Through the design of supportive housing for adolescent mothers and their children, this practicum project explores the existing issue of teen parenting, and the importance of a supportive environment for teen mothers. Key areas of supportive design examined in the literature review include sense of control, social support, and positive distractions. This practicum also examines the developmental and environmental needs of infants. The comprehensive literature review of the existing challenges adolescent mothers face, the Theory of Supportive Design, and child development has informed the proposed design of House 784. / February 2017

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived consequences of racism experiences on adult development and overall well-being of highly educated African American males. There were three objectives: to describe African American male responses to experienced racism in four social contexts: on the job, in academia, in the public realm, and statements in the media; to describe African American male social support networks for dealing with racism and to describe their level of satisfaction with those social support network; and to examine the relationship between racism experiences and other variables with two measures of psychological well-being, neuroticism and extraversion. The data used to address the study objectives were derived from a unique sample of responses to questionnaires submitted by 130 African American male college graduates. These men are very extraverted and score within average range on the neuroticism scales. The participants perceived frequent incidences of racism in all four social contexts: on the job, in academic settings, in the public realm, and racist statements in the media. At all developmental levels, the respondents' acknowledged that incidences of racism experiences had occurred in both the "previous year" and "throughout their lifetime. The African American men are acknowledging performing additional tasks during their development that was heretofore never mentioned in developmental theory. The African American male college graduates were very satisfied with the African American supporters European Americans who were a part of their social support network. Results of several regression analyses that entered all independent variables, found that only two variables showed a small but significant negative predictor value for neuroticism. Results of analyses that entered variables for predicting extraversion found that the total number of African American supporters was a small but positive predictor. These graduates provided evidence that they are constantly aware and vigilant about circumstances in American society. They experienced incidences of racism across social contexts and have devised ways to cope, yet they are always looking at themselves through the eyes of others and the negative influences of the ensuing feelings of isolation, hurt and frustration threaten to diminish their sense of well-being.

Character development in higher education is essential for enhancing ethical awareness and moral reasoning. However, inconsistent perspectives exist concerning the impact of ethics education on students' ethical awareness and moral reasoning. This phenomenological study examined the perceptions of senior-level undergraduate business students on their own ethical belief systems and changes in ethical awareness. Astin's student development theory on the environmental effects on learning formed the conceptual framework. The research questions explored how the 4-year undergraduate business school experience changed the students' ability to recognize and evaluate ethical concerns in relation to the ethical aspects of coursework. Thirteen undergraduate seniors pursuing a business degree from a Catholic college were purposively selected. In-depth interviews were used to obtain data about ethical self-awareness, recognition of ethical issues, understanding ethical concepts, and assessing core values. The study followed Moustakas' recommendation for phenomenological analysis, a modification of the Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen method. Emergent themes included the meaning of moral character development, the perception of the college business curriculum in relation to students' core values, and the approaches used to affect ethical situations. The findings suggest that the business curriculum increase the students' exposure to ethical situations and introduce decision tools that could be useful in ethical dilemmas. Recommendations involve considering a pretest and posttest design and Astin's entire inputs-environment-outcomes model as the theoretical framework. The implications for positive social change include the development of character education toward moral competencies and ethical decision-making skills of future business leaders.

This thesis considers aspects of Piaget's and Kohlberg's theories of the moral development and education of children. It takes into consideration an old but valuable study of the development of character in children. As a possible alternative model to that provided by Kohlberg we suggest the inclusion of the Philosophy for Children programme into schools. Prior to the elaboration of this proposition we critically analyse certain philosophical concepts put forward by both Piaget and Kohlberg. Our aim here has been to suggest that there are underlying philosophical weaknesses which have a hidden but important impact on the acceptability of aspects of their work. We express our concern at the acceptance of Kohlberg's work in schools and point out why this is unsatisfactory. We put forward what we take to be an acceptable position in introducing moral education into schools and we put forward an approach where this can take place within the context of a broader educational programme and which includes the Philosophy for Children programme.

This essay investigates the development of the cash crop coffee. It gives a historical background of the good and shows how it developed to be one of the most important and traded community in the world. Tanzania’s position and how it came to that position in the world market is shown. During a three week field study in the Babati District in 2004, some interviews with coffee farmers were made. These interviews were made with interpreters and were gathered with the help from the LAMP project. The connection to Swedish coffee consumption is also shown. One of the results was that if farmers move on to grow organic coffee they could get a larger profit. There is also an increasing demand after organic coffee in countries as Sweden so LAMP instructs the farmers in Babati to start growing organic coffee. Another result was that the farmers in the Babati district intercropped their coffee with other crops to spread the risks and lower the dependence to the world coffee market.

The background of our field of interest grew out of getting knowledge of an organisation called Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE). We learnt that FAWE had created schools in different African countries and that they had formulated gender responsive pedagogy. Through the methodologies of semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews with teachers, students and FAWE representatives, in addition, studies of documents, we wanted to examine what the FAWE educational strategies were and how FAWE was perceived amongst teachers and students at FAWE girls‘ school. Finally, we wanted to understand how and if gender pedagogy can help strivings towards gender equality and development. The study has a qualitative and inductive approach which implies that no theoretical framework was formulated prior to the field study. However, we have formulated a theoretical framework which has served as a tool for analyzing our findings. We have turned to postcolonial feminist theory and development theory on education and gender.Our findings imply importance of understanding the uniqueness in the Rwandan society due to colonialism and genocide, especially when it comes to formulating definitions of gender. Further the Rwandan context is important to keep in mind for donor societies, when formulating demands on Rwanda. For example we will note that international influences on the Rwandan educational system are immense, but what happens if the influences are not coherent with the Rwandan context? Since girls‘ access to education has increased in Rwanda due to among others FAWE Girls‘ School, we also underline the importance for government to meet the girls‘ needs once they have graduated in order to minimise risks of brain drain. In addition we have detected a pattern of understandings amongst the students that financial support to girls is crucial to meet their definitions of gender and gender equality; the girls view financial support as a foundation in order to reach gender equality, or for girls to be able to access arenas that previously belonged to the boys.

The term of ¡§migrant worker¡¨ appeared after the 1978 economic reform in China, since then, millions of farmers or rural inhabitants squeezed themselves into cities for better payment and life. However, the residency system restricts those workers with the rural residence registration from sharing the same working treatment and social welfare as the city residence. Until today, the migrant worker issue is not only become the toughest problem that Chinese government confronted, also this unfair condition increase the attentions of labor issue related I.O. and NGOs. Migrant workers and rural development are the developmental dilemma while Chinese government is perusing for higher GDP growth index. But, after 1990, big amount of social issue related NGOs increased, just in time for make up the insufficiency of government and enterprsies. This study focuses on the migrant workers problem, and its helping NGOs. To make a clear prove, this study provides four important migrant workers¡¦ educational and rights maintaining NGOs for case study. Through the research of these NGOs, we could figure out how those NGOs actually help those migrant workers. The amount of NGO is rapid growing, no matter how hard Chinese government intends to restrict those NGOs, it still represents that along with the trend of globalization, and the demand of civil society in China is also rising.

A lack of empirical evidence to understand neighborhood and residential development processes within neighborhoods has challenged urban planners’ ability to influence the course of future land development. The main objectives of this study were to examine neighborhood and residential development patterns and investigate dynamic processes in northwest Harris County, Texas, along the U.S. Highway 290 transportation corridor from 1945 to 2006. Researchers have identified different patterns of land development: leapfrog, contagion and infill development. However, because of the fuzziness in neighborhood and residential development patterns, the nominal classifications of development patterns are limited in their potential to characterize development patterns both on neighborhood and parcel levels; their applications for development processes and its impacts are even more limited. This study presents a quantitative approach for measuring development patterns by characterizing neighborhood development patterns as a function of spatial distance and temporal lapse time from the closest existing neighborhood to new neighborhood(s). The analysis in this study was based on disaggregated parcel data provided by the Harris County Appraisal District (HCAD) real estate and property records. The quantitative measures of neighborhood development patterns and processes within each pattern of neighborhood were derived by aggregating parcel level data into neighborhood level. This study developed the Long-term Trend of Development Model (LTDM) to classify neighborhood and residential development patterns based on spatial distance and temporal lapse time from existing neighborhoods to new neighborhood(s) each year to examine development processes. Regression analysis was used to identify the relationship between neighborhood patterns and residential development processes. This study found that development patterns can be measured quantitatively with spatial and temporal relationships between prior and new development at the neighborhood level. Empirical evidence supported the hypothesis that leapfrog neighborhood development triggers neighborhood development, contagion follows leapfrog neighborhood quickly, and infill follows contagion after a lapsed time. Residential development patterns in each pattern of neighborhood showed discrete development processes. Age of neighborhood can be used to predict development pressures and growth. In this process, physical and social infrastructure is involved, therefore, development process is best observed on the neighborhood level.

The research study used the state and society approach to discuss the varying roles of the Chinese government and other social sectors, including international non-governmental organizations in China's anti-poverty campaign. China has thus far achieved remarkable progress in its poverty alleviation initiatives since 1978. The Chinese government started the rural structural revolution from 1978 to 1985 and subsequently, undertook massive development-oriented programs that were poverty focused from 1986 to 1993. In 1994, the Chinese Government formulated the Seven-Year Priority Poverty Alleviation Program (1994-2000) and it also launched the Development-Oriented Poverty Reduction Program (2001-2010) in 2001. In order to achieve its goals to reduce poverty, the Chinese government undertook: partnership with all social sectors; the strategy of self-reliance and reducing poverty through development; and the road of all-round development considered as the robust driving forces in China's poverty alleviation campaign. The main thrust of China¡¦s anti-poverty policy is to strengthen the capacity of the targeted population to fight poverty and attain prosperity. In conclusion, while poverty reduction essentially depends on the efforts of the governments in China, the strong support and partnership of the non-governmental organizations and other social sectors are also a necessity that will spell out the difference in the success of the program.

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