The development, content, societal and individual effects of selected myths toward the aged in American society were reviewed and analyzed. Emphasis was placed on factors associated with the development of the myths . The myths were compared with facts or reality relative to the major dimensions of the lives of the aged. The functions and dysfunctions of the myths for the aged as a group, for the individual, and for society were analyzed. Secondary sources of data were utilized in the preliminary identification of the selected myths. The sources were also used to justify the selection and analyze the development of myths within their socio-cultural milieus. Myths were utilized in the analysis of the attitudes toward the aged, and the effects.

Historically, substance abuse research has for the most part excluded African American women. The small body of existing substance abuse research regarding African American women does not examine gender and socio-cultural issues from African American women's perspectives. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to develop a deeper, contextual understanding of the experiences and perspectives of this marginalized population of women. The major goal of the study is to examine the perspectives of African American women about their substance abuse, treatment and recovery. The knowledge gained from this research with African American women regarding their experiences and specific needs in substance abuse treatment is vital to our understanding of this special population and the complex phenomena of substance abuse. In-depth qualitative interviews were used to capture the personal accounts of 25 African American women in substance abuse treatment and recovery. The sample of women in treatment was recruited from public outpatient and residential substance abuse programs in the Richmond, Virginia metropolitan area. Recovering women were recruited through community contacts using snowball sampling techniques. A semi-structured interview guide was used for data collection and interviews were audiotape recorded with the permission of the participants. The women in this study recalled specific events and experiences related to their substance abuse, treatment and recovery. Experiences with trauma were prevalent in the lives of many of the women in this study. The women identified a plethora of needs both met and unmet that are salient to their emotional and physical wellbeing. The women's perceptions of substance abuse treatment programs were influenced by a host of factors, however, the women overall expressed positive regard for substance abuse treatment. The women also evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of substance abuse treatment programs.Substance abuse disorders are complex and have far-reaching ramifications for individuals, families and communities. The paucity of funding and lack of equal access to substance abuse and other related services remains a challenge in an environment of conservatism, high health care costs and cutbacks in human services. Where substance abuse treatment is available, programs must improve services in a manner that matches the multiple and complex needs of women. If substance abuse treatment programs are to become more effective, a family-focused service model that promotes recovery of the family system must also be adopted. Moreover, the women's participation in their own care is salient to their healing, empowerment and recovery. Socio-cultural factors related to oppression play a significant role in the daily lives of African American women in both direct and indirect ways and thus warrant attention in substance abuse treatment.

Univerzita Karlova v Praze Filozofická fakulta katedra kulturologie DIPLOMOVÁ PRÁCE Jana Velichová Volný čas jako fenomén dnešní doby Praha 2012 Vedoucí práce: PhDr. Ondřej Hubáček, Ph.D. 2 Abstrakt Leisure time is topical problem of the modern society, as well as a multidimensional phenomenon. It is associated with a number of other current issues that affect various areas of the life of the society. The thesis focuses on their identification, their historical development, and their reflection from the point of view of social sciences. It attempts to interpret them as socio-cultural phenomena. These problems manifest themselves in quite divergent areas, such as gender differences, influence of technology and the media on the society, economic behaviour of people, self- presentation, social activities, impact of new technology, dissemination of socially pathological phenomena, escapist functions of the media, creation and reproduction of social networks and social groups. The thesis applies an axiological and non- axiological approach to the examined phenomena. The solution of the topic is complemented with findings relating to the specified problems, which have been obtained through an empirical survery.

Nzayabino, Vedaste. 0419340w. Research report submitted to Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Johannesburg 2005 / ‘Making things our own’. This is one of the ultimate goals pursued in establishing churches within refugee communities. The refugee church has become both a channel of material support and spiritual factory where social and emotional fabrics are strongly rewoven among people linked together by a common culture and shared experience. This is a qualitative case-study of the Word of Life Assembly (WOLA), one of the independent churches established by forced migrants in Yeoville, Johannesburg. Established by a Congolese pastor, the church counts a total of about 450 members, mostly refugees (about 98%), predominantly from the Democratic Republic of Congo (more than 95%). The study seeks to explore the role of the church in the lives of refugees, and determine the ways forced migrants understand this role. More importantly, it was found that WOLA has been able to integrate refugees who could not otherwise integrate in local or domestic churches in Johannesburg. Language and spiritual problems have been identified as the major barriers to integration. In this respect, the study has revealed four levels of integration within WOLA church; that is, integration of a refugee into a refugee community, religious integration, and cultural integration. The fourth level of integration consists of integration of the refugee church itself. In this regard, it was revealed that, as far as refugee church is concerned, not only church members are to integrate into host community and/or churches, but the [refugee] church itself – labelled thus as a ‘foreign’ entity – is to seek its own integration into and approval from the South African community in general, and host faith-based institutions in particular. Moreover, the study revealed that, in an attempt to meet the diverse needs of its members, WOLA offers a wide range of special services and activities, notably material and social assistance, and pastoral counseling. Finally, WOLA has become a strategic place where religious and socio-cultural identities are easily built and maintained among members, and where social networks are interwoven among refugees themselves, and between refugees and their country of origin.

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF A DEGREE OF MASTER IN EDUCATION Wits School of Education, Curriculum Studies University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa 2015 / This study presents an exploration of the pedagogic modalities displayed by SiSwati and English teachers during teaching and learning in two Swaziland government schools. The study further seeks to explore the links between the pedagogic choices teachers make in the classroom and the socio-cultural context of Swaziland. The idea of pedagogic modalities being classified as either learner-centred or teacher-centred is used as a starting point for the study but the dichotomy set up between these two modes is challenged. The study uses a phenomenological qualitative methodology. It uses semi-structured interviews and lesson observations of two teachers who teach both SiSwati and English in two different government high schools located in the Lubombo region of Swaziland. A major finding of the study was that both teachers’ understandings of learner-centred pedagogy only partially engaged with descriptions of learner-centred pedagogy as outlined in the literature reviewed for this research. This finding highlights the possibility that teachers are not empowered to confidently describe their own practice in teacher-centred terms. It was also found that the teachers’ perceptions of knowledge, their view of their own role and the learners’ role in the classroom influenced the pedagogic approaches selected by each teacher during teaching and learning. Additionally, some pedagogic moves could be linked to the socio-cultural context of Swaziland. The study also revealed that learner- and teacher-centred modalities are not mutually exclusive. It was found that despite being predominantly teacher-centred in their practice, teachers were able to draw on techniques classified in both modes. This means teachers displayed variety in their practice, exhibiting what Brodie, Lelliot and Davis (2002) describe as “hybrid practice” (p. 545), as they used a range of approaches that fit with local views about knowledge, learner participation and the teachers’ role in the classroom. Finally the study calls for further empirical research that documents teachers’ practices in order to generate a theory which would describe pedagogy from the perspective of teachers and their context. This would place sub-Saharan African teachers at the centre of the debate, rather than keeping them on the periphery, silenced as their practice is spoken over and interpreted by the dominant and hegemonic culture of those who would promote LCE in developing country contexts. Key words: pedagogy, pedagogic modality, learner-centred, teacher-centred, pedagogic choices, binary, socio-cultural context, Swaziland.

Minga, Katunga Joseph (0301525P) mingajose@yahoo.com MA translation 2005 School of Literature and language studies Dr Inggs, J jinggs@languages.wits.ac.za / The research presented here analyses translations of Ngugi wa Tshiong’o’s children’s books from the point of view of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), as outlined by Norman Fairclough (1989, 1992). The research investigates whether an approach taking into consideration ideological issues in translation is most appropriate in translating Ngugi’s children books for a francophone child reader by giving them access to Gĩkữyữ culture. To achieve this objective, the French translations of selected ideologically embedded extracts of Ngugi’s children books (Njamba Nene and the Flying Bus and Jamba Nene’s Pistol) are compared. The translations were carried out in different socio-cultural contexts by translators of different origins (France and Cameroon). The results of this research show that the translated texts read differently from one translator to another. This suggests that certain ideological and other social factors influence translators, resulting in differing translation products. In this way, translation cannot be considered as a one-to-one transfer between languages. Nor can translation theory draw on one linguistic theory alone, however complex it may be. What is needed is “a theory of culture to explain the specificity of communicative situations and the relationship between verbalised and non-verbalised situational elements” (Nord, 1997:11).

The new Graduate Entry Medical Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand widens access to study and aims to change the learning process. Content is integrated horizontally and vertically and the learning is organized around facilitated, problembased learning (PBL) tutorials. This study investigated the approaches students have adopted to learning in the curriculum. Questionnaire data, PBL tutorial observation and focus group discussions revealed that uptake and adaptation were not the same for different groups of students. Those who were most mature in age showed the greatest tendency towards self-directed learning behaviour, while many students were unable to make appropriate use of the available time and resources. Although most students believed that they were able to integrate disciplinary information, they valued the psychosocial content areas less than the biomedical sciences. The attitudes, skill and identity of the facilitators were important for engaging students in the PBL process. These findings suggest that the social context of the learning may impact on the ability to access knowledge and develop a professional identity.

Research Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the socio-cultural barriers that self-employed immigrant entrepreneur’s face and the overcoming factors that help them to survive. Research Questions: 1. What are the socio-cultural barriers that immigrant entrepreneurs face in the context of self- employment? 2. What are the factors that help immigrant entrepreneurs to overcome the socio-cultural barriers? Methodology: This study is followed by qualitative research and explorative approach. The data collection was done by semi-structured interviews. Ten immigrant entrepreneurs are the convenience sample of our study. Findings: Language, legislation and lack of trust are the most unfavorable socio-cultural barriers that self-employed immigrant entrepreneurs face in the host country. Result shows that knowing the right information is important for immigrant entrepreneurs. For technology, immigrant entrepreneurs are now learning more about it by themselves. Besides, technology helps them to learn the language faster as it is more convenient than in school. Their previous experience and transnational identity are their biggest strength that helped them to break the socio-cultural wall. Immigrant entrepreneurs are often influenced by the native people in a positive way and that influences drive them to learn new things to overcome those barriers. The co-ethnic networks do not always play a positive role rather this study found that these networks actually play a dual role. Research Limitations: All of our sample are collected from Sweden, but for language and laws, the result might vary from person to person from different corners of the wall. This study was concerned with the self-employed entrepreneurs; not with the large level of enterprises.

Thesis advisor: Diana Pullin / Using qualitative research methods, this study looked at the role of the single-sex versus the coeducational school environment as a key factor in determining boys' perceptions of success in French communicative activities as defined in Standard 1.1 of ACTFL 's et al Standards for Foreign Lanquage Learning : Preparing for the 21st Century (1999). A total of twenty-four boys (twelve from a single-sex high school and twelve from a coeducational institution) were observed in class and subsequently interviewed. The goal was to determine if cognitive gender differences surounding foreign language communicative activities, socio-cultural concerns as respects boys' perceptions of the appropriateness of high achievement in French, and teacher pedagogy all lend themselves to the single-sex environment such that it provides a more fertile setting for boys' high achievement. The findings indicated that the single-sex sample's self-perceptions of competence were healthier in the single-sex environment for a variety of reasons. The single-sex school boys were more willing to work hard against the perception held by both sample sets that girls may possess an innate advantage in the speaking skill, they held a wider definition of what is appropriate male behavior (which included high achievement in French), and they (together with their coed counterparts) found the all boys environment more accepting of errors and more risk-friendly in general - crucial ingredients for developing the French speaking skill. The single-sex sample more willingly embraced school as a rigorous academic forum, whereas the coed sample was more likely to see school as appropriate for building social skills and for cultivating an understanding of the opposite sex. These findings suggest that the single-sex classroom environment is superior for boys as they strive to achieve in female sex-typed arenas such as French communicative activities. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration.

This thesis investigates how Greek and English 11-year-old students respond to wordless picturebooks. Through the identification of themes in their responses, the study explores the children's engagement while interpreting these books, and also demonstrates how wordless picturebooks can be addressed to and enjoyed by fluent readers. The central tenets of the thesis are described through a socio-cultural perspective of reader response theories. The approach taken places emphasis on the reader's active engagement, for each reader uses visual decoding skills and culturally-oriented knowledge in an effort to resolve the ambiguities of the pictures in a wordless story. The socio-cultural dimension is highlighted throughout this study since the entire process of reading is considered a socio-cultural event. Case studies were conducted, comprising of two groups of four 11-year-old students in England and two groups of the same size in Greece. The data collected includes the children's videoed group discussions, their drawings and their individual short semi-structured interviews. The sessions were verbatim transcribed and analysed drawing on existing frameworks for the analysis of children's discussions on picturebooks, but also incorporating new categories emerged from the data. Based on empirical evidence, this study refines and extends pre-existing research on reader response theories and wordless picturebooks. The main findings indicate that the children's engagement with wordless picturebooks is a dynamic process shaped by four factors: visual decoding, expectations, emotions, and context. The importance of expectations is particularly highlighted, as the children's narrative and cultural expectations were either reinforced or challenged by their reading of the wordless books. This study has implications for teachers, researchers and publishers. It widens the range of readership of wordless picturebooks and increases the purposes of their use, as it reveals their special nature and complexity. Last, this thesis encourages teachers to support students' technical vocabulary on images, and invites schools to integrate wordless picturebooks into their curriculum for older children.