Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2008. / Abstract and vita. Description based on Print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-204).

Unethical behaviour is affecting societal behaviour and impacting business success. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is increasingly adopted across businesses and for personal use and insufficient attention is paid to the impact of unethical practices in the use of ICT on various stakeholders involved. ICT professionals are well positioned to provide guidance to ICT users and decision makers but they need help. While they have the knowledge and skills in ICT, they also need a sense of professional responsibility towards their stakeholders and a moral attitude to help them understand how unethical practices in ICT can affect others and the ability to make good decisions in the use of ICT. Ethics education has been shown to be effective for other professions and this research project builds and tests a model based on current good practices found to be effective in ethics education. More specifically, it adopts a Positive Psychology perspective, not previously used in ICT ethics education, looking at what is working well and examines the use of a Positive Psychology approach, namely Appreciative Inquiry (AI) which has been found elsewhere to be an effective method to motivate change. This research project tests the impact that an Appreciative Inquiry included in a computer ethics class has on the development of moral attitude. The project had a quasi-experiment design with a large sample of over 400 participants (undergraduate Information Technology Management students) using both a control and treatment group to determine the effect of AI on the changes in moral sensitivity and moral judgment of the participants. One well validated survey tool and one developed specifically for ICT, the Defining Issues Test 2 and the IMIS Survey, respectively, were used to test changes from the beginning to the end of each course. The study findings demonstrate that a well-developed ethics course, adopting good practices, produced significant changes in the moral attitudes of the participants. The adoption of AI in the treatment group produced significant changes in elements of the student’s moral judgment validated by both the pre-and post-analysis and instructor observations. Thus taking a Positive Psychology approach to ICT ethics is a useful innovation to ethics education. The project has also demonstrated that AI may have significant potential for ethical education across professions and business at large.

Master of Science / Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional & Community Planning / Cornelia Flora / Economic development in Appalachia has failed to achieve socioeconomic parity with the rest of the nation, especially in coal-dependent communities. This thesis examines the history of development in the region including a case study of unincorporated former coal camps in Clearfork Valley to understand how Community Capitals Framework and Appreciative Inquiry may contribute to equitable and inclusive community development. While community capital asset investment was key to achieving results and creating additional assets in the focus community, the community often had limited access to natural, financial, built and financial capitals. Social capital was the sustaining and catalyzing asset. Community developers can play a key role in Appalachia by providing capacity, outreach, and helping communities identify and invest in their accessible capitals.

The four year nursing programme is offered at the NEI in the EC province where this study was conducted. As early as 2009 the majority of first and second year nursing students of the NEI were academically unsuccessful in the subject biological science. This prompted the researcher to conduct a qualitative, contextual, exploratory and descriptive study to explore and describe the factors influencing the academic performance of students in the subject biological science at the NEI. Following an explanation of the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) process as the framework of the study and the purpose of the study, the consecutive sample of second year nursing students who consented to participate completed a written appreciative interview schedule. The findings of the content analysis process revealed factors influencing performance in the subject biological science as biological science content, nurse educator characteristics, study strategies, resources and biological science assessments. The recommendation was for all the stakeholders to play their various active roles towards influencing biological science performance positively. / Dissertation (MCur)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Nursing Science / unrestricted

As nursing is a practice-based profession it is essential that pre-graduate students are socialised in the clinical learning environment from the start of their training. Consequently, clinical accompaniment is regarded as a vital component of nursing training to offer the necessary support to pre-graduate students. This study aimed to evaluate clinical accompaniment of pre graduate students in a specific Nursing Education Institution (NEI) in Gauteng as part of the four year comprehensive programme by means of Appreciative Inquiry (AI). The AI approach focuses on the positive aspects of an organisation and aims to enhance what could and should be valued rather than focusing on the problems. A qualitative, contextual, explorative and descriptive research design was utilised. Data was collected from second-, third- and fourth-year comprehensive programme pre-graduate nursing students in a specific NEI by means of semi-structured self-report interview guide. The data was analysed according to the four objectives of this study, guided by the 4-D cycle of AI, utilizing content analysis and verified by the co-coder. The results were categorized into four main themes. For the first objective, “the best of what is”, nurse educator support, registered nurse support, students’ professional development, and multidisciplinary team members’ support, were themed. The second objective intended to enhance the best of what is by indicating “what could be” the ideal clinical accompaniment. The third objective indicated “what should be” addressed during clinical accompaniment to move towards excellence and enhance the clinical learning experiences of students and the following themes emerged: inadequate support from nurse educators, lack of resources, inadequate support from registered nurses, and disregard for student status. The respondents recommended “what must be” as an action plan to enhance clinical accompaniment based on the findings, and the following themes emerged: nurse educator’s responsibility, registered nurse’s responsibility, and availability of resources for students. / Dissertation (MCur)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Nursing Science / unrestricted

American prisons are overflowing with inmates exacting an incalculable human and moral cost on inmates, their families, and society. A central theme in criminality is the inability to deal with conflict and the affiliated emotions in an appropriate manner. Further, problem-solving, communication, and consequential thinking skills are lacking in the lives of many inmates due to lack of proper role models, lack of skills, and lack of expectations. Focusing on inmate education is one of the most effective forms of crime prevention according to leading criminological theorists. This phenomenological study was an assessment of a ten-session, holistic conflict resolution course for inmates called Reach Out with Purposeful Engagement Skills. The course is centered on emotional intelligence skills including self-awareness, self-regulation, and empathy, and incorporates a multi-theoretical framework consisting of (a) human needs theory, (b) hope theory, (c) social construction theory, (d) appreciative inquiry, and (e) restorative justice principles. The teaching methodology was centered on positive criminology, a sub-group of positive psychology which embraces concepts such as compassion, encouragement, goodness, gratitude, positive modeling, and spirituality. An underlying belief was that recognition of individual participant strengths, if nurtured and developed, can contribute toward personal change. Results of the study describe participant’s perceptions of self-efficacy in conflict resolution which resulted in personal change and empowerment. This study contributes toward qualitative literature supporting socio-emotional education for inmates delivered in a constructive environment to inspire transformation at a deep and necessary level in order to support and promote desistance.

It has long been recognised that cared for children can be at a disadvantage in terms of their educational experiences and outcomes (Comfort, 2007). The Care Matters Green Paper (DfES, 2006) suggested that although educational outcomes for cared for children had improved, there was still a gap between the outcomes for cared for children and those of the wider school population. A number of suggestions to narrow this gap were proposed, including the introduction of a virtual school head who would be responsible for driving up the performance of schools in relation to cared for children (DfES, 2006). In 2009 the role of the designated teacher of cared for children became statutory (DCSF, 2009a) with the aim of promoting the educational achievement of cared for children.This thesis aimed to explore the current and future role of the virtual school for cared for children in one local authority, using a mixed methods research design. The current role was established through semi-structured interviews with members of the virtual school team and surveying designated teachers using a questionnaire. The future role was explored through an appreciative inquiry session involving three members of the virtual school and one designated teacher. Appreciative inquiry seeks out what is already working in an organisation and builds on this success (Carter, 2006). There are limited examples of the use of appreciative inquiry in educational research regarding vulnerable groups (Woollam, 2010a; Woollam, 2010b), particularly within a mixed methods approach.Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. The majority of designated teachers suggested that they were confident in their role. Existing support from the virtual school included individual casework, funding, training, support during placement breakdowns and emotional support for the designated teacher. Additional support was requested for post-16 cared for children and adopted children. Virtual school staff reported increased funding, the virtual school head position and virtual school branding, the raised profile of cared for children and relationships as facilitative to their work. Barriers included cared for children’s experiences, staff knowledge and experience and low expectations for cared for children. It was perceived the virtual school model was “working”; advantages over previous models included “sitting” in education, access to senior meetings to raise the profile of cared for children’s needs and being a “bridge” between social care and education. Priorities for the future role of this virtual school included “being bold”, developing early years and post-16 provision, increased enrichment opportunities and widening the remit of the virtual school to include other vulnerable groups such as adopted children, child protection cases and children in need. Implications for educational psychology practice and future research are considered.

This research project explores and evaluates the usefulness of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as a methodological framework for Educational Psychology consultations with young people. A significant part of the role of an Educational Psychologist (EP) can be to hold consultations with young people in secondary schools who are perceived to be experiencing difficulties or challenges. These difficulties can often prevent young people from engaging positively in the learning opportunities available to them putting them at risk of under achievement and possible exclusion from school. AI is more commonly known as an organisational development methodology, however by drawing explicitly from the philosophical and theoretical paradigms of social constructionism and the social model of disability, this project’s unique contribution to knowledge is to reconfigured AI as a framework to engender the inclusion and participation of young people in identifying positive changes at school. AI is a change methodology that begins with the premise that within any system or organisation there already exist success, positive experiences, and strengths that are life giving and life affirming. The nature of the exploration is centred on uncovering narrative accounts of what is already working in order to inform any future change.The project was based within a secondary school and was designed specifically to run concurrently with an ‘in house’ programme of support run by the school’s Learning Mentor, so that data from the AI consultations could be used to inform and support the work of the Learning Mentor. The findings (both content and process) indicated that AI consultations with students can support their inclusion and participation. Students identified change through co-constructing alternative narratives that challenged the ‘authority’ view of the students’ difficulties. The process of using AI as a methodology in this way is described as a multidirectional cycle (differing from traditional AI cycles which are presented as unidirectional). Being fluid, flexible and emancipatory the AI consultation framework is considered both useful and appropriate in providing an epistemological basis for Educational Psychology practice.

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