This thesis constructs and verifies a methodological practice of conversation groups and grounded theory for examining and changing the dominant discourse that situates Indigenous Australian tertiary students in mainstream education. Within this research, not only was a rich shared discourse development on a conceptual level valuable and necessary in the telling of our stories but it offered us as co-researchers—Indigenous students and a non-Indigenous researcher—a means of revealing and working through understandings and mis-understandings. Using such a methodological approach also suggested future possibilities for effective Indigenous/non-Indigenous stakeholders’ working relationships in research, and possibly policy-making in Australian institutions generally. As a methodological and communicative tool for opening up a dialogic space, the use of conversation groups for developing effective communicative relationships held promise for highlighting the experiences of Indigenous students who themselves, then negotiated the position for theoretically and pragmatically directing individual and collective decisions and actions. Inviting Indigenous students into this space provided an environment for the development of an Indigenous standpoint, which is not merely an Indigenous opinion but requires an engagement with the questions and issues affecting Indigenous students as interdependent individuals. Such a standpoint does not happen automatically and needs opportunities to grow and mature. I found that conversation groups involving the Indigenous students and me working together as co-researchers provided this opportunity. With Indigenous students’ narratives of success chosen as the research topic, productively communicating views became a verification of the research methodology used and an enactment of their right to be heard, both highlighting voice and representation issues. The research methodology we used and the ensuing discourse development became an entwined interplay, where each served to reinforce the other. The Indigenous students and I were practising the research approach of conversation groups while developing a conceptualised discourse on being successful. This transdisciplinary approach in co-research, encompassing Indigenous and Western research approaches, allowed for experiential and theoretical engagement with questions of cultural authority, representation, power and agency by Indigenous students and me as a non-Indigenous researcher. Central to the Indigenous students’ stories were notions of “place” as created, negotiated and manipulated by successful Indigenous students as they move between and within fluid subjectivities or stances in relationships, time and space. A broader view was taken of how intersections, layers and parallels are negotiated by the Indigenous students within and between multitudes of places in the blurring of living in two worlds: Black and White.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Registered nurses, while carrying out their professional roles, regularly encounter situations with ethical components. While there are research findings reporting the types of ethical challenges nurses face, their level of involvement in ethical decision-making, and reasoning processes used, how nurses actually deal with situations that challenge them personally has not been specifically explored. The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychosocial processes that can explain how registered nurses reason and make decisions when faced with ethical situations that challenge their personal values and belief systems. A grounded theory approach was used to conduct the study, allowing a substantive theory to be developed. Twenty-three nurses, currently working in metropolitan or regional areas in New South Wales, volunteered to participate in the study. Two methods of data collection were utilised, the first being semi-structured, in-depth interviews which were audio taped then transcribed. The second method used hypothetical vignettes with associated questions to which the participants were invited to anonymously return written responses. Data were managed by means of the computer program NVivo 2, while constant comparative analysis using open, axial and selective coding, as outlined by Strauss and Corbin (1998), was performed. The substantive theory which emerged from the data explains the processes used by nurses when they have to deal with ethical challenges to their personal values and beliefs. The basic psychosocial process (core category) of protecting client autonomy reveals a pattern of moral reasoning that gives priority to the client’s self-determined choices. This subsumes the key processes (subcategories) of: (1) being self-aware, (2) determining duties to other/s versus self, (3) engaging self as protector, and (4) restoring self from tension or anguish, which link to each other and to the core category to explain the various sub-processes used when protecting client autonomy is considered a priority. Findings in the study revealed that nurses who give primacy to client autonomy believe they should not impose their own preferred choices on to clients. Yet the emphasis on client autonomy is also paradoxical, since it may come at the cost of compromise and even denial of the nurses’ own autonomy and their deeply held values and beliefs. When they become aware that their personal values and beliefs are being challenged, they are at times prepared to compromise their own values or beliefs, yield to constraints, or put themselves at risk in order to protect the autonomy of clients. Such actions can leave nurses experiencing ethical tension or anguish for which they need to seek support. Opportunities to find appropriate support are not always available to them in the work environment. The findings in this study have important implications for both nurses and the nursing profession. The pattern of moral reasoning shows generosity and nurses’ commitment to their caring and advocacy roles. However, when nurses are regularly prepared to compromise their own values or beliefs because they give priority to protecting client autonomy, there is a risk they may be left with a sense of loss to their personal worth and in their ability to be moral agents. Further, in some situations it may occur out of complacency because they simply accept that it is the client’s choice, absolving the nurse of further moral responsibility. Appropriate support systems need to be available to nurses to help them deal with the consequences which may occur as a result of giving preference to clients’ choices, over their own.

Thesis (PhD) - Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology, 2006. / A thesis is submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy, Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology - 2006. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 292-305).

Thesis (doctoral)--Stockholm School of Economics, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 227-238).

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-76). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.Eng.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-77). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.) in Communication--University of Maine, 2008. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 211-222).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Antioch University, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed August 4, 2008). Advisor: Elizabeth Holloway, Ph.D. "A dissertation submitted to the Ph.D. in Leadership and Change program of Antioch University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May, 2007."--from the title page. Keywords: outsourcing, service provider, grounded theory, dimensional analysis, situational analysis, relationship formation Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-181).

Zugl.: Hagen, Fernuniv., Diss., 2007

Zugl.: Frankfurt (Main), Univ., Diss., 2007