This dissertation provides an understanding of the social practices of persons involved in situations where a social worker employed by a Child Protection organization meets with parents and families. This work is conducted by the examination of the different communicative grammars enacted by all the participants in these interactions. The idea of a communicative grammar find its roots in the work of Wittgenstein and can be defined as the way words, terms or expressions are used during communication episodes. Meaning can be ascertained through the exploration of the term's usage and of its reflexive connections with other terms. The inquiry initially focuses on the identification of key words used by the participants in conversations about child protection and moves on to the reconstruction of the grammars of these terms, using Coordinated Management of Meaning theory, developed by Pearce and Cronen, as the main methodological tool. This pragmatic approach allowed for the reconstruction of the language-games and moral orders of the social workers and of the families and for a comparison of those moral orders as they are constructed, maintained and enacted through communication. Narratives about the source of their clients' problems, about the importance of organizational processes and about their professional identity characterize the social workers' language-game. The grammar of these terms allows for the construction of a distance between the workers and the families, for the description of the parents as the main cause of their difficulties and for the construction of the work of child protection organizations as the best method to protect children. The families' language-game contains narratives about the difficulties of parenthood, about the lack of respect they receive and about manifestations of power in their relationship with the protection agencies. The grammar of these terms contributes to the difficult maintenance of a sense of identity for the parents and to the construction of child protection organizations as inadequate ones. A comparison of the two language-games revealed an important level of incompatibility between them. The dissertation concludes with propositions for action on this social situation.

Thesis (M.A.)--Capital Bible Seminary, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-64).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Lombard, Ill., 1995. / This is an electronic reproduction of TREN, #077-0023. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 389-400).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 389-400).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Lombard, Ill., 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 389-400).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Seminary, Portland, OR, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-137).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Seminary, Portland, OR, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-137).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Seminary, Portland, OR, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-137).

In this thesis, I adopt the anti-essentialist cultural paradigm to explore the complexity within the processes of both cultural-making and personal acculturation that may occur in an interweaving way within a local cultural arena (Holliday, 2011; 2013).More precisely, I contextualise this study in student group work as the specific cultural arena to investigate the cultural-making process towards group cohesiveness and individual group member's acculturation process. A conceptual framework is suggested after synthesising both the debates between the essentialist and the anti-essentialist cultural paradigms in the field of intercultural communication and the discussions on acculturation in the existing literature. I conceptually argue that culture is constituted by various salient aspects vis-à- vis cohesive thinking and behaviours that are always forming and re-forming. Personal acculturation can be explored through tracing the changes of an individual's cultural realities (Holliday, 2011; 2013). Both of them occur in parallel in a cultural arena (in this case, student group work).Through analysing in-depth, narrative data from 15 participants about their group work experiences, I fine-tune and enrich this conceptual framework with empirical evidence (i.e. the findings) to demonstrate complexity (i.e. uncertainty and fluidity) in the cultural-making process as well as the dynamics and unpredictability of personal acculturation (i.e. an individual presents different trends of the key aspects of acculturation). Furthermore, I also identify four types of personal acculturation trajectories by comparing all the participants' acculturation trajectories. Using this fine-tuned conceptual framework, the author of the thesis strengthens the potential links between the two separate, in parallel, but interrelated processes (e.g. cultural-making process and personal acculturation), which seem not to have been paid enough attention in the existing literature vis-à-vis the study of culture and (personal) acculturation. More importantly, the author argues that the links can be interpreted as an interplay in student group work asthe specific cultural arena.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-169).