The author's ethnographic study of a professional development program for managers and aspiring managers taught at a distance intends to make a substantial contribution to both the theory and practice of continuing education for professionals. The study focused on a group of Deakin University Master of Business Administration (MBA) participants and their experiences of the final two years of the program. Theorising on the professional development experience was based on data gathered from the direct observation of participants working in their study groups and at residential schools. Moreover, data drawn from end-of-year interviews with participants and discussions with MBA teachers also contributed to the theorising process. Theorising spanned a broad set of interactions encompassing participants' formal educational, professional and personal worlds. The thesis is devoted to two aspects of the professional development experience, namely: participants' interactions in their study groups and at residential schools; and participants' attempts to grow and develop as competent professional practitioners during their MBA studies. Interactions with key learning contexts orchestrated by the teaching institution (i.e. study groups and residential schools) are grounded in an analysis of the changing group cultures observed to accommodate the different educational demands of the program. Group interaction on a broader scale is also analysed in the context of the residential schools. The residential school provided a powerful forum for the development of participant activism over the future development of the MBA program. The analysis of the study groups in action led the author to identify the key characteristics of effective educational work groups. The implications of the success of these essentially egalitarian and leaderless groups for the formation of self-managed groups in the workplace is examined. On the matter of professional development, the author reveals the relationships between the nature of participants' jobs, their search for professional integration, their stage of professional empowerment, the strategies they pursued either to empower themselves or others in their organisations and the barriers which were encountered in the pursuit of empowerment. Dramatic examples of professional disempowerment are analysed indicating that interaction between formal off-the-job learning and professional practice in the workplace is not necessarily a smooth and positive experience. The group of participants studied are seen to be heterogeneous in relation to the above factors characterising professional development The implications of the theorising are considered in relation to professional pedagogies, assessment strategies and distance education. Distance education is seen to socially construct the roles of both teachers and students in the educational process. Specifically, teachers are seen to be somewhat marginalised during the program in use whereas the participants are located at the centre of the educational experience. The primacy of participants in the educational process is highlighted through the growing reliance on self-and peer-group assessment skills as participants progressed through the program. It is argued that the teaching institution should encourage and maintain the development of these skills as they represent a major learning outcome of the professional development experience, i.e. the ability to engage in the process of critical self-reflection and informed action.

<p>The purpose of this article was to examine how students learn to use the Individual Development Plan (IUP) with written assessments as a tool for learning. The study is conducted according to an ethnographic approach. A total of 20 students, aged 13-14 years, participated. The production of data took place through participating observations, field notes and conversations. A qualitative content analysis was used for data analysis. The results of the analysis yielded the following codes: Clarification as a tool for learning; Difficult to understand as a tool for learning; Participation as a tool for learning and; Irrelevant as a tool for learning. Results of the study was coupled with an analytical model in which the concepts: integrated; mastered; and appropriated was in focus. The results showed that the students participated in the process of IUP with written reviews in varying ways. The type of participation they chose was dependent on how implemented, mastered and appropriated the practice with IUP with written judgments were.</p>

<p>The research employed a qualitative research paradigm. The ethnographic approach was used to conduct the research. Data collection was done though various ethnographic techniques, classroom observation, in-depth interviews and document analysis. The population was 85 women who participated in a Adult Basic Education and Training programme in Eersterivier in the Cape Peninsula area a questionnaire was used to collect demographic information of the participants Data was analysed by thematic analysis and coded, categorised and discussed according to the aim and objectives of the study in relation to previous studies The main findings were why exploring the existing literacy practice women were depended on others for literacy assistance, which made them avoid literacy events and become vulnerable in this process to cope with the everyday life.</p>

The purpose of this article was to examine how students learn to use the Individual Development Plan (IUP) with written assessments as a tool for learning. The study is conducted according to an ethnographic approach. A total of 20 students, aged 13-14 years, participated. The production of data took place through participating observations, field notes and conversations. A qualitative content analysis was used for data analysis. The results of the analysis yielded the following codes: Clarification as a tool for learning; Difficult to understand as a tool for learning; Participation as a tool for learning and; Irrelevant as a tool for learning. Results of the study was coupled with an analytical model in which the concepts: integrated; mastered; and appropriated was in focus. The results showed that the students participated in the process of IUP with written reviews in varying ways. The type of participation they chose was dependent on how implemented, mastered and appropriated the practice with IUP with written judgments were.

<p>The research employed a qualitative research paradigm. The ethnographic approach was used to conduct the research. Data collection was done though various ethnographic techniques, classroom observation, in-depth interviews and document analysis. The population was 85 women who participated in a Adult Basic Education and Training programme in Eersterivier in the Cape Peninsula area a questionnaire was used to collect demographic information of the participants Data was analysed by thematic analysis and coded, categorised and discussed according to the aim and objectives of the study in relation to previous studies The main findings were why exploring the existing literacy practice women were depended on others for literacy assistance, which made them avoid literacy events and become vulnerable in this process to cope with the everyday life.</p>

This thesis presents an ethnographic study of a small local non-government organisation (NGO) negotiating its way through the complex, multi-layered, postconflict, post-emergency environment of Timor-Leste. This is an environment that remains dominated by the aid industry, an industry that initially came to restore order and provide humanitarian support in the violent aftermath of the 1999 independence vote and stayed on to build a new Timor, in many ways created in its own image. In this environment a small local NGO struggled to maintain not only its vision and mission, but to fit within a new set of externally imposed conditions and regulations in order to serve its communities' needs. / Using ethnographic data gathered in the field over eleven months, this study paints a picture of a post-emergency environment on the ground and in the daily life of a local NGO within that environment. Combining ethnographic and interview data from local and international aid and development practitioners, the study also identifies the internal and external challenges faced by the local NGO in navigating its way through this environment. The internal challenges faced are largely in response to externally imposed conditions, and include the adaptation to new language and communication technologies, new styles of leadership and organisation management, new financial accountability processes and procedures. All of these challenges are coupled with the lack of experienced and skilled staff. The external issues relate to interactions and relationships the local NGO has with the aid industry, and the issues arising out of these engagements including ideological differences, donor dependency, unequal relations, and externally imposed directives. / While acknowledging that these are very real challenges, this thesis argues that it is the underlying factors behind the presenting challenges that are the real barriers to the effective participation of a local NGO in the post-conflict, post-emergency environment. Using post-development writings and Foucauldian theories as a theoretical framework, this thesis explores how thought, ideology and action are governed and controlled by the subtle mechanisms of liberal governance, (particularly in their redefinition), and local language is appropriated and reconceptualised as a tool of governance. It is the inability to understand or detect these subtle mechanisms of governance that often limits the degree to which an NGO can be said to act self-determinedly, or in full awareness of the situation, as they navigate a path through this foreign and often baffling post-emergency environment. / This research adds to the emerging academic body of research on NGOs in postconflict, post-emergency environments. On a practical level it provides aid and development organisations and aid practitioners with a detailed 'insider's' view of the operations of a local NGO and the impacts on a small organisation of externally imposed conditions, regulations and hidden agendas. Finally, it provides field workers intending to conduct research in post-conflict, post-emergency environments with an introduction to the issues and problems associated with this type of research.

Essa tese interpreta a remoção de uma favela da Vila Madalena, zona Oeste de São Paulo, em 2005, através do estudo etnográfico realizado antes e durante a remoção da mesma e o recolhimento de histórias de vida de seus ex-moradores. O foco da tese recai sobre o modo como esses sujeitos interpretam a casa, as coisas e o entorno dessas: a relação com os vizinhos, o bairro e a cidade. Recoloca a questão da remoção como algo dentro de suas trajetórias de vida e não isoladas no tempo e no espaço. Ao re-interpretar essas interpretações acerca do texto dos sujeitos e da observação de seu cotidiano na favela e dois anos após sua remoção, essa tese procura abrir os sentidos dessa experiência, abrindo-lhe outros significados, no intuito de elaborar um pensamento a respeito do habitar na cidade. / This work interprets the removal of a favela (slum) of Vila Madalena, an west area of Sao Paulo, in 2005, through ethnographic study conducted before and during the removal of the same favela (slum) and collection of lifes stories of its former residents. The focus of this work lies with the way these people interprets the house, things and the surroundings like: the relationship with neighbors, the neighborhood and the city. Ask again the question of removal as something within their paths of life, not isolated in time and space. To reinterpret these interpretations about the text of the subject and their daily observation about the slum (favela) and two years after their removal, that approach seeks open the senses of this experience, opening it other uses, aiming prepare a thought about the living in the city.

Magister Artium (Human Ecology) - MA(HE) / The research employed a qualitative research paradigm. The ethnographic approach was used to conduct the research. Data collection was done though various ethnographic techniques, classroom observation, in-depth interviews and document analysis. The population was 85 women who participated in a Adult Basic Education and Training programme in Eersterivier in the Cape Peninsula area a questionnaire was used to collect demographic information of the participants Data was analysed by thematic analysis and coded, categorised and discussed according to the aim and objectives of the study in relation to previous studies The main findings were why exploring the existing literacy practice women were depended on others for literacy assistance, which made them avoid literacy events and become vulnerable in this process to cope with the everyday life. / South Africa

This research entails an ethnographic study of a community that has a culture of poverty. The aim of this research was to identify personal and environmental assets that could be used to enrich pre-school learning within a culture of poverty. These assets included anything that could be used for pre-school learning, observations, field notes, interviews, photographs and artefacts were used to study the community while participating as a member of the community. Numerous assets were identified. Seven main themes were derived from a collective summary of data. The main themes were: children, culture, man-made products, the natural environment, local institutions and citizens’ associations, crafts and caretakers. The themes were expanded into categories and sub-categories. Each sub-category is discussed as an asset in the light of various activities the asset can be used for, the skills and the learning outcomes practiced by these activities. Using these assets as stated by the Revised National Curriculum, all the learning outcomes for the Foundation Phase were covered. Literature that relates to the theme of this research study is incorporated to verify the results from this study. The results of this research study suggest that this particular community is rich with potential, opportunities and material to enrich the pre-school learning of children. / Dissertation (MEd (Educational Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to describe outstanding, veteran elementary teachers using an ethnographic approach. This qualitative study was conducted in a suburban independent school district in northeast Texas serving approximately 17,000 students. The data collected focused on five outstanding, veteran elementary teachers who had at least twenty years of uninterrupted teaching service. Data were collected through interviews, classroom observations, and the administration of the Mind Styles (Gregorc,1982) inventory. The findings of this research were as follows. This study found that many factors were responsible for retaining outstanding, veteran elementary teachers in the work force. These included adequate preparation, a strong personal commitment, a successful initial teaching assignment, a development of skills and abilities inside and outside the teaching field, and professional accomplishments throughout the teaching career.