The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between perceived child rearing practices and the moral character or pro-social behavior of students in their late teens and early twenties . A questionnaire was administered to forty - eight students to test their moral character which was the dependent variable on the following traits: ambitious, broadminded, capable, cheerful, clean, courageous, forgiving, helpful, honest, imaginative, independent, intellectual, logical, loving, obedient, polite, responsible and self-controlled. The chi l d rearing practices used by the mothers and fathers were also tested as the independent predictor variables according to the following terms: autonomy, coercion, companionship, guilt, inconsistency, love withdrawal, over protection, physical affection, positive reasoning, and support. A similar questionnaire was also sent to the parents of these students asking the mother and father to rate their student's moral character and also how they feel they raised their son or daughter. The results indicate fathers influence their daughter's moral character as much as do mothers. However, using the above moral character variables and child rearing practices variables, fathers only slightly influence their sons and mothers have no significant influence over their sons. Parental child rearing techniques influencing the females the most are: low amounts of physical affection and autonomy from both parents, low amounts of support from the mother, and low amounts of guilt from the father. Also, high amounts of companionship and inconsistency from both parents are strong influences on moral character high ratings. Those child rearing techniques promoting high moral character in males are low amounts of over protection and high amounts of love withdrawal from fathers. It also appears the way children perceive their parents rearing them is in most cases not the way parents feel they raised their children. Also, the way children view their own character traits is not the same way the parents view it in most cases.

Mathematics has been seen to act as a ‘critical filter’ in the social, economic and professional development of individuals. The Island of Mauritius relies to a great extent on its human resource power to meet the challenges of recent technological developments, and a substantial core of mathematics is needed to prepare students for their involvements in these challenges. After an analysis of the School Certificate examination results for the past ten years in Mauritius, it was found that boys were out-performing girls in mathematics at that level. This study aimed to examine this gender difference in mathematics performance at the secondary level by exploring factors affecting mathematics teaching and learning, and by identifying and implementing strategies to enhance positive factors. The study was conducted using a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology in three phases. A survey approach was used in the Phase One of the study to analyse the performance of selected students from seventeen schools across Mauritius in a specially designed mathematics test. The attitudes of these students were also analysed through administration of the Modified Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scale questionnaire. In Phase Two a case study method was employed, involving selected students from four Mauritian secondary schools. After the administration of the two instruments used in Phase One to these selected students, qualitative techniques were introduced. These included classroom observations and interviews of students, teachers, parents and key informants. Data from these interviews assisted in analysing and interpreting the influence of these individuals on students, and the influence of the students’ own attitudes towards mathematics on their learning of mathematics. / The results of Phases One and Two provided further evidence that boys were outperforming girls in mathematics at the secondary level in Mauritius. It was noted that students rated teachers highly in influencing their learning of mathematics. However, the teaching methods usually employed in the mathematics classrooms were found to be teacher-centered, and it was apparent that there existed a lack of opportunity for students to be involved in their own learning. It was also determined that parents and peers played a significant role in students’ learning of mathematics. After having analysed the difficulties students encountered in their mathematical studies, a package was designed with a view to enhance the teaching and learning of the subject at the secondary level. The package was designed to promote student-centred practices, where students would be actively involved in their own learning, and to foster appropriate use of collaborative learning. It was anticipated that the package would motivate students towards learning mathematics and would enhance their conceptual understanding of the subject. The efficacy of the package was examined in Phase Three of the study when students from a number of Mauritian secondary schools engaged with the package over a period of three months. Pre- and post-tests were used to measure students’ achievement gains. The What Is Happening in This Class (WIHIC) questionnaire also was used to analyse issues related to the affective domains of the students. An overall appreciation of the approaches used in the teaching and learning package was provided by students in the form of self-reports. / The outcomes of the Third Phase demonstrated an improvement in the achievement of students in the areas of mathematics which were tested. The students’ perceptions of the classroom learning environment were also found to be positive. Through their self-reports, students demonstrated an appreciation for the package’s strategies used in motivating them to learn mathematics and in helping them gain a better understanding of the mathematical concepts introduced.

This study is concerned with the way in which discourses of the Other are deployed in the media's narrative constructions of national imaginary. Operating on the assumption that news provides techniques and devices which enable the nation and its Other to be narrated and imagined, the analysis focuses on the structures and processes by which Japan is constructed in the news stories in some Australian and Chinese printed media. The analysis finds that othering is a dynamic and complex process engaged in by both the East and the West, for purposes of both cultural domination and cultural negotiation, and to serve both external and domestic political ends. The study shows that what seems to be an essential distinction between the Orient, or the East, and the Occident, or the West, in the discourses of the Other is constantly shifting, fluid and context-specific. The investigation points to the need of forsaking a framework of understanding media and identity which is based on a truth vs propaganda, or information vs entertainment dichotomy, and adopting an approach that takes into account the particularities of the cultural practices of each media system / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) (Media and Cultural Studies)

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) / At an upper level of education, especially Forms 5, 6 and 7 of secondary school and in tertiary institutions, Indo-Fijian students often perform better than their ethnic Fijian counterparts. This pattern of ethnic difference in academic performance is a long standing one, lasting over 70 years. However, both ethnic groups have been participants in the same educational system in Fiji. Educational policies have been implemented to reduce this difference. This present case study argues that there are cultural differences of values, beliefs and practices with respect to educational achievement among Indo-Fijians and ethnic Fijians. The achievement ethic of the two ethnic groups differs. Indo-Fijian culture respects and values education highly. Generally speaking, educating children has been always the top priority of Indo-Fijian culture. They believe that education changes people for the better, and the only way to “success” is through education. Thus, Indo- Fijian parents believe that helping children to strive for academic excellence is one of the most important tasks for them. The priority attached by such parents to educational success is one of the strongest forces behind academic success. By contrast, ethnic Fijian culture encourages children to have a strong sense of loyalty to their community and of becoming good members of their koro (i.e., village). Indeed, one’s total commitment to communal activities and cultural requirements is of vital importance. Although ethnic Fijian parents generally understand the importance of their children’s education and wish to support their education, ethnic Fijian communal demands are enormous in terms of time and labour. The pressure to maintain their moral and social obligations within the community tends to make ethnic Fijians spend a large amount of time, energy and money on functions such as ceremonial events and church activities, at the possible expense of providing for the formal education of their children. These demands mean that parents are often absent from home, and unable to supervise children’s homework. Ethnic Fijian children, upper secondary schoolers, feel strong pressure from their peers within their koro to conform to social activities, such as attending church, playing sports such as rugby and volleyball, and hanging around in the koro and town. Besides, the layout of the typical ethnic Fijian home is a more difficult environment than Indo-Fijian households for children’s study, largely due to the limited space to study independently. The socio-cultural background of ethnic Fijians, especially their home environment including family values and priorities, is one of the major barriers to their children’s educational progress. In addition, school leadership, teachers’ expectations, colonial policies and legacies, e.g., land tenure issues, play important roles in affecting differences in the academic performance of these two ethnic groups. Consequently, the educational achievement differences between ethnic Fijians and Indo-Fijians are revealed substantially during the secondary and tertiary educational institutions.

My research involves a critical analysis of the sexual cultures of young heterosexual Australian men. This research is driven by the need to understand and prevent the heterosexual sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS. I focus on young heterosexual men’s understandings and experiences of condom use and non-use, given that condoms are a key means of preventing the sexual transmission of HIV. ¶ I conducted in-depth interviews with seventeen men, using these to explore sexual practices and the meanings and sociosexual relations through which these are organised. This ‘close-focus’ qualitative approach is oriented to assessing the interplay between men’s personal experience and the social relations of sexuality and gender. I draw on empirical feminist investigations of women’s relation to HIV/AIDS, the critical scholarship on men and masculinities and masculine sexualities, and sociological scholarship on sexualities. ¶ My research finds that young heterosexual men emphasise five themes in accounting for their non-use of condoms. First, men stress the risk of pregnancy rather than the risks of HIV or other sexually transmitted infections, and they respond to the former risk by relying on their partners’ use of the Pill. Second, men perceive that wearing condoms decreases their penile sensation and that condoms are difficult to use. Third, men find that the “heat of the moment” of sexual episodes, their spontaneous and passionate ambience, makes it hard to incorporate condoms and, indeed, condoms destroy this “moment”. Fourth, men privilege “trust” as fundamental to their sexual involvements, and they quickly define involvements as “relationships” and therefore as trusting and monogamous, such that they abandon condoms. Fifth, men believe that they are very unlikely to contract HIV because they see their social circles, institutions, the heterosexual community or heterosexual sex per se as safe and free of HIV/AIDS, so there is no need to wear condoms. ¶ I compare these findings with the argument in the AIDS literature that heterosexual men’s use of condoms is limited by several understandings associated with masculine sexuality and masculinity. I argue that these understandings do not appear to be widespread as the literature claims, some work in contradictory ways and are compatible with safe sex, and other sets of meanings are more influential in heterosexual men’s unsafe sex. Men do not represent wearing condoms as feminising or homosexualising, nor as masculine. I conclude by exploring how heterosexual men could be encouraged to use condoms through appeals to notions associated with masculinity and masculine sexuality.

Aims of the Study : This report aims to describe the central issues confronting education systems today, with reference to contemporary developments in the Australian Capital Territory, drawing attention, specifically, to the problems of Special Education sub-systems and tracing the development of this sub-system in the A.C.T. Background to the Report : Bureaucratic practices and role perceptions persist in systems which are attempting to solve problems emerging from increasingly demanding environments which are growing rapidly in complexity and turbulence. Where these practices are related to the servicing aspect of the organization they may increase efficiency in those functions which can be subjected to mechanistic control. Dysfunction can be avoided if safeguards are built into the organizational framework to allow adequate communication, co-ordination and co-operation in servicing the needs of those in primary roles. Special Education, Guidance and Counselling Services were established at a time when bureaucratic administrative practices prevailed in educational systems. Closed system structures were deemed then to be appropriate organizations for mechanistic approaches to human problems. This approach was apparent in the categorization of educational needs on aetiological and psychometric data. The growth of Special Education classes, aimed at securing homogeneous target populations for specialised programmes, characterises this period. The persistence of the bureaucratic model in an inappropriate environment has resulted in the fixing of certain aspects of the primary task and role. Further, it has placed some important aspects of decision making, namely, needs assessment and the determination of criteria for child placement as well as the actual placement of children, outside the scope of the school in the centrally administered sub-systems of Guidance and Special Education. This has resulted in instances of teachers in mainstream classes in the A.C.T. exhibiting reluctance to propose children for special placement at a time when the beneficial effects of specialized interventions could be maximised. It has also helped to institutionalise prevalent views of lock-step educational programming. This creates dilemmas for teachers as they attempt to integrate children who are developmentally or educationally retarded as judged by this criterion, and it presents barriers to the availability of specialized technical assistance to children with learning disabilities placed in mainstream classes. The climate of education in the A.C.T. is one of increasing openness. In mainstream education parents, teachers, principals and personnel within the Schools Office are beginning to assume new roles' as a result of confrontations and compromises. This process is also evidenced in the Schools Authority's Council and Standing Committees. This level of openness is not yet discernible in Special Education which in many ways appears to be operating in a closed system. Outline of the Study : The ensuing chapters expand these main points in the following manner: Chapter 2 describes major issues faced by education systems today as they attempt to develop organizational structures to maximise technological developments and pursue goals congruent with modern educational philosophies. It draws attention to contemporary developments in the A.C.T. with preference to problems faced by Special Education sub-systems. Chapter 3 traces the development of Special Education services in the A.C.T. It refers to the initial impetus and growth shared by all elements within the larger system. (i) up to the establishment of the Interim A.C.T. Schools Authority; (ii) Special Education since the establishment of the Interim Authority. Chapter if enumerates the main factors which have led to the dissipation of this impetus and describes some new initiatives and trends which have emerged. Chapter 5 overviews theoretical, organizational and technical solutions which have been proposed to overcome the problems identified in Chapter 2 and shared by all systems as they become increasingly open to rapidly changing environments, and indicates some principles on which a sound policy for Special Education in the A.C.T. might be based.

The major issue of this thesis is that for effective change in teachers' classroom practice to occur, multiple actions are required at different levels of participation, from federal and state education jurisdictions through to school communities and individual classroom teachers. The thesis supposition is that practical action factors in schools and the community can be found which meet the needs of the change. The history of attempts to achieve educational change through changed classroom practice is littered with a range of different approaches, usually one-off events. They have sometimes succeeded. Stakeholders, including parents, social pressure groups and particularly governments have increasing expectations of what it is that teachers can achieve in terms of their students' learning outcomes. The degree to which actual teaching practices are changed at the classroom level will depend on the degree to which teachers are able to manage and implement change. However, studies in the area of curriculum change reveal that the gap between policy and practice remains an ongoing concern. This thesis draws upon theory and applied research findings from the traditions of educational change, health education, models of change, evaluation and social science research methods. The purpose of this thesis is to identify and make comparisons in the practical action factors which enhance the capacity of teachers to change their classroom practice. These are investigated through a multiple case study consideration of the school context, the professional development inputs, and the classroom programs. The patterns of effective practical action in the research study would support the thesis supposition. A multiple case study-theory building approach was used to analyse the data from twelve school sites selected from the School Development in Health Education (SDHE) Project. Data analysis employed the technique of matrix displays, with several rounds of analysis in order to generate some significant factors related to teacher change. The results were considered for endorsement by an expert panel from the field in order to enhance confidence in the validity and the reliability of the research study. Results from first round of analysis in the multiple case study showed school team commitment, teachers' attitude to professional development and community cooperation to be important factors in educational change. The second round of analysis highlighted the importance of placing the teacher at the centre of change when planning professional development. Finally, the third round presents a summary of the factors emerging from the analyses in five major focus areas: professional development; principal leadership; school organisation and culture; school team; and system support. The importance of the relationships among these factors was recognised in their impact on teachers' abilities to make educational changes in their classrooms. The thesis has found that the professional decision-making and practice of teachers is value added by the actions of other players - professional development providers, school principals and education systems. Teachers' capacity to change is enhanced by appropriate school-based professional development, flexible school organisation, and the opportunity to work collaboratively in school teams. From the patterns emerging from the strong and weak clusters of cases the thesis is able to make conclusions about teachers' professional practice, professional development approaches, principal leadership, school organisation, education systems and the nature of change. This thesis shows that educational change requires multiple actions at different levels of participation. Finally, the thesis offers recommendations to the different players in the field: education systems, principals and professional development providers.

This study explores the meanings that people attributed to their involvement in a participatory on-farm practice change project. Three techniques of discourse analysis were used. The first two identify the diversity among narratives of the participants and explores the origin of these differences. The third technique examined differences and tensions within and across the narratives to identify the discourses that were operating. Participation was found to be mediated through discourse as agents created and reproduced some discourses through their many social acts. For example, some participants recalled incidences of feeling excluded when they presented an alternative understanding of the project. As a result, these people tended to reduced their involvement rather than explore the differences. The project's discourses therefore routinised the participatory experience and tended to lock the narrative in time despite over two decades of rapid social change. Thi s meant the project discourse mediated a favoured type of participation, one that met a symbolic character rather than the particular farming practices it promoted. The discourses reveal different patterns of sense making among participants involved in the same event. Uneven participation is comprehended from the multiple patterns as a consequence of the participants' discursive practices. Articulating differences in discursive design will assist to create conditions useful for an authentic communication among participants engaged in change programs.

Tourism is promoted by the governments of many developing countries because it offers the potential for creating jobs, thus generating income for the country and revenue for the government. However, the tourism industry can also be viewed as a destructive force, associated with negative externalities such as the loss of natural landscapes, congestion, and environmental and cultural degradation. These problems are more likely to be exacerbated where there is a lack of well-designed planning and effective management of tourism development. An essential component of any management of tourism is the ability to engage with, and get a positive response from, the tourism industry. There are a wide range of enterprises involved in providing tourist products and experiences, and in many nations, both developing and developed, a large number of these businesses are small and medium in size and tend to operate at a local scale. The informal nature of tourism enterprises in the developing world can make it difficult to spread awareness of tourism policy and to measure moves towards more sustainable performance on the part of the industry. Using the case study of tourism in the city of Hue, this thesis argues that it is essential to understand both what tourism enterprises know about sustainable tourism practice and policy and also how they respond to its adoption, if we are to more fully understand tourism and its links to sustainable economic development. Located on the central northern coast of Vietnam, Hue is well known for its cultural resources and natural beauty, and the province has become a major tourism centre in Vietnam. The city of Hue itself is recognized as having international heritage value and was listed as a world cultural heritage site by UNESCO in 1993. During the last decade, tourism revenues have increased by nearly 35% per annum, and Hue has made great efforts to both stimulate and cater for increasing demand for its tourism products and services. The Vietnamese government has introduced a number of policies designed to enhance environmental quality generally and, more specifically, to improve the sustainability of enterprises in the tourism sector. This thesis examines the degree to which tourism enterprises in the city of Hue are aware of the broad concept of sustainable tourism and of the specific legislation designed to influence the sustainability of their businesses. I examine the structure and make-up of the industry and then analyse whether characteristics such as size, ownership type and sectoral focus play a role in influencing awareness of, and response to, government policy. The research triangulates data-gathering methods: secondary data, literature reviews, semi-structured interviews and an enterprise survey are all used to gain insights into the core research questions. Each method feeds into and is strengthened by the others, and their combination (including 50 interviews and 180 survey responses) provides a robust data set to work from. The findings reveal that many of the firms operating in the Hue tourism industry are characterized by weak institutional practices, low financial capacity, poor facilities and a lack of broader awareness of policies that influence sustainable tourism practice. The tourism industry’s awareness of general sustainable development issues is low, and much business practice focuses on short-term rather than long-term perspectives. This limits the use of environmentally friendly practices by firms, especially small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), in their daily business activities. The study reveals that there is no significant variation in the adoption of sustainable tourism practices according to the size of enterprises, especially if the practices in question are simple and can be introduced with cost savings. However, as the cost and complexity of introducing environmental measures increases, we see a greater ability on the part of larger enterprises to adopt such actions – partly because they are in a stronger position to bear the short-terms costs of implementing such approaches. There are a wide range of factors that constrain the Hue tourism industry from adopting more sustainable tourism practices. Internal constraints such as limited financial and human resources are combined with external constraints such as increasing cost-based competition, the lack of enforcement of government policies, and limited awareness of sustainable tourism pracitces. All of these factors play a crucial role in shaping the actions of enterprises in relation to sustainable tourism practices and policies. The results of this study also point to the fact that government sustainable tourism initiatives that rely on ‘command-and-control’ approaches will have limited effect; instead, a variety of institutional economic instruments offer greater potential to overcome deficiencies in the ability of the market to drive tourism enterprises towards more sustainable business practices. The thesis also argues that it is important to develop approaches that can cope with the special challenges attached to management of sustainable tourism development in destinations that are dominated by SMEs. The thesis contributes to the growing body of theory and literature in sustainable tourism development and tourism-enterprise behaviour. It also makes an important contribution to our understanding of tourism enterprises in the developing world. In particular, the findings add an important layer of understanding to those attempting to develop a more sustainable tourism industry in Vietnam. Specifically, it provides policy-makers with important insights into the ways in which different types of tourism enterprises respond to initiatives that relate to improved business sustainability.

This study explored the experiences of early childhood educators who sought to increase young children’s participation with the purpose of identifying how children’s participation can be made sustainable in early childhood settings. Increasing interest in young children’s participation rights as a result of the UNCRC, General Comment 7 and the new sociology of childhood, has led to a growing expectation that early childhood educators will enact participation rights in practice. There is a limited body of research on both young children’s participation and on the sustainability of early childhood practices. Of the available literature, the majority is framed within a modernist paradigm that fails to acknowledge the multiple and contradictory nature of early childhood practice. / This study used Foucauldian discourse analysis and selected poststructuralist understandings of power, knowledge and truth to explore how socially constructed understandings of young children and of early childhood educators influence participation practices and their sustainability. Three semi-structured interviews were conducted with four early childhood educators across three settings. The analysis of interviews showed particular discourses of childhood informing early childhood practices and creating and maintaining regimes of truth. It highlighted the need to recognise that early childhood educators work within and through multiple and conflicting discourses, each offering a particular subjectivity. The analysis also illuminates the micro-practices of power that limit the possibilities for children’s participation and illustrate the ‘danger’ of assimilating children’s participation into existing early childhood practices without critically reflecting on that process. The study raised the question of whether—rather than how—children’s participation should be sustained if it is operating within a singular dominant discourse. The study’s selected poststructuraist approach enabled it to fill a gap in the existing research, and has implications for practice, policy and training and provides direction for future research in the area of children’s participation.