This thesis examines the narratives of Black youth and their parents about their experiences in Winnipeg schools. The study looks at aspects of academic achievement and school engagement. The study explores similar research based in Eastern Canada and the United States. Youth and parents were interviewed individually as a way of cross referencing the lived experiences of the young people involved in the study. In the paper, it is argued that Black youth in Winnipeg may feel disconnected to school and schooling because they cannot attach to the curriculum, they cannot attach to their teachers, and/or they cannot attach to their peer groups. The author explores the factors that influence the engagement and achievement of Black youth. The paper concludes by pointing out the implications of these stories on the structure of schooling and the practice of educators.

The purpose of this research was to develop a model for the implementation and evaluation of citizen-user involvement in mental health policymaking. The study explored the pathways through which the experiential knowledge of citizen-users enters policy processes, how the outcomes of citizen-user involvement are conceptualized by policy actors, and the contextual factors that influence the implementation and outcomes of involvement. Qualitative instrumental case study methodology was used to focus on the policy field of mental health and social housing. Data were collected through key informant interviews with a purposive sample of 21 people recruited from four policy actor groups: citizen-users, representatives of advocacy organizations, government officials (elected representatives and bureaucrats), and service providers. A review of policy documents as well as forum, committee and task force reports provided additional data for the study. The research built on a previous study that developed a model of the important processes that are used to engage citizen-users in decisions about services and policies. Findings from the current study built on this model by exploring the outcomes, pathways and contexts of involvement from the perspectives of policy actors. Four categories of outcomes were identified: substantive, instrumental, normative and personal. Benefits and risks of involvement were identified within each category. Participants described direct and indirect pathways through which the voices of citizen-users have gained access to policymaking. Direct pathways were those through which individual and collective voices of citizen-users have communicated directly with decision makers. Indirect pathways represented the ways in which the voices of citizen-users were mediated by other policy actors. The findings also highlighted five contextual factors that have influenced citizen-user involvement: the socio-political environments, institutional characteristics, participant characteristics, opportunities to be involved and other influences on policymaking. This research has added to knowledge about the important components of citizen-user involvement in policymaking. The results provide guidance to policy actors about ways to enhance involvement. People with mental health and social housing needs have important experiential and other knowledge to contribute to policymaking. The challenge is the ongoing search for the means to ensure that their voices are heard and carry weight.

Work engagement is a desirable attribute of employees that organisations must attempt to foster and enhance. Engaged employees are focused and fully immersed in their tasks, resilient to high levels of job demands, and experience a sense of pride and meaningfulness within their work. Therefore, it is important that organisations understand the mechanisms that enhance work engagement, particularly whether and how its HRM systems contribute to levels of engagement. The present study examined the contributions of HRM systems to engagement. Furthermore, although organisations implement HRM systems with the purpose of increasing the performance of their workforce, empirical evidence supporting the relationship between HRM systems and organisational performance is scarce, therefore this is also a focus of this study. Additionally, organisational culture will be investigated as the social context that enhances engagement and performance beyond the effects of existing HRM systems. Hence, this study explored the role of HRM systems and organisational culture on employee engagement and perceived organisational performance. Ninety-seven Thai employees from various organisations completed an internet- based survey. Results from multiple regressions suggest that engagement can be maintained or enhanced to the extent that employees are offered responsibility in the organisation and participate less in job training, and that the organisational culture is one that focuses on flexibility, individualism, entrepreneurship, and innovativeness. Moreover, the findings show a positive association between organisational performance and opportunities for advancement, job security, and competitive and goal oriented organisational culture. The limitations and implications of this study were addressed, along with recommendations for future research.

There has been a recent increase in research investigating the relationship between values and value congruence in the workplace and how this leads to positive organisational outcomes. This study investigated the congruence between employees’ values and their perceptions of organisational values, and how this relates to the organisational outcomes of job satisfaction, work engagement, person organisation fit and resilience. Participants were asked to rate eight values related to the workplace, in relation to how they thought about the values individually and how they perceived their organisation rated the eight values. These ratings were then used to analyse the relationship between values and value congruence and each of the four organisational outcomes. The proposed relationships were tested using data collected from an online survey of 120 employees from nine New Zealand based organisations. The results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that values and values congruence is significantly related to job satisfaction, work engagement, person organisation fit and resilience. However the significant relationships were dependent on certain values for each of the four outcomes. Which implies certain values are more salient for each of the outcomes. The results were also discussed in terms of the practical implications for organisations and areas of possible future research.

How can role be used to impact upon the motivation of student’s writing? Can learning in a creative context cause change in students’ writing? There is a body of literature that examines the use of drama to facilitate development in literacy, and some of it addresses writing. However, most of the classroom based studies in this literature have been undertaken by drama specialists who have extended their curriculum interests to broader fields such as social studies and literacy. Their work has offered a challenge to classroom teachers who are not drama specialists to explore and adopt relevant process drama approaches. This study has been conducted by one such teacher and as such it brings a new and different perspective to the research and to the growing body of knowledge. The current education system has placed strong importance on managing student levels of achievement in writing with the National Standards being introduced as a way of reporting student progress in this area as well as that of reading and mathematics. The Standards aim to make parents more aware of where their children sit in regards to the National levels. Consequently this thesis adopted an assessment format that incorporated the National Standards to assess change in surface and deeper features of writing. The students involved in the study were from one Year Five and Six classroom in a decile ten contributing school in Christchurch. They completed questionnaires at the beginning of the study and were interviewed at the end to survey their thoughts on writing and drama. The classroom teacher was also interviewed to gain her views on student levels of motivation in writing and their needs in the classroom. A series of lessons were then facilitated involving the use of process drama to encourage the students to think independently and tell a story through action before they put pencil to paper. Observations were written during each lesson documenting student responses and interactions to the drama and writing samples and student journals were also collected. A systematic analysis was completed on students’ writing to measure change in their writing features over time. These methods were also followed by the classroom teacher in order to measure reliability of the assessment. Writing samples and student feedback indicated strong improvement in motivation levels and engagement in each task through increased lengths of writing and use of subject-specific vocabulary and emotive language. Results also showed a creative teaching approach can be an effective facilitator of certain aspects of writing in children working at different levels and that the National Standards can be incorporated smoothly and reliably within this type of assessment. Overall, the findings from this study highlight the use of drama as an instructional tool in writing and support the conclusion that these strategies can be incorporated into the teaching of writing for more effective instruction.

Using a single case study methodology, the purpose of this research was to investigate how school culture, induction programs, and a beginning teacher’s prior beliefs and experiences influenced a beginning teacher’s understanding of parent engagement. Literature was reviewed pertaining to teacher induction, teacher interactions with parents, the effects of culture on beliefs, and the importance of an individual’s prior beliefs on future beliefs. The data for this study was obtained from three semi-structured interviews with a beginning teacher, single semi-structured interviews with the school’s principal, vice principal, and an experienced teacher, reflections from cultures walks performed by the experienced teacher and the researcher, and document scans of division and school records. It was found that the most important experiences that influenced the beginning teacher’s thinking about parents were her involvement in an undergraduate class focused on community and parent engagement, and her own experiences growing up with her parents. Other findings revealed that the beginning teacher needed further assistance in creating meaningful relationships with parents, the school culture had a limiting effect on the beginning teacher’s growth, and that the weakest influences on the beginning teacher’s understanding of parent engagement could be attributed to her inductions program. Implications include recommendations that beginning teachers have experience with parents off the school landscape, have access to professionals who successfully create parent-teacher relationships, and have taken a course focused on parent engagement during their undergraduate work. As well, a recommendation that school-based administrators receive parent engagement training is proposed. It is suggested that further research be done to understand the interplay between a beginning teacher’s prior beliefs about parent engagement and different school cultures and induction programs.

Trenden att hjälpa andra ökar i takt med att samhället blir mer individualiserat. Brottsofferjouren är en förening som bygger på frivilliga krafter och engagemang och huvudsyftet med verksamheten är att fungera som medmänniskor samt informatörer när det gäller rättsprocessen och försäkringsfrågor. Syftet med studien var att lyfta fram centrala motiv till det ideella arbetet och även ge en inblick i dessa människors uppdrag inom brottsofferjouren. Detta skapar en förståelse och fördjupning i vad som motiverar dessa människor att ge av sin tid och sitt engagemang. Metoden för studien var induktiv tematisk analys och åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med 6 pensionärer och 2 högskolestuderande låg till grund för analysen. Resultatet visade att betydelsen av en meningsfull sysselsättning, viljan att hjälpa andra, social interaktion samt att ta till vara på sin kompetens var viktiga komponenter i motivbilden. Resultatet visade även att det fanns skillnader gällande motivbild mellan yngre och äldre volontärer.

Due to globalisation and resulting work mobility, organisations are forced to compete for talented people. As a result organisations are starting to realise the importance of their human capital, human capital is viewed as the greatest contributor to organisational success. This is evident through the war for talent throughout the world. All organisations are fighting to have the best people as it is believed that talented people add value to the bottom line of the business and give the business a competitive edge. In an attempt to retain talented people, the needs and expectations of these people must be taken seriously. The main research objective of the study was to investigate leadership expectations (what employees expect from their leaders), to what extent their expectations are met and the impact of these leadership expectations on work engagement and intention to leave. In the study, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were utilised to achieve the objectives. Focus groups in each department of the factory were utilised to gather information on what employees expect from their leaders. Employees were interviewed and open ended questions were utilised to give employees an opportunity to express themselves. The information gathered from the focus groups was utilised to design a new leadership expectations checklist. The aim of this checklist is to measure leadership expectations and the extent to which those expectations are met. A total sample of 156 (n =156) employees took part in the research. The result of the study indicated that employees consider the following expectations as important: Relationship with supervisor (ranked as first); Appreciation of good work and Regular feedback (both ranked second); Support from supervisor (ranked third); 2 Communication (ranked fourth) ; Studying further (ranked fifth) ; Independence (ranked sixth); and Coaching (ranked seventh). Results further indicate that leadership expectation met does predict engagement, the more the leadership expectations are met the more the engaged the employees become. Regarding turnover there was a negative relationship between leadership expectation and turnover. Recommendation to the organisation and for future research were made. / MA, Industrial Psychology, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2011

This study assessed the relationship between leadership trust and work engagement with the ultimate goal of developing a model that would specify which dimension of leadership trust would best predict work engagement. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on a convenience sample (N = 244) representing a response rate of 48.8% from a sample of 500 university employees. The results indicated only reliance-based trust to be a significant predictor of work engagement, but it was not possible to suggest a model for prediction of work engagement from leadership trust. Study limitations were, however, identified and recommendations for institution-specific and future research were made regarding these constructs. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

An increasingly popular method of collecting scientific data is to use citizen scientists in community-based monitoring programs. Numerous formal and community-based monitoring programs use butterflies as indicator species to detect and understand changes in ecosystems. A butterfly monitoring program was established with the City of Kitchener in 2012, in order to measure the effectiveness of citizen science observations in identifying butterfly assemblages. Two monitoring sites were used: Lakeside Park contained relatively simple butterfly habitats, and Huron Natural Area which included complex butterfly habitats. The program consisted of training volunteers to collect data on the butterfly assemblages. Volunteers were given the choice to monitor an established trail at either natural area once every two weeks from the beginning of May to the end of August using the modified Pollard method. It was important to train volunteers how to monitor butterflies, so they were required to attend an instruction workshop to learn the methods to be employed, identification of butterflies, use of the recording form, and proper net and butterfly handling techniques. Quality control measures were another important component of the program, and included comparing volunteer observations at each natural area to those collected by an expert. Each species observation was reviewed to determine the likelihood of the species observation. The species and its habitat were compared to the information and status recorded in The Butterflies of Waterloo Region. The data collected by the participants was analyzed separately by study site and included the calculation of species richness, Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index (H), evenness value, Simpson Index (D), and Simpson Reciprocal (1/D) values. A two-tailed t-test was conducted to compare the data (as represented by Shannon indexes) collected by volunteers and the expert. The species richness for Lakeside Park was 29, which was slightly higher than the 26 species identified at Huron Natural Area. However, the Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index (H), evenness value (E), Simpson Diversity Index (D), and Simpson Reciprocal Index (1/D) all demonstrated that there was a more even and diverse butterfly population at Huron Natural Area than at Lakeside Park. A high level of validity of volunteer observations was found during this study, as 93% of submitted observations at Lakeside Park and 94% of submitted observations at Huron Natural Area passed the review process. Based on the high level of validity of observations it was determined that the volunteers were successful in characterizing butterfly assemblages, and establishing baseline conditions at each site. The City of Kitchener will be collecting long-term butterfly data, which they can compare over time to provide insight into the diversity at these natural areas. This research program has contributed to the field of science and to the literature by establishing a review process for citizen science, particularly for butterfly programs. It has also provided further validation of citizen science data.