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The roles of the person who works in a school library, as well as their title - librarian, teacher-librarian, library teacher, library media specialist, school librarian, library media teacher - have undergone countless revisions since the first official school libraries opened their doors in the early 1900s. Although school library media specialists (LMSs) have struggled to negotiate their identities in public K12 education for decades, this "identity crisis" seems to have reached a critical point due to changes in U.S. learning environments brought about by federal legislation, the implementation of standards-based teaching, the emphasis on standardized criterion referenced testing, and the proliferation and ubiquitous use of computers and the Internet as information sources. Although teacher identity has been thoroughly studied, the ways in which LMSs describe themselves in their professional role and how their identities change from pre-service to in-service are rarely investigated. Using Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, and Cain’s (1998) theory of identity and their concept of figured worlds as a framework, this study explores how four novice LMSs negotiated the identities made available to them in the figured worlds of their public K12 school environments. The following questions guided the study: 1. How do novice library media specialists describe their professional identities? a. How does personal history inform the construction of professional identity of novice library media specialists? b. How do novice library media specialists negotiate identity within the figured worlds of public K12 schools? The four participants were first year LMSs recruited from a large urban school district in the southeastern United States. Data collection took place over the course of the 2011-2012 school year and included in-depth interviews, document analysis, journal responses, and observations. Findings indicate that the figured worlds in which novice library media practitioners begin their careers are often shaped by the experiences that faculty, administrators, and students have had with previous LMSs and bear significant influence on the identities afforded new LMSs as well as their own experiences with LMSs prior to their preparation programs.

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This study brings together many of the concerns elaborated by other educational researchers: teachers’ voice, teachers’ professional identities, teachers’ lives and work, and teaching professionalism in research in dance education. It aims to study the life stories of school teachers who were initially trained to be dance performers. Using a biographical approach, the life stories of nine Taiwanese secondary school teachers are collected to investigate the influences of their previous experiences, such as dance learning experience, initial teacher training experience, teacher role models, significant people and critical moments, in relation to their notions of professional identity. As this research is based on teachers’ accounts, it brings together nine individual life stories and allows us to compare the existing literature to contribute to educational research and research in dance education in a number of ways. First, the study takes a particular methodological approach, the narrative approach, to conduct a small scale study in a new area, research in dance education. Second, this study carries out empirical work, exploring the professional identity of dance specialist teachers, something not done before. Third, this study applies the existing knowledge from educational research to research in dance in education. Fourth, this study applies an already well-known theory, Wenger’s theories of identity in communities of practice and boundary encounters, but with a new interpretation to investigate the process of identity conceptualization. Fifth, this study tests an old issue – teachers’ professional identity – by exploring teachers’ notions of self that draw upon their previous experiences. Previous relevant studies, however, have been in a Western context; this study is within a Taiwanese context. The complexity of dance in education in the Taiwanese curriculum is highlighted, and the findings offer a picture of a developing sense of dance-trained teachers’ artist-self and teacher-self, and details of the different degrees of influences of previous experiences to the identity conceptualization. Importantly, the connections between the conceptions of the professional identity teachers have and their concepts of the teaching profession are explored. In particular, their voices on professional development are shown throughout the changes to their personal concepts of teacher professionalism, which leads to an argument for professional sharing as a key to supporting teachers in the profession.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Nursing Johannesburg, 2017 / The purpose of this study was to describe the role of specialist nurses in mechanical ventilation management. The intention of the study was also to make recommendations for clinical practice and education of intensive care nurses. The setting of the study was ten (n = 10) adult intensive care units of two public hospitals in the Gauteng province. Included were trauma ICUs, cardiothoracic ICU, coronary care ICUs, major burns ICU, major injuries ICU, neurosurgery ICU and multidisciplinary ICUs. A non-experimental, descriptive, quantitative and cross-sectional survey design was used to describe the specialist nurses role in ventilation management. The final sample comprised 110 (out of 165) respondents, which yielded a response rate of 66.6% for the study. Data were collected from specialist intensive care nurses using a validated questionnaire developed by Rose et al. (2011). Data was analysed using descriptive (frequencies, means and standard deviation) and comparative statistical tests using t-tests and Chi-square analysis. Testing was done at the 0.05 level of significance. Of the 165 surveys distributed, 110 were returned (response rate 66.6%). Ninety-seven percent stated that a 1:1 ratio was used for patients receiving mechanical ventilation. Eighty-nine percent reported ventilation education for nurses was provided during ICU orientation, and 86.4% indicated ICUs provided opportunities for on-going ventilation education. Eighty-six percent of nurses reported that they had not worked in ICUs with automated weaning modes. Fifty-nine percent stated that weaning protocols were present in ICUs, and 56.4% reported the presence of protocols for weaning failure. Most nurses agreed that nurses and doctors collaborated in key ventilation decisions, but not when decisions to extubate and initial ventilation settings are made. This study showed a marginal (2%) number of nursing autonomous input made in key ventilator decisions. Seventy percent of nurses in this study agreed that responsibility for ventilation decisions lies at the level of senior registrars and above, and in their absence, only senior nurses (>80%) were perceived to be responsible for key ventilator decisions. Regarding independent titrations of ventilator settings, without medical consultation, findings showed that nurses in this study reported a frequency of >50% of the time for titration of respiratory rate, tidal volume, decreasing pressure support, increasing pressure support, titration of inspiratory pressure and ventilation mode changes. The self-perceived nursing autonomy and influence in decision making revealed a median score of 7 out of 10 points, respectively. Nurses with higher levels of autonomy, influence in decision making and years of experience scores, frequently (>50% of the time) made independent changes to ventilation settings (p<0.05). Conversely, nurses with fewer years of experience scores, infrequently (<50% of the time) made independent changes to ventilation settings without first checking with the doctor. The study concludes that nurses to re-evaluate their role in ventilation management and focus on key ventilation settings, nurses could strengthen their contribution in the collaboration of key ventilator settings. Recommendations are made for clinical practice and education of specialist nurses. / MT2018

The aim of this thesis is to study the possibility of the existence of a specialist in bone tools manufacturing during the Mesolithic. The thesis describes the climate during the Mesolithic, argues for an experimental approach, and describes social organization in hunter-gatherer-groups and the processes behind cultural transmission. It also gives some examples of excavation sites in Scandinavia. An experiment simulating a teaching situation is made, in addition to the theoretical information, with the intent to explore how advanced the crafting of bone really is. The physical result is then studied and documented. The outcome is then interpreted and discussed in connection with the theoretical knowledge and observations during the experiment. The end result points to the non-existence of specialists in bone crafting during the Mesolithic. Some reflection on the discussed subjects concludes the thesis.

This study treated one of the top three securities firms, S, in Taiwan as the subject, and conducted cross-sectional analysis on all dealers¡¦ personal information and performance. By exploring the dealers¡¦ personality traits, this study probed into the effect on the dealers¡¦ job performance, and attempted to find the key success factors of their job performance from the traits of the dealers¡¦ physical dimension, experience or numerological characters. Finally, this study attempted to recognize the dealers¡¦ key success factors. The findings can serve as references for securities firms¡¦ employment and management of the dealers, in order to contribute to the personnel affair management in security industry. Unlike past studies that use questionnaire survey as the research method, this study massively analyzed the internal data of the company. The research was conducted in 2010, and collected 1175 samples of the dealers in the securities firm S. The variables of the dealers¡¦ job performance are the dealers¡¦ yearly market share of spot share, purchase amount of spot share, and net fee income. Regarding the dealers¡¦ personality traits, there are three dimensions (physical dimension, experience and numerological characters), including five variables. Empirical analysis is conducted by basic descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. The main findings are summarized as follows: 1) There is a significant relationship between the dealers¡¦ job performance and ages, and it reveals a significant difference. Female dealers¡¦ job performance is significantly superior to male dealers, indicating that physical dimension will influence job performance. 2) There is a positive relationship between the dealer¡¦ working years and job performance, indicating that experience will influence job performance. 3) There is a significant relationship between the dealers¡¦ job performance and star signs, and it reveals a significant difference. Sagittarius is advantageous for the dealers¡¦ business, indicating that numerological characters will influence job performance. This study concludes that the interaction between the dealers¡¦ gender and working years (star signs) significantly influences the job performance. Keywords: Securities dealer; personality traits; job performance; analysis of variance

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ABSTRACT Research suggests that highly qualified teachers are an important factor in improving the reading performance of children. This study began with a question about how teachers with a reading specialization used their expertise to advance the quality of instruction in non-metropolitan schools and school jurisdictions. Very little research on the roles of reading specialists in Canadian learning environments is available. This qualitative study sought to give a voice to the experiences of three teachers who first became reading specialists because they wanted to be better at helping struggling readers. They then became teacher leaders, guiding other teachers in their schools and districts to provide quality reading instruction for students. Through multiple, extensive interviews with the three participants, I learned the stories of how they became engaged in advanced study of reading, what they were able to contribute to reading instruction and literacy education in their schools and regions, and what sorts of collegial experiences the reading teacher leadership had afforded them. When analyzed, the data revealed teachers who, throughout their careers, consistently sought ways to make literacy learning more relevant and more successful, who were eager to share their knowledge with other teachers, who were passionate about the work they did, and who were ultimately disappointed. The disappointment was precipitated by the realization that no matter what productive work the reading specialists were engaged in, district administrators placed limited value on teacher expertise. As a result, the non-urban school districts that traditionally had few teachers with specializations in any subject area, were prematurely stripped of their valuable teacher resources when, in reaction to their treatment, the study participants retired or left the district. In order to promote lasting, quality academic improvement among students, school district administrators need to formally recognize, through policy, that the best performance from students comes from classrooms with the best educated teachers, and thus encourage more teachers to pursue studies beyond a basic teacher education.

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