Denna uppsats besvarar frågeställningen: Hur används narrativa koncept i spelmiljön för spel inom Western & Cyberpunk-genren? Utifrån narrativbakgrund från Henry Jenkins (2004) och generaliseringar av genrerna så har RedDead Redemption 2 och Cyberpunk 2077 analyserats genom att ta individuella fall från spelen för djupgående analys utifrån narrativa koncept. Genom denna bakgrund så har spelen jämförts för skillnader och likheter vilket ledde till slutsatsen att narrativa koncepten behöver breddas ut för att i djup kunna analysera Environmental storytelling. Det finns stor potential för framtida arbete inom området genom att utbredda mängden fall, spel och narrativ bakgrund för vidare och övergripande analys av Environmental storytelling i spel.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of public schooling in many democratic nation-states is the preparation of an active participatory citizenry. For this reason, educators advocate the use of participatory classroom practices for instilling in students knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes for active civic responsibilities. In this connection, Malawi has since the re-introduction of democracy in 1994, reformed the primary school curricula to emphasize participatory classroom practices. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore how primary school teachers in Malawi planned and implemented social studies lessons for the preparation of competent citizens in a democratic civil society. The study used a case study genre of qualitative research involving three senior grade teachers as research participants. The study yielded four major results based on four generic research questions. The first result was that the social studies primary school curriculum has content and pedagogical approaches that are appropriate for the preparation of active participatory citizens. The second result was that the three teachers displayed limited understanding of the concept of participatory learning that was suggested to them in the curriculum documents. As such, their planning of lessons was largely teacher-centered, which they thought was participatory in approach. The third result was that the teachers’ limited conception of participatory learning, as reflected in the teaching plans, was transferred to their classrooms. In this way, the teacher-centered classroom practices caused a lot of missed opportunities for the students’ development of skills in critical thinking, problem solving, and rational decision-making that are necessary for active participation in a shared democratic political community. The last result was that state policies on the use of English as the medium of class instruction and the grade eight mandated examinations negatively contributed to the decisions that the teachers made in the organization of participatory classroom practices. Thus, the general picture based on these research results showed that there was a discrepancy between the state’s intended curriculum and the teachers’ enacted curriculum. / Ph. D.

Education research has investigated teaching practices and uncovered a potential disconnect between instructors' knowledge and beliefs about teaching and their actual teaching practices. While experts of the subject matter, their understanding of teaching and their awareness of their own teaching capability significantly impact their enacted practices. However, there is a dearth of research in engineering on this aspect, particularly in electrical engineering (EE) education. EE as an applied science comprises many abstract concepts among other engineering disciplines that require strategic teaching practices to facilitate student learning. The intangible nature of these concepts, such as the foundational circuits concepts, raises the likelihood of acquiring issues in teaching among engineering instructors that can impact the construction of contextual knowledge and skills among engineering students. In this qualitative case study, the primary aim was to study the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) faculty who taught the first and second-year ECE courses at Virginia Tech. Answers were sought through the overarching research question how do engineering instructors' knowledge and beliefs about engineering teaching influence their enacted practice in teaching introductory electric circuits? using a synthesized framework of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), instructor beliefs and Watkins and Marsick's Continuous Learning Model (WMCLM). The significant findings from the analysis of interviews, class recordings, and Canvas course materials suggested that the ECE instructors' formed PCK and held beliefs can have an affirmative influence on enacted practice, meaning, their knowledge and beliefs about engineering teaching reinforced their enacted practice. This influence was apparent in their various student-centric approaches to contextualizing the ECE concepts using their combined experiences. In contrast, constructive influence captured the potential causes of "disconnect" between their formed "knowledge and beliefs" and their enacted practice. This influence was rooted in how the abstract fundamental ECE concepts, in most cases, required contexts outside of the instructors' core experiences. The attempt to use multiple strategies to attain the course goals had created oversight tendencies on their implementation magnified by the online and hybrid modality, especially with the team-teaching design of the base ECE courses. Such relevant issues needed time-constraining solutions from the course instructor to the administrative level. This work can further advance the instructional methods in EE education after understanding the influences of instructors' beliefs and knowledge on their enacted practices to teach foundational concepts in ECE. More broadly, this work will have implications for educators, curriculum designers, and researchers who seek to improve engineering instruction and address the current issues in teaching engineering. The outcomes provide research opportunities to interrogate how we can use instructional practices to design methodologies that can elucidate and solve issues on instructors' enacted practices constructively. More importantly, the results of this study can be utilized to design professional development programs for engineering teaching faculty by having a framework to continuously examine instructors' beliefs and knowledge to support their teaching practice. / Doctor of Philosophy / In the past years, research has been done in uncovering why there have been issues in teaching practices. While instructors are assumed experts of the content they are teaching, research suggests they must develop an awareness of their ability to teach to improve their enacted practice. However, there is a need for further research in electrical engineering (EE) education in this aspect because of the challenges associated with the abstract nature of its fundamental content for which engineering students' learning can be heavily impacted by engineering instructors teaching practices. In this case study, the primary aim was to study the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) faculty who taught the first and second-year ECE courses at Virginia Tech. Answers were sought through the overarching research question how do engineering instructors' knowledge and beliefs about engineering teaching influence their enacted practice in teaching introductory electric circuits? using a synthesized model of instructor knowledge, beliefs, and practices. The significant findings from the analysis of interviews, class recordings, and Canvas course materials suggested that the ECE instructors' knowledge and beliefs can have an affirmative influence on enacted practice, meaning, their knowledge and beliefs about engineering teaching reinforced their enacted practice. This influence was seen in their various use of real-world examples around the ECE concepts using their own experiences to provide context. In contrast, constructive influence captured how the abstract fundamental ECE concepts, in most cases, required contexts outside of the instructors' core experiences. The attempt to use many different strategies to achieve the course goals had created issues on their implementation. This has been magnified by the online and hybrid modality, especially with the team-teaching setup for which the resolution relies on administrative-level decisions. This work can further advance the instructional methods in EE education after understanding the influences of instructors' beliefs and knowledge on their enacted practices to teach foundational concepts in ECE.

La « crise environnementale » médiatisée sous la forme d'une série de dommages et de menaces qui pèsent sur la survie de notre espèce (Larrère, 1997) oblige nos sociétés à prendre en compte des êtres et des phénomènes qui ne sont pas humains et que nous avions exclus de notre sphère morale. Plus largement, ces enjeux questionnent la façon dont nous nous organisons pour agir dans les espaces que nous partageons de facto avec une pluralité d'entités. Cette recherche doctorale s'intéresse plus particulièrement aux pratiques de gestion des « espaces de nature ». Les gestionnaires de ces espaces sont amenés à répondre à une multiplicité de demandes et d'injonctions, autrement dit à « écologiser » leurs façons de faire. Mais bien traiter la « nature » ou l'environnement ne peut se faire au détriment d'un bon accueil des publics. Nous observons et décrivons la mise en place de quatre initiatives se disant « éthiques » ou « responsables » sur des terrains variés, du plus urbain (espaces verts de Grenoble) au plus « sauvage » (Mt Jefferson Wilderness, en Oregon). Il apparaît que la responsabilité du devenir de ces espaces n'est pas uniquement celle des gestionnaires : elle est distribuée le long d'une chaîne d'humains et de non-humains. Les acteurs comptent sur une pluralité de personnes, d'êtres et de choses pour maintenir ces espaces. Leurs pratiques relèvent d'expérimentations tout à la fois scientifiques, politiques et morales (Latour, 1995 ; Hache, 2011). Ils construisent des compromis situés et précaires, selon une éthique du faire-avec. Dans ce mouvement, les parcs et jardins – comme figures de la séparation et de la domestication – cessent d'être la seule échelle pertinente de réflexion et d'action : d'autres formes socio-spatiales émergent. Une géographie des associations hétérogènes (Murdoch, 1997) nous apparaît alors féconde pour rendre compte des liens, des emboîtements d'échelles et des évènements éthiques fragmentaires qui se jouent dans le travail continu de ces collectifs qui œuvrent à construire un monde commun constamment renégocié. / The “environmental crisis”, made public through various damages and threats that challenge the survival of our species (Larrère, 1997), urges our societies to include beings and phenomena that are not solely human into our moral sphere. Also, it requires to re-think the way we plan our activities in spaces than we share de facto with a large number of entities. This doctoral research focuses on “natural areas” management policies. Park and wilderness managers have to comply with an increasing diversity of norms and rules, they have to “ecologize” the way they do things. But caring for “nature” or the environment can hardly exclude the well-being of humans. We analyse four management projects labelled as “ethical” or “responsible” on different terrains, from Grenoble city parks (France) to Mt Jefferson Wilderness (Oregon). The responsibility concerning the future of these “natural areas” appears to no longer be only that of the managers: it is distributed along a chain of humans and non humans. People in charge of these areas count on many individuals and things. Their actions can be considered as experiments that are altogether scientific, politic and moral (Latour, 1995; Hache, 2011). They build site-specific precarious compromises following an ethics of coping. In this context, parks and wildernesses cease to be relevant scales of action and other socio-spatial forms emerge. A geography of heterogeneous associations (Murdoch, 1997) seems to offer one interesting means of following the links operating in these attempts to build a common world.

The fierce competition on the retail market has led firms to stop focusing on firm-customer transactions and start focusing on firm-customer relations. New customer demands makes it impossible for firms to gain a sustainable advantage by focusing only on their goods assortment. This forces retailers to consider the customer experience and differentiate themselves by how they offer what they offer. This have led to that many retail companies try to shape the behaviours and emotional displays of their frontline employees in encounters with customers. Many firms define customer service concepts as an attempt to create high quality customer experiences. However, a successful realisation of these concepts can be challenging.   Service-Dominant Logic researchers argue that firms cannot single headedly create value but that it is co-created in the interaction with customers. Therefore, they can only create value propositions, which is a proposal for value co-creation based on an integration of products and services. Services marketing researchers emphasise the importance of internal marketing for enabling frontline employees to represent the firm in the interactive value-creating process with the customer. Prior research focuses on the customer-driven development of value propositions, and techniques to conduct internal marketing, but does not provide relevant theories about the realisation of value propositions or the implementation of these internal marketing techniques. This thesis conceptualise the human factor of the realisation of the value proposition with the concept of intended and enacted value propositions. The purpose was to develop a deeper understanding of how internal marketing can be used to manage the gaps between intended and enacted retail value propositions. This was addressed by investigating one of Sweden’s largest retail companies on commission. Since the company has requested to remain confidential, it will be called Anonymous Commission Company (ACC) in this thesis. The current study has answered the following research question: “How can the gaps between intended and enacted retail value propositions be managed through internal marketing?”   The research question was answered through a qualitative study and in-depth interviews with both CS concept managers and frontline employees. The intended value proposition was investigated by a combination of ACC documents related to the CS concept, and interviews with the CS concept managers. By interviewing the frontline employees, their perceptions and enactment of the value proposition was investigated, as well as how they experience the current internal operations at ACC. The findings confirmed the proposed concept of intended and enacted value propositions, and four main barriers causing the gaps between them were identified through a thematic network analysis. Internal marketing theories were used to analyse how retail companies can overcome these barriers by engaging, enabling, empowering and ensuring their frontline employees. The thesis offer implications for retail managers on how they can manage the gaps between intended and the enacted value propositions. The study contributes to prior research by combining value proposition theories and internal marketing theories, and by offering detailed recommendations for retail firms. Furthermore, the study enriches the practical implications regarding retail value propositions and retail value proposition realisation.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate opportunities to learn (OTL) algebra by grade ten learners at three Catholic secondary schools in South Africa. Performance in mathematics is poor and is a great cause for concern. Despite the government’s effort to make education open and available to all, underperformance has continued among the black majority who were previously marginalised in the former regime. This thesis focuses on the OTL which are afforded learners who are given the chance to attend classes. This thesis met its aims through an extensive review of related literature and the implementation of practical research. The latter was carried out through case studies conducted in three schools where lessons were observed and interviews conducted with the respective teachers. Literature on how OTL mathematics are created is lacking in South Africa. Real OTL still needs to be created if the expected level of performance is to be achieved. The research produced a number of key findings: the learners were given the right to attend class but were subjected to different OTL, learning to convert within and between the different registers of representation of algebraic concepts is necessary to provide learners with OTL, it is not enough for learners to master certain facts and procedures, and learning is enhanced if the means to make the conversion necessary for concept building is developed and the OTL provided. The teacher’s approach influences the way OTL are realised and utilised by learners. The main conclusion drawn from this research is that the OTL afforded the grade ten learners were not the same and that different chances to make conversion within and between registers of representation of algebra concepts were given. Giving the teachers guidelines without expounding the meaning of specific terms such as ‘convert’ leaves gaps in their practices and results in some learners receiving adequate OTL and others not. This research argues for a more involved capacity building programme for in-service teachers to acquaint them with the expected learner-centred approaches to lesson delivery as well as familiarise them with the terminology used in defining terms in the syllabus. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate opportunities to learn (OTL) algebra by grade ten learners at three Catholic secondary schools in South Africa. Performance in mathematics is poor and is a great cause for concern. Despite the government’s effort to make education open and available to all, underperformance has continued among the black majority who were previously marginalised in the former regime. This thesis focuses on the OTL which are afforded learners who are given the chance to attend classes. This thesis met its aims through an extensive review of related literature and the implementation of practical research. The latter was carried out through case studies conducted in three schools where lessons were observed and interviews conducted with the respective teachers. Literature on how OTL mathematics are created is lacking in South Africa. Real OTL still needs to be created if the expected level of performance is to be achieved. The research produced a number of key findings: the learners were given the right to attend class but were subjected to different OTL, learning to convert within and between the different registers of representation of algebraic concepts is necessary to provide learners with OTL, it is not enough for learners to master certain facts and procedures, and learning is enhanced if the means to make the conversion necessary for concept building is developed and the OTL provided. The teacher’s approach influences the way OTL are realised and utilised by learners. The main conclusion drawn from this research is that the OTL afforded the grade ten learners were not the same and that different chances to make conversion within and between registers of representation of algebra concepts were given. Giving the teachers guidelines without expounding the meaning of specific terms such as ‘convert’ leaves gaps in their practices and results in some learners receiving adequate OTL and others not. This research argues for a more involved capacity building programme for in-service teachers to acquaint them with the expected learner-centred approaches to lesson delivery as well as familiarise them with the terminology used in defining terms in the syllabus. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

No description available.