Teacher preparation programs have played a major role in developing candidates’ knowledge and abilities in teaching. These preparation programs have been designed according to the policies and regulations of national and state governments, accrediting agencies, and universities. Moreover, cultural contexts influence practices and educational systems. Investigating education policies and their implementation in the United States and the Republic of Korea would shed light on music teacher training in each context, and help officials understand and diagnose local problems. The purpose of this study was to analyze documented policies and procedures for music teacher licensure programs in two countries, to explore their implementation, and investigate candidates’ learning during both programs. The perspectives of two types of knowledge, subject matter knowledge and general pedagogical knowledge, also guided the study. Massachusetts policies and regulations were analyzed. Tito University in Massachusetts and Quinn University in the ROK were selected. Document analysis, individual interviews with professors, and focus group interviews with student teachers in licensure programs in each context were employed. Both Massachusetts and the ROK required music teacher candidates to possess knowledge and skills in Western Classical music. While Massachusetts regulations included what kinds of music and music education knowledge teacher candidates must have, the ROK regulations indicated how many credits teacher candidates must complete in music, music education, and general education areas. In both contexts, interviews with professors revealed that these programs followed policies and standards of the national, state, and accrediting agencies. In planning curriculum, all professors must consider policies. However, at Tito, professors reported paying closer attention to training students in classroom expertise, whereas Quinn professors paid closer attention to preparing students for the national exam. Teacher candidates wanted to have more field-based experiences in both contexts, although students in Massachusetts worked at practice for a longer period than those in the ROK. Candidates at Tito needed to learn a variety of music from other traditions besides Western Classical music. Candidates at Quinn were overwhelmed due to preparation for The Examination. Individual policy interpretation produced different outcomes. Further research is needed regarding implementation of policies in other licensure programs.

Thesis advisor: Matthias von Davier / Children internationally are entitled to quality education. International education initiatives monitor education system quality through complex evaluations, historically relying on academic benchmarks operationalized by robust comparative achievement data. However, quality in schooling is evolving to comprise development beyond academic abilities – it should support emotional, social, and psychological development. Valid systems-level evaluations of these features internationally require well-defined benchmarks for school conditions suitably supportive of this development. Emerging international initiatives, such as UNESCO’s Happy Schools Framework, define frameworks for non-academic facets but have not been empirically tested. This study defines school climate health as the intersection of the Happy Schools Framework, existing literature on school climate and wellbeing, and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science (TIMSS) Context Questionnaire. This research aims to provide a first step towards defining benchmarks by exploring an international dataset to define existing patterns of interrelated school context variables. This study is responsive to empirical literature and relevant theoretical frameworks for evaluating social systems (systems evaluation, ecological systems theories). An exploratory multilevel latent class analysis (MLCA) of 22 variables is conducted for the 58 participating countries to define four school clusters and three country classes defining the composition and distribution of school climate health internationally. Combining response variables from students, teachers, principals, and parents is a novel application. Characteristics of each school cluster and country class are described. Secondary analyses investigate possible confoundedness of school demographics and possible relationships between school-level average achievement. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Education.

This thesis offers an analysis of the reporting on unemployment, social welfare and the environment in the quality press in Australia, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom. The findings of this research are based on news about these issues provided in a sample of two constructed weeks in 1998. The quality papers chosen for analysis are: The Age and The Australian (Australia), De Standaard and Le Soir (Belgium), Le Figaro and Le Monde (France), The Guardian and The Times (England). This thesis starts by examining the history and the principles governing the press in the countries analysed, underlining the differences between the Anglo-Saxon and the Continental press, mainly in terms of relations between the press and the State. It questions the importance attributed to freedom of expression in a climate where the concept is still analysed in terms of freedom from government intervention, while the role played by business is generally accepted as unavoidable. This research found that quality newspapers overall present social issues as primarily economic issues, often neglecting their more social aspects. The world promoted is one which is best run by business, while the role of governments as possible managers of the environment and unemployment, and to some extent social welfare, is largely dismissed. The press analysed does this with varying degrees, depending on general attitudes held within countries and on the 'culture' of each newspaper. This research clearly shows the existence of particular newspaper 'cultures'. Each newspaper has its own priorities and news is generally framed according to those priorities. Generally speaking, the emphasis placed by journalists on certain aspects of news is in line with the 'culture' of the newspaper they are working for. The choice of sources of information used to provide news also fits within existing newspapers' 'cultures'. The dominant economic emphasis put on information is systematically endorsed by Le Figaro, The Australian, The Times and De Standaard. Only Le Monde and The Guardian, Le Soir and The Age at times offer alternative views, while endorsing the dominant economic frame. Le Monde and The Guardian, which are also the only two newspapers of the sample that are not part of a big media consortium, regularly stress the social aspect of unemployment and social welfare. These are also the only two newspapers which consider the environment as a long-term quality of life issue, reflecting that it is more than just an economic issue. Le Soir and The Age, which are the two newspapers in our sample with a more local emphasis, also defend the local environment against larger economic interests, and explore local social problems related to unemployment and poverty. In the case of The Age, this fits into a frame very common in the Australian press: that of an uncaring government. Australian papers are very critical and even cynical towards government and politicians. This cynicism is not found in the European papers. The findings of this research are based upon an analysis of the sources of information used by the newspapers, as well as upon an analysis of the frames adopted. This research has put a particular emphasis on sources of information, seen here as the promoters of news frames. General professional practices, together with the 'cultures' held by particular newspapers, account for the lack of representation of private citizens and lobby groups challenging economic interests. In turn their lack of representation can be held responsible for the small amount of information conflicting with dominant framing and dominant themes provided in the news.

International mathematics assessments have established students in East Asia as among the best in the world and their U.S. counterparts as mediocre. What is not clear is why this “achievement gap” exists. The last major study to address this question, Stevenson and Stigler’s (1992) The Learning Gap, was published prior to empirical and methodological advances in international comparative research on education. Prevailing wisdom points to unverified differences in cultural beliefs, which often leads to defeatist conclusions. This dissertation offers a fresh perspective by applying sociological theory and methods to the issue. Specifically, I rely on underutilized data from the 2003 and 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) of fourth graders to compare educational systems across three major factors that influence math achievement: curriculum, teachers and parents. My main empirical findings are that there is greater uniformity of math instruction across classrooms in the participating East Asian nations of Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan than in the U.S. and that, among all participating educational systems, average achievement tends to be higher in those with greater uniformity of instruction. The implication is that the institutional arrangements that allow for less uniformity of instruction across classrooms in the U.S. might be partially responsible for the gap. Cross-regional differences in teacher effectiveness might also account for part of the gap, as three-level, hierarchical linear models of achievement in each nation indicate that U.S. math teachers are less effective than their East Asian counterparts—even after the quantity of instruction provided is taken into account. The main theoretical contribution is an alternative explanation for the apparent cross-regional disparity in the proportion of involved parents, which highlights how schools can make a difference in whether or not parents become involved. Such an approach promises a way out of the dead-end reached by previous theorists. However, this dissertation also draws attention to the limitations of the existing data. At present, there is not enough information available to substantiate the policy recommendations made in previous studies. As such, a central aim of this dissertation is to put research onto sounder methodological footing. / Sociology

This paper examines fertility and family policies in 15 Central and East European (CEE) countries to establish firstly, likely directions of cohort fertility trends for the coming decade; and secondly, to provide an overview and analysis of family policies in CEE countries, and to assess their impact on cohort fertility trends. Demographic analysis suggests that the cohort fertility decline of the 1960s cohorts is likely to continue at least among the 1970s birth cohorts; stagnation cannot be ruled out. Births that were postponed by women born in the 1970s were not being replaced in sufficient numbers for cohort fertility to increase in the foreseeable future, and shares of low parity women (childless and one child) were larger than shares of high parity women among the late 1960s cohorts than in older cohorts. Also, childbearing postponement which started in the 1990s is reflected in dramatic changes of childbearing age patterns. As period fertility rates have been increasing in the late 2000s throughout the region an impression of a fertility recovery has been created, however the findings of this project indicate that no such widespread childbearing recovery is underway. For the first time ever an overview and analysis of CEE family policies is conceptualized in this paper. It demonstrates that fertility trends and family policies are a matter of serious concern throughout the region. The following family policy types have been identified: comprehensive family policy model; pro-natalist policies model; temporary male bread-winner model; and conventional family policies model. The majority of family policies in CEE countries suffer from a variety of shortcomings that impede them from generating enhanced family welfare and from providing conditions for cohort fertility to increase. The likely further decline of cohort fertility, or its stagnation, may entail long-term demographic as well as other societal consequences, such as continuous declines in total population numbers, changes in age structures, as well as implications for health and social security costs.

Thesis advisor: Ina V. S. Mullis / TIMSS and PIRLS assess representative samples of students at regular intervals, measuring trends in student achievement and student contexts for learning. Because individual students are not tracked over time, analysis of international large-scale assessment data is usually conducted cross-sectionally. Gustafsson (2007) proposed examining the data longitudinally by analyzing relationships between country-level trends in background constructs and trends in student achievement. Through longitudinal analysis of international large-scale assessment data, it becomes possible to mitigate some of the confounding factors in the analysis. This dissertation extends this country-level approach to subpopulations within countries. Adapting a pseudo-panel approach from the econometrics literature (Deaton, 1985), the proposed approach creates subpopulations by grouping students based on demographic characteristics, such as gender or parental education. Following grouping, the subpopulations with the same demographic characteristics are linked across cycles and the aggregated subpopulation means are treated as panel data and analyzed through longitudinal data analysis techniques. As demonstrated herein the primary advantages of the subpopulation approach are that it allows for analysis of subgroup differences, and it captures within-country relationships in the data that are not possible to analyze at country level. Illustrative analysis examines the relationship between early literacy activities and PIRLS reading achievement using PIRLS 2001 and PIRLS 2011 data. Results from the subpopulation approach are compared with student-level and country-level cross-sectional results as well as country-level longitudinal results. In addition, within-country analysis examines the subpopulation-level relationship between early literacy activities and PIRLS reading achievement, multiple group analysis compares regression coefficient estimates between boys and girls and across parental education subgroups, and mediation analysis examines the extent that partaking in early literacy activities can explain differences between boys and girls in PIRLS reading achievement. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

This thesis research contributes to national health Information Management/Information Technology (IM/IT) planning and therefore strategy development and implementation research, as well as to health information science. An examination into the national health IM/IT plans of several countries provides knowledge into identifying the typical IM/IT priorities that selected countries are focusing upon for healthcare improvement. Second, a systematic literature review of the current challenges, barriers and/or issues (referred to as ‘challenges’ hereafter) facing IM/IT priority implementation in healthcare settings provides insight on where nations should perhaps be focusing their attention, in order to enable more successful healthcare IM/IT implementations. Lastly, a study on national health IM/IT priorities contributes to the body of evidence that national level IM/IT direction is necessary for better patient care and health system reform across the world. In this investigation, the national health IM/IT priorities, which are reflected in the national health IM/IT strategic plans of five countries were assessed. To this end, the study: 1) Developed a set of measures to select four countries to study in addition to Canada; 2) Described the national health IM/IT priorities of Canada and four other countries; 3) Performed a systematic literature review of the challenges to overcome for successful implementation of IM/IT into healthcare settings; 4) Developed and administered a questionnaire where participants were asked to give their opinions on the progress their country has achieved in dealing with such challenges; and 5) Performed an analysis of the questionnaire results with respect to the countries’ national health IM/IT priorities. The systematic literature review uncovered a large number of challenges that the health informatics and healthcare community face when attempting to implement IM/IT into healthcare settings. iii The priority comparison highlighted that there is no right or wrong answer for what countries should focus their national health IM/IT energies upon. The findings indicate that nations focus their resources (time, money, personnel etc.) on the priorities they feel they should, whether those stem from needs analyses or politics. However, by learning about what other nations are prioritizing, a country can use that knowledge to help focus their own national health IM/IT priorities. The questionnaire results drew attention to the most frequently encountered challenges the five countries face in moving their national health IM/IT agendas forward. The feedback from the respondents provided individual reflections on how IM/IT implementations are actually progressing in their country, where problems are being encountered, including the nature of those problems, and in some cases, respondents offered insight on how to better deal with the challenges they face. The findings indicate that nations encounter similar problems in implementing IM/IT into healthcare settings. Currently, the world is facing many of the same healthcare system issues: shortages of healthcare processionals, long surgical and diagnostic imaging waitlists, ‘skyrocketing’ pharmaceutical drug pricing, healthcare funding practices, and challenges with implementing healthcare IM/IT priorities to name a few. If countries are facing similar health system problems, then it would be logical to assume that solutions to deal with such problems would be similar across nations. Thus, it is recommended that international fora and conferences be held to further discuss the types of health system IM/IT priorities that countries are implementing at a nation scale, the kinds of challenges they face and the solutions or conclusions that they have formulated in response to these challenges.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:39:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2622.pdf: 4274701 bytes, checksum: 56a086085691de6db295658166355b25 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-28 / The intensification of the globalization process, the weakening of the National States with the strengthening of supra-national identity territories and the advent of the information technologies favored a more intense interchange between countries and gave a new life to comparative studies. This dissertation aims at analyzing what has been produced in Brazil in the form of Master s Dissertations and Doctorate s Thesis in the last two decades in the field of International Comparative Education. The objective of this research was to understand if these works are realized according to the standards, procedures and perspectives indicated by multilateral agencies or otherwise, if what has been academically accomplished in the field has been criticizing the influence of multilateral agencies on the educational policies implemented in Brazil. A group of 37 keywords related to Comparative Education was searched in the CAPES Databank. The analyses revealed 53 works on International Comparative Education. This material was divided according to the topics they presented and a group of 11 dissertations and thesis on educational systems and policies was obtained. These works were analyzed according to the following categories: a) modernization and development; b) the hole of multilateral agencies/autonomy; c) educational system s reforms; d) homogeneity/diversity; e) the hole attributed to the indicators. The results show that although some of these works contain certain characteristics that are typical of the conceptions presented by multilateral agencies, the majority of them is critical and denounces the hegemonic patterns established by developed countries and that are imposed to the developing countries, based on uniform diagnosis performed by multilateral agencies. / A intensificação do processo de globalização, o enfraquecimento dos limites dos Estados nacionais com o surgimento dos grandes blocos de países e o advento das tecnologias da informação proporcionaram um intercâmbio crescente entre os países e deram novo alento aos estudos comparativos. Este trabalho teve como objetivo analisar o que tem sido realizado no Brasil, na forma de dissertações de mestrado e teses de doutorado, nas duas últimas décadas, na área de Educação Comparada Internacional. Nosso problema de pesquisa partia da necessidade de compreender se as pesquisas na área de Educação Comparada no Brasil têm sido realizadas segundo padrões, procedimentos e perspectivas indicados pelos organismos multilaterais ou, inversamente, se o que tem sido produzido academicamente tem se constituído como uma crítica às ações que legitimam as políticas educacionais implantadas no Brasil sob a influência das agências multilaterais. A pesquisa buscou no Banco de Dados da CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) um conjunto de 37 palavras-chave relacionadas à Educação Comparada. A análise efetuada apontou um total de 53 dissertações e teses que fazem estudos comparativos internacionais na área da educação. Estes trabalhos foram agrupados de acordo com a temática abordada e obtivemos um grupo de 11 trabalhos que analisam sistemas e políticas educacionais. Estes trabalhos foram analisados de acordo com as seguintes categorias: a)desenvolvimento e modernização; b)papel das agências multilaterais/autonomia; c)reforma dos sistemas educacionais; d)homogeneização/diversidade; e)papel atribuído aos indicadores. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que embora alguns desses trabalhos apresentem matizes característicos das concepções apresentadas pelas agências multilaterais, a maioria deles é crítica e denuncia os modelos hegemônicos estabelecidos pelos países desenvolvidos e que são impostos aos países em desenvolvimento, a partir de diagnósticos uniformizadores realizados pelas agências multilaterais.

This thesis is concerned with the phenomenon of burnout in university teachers, who have been previously rather neglected in connection with this topic. The theoretical part provides an analysis of current knowledge regarding the development of the concept of burnout from the very early interest in this issue in the 1970s to the present, with emphasis being placed on the teaching profession, especially in the tertiary education sector. In the empirical part of the research, the assumption of different levels of burnout in university teachers in the former Eastern Bloc and Western European country was tested. This international study compares the burnout level in teachers from the philosophy faculties of Czech Charles University and German Universität Regensburg. In order to achieve a more holistic view of this topic, the levels of life engagement and depression have been studied as well. The data were collected with the help of Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, Life Engagement Test, Beck Depression Inventory and a sociodemographic questionnaire. Basic research assumption predicting differences in levels of burnout, life engagement and depression in Czech and German university teachers was confirmed in only one burnout subscale, namely the subscale of student-related burnout. Additionally, the...

This study aims to identify and explain relationships between some major factors associated with successful reading at Grade 5 level in South African primary schools. In South Africa, grave concerns with regards to low levels of student achievement pervade research initiatives and educational debates. Despite considerable investments in educational inputs (such as policy and resources) and processes (such as curriculum provision and teacher support), outcomes (such as student achievement) remain disappointingly low. The South African population is characterized by great diversity and variation. With 11 official languages, current educational policy in South Africa advocates an additive bilingualism model and students in Grade 1 to 3 are taught in their mother tongue. Thereafter, when these students progress to Grade 4, the language of learning and teaching changes to a second language, which in most cases is English. At this key developmental stage students are also expected to advance from learning to read to a stage where they can use reading in order to learn. With this complexity of issues in mind, Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was used to determine the effect of a number of explanatory variables at learner and school level on reading achievement as outcome variable, while controlling for language using the South African Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 data. As an international comparative evaluation of reading literacy involving more than 40 countries, PIRLS 2006 was the second, after PIRLS 2001, in a series of planned five-year cycles of assessment to measure trends in children’s reading literacy achievement, policy and practices related to literacy. Grade 5 learners in South African primary schools who participated in PIRLS 2006 were not able to achieve satisfactory levels of reading competence. The gravity of this finding is exacerbated by the fact that these learners were tested in the language in which they had been receiving instruction during the Foundation Phase of schooling. This study found most significant factors associated with reading literacy at learner-level, but this does not mean that the existence of teacher- and school-level factors is not of importance. While some explanatory factors at learner-level can more easily become the target of reading interventions, the higher level effect of the classroom and school are not diminished by this study. Creemers’ Comprehensive Model of Educational Effectiveness was utilized as theoretical point of departure. Creemers’ model was adapted for the purposes of this study to reflect a South African model of reading effectiveness in contrast with Creemers’ original use of it as a model of school effectiveness. Evidence was provided that the conceptual framework was inadequate in identifying factors affecting reading achievement for all South African language groupings. More specifically, the adapted South African reading effectiveness model was only appropriate in explaining reading achievement scores for the Afrikaans and English language groupings than for those from African language groupings. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted