Spending your time „nurturing what is right‟ enables people to grow and negotiate the problems of life which is more than only fixing what is wrong. The World Health Organisation also defined well-being as more than not ill-being. Flourishing is an optimal state of well-being. The question is, „what is it that flourishers do different from non-flourishers?‟ Pharmacy students prepare themselves for a profession which is being bombarded with change; they are the pharmacists of tomorrow. Among them some students flourish and the others do not. This study aimed to look at possible pathways to flourishing that flourishers utilise. In this way the study addressed several gaps in the knowledge regarding flourishing: 1) The prevalence of flourishing among pharmacy students, 2) The role of demands and resources in flourishing of students, 3) The role of antecedent factors of basic psychological need satisfaction on the basic psychological need satisfaction of students and therefore in their flourishing, and 4) The use of positive affect regulation (an internal strategy) as a pathway to flourishing. A cross-sectional design was utilised. The study population was all the enrolled pharmacy students at the North West University during 2014. A convenience sample of 779 students participated. The measuring battery consisted of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF; Keyes, 2009), the Emotional Regulation Profile-Revised (ERP-R; Nelis, Quoidbach, Hansenne, & Mikolajczak, 2011), the Balanced Measure of Psychological Needs (BMPN; Sheldon & Hilpert, 2012), statements about the antecedents of basic psychological need satisfaction and statements about demands and resources, developed for the purpose of this study, and a demographic questionnaire. Structural equation modelling, invariance testing and latent class analysis were some of the statistical techniques used to analyse the cross-sectional data. Manuscript one addressed the prevalence of flourishing among pharmacy students as well as possible differences between the year groups. The manuscript also investigated the role of workload as a study demand and the lecturer as a study resource and the possible interaction between them in the flourishing of students. Year group as a possible moderator in the respective relationships between demands, resources, the interaction between them on the one hand and flourishing on the other, were also assessed. 40% of the group flourished whilst 57% was moderately healthy and 3% languished. The different year groups negotiated the demands and resources in their study environment differently in their path to flourishing. The possible pathways to flourishing in this context were identified as the use of lecturer support (a resource), especially when the workload (a demand) is high and the successful negotiation of workload over their four years of study. Manuscript two dealt with the impact of antecedent factors of basic psychological need satisfaction of pharmacy students on their basic psychological need satisfaction and therefore ultimately the influence of these contextual factors on their flourishing. The researcher wanted to determine whether there is a difference in the role(s) that family, peers, lecturers and workload play in the satisfaction of the students‟ basic psychological needs (relatedness, competence and autonomy). Year group as a moderator in these respective relationships was also investigated. Family and peers played the most important role in need satisfaction of students. However, lecturers can actively engage in supporting the need satisfaction of students, which would increase their levels of autonomous motivation and thereby their levels of flourishing. In manuscript three the use of internal strategies as pathways to flourishing were explored. Positive emotion regulation strategies have a positive relationship with well-being. However, a person can dampen or savour his or her positive emotions. The students were clustered into distinctive groups by means of a latent class analysis. Three distinctive groups were posterior identified based on the characteristics of group members, namely flourishers, languishers and moderately healthy students. Regression analyses of the three groups revealed that flourishers are the only group that most likely will utilise savouring positive emotion regulation strategies and refrain from utilising dampening positive emotion regulation strategies. Pathways to flourishing that flourishing pharmacy students utilise are therefore the use of savouring positive emotion regulation strategies and the non-use of dampening positive emotion regulation strategies.

This study addresses issues of English as a foreign language (EFL) practice in the attainment-oriented context at the tertiary level. Referring to the widespread use of testing as an instrument for the enhancement of teaching quality, the study stresses the importance of teachers’ epistemological beliefs and other contextual factors to mediate teacher’s pedagogical decision-making. Four EFL teachers at Air Force colleges in Taiwan were selected to participate in the present research. The EFL teachers’ beliefs were collected by semi-structured interviews, and actual classroom practices were analyzed through a taxonomy of teachers’ questions, a taxonomy of teachers’ corrective feedback and Communicative Orientation Language Teaching (COLT) scheme analysis. The evidence of this case study generated four archetypal patterns of washback based on aligned or oppositional beliefs and its contexts. The study concludes that test designers’ expectations to use a test to innovate the curriculum do not always produce the desired results. Education reform that requires pedagogical changes of practitioners but fails to provide re-attribution training and sufficient resources to effect belief changes will likely yield resistance and pressure. Finally, implications of four archetypes of washback on the teaching of English are presented in order to sustain the successful testing, teaching, and learning.

Youth are having sexual intercourse at an early age and as such, are engaging in risky behaviors that are associated with adverse health outcomes, including HIV infection. Little research has been undertaken to examine the influence of contextual factors on youth intentions to delay sexual involvement. To address that gap, this study aimed to examine the influence of age, gender, race, immigration status, HIV knowledge, HIV-related stigma, concern about HIV, direct exposure to HIV/AIDS, peer pressure, and religious influence on youth intentions to delay sexual involvement. Delayed sexual involvement was conceptualized as youth attitudes towards abstaining from sex, their knowledge of the consequences of sexual involvement, and perceived parent or peer disapproval of the behavior. The theory of reasoned action was used as a framework to guide the study. The cross-sectional study involved secondary data analysis of baseline data pooled from a program evaluation. The sample included 536 urban low-income African American and Latino youth aged 11 to 16 years at high risk of HIV/AIDS. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that the weighed combination of the predictor variables, age, gender, race, immigration status, HIV knowledge, direct exposure to HIV/AIDS, peer pressure, and religious influence explained the greatest variance of intention to delay sexual involvement (R2 = .246, p < .05). Also observed was a significant relationship between age, gender, and sexual intentions across the regression models. These findings can enhance HIV prevention and social change initiatives because of the potential to impact youth early sexual debut, reduce risky sexual behavior, and consequently decrease the rates of HIV infection among youth.

<p>The overall aim of this thesis was to study the implementation of guidelines, change processes and contextual variables from the perspective of improvements and neonatal nursing care’s endeavours to be more evidenced-based. Because health care is exposed to extensive change pressure and because the impact of effectiveness research on clinical practice is limited, it becomes urgent to understand how knowledge utilisation initiatives can be facilitated.</p><p>Three studies involved managers and nurses at all neonatal units in Sweden. Two of these studies also included nurses from other healthcare organisations. The fourth study included all staff at four neonatal units. The study designs used were cross-sectional, comparative and prospective longitudinal surveys; questionnaires were used as data collection tools in all four studies.</p><p>Evaluation of the utilisation of the neonatal nursing guidelines showed that the guidelines were known to the nurse managers and used at most of the units, though to varying degrees and in different ways. Fifteen months after guideline dissemination, 8 of 35 units had changed practice, of which 2 units had completed the implementation process of a guideline. Involvement in the preceding guideline project facilitated the completion of improvement projects compared with participation in training courses for quality improvement (QI) only. There was no difference between these two groups on long-standing involvement in improvement work. Nurses who continued QI work over a 4-year period were more active in seeking research and implementing research findings in clinical practice than those who ceased the improvement work. The QI-sustainable nurses reported better contextual support for research-related activities. In a separate study staff perceptions of organisational factors appeared stable over the course of one year at the aggregated level. Improvements in skills development and participatory management predicted higher overall organisational and staff well-being. </p><p>The findings emphasize the importance of including both individual and organisational factors in the strategic planning for evidence-based nursing. Plans have to be long-term and consider that change is a slow process. Leadership commitment is essential and there are clear benefits in developing a learning and professional supportive environment as well as of involving staff in organisational decision making.</p>

<p> <p>&nbsp / </p> </p> <p align="left">The current study aimed to describe the paradox of risk through an exploration of the experiences and perceptions of sexuality and HIV/AIDS among physically disabled young people in Nyanga, South Africa. This is against the background that AIDS has become a national and global crisis, which requires all people to participate in efforts to contain the pandemic. Yet literature indicates that young people with disabilities are not participating in such efforts. There is also an assumption, that physically disabled young people do not experience challenges in expressing their sexuality and accessing HIV/AIDS prevention services, to the same extent as other disability groups such as the blind and those with intellectual disabilities. Hence there was a need to explore disabled young people&rsquo / s own understanding of risk and the factors that hinder or support their participation in existing sexuality education and HIV/AIDS prevention programmes. It was also important for this group to suggest ways in which they may participate in such programmes.</p>

The overall aim of this thesis was to study the implementation of guidelines, change processes and contextual variables from the perspective of improvements and neonatal nursing care’s endeavours to be more evidenced-based. Because health care is exposed to extensive change pressure and because the impact of effectiveness research on clinical practice is limited, it becomes urgent to understand how knowledge utilisation initiatives can be facilitated. Three studies involved managers and nurses at all neonatal units in Sweden. Two of these studies also included nurses from other healthcare organisations. The fourth study included all staff at four neonatal units. The study designs used were cross-sectional, comparative and prospective longitudinal surveys; questionnaires were used as data collection tools in all four studies. Evaluation of the utilisation of the neonatal nursing guidelines showed that the guidelines were known to the nurse managers and used at most of the units, though to varying degrees and in different ways. Fifteen months after guideline dissemination, 8 of 35 units had changed practice, of which 2 units had completed the implementation process of a guideline. Involvement in the preceding guideline project facilitated the completion of improvement projects compared with participation in training courses for quality improvement (QI) only. There was no difference between these two groups on long-standing involvement in improvement work. Nurses who continued QI work over a 4-year period were more active in seeking research and implementing research findings in clinical practice than those who ceased the improvement work. The QI-sustainable nurses reported better contextual support for research-related activities. In a separate study staff perceptions of organisational factors appeared stable over the course of one year at the aggregated level. Improvements in skills development and participatory management predicted higher overall organisational and staff well-being. The findings emphasize the importance of including both individual and organisational factors in the strategic planning for evidence-based nursing. Plans have to be long-term and consider that change is a slow process. Leadership commitment is essential and there are clear benefits in developing a learning and professional supportive environment as well as of involving staff in organisational decision making.

<p> <p>&nbsp / </p> </p> <p align="left">The current study aimed to describe the paradox of risk through an exploration of the experiences and perceptions of sexuality and HIV/AIDS among physically disabled young people in Nyanga, South Africa. This is against the background that AIDS has become a national and global crisis, which requires all people to participate in efforts to contain the pandemic. Yet literature indicates that young people with disabilities are not participating in such efforts. There is also an assumption, that physically disabled young people do not experience challenges in expressing their sexuality and accessing HIV/AIDS prevention services, to the same extent as other disability groups such as the blind and those with intellectual disabilities. Hence there was a need to explore disabled young people&rsquo / s own understanding of risk and the factors that hinder or support their participation in existing sexuality education and HIV/AIDS prevention programmes. It was also important for this group to suggest ways in which they may participate in such programmes.</p>

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No. of bitstreams: 1 claudiacontedosanjoslacerda.pdf: 1847052 bytes, checksum: 9cdc2ba83afc075ca97b1c1d009ffcb0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-12-05 / A presente pesquisa, desenvolvida no âmbito do Programa de Pós-Graduação Profissional em Gestão e Avaliação da Educação Pública da Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, constitui-se como um estudo de caso sobre o desenvolvimento do Programa de Intervenção Pedagógica Alfabetização no Tempo Certo (PIP/ATC), da Secretaria de Estado de Educação de Minas Gerais, em uma escola que atende aos Anos Iniciais do Ensino Fundamental, localizada em um bairro periférico de um município com aproximadamente 56 mil habitantes, na Zona da Mata Mineira. Neste cenário, uma aparente desmotivação dos docentes, que reclamam do abandono moral e intelectual das famílias em relação aos seus tutelados – alunos em que o comportamento violento e indisciplinado parece ser predominante – em meio a um contexto aparentemente conturbado, em que o resultado do rendimento educacional não tem evoluído de forma satisfatória, mesmo a escola estando sujeita ao PIP/ATC. Com base nessa realidade, delinearam-se os seguintes objetivos: (i) analisar o cotidiano da escola diante da queda dos resultados educacionais em meio a um cenário de indisciplina e violência entre os alunos e de uma aparente desmotivação generalizada entre os profissionais envolvidos; (ii) revelar os fatores que não contribuíram para a garantia de um percurso escolar de qualidade para todos os alunos; (iii) refletir sobre a natureza e a ação das intervenções pedagógicas, considerando as concepções de cultura escolar, clima educacional e eficácia na gestão educacional. A pesquisa de campo, de base qualitativa, constituiu-se pela observação na escola e na Superintendência Regional de Ensino; a análise documental de dados públicos associados aos resultados de avaliações sistêmicas estaduais e disponibilizados pelo IBGE; e entrevistas realizadas com profissionais das duas instituições. A pesquisa nos possibilitou compreender limitações do PIP/ATC não somente na escola investigada, mas também permitiu questionamentos sobre as próprias bases do Programa. Com base em tudo o que foi diagnosticado e analisado, conclui-se a dissertação com a proposta de uma ação mediadora que considere também os fatores contextuais e contribua para o desenvolvimento equitativo dos alunos e para um clima escolar mais favorável à aprendizagem. / This research is study about a school with approximately 256 students, that meets the Initial Years of the Basic Schoolings and belongs to the State Education System of Minas Gerais, in the outskirts of a medium-sized town of about fifty-six thousand inhabitants in “Zona da Mata Mineira”. As problem, falling school educational results; unruly pupils, violent and not yet literate in the 5th year and; apparently unmotivated teachers. In the analysis of this work was considered: the development of Pedagogical Intervention Literacy Program in a timely manner (PIP/ATC) of the Education Office of the State of Minas Gerais – which is a follow-up action and direct intervention on the schools; the inseparability of teaching and care – under the guidelines of the CNE/CEB 7/2010; school climate and culture; the results of the students’ performance in external evaluations and; the performance of school management. As proposed action to improve the results of student learning, the paper presents a mediation in which are considered the contextual factors - within and outside school. Among the factors that prompted the research include: the restlessness of the researcher after the change of its function in education; the perception that the school still reproducing social inequality in inequality of access to learning conditions; the questioning of the effectiveness of policies in the top/down model (DYE 2009); external intervention in the daily school to ensure institutional goals and; the apparent omission by the educational system of the influence of contextual factors on learning outcomes. The research objectives are: (i) Analyze how the school deals with the fall of educational outcomes in their day to day, in the midst of violence and indiscipline of students and an apparent lack of motivation among school personnel; (ii) Reveal the impediments for schooling quality for all students; (iii) Reflect on the nature and action of pedagogical interventions, considering the conceptions of school culture, educational climate and effectiveness in education management; (iv) Propose a mediating action, to consider the contextual factors and contribute to the equitable development of students and a school climate more favourable for learning.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The current study aimed to describe the paradox of risk through an exploration of the experiences and perceptions of sexuality and HIV/AIDS among physically disabled young people in Nyanga, South Africa. This is against the background that AIDS has become a national and global crisis, which requires all people to participate in efforts to contain the pandemic. Yet literature indicates that young people with disabilities are not participating in such efforts. There is also an assumption, that physically disabled young people do not experience challenges in expressing their sexuality and accessing HIV/AIDS prevention services, to the same extent as other disability groups such as the blind and those with intellectual disabilities. Hence there was a need to explore disabled young people’s own understanding of risk and the factors that hinder or support their participation in existing sexuality education and HIV/AIDS prevention programmes. It was also important for this group to suggest ways in which they may participate in such programmes. A qualitative case study design was chosen as the appropriate means for achieving the aim of the current study. This design allowed me to study disabled young people without separating them from their context. In this way, a comprehensive understanding of this group was realised. Multiple methods of data collection from multiple data sources were employed, a feature that helped to discuss the ‘case of disabled young people’ in-depth and breadth. Policy and programme documents and relevant literature were reviewed for relevant information on sexuality education and HIV/AIDS prevention services for disabled young people. Fifteen disabled young people between the ages of 15 and 24 participated in individual in-depth interviews and in focus group discussions. Pertinent issues that arose from individual interviews were discussed with 15 parents, 15 senior citizens, five sangomas and five counsellors in focus group discussions of 4-10 members each. Similar issues from focus group discussions were taken up with eight key informants in more individual in-depth interviews for confirmation and clarity. Textual and contextual features of the Atlas.ti computer programme for analysing qualitative data were used to organize and analyse data. The textual features were used to code data and write memos, while the contextual features were used to link the codes and to form networks from which categories and themes were generated. Themes and sub themes were used to answer the research questions and meet the objectives of the study. The study has revealed a complex interplay of contextual and individual factors that combine to create situations of risk for disabled young people. These factors affect disabled young people’s experiences of growing up and participation in existing sexuality education and HIV/AIDS prevention programmes. Contextual factors include cultural beliefs and poverty, while individual factors include sexual behaviour and attitude towards HIV risk. I found that disabled young people have limited access to education and other social amenities, which in turn affect their experiences of life in general and sexuality and HIV/AIDS. The study has revealed that the paradox of risk lies in the contradictory scripts and attitude towards the pandemic at contextual and individual levels. The belief that disabled young people are asexual is common in Nyanga, yet society targets this group for sexual exploitation and rape. In the face of an epidemic that has crippled the fabric of society, and in spite of the widespread availability of HIV/AIDS awareness programmes, most disabled young people still do not have accurate factual knowledge about HIV/AIDS. Yet accurate information is one of the prerequisites for making informed decisions about HIV/AIDS prevention. Furthermore, gender differences make the experiences described above more serious for disabled young women who suffer discrimination and sexual abuse even from fellow disabled young men. Although most disabled young people indicated that they are aware of the gravity of the pandemic and that they personally feel threatened, they are not taking preventive measures against contracting the infection; they have adopted a fatalistic response to risk. Participants argue that in the same way they are not able to protect themselves from going hungry, or living in shacks, they also cannot prevent getting infected with HIV, which they equate to any accident over which they have no control. Disabled young people expressed the need to participate in mainstream education systems, sexuality education and HIV/AIDS prevention programmes. They also pointed out that there will always be disabled young people who require separate programmes because of special disability circumstances such as inability to travel to clinics/centres. In order to meet disabled young people’s expressed wishes, I have recommended in this thesis, a community-based sexuality education and HIV/AIDS prevention programme that focuses on the whole community instead of individuals only so as to deal with contextual and individual factors of risk. Such a programme encourages dialogue and participation as opposed to the information giving approaches from experts. A guideline that existing HIV/AIDS intervention programmes can use to include disabled young people’s special circumstances, has been presented. / South Africa

This study explores the shifting roles of teacher unions in pre-and post-independence Namibia, against the backdrop of a changing political context. My aim was to understand the roles of teacher unions both before and after independence in Namibia, and to explain how they changed in the different political contexts. To do so, I examined the teacher union roles in three distinct phases, namely pre-independence, immediately post-independence, taking in the period from 1990 to 1999, and the last decade, from 2000 up until today. In approaching the research questions, I worked on the assumption that understanding and explaining the roles of teacher unions in pre- and post-independence Namibia could best be achieved by interacting with participants who were or had been involved in education and the teacher unions in Namibia. I argued that their experiences would be important in constructing knowledge on the unions, particularly regarding their roles before and after independence. I chose a narrative design for the study, because it allowed me to interact with the participants to gain deeper meanings from their individual perspectives. Narrative design was appropriate to this research, because it also allowed me to trace the way events in education mirrored those in the national political arena, and to explain why particular tendencies emerged. I used the information collected during the interviews and document analysis as the data for the study. Four themes emerged regarding the roles of teacher unions in the contexts of pre- and post-independence Namibia, around which I conceptualized the study. These were the shifting historic roles of these unions in Namibia, the institutional frameworks and modalities for union participation, the contextual factors relating to the roles of the unions, and the changed roles of the unions in contemporary Namibia. The findings of the study suggested, firstly, that teacher unions play different roles in different political contexts, and that these roles are shaped by contextual factors. Secondly, the research established that the unions in the post-independence contexts did not necessarily have a vision of a labour-driven process of radical strategic change, as postulated by the theory of strategic unionism. Instead, the findings suggest that teacher unions in contemporary Namibia are influenced and shaped by the broader political and social factors of a new hierarchical political culture, by political and economic middle-class aspirations, and by undefined party-government-teacher union relationships. I conclude the study by suggesting an expansion of the concept of strategic unionism to include the nuances of political and economic contexts and aspirations. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted