This study explores the childhood experiences and transitions to adulthood of 39 Romanian care leavers and adoptees, born around 1989 - 1990. In the past, Romania's children in care became known to the world as 'the Romanian orphans' and some of them have been subjects to neurodevelopmental research studies focusing on the setbacks posed by institutionalisation in early life. This research project takes a different angle by: • Using life history approach and therefore capturing the participants' in-depth accounts of how they recall their childhoods and the challenges they encountered in their transition to independent life; • Exploring four different types of placements and how they affect transition to independent life, from a user's perspective. The fact that Romania undertook reform of the child protection system within the timespan of this generation of children provided a research opportunity to collect the users' views on different types of placement that belonged to the unreformed system of the 1990s (large residential care and intercountry adoption) and the new types of placement (small group homes and foster care). For comparison purposes, I also included domestic adoption, a type of placement that was less controversial than the others at the time reforms were being introduced. Thus, the types of placement that are analysed through the research participants' accounts are: • Residential care (institutions and small group homes); • Foster Care; • Domestic Adoption; • Intercountry adoption. The study addressed two research questions: 1. How do Romanian born young people who grew up in care understand and narrate their experiences in different types of placement? 2. What narratives of agency are constructed by Romanian-born adults who grew up in different types of placement when they describe their transition to adulthood? By taking an interpretive stance, this study brings in the academic arena the voices of care leavers and adoptees. By using narrative analysis and focussing on the concept of dignity by employing identity theories, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Capabilities Approach, the study makes an important contribution to knowledge, with implications for further research, policy and practice. While interventions in child protection are influenced in each country by cultural, political and socio-legal factors, understanding the basic needs of children who are not raised by their birth families is important across different child protection systems. Therefore, the relevance of the research findings is not limited to Romania.

This thesis asks how voice enables youth to claim agency within divided societies, and what are the implications of this in terms of conflict and peacebuilding? It is an analysis of the significance of young people's voices to international relations. The research is framed in terms of human rights and human security, children's rights, and recognition theories. Its aim is to draw conclusions both about the nature of voice and agency, or power, and about how the framing of the present research in this area impacts the ability of the discourse to take into account the significance of listening to those who are marginalized. From these starting points the thesis will explore questions such as the following: In what ways do children have a voice? If young people had more of a voice, would it make a difference? Does having a voice lead to power? If so, does this create a culture of respect for this voice, and in turn an increase in the speaker's ability to claim agency? Does increasing participation have an impact upon people's likeliness to resort to violence? These aspects are important because they contribute to knowledge and frameworks for peacebuilding in post-conflict areas and the link between voice and violence may provide a key to reducing youth violence in post-conflict areas, but most significantly, hearing young voice could contribute to a sustainable peace, envisioned by and cultivated by the very generation that must own that peace if it is to become lasting.

Since the advent of the democratic dispensation in 1994, the government of South Africa has made significant steps in addressing issues of national concern. One of the major highlights is a Bill of Rights, as stipulated in the South African Constitution, Act 106 of 1996, which states that every child has a right to basic education. However, in spite of compulsory education, an extremely high rate of absenteeism has been noticed in many primary schools of the Eastern Cape Province in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan region. The purpose of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of the major factors that contribute to absenteeism in the Govan Mbeki area of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Region, with the ultimate aim of promoting school attendance among learners. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to collect the data in two schools. Using purposive sampling, two schools in the Govan Mbeki area were identified. These two schools were known to have a high rate of learner absenteeism. In each of the schools – which, in this research, are referred to as school A and school B, 20 parents, 6 teachers and 20 learners (10 per school) were identified as participants. The major findings of this study show that the factors affecting school attendance are interlinked; and, they include – although they are not limited to – bullying, poverty in households, poor teacher-student relationships, a poor learning environment, and the underperformance of the learners, which, in turn, result in disinterested learners. The study recommends a joint engagement of school, homes and the Department of Education to develop mechanisms, which might help both parents and teachers to navigate potential solutions to curb the trend. Furthermore, there needs to be a concerted effort to reduce household poverty and to sensitize teachers of their responsibilities towards their learners.

The purpose of this degree project is to study the preschool's work on dyslexia in two different municipalities. To study this area, a case study is used where I look at two different policy documents from the two municipalities I have chosen. By examining the policy documents, I can visualize what similarities and differences exist between the municipalities when it comes to dealing with dyslexia in preschool. The study also uses semistructured interviews where special educators and preschool teachers can respond to dyslexia interview questions to find out what knowledge and experience they have about dyslexia in preschool. The study included four informants, two special educators and two preschool teachers from two different municipalities. They are all active in municipal preschools in each local municipality. In view of the semistructured interviews and case study, I will look at how social interaction affects children's linguistic and cognitive development based on the socio-cognitive theory and how it can benefit children with tendencies of dyslexia in preschool. The study reveals that there is a poor knowledge of dyslexia, which means that there is no active work around it in the preschool world. Instead, special educators and preschool teachers in the two municipalities focus on language, which is an unconscious way of preventing difficulties for children with tendencies to dyslexia. That they offer children songs, rhyme and frames, books, but also that the children can train language sounds and grammar that can stimulate children's upcoming reading and writing development. It also appears in the study that trends in dyslexia may be detected by a failing work memory for a long time. An important conclusion is that conscious adults are one of the children's most important tools when it comes to their development. Preschool teachers and special educators must understand that regardless of whether there are children with dyslexia or not in preschool, they can always work in a preventive manner. Do more exercises where the children can train for example language sounds and grammatics, to benefit children's learning and development for future schooling. Have the children been given the opportunity to train and strengthen their language during their time at preschool, primary school does not have to be a big challenge for them when they start there.

This study aims at testing the applicability of the universal standard for protection of children, ―the best interests of the child principle‖, to children caught up in armed conflict situations. The study introduces the effects of armed conflict on children by discussing two case studies of conflicts situations, namely Somalia‘s situation under the Al Shabaab and the LRA as it formerly operated in Northern Uganda. Heart-breaking narrations of child victims are given prominence to show the invalidity of ―best interests‖ principle in conflict situations. It acknowledges that the ―best interests‖ principle is a good tool for enforcement of children rights. It analyses the theory of rights in general so as to explain the origin and importance of rights. Since children‘s rights are part and parcel of human rights, the study also looks at the international human rights and the regional and international enforcement mechanisms, though not in details. This study looks at the various theories justifying the existence of children‘s rights, and the dichotomy between rights and interests. It also addresses the protection of children rights and the various discourses advocating for or negating children‘s rights. It explores the age question with regard to enforcement of children‘s rights based on the fact that childhood is a dynamic period. It also critically analyses the ―best interests‖ principle and the various alternative standards that have been advanced. It concludes that despite the various criticisms, the ―best interests‖ principle still obtains the better standard for protection of children‘s rights in peace times subject to being complemented by other rules. The study also focuses on protection of children under the International Humanitarian Law with specific focus on civilian protection during armed conflict. It also focuses on the progress made in international efforts to protect children from the effects of armed conflict. Finally, reasons are advanced as to why the Best Interests Principle is not applicable in armed conflict situations, and an alternative standard proposed. / Public, Constitutional, and International Law / LL.D.

abstract: Much research has been conducted regarding the current state of public education within the United States. Very little of that research bodes well for the system’s current circumstances or for the direction our system is headed. The debate stems around two opposing ideologies. One believes that there needs to be more accountability via high-stakes testing and the continuum of the status quo that the country has maintained for centuries, regardless of the effect it may be having on the students’ well-being. While the opposing view sees high-stakes testing as a contributing factor to the seemingly unproductive, chaotic, and even harmful conundrum of bias and hegemony that shows a positive correlation of deleterious effects to student well-being. Although this paper references the research of highly esteemed scholars, it asserts that the voices of those that are most relegated to that of undervalued and ignored are precisely the voices that need to be gleaned most relevant. This paper’s purpose is to hear what the ‘experts’ in the field of education, the students themselves, have to say. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social and Cultural Pedagogy 2018

Submitted by Miriam Lucas (miriam.lucas@unioeste.br) on 2017-11-07T12:55:53Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Poliana_Anjos_2017.pdf: 1692719 bytes, checksum: bfdefa8f7e09cbe8eba3915277b4c4ef (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-07T12:55:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Poliana_Anjos_2017.pdf: 1692719 bytes, checksum: bfdefa8f7e09cbe8eba3915277b4c4ef (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-06-20 / This dissertation was developed with the purpose of demonstrating under what circumstances children's advertising inserted by the television media promotes potential violation of the rights of contemporary children. The scope of the theme was an interdisciplinary dialogue in the areas of education, sociology, law, psychology, communication and philosophy, contextualizing the media in the field of cultural studies. Briefly, it presents an analysis of the knowledge of the state of the art, through publications available in the CAPES database, from 2010 to 2015, related to children, consumption, cultural industry, advertising and television media. As the central theme is the insertion of the child into the world of consumption, recognizing its vulnerability, the principles and the action of the competent institutional bodies to act in the control and inspection are debated. It brings together cases of advertising campaigns represented by the self-regulatory advertising council, demonstrating the applicability of the law in the so-called abusive conduct. In an attempt to demonstrate the violation of children's rights, it presents the national standardization, guidelines related to full protection, uses comparative law to verify international regulations, circumscribed in declarations and covenants, as the origin of protection to this subject of law. To substantiate the legal context, it brings jurisprudential decisions of the supreme court on children's advertising in the country, actions and decisions of CONAR, as a self-regulatory, denoting the means to combat violations of children's rights, as well as bills with the initiative to regulate children's advertising. / Esta dissertação foi desenvolvida com o objetivo de demonstrar em quais circunstâncias a publicidade infantil inserida pela mídia televisiva, promove potencial violação dos direitos da criança contemporânea. Pela amplitude do tema foi realizado um diálogo interdisciplinar nas áreas da educação, sociologia, direito, psicologia, comunicação e filosofia, contextualizando a mídia no campo dos estudos culturais. Embora de forma sucinta, apresenta uma análise do conhecimento do estado da arte, por meio de publicações disponíveis na base de dados da CAPES, no período de 2010 a 2015, relacionado ao tema crianças, consumo, indústria cultural, publicidade e mídia televisiva. Como o tema central se depara com inserção da criança no mundo do consumo, reconhecida sua vulnerabilidade, são debatidos os princípios e a atuação dos organismos institucionais competentes para atuar no controle e fiscalização. Reúne casos de campanhas publicitárias representadas pelo conselho de autorregulamentação publicitária, demonstrando a aplicabilidade da lei na conduta dita, abusiva. Na tentativa de demonstrar a violação de direitos da criança, apresenta a normatização nacional, diretrizes relacionadas à proteção integral, utiliza o direito comparado para verificar regramentos internacionais, circunscritos em declarações e pactos, como a origem da proteção a esse sujeito de direito. Para substanciar o contexto legal, traz decisões jurisprudenciais da suprema corte sobre a publicidade infantil no país, atuações e decisões do CONAR, como órgão autorregulador denotando os meios de combate a violações de direito da criança, bem assim projetos de lei com a iniciativa de regulamentar a publicidade infantil.

L'enfant est un être en développement. C'est une personne vulnérable à cause de son état physiologique, mental et social. Sa protection est nécessaire afin qu'il puisse grandir et atteindre son potentiel. Bien que tous les enfants aient les mêmes droits, partout dans le monde nombreux souffrent encore de privations et de violences. Cet état de fait met en péril leur avenir et celui de toute la société. Car, seul l'être auquel a été donnée l'opportunité d'évoluer en fonction de ses capacités inhérentes, contribuera à l'avancement social et économique de sa Nation mais également de la communauté mondiale. Ainsi, les droits des enfants représentent une responsabilité pour tous. Tout Etat doit respecter et faire respecter la Convention relative aux droits de l'enfant. La famille élargie est responsable pour le bien-être de l'enfant dans son entourage immédiat. Car, il y a une relation directe entre les droits de l'enfant et les devoirs envers lui. Cependant, la réalité des enfants ne correspond pas au cadre normatif. Force est de constater que la Loi ne suffit pas pour traduire cette norme commune en résultats tangibles. Aussi un dispositif additionnel, complémentaire au droit, doit-il exister pour protéger l'être vulnérable, et assurer la cohésion de la société qui l'entoure. La Responsabilité sociale des entreprises et la philanthropie représentent les premières manifestations du principe que chacun est responsable de chacun. De nouveaux outils comme l'Internet, ainsi que les théories traditionnelles comme celle du bien public, doivent être mis à profit afin d'améliorer la protection de l'enfant, au bénéfice de tous. / A child is a being in development. S/he is a vulnerable person because of his/her physiological, mental and social status. Her/his protection and participation are required so s/he can grow and reach her/his potential. Every child has the same rights throughout the world, yet many suffer from deprivation and violence. This situation jeopardizes their future and that of the whole society. Because only the being who has been given the opportunity to evolve according to her/his inherent capacities will contribute to the progress of her Nation, which forms part of the international community's headway. Children's rights are everyone's responsibility. The State must respect and ensure respect of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, key treaty in this domain. The extended family is responsible for the well-being of the child in her immediate environment. Beyond this external stakeholders are involved. They shouldn't seek to replace but to enhance the capacity of family, community and State in protecting the child. There is a direct relationship between the right of the child and the duty towards the child, with the requirement to ensure results, as a consequence of the inherent logic of children's rights. Yet reality does not match the normative framework. While responsibility for others is recognized as an imperative of action from an ethical, religious and legal point of view, children suffer and die. Since laws alone are not enough to translate this universal norm into results, an additional device, complementary to the legal framework, must exist to protect the vulnerable being, and to ensure cohesion of the society that surrounds her.

Prior to 1990, very few countries in the world offered special protection to child witnesses interfacing with the justice system. There were no legal provisions permitting testimonial accommodations for children in court. The courtroom experience was significantly traumatic for the children. With the international focus shifting from protecting and upholding the rights of the accused in the courtroom towards a more victim-centred approach, various international and regional instruments have strongly dvocated that children deserve special protection because of their vulnerability. In order for the courts to be able to elicit accurate evidence from the child without further traumatizing the child, research has shown that the child needs assistance. An intermediary may be defined as a person who facilitates communication between the child and the courtroom in a manner that takes into account the child‟s cognitive and developmental limitations. The thesis was prompted by the need to make a contribution to the currently limited body of literature on the intermediary systems in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia by investigating how the systems can be improved and sustained in a way that helps to protect the child witness in court. Despite the problems the South African courts have had in identifying the appropriate interpretation of its intermediary legislation, the country emerges as a clear leader for the steps it took by creating a positive legal framework within which child protection issues are addressed and introducing the concept of the intermediary. This concept proved to be an inspiration to its neighbours, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The influence of the South African intermediary legislation is evident in the Namibian and Zimbabwean legislation. Although Namibian legislators have drafted laws that permit intermediary assistance in court, there are as yet no intermediaries appointed. In Ethiopia, although there is no discernible intermediary legislation, the country has managed to establish an intermediary system. As a result of the analysis conducted, it is evident that the efficacy of the intermediary system is dependent on the presence of an enabling legislation, its clarity and ease of interpretation, the sensitisation of court role players on child vulnerabilities, the significance of intermediary assistance, and finally a government's commitment towards the implementation process.

In this project the adoption of an inquisitorial model of criminal procedure in court proceedings relating to children is discussed. The traditional characteristics of adversarial and inquisitorial models of criminal procedure, the two models in a South African perspective and problems with the adversarial model are highlighted. That it terrifies and silence young victim and witnesses from giving evidence. The inquisitorial elements present in South African criminal procedure such as in bail proceedings, plea proceedings, powers of the presiding officer to call, recall and examine witnesses, powers of the presiding officer to exclude inadmissible evidence, evidence on sentence, and investigation on unreasonable delay on trials are discussed. The international instruments pertaining to children in conflict with the law and child witnesses are examined, together with their impact in our laws relating to children. The constitutional implications to the rights of children are discussed. The historical background that culminated to the Child Justice Act is highlighted. The Child Justice Act with particular reference to the inquisitorial aspects present in this Act is discussed. The measures that aim to protect child witness present in the Criminal Procedure Act, Criminal law Sexual offences and Related Matters Amendment Act and Children’s Act are highlighted. The conclusion, on the analysis of protective measures protecting children, is that in South African law there is a renewed interest in inquisitorial procedures as an effective means of ensuring justice. The conclusion suggests that adversarial model of criminal procedure is not the best method for our legal system to deal with children.