This thesis is a case study which looks at the creation of two theatre productions. Using the literature of Actor-Network Theory as a methodological provocation, it analyses the processes by which networks of actors created these theatre pieces with particular attention to where agency was observed. Through data gathered through observing material interactions, the thesis develops the concept of the (play)text: an object that is an expression of the ideas of the text, but is not the text itself – rather, a bricolage of ‘translations' of a piece of written and rehearsed work bound together by time and combined action. Conceiving of the eventual product – the (play)text in performance – as an example of the ANT concept of an agencement, a network of different people and objects working together to maintain a stable construction, but one which perpetually refines and redefines each of its component parts – this thesis proposes that the (play)text is an example of a dynamic and fractional artistic object, stabilised only briefly in the moments of its performance. Examining the theatre production process in this way contributes to ANT literature by providing specific examples of an artistic object created materially and agentively; it also highlights the limitations of the ways in which theatre has been used as a metaphor within Organisation Studies. Finally, it contributes to work on process change in showing an object which is, though it appears constantly improvisational and changing in its form, stabilised by material interactions.

Background: Alcohol use disorders belong among the ten leading causes of Years Lost due to Disability in high-income countries. Poland, Czech Republic, and the Slovak Republic are countries with high alcohol consumption. The specific inpatient psychotherapeutic program is basic treatment approach in patients suffering from alcohol dependency. The theory of change assumes that therapeutic approaches should be adapted to the stage of change in which the patient actually is. Aim: To examine the state of readiness to change at the beginning and the end of inpatient short (six weeks) and long (12 weeks) therapeutic program in Slovak Republic, Poland, and the Czech Republic. To compare readiness to change with insight and motivation. To find, whether patients change and how patients change advances in alcohol treatment. Methods: Total 380 alcohol dependent inpatients (282 men and 98 women) were examined using International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems- 10th Revision (ICD- 10), World Health Organization (1992). Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), The Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale (SOCRATES), Readiness to Change Questionnaire (RCQ), and Demographic Questionnaire. All analyses were calculated using the SPSS (Statistical Packages...

The purpose of this study employing meta-analysis was to assess the impact that after-school programs have on reading and mathematics outcomes. The participants in the primary studies were students in Grades K through 8; years 200 through 2009. The study utilized the theory of change as its theoretical basis. This meta-analysis used the effect size as the standard measure. It began with an overall Cohen's d of .40 for the impact that after-school programs have on reading and mathematics outcomes, and then proceeded to analyze three moderator variables: subject, time periods, and grade level.The findings of the meta-analysis, both overall and sub analyses, show that the independent variable, after-school programs, has an impact on the dependent variable, reading and mathematics. The overall results indicated that after-school programs are educationally significant in the areas of reading and mathematics combined. As for the moderator variable, the results for the areas of (a) subject (reading and mathematics), (b) time period (2000-2002, 2003-2005 and 2006-2009), and (c) grade (middle, and middle plus elementary combined), all indicated educationally significant results. The notable exception was the grade moderator, elementary.This study provides more information for researchers, practitioners and policy makers upon which to make practical research based decisions about after-school programs for the purpose of determining the applicability of such in their educational setting.

Thesis advisor: Karen D. Arnold / No-excuses charter schools are arguably the most successful and controversial school-choice model of the last quarter century (Cheng et al., 2017). Typically following a college-for-all ethos, they demonstrate sizable gains in test scores and college acceptance rates for marginalized student populations (Davis & Heller, 2019). However, concerns regarding how these schools achieve these short-term outcomes using strict practices warrants further qualitative investigation (Golann, 2015). A paucity of research explores the influence of no-excuses practices on long-term college success outcomes extending beyond graduation and persistence rates to include well-being, career preparation, academic growth, and satisfaction (Mehta, 2020). This three-article dissertation investigates the perceived influence of a no-excuses charter high school on four-year college success from multiple perspectives. Following a qualitative case study approach (Merriam, 1998) grounded in a conceptual model of college success (Perna & Thomas, 2006), the study utilizes observations, document review, and semi-structured interviews––some including photo-elicitation (Harper, 2002). Article One explores the four-year college experiences of no-excuses charter high school alumni. Article Two examines institutional agents’ roles in implementing college-for-all practices within a no-excuses charter high school. Article Three draws on this case study to propose a process for merging qualitative research and program theory development for school improvement (Funnell & Rogers, 2011; Joyce & Cartwright, 2021). These articles identify and expound upon certain no-excuses components that positively and negatively contribute to students’ college success. Aspirational college talk, comprehensive college and financial aid application support, and a caring environment contributed to four-year college matriculation. However, pressure institutional agents experienced to meet short-term outcomes associated with normative definitions of college success resulted in one-size-fits-all approaches to teaching, behavior management, and college preparation that minimized opportunities for students’ identity formation, noncognitive skill development, social-emotional learning, and discovery of intrinsic college-going motivation. This study offers recommendations for (re)envisioning college-for-all policies and school-based practices to be more flexible, student-centered, and culturally responsive in ways that honor a student’s personhood while helping them go to college, thrive, and graduate. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

In recent years, institutional theorists have been increasingly interested in institutional change, seeking to understand the contextual factors and agents responsible for alterations to existing institutional arrangements. Institutional theory’s historical focus on isomorphism has made it challenging to account for actors’ motivations to pursue change projects. It is generally believed, though, that agents are mobilized through exposure to multiple institutional logics. Recently, scholars have begun to recognize that competition among multiple logics may not quickly produce a ‘winning logic’; rather, such logics may co-exist for prolonged periods in a context of ‘institutional complexity’. The turn toward institutional complexity reveals that preoccupation with the ‘paradox of embedded agency’ has left the development of change projects themselves under-theorized: What happens when organizational actors must interpret puzzling institutional contexts and generate alternatives? In seeking to understand organizational actors’ efforts to cope with conflicting logics in a context of scientific uncertainty, this study aligns with this growing interest in institutional complexity. Drawing on concepts from sensemaking theory, this research illuminates how actors with divergent interests, enacting their organizational roles, cope with competing logics and interact around a change project that emerges as a result of their efforts at coping. It thus contributes to institutionalist understandings of institutional complexity and change and adds to an emerging body of research linking institutional theory and sensemaking. The empirical setting for this single-case study is the ‘sustainable seafood’ discourse that began in the early 1990s when the cod collapsed off North America’s eastern seaboard. Prolonged scientific uncertainty regarding the collapse made generation of preferred alternatives problematic; this resulted in lengthy sensemaking efforts by multiple stakeholder groups, drawing on different institutional logics to produce divergent and competing interpretations and action scripts. Tracing the evolution of this discourse through documents, observations, and interviews empirically reveals processes of interrelated sensemaking, and further, exposes sensegivers as bricoleurs who use institutional elements creatively to affect the sensemaking of others.

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My dissertation is concerned with utopian thinking in Critical Theory. It examines the changing conceptions of radically different social orders held by the associates of the Frankfurt School. Its aim is to investigate utopian thinking as a theoretical tool of a system of thought that is oriented towards social transformation. To bring about social transformation was the explicit objective of the Frankfurt School. And yet, as my dissertation demonstrates, some of the key member of the Frankfurt School discarded precisely this utopian tool. This rejection of utopian thinking is one of the central – but also one of the most problematic – aspects of Critical Theory. It goes back to the writings of Marx himself and culminates in the works of Theodor W. Adorno, specifically in his ‘Utopieverbot’ (prohibition of envisaging a utopian society). I argue that this Utopieverbot facilitated the disappearance of utopian thinking in Critical Theory, and furthermore, that it brought this system of thought to a standstill. In addition to the dissolution of utopian thinking my dissertation examines also its potential resuscitation. The foremost defender of utopian thinking I investigate is Ernst Bloch, a critical theorist overshadowed by Adorno himself. Countering Adorno, Bloch posited utopian thinking not only as a possible but also as a necessary theoretical tool of Critical Theory. I argue that Bloch’s ideas can be valuable in resolving the aporia of utopian thinking in Critical Theory. While important in its own right, this aporia is highly significant due to the enormous influence it exerted on the death of utopia in Western political thought, which can be seen as one of the key factors contributing to the escalating social, political and economic regressions of our contemporary era. Understanding the reasons behind the emergence of death of utopia, as well as its possible resolutions, thus present questions that urgently need to be addressed.

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Why has teachers’ classroom work remained relatively stable despite an enormous amount of change in educational policy? In 1998 the national Department of Education of South Africa introduced a new policy on assessment to complement its new curriculum policy introduced in 1997. With its emphasis on performance–based outcomes, the assessment policy constituted a decisive and significant break from the past assessment policy. This research focuses on the implementation of the new assessment policy by classroom teachers. The study is guided by the following three research questions: 1: What are teacher understandings and beliefs with regard to assessment policy? 2: In the context of official policy, how do teachers practice assessment in their classrooms? 3: How can the continuities and the discontinuities between official policy on assessment and teachers’ assessment practice be explained? After reviewing the literature on policy implementation, the study articulated a broader conceptual framework drawing on the construct of ‘deep change’. This perspective supplements rather than supplants dominant approaches to policy implementation. The ‘deep change’ framework suggests a more incisive approach to understanding the relationship between policy and practice. This study presents and tests three propositions about change, namely: Proposition One: That teachers may not have a deep, sophisticated understanding of a new assessment policy even if there is evidence of strong rhetorical commitment to the policy. Proposition Two: That teachers may not be able to reconcile their own assessment beliefs and capacities with the stated goals of a new assessment policy. Proposition Three: That teachers may find traditional assessment practices (that is, examinations and testing) to hold greater efficacy in the classroom than the alternatives required by a new assessment policy. A case study approach was undertaken with two Grade 8 science teachers from two different contexts, one from an under-resourced township school, and the other from a well-resourced urban school. Using evidence from questionnaires, free-writing schedules, extensive pre-lesson and post-lesson interviews, prolonged non-participant classroom observations, teacher records and documents, and student records and examinations, the study found that the two teachers had a surface understanding of the new assessment policy; the teacher from the well-resourced, urban school was able to implement some of the new assessment methods, while the teacher from the under-resourced, township school did not implement any of the new methods of assessment required by the new assessment policy; both teachers were unable to reconcile their own assessment beliefs and capacities with the stated goals of a new assessment policy; and both teachers found the traditional assessment practices (that is, examinations and testing) to hold greater efficacy in the classroom than the alternatives required by a new assessment policy. In other words, the study found that teachers did not have a deep understanding of the assessment policy and did not change their assessment practices deeply as required by the assessment policy. The study argues that educational policies will do little to achieve deep changes in teachers’ pedagogical practices without concurrent attention to a strong theory of change. The study concludes with implications for teacher learning, professional development of teachers, theory and research. / Thesis (PhD (Education Management and Policy Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

Evidence suggests that Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) is an effective intervention leading to positive behaviour change when used with parents and their children. The aim of this paper is to explore the processes of Video Interaction Guidance (VIG). Utilising a case study methodology it explores some of the key processes within the video intervention through in-depth analysis of shared review sessions. It also examines what parents and EPs perceive as significant and helpful within the process of VIG. Results reveal that the interplay between the visual image and the nature and content of discussions appears to be qualitatively different when parents are more actively engaged in video review sessions. Parents perceived the intervention in different ways, which appeared to correspond with their level of engagement in shared review sessions. The limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed and the direct implications are dealt with in the overall conclusion in Paper 2 (pg. 93). Abstract Evidence suggests that Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) is an effective intervention that leads to positive behaviour change when used with parents and their children. This paper aims to evaluate the perceived impact of VIG when used with four parents and their children. Utilising a mixed methods case study methodology, it explores parents’ views of their experiences of the video intervention and examines whether any changes are maintained over time. Findings indicate that parents perceived some positive attitudinal and emotional changes. However, it was not clear that any changes were maintained over time and whether they could be solely attributed to the impact of VIG but were perhaps a result of a combination of other factors. A number of common themes emerged across cases that related to barriers and enablers of successful outcomes in VIG as perceived by parents and EPs. The direct implications of this study, suggestions for further research, and for Educational Psychology are discussed.