an increase in new programs. A change of policy that allows more freedom for investigating elder abuse is needed, as well as a reinvigoration of funding in the area of elder abuse.

While much has been written about the efficacy of academic support programs for increasing the retention rates of university students deemed academically underprepared, few studies examine how students engage the support classroom with an emphasis on expressions of literacy. This qualitative study responds to recent calls in student development literature for more studies into particular practices of university support programs. Focused on an exemplar support program at a larger, public university in the American Midwest, the study gathered perspectives about the support of academically underprepared students, teasing out the differences in administrators', instructors', and students' voices. Insights from the perspectives revealed that explicit metaphors of support in the programmatic discourse emphasized a skills model for academic development and a utopian model of student safe houses. In the classroom, however, five focal students suggested that literacy learning was far more complex. In particular, students' data revealed the generative potential of sociocultural literacy theory for conceptualizing praxis in an academic support program. Examining how five focal students responded to the complex programmatic perspectives of support showed that student engagement was far more intricate than strong retention rates. First, a close analysis of five focal students revealed that learning academic discourses was more than appropriation of skills; it was ways of discerning which practices to use for different communities and learning to signal one's role in these communities. Second, students revealed that student community in the support program was a borderland of difference rather than a safe house. Finally, students illustrated that opportunities for creative improvisation in literacy performances was integral to student engagement. The findings have insights for how to conceptualize pedagogy in support programs related to emergent sociocultural theories of Third Space. Specifically, imagining the support classroom as borderland play suggests that the how of student engagement was often how the five focal students proactively co-constructed the learning.

The context for this research was the socio-political, culturally constructed, lived experience of eight women nurses who held middle-level positions in two Western Australian public hospitals. Glass and Davis’ (1998) integrated feminist postmodern model for nursing research framed the design for the ethnographic investigation.The researcher used an innovative self-developed trifocality method: realist; critical feminist; and feminist postmodern to critique ethnographic data against the research aim and objectives and reflexively engaged with the women nurses to reveal unacknowledged individual and collective insights. Participant observation, critical conversation, and reflective field/journaling were used as triangulated data collection methods. The methodology revealed the local, particular, historical, taken-for-granted and traditionally gender-biased subjugated voices of individual women nurses as legitimate sites for the production of knowledge and insights.The trifocal data analysis revealed multiple intersecting layers of meanings and insights. The participants unacknowledged ‘unsaid’ experiences were viewed as exemplar ‘states of being’, or subjectivity positions, of their multiple and temporal realities. Inherent within the subjectivity positions was their personal, professional and corporate efforts, assumed as self-managing strategies and implicit knowledge, to enact work roles.Deeper critique, applying feminist poststructuralism (Lather 1991b) and postmodern notions of power/knowledge networks of relationships (Foucault 1980b) revealed three competing socio-political culturally constructed discourses. Firstly, the participants’ were embedded within an empowering ‘Discourse of Values Attributed to Nursing/Between a Rock and a Hard Place’. Secondly, they were influenced by, and resistant to the patriarchally dominant ‘Discourse of Bureaucratic Managerialism Discourse/Absence of Care’. thirdly, they functioned within the influence of the disempowering ‘Discourse Medical Science/Working the Margins’.This research contributes to the knowledge base of scholarly work that exists about nurses, women nurses specifically, concerning the meaning of the experiences of practicing in the confluence of corporate and professional responsibilities. At the personal participant level the insights contribute to emancipatory consciousness-raising. The insights also positively contribute to the recommendations made in The Report of the Western Australian Study of Nursing and Midwifery (Pinch & Della 2001). The insights may evoke wider awareness of the disempowering influence of managerialism upon professional practice and inter-professional relationships. Finally, the unique trifocal data analysis method contributes to the body of nursing and social science research knowledge.

This study examined the conditions and experience of students who were placed on academic probation in view of key elements of Dewey’s (1958, 1938/1997, 1934/2005) theory of experience. Core data emerged from 16 in-depth interviews with five students who received assistance from an academic support program while on probation. An additional interview was conducted with the academic companion and another with the program developer. A document analysis and a researcher journal supplemented the data. The interviews were analyzed according to a three-dimensional narrative inquiry space (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Dewey, 1958, 1938/1997) to produce profiles and thematic connections (Seidman, 2006). Findings are presented in five texts. The first and second manuscripts depict the stories of two students using the profile genre. These texts disclose rich stories where the meaning of experience is lived. A third manuscript examines students’ experience from the student and professional perspectives. Major themes uncovered, include (a) resistance to seek help; (b) deep personal costs; and (c) a desire to succeed and complete their undergraduate studies. A fourth manuscript explores companioning as experienced by students and supported by resource personnel. It reveals that (a) the companioning role was defined by a specific form of guidance and attendance to self-confidence and (b) the program helped students clarify their needs, promoted their adaptation to the university context, and offered support through a positive relationship. A fifth manuscript examined the characteristics of a fruitful helping relationship. Findings suggest that (a) a rapport characterized by presence and trust and (b) an approach promoting responsibility, awareness, and holism were key. These findings offer a weighty contribution to the literature on post-secondary education by revealing rich and unique experiences. By tapping in the complexity of the participants’ experience, findings help shift away from the current focus on obstacles and deficiencies often attributed to probationary students. Résumé Cette étude a examiné l’expérience d’étudiants ayant été placés en probation académique à la lumière d’éléments-clés de la théorie de l’expérience de Dewey (1958, 1938/1997, 1934/2005). La principale source de données provenait de 16 entrevues en profondeur auprès de cinq étudiants ayant participé à un programme d’accompagnement universitaire alors qu’ils étaient en probation académique. Une entrevue a aussi été menée avec l’accompagnatrice et une autre avec la conceptrice du programme. Une analyse documentaire et un journal de bord de la chercheure complètent les données. Les entrevues ont été analysées selon une analyse narrative tridimensionnelle (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Dewey, 1958, 1938/1997) de façon à produire des profils et des liens thématiques (Seidman, 2006). Les résultats sont présentés dans cinq textes. Les premier et deuxième textes dépeignent l’histoire de deux étudiants sous forme de profils. Ces textes découvrent de riches et profondes histoires véhiculant la probation comme expérience de vie et la signification attribuée à celle-ci. Le troisième texte présente l’examen collectif de l’expérience des cinq étudiants ayant participé au programme d’accompagnement. Cette analyse est enrichie des perspectives de l’accompagnatrice et de la conceptrice du programme. Trois thèmes se dégagent de l’expérience de ces étudiants en probation académique soit (a) une résistance à faire usage des services de soutien; (b) des coûts personnels considérables; et (c) un désir de réussir et de compléter leur programme d’études. Un quatrième texte explore l’expérience d’accompagnement tel que perçu par les étudiants et les professionnels. L’analyse révèle que (a) l’accompagnatrice agissait à titre de guide et était attentive à la dimension de la confiance en soi et (b) le programme a aidé les étudiants à identifier leurs besoins, a soutenu leur adaptation au contexte universitaire, et a offert un soutien personnalisé par l’entremise d’une relation d’aide positive. Le cinquième texte se concentre sur les particularités d’une relation d’aide efficace en contexte de probation académique. Les résultats relèvent que cette expérience est qualifiée par (a) un rapport de présence empathique et empreinte de confiance réciproque et (b) une approche globale favorisant la responsabilité et la conscientisation. En dévoilant la richesse et l’unicité de l’expérience, ces résultats offrent une contribution intéressante. Illustrant la complexité des expériences de probation ils contribuent à s’éloigner d’une vision centrée sur les obstacles et les déficits des étudiants en probation académique.

This thesis explores the application of vision-based augmented reality in formal and informal educational environments. It focuses on the common practices, concerns, and priorities that developers and content creators in each environment frequently encounter, offering insights into how these experiences are changing with the incorporation of new digital media technologies and the hardware platforms that support them. The research outlined in this thesis uses qualitative methods, assembled around a series of twelve hour-long interviews with highly-experienced educators, developers, researchers, and designers, and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. This thesis introduces original research about the role of computer vision-based augmented reality as an educational medium, a topical discussion in information studies, museum studies, learning sciences, and a number of other fields, and makes a theoretical commitment to addressing the ways that material and virtual objects come to interact meaningfully in a variety of learning environments.

Despite a multi-disciplinary, international literature, little research has drawn attention to the phenomenon of school refusal within the school. Most research on school refusal follows a positivist paradigm, focusing on the student, instead of examining the role of schools. Using a qualitative design and a social constructionist framework, this study explored how school personnel perceive school refusal, focusing on the social interactions, processes, and perceptions that construct their understanding. The study was conducted in a large school district in the Southeastern United States.Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with school personnel at the middle school (N=42), high school (N=40), and district level (N=10). Interviews at the school level included assistant principals, school psychologists, social workers, health services staff, guidance counselors, teachers, attendance office staff, and school resource officers. The district level interviews included personnel in departments related to guidance, psychology, school health services, and social work. Observational data was collected within the schools selected for interviews (N=10). Thirty-eight out of 68 middle and high school principals in the school district completed the Survey of School Refusal.Findings suggest that school personnel rarely use the terminology set forth by the professional literature to describe the spectrum of school refusal. Further, analysis revealed that personnel delineate students who refuse school according to their own categorizations formed through day-to-day experiences with students. Personnel's constructions of school refusal differed based on legitimacy of the reason for refusal, motivation for refusal, grade level, and barriers, which were physical, mental, emotional, social, and societal in nature. Overarching dynamics of typifications of students included parental control, parental awareness, student locus of control, blame, and victim status. These typifications influence how personnel react to students they encounter, particularly in deciding who needs help versus punishment presenting very real implications for students.The findings from this exploratory qualitative study make a significant contribution to this literature. The findings support the use of social constructionism in understanding school personnel's construction of school refusal. Implications for education, public health, and school health practice are presented and include recommendations for policy, training, prevention, early intervention, and future research.

There is a societal need for design education to prepare holistic engineers with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to innovate and compete globally. Design skills are paramount to the espoused values of higher education, as institutions of higher learning strive to develop in students the cognitive abilities of critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity. To meet these interests from industry and academia, it is important to advance the teaching and learning of engineering design. This research aims to understand how engineering students learn and think about design, as a way for engineering educators to optimize instructional practice and curriculum development. Qualitative research methodology was used to investigate the meaning that engineering students’ ascribe to engineering design. The recruitment of participants and corresponding collection of data occurred in two phases using two different data collection techniques. The first phase involved the distribution of a one-time online questionnaire to all first year, third year, and fourth year undergraduate engineering students at three Canadian Universities. After the questionnaire, students were asked if they would be willing to participate in the second phase of data collection consisting of a personal interview. A total of ten students participated in interviews. Qualitative data analysis procedures were conducted on students’ responses from the questionnaire and interviews. The data analysis process consisted of two phases: a descriptive phase to code and categorize the data, followed by an interpretative phase to generate further meaning and relationships. The research findings present a conceptual understanding of students’ descriptions about engineering design, structured within two educational orientations: a learning studies orientation and a curriculum studies orientation. The learning studies orientation captured three themes of students’ understanding of engineering design: awareness, relevance, and transfer. With this framework of student learning, engineering educators can enhance learning experiences by engaging all three levels of students’ understanding. The curriculum studies orientation applied the three holistic elements of curriculum—subject matter, society, and the individual—to conceptualize design considerations for engineering curriculum and teaching practice. This research supports the characterization of students’ learning experiences to help educators and students optimize their teaching and learning of design education. / Thesis (Master, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2012-08-23 12:22:24.3

The pathways through which individuals learn to appraise and behave in intimate relationships greatly influence the quality and stability of their relationships. Research on intimate relationships among college students guided by a socialization framework focusing on learning and ways of viewing relationships is limited. The purpose of the present exploratory study was to examine the experiences and processes wherein young Black collegiate women learn to approach, maintain, and reflect on their intimate relationships. This topic is particularly salient to Black collegiate women who find themselves navigating unbalanced dating scenes and negotiating love relationships while balancing academic achievement and career aspirations. Ten Black, heterosexual women attending a four-year institution of higher education participated in three in-depth interviews where they shared life experiences which contributed to their understanding of intimate relationships. Using symbolic interactionism as a guiding framework allowed me to discover the multiple descriptions and meanings the participants assign to the interactions in their families, with their peers, and in their symbolic environments. The narratives shared by the women in this study revealed a number of experiences which prompted them to engage in self-reflection, critique, and learning with respect to self-identity and intimate relationships. Hearing messages, observing others, and experiencing relationships for themselves provided these women with a foundation for knowing the importance of preserving self-worth and self-identity, establishing expectations, and communicating thoughts and feelings. Implications for practice include the importance of developing specialized relationship education culturally and socially relevant to Black collegiate women, training campus professionals on the unique needs and concerns of this population, and educating parents on communicating with daughters about intimate relationship development. Future research should devote specific attention to social context, paternal-daughter relationship communication, and parental relationship modeling.

This study examined the conditions and experience of students who were placed on academic probation in view of key elements of Dewey’s (1958, 1938/1997, 1934/2005) theory of experience. Core data emerged from 16 in-depth interviews with five students who received assistance from an academic support program while on probation. An additional interview was conducted with the academic companion and another with the program developer. A document analysis and a researcher journal supplemented the data. The interviews were analyzed according to a three-dimensional narrative inquiry space (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Dewey, 1958, 1938/1997) to produce profiles and thematic connections (Seidman, 2006). Findings are presented in five texts. The first and second manuscripts depict the stories of two students using the profile genre. These texts disclose rich stories where the meaning of experience is lived. A third manuscript examines students’ experience from the student and professional perspectives. Major themes uncovered, include (a) resistance to seek help; (b) deep personal costs; and (c) a desire to succeed and complete their undergraduate studies. A fourth manuscript explores companioning as experienced by students and supported by resource personnel. It reveals that (a) the companioning role was defined by a specific form of guidance and attendance to self-confidence and (b) the program helped students clarify their needs, promoted their adaptation to the university context, and offered support through a positive relationship. A fifth manuscript examined the characteristics of a fruitful helping relationship. Findings suggest that (a) a rapport characterized by presence and trust and (b) an approach promoting responsibility, awareness, and holism were key. These findings offer a weighty contribution to the literature on post-secondary education by revealing rich and unique experiences. By tapping in the complexity of the participants’ experience, findings help shift away from the current focus on obstacles and deficiencies often attributed to probationary students. Résumé Cette étude a examiné l’expérience d’étudiants ayant été placés en probation académique à la lumière d’éléments-clés de la théorie de l’expérience de Dewey (1958, 1938/1997, 1934/2005). La principale source de données provenait de 16 entrevues en profondeur auprès de cinq étudiants ayant participé à un programme d’accompagnement universitaire alors qu’ils étaient en probation académique. Une entrevue a aussi été menée avec l’accompagnatrice et une autre avec la conceptrice du programme. Une analyse documentaire et un journal de bord de la chercheure complètent les données. Les entrevues ont été analysées selon une analyse narrative tridimensionnelle (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Dewey, 1958, 1938/1997) de façon à produire des profils et des liens thématiques (Seidman, 2006). Les résultats sont présentés dans cinq textes. Les premier et deuxième textes dépeignent l’histoire de deux étudiants sous forme de profils. Ces textes découvrent de riches et profondes histoires véhiculant la probation comme expérience de vie et la signification attribuée à celle-ci. Le troisième texte présente l’examen collectif de l’expérience des cinq étudiants ayant participé au programme d’accompagnement. Cette analyse est enrichie des perspectives de l’accompagnatrice et de la conceptrice du programme. Trois thèmes se dégagent de l’expérience de ces étudiants en probation académique soit (a) une résistance à faire usage des services de soutien; (b) des coûts personnels considérables; et (c) un désir de réussir et de compléter leur programme d’études. Un quatrième texte explore l’expérience d’accompagnement tel que perçu par les étudiants et les professionnels. L’analyse révèle que (a) l’accompagnatrice agissait à titre de guide et était attentive à la dimension de la confiance en soi et (b) le programme a aidé les étudiants à identifier leurs besoins, a soutenu leur adaptation au contexte universitaire, et a offert un soutien personnalisé par l’entremise d’une relation d’aide positive. Le cinquième texte se concentre sur les particularités d’une relation d’aide efficace en contexte de probation académique. Les résultats relèvent que cette expérience est qualifiée par (a) un rapport de présence empathique et empreinte de confiance réciproque et (b) une approche globale favorisant la responsabilité et la conscientisation. En dévoilant la richesse et l’unicité de l’expérience, ces résultats offrent une contribution intéressante. Illustrant la complexité des expériences de probation ils contribuent à s’éloigner d’une vision centrée sur les obstacles et les déficits des étudiants en probation académique.