Thesis advisor: Vincent Cho / District leaders are attempting to navigate unprecedented federal and state policy pressures to create a coherent plan for improvement with limited guidance from research. Rorrer, Skrla, and Scheurich (2008) identified establishing policy coherence as one of four essential roles in systemic reform performed by district leaders. This qualitative case study explored how leaders in one Massachusetts public school district that had demonstrated signs of improving achievement and equity attempted to establish policy coherence. Drawing primarily upon semi-structured interviews, this study found that district leaders enacted the role to varying degrees in ways that were consistent with Rorrer et al. (2008). In particular, building leaders were much less apt to respond to external policies in a proactive and deliberate manner. Furthermore, district leaders worked to mediate policies in service to local goals and needs in a variety of ways. Recommendations include how district leaders can enact the role in a more proactive and deliberate manner while setting clear goals and developing collaborative partnerships with schools, all which allow them to craft coherence more effectively. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Vincent Cho / The Role of Leadership in Social-Emotional Learning Implementation: Making Sense of Social-Emotional Learning Initiatives by Sarah J. Hardy Dr. Vincent Cho, Chair, Dr. Elida Laski, Reader, Dr. Ingrid Allardi, Reader Social-emotional learning (SEL) is an essential component of every student’s education. District leaders play an important role in the development and implementation of SEL programs in schools. This qualitative case study explored the strategies used by district leaders in supporting sensemaking of SEL initiatives as they were implemented. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with district and school leaders, focus group interviews with teachers, and a document review. Findings revealed district leaders employed strategies in the broad areas of setting direction, developing people, and redesigning the organization (Leithwood et al., 2004). However, there was no district-wide, unified vision for SEL programming, and the majority of SEL reform was advanced by principals. SEL interactions mostly occurred between principals and teachers, and between members of the teaching staff. SEL interactions were focused on essential principles of SEL initiatives, procedural information about SEL implementation, and crisis-driven support for individual students. Some interactions supported sensemaking. One recommendation of this study is to set a district-wide vision for SEL learning to align practices and provide a framework for principal autonomy. This study also recommends establishing structures that support collaboration in order to promote sensemaking through SEL interactions. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Rebecca Lowenhaupht / Abstract Purpose and Research Questions: To understand central office leadership, it is necessary to examine how language grounds leaders’ actions, and influences their effectiveness among themselves and with stakeholders, including other central office leaders, building principals, teachers, community and students. This study explores the relationship between central office administrators’ language and their support of historically marginalized students. Looking closely at how language shows commonality or disconnect in understanding and action, this study is guided by the following research questions: (1) What language do leaders use to talk about their work with marginalized populations? (2) How does this language influence practice? Methods: This qualitative case study analyzes with the use of discourse analysis the language of central office administrators and their work in support of historically marginalized populations, using semi-structured interviews, and document review to answer the aforementioned research questions. This is one section of a larger research project studying how central office administrators organize their work in support of marginalized populations. Findings: Turnaround districts such as the district in this case study face complex and urgent issues, which seem to influence the language central office administrator’s use. In this study, central office administrators expressed language of frustration to talk about lack of time. Second, central office administrators used language that either recognized or demonstrated implicit bias in what marginalized populations heard or saw. Third, central office administrators relied on expressions of mandated language when they communicated about their work in support of marginalized populations, and lastly, central office administrators used language of care to talk about why they worked in a turnaround district. Significance: Given the importance of communication in district leadership, practitioners should work to establish and integrate consistent language into practice. Researchers will find it a valuable contribution to examine the outcomes of central office administrators’ language use in supporting traditionally marginalized student populations, as research is limited. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

This research study explored and described a partogram as a clinical practice guideline for monitoring and managing women during labour at Vhembe District of Limpopo province. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual design was used in order to achieve the study objectives. Purposive sampling was carried out to select three hospitals in order to obtain comprehensive data from the district. The research study was conducted in three phases. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 midwives who were selected conveniently from the three hospitals. Document study was also conducted on 24 partograms that were conveniently selected from the three hospitals on the days that interviews were conducted, using a self-designed checklist. Tesch’s eight steps of qualitative data analysis were used to analyse the data, and simple, descriptive statistics using frequencies were used to analyse the data obtained from the document study. Four themes that emerged from the data are: benefits of implementing the partogram, challenges experienced, attitudes of staff and evaluation on how the guideline is being implemented in the wards, including giving feedback. These aspects were indicated as pivotal in the implementation of the guideline in monitoring a woman during labour. The findings on document study revealed gaps in recording, mostly on aspects that needed frequent observations and on aspects in which resources that needed to be used in monitoring were lacking. The strategies to improve the implementation of a guideline were developed based on the research findings, sent to one of the hospitals for review and comments were included in the discussions. It is recommended that in-service training on the implementation of the partogram be conducted regularly for midwives. Hospital management and supervisors need to provide support, enough staff and equipment in order to enable midwives to use the partogram / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

Magister Artium - MA / Framed by theories of childhood, psychoanalysis, postcolonial theory, trauma theory, film theory, and literary theory, this thesis investigates representations of the African child in three contemporary films about Africa. This thesis puts forward the argument that in E. Zwick‘s Blood Diamond Dia, the film‘s primary child character, is split into Dia Vandy (his subjectivity) and See-me-no-more (his performed identity within the Revolutionary United Front). Furthermore it will be shown that this split is paralleled by the boy‘s transition from filiation to re-filiation. With regard to K. MacDonald‘s The Last King of Scotland, this thesis will demonstrate how, via the effects of cinematic doubling, the narrative antagonist Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada is represented as a child. It will also be illustrated that the narrative, consequently, perpetuates not only the myths surrounding Amin but the colonial myth that the savage is a child. Finally, this thesis will show that, of the tree texts, N. Blomkamp‘s District 9 boasts the most authentic representation of the African child and childhood in postcolonial Africa, albeit via a child figure that is literally alien. In each case study the child will be shown to be a liminal personae (Turner 1969), who is an ambiguous and often paradoxical figure who allows us to see more clearly the ethical tensions within the narrative. This thesis will also show that these texts may be considered socially aware trauma narratives, which are relatively critical of western involvement in the traumatic histories of African locales and peoples. Ironically though, these texts, and others similar to them, have been criticised for being Afropessimistic (Evans & Glenn 2010). The tension created by this paradox will be investigated during this thesis, which will attempt to establish to which extent these texts may be considered postcolonial, and whether or not they should be labelled Afropessimistic.

An understanding of the dominant processes controlling streamwater chemistry is critical for the development of a regional water quality model. The relative importance of a variety of catchment characteristics in determining streamwater chemistry in the English Lake District is investigated in this thesis. Fifty-five streams were sampled on a bimonthly basis over the period May 1996 through March 1997. Rock samples were analysed using X-ray fluorescence analysis. The major- and trace element geochemical data was used to classify the suite into six rock types. The geochemical data was also used to establish weathering patterns, which suggested that greywackes and lithic arenites weather the easiest, andesites and dacites exhibit heterogeneous weathering and the metamorphosed slate and granite are the most resistant to weathering. Forty-one (75%) of the streams can be considered sensitive to acidification on the basis of their alkalinity and thirty-eight (69%) can be considered sensitive to acidification on the basis of their calcium concentrations. Statistical analyses showed that flow-weighted concentrations of alkalinity and base cations were lowest in the catchments with resistant bedrock, thin or peaty soils, at high altitudes or receiving relatively high loads of sulphur and nitrogen deposition. A multiple regression model incorporating some of these factors provided a fairly good approximation of alkalinity concentrations on a spatial (R2 value of 56%) and temporal scale (R2 value of 49%). The predicted alkalinity was within 50 Ileq rl of the observed (simulated) values for 77% of the sites. Although the model has a fairly good predictive capability, its spatial and temporal applicability outside the study area is an unknown quantity. To satisfy the needs of policy makers and the hydrological community, the model needs to predict alkalinity with a high degree of accuracy in a variety of study areas. This has not been tested as yet, however, the variables used in the final model are not unique to the Lake District or the 1990's and therefore the model may prove to be an extremely useful tool indeed.

As propostas de reurbanização de áreas desindustrializadas através do fomento à implantação de atividades da chamada economia criativa destacam-se atualmente nas discussões sobre planejamento urbano e políticas públicas. Aos setores econômicos criativos, passou a ser atribuída a capacidade de atuação enquanto vetores de desenvolvimento econômico e socioespacial, através do estabelecimento de novas espacialidades ao território. Na convergência entre a nova taxonomia da economia e as dinâmicas da produção capitalista do espaço urbano, o território reurbanizado adquire um valor que é potencializado por sentidos simbólicos a ele atribuídos, operados desde elaborações discursivas articuladas pela narratividade. Nesta direção, este estudo procurou analisar a narrativa da imprensa jornalística tendo como objetivo compreender, desde os elementos de composição das narrativas, as estratégias de comunicação que contribuem para a instauração de uma espacialidade criativa e para a conformação de novos valores e práticas sociais, assim como para a demarcação dos rumos da História. Os resultados da pesquisa mostraram que a prescrição da espacialidade criativa do IV Distrito de Porto Alegre|RS pode ser entendida como um mecanismo de (re)produção do espaço e de reinserção de territórios às dinâmicas do mercado de terras. A narrativa jornalística analisada tem desempenhado papel relevante ao ser operada de forma a induzir a instauração não apenas do espaço físico, mas também do espaço social, fomentando tanto seu consumo quanto sua produção. / The proposals for redevelopment of desindustrialized areas through the promotion and development of the so-called creative economy activities are currently highlighted in the discussions on urban planning and public policies. To the creative economy sectors, the capacity to act as vectors of economic and socio-spatial development has been attributed through the establishment of new spatialities in the territory. In the convergence between the new economy’s taxonomy and the dynamics of capitalist production of urban space, the redeveloped territory acquires a value that is enhanced by symbolic meanings attributed to it, operated from discursive expressions articulated by its narrativity. In this sense, this study sought to analyze the narrative of the press in order to understand, from the elements of composition of the narratives, the communication strategies that contributes to the establishment of a creative spatiality and to the conformation of new values and social practices, as well as for the demarcation for the course of history. The results of the research demonstrate that the prescription of the creative spatiality of the IV District of Porto Alegre|RS can be understood as a mechanism for (re) production of space and reinsertion of territories in the dynamics of the real state market. The analyzed press’ narrative has played a relevant role in by operation not only as to induce the instauration of the physical space, but also of the social space, fomenting both its consumption and its production.

Magister Scientiae Dentium - MSc(Dent) / The Gauteng province is divided into 5 districts each of which have a public based oral health programme. Each district provides oral health treatments such as dental extractions with treatment of pain and sepsis, preventive dentistry, simple restorations, removable prosthodontics (complete and partial dentures) and minor oral surgery in selected facilities. The main treatment modality in most government based dental clinics is dental extractions (Department of Health, 2003). This indicates the poor status of the population’s teeth. Dental caries is a condition that can be prevented if adequate efforts are made to practice preventive dentistry. Preventive dentistry has been a treatment modality that has been practiced poorly or almost completely ignored in several oral health facilities for many years. This neglect could be due to several factors such as in adequate knowledge regarding preventive dentistry procedures, poor attitude towards preventive dentistry, lack of motivation, or lack of resources (Clark, 2011). The purpose of this study is to determine why preventive dentistry has been neglected for so many years.

The purpose of the study was to investigate knowledge practices in Nkangala District Municipality (NDM), situated in the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. The objective of the study was to discover NDM managers’ level of understanding participation and establish any challenges of knowledge sharing in NDM. This study employed qualitative research method. An interview guide was designed to collect data through in-depth interviews. To determine the number of participants for the interview, stratified and purposive sampling methods were used. The study established that there is little knowledge and understanding of the knowledge sharing concept by NDM managers, hence, it is not formally recognised by the institution. However, managers acknowledged that knowledge sharing could play a huge role in improving service delivery. The study recommends that NDM should consider introducing the knowledge sharing concept, through the establishment of a knowledge sharing section. A culture of knowledge sharing could be developed through the development of knowledge sharing policies, which should be aligned to the Integrated Development Planning (IDP) process of NDM. In addition, the study recommends an upgrade on the existing ICT infrastructure and internet connection, especially in rural municipalities. This will ensure that ICT fully supports knowledge sharing activities. The study suggested that an additional study is conducted to establish knowledge sharing practices among the lower level staff members of NDM. / Information Science / M.A.(Information Science)

The research presented in this dissertation involves a quantitative study of mathematics teachers' knowledge of formative assessment. Formative assessment is understood as a process in which both teachers and students actively become the agents of the process, responsible for their own knowledge and practice. In this process, formally gathered evidence is used to formulate feedback and inform decisions; and informal evidence (e.g. observation, conversations) is used to generate teacher and peer-feedback to improve learning (Hargreaves, 2005; Wiliam & Leahy, 2015). The focus of the study is on mathematics teachers in state secondary schools in the Brazilian Federal District. The research design employs survey methodology with a structured e-questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed based on six domains of knowledge extracted from existing research literature. The several piloting phases, and a field test conducted with a larger sample, demonstrate the validity and reliability of the instrument and provide information about mathematics teachers' knowledge of formative assessment. The evidence shows that teachers in the Federal District did relatively better in terms of interpreting evidence of students' learning and helping students to use assessment information. On the other hand, they had a relatively lower performance in terms of choosing/developing assessment methods (e.g. classroom activities, discussions) to elicit evidence of students' learning. The overall performance of teachers in the Federal District was lower than that of teachers sampled from the other states of Brazil. The original contribution of this research is methodological in the development, piloting and application of a new instrument to assess mathematics teachers' knowledge of formative assessment; and to knowledge in providing information and a unique insight into Brazilian mathematics teachers' knowledge of formative assessment. There are important implications for policy and practice, focussing on teachers' professional development with regards to formative assessment and clarifying Brazilian teachers' roles as assessors.