The study was conducted in the Mthatha District, Mqanduli area, and it sought to enquire about the role of junior secondary school principals in supporting Grade R teachers in order to make teaching and learning in the Grade R classes effective. The researcher has noticed with concern the poor conditions of Grade R classes in the schools and felt a need for proper support. She felt the principal could champion the concept of support better, in his capacity as a manager in the school. Studies in Early Childhood Development have been done, and they pertained to all aspects of child development, parental support etc., but studies that view support from a managerial perspective in Mthatha District are scarce. Under quantitative research design, a survey research method was employed to collect a large portion of the data. A questionnaire consisting of closed and open ended questions was used in order to collect data from the Grade R teachers. Open ended questions were used in order to get a broader view and perceptions. Comprehensive sampling was used in this study because the whole population fell into the sample. All ethical considerations were observes and after receipt of permission to conduct research in the schools, a questionnaire was distributed personally to all the schools in the sample. Data was analyzed by means of the SPSS. Some of the findings identified in the study pertained to: the need for material support including good infrastructure, poor communication between principal and Grade R teacher, scarce meetings specifically for Grade R. The individual findings, together with the implications were discussed in relation to the research questions. The researcher recommended that technical support should be attended to and the principal must communicate frequently with the Grade R teacher. Financial limitations and negative attitudes from some principals were the major limitations the researcher encountered.

This study is premised on the plight of custodial women, who sometimes complain about lack of financial support and the physical absence or disengagement of non-custodial fathers in the lives of their children after divorce. A notable number of non-custodial fathers in the KSD Municipal area have been identified through this study to be disengaging themselves physically from the lives of their children after divorce. The research analysis point to a number of compelling factors for post-divorce paternal disengagement.The research study is an exploratory study in which a mixed method of both qualitative and quantitative research design have been utilised. The researcher was interested in using qualifying words and the use of statistical analysis to describe the father disengagement phenomenon. The hypothesis for this study is: psychological, social and structural factors contribute to the disengagement of non-custodial fathers after divorce. The researcher drew up a sample which Bailey (1982) defines as a subset or portion of the total population. The researcher selected respondents according to the purposive sample which Rubin and Babbie (1993:259) defines as a type of non-probability sampling method in which the researcher uses his own judgement in the selection of respondents. In sampling, 30 respondents who are non-custodial parents were selected to participate in the study. Disengaged non-custodial father was the unit of analysis.The data was collected by means of administering questionnaires and voice recordings. The researcher also utilized in-depth interviews as stated by Boyce and Neale (2006) as being useful when you want detailed information about a person’s thoughts and behaviours, or when the researcher wants to explore new ideas in-depth. The latter approach is most appropriate in qualitative data collection. However, data was analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively.The findings of the study have in many ways answered questions the researcher has been curious about. The ex-wives’ feelings, in-laws, lack of residence, lack of communication between the divorced parents, remarriages, a child or children’s refusal to meet his/her father after divorce have been cited by the respondents as mitigating factors to non-custodial father disengagement. The psychological state of the divorced parties, that of anger, depression, overwhelmed by parenting alone or anxiety or distraught emotional state all form psychological factors. The latter factors were found not to be properly managed well and have often resulted in post-divorce father disengagement. The emotional pain by the non-custodial fathers of not seeing their children for a long time even demonstrates that structural challenges are also contributing factors to post-divorce father disengagement.In the light of the above findings the researcher would recommended mandatory counseling for parenting after divorce, expansion of the family advocate office, provision of a national program for divorced men, creating positive pictures of fatherhood through the media, incorporation of fatherhood or parenthood into the curriculum in our institutions of higher learning and mobilization of men at all levels to take position actions in remedying the experience of divorce.

The purpose of this research is to explore how people make sense of the word feel in their communication across different social relationships and contexts. Assuming the use of the word feel is linked to the act of emotional expression, a secondary purpose is to examine how the perceived management of the word feel may be linked to well-being. Fifteen individual participants shared their perceptions about how they use the word feel over eight types of interpersonal relationships. Discourse analysis revealed that the function of the word feel was to self-disclose emotions or to inquire about them in others. The word feel emerged as a tool that can be wielded to achieve catharsis, intimacy, or social support while framing several subject positions within a discourse of emotional disclosure. When the word feel was reciprocated with others, participant perceptions showed how social status influenced how it was managed in relationships. In particular, the vulnerable disclosing parties were required to take risks in order to achieve the benefits of disclosure. Ruptures in the discourse occurred when participants who did not have opportunities to self-disclose experienced an unwanted emotional tension, an interest in receiving social support, or a drive to find closeness. These instances led to a use of the word feel outside of its emergent social rules. Finally, the beliefs of participants showed it was not just status that played a role in its management but gender as well. The findings show that although the deployment of feel requires judicious management of the risks inherent in emotional self-disclosure, the use of this can indicate the exchange of social resources known to have positive effects on well-being.

Tato diplomová práce se zabývá návrhem, implementací a správou datové a VoIP sítě. První část práce pojednává o teoretických poznatcích, které se dělí na dvě oblasti: ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) a VoIP (Voice over IP). Druhou částí práce je praktický příklad, kde postupně řeším návrh, implementaci a správu služeb dle ITIL v nástroji OTRS.

Process support is a core organisational competence which aims to help people plan and perform their work. This thesis addresses process support for Emergent Knowledge Processes (EKP). EKP can be characterised by human-orientation, emerging domain requirements, compliance requirements and dispersed participants/stakeholders. Current Process Aware Information Systems (PAIS) do not meet several important support requirements of EKP. Addressing these requirements will create business value. Through a Design Science (Hevner, March et al. 2004) research approach, this thesis addresses that problem. An approach to support EKP is conceptualised and implemented. The main contribution is a prescriptive framework. The framework consists of four components; interactive modelling, a combination of procedural and declarative models, flexible model management and real-time collaborative working. Interactive modelling is an approach to flexible process support where users create, adapt, analyse and enact visual models of their work processes. Underpinning the interactive modelling approach are both procedural and declarative models. Declarative models capture organisational rules. Procedural task-based models capture actual plans of work. Procedural models must comply with the rules established in the declarative models. Flexible model management and real-time collaboration support offer a cooperative working and knowledge management environment for interactive modelling. The conceptual design ideas have been realised in an academic software prototype. A Web-based groupware application, D2P, was developed as a 'plug-in' for the collaborative, Web-based modelling environment PowerMeeting. It is shown how Web technology can be leveraged for collaborative process support. A contribution is made through further demonstration of the applicability of Web-based solutions for professional, process related business requirements. As a final contribution, the results of a usability study demonstrate the usability of the D2P and PowerMeeting tools. Empirical evidence in the form of results from a usability study and user questionnaire confirmed that semi-skilled users with a small amount of training can activate the concepts and tools which make up the approach. Of particular importance is the demonstration of the usability of the less familiar declarative modelling paradigm. Scenarios are also provided to demonstrate the applicability of the approach.

This study analyzes the experiences of stigmatization and emotion work through the interview responses of eight parents of children with autism. Developing from Goffman’s theories of direct stigma and associative stigma this research integrates Hochschild’s emotion work as a way that parents respond to the stigmatization that they encounter. The results of this study indicate that some parents of children with autism perform suppressive emotion work in the way they respond to stigmatization and obstacles that occur when raising a child with special needs. In addition, stigma occurs in interactions with close friends and family members, creating issues of boundary-crossing. Parents of children with autism respond to stigma by educating those closest to them and normalizing the experiences of themselves and their child. In order to cope with the hardships of stigma, some parents also work to advocate, problem-solve, and build community beyond their immediate relationships.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Chronic pain is a health problem that impacts at least 10% of the world population. Social support has beneficial effects for those who have chronic pain. Social support can be emotional, where a supporter is present, validating, and assuring; or instrumental, where a supporter provides services to address an imbalance in needs. Despite the benefits of social support, relatively little attention has been given to willingness to provide support to people with pain during transition to adulthood. The current study explored gender differences and the role of attitudes towards emotional expression in young adults’ willingness to provide emotional and instrumental support to a virtual human peer with pain. Participants (N=234, mean age=20) viewed videos/vignettes of a male or female peer with pain and responded to questions about willingness to provide support and attitudes towards emotional expression. Female participants were more willing to provide support than male participants, F(1,218) = 27.37, p < 0.01, and participants were more willing to provide emotional support compared to instrumental support, F(1,218) = 6.72, p = 0.01. Attitudes towards emotional expression mediated the relationship between participant gender and emotional and instrumental support (total indirect effect = 0.05; 95% CI [.01-.12]; total indirect effect = 0.05; 95% CI [.01-.12]). There was not an interaction between participant and peer gender for emotional, P = 0.26, or instrumental, P = 0.47, support. The results suggest that women are more willing to provide emotional and instrumental support and that fewer negative attitudes about emotional expression help explain the relationship. The findings also suggest that the gender of the peer does not impact willingness to provide support.

Studies support the assumption that social connection and support are essential to adequately cope with a life-threatening illness. This exploratory study surveyed a small sample of cancer patients to ask them what they needed at the time of their initial diagnosis and what reactions to their illness that they perceived in others. The ability to clearly identify needs and reactions was deemed as important as the content of their responses. This study supports the premise that when asked cancer patients can identify their own needs and are clearly aware of others' reactions to their illness.

BACKGROUND: We wanted to determine whether an intervention to enhance partner support helps as an adjunct to a smoking cessation program. METHODS: We undertook a meta-analysis of English-language, randomized controlled trials of smoking cessation interventions through July 2002 using the following data sources: Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group specialized register, Cochrane controlled trials register, CDC Tobacco Information and Prevention Database, MEDLINE, Cancer Lit, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ERIC, PsycLIT, Dissertation Abstracts, SSCI and HealthSTAR, with reviews of bibliographies of included articles. Included were trials that assessed a partner support component with a minimum follow-up of 6 months. The outcomes measured were abstinence and biochemical assessment at 6 to 9 months and more than 12 months after treatment. Partner Interaction Questionnaire scores were primary and secondary outcomes. RESULTS: Nine studies (31 articles) met inclusion criteria. Partner definition varied among studies. All studies included self-reported smoking cessation rates, but there was limited biochemical validation of abstinence. For self-reported abstinence at 6 to 9 months after treatment, the Peto odds ratio (OR) = 1.08 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.81-1.44) and at 12 months Peto OR = 1.0 (95% CI, 0.75-1.34). Sensitivity analysis of studies using live-in, married, and equivalent-to-married partners found a higher odds ratio at 6 to 9 months after treatment, Peto OR = 1.64 (95% CI, 0.5-4.64). Sensitivity analysis of studies reporting significant increases in partner support found at 6 to 9 months after treatment Peto OR = 1.83 (95% CI, 0.9-3.47); and at 12 months Peto OR = 1.22 (95% CI, 0.67-2.23). CONCLUSIONS: Interventions to enhance partner support showed the most promise for clinical practice when implemented with live-in, married, and equivalent-to-married partners. Such interventions should focus on enhancing supportive behaviors, while minimizing behaviors critical of smoking.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education, Faculty of Education, at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2011. / This study examined the effectiveness of student support programmes at a tertiary institution. The aims of the study were:  To determine the students’ perceptions about the existing support programmes.  To determine the students’ satisfactions about the existing support programmes. In accordance with these aims, an investigation of students’ perceptions of different student support programmes was undertaken. The participants were 198 full-time, trained undergraduates assisting in providing/rendering/offering the various student support programmes at different sites/campuses of Walter Sisulu University. Using purposive sampling to select the research respondents, data was collected. A quantitative data analysis was used in order to draw conclusions about the effectiveness and satisfaction of respondents with the existing student support programmes offered at Walter Sisulu University. Research results indicated that:  The objectives of the support programmes are clearly stated and that it is possible to achieve set objectives.  The support programmes contribute to the holistic development of the students.  The majority of the respondents were satisfied with the effectiveness of the support programmes. On the basis of the findings, recommendations for enhancing or contributing to the holistic student support and development were put forward. / Walter Sisulu University