This project resulted in the creation of a prototype for a new book series entitled Instructional Readers that will be linguistically engineered to assist English-language learners in acquiring academic and content-based vocabulary in the sciences. The development of the prototype represented a process of trial and error, with decisions firmly grounded in extensive research concerning linguistic features that assist vocabulary growth while reading. The end result, the prototype entitled Cellular Transport, reflects the author's best attempt to combine these features. The project write-up details the steps used in writing the prototype to aid in the creation of similar instructional readers in the future.

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The study explores the role and contribution of education in developing a localized and relevant HIV/AIDS prevention strategy through a multi-voiced approach, involving the educational institutions, as well as the traditional leaders, community-members, including parents. The study comprised all public schools in one Zambian province from 2002-2008.  The study explores, among other factors, the role of traditional culture in mitigating and exacerbating the spread of the disease. Zambia was one of the countries hardest hit by the HIV/AIDs epidemic, and one of the few countries in the region that, in 2002, had a clear policy on the role of education in fighting the epidemic. Through the process of developing and implementing a learner-centered interactive HIV/AIDS education program in the province. based upon MOE`s  HIV/AIDS policies and strategies, syllabi, and teachers guides, and at the same time emphasizing the broader community as a point of departure. The qualitative and interpretivist research was conducted within a constructivist grounded theoretical approach. The study applies comprehensive and multilayered perspectives while utilizing a broad range of methods.   Documentary analyses, structured and semi-structured interviews, in depth conversations with traditional and educational leaders, teachers, parents and pupils, were all carried out during the period of the study. Nvivo, a computer-supported data analysis tool was used to support the process of categorizing the qualitative data and the study applied Cultural- and Historical Activity Theory for analytic purposes. The study revealed the mismatch between the decentralized, national HIV/AIDS prevention education approach, as stated in the policy documents and the global UNAIDS, centralized and cross-sectoral strategies favored by the Zambian government. The uncoordinated efforts did not reach  the grassroots level, where professionals, at district and school level, perceived and applied policies in highly different ways, if at all reaching students and the communities. The main categories of drivers of the epidemic were of socio-cultural and economic character, e.g. polygamy, sexual cleansing, local healing, gender inequality and poverty,  sexual violence, multiple concurrent sexual partners and prostitution, but there were also variety of local drivers, depending upon context. When analyzing the participatory approaches of the HIV/AIDS prevention strategy, predominantly, at the school-community level, the findings revealed that the traditional leaders, being legitimate leaders in their kingdoms, and the custodians of culture and traditions, were found to be gate openers to promote behavioral change and cultural transformation in their villages. The traditional leaders worked hand in hand with the schools and the villagers. Their involvement legitimated that discourses and HIV/AIDS prevention actions were taken at school as well as within their own chiefdom. Utilizing their traditional leadership structures, the chiefs sustained their cultural rites, e.g. cleansing, in order to chase away the evil spirits, by turning the rites into practices that do no put people at risk for contracting HIV. Particularly at the global and state level, culture has been seen as drivers of the epidemic. The study revealed that the traditional leaders used their role as significant others, became gate-openers, using their legitimate role as custodians of culture to transform cultural rites and practices.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur tre olika nivåer av samma läsebok anpassas för att anses vara lättlästa och passa elever som befinner sig i nybörjarstadiet av sin läsning. Böckerna som analyseras är läseböcker för årskurs ett, uppdelade i tre olika nivåer och utgår från samma berättelse av titeln, Den magiska kulan. Vi har använt oss av både kvalitativa och kvantitativa datainsamlingsmetoder, där vi använt oss av verktyget Sparv samt genomfört en semiotisk bildanalys. Vårt resultat visar att många värden skiljer sig mycket åt mellan de tre läseböckerna. Trots att alla böcker i vissa avseenden kan anses vara mycket lättlästa och därmed passa nybörjarläsare, har vi även under vår studie funnit vissa svårigheter med läseböckerna. De slutsatser vi drar utifrån resultatet är att de olika värdena skiljer sig åt mellan de tre olika läseböckerna. I ett avseende kan läsebok 1B anses vara mest svår för läsaren att ta till sig. Läsebok 1C följer ingen tydlig progression, likt de andra två läseböckerna, vilket kan bero på att den även är utformad för att vara en högläsningsbok. Elever som inte har goda minneskunskaper riskerar därmed att uppleva läseböckerna som tråkiga vid läsning hemma. Vidare drar vi slutsatsen att om läseböckerna inte granskas och/eller används oreflekterat av läraren kan det leda till att elever på en högre nivå inte utmanas och utvecklas.

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This research study employed a mixed methods design with concurrent procedures. The study sought to determine the underlying constructs of Arabic reading attitudes and motivation among university Arabic language learners in the United States; and how students’ reading experiences differ in courses with an Arabic leveled reading intervention, compared to typical/mainstream Arabic courses where the integration of leveled reading is practically non-existent. The study also sought to understand the experience of instructors teaching both of these types of courses simultaneously. The quantitative and qualitative findings complemented each other, which allowed for data triangulation. Recommendations for practice, policy, and future research were made given the results of this mixed-methods research study.

Cette thèse s’attache à décrire les formes de la fragmentation urbaine à Marseille ainsi que leurs conséquences socio-spatiales à travers les modalités de l’offre scolaire au niveau collège et les pratiques de choix des lieux de scolarisation à l’entrée en sixième, à plusieurs échelles, en 2006 et 2009. La carte scolaire impose aux familles un collège de secteur mais face aux importantes recompositions socio-territoriales qui affectent la ville de Marseille, des décalages s’opèrent entre les collèges, les attentes éducatives des parents et les conditions locales de scolarisation. L’étude porte d’une part sur la quantification et à la localisation du phénomène de l’évitement scolaire à Marseille et d’autre part, sur l’analyse fine de contextes territoriaux, dans lesquels se développent plusieurs types de stratégies scolaires. Les fortes différenciations et les rapides recompositions socio-territoriales urbaines de la ville de Marseille impliquent des pratiques scolaires hétérogènes qui illustrent le creusement des inégalités socio-résidentielles dans la ville et constituent d’excellents indicateurs pour décrypter une fragmentation urbaine croissante. L’analyse des stratégies des différents acteurs institutionnels et individuels, permet d’appréhender les mécanismes de production d’un espace scolaire systémique et hiérarchisé. L’approche territoriale est largement valorisée et l’analyse des contextes locaux souligne l’existence de territoires scolaires multiples et différenciés. / This dissertation aims at describing the forms of urban fragmentation in Marseille as well as its socio-spatial consequences through the modalities of school supply at the middle-school level (collège) and the practices of choosing schools for 6th graders (élèves de sixième), at various levels, in 2006 and 2009. School mapping (carte scolaire) imposes to families a neighborhood middle school, but in the face of important socio-spatial reconfigurations affecting the entire city of Marseille, discrepancies between schools, parent’s pedagogical expectations and local schooling conditions widen. The study focuses on the one hand on the quantification and localization of the phenomenon of school dodging (évitement scolaire) in Marseille, and on the other on the detailed analysis of territorial contexts, where several types of schooling strategies develop. Strong differentiations and quick urban socio-territorial recompositions in Marseille imply heterogeneous school practices illustrating the widening of socio-residential inequalities in the city and representing excellent markers to probe into increasing urban fragmentation. An analysis of the strategies of different institutional and individual actors allows one to grasp the mecanisms of production of a systemic, top-down school space. The territorial approach is largely valued here and the analysis of local contexts underlines the existence of multiple, differentiated school territories.

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