In the rapidly changing ‘knowledge economy’ where ‘innovation’ and ‘responsiveness’ are vital, tertiary education can be at a point transformation. Since the late 1990s the New Zealand government began to shift part of its tertiary education policy with an increasing focus on what is commonly called ‘foundation’ education. The shift was aimed at ensuring all New Zealanders are equipped for the knowledge economy and raising the skills of individuals. A variety of research and education programmes were launched, and existing foundation or bridging programmes strengthened through policy, research and educational endeavours. Bridging education programmes (a subset of foundation education) are designed to prepare non-traditional and under-prepared students for ongoing study at a higher level. This current research sought to identify the influence of a university bridging programme (Level 4) on students who progressed into further study at undergraduate level. The bridging programme commenced in 2003 providing a pathway for students into undergraduate health degrees. The key question for this thesis was: how does bridging education influence students? To determine the influence of the bridging programme, this research was based on a case-study of seven students who completed four or eight papers in the bridging programme. Participants were in ongoing study (for at least one year) in a Bachelor of Health Science (any major). The methodology was qualitative in design, drawing extensively on a case-study approach to research the influences of the bridging programme. The method of data collection utilised was individual semi-structured interviews with former bridging students to ascertain their perceptions, views and experiences of the influence of a bridging programme, both historically and currently. In examining this unique context, information on the influences of bridging education was explored and the importance of bridging education, from the participant’s perspective, understood more clearly. This thesis and the research within revealed that the influence of the bridging programme began at the participant’s time of enrolment and continued into their undergraduate study and their lives. The bridging programme influenced the way participant’s interacted with a range of factors including: the institution; their undergraduate programme; with educators and peers; and with family, friends and others in society. Equally, it is acknowledged that these factors influenced the participant’s, facilitating or impeding their ongoing learning. The participants also identified several challenges (financial and relational) related to the influence of tertiary study which they faced. The research revealed the programme influenced their ongoing success and continuation in undergraduate study. The programme provided an effective bridge into tertiary education (academically, emotionally and socially). Participant’s acknowledged the influence on their cognitive and meta-cognitive growth and development. The range of tertiary leaning skills and knowledge gained and/or enhanced was considerable. Close links between the academic skills taught in the bridging programme and required in undergraduate study were evident. Positive improvements in confidence, self-efficacy and motivation were also attributed to the influence of the programme. Holistic personal development occurred as the skills and knowledge gained and developed were transferred and extended from academia into other areas of the lives of former bridging students and thus further influenced their family, personal friends and society. The influence of the bridging programme has enabled new opportunities, ways of being and employment to become more than a dream, but a reality which the participants continue to move towards. Overall, it could be claimed that the influence of the bridging programme was holistic. A series of recommendations are provided for theory, policy and practice. The significance for social issues and action are discussed and avenues for further research outlined.

In the rapidly changing ‘knowledge economy’ where ‘innovation’ and ‘responsiveness’ are vital, tertiary education can be at a point transformation. Since the late 1990s the New Zealand government began to shift part of its tertiary education policy with an increasing focus on what is commonly called ‘foundation’ education. The shift was aimed at ensuring all New Zealanders are equipped for the knowledge economy and raising the skills of individuals. A variety of research and education programmes were launched, and existing foundation or bridging programmes strengthened through policy, research and educational endeavours. Bridging education programmes (a subset of foundation education) are designed to prepare non-traditional and under-prepared students for ongoing study at a higher level. This current research sought to identify the influence of a university bridging programme (Level 4) on students who progressed into further study at undergraduate level. The bridging programme commenced in 2003 providing a pathway for students into undergraduate health degrees. The key question for this thesis was: how does bridging education influence students? To determine the influence of the bridging programme, this research was based on a case-study of seven students who completed four or eight papers in the bridging programme. Participants were in ongoing study (for at least one year) in a Bachelor of Health Science (any major). The methodology was qualitative in design, drawing extensively on a case-study approach to research the influences of the bridging programme. The method of data collection utilised was individual semi-structured interviews with former bridging students to ascertain their perceptions, views and experiences of the influence of a bridging programme, both historically and currently. In examining this unique context, information on the influences of bridging education was explored and the importance of bridging education, from the participant’s perspective, understood more clearly. This thesis and the research within revealed that the influence of the bridging programme began at the participant’s time of enrolment and continued into their undergraduate study and their lives. The bridging programme influenced the way participant’s interacted with a range of factors including: the institution; their undergraduate programme; with educators and peers; and with family, friends and others in society. Equally, it is acknowledged that these factors influenced the participant’s, facilitating or impeding their ongoing learning. The participants also identified several challenges (financial and relational) related to the influence of tertiary study which they faced. The research revealed the programme influenced their ongoing success and continuation in undergraduate study. The programme provided an effective bridge into tertiary education (academically, emotionally and socially). Participant’s acknowledged the influence on their cognitive and meta-cognitive growth and development. The range of tertiary leaning skills and knowledge gained and/or enhanced was considerable. Close links between the academic skills taught in the bridging programme and required in undergraduate study were evident. Positive improvements in confidence, self-efficacy and motivation were also attributed to the influence of the programme. Holistic personal development occurred as the skills and knowledge gained and developed were transferred and extended from academia into other areas of the lives of former bridging students and thus further influenced their family, personal friends and society. The influence of the bridging programme has enabled new opportunities, ways of being and employment to become more than a dream, but a reality which the participants continue to move towards. Overall, it could be claimed that the influence of the bridging programme was holistic. A series of recommendations are provided for theory, policy and practice. The significance for social issues and action are discussed and avenues for further research outlined.

No description available.

Disertacijoje „Ugdomoji poetikos terapija kaip priemonė suaugusiųjų, sergančių šizofrenija ar depresija, įgalinimui“ pateikta transformuojančio mokymosi teorijomis pagrįsta suaugusiųjų, sergančių šizofrenija ar depresija, įgalinimo koncepcija. Ugdomosios poetikos terapijos teorinis modelis yra išryškintas, vadovaujantis grindžiamosios teorijos strategija: analizuojama dešimties metų praktinė poetikos terapijos taikymo patirtis, tyrėjos įžvalgos lyginamos su transformuojančio mokymosi teorijų (Freire, 1970, Tisdell, 2003 Mezirov, 1997) teiginiais; su ligonių mokymo, padedančio įveikti krizes, efektyvumo tyrimo duomenimis (Rindner, 2004, Fulton, 1997, Hage, 1997); su sergančiųjų gebėjimo savarankiškai būti ir gyventi visuomenėje analizės įžvalgomis (Barker 2001, Johansson, 2002, Coggins, Fox, 2009, Hayne, 2003); su sergančiųjų šizofrenija gebėjimo papasakoti socialiai reikšmingą savo gyvenimo istoriją (Lysaker, 2005) tyrimo įžvalgomis. Modelis grindžiamas socialiniu emancipaciniu ir kultūriniu dvasiniu požiūriu į transformuojantį mokymąsi. Vadovaujantis šiuo modeliu sukurta Ugdomosios poetikos terapijos metodika suaugusiųjų, sergančių šizofrenija ar depresija, įgalinimui yra nauja tarptautiniame mokslo kontekste. Pirmą kartą Lietuvoje išanalizuotos ugdomosios poetikos terapijos taikymo galimybės – atlikta atvejų analizė. Įžvelgta, kad menine kalba perteikta asmens autentiška istorija pozityviai transformuoja asmens savęs vertinimą ir rekonstruoja socialinį bendravimą. / In the the dissertation “Educational poetic therapy as a tool for empowerment of adults ill with schizophrenia or depression“ conception of empowerment of individuals ill with schizophrenia and depression is presented, conception is based on tranformative learning theories. Theoretical model of educational poetic therapy was developed using the strategy of grounded theory: the practical 10 years poetic therapy experience is analysed, insights of the researcher are compared with stadpoints of transformative learning theories (Freire, 1970, Tisdell, 2003 Mezirov, 1997); with data of effectivness of patients‘ teaching (Rindner, 2004, Fulton, 1997, Hage, 1997), with insights of analysis of schizophrenic patients‘ abilities to live in society self dependendly (Barker 2001, Johansson, 2002, Coggins, Fox, 2009, Hayne, 2003); with insights of analysis of schizophrenic patients‘ skills to tell one‘s own socialy meanigful life story (Lysaker, 2005). Model is grounded with social emancipation and cultural spiritual standpoints to transformative learning. Constructed methodic of educational poetic therapy, based on that model, is new in international context of science. In Lithuania first time are analysed possibilities of application of educational poetic therapy: case analyses are presented. It is disclosed, that authentic story of personality, expressed in artistic language positively transformes self evaluation and reconstructs social behavior.

The Church of the Nazarene has an identity problem. Increasingly, Nazarenes are unfamiliar with their denomination’s holiness theology, and a gap exists between what people say they believe—espoused theology—and what they practice—operant theology. I argue that aesthetic Christian education can play a significant role in decreasing the discrepancies between a person’s beliefs and practices. This kind of teaching and learning incorporates holistic aesthetic elements, which I call engaged aesthetics. Research in the neuroscience of visual perception seems to point to the possibilities that art can offer for transformative reflection. Christian education that features the viewing of art can explore these opportunities to reflect on faith-as-beliefs and faith-actions and to amend discrepancies at a personal and/or communal level. Since the Church of the Nazarene is grounded in John Wesley’s theology, I make the case for an aesthetic educational bridge between espoused and operant theology rooted in the engaged aesthetic of Wesley’s practical theology, and in affinity with Wesley’s experiential and affective epistemology.

This thesis examines the ways in which outdoor environmental education can be understood in the context of relational-environmental encounters. The study focuses on residential learning programmes with secondary school students in the UK. The research aims to explore the extent to which current educational practices, structures and pedagogies in two case study locations can be said to occur as continuous lived experiences; invoking relational ontologies. Furthermore, this research examines the environmental encounters of students and considers how these encounters shape and challenge environmental narratives consisting social and cultural norms. Making use of developments within behaviour change theory, ecological ethics and environmental pedagogy, this thesis brings together ways of understanding environmental and sustainability education, notions of relational ways of being, and models for transformative societal change. The research methodology makes use of ethnographic encounters in two case locations comprising residential education centers in South Devon, UK, chosen for their representation of instrumental and emancipatory pedagogies. Participating in fifteen outdoor environmental education programmes over ten months, participant observation, focus groups, interviews and photo elicitation were deployed. In-field and subsequent thematic analysis, using structured coding elicited four central themes: structure, choice, relationships and discomfort. These themes formed the core empirical analysis and enabled an exploration of relational practices occurring across the spectrum of contemporary environmental education. The research therefore provides a narrative of residential experiences in a subjective, emergent and reciprocal environment, whereby both lived and learning experiences provide space for instrumental and emancipatory learning. Consequently, contributions are made to geography and education in four key areas; firstly, the articulation of a pedagogy of discomfort deployed explicitly and implicitly within environmental education; secondly, an advancement of relational connotations of place-making within environmental education as being emergent of agency, structure and the setting itself; thirdly, through the ecotheraputic ‘performance’ of other-than-human material and ecological environments in education discourses; and finally, through an advancement of a blended approach to environmental education, understood from an ecological-ethical, as well as a behavioural-practice perspective.

This work is an attempt to outline prospects of theoretically and practically justified refugees' integration in its initial levels through orientation and education programmes using previous and present positive experience, but also taking into consideration the letter of International Law and Human Rights, moral and ethical perspective, so direct and prospective benefits for all the parties concerned, i.e. the EU, nation-states, communities, citizens, newcomers. The main focus is on multifaceted Orientation, Education, and Training Programmes (OETPs) that are presented as one of the most significant tools of social and structural integration into state's and public spheres. Presence of OETPs is being traced in theoretical framework, political discourse, and practical implementation of integration policies at different levels of the EU realm. There is a stress made on policy design, implementation, and evaluation provided by national governments and local authorities so role of civic sector, activities of UNHCR, and community level enterprises. .

This thesis is based on a life history study of two women involved in activism for social change. Broadly guided by life history methodology and feminist and constructivist postmodern theories and approaches, this inter-disciplinary research explores experiences and stories in the lives of these women that evoke the transformative journeys of womens long-term commitments to social change activism, and that portray ways in which personal and social transformation interweave. The stories illuminate how individual courses of action both resonate with and diverge from meta-narratives of social movements, and how they reflect and resist the contexts in which those courses evolve. Reflection on the process of constructing the stories reveals the effects on the participants and the researcher of the inter-subjective realm from which life history arises. The studys practical purpose relating activism, transformative education and postmodernism also leads to experimentation with creative texts that at once provide educational tools and invite participation in the interpretive process. Overall the thesis melds more traditional approaches with more unconventional ones. The study is both provocative and supportive of those working for social change through transformative education and activism.

This project offers an analysis of how the transformative power of creative process in learning offers humankind relational connections with the natural environment. It supports the recommendation that educational institutions move towards a transformative creative learning process. The paper argues that by teaching children through assumptions of the world as in constant creative becoming humankind will move toward a more encompassing, coherent story of the universe which allows for the increasing self-actualization of individuals. After offering a theoretical discussion of the transformative power of creativity through the works of Brian Swimme, Edmund OSullivan and Alfred North Whitehead, the author provides descriptive, interpretive and critical narrative accounts of a teaching occasion created by her in which she illustrates her understanding of this transformative power.

This project offers an analysis of how the transformative power of creative process in learning offers humankind relational connections with the natural environment. It supports the recommendation that educational institutions move towards a transformative creative learning process. The paper argues that by teaching children through assumptions of the world as in constant creative becoming humankind will move toward a more encompassing, coherent story of the universe which allows for the increasing self-actualization of individuals. After offering a theoretical discussion of the transformative power of creativity through the works of Brian Swimme, Edmund OSullivan and Alfred North Whitehead, the author provides descriptive, interpretive and critical narrative accounts of a teaching occasion created by her in which she illustrates her understanding of this transformative power.