A considerable number young of students are suffering from sociopsychological complaints. The psychological complaints emerge from differnt sources. Important factors for psychological well being are experiences of a satisfactory social network, efficient coping strategies and a supportive school climate. The aim of this study was to examine how young girls in the age of 16-18 years old experience and cope with demands from school. To fulfill the aim of this study we have five questions: What do the girls apprehend as a satisfactory/unsatisfactory working environment? How do the girls define stress? How do the girls cope with stress? What importance has leisure time? What importance has the social network?   The method we used for this study was qualitative and the material was collected through four focus groups. Fourteen girls were interviewed from four different school classes with different profiles. The theoretical framework used to analyze the findings consisted of the demand-control-model created by Karasek & Theorell, Antonovsky’s KASAM theory and Selyes GAS-theory.   Stress expressed by the girls in this study is described as an unbalance between workload and available time. The analysis shows that most of the girls in the study experience school as a demanding setting that create strain. Furthermore, the results indicate that experienced demands not only originate from school but also from the girls themselves and by comparison with classmates. A satisfactory school environment is described as possibilities to influence the school work and the structrue of courses. Also a good relationship with teachers as well as classmates where pointed out as important factors. Strategies the girls use to cope with stress and demands are structuration, priority and planning. Some of the girls also think that a positive attitude towards life, regular eating and sleeping are important factors in coping with stress. All the girls describs leisure time as significant.  Most girls practice sport activites but activities as playing instrument, watching movies and spending time with peers is also mentioned. All of the girls find their leisure time as of importance for them to relax and revive from the strain caused by school. However, some girls find it hard to fully relax during leisure activites and also think that time for leisure is too limited. The social network is aslo seen as an important instrument in coping with strain. Most of the girls in this study do talk to family or friends in times of hardship.

The purpose of this study was to explore th relationship between urban indigenous students¡¦ creativity and their growing environments. One hundred and two junior high school students, 52 senior high school students, and 126 vocational high school students were selected by convenience sampling. The participants complete the ¡§Creativity Environment Scale¡¨ and ¡§Torrance Creativity Thinking Test¡¨. Descriptive statistics, t tests, and analysis of variance were conducted on the quantitative data. In addition, 4 targeted students with the high creativity scores were tested for performance assessment and were interviewed after the survey. The main findings in this study were as follows: 1. Urban indigenous students in junior and senior high school has significantly higher scores in creativity than urban indigenous students in vocational high school. 2. Urban indigenous girl students has significantly higher scores in creativity than urban indigenous boy students. 3. Urban indigenous students of junior high school reported that their ¡§family provided creativity opportunities¡¨ score was significantly higher than senior and vocational high school indigenous students. 4. Urban indigenous girl students¡¦ scores of ¡§emotion support in family¡¨, ¡§emotion exchange in school¡¨ and ¡§encourages exchange in school¡¨ were significantly higher than boys¡¦. 5. The urban indigenous students whose parents has high education level scored higher in the category of ¡¥¡¦family provided opportunity¡¦¡¦ than students whose parents were less educated. 6. Urban indigenous students whose teacher were non-indigenous has higher scores in ¡§school provided opportunity¡¨ than urban indigenous students with indigenous teachers. 7. Urban indigenous students has significantly higher scores in ¡§fluency¡¨,¡§originality¡¨, and ¡§elaboration¡¨ than non-indigenous students, while non-indigenous students has significantly higher scores in ¡§verbal¡¨ than urban indigenous students. 8. After interviewing and performance assessment, it was found that there was significant relationship between their early childhood upbringing environment and creativity. 9. The urban indigenous students from better family and school environment has significantly higher scores in creativity than those from less fortunate environment. . The findings and suggestions from this research may be used for future researches on urban indigenous students.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-120). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-148). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-148). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1967. / Title from title page screen, viewed Aug. 10, 2004. Dissertation Committee: Elwood Egelston (chair), Eric Baber, Elmer Lemke. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-86). Also available in print.

This is a case study to explore the effect of a principal’s leadership on teachers‟ shared sense of mission, through the mediating factor of culture. Culture is defined as a metaphor of the school, i.e. the school „is‟ culture. The analysis of culture is conducted through dissecting the core values as expressed in its practice: symbols, rituals and heroes. The study analyzed the principal’s values to picture his mission, since mission is a symbolic expression of values. Teachers‟ operational goals might vary in form, but were found to be highly consistent with the principal’s mission. Hence, they had a shared sense of mission. The study concludes that this was due to a high level of consistency between the principal’s personal values and the core values of the school. Thanks to the principal’s leadership, his personal values were firmly established in the power contest with other forces at the core of the culture, through his influence on the daily practice of culture: symbols, rituals and heroes. The study offers a discussion on the outcome of principal’s influence other than student assessment – teachers‟ shared sense of mission. This hopefully will encourage more efforts by other researchers in the future to investigate principal’s effects in addition to student outcomes. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Culture integrates more than ideology and tradition. These cultural elements are supplementary factors that unite under certain conditions to assist in the development and understanding of what is right, wrong and/or expected within a group. Ideology specifically has been found to influence and construct societal norms, and play a vital role in the conscious and subconscious interactions of individuals. These ideologies (superficial and non-superficial) have implications for the interpersonal interactions between individuals within and between the same cultural groups, as well as implications for organizational and professional development within academic and professional settings. This study will examine culture and ideology through an investigation of environment and its relationship to ethnic identity development. In addition, the study will investigate the possible relationship between ethnic identity and perceptions of credibility. Findings suggest that culturally related materials in an academic setting are not related to strength of ethnic identification with regard to ethnic identity- behavior; yet ethnic identity- achievement may be slightly related to school environment. Further, ethnic identity and school environment are not influential in the perception on credibility of people of divergent skin-tones. The research explores practical and theoretical implications, discusses the limitations of evaluating skin-tone of African Americans, and suggests proposals for future research. / text

This thesis is a series of meditations, stories and poetry focusing on living in classrooms with children, and on the meaning and place of education and schools in our lives. This writing is the emergent result of a commitment to the seeking of a generous language to understand and describe the work of teachers in schools, to the hope for human(e) and compassionate spaces for children to spend their days, to living with openness and creativity, to the having of challenging and wonderful conversations about life with children, and to the freedom to raise questions about the ways children and teachers (might) live together in schools. This writing is a story emerging at the point of intersection between what we might learn from children if we listen to them and remember them, and reflections on readings in ethics, education and literature.

Objective: This study compared the prevalence of use of six alternative tobacco products [ATPs] among Canadian students in grades 9 and 10, identified between-school variability in the current use of each ATP, and identified the school- and student-level characteristics associated with the use of each ATP. Methods: This cross-sectional study used nationally representative student data collected from 14,916 students in grades 9 and 10 from 134 secondary schools as part of the 2010-11 Youth Smoking Survey and data from the 2010-11 Enhanced Points of Interest data file. Multilevel regression analyses examined the association between school- and student-level characteristics and the use of each ATP. Results: Among Canadian students in grades 9 and 10, 15.4% reported currently using a tobacco product. Cigarillos or little cigars were the most prevalent product (6.3%) and bidis were the least prevalence product (0.6%). School-level differences accounted for between 14.1% and 31.2% of the variability in use. Grades 9 and 10 students who attended schools with a high rate of senior students that smoked manufactured cigarettes were significantly more likely to currently use cigarillos or little cigars (AOR 1.79, 95%CI 1.21 to 2.65) and roll-your-own cigarettes (AOR 1.88, 95%CI 1.15 to 3.07). Grades 9 and 10 students who reported having ever used flavoured tobacco products were significantly more likely to currently use cigarillos or little cigars, cigars, roll-your-own cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and a hookah (AOR range 1.87 to 18.40). Finally, grades 9 and 10 students who reported currently using alcohol (AOR range 1.99 to 3.06) or marijuana (AOR range 2.09 to 3.47) were significantly more likely to currently use cigarillos or little cigars, cigars, and a hookah. Conclusions: Many students reported currently using one or more ATPs, and these data illustrate that there is a population of students who are not represented in current smoking prevalence estimates. The school environment continues to play an important role in tobacco control as the rate of tobacco use among senior students affects the use of ATPs by younger students. Future tobacco control strategies need to be inclusive of all tobacco products.