The purpose of this work was to see what thoughts, ideals, interpretations and feelings that students express when analyzing images from textbooks. I focused my work around four questions, what kind of pictures does the students encounter in their textbooks? Within what context are these images presented? How are the images interpreted by the students? And What positives and or negatives with the use of pictures in textbooks become apparent? To answer these questions, I needed pictures to work with, these were supplied by a teacher from a high school. The pictures were taken from a textbook that the teacher uses when teaching the students. This is because I wanted the students to analyze images that they encounter in their education and not “random images”. The students in question were all asked during a religious education class to complete a series of image analyses. The results of this was then presented and discussed with the use of literature about different problems with textbooks and the use of images. The results showed that the interpretation of images are both predictable and unpredictable in a way. The results show the use of strong common symbols is a way to convey information through images. But what was also apparent is that interpretation of images can be highly personal and is greatly influenced by the interpreters own opinions and prior knowledge. The literature suggests that images last longer in memory than text, which leaves me to believe that it is very important that the right images are chosen to represent the information that is being presented in textbooks. The positives with images is that they provide a relief in contrast to the text and also help to illustrate what the text is conveying. Problems that became apparent are that images can be interpreted in a lot of different ways and it is probably impossible to choose images that can not be interpreted in a negative way.

The present study explored a minority oppositional religious culture, which continued practicing despite overt hostilities to their practices. The qualitative research project utilized interviews and observations of the Gardnerian Wiccans in Broward County, Florida. The narrative data were transcribed, coded, and categorized into three themes related to the following research questions: Why would individuals create a secretive religion? Given they had to practice in secret, what about this religion had people seeking out information and joining Covens? What would keep this group together despite opposition from dominant culture? As a microcosm for religious conflict in society, the study showed differences in the culture’s religious paradigm structure as a major factor for religious conflict.

In this descriptive phenomenological inquiry, I explored the experiences and meanings of five adult research participants who were raised in and later departed from evangelical fundamentalism in some measure. Life Review, a structured guided autobiographical group-based adult learning model designed to assist people in organizing life events, was utilized to explore the research participants' experiences and meanings of being raised in a religious fundamentalist orientation. As a result of participating in Life Review, the research participants generated thirty descriptive written narratives that served as the primary source of data for this inquiry. For the purpose of this inquiry, the research participants attended eight Life Review sessions. Sessions one and eight focused on group formation and closure, respectively. Sessions two through seven focused on assigned topics. In this regard, the research participants prepared six two-page single spaced narratives via a word processor describing their experiences and meanings specific to: 1) choosing to participate in this study, 2) major branching points in life, 3) family of origin, 4) parenting practices, 5) the effects of being raised in evangelical fundamentalism, and 6) the meaning of life. During Life Review sessions two through seven, the research participants read their respective narratives aloud to the other participants. A time limited reflective group discussion followed the reading of each narrative. A phenomenological data analysis model was applied to the research participant's narratives. The analysis of the data culminated in the emergence of themes that revealed the essence of the lived experience and meanings of being raised in and later departing from evangelical fundamentalism. The themes included the experience and meaning of: 1) unresolved pain, 2) unfulfilled longing, 3) coping strategies, 4) identity formation, 5) God and church, 6) being a Parent, 7) crippling fear, 8) engaging culture, 9) departing, and 10) finding home. These emergent themes described the essence of the research participants' life worlds specific to having been raised in and later departing from evangelical fundamentalism. The significance of the emergent findings and their relevance to evangelical fundamentalism, the psychology of religion, counseling psychology, and continued research were addressed, as were the limitations of the study. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

<p> Trust is a topic that has been written about hundreds of times, still it is hard to define. In the literature, trust and relationships are grouped together as going hand-in-hand. In Christian education circles, trust is something that is implied to be present. This research explored the presence of trust in a suburban Christian school in the Midwest. The research explored trust from the perception of three different stakeholder groups (staff, parents, and board) from the study school. The researcher used data sets that included: The Visible Elements of Trust Inventory (VETI)- online survey, focus groups- by stakeholder type, and secondary data from the study schools annual surveys. In this case study, the study school&rsquo;s stakeholders&rsquo; perceived trust was demonstrated and hindered through communication and relationships. </p><p>

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