Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2006. / Document formatted into pages; contains v, 53 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 1992. / A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), University of Hong Kong, April 30, 1992. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2001. / Title from title page screen, viewed April 25, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Cynthia W. Langrall (Chair), Graham A. Jones, Tami S. Martin, Patricia H. Klass. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-146) and abstract. Also available in print.

abstract: An understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS) remains a fundamental goal of science education in the Unites States. A developed understanding of NOS provides a framework in which to situate science knowledge. Secondary science teachers play a critical role in providing students with an introduction to understanding NOS. Unfortunately, due to the high turnover rates of secondary science teachers in the United States, this critical role is often filled by relatively novice teachers. These beginning secondary science teachers make instructional decisions regarding science that are drawn from their emerging knowledge base, including a tentative understanding of NOS. This tentative knowledge can be affected by environment and culture of the classroom, school, and district in which beginning teachers find themselves. When examining NOS among preservice and beginning teachers the background and demographics of the teachers are often ignored. These teachers are treated as a homogenous block in terms of their initial understanding of NOS. This oversight potentially ignores interactions that may happen over time as teachers cross the border from college students, preservice teachers, and scientists into the classroom environment. Through Symbolic Interactionism we can explain how teachers change in order to adapt to their new surroundings and how this adaptation may be detrimental to their understanding of NOS and ultimately to their practice. 63 teachers drawn from a larger National Science Foundation (NSF) funded study were interviewed about their understanding of NOS over three years. Several demographic factors including college major, preservice program, number of History and Philosophy of Science classes, and highest academic degree achieve were shown to have an affect on the understanding of NOS over time. In addition, over time, the teachers tended to 'converge' in their understanding of NOS regardless of preservice experiences or induction support. Both the affect of different demographics amongst teachers and the 'converging' aspect of their understanding of NOS provide much needed insight for teacher trainers, mentors, and researchers. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2011

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF Gabor Hardy, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Speech Communication, presented on 8 March, 2012, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale TITLE: A RITUAL IN PERSPECTIVE: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF A LAKOTA SUNDANCE AT HOOSIER NATIONAL FOREST MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Jonathan Gray Using ethnographic methods, interviews, observations, and participation of and in indigenous rituals, I discuss the ways in which Western and American Indian notions of spirit, human beings and their place in the world, and the practice of spirituality differ in action, thought, and word. Since the time of the Renaissance the supremacy of "rational" or "reasonable" modes of thinking has influenced the modern world. Many American Indian writers, shamans, and Sundance chiefs believe that an understanding of their approach to the Divine may never be apprehended without some sort of actual experience. This indigenous perspective differs in substantial ways from hegemonic, Christian and Western linear modes of thinking. I draw on my attendance at numerous Sundance rituals, readings by American Indian spiritual leaders, and ethnographic work done at the Salt Creek Sundance ritual to articulate and streamline major differences and similarities that exist in both approaches. Through participation and dialogue, a distinct indigenous spiritual approach emerges that is difficult to reconcile with traditional Christian and Eurocentric world views. As I hope to demonstrate, the appearance and performance of American Indian ritual serve to not only challenge Western colonial perspectives, but also to empower indigenous approaches to spirit. In order to cultivate a more tolerant approach to the diversity and various modes of spiritual expression, a change in consciousness is needed, not necessarily for the American Indian worldview, but from the current ethnocentric worldview of the US Government which holds this form of government as the highest accomplishment of any nation thus far. This dissertation offers an approach that probes the relationship between an earth based religion and a monotheistic religion. Finally, I present a vision that allows for an understanding and/or appreciation of a spiritual approach which remains alien to Western approaches and conceptualizations of spirit. Key words: rational mind, symbolic meaning, ritual, myths, sacred, ideology, truth, indigenous worlds, cosmology, spirituality, reason, ethnography, Sundance, performance, and Native American.

In this dissertation, I describe patterns of interaction that were identified from in-depth narrative interviews with LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) people in two contrasting research sites. Thirty-five participants live in a small town in the Midwest known for its religious and political conservatism, and thirty-one live in a mid-sized city on the east coast that is known for being “liberal.” The dissertation focuses on these patterns of interaction at three key social sites. First, in interactions with straight family and friends, I show that sexuality—like race, class, or gender—influences the emotion work one is expected to perform. LGBTQs’ deliberations about belonging lead them to suppress or evoke emotions as they work to overcome relational boundaries. Second, in interactions with the general public, I find that LGBTQs in the small town describe a moral framework of “respect” that compels them to refrain from acts of visibility; while LGBTQs in the urban site feel they have a “responsibility” to enact a visible gay presence. Beliefs, in this case, influence LGBTQs’ decisions to engage in acts of “everyday queer visibility.” Finally, I find that rural LGBTQs engage in a process of intragroup boundary-work as they distance themselves from other LGBTQ people and from a larger gay community. Contrary to other scholarship and hypotheses about how marginalized people construct identity and community, LGBTQ people in this site reject collective identity, while simultaneously solidifying boundaries between “straight” and “gay.” While a good deal of other research focuses on LGBTQ identity, this dissertation utilizes a “critical interactionist” framework in order to examine the influence of dominant, place-based ideologies on LGBTQs’ patterns of interaction. Such an approach offers a more inclusive portrayal of the variety of LGBTQ experience, one that does not simply privilege narratives of resistance, but also sheds light on how social power functions in the everyday lives of LGBTQs.

Magister Social Work -MSW / Heroin usage is on the increase in the Western Cape province of South Africa owing to globalization and to increased access to the drug in this province. The goal of this study is to explore the experiences of coloured heroin users in the Metro South area of Cape Town, which stretches from Simons Town and Muizenberg to Retreat, Lavender Hill, Grassy Park, Parkwood and Wynberg. These individuals have been found to congregate in the Wynberg CBD. The overarching theoretical framework for the purpose of this research is social constructionism and symbolic interactionism, using a qualitative means of inquiry. Snowball sampling was used to recruit prospective participants and data was collected by means of in-depth interviews, with a semi structures interviewing schedule. The questions informed the subsequent themes and categories that arise from the data collection process. Snowball sampling was employed in this case, a non-probability sample, in which participants were recruited via key informants. The sample distribution included 13 participants, 10 of which were heroin users (5 female, 5 male) and the remaining 3 were key informants which contributed to triangulation of the data.

Child centred play therapy theory explains that the facilitative environment of the relationship between child and play therapist allows the child the opportunity to confront emotional pain imbedded in lived, relational experiences, and in so doing process and gain mastery over it. However very little research exists into how the child, through his use of repetitive, symbolic play, as a therapeutic process, achieves this resolution. This research project aims to address this gap in research by exploring and describing repetitive symbolic play as a therapeutic process within child centred play therapy that facilitates change in the child‟s sense of self, assisting him towards healthy adjustment. The research project uses a young boys‟ therapeutic process as a case study, employing a qualitative research design that draws from interpretative research. Fourteen repetitive play sequence themes were analysed within the context of the case formulation and follow-up feedback meetings that took place throughout the therapy process. Using a hermeneutic enquiry the researcher illustrates how the child‟s sense of self, dependent on his perceptions of his external environment, became far more congruent, as evident through his behaviour, when his environment, first in play therapy, then at home and at school became more consistent, supportive and nurturing. Within this facilitative environment the researcher then describes how the child used repetitive symbolic play to address and process emotional issues relating to earlier experiences within his external environment. Hermeneutic analysis suggests that the child‟s use of repetitive symbolic play within the facilitative relationship between him and his therapist became a therapeutic process in and of itself that contributed towards self-directed healing, and change within his sense of self, that promoted healthier adjustment within his environment.

Ernst Cassirer’s The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms fails to account properly for personalized experiences; it cannot provide a basis for understanding how some experiences become personal while others do not. Our account of personalized experience will remain lacking as long as we follow Cassirer in viewing personalized experience as a non-necessary feature of other symbolic forms such as myth, language, religion, or art; instead it must be understood that personalized experience is grounded in an independent symbolic activity as basic to human cultural life as language, myth, or objectivating knowledge. This basic personalizing symbolic function is best understood as that same activity articulated in Gabriel Marcel’s phenomenological descriptions of the act of “creative fidelity.” Once this relationship has been grasped, it becomes possible to articulate a symbolic form of personalized experience by describing the unique way in which creative fidelity (as the personalizing symbolic function) spatializes, temporalizes, numeralizes (and as a result subjectifies/objectifies) its own distinct horizon of meaning (or: cultural world). The result will be a symbolic form, as Cassirer understands it, that is as far-reaching and fundamental to human cultural life as the three symbolic forms elaborated in The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. By articulating this fourth symbolic form, we will have taken a significant step toward Cassirer’s ultimate goal of a robust philosophical anthropology.

A temática “tatuagens” tem sido explorada em diferentes campos do conhecimento, a partir de diferentes quadros teóricos e metodológicos, porém deixando a atividade “tatuar”, seja como ofício, ocupação ou profissão, aparentemente negligenciada. Nesse sentido, a partir de uma imersão de 19 meses em um estúdio de tatuagens em Porto Alegre, sul do Brasil, o trabalho de quem tatua emergiu como um campo empírico rico para observar e analisar atividades aparentemente desviantes, já que, apesar de uma parcela da sociedade não perceber o “tatuar” como profissão, as pessoas que tatuam têm clareza sobre seu status profissional. Nesse cenário as fronteiras da Administração e da Gestão de Pessoas emergiram e salientaram a importância em compreender, mais especificamente, como essas pessoas desempenham e desenvolvem suas vivências nessa atividade, orientadas, ou não, por uma vontade em serem reconhecidas pelos(as) outros(as) como profissionais. Por isso, o conceito central observado não foi o de Profissão, mas sim o de Carreira. Entendendo-a como uma ponte analítica entre indivíduo e instituição, a partir de Everett Hughes, sociólogo da Escola de Chicago, é através da compreensão da carreira das pessoas que tatuam que foi possível compreender como elas vivem, entendem e lidam com uma profissão, aparentemente, em formação. Assim, o problema de pesquisa apontado é o seguinte: como a pessoa que tatua vivencia sua carreira? Esse problema contempla a busca por compreender como a pessoa vive e narra sua carreira, focando nos elementos de sua ocupação, compreendida como ainda não objetivamente institucionalizada, mas subjetivamente estabelecida, explorando os status e papeis sociais que elas vivem, os pontos de inflexão que negociam e os elementos que as fazem entender sua ocupação como profissão. Assim, a carreira, ainda que contemple todos aspectos da vida, será enfocada analiticamente no aspecto profissional, pois a especificidade analítica é voltada à atividade laboral de quem fala. Isto se deve à inserção deste trabalho na área de Gestão de Pessoas da Administração, apontando como interesse a compreensão de carreiras e profissões aparentemente diferentes do status quo, de modo que possa gerar reflexões e inspirações para a área. Para responde-la, realizei uma pesquisa de caráter qualitativo e exploratório, orientada pelo método de História de Vida, contemplando Narrativas, as quais foram utilizadas tanto para a coleta como para a análise e apresentação da trajetória. Além delas, também foram utilizadas como fontes de informação as visitas a campo, convenções, pesquisas bibliográficas específicas e redes sociais e de notícias na internet. Como resultados, parece que a pessoa que tatua vivencia sua carreira entendendo sua ocupação como profissão, determinando elementos, ao longo do percurso de vida, que comprovam a sua atividade como profissional; que há etapas pelas quais deve passar, bem como status, papeis e instituições; que passa por conflitos e dilemas frequentes durante a carreira e por um mercado de trabalho característico, que podem influenciar, também, na forma em zig zag que ela acaba se delineando. Em suma, parece formar-se uma “carreira padrão”, devido à repetição de algumas faixas temporais e vivências. Por fim, são apresentadas perspectivas de pesquisa futuras. / The topic “tattoo” have been explored in different fields of knowledge, from different theoretical and methodological frameworks, yet the activity of “tattooing”, either as craft, occupation or profession, have been, apparently, neglected. In this sense, from a immersion of 19 months at a tattoo studio in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, the work of “tattooists” emerged as a rich empirical field to observe and analyze apparently deviant activities, since, although a portion of society realize the “tattooing” as a profession, the “tattooists” or “tattoo artists” have clarity about their professional status. In this scenario, the borders of Administration and Human Resources Management emerged and stressed the importance in understanding, more specifically, how these people play and develop their experience in this activity, oriented or not by a desire to be recognized by others as professionals. Therefore, the central concept is not Professions, but Careers. Understanding it as an analytical bridge between individual and institution, by Everett Hughes, a sociologist at the Chicago School, is through understanding the career of “tattooists” that is possible to understand they live, comprehend and deal with a profession, apparently, not established. Thus, the research problem identified is the following: how the people who tattoos experiences their career? This issue includes the search for understanding how a person lives and narrates his/her career, focusing on elements of the occupation, understood as not yet institutionalized objectively, but subjectively established, exploring the status and social roles which he/she lives, the turning points that are negotiated and the elements that make them understand their occupation as a profession. Thus, career, still covering all aspects of life, is analytically focused on professional aspects. This is due to the inclusion of this work in the field of Management and Personnel Management, pointing to interest the understanding of seemingly different careers and occupations of the status quo, so that it can generate ideas and inspirations for the area. To answer it, I conducted a qualitative and exploratory research, guided by the method of Life History, contemplating Narratives, which were used both for the collection and for the analysis and presentation of the path. Besides them, were also used as sources of information visits to the field, conventions, specific literature searches, readings and social networking and news on the Internet. As a result, it seems that the person who experiences the Tattoo Career understands the occupation as a profession, determining elements along the path of life, proving the activity as a professional one; that there are steps that must pass as well as status, roles and institutions; that passing by conflicts and dilemmas during the career and in a characteristic labor market, which may influence, too, in the form of zig zag the path ends up outlining. In short, it seems to form a “standard career” due to repetition of some temporal tracks and experiences. Finally, future research perspectives are presented.