This study means to research the importance and significance of the social and informal learning opportunities offered at a workplace. With Wenger’s theory about social learning and communities of practice as a starting point, this study will create understanding about how teachers at a school comprehend their opportunities for learning within the teacher community. The study is conducted at an independent school in Sweden, and is based on interviews with eight of the teachers employed at the school. The purpose of the study was to research how employees perceive how their social interactions with their colleagues can create learning, and what obstacles they might face along the way. Our results showed that the teachers at this workplace found that most of the learning that took place in their everyday worklife was performed in an informal and social way with lots of helping each other out and social interactions between the colleagues.

French Immersion teachers are constantly frustrated by both the amount of and skill level of their students when using French in informal situations. My research attempts to answer: How can informal language be taught in the French Immersion context? Will teaching informal language in a systematic way in a Classroom Community of Practice improve the frequency of second language (L2) use by FI students in peer-to-peer interactions? Can we teach students to actually speak French – to spontaneously communicate in informal situations? Informal language is the language used in conversations and interactions beyond academic topics or class time such as conversations between students during group work, on field trips and during games and play time. Is it through pedagogical approaches or by developing a clearer understanding of the community of practice necessary for a successful language classroom? This study is an action research study conducted in Victoria, British Columbia with a team of 5 teachers, including the researcher as co-participant. Grounded theory was used to analyze the findings and the themes of ‘spaces’ are presented using creative nonfiction to recount the participants’ stories. The study concludes that it is the importance of the teacher as member of both the classroom community and as member of a community of educators that is critical to success. / Graduate

The care provided by informal caregivers is an important part of the support needed by older adults with chronic health concerns. As the demand for caregivers grows, so does an interest in helping caregivers be healthy in order to fulfill this role. As of yet, no research has explored what being healthy means to caregivers. I explore caregivers’ beliefs about being healthy and how their beliefs are consistent with or a challenge to the values present in the health promotion discourse targeting caregivers. I incorporate qualitative data from three sources: interviews with caregivers, interviews with people responsible for creating and updating health promotion brochures (producers), and a critical discourse analysis of health promotion brochures. I explore what being healthy means to caregivers, and I also explore what caregivers do to be healthy. The meaning of being healthy is often discussed by caregivers in terms consistent with the values of neoliberal ideology and individual responsibility. However, the means by which caregivers can be healthy are both consistent with and a challenge to these values. Policy makers interested in finding ways to help caregivers be healthy should take into account that the meaning of being healthy is non-static and multi-dimensional. In addition, the means by which caregivers are able to be healthy are composed of multiple layers. The ability to be healthy depends on each caregiver making healthy decisions and living a healthy lifestyle. However, each caregiver’s ability to make and execute these choices is predicated on their ability to access to a wide spectrum of services and support. Encouraging caregivers to access services and supports is a vital part of helping caregivers be healthy. / Graduate

Urban areas in Ethiopia have been growing very quickly in recent decades, which haveled to ever increasing demand for land in peri-urban areas for housing and other nonagriculturalactivities. This has had several transformative impacts on the transitionalperi-urban, areas including engulfment of local communities and conversion of landrights and use from an agricultural to a built-up property rights system. Peri-urban areasalso display all forms of competition for land among people of diverse backgrounds.Research on the challenges of urbanization in peri-urban land tenure system and theongoing changes in Ethiopia is limited, and the situations and actors interested in periurbanland are constantly changing. Therefore, the purpose of this research is toinvestigate the challenges imposed on peri-urban land rights as a result of the growingdemand for land for urbanization. The project also encompasses an attempt to discoverthe process of informal transaction and development of peri-urban land and the principalactors involved. The study comprises a summary essay and four articles which were conducted using casestudy and desk review research approaches. Following the case study tradition, acombination of different data collection instruments such as questionnaires, FGDs, keyinformant interviews (both structured and open-ended) and direct field observations wasemployed to collect research data from the case study areas. Bahir Dar CityAdministration was selected purposively as case study area at the first stage and two periurbanvillages, Weramit and Zenzelima, were selected from Bahir Dar CityAdministration at the second stage of the case study area selection process. The research has revealed that urbanization and urban development in Ethiopia areaccompanied by contentious land tenure changes which favor the urbanities above localperi-urban communities. As a result, urbanization has precipitated a wave ofdispossession and proliferation of informal settlements in peri-urban areas. Thus,addressing the challenges of urbanization and its effect on the land rights of local periurbancommunities requires the introduction of an inclusive and participatory landdevelopment tool like land readjustment, which can encourage voluntary contribution ofland for urbanization by the local peri-urban landholders themselves. / <p>QC 20150114</p>

nicht vorhanden

The no borders movement has been an important site of anti-imperialist resistance, and as such it provides a valuable point of entry into problematizing the contradictions that constitute the relations of consciousness, praxis and ideology. By tracing the recent history of no borders activism in relation to the intensification of neoliberalism, and the prevalence of diffuse models of power, the analysis illustrates the ways in which critical praxis has been limited by the current milieu. Working from an anti-racist feminist perspective I utilize examples drawn from no borders activism to demonstrate the very real limits of informal and incidental learning in social movements. The analysis argues against the supplanting of consciousness with subjectivity as a way to avoid the problems associated with structuralist analysis. Instead, I have suggested that critical education for social action requires a dialectical engagement with the social relations that we live in, contest and transform.

This dissertation investigates informal waste recycling practices in the modern urban centre of Buenos Aires, Argentina. My research sets a baseline for the living and working conditions of the approximately 9,000 informal recyclers (cartoneros) in the city, focusing on their health, socio-economic status, and access to social and material resources. The research methods included a survey (n = 397) and interviews (n = 30) with cartoneros, as well as key informant interviews and an analysis of newspaper articles addressing informal recycling in the city. My findings indicate that Buenos Aires’ cartoneros, while not the poorest of the poor, are of a relatively low socio-economic status. Their health outcomes and determinants of health are poor compared to others in the Greater Buenos Aires region, and these workers are often stigmatized and discriminated against because of their associations with waste. Cartoneros’ experiences of the city are characterized by a series of social, political, and physical exclusions, revealing a state of urban inequality in Buenos Aires. I argue that municipal agendas of neoliberal urban development are implicated in both the symbolic and physical marginalization of these workers. Cartoneros draw upon many resources in coping with the multiple vulnerabilities that they face (particularly social resources and assets derived from their labour). They also occasionally engage with urban processes of exclusion through collective action and rhetorical redefinitions of their role in society. These workers are therefore active agents in their own destinies, and potential actors for social change. The municipal government of Buenos Aires has recently implemented a formalization plan for some of the city’s cartoneros; the dissertation includes an assessment of these plans, as well as recommendations for other policy-based interventions to informal recycling practices.

The no borders movement has been an important site of anti-imperialist resistance, and as such it provides a valuable point of entry into problematizing the contradictions that constitute the relations of consciousness, praxis and ideology. By tracing the recent history of no borders activism in relation to the intensification of neoliberalism, and the prevalence of diffuse models of power, the analysis illustrates the ways in which critical praxis has been limited by the current milieu. Working from an anti-racist feminist perspective I utilize examples drawn from no borders activism to demonstrate the very real limits of informal and incidental learning in social movements. The analysis argues against the supplanting of consciousness with subjectivity as a way to avoid the problems associated with structuralist analysis. Instead, I have suggested that critical education for social action requires a dialectical engagement with the social relations that we live in, contest and transform.

Within Buenos Aires there exists a boundary between the formal, planned developments of the middle class and the informal, organically-developed self-built housing of the poor. Villa 31, an informal settlement located near the heart of the city, contrasts directly with the skyscrapers of the Argentinean capital’s financial and political centre. The tension between the formal and informal cities creates a stigmatization of the residents of Villa 31, essentially barring the possibility of its integration into the city. The boundary between Villa 31 and Buenos Aires exists not only in the physical space between the two, but more importantly in the collective imagination of the city’s inhabitants. This is a story of the space between Villa 31 and Buenos Aires. It chronicles the attempts at crossing that boundary and the obstacles encountered. As a means of presenting the work to a broad audience, the story was written as a comic book. The first-person narrative helps to immerse the reader in the story while presenting the full complexity of the problem through a personal account. The story reveals the complex relationship between Villa 31 and Buenos Aires as a means of understanding the invisible boundary between the two. The core of the research consists of two months of field work in Buenos Aires conducted through October and November of 2009. Journal entries, photographs, conversations and first-hand experiences were transformed into a comic book that tells a story of the invisible boundary between Villa 31 and Buenos Aires.

This study reports on the development and revision of an instrument to measure the relationship between workplace bullying and envy, as reported by the perpetrator of bullying. In the pilot study, referred to as Phase A, measures of workplace bullying, direct envy and indirect envy were developed. The constructs of envy and bullying were captured without the undesirable labels of ‘bullying’ and ‘envy’. The pilot instrument was administered to a random sample of 200 employees. A total of 74 questionnaires were returned, resulting in a 37% response rate. Psychometric analysis included Cronbach’s alpha and exploratory factor analysis. Written participant feedback was sought on question clarity and construct validity. The results indicated that the envy and bullying subscales had satisfactory internal reliability and construct validity and that the indirect participant-character methodology was the preferred measure of envy for the affect of anger. The relationship between envy and workplace bullying was investigated using Pearson product moment correlation coefficients. Results showed a positive relationship between envy and informal bullying. It was concluded that the instrument was a reliable and valid self-reported measure of envy and workplace bullying. The pilot instrument was adapted in Phase B of the study to improve its psychometric properties. Using the revised instrument, self-reported data on envy and workplace bullying were collected from a population of Australian workers in nursing, teaching and electrical trades. There were 1545 questionnaires distributed. A total of 413 usable questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate of 27%. Psychometric analysis included Cronbach’s alpha and confirmatory factor analysis. Gossip related behaviours were found to be related to a different construct than ‘bullying’ and these items were deleted from the analysis. A one way between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post hoc tests was performed to explore the impact of industry (nursing, teaching and electrical trades) on bullying scores. Results showed small yet significant between-industry differences for informal bullying, with significant moderate differences for total bullying. In Phase B of the study, the relationship between envy and workplace bullying was investigated for the sample (N = 413) and ‘high anger’ envy groups, using Pearson product moment correlation coefficients. ‘High anger’ was not measured as ‘overt aggression’, but as envious anger felt toward the possessor of superior traits. The major findings from this research were that envy had a positive significant (p < .05) relationship with all types of workplace bullying: informal bullying, formal bullying and total bullying. Further, the correlations between envy and all types of workplace bullying were found to increase for ‘high anger’ groups. Large (r > .70) significant (p < .05) correlations were found for some of the highest anger groups. As envious anger increased, the strength of the correlation between envy and workplace bullying increased. An important finding to emerge from this research was that it is the psychoanalytic view of envy, marked by a ‘feeling of envious anger at the possessor of superior traits’, which was most associated with all types of workplace bullying. The results demonstrated that the self-report study managed to overcome some of the methodological challenges of studying bullying from the perspective of the perpetrator and of measuring undesirable concealed emotions such as envy. Several recommendations for future research and preventative workplace practice arose from the findings of this study. Future research should apply the objective methodology employed in this study to longitudinal self-reported studies. Such studies could provide insight into whether bullying is a static or an escalating process. Related to this, future studies need to investigate why bullying, as reported by the perpetrators of bullying in this study, is either not deterred by organisations or not formally reported by targets. The role of organisations in monitoring and preventing workplace bullying and the apparent inadequacy of workplace bullying policies and internal grievance processes warrant further research. There needs to be greater awareness of the potential for organisations to elicit [harmful] envy through workplace ‘rewards’. Investigation of the ‘progression of envious feelings’ at work may assist organisations to mitigate the escalation of envious feelings toward anger, which was found to be most associated with workplace bullying in this study. Importantly, organisations need to be aware of the potential for rewarded and talented workers to become targets of workplace bullying. As such, further workplace research is needed on narcissists, who envy those who receive more attention, praise or acknowledgement than themselves (Australian Government Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, 2007). Given the ubiquitousness of envy reported on in this study, the ‘spectrum’ of narcissistic tendencies in the general population (Foster & Campbell, 2007) should be measured.