The question of what comprises sustainable development is, essentially, a moral one: what should constitute the web of interactions between ourselves, and between ourselves and the non-human world. But questions this large invite fragmentation into even smaller, manageable parts and in turn a predilection for specialisation. Such reductionism is now recognised as an important factor in our current lack of success in ‘living more sustainably’. Thus, this research takes the alternate approach: a look at sustainable development from the perspective of the whole. The research reveals that even the complexity of sustainable development can be described, via patterns, in manageable ‘chunks’ that can both retain the nature of the whole and advise of the necessary changes individuals need to adopt to close the gap between concern and action. Opportunities for further research include the extended use of patterns by practitioners from any field seeking to maintain the whole; and an exploration of the (currently hidden) attribute of time as a key determinate of action related to sustainable development / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

As the scope of responsibility and the sophistication of each job role changes there is no longer the ability to assume that certain skills/capabilities exist simply because the person has the correct degree or has been to the proper corporate training course. A broader, holistic view, of the person has to be taken. My focus in this paper will be to look at the holistic training and development of employees through the context of Applied Materials. There has been a significant change in training, an evolution in the past several years in training from the learning of specific skills that will enable you to do your job more effectively to one where the whole learner is looked at from the time they are hired, giving them the skills they need to be successful and tying those skills sets into an overall career path. However while this is a long term goal not all training needs to accomplish all of these heady tasks. Some training focuses only on the point skills necessary to be effective in the work place. This paper will break down into four broad sections; the state of adult learning in America and the context of Applied Materials, a holistic view of the technical and sales professional, the value of training and its measurements, and finally I will look at four case studies employing the context and metrics defined earlier and drawing some conclusions about the evolution of training at Applied Materials to one where it is becoming more holistic and looking at the entire employee. / text

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2008. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 121 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-109).

Thesis (PhD (Faculty of Education))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

As a conceptual study, this thesis aims to establish a holistic pedagogy of art integration that would address nurturing the whole child as the goal of education. Over the last few decades, art integration has become an important academic issue in curriculum studies, particularly at the early and primary levels of childhood education. Many have entertained various modes of art integration to promote their personal or institutional philosophies and goals of schooling. As a result, we see some popular arts-integrated programs which can be characterized as ‘interdisciplinary,’ ‘cognitive,’ ‘social,’ or ‘cultural.’ Those programs and approaches suggest, in one way or another, that there are good reasons why we need to be more active in including the arts into curriculum. Our schools would be better off with a well-thought-out arts-integrated curriculum. In this movement, however, there is a critical problem: many have come to believe that the arts are useful in so far as they are good for brain development and academic improvement. This mechanistic or cause-effect view of the relevance of the arts to education has gained solid support and is becoming the major focus when teachers and schools try to integrate the arts into their curricula. Facing this situation, this study proposes a holistic pedagogy of art integration through 1) refining the holistic curriculum with the help of process thought, 2) conceptualizing natural spirituality and its relevance to the whole child, 3) establishing the holistic ways of doing the arts in curriculum, 4) building holistic models of art integration, and 5) discussing some working programs and designing one that best exemplifies the holistic models. The holistic pedagogy of art integration to be established in this study is, then, intended to be one that would remedy some critical issues like reductionism and dualism engrained in the conventional view of art integration that currently dominates our school culture. The holistic ways of the arts developed in this thesis are suggested as one of the more promising ways of transforming our schools into learning and caring communities where our children will have a better chance to thrive as ‘whole persons.’

As a conceptual study, this thesis aims to establish a holistic pedagogy of art integration that would address nurturing the whole child as the goal of education. Over the last few decades, art integration has become an important academic issue in curriculum studies, particularly at the early and primary levels of childhood education. Many have entertained various modes of art integration to promote their personal or institutional philosophies and goals of schooling. As a result, we see some popular arts-integrated programs which can be characterized as ‘interdisciplinary,’ ‘cognitive,’ ‘social,’ or ‘cultural.’ Those programs and approaches suggest, in one way or another, that there are good reasons why we need to be more active in including the arts into curriculum. Our schools would be better off with a well-thought-out arts-integrated curriculum. In this movement, however, there is a critical problem: many have come to believe that the arts are useful in so far as they are good for brain development and academic improvement. This mechanistic or cause-effect view of the relevance of the arts to education has gained solid support and is becoming the major focus when teachers and schools try to integrate the arts into their curricula. Facing this situation, this study proposes a holistic pedagogy of art integration through 1) refining the holistic curriculum with the help of process thought, 2) conceptualizing natural spirituality and its relevance to the whole child, 3) establishing the holistic ways of doing the arts in curriculum, 4) building holistic models of art integration, and 5) discussing some working programs and designing one that best exemplifies the holistic models. The holistic pedagogy of art integration to be established in this study is, then, intended to be one that would remedy some critical issues like reductionism and dualism engrained in the conventional view of art integration that currently dominates our school culture. The holistic ways of the arts developed in this thesis are suggested as one of the more promising ways of transforming our schools into learning and caring communities where our children will have a better chance to thrive as ‘whole persons.’

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: John (Jack) Miller.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-112).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

Changing perceptions of literacy over the past few decades have produced new approaches to the problem of how best to improve the literacy competence of primary school learners. Literacy remains a continuous problem in South Africa, as learners lack motivation to read or are struggling to read, write, and learn in a language that is unfamiliar to them. Researchers such as Street (2005) believe that literacy should not be viewed only as a set of skills to be mastered, but rather as something which must be understood in its broader social context. In accordance with this theory, the South African organisation PRAESA uses their Nal'ibali campaign to promote 'reading for enjoyment' and the formation of 'reading clubs' in order to improve learners' motivation to read and thus their literacy competence by increasing their exposure to pleasurable reading experiences. In this study it is argued that reading for enjoyment is beneficial to primary school learners' literacy competence as well as their personal and social development. In this study, Grade 5, 6, and 7 learners belonging to the reading club at a primary school in Port Elizabeth were observed over a six-month period. Data was collected through ethnographic observation of the reading club sessions and compiled into a detailed expository and sequential report. This narrative was then analysed in order to determine to what extent the learners had benefited in terms of their development from their participation in the reading club's activities. The analysis of the narrative demonstrated that learners' literacy competence, as well as personal and social skills such as self-confidence and tolerance, had been enhanced by the learners' voluntary participation in enjoyment-centred experiences with literacy. The findings of this study demonstrate that, in under-resourced schools and communities lacking a strong reading culture, an extra-curricular 'reading club' with a focus on reading for enjoyment was able to improve learners' literacy skills and provide opportunities for holistic growth by increasing learners' motivation to read.