This Exegesis and the Portfolio document referred to herein report on the outcomes of my research towards a PhD in education (by Project) between mid 2001 and July 2005. The Portfolio contains a collection of ten papers written during the research and also a summary of the key tools and processes resulting from the research. This Exegesis contains the major theoretical arguments leading to the development of the research outcomes, the methodology employed and a description of the organisational context operating during the study. It also draws links between the various data sets as presented in the Portfolio. The research began with a consideration of a major change project at RMIT University: the Implementation of the Distributed Learning System (DLS). The problems associated with this project highlighted the need for holistic organisational approaches to change and the uncertain nature of radical change projects. This led into a consideration of broader questions to do with organisational change and managing uncertainty. The generalisability of the research findings was enhanced by the wide ranging literature review and data from a range of stakeholders. This ultimately led to the development of a

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Bowling Green State University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-142).

This multi case study examined how leaders of color narrated their experiences regarding access to leadership positions at two universities in California before and after Proposition 209 (California's anti-affirmative action legislation) was enacted in 1996. The research focused on addressing a gap in the literature with regards to professionals of color and the barriers they may have faced in the hiring process in an era of anti-affirmative action legislation. Semi-structured interviews of eighteen Student Affairs leaders of color (with job descriptions no lower than assistant director) were conducted. In addition, critical discourse analysis as outlined by Fairclough (1995) was used to analyze affirmative action plans from both institutions before and after Proposition 209. Cultural capital and critical race theory were the theoretical frameworks used to analyze the participant narratives and the discourse within the affirmative action plans. Findings included: qualifications being more important than cultural forms of knowledge, more diversity among director level positions, the hiring process being described as complex and lengthy, the importance of professional mentors, and leaders of color needing to assimilate to valued norms representative of the status quo to be successful in the hiring process as well as in their professional work environments. Recommendations for further research as well as recommendations for leadership development for professionals of color in higher education institutions is discussed.

Being able to predict the goal of other people’s actions is an important aspect of our daily lives. This ability allows us to interact timely with others and adjust our behaviour appropriately. The general aim of the present thesis was to explore which processes best explain our ability to predict other people’s action goals during development. There are different theories concerning this ability. Some stress the fact that observation of others actions activate the same areas of the brain involved in our own action production, this way helping us to understand what they are doing. Other theories suggest that we understand actions independently of our own motor proficiency. For example, the ability to predict other peoples’ action goals could be based on visual experience seeing others actions acquired trough time or on the assumption that actions will be performed in a rational way. The studies included in this thesis use eye tracking to study infants’ and adults’ action prediction during observation of goal directed actions. Prediction is operationalized as predictive gaze shifts to the goal of the action. Study I showed that infants are sensitive to the functionality of hand configuration and predict the goal of reaching actions but not moving fists. Fourteen-month-olds also looked earlier to the goal of reaching actions when the goal was to contain rather than displace, indicating that the overarching goal (contain/displace) impact the ability to predict local action goals, in this case the goal of the initial reaching action. Study II demonstrated that 6-month-olds, an age when infants have not yet started placing objects into containers, did not look to the container ahead of time when observing another person placing objects into containers. They did, however, look to the container ahead of time when a ball was moving on its own. The results thus indicate that different processes might be used to predict human actions and other events. Study III showed that 8-month-old infants in China looked to the mouth of an actor eating with chopsticks ahead of time but not when the actor was eating with a spoon. Swedish infants on the other hand looked predictively to the mouth when the actor was eating with a spoon but not with chopsticks. This study demonstrates that prediction of others’ goal directed actions is not simply based on own motor ability (as assumed in Study I and II) but rather on a combination of visual/cultural experience and own motor ability. The results of these studies suggest that both own motor proficiency as well as visual experience with observing similar actions is necessary for our ability to predict other people’s action goals. These results are discusses in the light of a newer account of the mirror neuron system taking both statistical regularities in the environment and own motor capabilities into account.

Thesis (M.A.)--Concordia University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thèse (D. en psychologie)--Université du Québec à Montréal, 2005. / En tête du titre: Université du Québec à Montréal. Bibliogr.: f. [167]-174. Publié aussi en version électronique.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Bowling Green State University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-142). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Univ., Diss.--Göttingen, 2004.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Bowling Green State University, 2007. / Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 142 p. Includes bibliographical references.

La thèse étudie comment les enjeux économiques de l’innovation se formulent dans l’action publique territoriale,en adoptant une démarche comparative et en s’appuyant sur une enquête réalisée dans deux régionsmétropolitaines en Europe : l’Ile-de-France et la Lombardie. La recherche est conduite en problématisant lagouvernance territoriale de l’innovation sur la base d’un cadre théorique élaboré à la croisée des travaux descience politique sur les politiques territoriales et de sciences sociales sur l’innovation. L’analyse est dès lorscentrée sur les processus institutionnels, les réseaux d’acteurs et les relations de pouvoir. Les données mobiliséesportent sur les initiatives et les aides se déployant en chacune des régions étudiées en faveur de l’innovation, enparticulier dans le domaine du numérique. La comparaison entre l’Ile-de-France et la Lombardie vise à faireressortir les spécificités socio-politiques de chacune des deux situations territoriales en privilégiant deux champsd’investigation : les usages de l’innovation en tant que catégorie d’action publique transnationale et régionalisée,et les mobilisations collectives se structurant en référence aux enjeux du développement métropolitain à Paris età Milan. Tandis qu’en Ile-de-France les politiques publiques font figure de vecteurs pour la territorialisation desacteurs de l’innovation, la Lombardie donne à voir l’affirmation d’un leadership universitaire appuyé par lespouvoirs locaux. Par-delà ces différences, les deux cas permettent d’observer certaines modalités locales dudéveloppement de l’économie de la connaissance et interrogent le phénomène de politisation des enjeux etacteurs de l’innovation. / This thesis examines how economic issues of innovation are formulated in territorial public action, by adopting acomparative approach and based on a survey conducted in two metropolitan areas in Europe: Ile-de-France andLombardy. Research was conducted by problematizing territorial governance of innovation using a theoreticalframework developed by combining aspects of two fields : political science (territorial policies) and socialsciences (science, tecnology and innovation studies). The analysis is therefore focused on institutional processes,networks of actors and power relations. The data used concerns initiatives and aid deployed in each of the studyareas to promote innovation, especially in the digital field. The comparison between Ile-de-France andLombardy aims to highlight the socio-political specificities of the two territorial situations by focusing on twodistinct areas of investigation : innovation as a category of transnational and regional public action, andmobilisation developed in response to the local challenges of metropolitan development in Paris and Milan.While in Ile-de-France public policies promote the territorialization of innovation actors, Lombardy privilegesuniversity leadership supported by local authorities. Beyond these differences, the two cases demonstrate somelocal ways of developing the knowledge economy and question the phenomenon of politicization of issues andactors of innovation.