Religious fundamentalism is a confusing and not well understood phenomenon in present day Western societies. In order to obtain fresh insights into what social forces and conditions affect religious organizational development such that they become fundamentalist organizations, this study seeks to analyze a religious group that historically has been mandated to integrate and utilize alternative scientific and/or religious knowledge into their canon of teachings. A triangulation study consisting of a content analysis of its accepted history and a discourse analysis of its accredited membership are utilized to gather data on this religious organization to understand the historical, organizational, and external social circumstances that have allowed this religious community to engage and interact with alternative scientific and/or religious knowledge without interpretations of conflict becoming a source of social strife within their organization.

In contemporary times, policy makers and risk managers find themselves required to make decisions about how to prevent or mitigate complex risks that face society. Risks, such as global warming and energy production, are considered complex because they require knowledge from multiple scientific and technical disciplines to explain the mechanisms that cause and/or prevent hazards. This dissertation focuses on these types of situations: when experts from different disciplines and professions interact to coordinate and legitimize risk characterizations. A review of the risk communication literature highlights three main critiques: (1) Risk communication research historically treats expert groups as uniform and does not consider the processes by which they construct and legitimize risk understandings. (2) Risk communication research tends to privilege transmissive and message-centered approached to communication rather than examine the discursive management and coordination of different risk understandings. (3) Rather than assuming the taken-for-granted position that objective scientific knowledge is the source of legitimacy for technical risk understandings, risk communication research should examine the way that expert groups legitimate their knowledge claims and emphasize the transparency of norms and values in public discourse. This study performs an in-depth analysis of the case of cesium chloride. Cesium chloride is a radioactive source that has several beneficial uses medical, research, and radiation safety applications. However, it has also been identified as a security threat due to the severity of its consequences if used in a radiological dispersal device, better known as a “dirty bomb.” A recent National Academy of Sciences study recommended the replacement or elimination of cesium chloride sources. This case is relevant to the study of risk communication among multidisciplinary experts because it involves a wide variety of fields to discuss and compare terrorism risks and health risks. This study uses a multi-perspectival framework based on Bakhtin’s dialogism that enables entrance into the discourse of experts’ risk communication from different vantage points. Three main implications emerge from this study as seen through the lens of dialogism. (1) Expert risk communication in cross-disciplinary situations is a tension-filled process. (2) Experts who interact in cross-disciplinary situations manage the tension between discursive openness and closure through the use of shared resources between the interpretative repertoires, immersion and interaction with other perspectives, and the layering of risk logics with structural resources. (3) The emergence of security risk Discourse in a post-9/11 world involves a different set of resources and strategies that risk communication studies need to address. In the case of cesium chloride issue, the interaction of experts negotiated conflict about the characterization of this isotope as a security threat or as being useful and unique. Even though participants and organizations vary in how they characterize cesium chloride, most maintained some level of balance between both characterizations—a balance that was constructed through their interactions with each other. This project demonstrates that risk characterizations risks shape organizational decisions and priorities in both policy-making and regulatory organizations and private-sector and functional organizations.

Scholars globally are under increasing pressure to publish in international, highly-ranked, and usually English-language journals. This has created a need for insights into the evolving discourses, genres, and publication practices of disciplinary discourse communities. This thesis reports an exploration of textual and contextual facets of writing for publication in the academy. More specifically, the overarching aim was to investigate the relationship between discipline, and the rhetorical features, genres, languages and dissemination outlets used by scholars. The thesis comprises four qualitative studies, and employs a variety of methods to explore this relationship across four disciplines: anthropology, history, linguistics and pure mathematics. The results reveal some connections between epistemological characteristics of the disciplines investigated and scholars’ rhetorical choices. The structure of the research article in pure mathematics is shown to reflect the process of knowledge construction in the discipline, and patterns of self-mentions in anthropology and history articles are attributed to disciplinary methodology. Furthermore, insights into the relationship between discipline, and genre use, language selection, and access to publication outlets are obtained. The results reveal disciplinary differences in terms of scholars’ opportunities to publish in the local language and in English. Based on my findings, I argue that while discipline is a significant factor in understanding how scholars construct and disseminate their research-based writing, these practices are also subject to local, international and digital developments. As such, the relationship between discipline, genre, language and publication should be understood as dynamic. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: In press. Paper 3: Submitted. Paper 4: Submitted.</p>

This mixed-methods case study centered on an online professional development (PD) event targeting university-level teacher educators and higher education discipline-specific instructors. The topic of the online PD was disciplinary literacy and the promoted use of metacognitive modeling via think-aloud as an instructional strategy for secondary students in various discipline areas. The study aimed to understand how the use of the same instructional strategy by the PD facilitators affected participants in terms of changes to (a) their knowledge about and attitudes towards reading instruction in the disciplines (e.g., mathematics, social studies, science, the arts); (b) their beliefs regarding learner-centered/non learner-centered classrooms; (c) their general teaching philosophies; and (d) their self-efficacy to use and teach the strategy to others. Specifically, it looked for any relationships between these changes, their intention to apply the same instructional strategy in their own classes and/or teach their pre- and in-service teachers the strategy, and participant perceptions on the importance of the strategy to their learning. The online PD was accessible over a period of four weeks in the winter/spring of 2012. Ten participants from various institutions took part in this study by completing surveys, submitting metacognitive modeling samples pre- and post- PD, and participating in interviews. All participants experienced change during this PD event through the acquisition of new knowledge, while many showed resultant changes to their attitudes and beliefs. Changes in knowledge were most evident in the pre- and post- metacognitive modeling samples the participants provided, with increased scores indicating improvement in their ability to use the instructional strategy. Most evidence of other change is found throughout their interviews. Overall, the participants rated and ranked the metacognitive modeling example videos provided by the PD facilitators as nearly integral to their learning. The largest limitation of the study was the small number of participants. Discussion discerns the nature of teacher change, provides suggestions for future PD design/research, and asserts that the goal of PD, traditionally to result in changed teaching practices in the classroom, instead be to provide the knowledge and initial experience educators can use as a foundation to change in all areas. / text

Corporal punishment is a worldwide problem. The purpose withthis thesis is to promote a constructive discussion about the problem andconnect this to children’s rights. This gives the possibility to start adiscussion about suggestions and measures to reduce the problem. Thetheory is that corporal punishment is used as a disciplinary method tochange behavior. Children’s rights is regulated by conventions and nationallaws. The method is to conduct an analysis with interpretations andcommentaries of the research materials from South Africa and Sweden.The conclusion is that those who are positive to corporal punishment thinksit is an efficient working method, and it is about children’s safety. Thosewho are negative have experienced that alternative methods works. Asuggestion is to involve children in the work with children’s rights andeducate them in human and children’s rights with focus on obligations andresponsibility.

Urban and regional planning, from a professional standpoint, is built on a history of preservation, with the backdrop of a perennial quest to define itself for the benefit of both laypeople and its own members. Consequently, different stages of planning throughout the twentieth century relate to simultaneous cultural changes that have caused the re-definition and re-focusing of professional efforts. From the original concentration on rational thought that coincided with the planner as objective expert with the ability to identify and promote the public interest, to the civil rights movement of the late twentieth century that embodied postmodern ideas such as advocacy, collaboration, and communication, the concept of who the planner is and what role he or she plays has developed over time. In parallel, the structures planners use to deliver their services have altered. While the shift from the traditional concept of the public sector to quasi-public and private applications has been well documented, the structures of the twenty-first century such as multinationals, public-private partnerships, and multi-disciplinary arrangements are less studied and understood. Multi-disciplinary practices (MDPs), in particular, garner little attention from the academic or professional planning spheres. While the legal and accounting professions are scrambling for a clear policy direction on cross-discipline collaboration, planners do not seem to have diverted much attention to whether or not they have a future. Indeed, the existence of MDPs provokes the return of the question of what role planners should play, and whether they should be a distinct specialized profession, or an entity with a mandate to coordinate other professions with an eye to long-term planning for the public good. This analysis attempts to qualitatively assess whether MDPs should be supported or rejected by the planning discipline, and how the profession should be addressing the answer. / Thesis (Master, Urban & Regional Planning) -- Queen's University, 2007-09-28 11:25:12.401

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This doctoral research is a multi-disciplinary study which draws from discourse theory, linguistics and European Union studies. It aims to explore the meaning, and linguistic representations of the European Union (EU) in the context of its relations with the Pacific Region, while taking into account contributing ideological and political factors. This study contributes to several academic fields, and specifically to the practice of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and to the continuum of study on the linguistics-politics interface. CDA research observes the structure and function of signifiers. Discourse analysis provides means to critically observe elements of social and political power, identities and issues through both contextual and linguistic features of discourse. It offers a unique approach to analysing international relations with the application of tools that can decipher meaning and ideologies in discursive structures. This approach stems for the post-structural outlook that linguistic features reflect ideologies and power relations that condition interpretation of political and social issues. Through a critical observation, the role and influence of the EU in the Pacific region is examined and evaluated. A wider grouping of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries is relevant to the discussion of the EU’s development action and French territories are also taken into account as they are located in the Pacific region and have aspirations to become more integrated to the Pacific community. This study reveals how the EU is defined and how the EU influences the developing world. It also reveals how the Pacific countries are responding to the EU’s interests and values such as regional integration and trade liberalisation. The discourse formation of EU-Pacific relations articulates and reinforces ideologies of identity and power behind the entirety of EU-Pacific relations. The nature of EU identity and role in relation to an ‘Other’ is thus explored in this thesis.

This thesis explores the ways in which international donors have attempted to shape and control civil society organizations in the occupied Palestinian territories. It employs Foucault's concepts of power/knowledge and disciplinary power to investigate and theorize the power-relations that govern the interactions of donors with civil society organizations. It contends that international donors have construed the concept of civil society in such a way that made it possible to partition social space into two incommensurable civic and political spheres. International donors have demanded that organizations limit their activities to the civic sphere. Moreover, the thesis argues that per the requirements of discipline that the objects of its surveillance be rendered visible and subject to technologies of control, donors have used both statistical surveys and administrative techniques to classify, categorize, observe and monitor civil society organizations. These modes of surveillance are then used for locating civil society organizations in one of the civic and political spheres. / Comparative Politics

[Abstract]: Academic standards in higher education require that all students, including L2 students, are able to write fluently, accurately, clearly, and logically. At postgraduate level, students’ competence in written communication depends on appropriate knowledge and use of the discipline-specific genre, plus awareness of the convention-specific phrasing in the discipline. In addition, students need to develop critical thinking and conceptual abilities to satisfy the faculty demands. This research aims to articulate the strong interdependence between disciplinary knowledge and writing skills at postgraduate level. Specifically, this study provides a more explicit description of the role of discourse knowledge and writing skills in academic writing in the business sector. It also provides insights into the skills and challenges of L2 postgraduate writers and their inclusion in their academic community through their writing practice. The two main methods of data collection were: (i) in-depth interviews with students and their course lecturer, and (ii) text analysis of electronic corpora of two written assignments. These methods were chosen (a) to explore students’ perceptions of the writing process and composing strategies in their academic writing production, and (2) to identify key rhetorical components recognising the complexity of the interaction among literacy and disciplinary elements in post-graduate writing. Exploration of the students’ and lecturer’s perceptions about the students’ writing practices as second language writers indicated students’ experiences, difficulties, worries, weaknesses, strengths and learning processes. Their perceptions clarified the relationship between disciplinary knowledge about Management and Organisational Behaviour and successful writing skills. Findings of this study led researcher to propose two new models: one is based on theoretical principles of academic writing in a discipline and the second addresses specific applications in second language learning and teaching. The first, “A model for L2 postgraduate writing process: A metadiscourse perspective’’ identifies the factors involved in the writing process including the metadiscourse of academic writing (Hyland, 1998, 1999a, 2001a, 2004b; Hyland & Tse, 2004a). The second is “A model of learning academic writing: the second language writing process at post-graduate level”. This second model involves the stages of knowledge development for a writer in the discipline to be accepted in the academic community. The latter model illustrates the functions, context, the role and relevance of writing within the discourse practices of an academic community.