Thesis (Ed. D.)--Lehigh University, 2001. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-130).

The strategy of gender mainstreaming was implemented as a policy tool with its objective of achieving gender equality and benefitting both women and men. But it has been seen that the strategy had the tendency to present and focus only on one side of the gender coin, which are women and girls. Men and boys are hardly mentioned in gender related issues and appear as hazy background figures, which have further resulted in serious consequences for women and men, as well as the relationship between them in relation to gender equality efforts. This research analyzes the existing literature within the field of gender and development in order to comprehend the complexity surrounding gender equality concerning the policies with gender mainstreaming and its impact on women, men, and on the relationship between them. To increase the reliability of the research, an analytical model in the shape of a triangle was constructed to illustrate the symmetric correlation between gender policies, and their impact on women and men. The results of the research showed that with its main focus on women’s issues and empowerment, policies with gender mainstreaming appear to contribute to negative and threatened responses from men towards women’s increasing power. This is in relation to men’s sense of exclusion and disempowerment. The results further indicate a potential backlash in the objective of gender equality where men’s negative reactions can be seen to hamper women’s ability to perform their advanced role in households and communities, which further exacerbate the efforts of achieving equality.

Die Dissertation stellt eine Grundlagenarbeit zur Theorie und Praxis von Engendering Budgets (Gender Budgets, Geschlechtergerechte Budgetpolitik) dar. Aufgrund der Aufarbeitung vielfältiger, vor allem auch unveröffentlichter Quellen wird ein aktuelles Bild über die Praxis von Engendering Budgets gezeichnet. Im Mittelpunkt des Interesses stehen dabei die folgenden Forschungsfragen: Inwieweit kann Engendering Budgets einen Beitrag zur Transformation der Geschlechterverhältnisse (und politischen Prozesse) leisten? Worin besteht das Konzept und das Potential von Engendering Budgets als gleichstellungspolitisches Instrument zur Transformation der Geschlechterverhältnisse? Ausgehend von der Klärung der Konzeptionen Gender Mainstreaming und Engendering Budgets werden die ökonomischen Grundlagen und Referenzpunkte in der feministischer Ökonomie und in Ansätzen des "Engendering Makroökonomie" herausgearbeitet. Darauf aufbauend geht es um die Praxis des Engendering Budgets, im Rahmen derer ein detaillierter Überblick über Initiativen in zahlreichen ausgewählten Ländern bzw. Regionen - neben anderen werden Beispiele aus Australien, Südafrika, Tansania, Großbritannien, Kanada und der Schweiz eingehend dargestellt und analysiert - gegeben wird. Darüber hinaus wird die Rolle internationaler Organisationen bei der Entwicklung und Verbreitung von Engendering Budgets beleuchtet. Vor dem Hintergrund der vielfältigen praktischen Erfahrungen und theoretischen Überlegungen werden Voraussetzungen und Bedingungen zur Umsetzung von Engendering Budgets im politischen Prozess herausgearbeitet. Dabei wird deutlich, dass Engendering Budgets einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Transformation der Geschlechterverhältnisse und Politikprozesse leisten könnte. (Autorenref.)

How do municipalities and county councils work with gender mainstreaming? What tools are used and which are the conditions and obstacles in the working process? Gender mainstreaming has been an official strategy in Sweden since 1994. In all policy decisions at all levels, a gender perspective shall be integrated. This will ultimately have an impact on the citizen level. The essay shows that despite the fact that the strategy has been official for 21 years, it is not used everywhere. I examine how the county council and municipalities in the county of Västmanland are working with gender mainstreaming. In Västerås, there is much work going on, on the basis of the strategy. While in other municipalities, no work at all can be found. Within the framework of gender mainstreaming, the municipalities and the county council are using a set of tools. There is talk about several conditions and obstacles in the work with gender mainstreaming, where knowledge is a recurring element. This makes the study particularly interesting when we get an insight of how much the work within gender mainstreaming can be separated for each municipality.

This thesis locates itself in wider developments in gender theory and examinations of the state’s production of gender inequality. It responds to two research problems in existing literature. Firstly, scholars have developed increasingly complex theorisations of the social construction of gender and the state’s role in it. This body of research has shown how gender blindness and gender bias in state policies produce inequality and how gender structures priorities, hierarchies and roles within state organisations. Fully operationalising these insights has, however, thus far proved difficult. Secondly, whilst existing research provides a nuanced picture of these multiple dynamics involved in the state’s reproduction of gender inequality, we cannot yet fully account for the processes through which these dynamics are maintained. As a result, our explanations of how change could be achieved are also under-developed. This thesis uses gender mainstreaming (GM) implementation as a model to explore these research problems, examining the processes underlying the ‘disappointing’ policy outcomes which existing analyses of GM implementation have documented (Bretherton 2001, Daly 2005, Mazey 2000). Whilst these existing studies provide an essential starting point, this thesis argues that many have applied an implicitly rigid or rationalistic approach to policy analysis, highlighting the disparity between the intended and actual outcomes of GM. This kind of approach fails to operationalise our understanding of the construction of gender as a process and a constantly renegotiated phenomenon. It also fails to exploit the research opportunities which GM implementation provides. To enable such an analysis, this thesis draws together literatures from policy studies, particularly interpretative policy analysis (Colebatch 2009, Pressman and Wildavsky 1984, Yanow 1993) and science and technology studies/the sociology of knowledge (STS/SK) (Latour and Callon 1981, Law 1986) to apply an understanding of policy implementation as a process of negotiation, where we analyse how policy is interpreted, understood and enacted, on the ground. This perspective emphasises how local responses to strategic policy demands emerge through collective processes of interpretation, which are heavily affected by pre-existing policy assumptions, activities and practices (Wagenaar 2004, Wagenaar et al 2003). These concepts are used to operationalise the concept of gender knowledge (Andresen and Doelling 2002, Caglar 2010, Cavaghan 2010, 2012, Doelling 2005) to investigate how shared (non)perceptions of gender inequality are institutionalised and perpetuated, whilst competing notions are marginalised. Thus developed, the gender knowledge concept enables us to grasp and analyse (non)perceptions of the gender inequality issue; the evidence or ways of thinking which underpin them; and the processes, materials and persons involved in institutionalising them to the exclusion of competing perceptions. This approach therefore operationalises the notion that gender and gendering is a process and connects the ‘genderedness of organisations’ (Benschop and Verloo 2006, Rees 2002) to gendered policy outputs. Examining ‘what is happening’ when GM is implemented in this manner provides an opportunity to identify mechanisms of resistance, i.e. the processes through which the production of gender inequality is maintained. By corollary, examining ‘successful’ incidences of GM implementation provides empirical examples of how change has occurred. The project thus aims to produce theoretical insights which can be extrapolated to a wider understanding of the perpetuation of the state production of gender inequality.

"Inclusion: A case study from within" is a concentrated viewing of one central question: What does the classroom teacher view as meaningful special education practice in the inclusive classroom? It is an effort by a special educator to include the classroom teacher in the dialogue of special education practice while allowing the special educator to refine thought about inclusion by hearing and sharing the experience of inclusion with the classroom teacher. The perspective throughout remains that teaching is a dynamic complex process full of specific contexts defined by political, economic and social parameters. This is not a search for the elusive best practice but rather it is a search for workable inclusive practice precepts within the active construction of philosophy in work. Described are the beginnings of insights to guide further reflection, collaborative teacher thought and action, and of decisions about special education in the classroom against the discovery of inner voice in reflection on action, through action, and in action. / ix, 105 leaves ; 29 cm.

This study used ethnographic research methodology to examine the process of including children with special needs in a regular split grade 4/5 classroom. Participant observation was conducted over a ten month period. In-depth interviews were held with students, parents, regular classroom teachers, special educators, and administrators. Other sources of data included documents collected in the field, notes from informal discussions, videotapes, diagrams, and photographs. The thesis provides rich description and detailed analysis of the processes and supports used to address the diverse needs of aft of the children in the class. Among the findings: (a) participants' definitions of integration had an effect on the process of addressing the diverse needs of all of the children in the regular classroom, (b) the characteristics of the teacher and the strategies he employed were seen as critical to the success of this integration effort, and (c) reallocation of personnel and resources and provision for scheduled collaborative sessions for teachers were considered to be desirable adjustments to further balance the integration effort and to better fit resources and personnel to the people and area of greatest need. The goal of this study was to provide a richly detailed, comprehensive portrait of the integration process which can serve as a medium through which regular classroom teachers can familiarize themselves with the issues surrounding integration, anticipate problem areas and areas of strength, and plan strategies for success.

<p>The main aim of this study was to understand the factors that facilitate or constrain the implementation of inclusive education in the South African context. These factors were explored through a qualitative case study. A documentary analysis, as well as unstructured and semi-structured interviews was used to collect the data within die context of the research aims, questions, and a framework of categories, drawn from relevant literature, was used to analyse the data. The first major finding of this study was that the implementation of inclusive education policy in South Africa has been facilitated by the school communities' beliefs, values and norms relating to the inclusion of learners with disabilities. The second major finding of this study is that the designers of the inclusive education policy underestimated the deep-seated socio-economic factors that inhibit effective learning in certain contexts. Poverty was identified as a major constraining factor in the study, followed by the complexities of the National Curriculum Statement, a lack of capacity to implement the policy, lack of support for policy implementation, and the limitations of the Education White Paper 6 itself. Given the facilitating and constraining factors emerging from this study, the recommendations made have been based on the assumption that the implementation of inclusive education policy is a worthwhile endeavour.</p>

<p>This study investigated the challenges of implementing inclusive education in one Khayelitsha mainstream school. The key objectives of this study were to determine which aspects of implementation have worked well in the school and which have not, while exploring the underlying reasons in each case.</p>

The purpose of this study is to determine and explain the problems faced by educators teaching learners experiencing learning problems in mixed ability classes. A qualitative research technique, which aimed at studying educators in their natural settings , was used. To achieve this aim the study was conceived as a case study of grade one educators from three Primary Schools at Mpophomeni Township. A self-designed interview schedule that was supplemented by observation schedule was used to collect data. The interview schedule included questions relating to mixed ability classes, learners with learning problems, outcomes based education, problems experienced by educators in their classroom practices and the ways of coping with such problems. School, educator and classroom resource profiles were also used in the study to gather information that might be useful in the discussion of the findings. The research sites were three Primary Schools at Mpophomeni Township. In these schools there were eleven grade one educators who formed the population from which a sample of six educators was randomly selected. Three of the six educators who formed the sample were interviewed and observed while the other three were only interviewed. Interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed for data analysis, which was done descriptively. The findings of the study revealed that educators had problems when they were dealing with the content, assignments, assessment and resources and when they discipline learners. It also revealed that most of the problems were due to the introduction of curriculum 2005 in grade one in 1998, and the fact that educators were not trained to teach learners experiencing learning barriers. The study concluded that insufficient in-service training and the introduction of curriculum 2005 were the main causes of educators' problems, and a call to recontextualise the learning environment, which includes educators and the context in which they teach, was made. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.