This study addresses how political and professional claims directed at teachers change, and in many ways challenge teachers’ professional autonomy, as well as affect preconditions for meaning-making in pedagogic practices. Focus is placed on political steering and its implications for teacher education and teachers’ work in schools. Professional tensions between claims for system-oriented success de-fined as goal achievement versus a communicative understanding are analysed within a conceptual framework of steering and meaning. Based on official educational policy documents as well as teachers’ development projects the analysis revolves around issues concerning core competencies in teacher education and professionalisation processes. The empirical material comprises the Swedish 2001-teacher education reform and the Swedish National Higher Education Agency’s criticism of that part of teacher education which is obligatory for all teacher students (AUO). Moreover, grounds for educational policy that lead to the introduction of individual development plans (IUP) in school are analysed. Additionally, comments on circulated proposals submitted by universities and teacher organisations in connection with Bologna and the IUP-reforms are subject to analysis. In terms of methodology, the study primarily draws upon theories of communicative action, critical discourse analysis and theories of the professions. The results indicate that emphasis in educational policy is placed on the clarification of goals, progression and assessment practices in schools and teacher edu-cation. Thus teachers and teacher educators need to address functional steering claims which demand commitment and loyalty for political reforms. This entails that teachers’ professional autonomy is restricted. Teachers are encouraged to take difficult decisions and act strategically in order to maximise the pedagogic outcome based on economic and political claims for excellence, collaboration, and a clear-cut steering direction. Professionalism now appears to connote quality control by way of more specified formulations and assessments towards learning outcomes. Political rhetoric stipulates as essential that teachers determine knowledge progression and boundaries between the various exam and knowledge levels. Teachers are also to expound internal documentation in order to fulfil system-related claims. The study illustrates how conditions and preconditions emanate from shared profes-sional considerations, competencies and convictions, and that teachers need to be able to discuss these. However, this is challenged by a continuously increasing management by documents. In light of recentralised steering, claims are directed at teachers who are now to create transparency, quantifiable criteria for assessment and employability. Based on the teachers’ development projects, the results indicate that teachers are critical of how the education system is subjected to increasing pressure due to a stream of reforms and evaluations. Politicisation and economisation of education underscore a need for pragmatic and strategic actions within the profession. In contrast to experiences of political lack of vision, impellent user orientation and marketisation, universities and teachers claim that critical communicative-oriented pedagogy boost professional autonomy. Moreover, the study indicates that teachers’ positions and professional identities vary depending on the perceived validity of the political claims. Claims for objectivity, simplification, clarity and functional criteria for assessment are countered by claims for in-depth meaning-making and consideration of the complexity and knowledge instability that is constitutive of pedagogic practices. Ultimately, this study illustrates a professional shift within the teacher body towards notions of objectivity and individualisation, thereby threatening teachers’ critical discussions of their organisation and work.

Submitted by Priscilla Araujo (priscilla@ibict.br) on 2016-08-01T19:17:59Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Tese para impressao capa dura.pdf: 10961165 bytes, checksum: 7edabf37c43d0eee06e3701d01e9670a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-01T19:17:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Tese para impressao capa dura.pdf: 10961165 bytes, checksum: 7edabf37c43d0eee06e3701d01e9670a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-25 / Discute a dinâmica de validação da informação na Wikipédia. Descreve a cultura colaborativa da Wikipédia, identifica verbetes construídos colaborativamente, investiga o processo de validação social dos verbetes construídos de forma colaborativa e descreve como a web é considerada um espaço de produção de sentido por meio de discurso argumentativo. É usada a cartografia das controvérsias e a análise de redes sociais para compreender as dinâmicas infocomunicacionais de um grupo de pessoas com interesse em discutir uma lista de verbetes que devem constar em todas as Wikipédias. Conclui-se que, de acordo com as propostas teóricas de Jürgen Habermas, a Wikipédia é um ambiente discursivamente emancipatório e construído a partir do discurso argumentativo habermasiano. / It discusses the dynamic validation of information on Wikipedia. It describes the collaborative culture of Wikipedia entries built collaboratively, It investigates the process of social validation of entries constructed collaboratively and It describes how the web is considered an area of production of meaning through argumentative discourse. It is used mapping of controversies and social network analysis to understand the infocommunicative dynamics of a group of people interested in discussing a list of entries to be included in all Wikipedias. In conclusion, according to the theoretical proposals of Jürgen Habermas, Wikipedia is an emancipatory discourse environment and It is built according to Habermasian argumentative discourse.

Information Communication Technology (ICT) is in the discourse of international development,which is often considered as the key to socio- economic development in the sense that it helps tosolve social problems and increases the rate of economic growth. ICT policies are situated in thiscontext. Many international agencies advocate certain policies in order to accelerate economicgrowth and development in so-called developing countries. In 2009, Bangladesh enacted itsNational ICT Policy setting a broad vision to establish a transparent, responsive and accountablegovernment; developed skilled human resources; and to enhance social equity through anextended use of ICT. Following this vision multiple objectives have been addressed where socialequity and integrity are prioritized in the name of developing a socially equitable and integratedsociety through ICT. The research task of this work is to analyze the discourse of this strategyand to compare it to social reality. The ‘Theory of Communicative Action’ (TCA), which isbased on the four validity claims - truth, legitimacy, sincerity, and clarity - is used to demonstratehow social equity and integrity are addressed as objectives and what claims are made in theaction items with regard to these two objectives and how far such claims reflect social reality.Keywords:Information Communication Technology (ICT), National ICT Policy, Social Equity, Integrity,Communicative Action Theory, Critical Discourse Analysis, Validity Claims, ICT4D, CriticalTheory, Critical Information Systems research.

As the theme of the study indicates the study is a narrative study seeking to respond to two of the major challenges which congregations are facing within the context of ministry, namely postmodernity and globalization. After seeking a fuller description of these two challenges I sought a theological orientation within such a context (postmodern global village) as well as an ecclesiological praxis that could be transformative and redemptive within such a context. I believe to have found in the narrative orientation an appropriate way for doing theology in the postmodern context. The narrative orientation will guide the story of this study within four movements, namely descriptive theology (stories of need), historical theology (texts and tradition), systematic theology (re-authored story of the past) and lastly strategic practical theology (imagined story of the future). The climax of this journey (story) is in the fusion of horizons between the theory-laden questions of descriptive theology and the historical texts of the Christian faith within the narrative orientation of the study. I discovered that truly transformative and redemptive praxis is only possible within language communities (narrative communities). These narrative communities cannot exist in isolation, but are continuously confronted and relativised by the stories of other communities in the global village and therefore these language communities need to be open to the fragmentation and pluralism of the global village, otherwise they will not be able to respond to the reality of the globalization and postmodernity. The narrative communities needed a story (sacred story) that did not deny the reality of fragmentation and pluralism, but could incorporate this reality into its story. I found this story in the story of the cross and therefore refer to the narrative communities as communities of and under the cross of Christ. These ideas formed the basis for a transformative praxis within a specific congregation, namely Pastoral Redemptive Communities. The journey within these four movements was a critical journey in dialogue with other disciplines (economics, philosophy, psychology and sociology) and I tried to defend and describe my journey within the parameters of validity claims thereby opening the study for further dialogue. / Thesis (PhD (Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Practical Theology / unrestricted