Continuing education (CE) in nursing is a critical element in assuring quality health care for the public. Rapid changes in technology and increasing emphasis on utilizing current research findings in practice increases the importance of participation in CE. Many nurses, however, do not attend CE sessions. As provincial professional associations are looking at ways to ensure competency in practice, the issue of who participates in CE and who does not is becoming more relevant to employers and educators. p*A review of the literature found that while many studies looked at factors that increase participation in CE, few examined deterrents or barriers to CE participation in nursing. Few studies were found comparing CE participants with nonparticipants. <p>This comparative descriptive study examined the similarities and differences between participants and nonparticipants of CE. Questionnaires, including the 40-item Deterrents to Participation Scale as well as some demographic and recent CE participation information, were distributed to a sample of acute care nurses in three different-sized hospitals in Saskatchewan. To maximize response rates, Dillmans Total Design Method for surveys was used where possible. <p>Means of the interval data was compared between the participants and nonparticipants. Cross tabulations were used to explore relationships among non-interval data. <p>This study provided valuable insights into participation and nonparticipation in CE, and will thereby help employers and educators develop a deeper understanding of possible strategies that could increase participation in CE.

Continuing education (CE) in nursing is a critical element in assuring quality health care for the public. Rapid changes in technology and increasing emphasis on utilizing current research findings in practice increases the importance of participation in CE. Many nurses, however, do not attend CE sessions. As provincial professional associations are looking at ways to ensure competency in practice, the issue of who participates in CE and who does not is becoming more relevant to employers and educators. p*A review of the literature found that while many studies looked at factors that increase participation in CE, few examined deterrents or barriers to CE participation in nursing. Few studies were found comparing CE participants with nonparticipants. <p>This comparative descriptive study examined the similarities and differences between participants and nonparticipants of CE. Questionnaires, including the 40-item Deterrents to Participation Scale as well as some demographic and recent CE participation information, were distributed to a sample of acute care nurses in three different-sized hospitals in Saskatchewan. To maximize response rates, Dillmans Total Design Method for surveys was used where possible. <p>Means of the interval data was compared between the participants and nonparticipants. Cross tabulations were used to explore relationships among non-interval data. <p>This study provided valuable insights into participation and nonparticipation in CE, and will thereby help employers and educators develop a deeper understanding of possible strategies that could increase participation in CE.

Organizations are increasingly supporting employee's educational pursuits, especially when continuing education is used as a strategy to achieve organizational goals or groom future executives. Fulmer and Wagner (1999) found that best-practice organizations developed their own leaders and that senior executives were products of internal leadership development systems. This quantitative study was designed to better understand deterrents to participation in formal adult education from the perspective of mid- to upper-level professional, technical, executive, administrative, and managerial employees who participated in a quasi-governmental organization's leadership development program. The program consisted of three phases. The first two took place within the confines of the organization over a one-year period, and completion rates were almost one-hundred percent. For phase three, the formal education component of the program where three years were allotted to achieve the objectives, the completion rates were much lower. As a result, fifty-nine percent of all participants failed to complete the program in its entirety. Three questions were explored in the study: (a) despite efforts of the employer to address major deterrents (time, costs, family responsibilities, access, and employer support), to what extent do employees perceive any of these deterrents still exist, (b) what other deterrents do employees face as they approach or become active in the formal adult education segment (Phase III) of the leadership development program, and (c) what do employees perceive as enablers provided by the employer? A slightly modified Deterrents to Participation Scale-General (DPS-G) augmented with three open-ended questions was used to collect data from eight hundred and thirty-three respondents. Sixty-seven percent had completed all three phases of the leadership development program. Multivariate analysis of variance and content analysis were the primary analytical methods used. Results revealed that typical deterrents to participation in formal adult education were not very problematic for the respondents in this study; however, findings here reinforce those in the literature regarding the critical need for organizational support. The results have implications for the subject organization and may also apply to smaller organizations, global enterprise, and private industry, where leadership development programs with a formal education component exist or may be implemented. / Ph. D.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / South African society is regulated by inequality and discrimination based on race. Fundamental human rights and privileges have been extended only to a small sector of the population. The majority of South African citizens remain constrained within a context of imposed inferiority in every aspect of their lives. Inequality, entrenched in political and economic apartheid structures, is also reflected in educational provision for Black citizens. Decades of apartheid schooling have resulted in a large population of illiterate, low-literate and educationally disadvantaged adults. Educational, political and economic discrimination all contribute to relegate Blacks to the lowest socioeconomic strata of South African society. Since numerous Blacks, particularly Africans, are restricted from effectively learning in South African schools, there is an escalating need for compensatory adult education Segregation and unequal educational provision have always characterized education in South Africa. The system of apartheid schooling was formalized by the government in 1953 when different education systems for distinct population groups were introduced. Inequalities in the structural features of apartheid schooling were evident in the discriminatory allocation of funds for public education. In 1953 government funds allocated for the education of each White child were approximately R128 (Rands), for every Indian and Coloured child R40, and for every African child R17 (a 7:1 ratio between the 'White and the African allocations). In 1976, the year of uprising by school children in Soweto, the discrepancy in allocation of educational funds had widened to a 10:1 ratio with the White allocation rising to R724, Indian to R357, Coloured to R226, and Africans to only R71 (Horrell, 1982, p. 115). At that time White, Indian and Coloured children were provided with at least ten years of free compulsory schooling. Nonetheless, the unequal distribution of educational funds afforded White children better educational facilities and better qualified teachers than those provided for other racial groups. The deliberate system of uneven educational provision for the various population registration groups was reinforced in the early 1960's with the progressive extension of free and compulsory schooling to Coloureds and Indians. This was done through the Coloured Person's Education Act of 1963 and the Indian Education Act of 1965. Africans, who constituted the majority of the population and who could least afford to pay for education, were not granted free and compulsory education until almost 20 years later. Not unexpectedly, failure and drop out rates among Africans within this system were very high, with the majority of school goers not staying beyond primary school (seven years) (Christie, 1986). Until the 1970's approximately 70 percent of Africans attending schools were attending primary school, and less than 1 percent of Africans were in Matric, the final year of formal schooling in South Africa (Christie, 1986, p. 56).In the late 1970's the White-controlled government was forced to make changes in Black education. In 1976 Black South African school children throughout the country demonstrated to the world their intolerance of the apartheid education system by rising up in protest. Continued school unrest into the 1980's not only revealed the need for an immediate and critical assessment of South African schooling, but also demanded an examination of the whole spectrum of education in South Africa. The immediate government response to these protests took the form of violent repression, student expulsions, school closures, teacher and student arrests, and the banning of 18 Black consciousness groups. Only in 1981 did the government react to the educational crisis in a more conciliatory manner with the establishment of the De Lange Commission of Inquiry. The proposals made by the Commission challenged the fundamental structures of apartheid society. The Commission recommended a single, unitary department of education for all South Africans and a changed school structure. After dragging its feet for two years, the government officially rejected the Commission's recommendation for a unitary education system for all South Africans.

This thesis deals with the issue of barriers to participation in adult education. Survey, which investigates the strategies used for overcoming the barriers to participation in adult education by parents on parental leave, has been prepared on the basis of the contemporary theoretical knowledge on barriers to participation in adult education and inequalities in participation in adult education. Parents on parental leave are one of the groups with uneven access to adult education and they are deterred from participation in education because of situational barriers. Research participants (n = 6, M = 34.5) participated in semi-structured interview, which consists of seven topics related to the respondent's personal history, his academic and professional career and the circumstances of his life. Based on the data, the conditions and mechanisms that help to overcome group-specific barriers to participation in adult education were identified. On the basis of the common elements of respondents' answers the economically oriented strategy for overcoming barriers and the alternative strategy for overcoming barriers were defined. Key words: adult education, continuing education, lifelong learning, lifelong education, barriers to participation in adult education, deterrents to participation in adult education,...