The research dealt with three girls in middle childhood years, in a children’s home, who were experiencing difficulties with self-blame. These difficulties were addressed through play therapy sessions using the ‘gestalt’ approach with the life story book as an aid. The motivation for the study originated during discussions with the social workers at the Abraham Kriel/Maria Kloppers Children’s Home. During these discussions the researcher became aware of the vast number of children in the caseloads of the social workers at Abraham Kriel/Maria Kloppers Children’s Home, who blame themselves for being removed from their parents’ custody. The purpose of the study was to determine whether the life story book could be used as an aid in play therapy sessions focussing on the self-blame of girls in middle childhood years, living in a children’s home. To achieve the goal of this study, a literature study was done regarding the middle childhood years, self-blame, the child in a children’s home and the use of the life story book in play therapy. An empirical study was conducted on the use of the life story book regarding the self-blame of three girls in the middle childhood years, living in a children’s home. Finally the researcher made conclusions and recommendations regarding the use of the life story book, after taking into consideration both the literature study and the empirical study. The investigation was based on applied research. For the purpose of this study, three girls in middle childhood years living in a children’s home were identified by means of purposive sampling. The girls participated in six play therapy sessions each. From this empirical research, it was clear that the life story book could be successfully used in play therapy, focussing on self-blame, with the three girls in middle childhood years living in a children’s home. As an outcome of this study, conclusions and recommendations were formulated. / Dissertation (MSD (Play Therapy))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Social Work / unrestricted

The thesis is based on eight vocational teachers’ life stories with the aim to provide knowledge about vocational teachers and their work with pupils in teaching in the industrial-technology programme, in the context of both a working life and a vocational education which is continuously changing. The thesis answers two research questions: 1) the themes that recur in vocational teachers’ life stories about how they meet and teach their pupils and 2) the teaching goals and strategies which emerge from vocational teachers’ life stories. All in all fifteen interviews were conducted from which life stories and teacher profiles were constructed. Results show five recurring themes in the teacher profiles.  The themes are; to be a caring adult for vocational pupils, to teach them basic knowledge considered important for the education, to teach them respect and discipline, to teach them the value of fighting and not giving up, and to show them the possibility of international employment. Moreover, the teacher goals and strategies emerging from the life stories show that the teachers can be said to educate different types of industrial workers. In line with these results, vocational education can be seen as more than a preparation for working life. Vocational teachers with different life experiences create different relationships with their pupils in order to create opportunities for them to manage school and to succeed in a life after school. In an industrial-technical education and in a working life which is constantly changing, vocational teachers have received various educations and worked in various industries during different time periods. They both educate their pupils and prepare them for a future working life based on these experiences. / Avhandlingen bygger på åtta yrkeslärares livsberättelser och syftar till att bidra med kunskap om yrkeslärare och yrkeslärares arbete med elever i undervisning på industritekniska programmet. Avhandlingen fokuserar återkommande teman i yrkeslärarnas livsberättelser med avseende på hur de möter och undervisar sina elever, samt olika undervisningsstrategier och mål som kommer till uttryck i det lärarna berättar om sin undervisning. Resultaten visar att yrkeslärarnas tidigare livserfarenheter har betydelse för hur de möter och undervisar eleverna på industritekniska programmet. Detta blir tydligt genom de fem teman som återkommer i deras livsberättelser. Dessa teman handlar om att vara en omtänksam vuxen för yrkeseleverna, att undervisa i viktiga grundkunskaper, att lära eleverna respekt och disciplin, att lära dem värdet av att kämpa och inte ge upp samt att visa på möjligheten arbete i andra länder än Sverige. Vidare visar de olika undervisningsmål och -strategier som framträder ur yrkeslärarnas livsberättelser att industriteknisk utbildning handlar om mycket mer än att förbereda eleverna för en framtida anställning. Förutom detta uppenbara mål visar resultatet att yrkeslärarna, utifrån sina olika livserfarenheter, också använder sig av olika strategier för att hjälpa eleverna att klara studierna, att visa på möjligheterna att läsa vidare samt att utveckla en yrkesstolthet.

[pt] A presente investigação de mestrado tem como objetivo conhecer e compreender como as trajetórias de vida fizeram com que os homens escolhessem o ofício da docência relacionada à Educação Infantil, além de analisar o processo de inserção e permanência no cotidiano com as crianças e perceber como a memória e as experiências contribuíram para o desenvolvimento da identidade profissional desses docentes. Como cenário, temos a Rede Municipal de Educação Carioca, que é considerada a maior Rede da América Latina e que teve como marco a classificação e convocação de docentes do sexo masculino nos concursos específico para a Educação Infantil nos anos de 2010 e 2012. Tal pesquisa possui um caráter qualitativo e utilizou a metodologia das Histórias de Vida atreladas às entrevistas, como meio de obtenção de dados que respondessem as diferentes questões que permearam o estudo. No decorrer da investigação foi desenvolvido um mapeamento dos Professores Homens que atuam na Educação Infantil olhando diferentes perspectivas: Nacional, Regional, do Município do Rio de Janeiro e suas Coordenadorias Regionais de Educação (CREs). Foram entrevistados 15 homens de diferentes CREs tratando de diferentes assuntos, dentre eles: Formação, Escolha da Profissão, Cotidiano na Educação Infantil, Gênero, Masculinidades, Identidade Docente, dentre outros. Salienta-se que não traremos um caráter de denúncia, como utilizado em muitos estudos encontrados, mas consideraremos diferentes eventos como aspectos relevantes na constituição da identidade docente e pessoal. Temos como marco teórico os estudos de Louro (1998), Connell (1995), Scott (1990), Nóvoa (1995), Huberman (1995), dentre outros. / [en] The present research aims to know and understand how the life trajectories have made men choose the teaching profession related to Early Childhood Education, besides analyzing the process of insertion and permanence in the daily life with the children and to perceive how the memory and the experiences contributed to the development of the professional identity of these teachers. As a scenario, we have the Carioca Municipal Education Network, which is considered the largest Network in Latin America and had as a landmark the classification and convocation of male teachers in specific competitions for Early Childhood Education in the years 2010 and 2012. Such research has a qualitative character and used the methodology of Life Stories linked to the interviews, as a means of obtaining data that answered the different questions that permeated the study. In the course of the investigation, a mapping of the Teachers Men who work in Early Childhood Education was developed, looking at different perspectives: National, Regional, Municipality of Rio de Janeiro and its Regional Education Coordinations (CREs). Fifteen men from different CREs were interviewed, dealing with different subjects, among them: Formation, Choice of Profession, Daily Life in Childhood Education, Gender, Masculinities, Teaching Identity, among others. It should be pointed out that we will not have a denunciation character, as used in many studies, but we will consider different events as relevant aspects in the constitution of the teaching and personal identity. We have as theoretical framework the studies of Louro (1998), Connell (1995), Scott (1990), Nóvoa (1995), Huberman (1995), among others.

The thesis deals with the personality of a primary school teacher for which teaching is a second career. The theoretical part is focused on general demands placed on teacher's personality, defines the term 'second career teacher', describes professional development of a teacher, gives potential motivators influencing the choice to become a teacher and also briefly introduces the system of professional training of primary school teachers in Czech Republic and some other European countries. The aim of qualitative survey performed by deep semi- structured discussions with 5 teachers about their live stories was to answer the research question: "What is the second career teacher like?" By means of partial questions the survey has uncovered the reasons that brought those teachers to career change, which benefits and difficulties following their decision they perceived, which gains from previous profession they can use in their new teaching career. Finally, the thesis brings the point of view of the respondents on their studies at pedagogical faculty. The analysis of the data enabled to investigate the decision-making process about changing the career from non-teaching to teaching one and identify the key moments which can influence the decision. It was found that internal and external motivators play a...

Diploma thesis tries to offer a new insight into migration and integration of migrant women living in Czech Republic by means of life-story telling of ten such women. By using this approach the author tries to deconstruct stereotypical understanding of migration as a threat or a security hazard for the accepting society, on the contrary she tries to picture migrant women and their life-stories as tales of people who consider Czech Republic their second home and who actively participate on its development. Citizenship is understood as a membership in society of which migrant women are also legitimate and active members. The thesis should contribute to building positive attitude towards migrant women in general and it also offers recommendations for the public as well as integration policy creators as to how migrant women can be reflected in context of migration.

The Master's thesis "The Life Afterwards. The Return of Czechoslovak Political Prisoners to Society" is concerned with the topic of the re-integration of Czechoslovak political prisoners of the 1950s back into society after their release from prison. In the conceptual framework I provide the political and historical background of the Communist Czechoslovakia during the 1950s. I discuss the concept of political prisoner and describe the living conditions in prisons and labor camps. As observed from their narration, I also briefly outline the various strategies employed by political prisoners in their attempts to deal with imprisonment. Although the descriptions of the respondents' arrests and events that had led up to them are topics not directly concerned with the primary topic of my thesis, they are included, because they are vital in understanding the existential and other re-integration-related problems these prisoners faced. In my research, I employ the qualitative method of oral history. I focus on the time period when the interviewees were released from prison and try to describe the numerous issues they faced and had to deal with. More specifically, I focus on family and friendship relations, which had been often disrupted and the issue of seeking a new employment, an area of life in which...

L’empereur japonais Naruhito est le descendant de la plus vieille lignée monarchique au monde. Encore aujourd’hui, la monarchie constitutionnelle japonaise est célébrée de manière à ce qu’on puisse y observer des rituels traditionnels vieux de 1300 ans. À travers les âges, la monarchie nippone aura grandement évolué en fonction des courants de pensée qui auront intégré les coutumes japonaises, mais l’essentiel des rituels tels qu’ils étaient pratiqués originellement est toujours observable de nos jours. Les plus importants rituels mis en œuvre par l’institution impériale sont au nombre de trois : le Senso, le Sokui rei et le Daijō-sai. Lors de ces trois rituels, on organise respectivement la nomination de l’empereur, son intronisation et sa communion avec Amaterasu-Ô-mikami, l’instance divine de la plus haute importance selon le shintoïsme, une religion japonaise ancestrale. Pendant ces rituels, trois trésors sacrés sont primordiaux puisqu’ils sont notamment consubstantiels à la position de l’empereur. En effet, selon la mythologie japonaise, ces trois objets sacrés, une épée, un miroir et un joyau, auraient été remis par Amaterasu-Ô-mikami à son descendant en des temps immémoriaux, au moment où celui-ci recevait l’ordre de régner sur terre comme empereur. Au moment de l’ordonnance, le miroir sacré, en tant que corps théophanique, aurait remplacé Amaterasu-Ô-mikami, corps par lequel seul l’empereur pourrait communier avec la déesse. L’empereur devra léguer les trois Trésors à son descendant afin que celui-ci puisse à son tour accéder au mandat céleste détenu par le miroir. Ainsi, depuis l’écriture de la mythologie en 712, l’institution impériale japonaise, les trois Trésors sacrés et Amaterasu-Ô-mikami sont indissociables. Les trois Trésors sacrés de la monarchie japonaise et l’histoire qui s’y rattache sont utilisés dans ce travail afin d’analyser une théorisation développée par Brian Schiffer et Lars Fogelin en 2015. Selon ces auteurs, les objets peuvent être perçus comme détenteurs d’agentivité par certaines personnes, du moment qu’on puisse démontrer que les objets sont passés par des rites de passage au long de leur histoire de vie. / Japanese Emperor Naruhito is the descendant of the oldest monarchical lineage in the world. Even today, the Japanese constitutional monarchy is celebrated in such a way that traditional rituals dating back 1,300 years ago can be observed. Through the ages, the Japanese monarchy has greatly evolved through different schools of thought that have integrated Japanese customs, but, essentially, rituals as they were practiced originally are still practiced today. Among the rituals of the imperial institution, three are crucial: the Senso, the Sokui rei and the Daijō-sai. These three rituals deal respectively with the nomination of the emperor, his enthronement and his communion with Amaterasu-Ô-mikami, the divine authority of the highest importance according to Shintoism, the ancestral Japanese religion. During these rituals, three sacred treasures are primordial since they are consubstantial to the position of the emperor. Indeed, according to Japanese mythology, these three sacred objects, a sword, a mirror and a jewel were given by Amaterasu-Ô-mikami to his grandchild during immemorial times when he received the order to reign over Japan as the emperor. At the time of the ordinance, the sacred mirror would have been a substitute for Amaterasu-Ô-mikami as the theophanic body through which the emperor alone could commune with the goddess. In time, the emperor is required to bequeath the three Treasures to his descendant so that he can in turn access the celestial mandate detained by the sacred mirror. Thus, since the writing of mythology in 712, the Japanese imperial institution, the three Sacred Treasures and Amaterasu-Ô-mikami are interrelated. The Three Sacred Treasures of the Japanese monarchy and the related history are analyzed through a theory developed by Brian Schiffer and Lars Fogelin in 2015. According to the authors, objects can be perceived as holders of agency as long as it can be demonstrated that they have gone through rites of passage throughout their life history.

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The objective of this thesis is to do a comparative analysis of four Romany life-stories in prose from different parts of the world and identify features which may justly be called characteristic of Romany writing. The comparison of Victor Vishnevsky's Memories of a Gypsy, Mikey Walsh's Gypsy Boy and Gypsy Boy on the Run, Andrej Giňa's Paťiv. Ještě víme, co je úcta and Irena Eliášová's Naše osada yields valuable insights into how Romany writers construct their identity and to what extent their current work relates to the existing literary genres. Because of Romany studies' multidisciplinary nature, the extensive introduction lays the theoretical foundations for the analysis. I proceed from the characteristics of Romany studies in general in part 1.2 to the way it was practised during my undergraduate years in Prague as opposed to the Western tradition (part 1.3). Using a case study of the schism Romany studies are currently facing in the Czech Republic, in part 1.4 I attempt to illustrate the more general epistemological challenges the field has been grappling with between essentialist/primordialist and radical constructivist views. As there is a definite scarcity of theoretical literature conceptualising Romany writing, in part 1.5 of the introduction the existing body of work is assessed and found...

The present study has a threefold aim: First, the theoretical aim is to give a contribution to refinement of the theory of dialogue based feminist ethics, concerning the understanding of judgment and narration within such an ethics.  The study also has an empirical aim, defined as to clarify what kind of knowledge, relevant to the moral judgment of an engaged outsider actor, can be received from dialogical interpretation and analysis of a limited selection of critically reflecting life stories. Third, a methodological aim is defined as to develop an approach to interpretation and analysis of reflecting life stories, which renders the storyteller visible as a reflecting moral subject, and makes the story accessible as a source of knowledge for the moral judgment of an engaged outsider actor. The thesis combines philosophical reflection and argumentation, with a narrative-hermeneutic method for interpretation of life stories, relating the two to each other in a hermeneutic process.  The theoretical reflection draws on Seyla Benhabibs theory of communicative ethics. A dialogue based model for moral justification and a likewise dialogue based model for political legitimacy are at the heart of this universalistic theory, although in combination with a conception of a narratively and hermeneutically constituted context sensitive moral judgment, based on Hannah Arendt’s concept “enlarged thought”. In the reflection, this model is related to other feminist theorizing within the tradition of dialogue based feminist ethics, as found in the works of Iris M. Young, Georgia Warnke and Shari Stone-Mediatore. The empirical study draws on three critically reflecting life stories from Israeli-Palestinian women activists for a just peace. The methodology for interpretation and analysis that is worked out combines dialogical interpretation as presented in Arthur W. Frank’s socio-narratology with a method for structural analysis derived from Shari Stone-Mediatores theory of storytelling as an expression of political resistance struggle. The results show that some stories drawing on marginalized experiences have a potential­ to stimulate further public debate through their capacity to enable a stereoscopic seeing, elucidating a tension between ideologically structured discourse and non-linguistic experience; implying that narrative-hermeneutic competence should be considered crucial for public debate.