A child’s right to have their opinion in decisions which affect them given due regard forms the basis of Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (1989) which was ratified by the UK government in 1991. The term ‘pupil voice’ has been used by schools as a way of encapsulating this and a survey in 2007 suggested that 92% of primary schools in England and Wales had a school council in place (Whitty & Wisby, 2007a). The aim of the current study was to elicit the views of key stage 2 school councillors and staff members about the role of school councils and pupil participation in decision making. In Phase One staff from three primary schools in the south west of England were interviewed about school councils and pupil participation in school. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and three themes emerged. In Phase Two 16 key stage 2 pupils, who were members of their own school’s school council, took part. Mixed gender paired interviews were conducted to elicit their views about their role and pupil participation in decision making in their school. Interviews were followed by five weekly group sessions involving participatory activities to support and develop their understanding of their role as school councillors. Pupils from each school council had input into the topics explored in this part of the research. Findings from Phase One suggest that staff regard school councils as being positive for the children involved but they differ in opinion in terms of the impact they have on the wider school population. Findings from Phase Two suggest school council members value being responded to by adults when they have been asked to express their views about a specific decision. School council members also perceive trust as being one of the main factors involved in their election by peers. Findings are discussed in relation to recent research about participation in decision making, the effectiveness of school councils and the importance of a participatory ethos within schools. Overall findings lead to the proposal of a model for use in schools to support the participation of pupils in decision making. The model is based on the existing model conceptualising Article 12 of the UNCRC by Lundy (2007) but incorporates a shared participatory ethos and adult response as required factors. Limitations of the current study as well as suggestions for future research and implications for EP practice are discussed.

La recherche avait pour objet l'étude de la jurisprudence du Conseil constitutionnel à l'aune de la liberté des Anciens et de la liberté des Modernes, concepts proposés par Benjamin Constant en 1819. Le juge constitutionnel français semble plus enclin à protéger les exigences de la liberté des Anciens que l'autonomie individuelle. La première partie de la thèse tente de démontrer que le Conseil constitutionnel opère un contrôle des principes de la représentation politique au service de la liberté des Anciens : la Haute instance est exigeante en ce qui concerne l'élaboration démocratique de la norme et la préservation des « biens » collectifs tels que l'unité du peuple souverain ou l'indivisibilité de la République. La seconde partie de la thèse est consacrée au contrôle du respect des droits individuels, qui est également opéré au service de la liberté des Anciens. L'existence d'un recours juridictionnel suffit souvent à garantir la constitutionnalité des atteintes aux droits substantiels, en laissant une large marge de manœuvre à la représentation politique. Le juge constitutionnel s'est néanmoins montré rigoureux à l'égard du respect des libertés de communication, sans lesquelles les représentants disposent d'une légitimité électorale mais non pas démocratique. / The research had for subject the study of the decisions of the Constitutional Council in the light of the liberty of the Ancients and the liberty of the Moderns, both concepts proposed by Benjamin Constant in 1819. The French constitutional judge seems more inclined to protect the requirements of the liberty of the Ancients than the individual autonomy. The first part of the thesis attempts to demonstrate that the Constitutional Council operates a control of the principles of the political representation to the benefit of the liberty of the Ancients : the High authority is demanding as regards the democratic elaboration of the law and the conservation of the collective "goods" such as the sovereign people's unity or the indivisibility of the Republic. The second part of the thesis is dedicated to the control of the respect for individual rights, which is also operated in the service of the liberty of the Ancients. The existence of a jurisdictional appeal is often enough to guarantee the constitutionality of infringements of substantial rights, leaving a wide margin of discretion to the political representation. The constitutional judge nevertheless showed himself rigorous towards the respect for the liberties of communication, without which the representatives have an electoral but not democratic legitimacy.

This thesis presents an examination of the change in position of George (Gennadios) Scholarios on the question of the Union of the Roman and Eastern churches. The question I will address concerns the reason for Scholarios’ dramatic change of position from pro-Union to anti-Union, within a few years of the Council of Florence 1438-1439, where the Union of churches had been agreed. I will argue that Scholarios’ changed position on Union is best explained by political factors that influenced his decision, and was not simply governed by the theological questions debated at the Council of Florence. In Chapter One, the Introduction, I will introduce a critical analysis of the existing field of research, to set the thesis in the context of Scholarios scholarship that has previously been undertaken. In Chapter Two, Research Questions and Methodology, I will outline the scope of this thesis, discussing the crucial questions that need to be addressed and the method I will use to develop my arguments. In Chapter Three I examine the key cultural role that the philosophy of Aristotle and Aquinas played in the fifteenth century, and the extent to which Scholarios’ views were formed and shaped by this philosophical context. This chapter will argue that these philosophical influences provided the initial motivation that moved Scholarios towards Union. As the implications of such political aspirations warrant further investigation; I go on to examine Scholarios’ writings, not only on philosophy, but also on theology. I will explore whether the political guidance offered in taking up the study of philosophy was also to be discerned in the study of theology. In Chapter Four, I will examine how Aristotelian philosophy was deployed as an explanatory tool in interpretations of polemics, debates, and panegyric and rhetoric works of the period. I will suggest that Byzantine preambles, poems, sermons and theological panegyrics were also subject to general imperial legislation. In Chapter Five, I will argue that Scholarios’ study of Aristotelian philosophy allowed him to form a view of how the political future of the Empire might to be developed. I explore Scholarios’ visionary ideas of reform and contrast these with Plethon’s political perspective. I suggest that the acrimonious relationship between Scholarios and Plethon was due to their political and philosophical differences, which defined the way they viewed the future of the Empire. In Chapter Six, I argue that the primary key to comprehending the relationship between East and West lies in understanding the vested commercial interests. I argue the Byzantine state had deteriorated owing to foreign powers—the Italian city states, Catalonians, Franks and the Ottoman Turks—attempting to acquire and dominate the commercial and strategic political domains of the Eastern Roman Empire. This was initially driven by trade and commercial rivalry between the Latins; commercial interests also prompted the development of naval and military power by the Latins at the expense of the Eastern Roman Empire, which eventually left the Empire militarily and financially destitute. One result of this deterioration in the commercial and military power of the Empire was to allow the progressive rise in dominance of the Ottoman Turks. In light of the dangerous situation the Empire was facing, Scholarios—in the service of the imperial bureaucracy and under the dominance of the Emperor’s political policy—sought to solve the dilemma and reconstruct the Empire's political power. In Chapter Seven, I will argue that these political events, together with the political aspirations of Scholarios, led to his change of position from pro-Union to anti-Union. I will suggest that examination of the cultural, commercial and political influences in play leads to the conclusion that Scholarios’ pro-Union position was primarily motivated by the objective of obtaining military aid. When it became apparent that such aid was not forthcoming, his position changed from pro-Union to anti-Union, as it was politically expedient for him to do so in light of the growing dominance of the Ottoman Turks. I argue that Scholarios followed the political policy concerning pro-Unionism proposed by Dimitrios Kydonis, and it was not until the political event of the Battle of Varna in 1444, when the Latin military forces lost to the Ottoman Turks that Scholarios formally openly declared his anti-Union stance. In the conclusion, I will argue that, following my presentation of the evidence as outlined above, the political motivations constitute the strongest reasons for Scholarios’ decision to change his stance on the Union. This conclusion allows us to understand the vested commercial and political interests at stake, since the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine state), had deteriorated owing to the dominance of foreign powers. The ramifications are to be seen in the outcome of the Council of Florence where the Byzantines sought the aid from the West, but also demonstrated its dependency upon them. In the light of the growing power of the Ottoman Turks, the Emperor’s political policy sought to solve the dilemma and reconstruct the Empire's political power.

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While humor has been extensively studied in commercial marketing, there is less known about how humor functions in the context of a public health campaign. This dissertation addresses that gap by exploring the use of humor in public health messaging through (1) a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature, (2) a content analysis of public-health related print ads from the Ad Council, and (3) an experiment testing the role of humor styles in the effectiveness of humorous anti-binge drinking messages. The systematic review and meta-analysis assembled all the currently known research on humor in public health messaging. Overall, the success of humor depended on many factors, including the health topic and characteristics of the audience, and humor was found to not differ drastically from other appeal types in its influence on key persuasion outcomes. The meta-analytic component of this review found that humor had a positive impact on ad liking and behavior and a negative impact on perceived self-efficacy and intention, with only self-efficacy demonstrating a statistically significant difference between the appeal types. In the content analysis, Ad Council ads spanning 70 years of public health messaging were evaluated in order to understand the utilization of important communication elements in health communication campaigns. A sample of print ads was assembled, and ads were coded for theoretical constructs, ecological level, emotional appeal, and the presence of humor. The sample included a variety of campaign topics, ranging from drunk driving to polio vaccination to child abuse. Overall, campaigns were found to most often lack response efficacy information, and the presence of specific behavioral suggestions regarding the health issue decreased over time in favor of contact information. Most campaigns targeted the individual level, with few targeting organizational, policy or other systems-level changes necessary to facilitate most (if not all) public health behaviors. The experiment examined the role of matching ad humor styles to individual humor styles in humorous anti-binge drinking ads aimed at college students. Those with detrimental humor styles were found to perceive messages matched to their humor style as more humorous than messages not matched to their humor style. Perceived humor was found to be negatively associated with message rejection and positively associated with likelihood of sharing the message. This study re-affirms the importance of ensuring humor campaigns are actually perceived as humorous by the audience. Overall, this dissertation suggests that humor should be used in well-tested public health campaigns in order to realize its potential benefits for affecting health behaviors.

The collective bargaining practices among Utah's council-manager municipalities was studied through a review of existing literature and two surveys, one of which· focused upon the policies and practices of Utah's fourteen municipalities governed under the council-manager system and having a population of 2,000 or more . The second survey was a microcosmic study of Ogden City's collective bargaining practices as defined by administrators and employee representatives. The first survey involving the collective bargaining practices of Utah's fourteen council-manager municipalities indicated that two factors were present . They are: (1) formal employee organizations existed in areas with the largest and densest population structures, and (2) all municipalities surveyed had some form of collective negotiation procedure for employees. The amount of bargaining, or number of issues bargainable, appeared to depend on formality of procedure involved and merit service classification . It appeared that the most bargaining took place under a merit-formal combination, and the least under a nonmerit-advisory situation. The Ogden study examined Ogden's home rule government, the current status of existing employee organizations, and various aspects of the bargaining situation . Four employee organizations exist in Ogden--one national union and three independent local associations--with individual bargaining methods oriented toward betterment of the employment situation. Though each employee organization seeks recognition in a different manner and is limited on issues bargainable, all have received noticeable concessions in the past.

Exclosure plots were monitored to investigate the impact of browsing on seedling recruitment by Trichosurus vulpecula, Oryctolagus cuniculus and Rattus rattus on seedlings under Leptospermum scoparium and Kunzea ericoides plantings in two Auckland Regional Council Parks (ARC), Shakespear and Wenderholm. The number of woody seedlings that established over a 17-month period was recorded. Gaps within the same Leptospermum scoparium and Kunzea ericoides canopy were created to investigate the influence of the canopy on seedling recruitment. Soil samples were taken to investigate the existing seed bank beneath the same Leptospermum scoparium and Kunzea ericoides canopies.At Wenderholm, net change in seedling density differed among treatments (P=0.014). Seedling density increased within the plots that excluded Trichosurus vulpecula and Oryctolagus cuniculus and within plots that additionally excluded Rattus rattus, but declined in the control plots. In contrast at Shakespear, although seedling density increased more within both the exclosure plots than in the control plots, this result was not statistically significant (P=0.728). At Wenderholm, the average seedling height increased within both types of exclosure plots, but declined in the control plots. However, these differences among treatments were not statistically significant (P=0.204). At Shakespear, seedlings increased in height within the Trichosurus vulpecula, Oryctolagus cuniculus and Rattus rattus exclosures and declined marginally in the other two treatments. Again, differences in height change among treatments were not statistically significant (P=0.202).At both regional parks, the greatest cause of mortality within the exclosures excluding Trichosurus vulpecula and Oryctolagus cuniculus was desiccation. All of the mortalities within the Trichosurus vulpecula, Oryctolagus cuniculus and Rattus rattus exclosures was unidentifiable. However, within the control plots, at Wenderholm, the greatest identified cause of mortality was browsing and at Shakespear, the only cause of mortality within the control plots was browsing.Seedbanks at Wenderholm and Shakespear under the Leptospermum scoparium and Kunzea ericoides plantings were dominated by forb species. A total of 1308 seedlings germinated from soil taken from Wenderholm, with exotic species making up 99.4% of germinations, with exotic species making up 97.9% of germinations. Similarly a total of 801 seedlings germinated from soil samples taken from Shakespear.At Wenderholm, the number of native seedling germinations within the gaps created in the Leptospermum scoparium and Kunzea ericoides canopy, was more than twice the number that germinated under the closed canopy. However, this difference was marginally non-significant (P=0.065). At Shakespear, the number of native seedling germinations within gaps created in the Leptospermum scoparium and Kunzea ericoides canopy was similar to the number that germinated under the closed canopy (P=0.2603).The results suggest that at Wenderholm, despite ongoing predator control, Trichosurus vulpecula and/or Oryctolagus cuniculus have had an adverse effect on the survival and growth of seedlings. The results also suggest that at Shakespear, Rattus rattus have had an adverse effect on the survival and growth of seedlings under the Leptospermum scoparium and Kunzea ericoides canopy. The distance from mature forest may also have had an impact on the dispersal of native seeds within the Leptospermum scoparium and Kunzea ericoides canopy. The implication of these results for the future management of restoration plantings in regional parks is discussed.

This study was undertaken to investigate and to propose a solution to the pastoral dilemma that faced the Catholic Church in Australia the 1990’s. The pastoral dilemma contrasted two opposing pastoral responses to the significant changes in Catholic life since the Second Vatican Council. One response reacted to the changes by interpreting them as “crises of faith”. This response determined that the decline in mass attendance, the fewer vocations to the priesthood and religious life and the disregard of the teaching authority of the Church was the result of a loss of faith. Consequently, it prescribed a return to previous values and behaviour. The other response was more difficult to determine and has been the principle work of this thesis. The second pastoral response was identified in the search for the sacred in the daily lives of the people. This search linked the changes in Catholic life to the ongoing journey of faith that has taken place. A pastoral response based on this understanding of the changes in Catholic life was seen to provide an opportunity for “all who invoked the name of Christ” to enter a deeper relationship with him and each other. This response embraced the spirit of renewal proposed by the Council. A review of religious literature published in Australia since the Council was conducted to provide an overview of the journey of Catholic life. It identified four categories of literature that displayed the most interest in the changes. Whilst the review had a particular focus on Catholics, it included other traditions. Of the four categories initially sociology of religion which attracted most interest, followed later by theological reflections and interpretations, and ultimately an interest in spirituality, or the “spirituality revolution”. The historical and biographical studies reviewed recounted the changes in Church life and remained at a lesser, but constant expression of interest. An examination of the research of sociology of religion in Australia established that the changes in religious belief and practice were influenced by environmental factors and, for Catholics, the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The methods of sociology identified the significant areas of change, but their limited explanations of the changes did little to assist church authorities to resolve the tensions and difficulties. The limitations of statistical information about religion contributed to the pastoral dilemma. The findings of sociology increased interest in theological reflection about the influence of the changing context of society on Catholic life. These reflections endeavoured to explain the reforms of the Council, the relationship to the changes to the reforms and led to “contextual” theology which was embraced by the “Discovery of an Australian Theology”. Spirituality by the 1990s had become a popular response that purported to take the place of “organised religion” in the community. The interest in spirituality also became the key factor in the Catholic search for deeper values, and inspired a renewed sense of the spiritual in ordinary everyday life. The popular interest in spirituality was located in the tradition of Christian spirituality, and the thesis concluded that this tradition embraced the personal experience of God, as expressed in the lives of Catholics in Australia. Such personal experiences were identified and discerned to benefit of the individual and through dialogue transformed the community. The transformation, thus begun, continued in further dialogue, engaged the community, and inspired others beyond the community of the Church to believe. Therefore, the personal experience of the spiritual was authenticated by its place in the developing tradition of the Church. The Council called for individuals and communities in the Church to identify the “signs of the times” as the opportunities for renewal, and personal renewal was closely linked to communal renewal. The “search for a soul” expressed an Australian “sign of the times”. The search provided the opportunity for many people to embark on a journey that led to personal and communal renewal or transformation. Consequently, pastoral responses to renewal based on rule and regulation, or expectations of the past, lacked the personal spiritual dimension. Thus, the title of the thesis figuratively describes the spiritual journey of Catholics from a devotional religious experience to one that seeks to find the sacred in the core values and experiences of life.

This study attempts to trace the development of the Australian Capital Territory Secondary Principals' Council (SPC) from the midfifties to the late seventies. The dramatic change from the monolithic centralised New South Wales state education system to one of autonomous school-based decision making of the new ACT School Authority forms the background on which this study is developed. The changing fortunes of the SPC as a pressure group are followed from their prestigious days with the NSW school inspector to the depths of the conflicts of the early seventies when change towards autonomy was imminent. The Teachers' Federation, at this time, gained power at the expense of the SPC when the union demanded that it be the sole spokesman for ACT teachers. The multiplicity of problems confronting the SPC in the late sixties and early seventies resulted in the forming of the Preservation of Principals Society (POPS), which conducted certain activities to allow principals to get away from such pressures. The gradual gaining of acceptance, within this new task environment, by the SPC saw it become an expert unit within this participative model. SPC members are on many committees which function to improve the administration, the curricula, and other major facets of ACT education. Finally, this study culminates in the SPC formulating a set of goals to guide its operations in the future. Tentative recommendations for Council to consider form a conclusion. These are to: 1. convince the ACT Legislative Assembly that the SPC is an expert body which should be heeded when the Assembly assumes control of local education, and 2. act as a group to monitor the curricula of their schools to ensure that a relevant education is available for the next generation. Principals should initiate change for the future rather than react to the problems of the past.

This study attempts to identify any patterns of decision making behaviour evident from the formal meetings of the Council of the Interim Australian Capital Territory Schools Authority up to the end of its second year of operation, In an analysis of the minutes, the topics mentioned in them were grouped into fifteen broad categories, six of which - professional staffing, policy making/procedures, central staff and services, boundary maintenance, school buildings and curriculum Matters - were found to have been given the greatest attention by the Council. The study reveals that decision making was associated with only slightly more than half of the issues discussed and that three quarters of those decisions could be termed effective, in that they might lead to a change in the education system's operations or in relationships with another body or in that they appeared to finalize the discussion on an issue. It also demonstrates changes over time in both the types of issues discussed and the ways in which the Council operated as a decision unit. Some attention is given to variables which might account for the observed patterns. The decision making strategies used are explored as are the methods of policy determination. An attempt is made to identify stages in the Council's history which might correspond to those postulated in organizational growth models. Finally, there are some suggestions for further research, particularly in relation to pressure group theory, to change in organizational structure and to growth models.