published_or_final_version / China Development Studies / Master / Master of Arts in China Development Studies

This study investigated the individual power of teachers as subordinates in elementary schools. It focused on the informal social structure in "good" elementary schools and the roles played by principals, teachers who held formal governance positions, itinerant teachers, and participants in the district's career ladder pilot program. Roles sampled were (1) providers of moral support, (2) sources of teaching expertise, (3) dispensers of procedural information, and (4) those able to "get things done" in the school. Peer and principal dependency data were also collected. Teachers and principals in five elementary schools in a single school district were sampled twice in a two year period. Findings were: (1) Although "good" principals received high total scores for providing resources to the faculty, there were instances when individual teachers scored as high or higher than the principal. (2) Faculty and principals depended on providers of moral support more than they depended on any of the traditionally power-producing roles. (3) Teachers depended on peers mostly for moral support, less for teaching expertise and "getting things done," and least for information. Teachers depended on the principal for moral support and information, less for "getting things done," and least for teaching expertise. (4) Full-time classroom teachers and specialists were most active in the social structure. Part-time teachers, itinerant teachers, and special services personnel, such as psychologists, speech/language pathologists, etc., were not key participants. Some full-time teachers, such as fine arts, physical education, and self-contained special education teachers were less active. (5) Teachers holding formal governance positions in the school established or gained influence while holding the formal positions, and they apparently did not lose influence the year after leaving the positions. Formal positions were held by full-time classroom teachers and only occasionally by a specialist. (6) Career ladder candidates or participants established or gained influence in the school's social structure during the career ladder process. Itinerant teachers and individuals who teach specialized curricula were more active in the career ladder program than they were in the school governance network.

Social support has been implicated in health outcome through the functions of neuroendocrine responses. One function of body neuroendocrine responses is sleep behavior. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis of a positive relationship between social support and adaptation to sleep in Taiwanese hospitalized adults. Subjects for this descriptive study included 94 Taiwanese hospitalized adults from two hospitals. Of the 94 patients, 30 had social support with the presence of a relative or friend. Subjects were required to have spent two consecutive hospitalized or post-operative nights in order to be included in the study. Data analysis showed an insignificant difference between supported and unsupported groups in terms of disturbance and effectiveness of sleep. It is recommended that more appropriate measurement of social support be used to test the conceptual framework in the future.

An ethnographic study was utilized to identify coping strategies of women with breast cancer. Five women were interviewed; four were interviewed on three separate occasions, and one was interviewed twice. The data were analyzed for specific coping strategies taken by the women to deal with the stresses of breast cancer. These strategies were compared and organized into categories of coping strategies: Actions Taken, Emotional Support, Positive Outcomes, Getting Control, and Keeping a Positive Attitude. These five categories were integrated as new coping incidents appeared in the data. The original five categories were merged into three categories: Getting Control, Compensating, and Emotional Support. From these three categories the theory was written: Women with breast cancer will obtain support, get control over what they can control, and compensate for what they cannot control.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

This minithesis provides an ethnographic account of the life world of older people in the community of Belhar in the Cape Peninsula, which was historically categorised as a &lsquo / coloured&rsquo / community during the implementation of the Group Areas Act. By content analysing newspaper articles published in the early 1980s and specifically during the implementation of the Group Areas Act I found that many of the residents reported that they lived in fear of their lives, in what was once known as a &lsquo / prestige suburb&rsquo / . At the present time the community of Belhar is an intensely gang-infested area. From preliminary research done by myself at a senior citizen centre in Belhar, the high incidence of violence was a recurring theme throughout discussions with older people. In fact when I posed the question Why do you come to the centre five days a week? to a group of older people they answered without hesitation It is unsafe for an older person to be alone during the day. Answers like these to many of the questions that I posed would almost always be followed with Things were better then. It also was apparent that the older people in this community remember (or perhaps reconstruct) the past in the context of their present living situation. This became the leading theme in my study and is also the background against which I had formulated my research questions. However this study not only focused on the impact of the high incidence of violence on the community of older people but also essentially looked at elderly residents&rsquo / everyday lived experiences in Belhar. The research sample consisted of twenty elderly residents and four key informants. The latter provided mainly infrastructural data on the community. Primary data was collected by using ethnographic techniques of inquiry which included participant observation and unstructured interviews. Results revealed that older people occupy a liminal space both in the community and in their households. I also found that the elderly stroke victim is twice silenced and marginalized due to the constraints brought on by their chronic illness and their status as an older person in the community.

No description available.

No description available.

The problem with which this study is concerned is the description of the past and present trends in the process of urbanization in Nigeria. In addition, the study explores tribal practices and perspectives in Nigeria's urban areas, giving special attention to the bases for the continuous existence of these phenomena. The data used in the study are obtained from books, government documents of both the United States and Nigeria and the. United Nations demographic analysis documents. The study is divided into five chapters. Based on findings and research of this study, the conclusion is drawn that adaptation to Nigeria's urban life proceeds through modification of the traditional institutions and their combination with Western cultural values, technology and economic practices into a new social structure.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1986 S78 / Master of Science / Psychological Sciences