published_or_final_version / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

"September 2004." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 222-231) / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This research responds to the problem of minority teacher under-representation within North America’s increasingly diverse urban school systems. It weaves together what is known about educational equity, teacher education admission policy, and policy implementation to explore the research question, “How did equity-based admission policy shape candidate diversification in an urban Canadian teacher education program?” The conceptual framework grounds this study within organizational culture and describes how culture both shapes and is shaped by interactions between structure and agency. The conceptual question asks, “How did institutional norms and individual will work to support or constrain equitable candidate diversification?” Data collection occurred during private interviews with members of three organizational groups: Policymakers, policy implementers, and policy beneficiaries. Policymakers were senior administrators with several years’ experience in their respective positions. Policy implementers were admission personnel, ad hoc faculty, and field-based educators. The policy beneficiaries were candidates who self-identified as future French and Physics teachers, and as members of Aboriginal, Disabled, Gendered/Invisible, and Racialized/Visible minorities. Data analysis was an iterative process of applying demographic, thematic, and editorial coding to the interview transcripts. Discussion highlighted several themes that shaped the admission process: External admission policy context, Faculty of Education Equity Policy, admission policy instrumentation, qualification precedence and weighting, academic qualifications, non-academic identity-based and experience-based qualifications, admission policy gaps, and last-minute Policy disclosure. It also addressed admission personnel recruitment, training, and performance during candidate personal information form assessment. Significant findings emerged in the areas of preservice program partnerships, candidate support services, qualification transparency, labeling of identity-based candidate characteristics, and admission personnel training. Research applicability extends to consecutive and concurrent teacher education programs, other tertiary professional licensing programs, and multi-site qualitative research projects. Recommendations for policy and practice target teacher education admission, policy implementation, and equity policy development.

The study is concerned with the education system of Botswana after independence. This period starts from the 30th September 1966, when Botswana became independent up to the present moment. Since then the education system has undergone many changes. Consequently the focus is on the nature and impact of these changes. The study identifies changes which took place with regard to the Education System of Botswana since independence as far as meeting the minimum requirements of education of developing countries are concerned. The minimum requirements that the education systems of developing countries, must meet are discussed according to the four central components of the education systems, viz. the education system policy, education system administration, structure for teaching and support services. After introducing the problem statement and background in the introductory chapter, the minimum requirements of education systems in developing countries are discussed in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 then deals with a historical perspective on the education system of Botswana before independence, concentrating on the different historical periods associated with educational development up to independence day. The study then discusses the determinants of the education system of Botswana after independence in Chapter 4, focussing on the particular factors influencing the Botswana education system. Finally, Chapter 5 evaluates the level to which the education system policy and education system administration of the education system of Botswana meet the minimum requirements of the education systems of developing countries, while Chapter 6 evaluates the level to which the structure for teaching and support services meet the minimum requirements of the education systems of developing countries. In general, the evaluation indicates that the education system of Botswana has undergone many positive changes and that the Botswana education system compares favourably with the minimum requirements expected of the education systems of developing countries. / Skripsie (MEd (Vergelykende Opvoedkunde))--PU vir CHO, 1997

Taking the transformative potential of education as its starting point, this thesis analyses Belgian attempts to use schools policy to strengthen the hegemony of the colonial state in the Congo during the interwar years. Through an empirical treatment of the development of the colonial school system, based largely on archival research, the study pursues two main contentions. The first is that the Belgian colonial authorities played a far more direct role in formulating and implementing education policy than is often believed. The second is that the state authorities’ interest in education was defined both by the economic imperative of colonial exploitation, which compelled them to train skilled workers, and the fear that access to education would fuel potential sedition. Six thematic chapters demonstrate that this paradox of necessity and fear shaped Belgian education policy in the Congo, looking at the reasons behind the fear of potential unrest, and at its ramifications. This thesis argues that these pressures caused the Belgian colonial authorities to try to mould Congolese society using education as a tool, by using specific streams of instruction to inculcate certain groups of Congolese, such as auxiliaries, healthcare workers, and women, with the principles of colonial rule. The thesis also considers how these policies were put into practice, focusing on relations between the colonial authorities and the Catholic and Protestant mission societies, and evaluates their efficacy. Moreover, this thesis attempts to establish, where possible, the reactions of colonized Congolese to European educational provision. Having analysed these issues, this thesis concludes that the colonial education system in the Congo during the interwar years failed to fulfil its main purpose and perpetuate Belgian colonial rule.

The thesis provides a comparative analysis of the implementation of the EMPRETEC programme in Ghana and Namibia. The EMPRETEC programme is a unique entrepreneurship and business development programme developed by the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations in the late 1980s. Since then, it has been implemented in nearly 30 countries to support business development. The central aim of this research is to identify the major factors that influenced the implementation process of the EMPRETEC programme in Ghana and Namibia and to analyse how they afforded or constrained the achievement of seven so-called Critical Programme Components (CPCs). These CPCs are: 1) targeting high growth entrepreneurs; 2) developing an entrepreneurship training workshop that is adapted to the local context; 3) ensuring direction of the programme by a coalition of private and public sector leaders; 4) mobilising support from the private sector; 5) promote linkages among clients; 6) promote business linkages with foreign firms; and 7) establish a sustainable foundation. The theoretical concepts of the research are based on the implementation literature which emerged as part of the policy sciences during the second half of the last century. A new approach is developed to study the highly complex implementation process: in a first step, an analytical framework is developed that comprises five analytical lenses: 1) a contextual lens focusing on the context in which the entire implementation process is embedded; 2) an inter-organisational lens focusing on interactions of the involved stakeholders; 3) an organisational lens for the identification of institutional strengths and weaknesses; 4) an intra-organisational lens for the analysis of intra-agency relationships; and 5) an individual lens focusing on the individuals who were involved in the implementation of the programmes. These lenses cover the entire spectrum and levels of the implementation process. In a second step, 15 major implementation factors are derived from implementation theory. These factors and their influence on the implementation process are then assessed with the help of 100 distinct measures. The influence of the 15 factors on the implementation process and the seven CPCs is subsequently analysed and finally tested using evidence from 18 additional EMPRETEC centres. The study's contribution to knowledge is twofold: (i) The study provides insights into the underlying factors that influenced the implementation of the EMPRETEC programme in Ghana and Namibia. Overall, the implementation conditions were more favourable in Ghana as compared to Namibia. The research hints at the importance of the context and implementers' (both organisations' and individuals') characteristics as crucial factors for successful implementation. Finding the right implementers and aligning implementation objectives to existing development discourses and implementers' ideologies can help to improve effective implementation. (ii) The study proposes an innovative approach to study implementation processes across narrow cases. Based on third-generation implementation models, a unique data collection and analytical framework is suggested that allows comparing and testing various implementation factors and their influence on the implementation process. The emerging results are of high relevance to governments, donors, private organisations and other stakeholders, as many lessons could be derived to improve the implementation and effectiveness of donor interventions, especially in the area of business development programmes.

<p>This study explores second and third year students' and teachers‟ views on factors that hinder or facilitate the mastery of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in the Science and Engineering Technology Higher Institutions of learning in Rwanda (KIST) and seeks to establish the extent to which the current programme meets the needs of the students. This is done by highlighting a whole range of teacher and student perspectives on the EAP programme. Two key requirements invite students to write their academic assignments in the form of research proposals and research project reports. In order to help them perform well in their field subjects, KIST introduced a department of English with a General English Programme under the umbrella of the then School of Language Studies (SORAS) in 1997. The department‟s first assigned mission was to teach English to students in all departments in a bid to support and encourage them to cope with their field specific courses which are taught in English. Rwanda‟s National Council for Higher Education (2007), on language teaching and learning, states that the trio, that is Kinyarwanda (the Mother Tongue and national language) and English and French (as foreign languages), should be taught at primary, secondary and higher education levels in order to reconcile the divide between Rwandan returnees (who had lived abroad for many decades) and locals. It is in this context that KIST, one of the institutions of higher learning, adopted the bilingual policy to cater to students‟ needs to learn both French and English as media of academic communication. However, after Rwanda‟s integration into the East African Community and the Commonwealth, English has been officially adopted as the medium of instruction in all schools and higher institutions of education. That is why there was a sudden language shift in 2006 from French to English as a medium of instruction at KIST. French and Kinyarwanda are now merely taught as subjects. The motive behind the move was to cater for Rwanda‟s needs to fully participate in the economic community of East African Community in general and in the global economy in particular. The move drastically affected students‟ ability to read and write English in their respective disciplines. The move also affected lecturers of other speciality areas. To avert the obvious challenges emanating from this sudden shift in language policy, the Institute introduced the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programmes under the then KIST School of Language Studies (SOLAS) and the KIST Language Centre. However, appropriate instructional materials for such courses have not been easily available. Given this situation, English teachers have had to create their own materials rather than the existing generalised and pre-packaged language teaching materials. As a result, students‟ specific needs for induction into a scientific writing community at tertiary level have rarely been met. It is against this background that the study seeks to investigate factors that are facilitating and the mastery of EAP. The study operates on post-colonial/post-structuralist theoretical perspectives. These were founded on the analytical framework that is guided by thematic and/or conceptual underpinnings of language policy in the post-colonial Africa. Thus, English Language Teaching (ELT), developed into English as a second and additional language that is multi-semiotic and multi-modality in EAP and science genres, focusing mostly on its academic literacy, identity, ideology, power and agency, as well as its investment in language teaching and learning and the scientific community practice. Using a combination of ethnographic principles/practices like participants‟ observations, oneto- one interviews, focus group discussions and documentary review in data collection, the study utilises thematic/conceptual analysis to draw its conclusions. Drawing from the above conceptual perspectives, therefore, as well as from the methodological approach, this thesis emphasises the fact that the inability of students to successfully master EAP is caused by various factors, including the choice of English language learning materials. Contradictory approaches to language learning and to academic literacy practices create further challenges to the Rwandan students‟ advancement in English mastery. These same practices also serve to limit the students‟ ability to learn this language and complicate their access to local and global cultural exposure that is necessary for their socio-economic development of Rwanda. The study also reveals lack of appropriate discursive competence and multi-semiotic repertoires as some of the major factors inhibiting students‟ academic progress. This is partly explained by the nature of the English language learning and teaching materials that is in use which neither provides general nor disciplinary specific academic and learning opportunities in English. Similarly, a range of structural and professional constraints on &bdquo / agency‟ exists for teachers of English in Rwanda as an additional language to the students, including lack of induction into scientific discourses or the EAP community of language practice. The overall lack of power and agency by teachers also contributes to constraints and constrictions in English language learning practices for these students in Rwanda. The study, however, observes that this situation is not only peculiar to KIST, as it is also common in almost all tertiary institutions in Rwanda. Specific recommendations are made in the study to improve the quality of English language learning and teaching in general and EAP in particular at KIST as an institution of higher learning, through the establishment of a clearer language policy and training opportunities for staff to update and develop required language skills in EAP, especially with regards to writing skills in sciences and engineering. The government of Rwanda, under the umbrella of Rwanda Education Board (REB) and the contribution of English language experts at the Institute, should provide a clearer direction of the language policy and curriculum that addresses Rwandan students‟ specific needs. KIST, as an institution of higher learning, should value and facilitate the teaching and learning of English in general and the teaching of EAP in particular, bearing in mind its assigned mission. The management of the Institute should encourage interaction between EAP and subject area lecturers to discuss and agree upon, text types to be used by EAP lecturers in teaching. KIST management should also provide room for regular interactions with English lecturers to listen to their views and offer them further language training opportunities in order to update and develop the required skills in EAP, especially with regards to writing skills in science and engineering.</p>