A multiple case study approach was employed in this intensive thematic analysis of the process of nondirective play therapy. Using a naturalistic research paradigm, this study undertook to identify and describe the principal verbal and play themes and their transformations emergent over a course of play therapy, as well as to identify and describe similarities and differences between the themes emergent in those two domains. Play and verbalization, two types of symbolic expression, were considered routes of access to the child’s evolution of personal meaning. The research participants in this multiple case study were 4 preschoolers, aged 3 to 4. Each participant received 20 weekly play therapy sessions which were videotaped and transcribed. Running notations were made on the verbatim transcripts as to participants’ play activities. Separate coding schemes were devised for the emergent play and verbal themes. Supplemental data collection, organization, and analysis procedures included a field notebook with post hoc descriptions of the sessions, session summary sheets profiling play and verbal themes, charts, and memos. This study, discovery-oriented and exploratory in nature, yielded rich descriptions of the intricacies of therapeutic change on two symbolic levels. From these descriptions were extracted not only information on the transformations in play and verbal themes but also an understanding of the qualitative changes which denote the phases of therapy, and insight into the process of evolving meaning across these phases. A central finding of this study was that the arrays of play and verbal themes and their patterns of transformations were highly individualized. However, a number of themes emerged in common to all cases: Exploration, Aggression, Messing, Distress, and Caregiving or Nurturance. Participants were observed to work through contrasting themes, with preschoolers’ therapy characterized as an active struggle with such intense, oppositional forces as birth and death, injury and recovery, loss and retrieval. Typical thematic transformations included movement from infantile vulnerability to mastery, from grief toward resolution, from fear to safety and protection. The beginning phase of therapy was found to be typified by exploratory play. The middle phase was typified by intensified involvement in play and by experiences of disinhibition. The end phase was characterized by two contrasting yet not mutually exclusive tendencies, namely, the introduction of a sense of hopefulness, confidence, and integration; and an improved capacity to deal with difficult psychological material. Entry into the middle and end phases was signalled by qualitative shifts in the child’s attentional, tensional, or relational state. The theoretical implications of this study included insight into the critical role of the child’s initiative and of the therapist’s permissiveness in the unfolding of symbolic expression. Each individual case contained specific theoretical implications for such classic problem and treatment phenomena as developmental delay and play disruptions. The practical implications of this study include emphasizing the need for practitioners to counterbalance attention to the child’s verbal expression with attention to transformations in play activity and play material usage. It is suggested that further research extend the ramifications of this exploratory study by examining the themes occurring in treatment within homogeneous populations according to problem configuration.

Children learn language in the family. They also learn about the ways in which language can be used to communicate needs, share ideas, express cultural identity and negotiate and reinforce group membership. In bilingual and minority language families children also learn about the existence of different languages, of different ways of talking about the same object and expressing the same ideas, and the appropriate time and place to use each language. The place of language in the development of cultural identity and group membership is particularly important for people who speak more than one language and feel attachments to more than one culture. This study explores what it is to be a bilingual parent of young children. Parents who were themselves bilingual were asked about their own experiences with language, and their experiences with raising their children. The dissertation is organized around the themes of language learning in the family, in the community, and within the context of school. This study has resulted in a broad range of findings, among which are: that raising children to be bilingual is a deliberate act requiring considerable, conscious effort on the part of parents, that parents who have a mentor, someone they know who has successfully raised bilingual children, are more likely to persist with their efforts despite difficulties, and that close religious, cultural or familial ties to other speakers of the minority language are positive influences on both parents and children. Another important finding is that parents are greatly encouraged by meeting health and/or educational professionals who are positive and informative about bilingualism in young children. Conversation is the methodology for this study because it allows the participants and the researcher to work together toward a greater understanding of the topic under study. Through conversations with other interested people I was able to invite them into my questions. Sharing stories of language, and reflecting on what these stories mean and how they have affected and continue to affect us, opens the possibilities for a much greater understanding of what it means to speak more than one language in this society, and how that will affect our children.

This study investigates the effect of founders socialization experiences and contextual interpretations on the deviation of recently-established law firms from the dominant organizational form in the B.C. legal profession. Through this research I address three issues fundamental to the neo-institutional perspective on organizational analysis: 1) whether consensually-understood frameworks exist in highly-institutionalized environments, 2) the extent to which new entrants to such industries reproduce or depart from these prescribed arrangements, and 3) why some conform while others deviate. In the first phase of my investigation, I ascertained the nature of the legal profession s dominant template for organizing by analyzing qualitative data collected from multiple data sources including both observers of and practitioners within this industry. I subsequently validated this template by collecting quantitative data through a survey administered to a panel of lawyers. The results support the existence of a commonly- perceived template for organizing in the B.C. legal profession. In the second phase of my research, I investigated sixty recently-established law firms in B.C. Through a background questionnaire and personal interview conducted with the founder of each firm, I collected data on multiple dimensions of form, the founder s experience, and his or her rationale for designing the firm in a certain way. I also administered a survey to a separate panel of lawyers, to obtain their perceptions of the extent to which alternative arrangements differed from those of the dominant template. This data was used to calculate deviation measures for the recentlyestablished firms. The results revealed that, despite the prevalence with which founders voiced disenchantment with the dominant template, 85% of their firms exhibited very little deviation from the normative form. Thus, it appears that most new entrants to a highlyinstitutionalized setting act primarily as agents of institutional perpetuation rather than entrepreneurship. The 15% that exhibited greater deviation tended to be headed by founders with less experience in the industry s most prominent organizations and by those who most strongly questioned the moral legitimacy of prevailing organizational arrangements. Experience in marginal organizations or other industries, as well as doubts about the dominant template s pragmatic legitimacy, were insufficient triggers of new entrant deviation.

The purpose of this exploratory investigation was to investigate how self-identified gay or bisexual (GB) men with developmental disabilities managed their complex identities. Through various profiling strategies and snowball sampling techniques, seven such GB men volunteered. These key participants resided over a wide geographical area, from the coastal US to the southern part of British Columbia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with each person, three of whom identified a caregiver as being a particularly important part of his "coming-out" process. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with these supporting participants, as well as a few other relevant professionals. Key participants' life stories were framed within several theories: namely; Goffman's (1963) stigma, Lave and Wengers' (1991) legitimate peripheral participation, disability theory, queer theory and Smith's (1987) institutional ethnography. Similarly, the supporting professionals' responses were analyzed. The results present rich kaleidoscopic narrative descriptions, and provide many implications for special education practice and queer activism.

In the 1970s, international development planners began to recognize women's important roles in their communities. A variety of approaches to include women have since evolved, and their merits are debated. They have been described in the literature as "welfare," "Women-in-Development" (WID), and "Gender and Development" (GAD). The welfare approach focuses on basic needs while strengthening women's homemaker and reproductive roles. The WID approach is based on increasing women's incomes as a means toward empowerment. The Gender and Development (GAD) addresses systemic gender discrimination. There is need for research in development planning. Development programs track results during the project, but seldom look at long term impacts and sustainability. This thesis reports the results of research on a 1991 WID efficiency approach, women's income generation project in Shaanxi Province, China, by examining the impact seven years later. My methodology involved interviews with twenty-one women project participants, eight husbands, village leaders and informal lunch-hour focus group discussions with villagers. The project involved transition from grain to orchards. The orchards dramatically increased women's incomes and improved the quality of village life. The women took full control of orchard management, pushing men out of the orchards saying that they were "incapable" of the monotonous orchard tasks. Most husbands found off-farm jobs, diversifying household incomes. Women gained marketing skills, self-confidence, and financial independence, but remained vulnerable as primary producers to income fluctuations. Most women stayed outside village politics, and traditional gender role socialization was maintained. The project fulfilled women's needs and interests, however, long term results for women are mixed. The Shaanxi field project was one of sixty-six field projects under the Canada- China Women-in-Development Project (1990-1995) implemented in partnership by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the All-China Women's Federation. The project had two components: poverty reduction and institutional strengthening of the Women's Federation. I was the Canadian co-manager of the Canada-China WID Project, and have since completed more than thirty contracts (fifteen projects) plus a two-year contract as co-manager of the Canada-China Women's Law Project (one year of which was full-time in China). My research is intended to assist and improve my future work in the development field, and to inform those interested in women's development program planning and gender equality policy. Good planning was key to the strength of the Canada-China WID Project. Partners shared a common goal. CIDA's efficiency approach supported the Women's Federation policy to bring women into production as a means of achieving equality. Participatory planning and decision-making involved Federation project officers across China. Delegation in management and clear, commonly set guidelines increased partners' involvement and accountability. Power in planning gradually, and tacitly, transferred to the Women's Federation as they assumed ownership and responsibility for results. Strong donor/recipient partnership and participatory planning processes strengthen potential for sustainable results. Suggestions to improve women's development planning include: increasing gender awareness, strengthening women's interest and capacity in political participation, developing risk mitigation strategies to lessen income insecurity, blending WID/GAD projects, and further research on project impacts.

Plasma total, low density lipoprotein (LDL) and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol concentrations increase immediately following birth. Interestingly, this increase is greater in breast-fed infants than in infants fed formula. The reason(s) why there are differences in plasma cholesterol concentrations between breast-fed and formula-fed infants is not known. However, this difference may be a consequence of the variations in lipid composition between milk and infant formula. Little is known regarding the specific effects of the lipid component(s) of infant diets on the expression of genes involved in hepatic lipid metabolism. The studies presented in this thesis determined whether the addition of cholesterol, arachidonic acid [20:4(n-6)] and docosahexaenoic acid [22:6(n-3)] to formula, and the positional distribution of fatty acids in formula triglycerides increases plasma cholesterol in formula-fed piglets to levels observed in milk-fed piglets. In study #1, piglets were fed from birth to 18 days of age with either a conventional infant formula (conventional formula) or a formula with synthesized triglycerides (TG) (synthesized TG formula). The conventional infant formula had 70% of the total 16:0, representing 23% of total fatty acids, esterified at the sn-1 and 3 positions of the formula triglyceride. The synthesized TG formula contained a similar percentage of 16:0, representing 23% of total fatty acids, but had 47% of the total 16:0 esterified at the centre (sn-2) position of the formula triglyceride. Each of the conventional and synthesized TG formulae were provided either without (<0.10 mM) or with 0.65mM cholesterol added to formula, 0.52mmol/L as unesterified cholesterol and 0.13 mmol/L as cholesterol oleate. A reference group of piglets was also fed sow milk. In study #1, the levels of hepatic HMG-CoA reductase mRNA, 7-a-hydroxylase (C7H) mRNA, and acetyl CoA carboxylase (ACC) mRNA were higher in the formula-fed than milk-fed piglets, irrespective of the formula cholesterol content or the positional distribution of fatty acids in the formula triglyceride. This was accompanied by lower plasma total and HDL cholesterol concentrations, lower hepatic triglyceride concentrations and lower concentrations of bile acids, cholesterol and phospholipid in bile of the formula-fed than milk-fed piglets. Adding cholesterol to the formula increased hepatic cholesterol concentrations and decreased hepatic levels of fatty acid synthase (FAS) mRNA, but had no effect on the plasma cholesterol concentrations of the formula-fed piglets. Directing 16:0 to the sn-2 position of the formula triglyceride led to lower plasma total cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, lower concentrations of bile acids in bile, lower hepatic levels of FAS mRNA and activity, and higher hepatic levels of ACC mRNA than in piglets fed the conventional formula. In study #2, piglets were fed the conventional formula either without or with egg phospholipid (9.5g/L) to provide 0.8% 20:4(n-6) and 0.3% 22:6(n-3) of total fatty acids, or sow milk from birth to 15 days of age. Supplementing the conventional formula with egg phospholipid resulted in higher levels of 20:4(n-6) and 22:6(n-3) in liver and bile phospholipid, higher plasma HDL concentrations, higher bile acid and phospholipid concentrations in bile and lower hepatic ACC mRNA levels in the formula-fed piglets. The levels of 20:4(n-6) and 22:6(n-4) in liver and bile phospholipid were also higher in the piglets fed the supplemented formula than in the piglets fed milk. A significant inverse relation was found between the levels of hepatic ACC mRNA and the percentage of 20:4(n-6) in liver triglyceride and the percentage of 22:6(n-3) in liver phospholipid. Egg phospholipid supplementation of formula had no effect on hepatic LDL receptor mRNA or hepatic FAS activity and mRNA in the formula-fed piglets. The piglets fed either the supplemented or the conventional formula had lower levels of plasma cholesterol and higher levels of hepatic HMG-CoA reductase activity and mRNA and C7H mRNA than piglets fed milk. These studies show that early diet, that is, milk compared to formula feeding, results in lower levels of hepatic HMG-CoA reductase activity and mRNA and C7H mRNA accompanied by higher plasma cholesterol concentrations in piglets. Supplementing formula with cholesterol or the preferential esterification of 16:0 at the sn-2 position of the formula triglyceride did not raise plasma cholesterol concentrations and had no effect on hepatic HMG-CoA reductase activity and mRNA or C7H mRNA in formula-fed piglets. Supplementing formula with egg phospholipid, increased bile and liver phospholipid 20:4(n-6) and 22:6(n-3), decreased the levels of hepatic ACC mRNA and increased the concentrations of bile acids and phospholipid in bile. These findings suggest that milk-fed piglets have lower rates of hepatic cholesterol synthesis, lower rates of conversion of cholesterol to bile acids and the lipid present in sow milk and formula may be metabolized differently. These findings are significant in that they raise the question as to whether or not this effect of early diet will continue through to adulthood and influence metabolic response to diet fat.

This grounded theory study investigated the experiences of 18 middle class, middle aged men who lost long term employment because of organizational restructuring. Limited research had previously been conducted in this area and this study extends our understanding about the impact of job loss on people who have lost long term employment. The purpose of the study was to explicate the lived experiences of these men and generate an explanation and model of how they reconstructed their understanding of career following job loss from long term employment. The men's experience of job loss and how they constructed career after the loss of long term employment were explained through a dynamic and interacting four stage process model of the dissolution of career. Stage 1, establishing career, explained how the men came to understand career as a relationship. For these men, career, as a relationship, was based on trust and was comprised of reciprocal terms believed to exist between the "good employee" and the "good employer." Over time, by fulfilling the terms of reciprocity, a psychological contract was established between the men and their employers. This contract contained mutual obligations, such as, employment security in exchange for employee commitment, loyalty, hard work, and sacrifice. Stage 2, the termination of employment, revealed how the experience of job loss signified a violation of the psychological contract. The men believed they had complied with the psychological contract; however, the employer's failure to provide employment security represented a violation of the psychological contract. This violation was a highly emotional experience, tantamount to a betrayal. Although compensation could represent the employer's effort to honour the employer/employee relationship, compensation in the form of severance pay was not adequate. Stage 3, disengaging from career, signified the period of time during which the men attempted to come to terms with the loss of career. The men attempted to secure new employment in a world of work different from the world in which they had begun their careers. Although the men sought employment that promoted the employer/employee relationship of career, seeking work revealed career as they had known it was unlikely in the new world of work. Past experience and educational upgrading had little effect on their ability to secure employment. Employers favoured inexpensive labour, immediate skills, and short term working relationships with employees. Generally, the men found themselves working in unstable jobs for less money. The men who secured stable work, gained job security through union membership or self employment instead of relying on the employer/employee relationship. The men's experiences during this stage underscored the experiences of the second stage. Stage 4, the dearth of career, represented the outcome of the men's experiences of the preceding stages. Although the men maintained previous definitions of career, they stated they had lost career and that career is no longer possible in the context of the new world of work. They were less trusting of employers. They favoured a transactional orientation towards work and stressed self interest in work relationships. Whereas, career provided a major source of purpose and meaning in the past, they constructed new purpose and meaning in life by reprioritizing other relationships in their lives, that is, with self, family, and friends. One wonders, however, whether life seemed less meaningful for the men who participated in this study because they maintained their definitions of career.

Education and delivery methods of this education to students are always chaning. To teach students in geographically separated locations, many technologies are being used and one of these technologies is video-conferencing. However, the human element of education must neither be lost nor forgotten as we continue with new ways of educating students of the future. That is, the value of the student-instructor relationship and the critical role it plays in effective teaching and learning must be retained by distance educators. To develop a deeper understanding of the relationship between instructors and students of a video-conferenced classroom is the goal of this study. This case of student-teacher rapport in video-conferencing was conducted over a six-week summer course. Data were collected by questionnaire, student and instructor interviews, and class observations from both sites. From these primarily qualitative research techniques, several recurring themes emerged. All of these were central to the establishment and perceptions of an instructor-student rapport. Some of these areas were crucial to this video-conferencing case study and will serve to assist futre educators. The primary result of this case study was that very little rapport was established between the instructor and his students and it was perceived by the instructor and the students that this scant amount of rapport was sufficient. The paramount themes which were revealed include: the lack of name knowledge on the part of the instructor and the students' perception that this was acceptable; the technological problems; the question-asking procedures; and the amount of side-chatter and other off-task behaviours. All of these factors compounded to suppress the existence of an instructor-student rapport in this course. Recommendations for distance educators are included. / xiii, 223 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.

In this thesis, I conduct a case study of a virtual community (Metafilter.com) in order to apply Pierre Bourdieu's theory of capital and class to an online community. The specific goals for this thesis are in mapping the different forms of capital that are active in Metafilter in order to see how they structure its social space. The questions I address are: 1) what forsm of capital are active in the Metafilter community? 2) How are they similar to the forms of capital presented by Bourdieu? Having identified the active forms of capital, 3) do they act to influence stratification in the Metafilter community? / vi, 129 leaves ; 29 cm.

In this small qualitative study, the researcher explores how four families involved in resource foster care services conceptualize concurrent planning in the child welfare system. Analysis of the four semi-structured transcribed interviews revealed four dominant themes: hope and optimism that resource foster care could be a rewarding alternative to further infertility treatment; anger and fear of disruption related to birth family visits; identification of the foster child as their own; and uncertainty regarding resource foster care team rules, roles, and responsibilities. Each theme was influenced by an attachment to the child they were fostering and the fear of losing that child. / The findings suggest that resource foster parents do not fully embrace concurrent planning as a philosophy of care that supports and works towards the best interests of children. Practice principles central to concurrent planning were often abandoned as a result of intense identification with adoptive parenthood status. / The researcher has included a number of recommendations with respect to future studies, training needs, and recruitment strategies. The conclusion states that in the best interests of children, resource foster parents must fully embrace the concept of concurrent planning defined within child welfare context and legislation.