abstract: Identity, or peoples’ situated sense of self, can be conceptualized and operationalized in a myriad of ways, including, among others, a person’s gender, socioeconomic status, degree of expertise, nationality, and disciplinary training. This study conceptualizes identity as fluid and constructed through social interaction with others, where individuals ask themselves “Who am I?” in relation to the people around them. Such a discursive conceptualization argues that we can observe peoples’ performance of identity through the close reading and examination of their talk and text. By discursively drawing boundaries around descriptions of “Who I am,” people inherently attribute value to preferred identities and devalue undesirable, “other” selves. This study analyzes ten workshops from the Toolbox Project conducted with graduate student scientists participating in the Integrative Graduate Education Research Traineeship (IGERT) program. The emotional tone, mood, and atmosphere of shared humor and laughter emerged as a context through which collaborators tested the limits of different identities and questioned taken for granted assumptions about their disciplinary identities and approaches to research. Through jokes, humorous comments, sarcasm, and laughter, students engaged in three primary forms of othering: 1) unifying the entire group against people outside the group, 2) differentiating group members against each other, and 3) differentiating oneself in comparison to the rest of the group. I use action-implicative discourse analysis to reconstruct these communicative practices at three levels—problem, technical, and philosophical—and explore the implications of group laughter and humor as sites of “othering” discursive strategies in graduate students’ efforts to negotiate and differentiate identity in the context of integrative collaboration. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication 2016

The thesis presents a model, suitable for the design of any type of qualification in integrative eGovernment education. The integrative approach combines education of adult learners and students and promotes international cooperation.

The thesis in theoretical layer deals with issues of pedagogical secondary schools, particularly in methodological approaches to preschool education. The author will focuses on this topic from the perspective of high-school of pedagogy teachers. She will elaborate on psychological characteristics of a preschool age child in the context of integration and polyaesthetization. She will characterise processes by which personal values are formed. She will deal with dynamics of contemporary changes of both society and family and with perception of education in kindergartens in the field of personality concept of education. The research will introduce opinions on contemporary needs of pedagogical practice and its reflection on professional pedagogical, scientific and academic grounds that will be ascertained through the means of interviews with teachers having a long-time experience with teaching at pedagogical high schools in the Czech Republic and by survey among secondary pedagogical school's students.

The thesis presents a model, suitable for the design of any type of qualification in integrative eGovernment education. The integrative approach combines education of adult learners and students and promotes international cooperation.

Text in Afrikaans / Multikulturele onderwys is die uitkoms van demokratiseringstendense wereldwyd. Die Verenigde State van Amerika, Zimbabwe en die Republiek van Suid-Afrika is as eksemplare geselekteer om die wordingsgang van multikulturele onderwys te ondersoek. Die wordingsgang toon duidelike ooreenkomste met die wordingsgang van gesegregeerde, monokulturele onderwysstelsels. Weerstand teen die eksklusiewe aard van monokulturele onderwys het uitgeloop op die ontwikkeling en implementering van multikulturele onderwys. In die Verenigde State van Amerika word die implementering van multikulturele onderwys wetlik afgedwing. Multikulturele onderwys in Zimbabwe word nie s6 intensiefverreken nie. In die onderwys van Zimbabwe val die klem oorwegend op Afrikanisering en lewensvoorbereiding en daarna op die optimale hantering van kultuurdiversiteit. Onderwys in die Republiek van Suid-Afrika is steeds gesegregeer en hoofsaaklik monokultureel. Dit blyk uit die beleidsdokumente van onderwysbelanghebbendes dat 'n toekomstige onderwysbedeling dieselfde weg as die in Zimbabwe gaan volg. Die onderrig van samelewingsvaardighede word as prioriteit gestel. / Multicultural education is the consequence of universal trends towards democratisation. The United States of America, Zimbabwe and the Republic of South Africa were selected as exemplars to investigate the emergence of multicultural education. There are distinct similarities between this process and that of the development of segregated monocultural education systems. Opposition to the exclusive nature of monocultural education resulted in the establishment and implementation of multicultural education. In the United States of America multicultural education is enforced by legislation. Multicultural education in Zimbabwe is not applied as stringently. Zimbabwe's educational model emphasises Africanisation and the preparation for life, also proficiency in dealing with cultural diversity. Education in the Republic of South Africa remains segregated and predominately monocultural. From the policy documents of those parties interested in education it seems that any future educational dispensation will follow a course similar to that of Zimbabwe. The teaching of societal skills enjoys precedence. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Historical Education)

Text in Afrikaans / Multikulturele onderwys is die uitkoms van demokratiseringstendense wereldwyd. Die Verenigde State van Amerika, Zimbabwe en die Republiek van Suid-Afrika is as eksemplare geselekteer om die wordingsgang van multikulturele onderwys te ondersoek. Die wordingsgang toon duidelike ooreenkomste met die wordingsgang van gesegregeerde, monokulturele onderwysstelsels. Weerstand teen die eksklusiewe aard van monokulturele onderwys het uitgeloop op die ontwikkeling en implementering van multikulturele onderwys. In die Verenigde State van Amerika word die implementering van multikulturele onderwys wetlik afgedwing. Multikulturele onderwys in Zimbabwe word nie s6 intensiefverreken nie. In die onderwys van Zimbabwe val die klem oorwegend op Afrikanisering en lewensvoorbereiding en daarna op die optimale hantering van kultuurdiversiteit. Onderwys in die Republiek van Suid-Afrika is steeds gesegregeer en hoofsaaklik monokultureel. Dit blyk uit die beleidsdokumente van onderwysbelanghebbendes dat 'n toekomstige onderwysbedeling dieselfde weg as die in Zimbabwe gaan volg. Die onderrig van samelewingsvaardighede word as prioriteit gestel. / Multicultural education is the consequence of universal trends towards democratisation. The United States of America, Zimbabwe and the Republic of South Africa were selected as exemplars to investigate the emergence of multicultural education. There are distinct similarities between this process and that of the development of segregated monocultural education systems. Opposition to the exclusive nature of monocultural education resulted in the establishment and implementation of multicultural education. In the United States of America multicultural education is enforced by legislation. Multicultural education in Zimbabwe is not applied as stringently. Zimbabwe's educational model emphasises Africanisation and the preparation for life, also proficiency in dealing with cultural diversity. Education in the Republic of South Africa remains segregated and predominately monocultural. From the policy documents of those parties interested in education it seems that any future educational dispensation will follow a course similar to that of Zimbabwe. The teaching of societal skills enjoys precedence. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Historical Education)