Thesis (M.S.W.) - Carleton University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 124-132). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D. in Leadership and Policy Studies)--Vanderbilt University, Dec. 2005. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1998. / Title from title page screen, viewed July 13, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Elizabeth Lugg (chair), Larry McNeal, Amee Adkins, James Palmer, David Tucker. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-159) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1999. / Title from title page screen, viewed July 27, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Dianne Ashby (chair), Paul Baker, William Rau, Sandra Corless, Albert T. Azinger. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 172-182) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 2001. / Title from title page screen, viewed March 30, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Darryl A. Pifer (chair), Richard Wiggall, Amee D. Adkins, Albert T. Azinger. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-179) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S. Ed.)--Bank Street College of Education, New York, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-44) and abstract.

This dissertation describes an action research case study carried out at a sub-village school at Nyamakurukuru, Utete, Rufiji District, Tanzania. The study was a fully independent research activity funded and led by a female Irish environmental and community specialist who has fifteen years experience of working in rural Tanzania, five of which were in Rufiji District. The aim of the action research was to engage a community of villagers, teachers, students and district officers in a participatory process to adapt a module of a school curriculum to the local context, and teach it in order to describe one way in which contextualization, using local and indigenous knowledge and active discovery teaching-learning processes, can be done. The major research question, which I wished to answer for one specific case, was: Does integrating local environmental cultural knowledge into formal schooling contribute to curriculum relevance? If so, in what way? This document describes the background and context of the research, the motivation and the theoretical basis for the work, the methodology and methods, and the action research process itself. The results are interpreted and discussed in the light of current theoretical perspectives on education and environmental education. The main findings within the case are that: Contextualization improved relevance of education and thus its quality by: • breaking through traditional frames/barriers between teachers and students, students and elders and community and teachers, • allowing formal education to take place outside of the school, • necessitating a change in pedagogy1 to more learner-centered, discovery methods, • allowing indigenous knowledge to come into the classroom, • stimulating creativity and increased confidence, and • bringing local socio-political environmental issues into the classroom. This study provides a case example of how education processes, when engaging local cultural knowledge, can improve the relevance, and thus an aspect of the quality of teaching and learning in school-community contexts, while providing a conduit for integrating environmental education into the formal school curriculum. It provides insights into the key issue of relevance which currently faces educators of children in wetlands in Tanzania. Recommendations were made for the case studied and may be useful beyond the boundaries of the case: • Give more explicit government policy and strategic support for community involvement in educational content–epistemologies and pedagogies. • Weaken framing (hierarchical power positions) to encourage greater partnership between school, home and community to improve relevance. • Investigate the provision of education beyond schools. • Provide practical teacher and community training on use of learner-centered, discovery and active pedagogies. • Provide teacher and community education on biodiversity and the environment. • Provide relevant reference texts and research data on the ecology, biodiversity, vegetation, hydrology, agriculture, sociology, history and other relevant subjects. • Officially nurture a culture that learning should be enjoyable. • Allow the curriculum freedom, in these times of increasing risk for rural tropical wetland communities, to make the curriculum fit the local issues rather than vice versa. • Nurture critical analysis of the curriculum in local pedagogic discourse i.e., at the local contextualization level of the home, community and school.

M.Ed. / Lack of community involvement in the provision of social-environmental education programmes has become a serious problem, even though some communities are aware that they should be involved. In this study an attempt is made to find out how the community is, or could be, involved in the provision of social-environmental education programmes in primary schools, that is, the issue of community involvement in a school's delivery of Environmental Education, focusing especially on social issues. Part of transforming the education system is making it democratic. The democratisation of education includes the idea that stakeholders such as parents, teachers, learners, and members of the community should be able to participate in the activities of schools. Put simply, the right to education and the duty to transform education, means that all stakeholders have new rights and responsibilities. They have rights and responsibilities concerning the way schools are run, and the way in which education takes place. It is the responsibility of the state, the parents, learners, educators, and others to provide the best possible social-environmental education for all learners. The state cannot provide everything and do everything for the school. It cannot afford to do this. Parents and members of school communities are often in the best position to know what their schools really need, and are aware of what problems exist in their schools. This is a meaningful role within the school. Therefore, there must be a partnership between all stakeholders who have an interest in education. The partners are the state, the parents, learners educators, and members of school communities.

M.Ed. / The establishment and management of organisational culture can be seen as one of the most important management tasks in general, but also in technical colleges in particular. It is essential that the rector and his management team take note of the existence of college culture and manage it effectively. The purpose of this study is firstly to examine the nature and essence of college culture. The following conclusions were made from a literature study: • The rector plays an important roll in the establishment and maintenance of the college culture. • Due to the fixed structure and multi-ethnic composition of the college, subcultures exist. • The culture of a college can change, but it is a tiresome, timely and very expensive process. • In some cases it is not necessary to change the culture totally and a moderate adjustment is sufficient. The second purpose of the study is to examine how multiculturalism influences the culture of the college. Here the following findings are of importance: • The culture of the white staff is dominant at most technical colleges. • The different ethnical groups form subcultures which should be accommodated in one or another way. The empirical section as described in chapter four, is designed to determine the staff's experience of the college culture, as well as the rector's involvement in college culture. It consisted of a questionnaire which was completed by 363 lecturers and management staff members. A scientific analysis of the research results provided useful information from which certain conclusions and recommendations were made. Lastly, guidelines were designed which could be used to develop a strong organisational culture at technical colleges. With sufficient knowledge of the above the rector and management could use college culture as a convenient management instrument.

M.Ed. / The main aim of the inquiry looked at community education, in this regard being the empowerment of school communities in effective and efficient running of schools for the new education system adopted in South Africa. The introduction of the South African School Act to meet the demands of the country's constitution, necessitates community involvement for shared-decision making, and fully informed participation by all stakeholders in the running of our schools. In empowering school communities, problems experienced by teachers, parents, learners, governing bodies relating to suspensions and expulsions of African learners were addressed, and an insight into stakeholders' roles was explicitly outlined. The contribution therefore, of this study, is the identification of sources of frustrations and troubles experienced in this regard. The findings provide school communities with a clear exposition of the roles and functions of stakeholders. Power implementation, in expulsion specifically, is clearly indicated to be on the Head of Education, which if perceived unfair can be appealed through the Member of the Executive Committee for Education in the Province. No management team, no governing body or a parent has the right to remove a learner from a school through whatever route — mutually agreed upon by other stakeholders — unless confirmation of that removal is from the HoD, but also with a placement of that learner into another school followed by a support structure created for him/her. All stakeholders will be aware of what the right of education refers to after reading through this research as recommendations clarified. Therefore, the field investigation clarified some of the typical problems about suspension and expulsion experienced by the research sample.