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Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2006.

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While Western science education has always been ubiquitous in the Canadian educational system and society, many researchers have recognized the scientific and educational values of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). This study aims to contribute to the understanding of TEK and the integration of TEK into science curricula. The prevalence and representation of TEK in grades 7 and 8 official science curriculum documents used in Canada were examined. To describe TEK in the documents, both quantitative and qualitative content analyses were conducted. The results show the high variation of the prevalence and representations of TEK. Overall, Nunavut and Saskatchewan show the highest prevalence and representation of TEK in their curriculum documents, which could establish a benchmark for developing a national learning framework for integrating TEK.

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the terrorist attacks of 9/11 are two events that scarred America and its people. In the aftermath of the assassination and the terrorist attacks, the American public was forced to sift through competing messages existing in the public sphere in order to make meaning out of the events. Although the American government, within a few days of both events, released who was ultimately responsible (Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy and Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were responsible for 9/11), the people were still left with coming to terms for why such violence occurred. In order to provide a frame from which the American people could view and understand the assassination and the terrorist attacks, two blue ribbon commissions were formed: the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President Kennedy and the 9/11 Commission, which investigated the terrorist attacks. Despite the reports’ purposes, significant segments of the population questioned both Commissions’ conclusions. In both instances, conspiratorial understandings of the events grew after the publication of the reports so that, in the case of the Warren Commission, most of the American public believe Oswald did not act alone and, in the case of the 9/11 Commission, there is growing belief that the government’s failure to predict and prevent the terrorist attacks was the result of a governmental conspiracy. This dissertation seeks to understand why, in our current times, official discourses are unable to prevail over conspiracy theories. This study proposes to illustrate the power of conspiracy discourse by examining it through the lens of official discourses that were designed, in part, to head-off conspiracy beliefs before they gained momentum within the American public. Such an inquiry will provide three main benefits: it will contribute to a more exacting understanding of the rhetorical power of conspiracy arguments in our times; it will provide insight into the relationship between official and conspiracy discourses (especially as they now exist); and, such a study has implications for determining the current direction of political life.

This study uses discourse analysis to investigate and compare the coverage of America in two Chinese official newspapers, the Chinese language People’s Daily and the English language China Daily in January in 1989, 1999, and 2009. This study compares the two newspapers in four aspects of the texts: topic selection, headline design, writing tactics, and visual components use, to find any differences in reporting tactics according to their different readerships. People’s Daily employed a constant editorial preference for political content and a provocative reporting tactics. Meanwhile, China Daily used a more global editorial approach. Its content and its reports were increasingly consistent with Western journalism criteria: accurate, brief, and clear.

Title: Det nya Ryssland - En inblick over Rysslands utrikespolitik under 2000-talet Author: Tim Balder and Jens Kindh Linnaeus University Department of Political Science Autumn term 2011 The purpose of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of how the Russian foreign policy is, how it is conducted and how it may develop in the future. To do that, we are going to try to answer the following questions: What characterizes Russia's official foreign policy? What theories are there for the Russian foreign policy? How can the various theories explain the Russian foreign policy actions at the international level? Our theory is to try explaining how the Russian foreign policy is continuing its development during the 21st century through three theories known as the Western liberalism, Pragmatic nationalism and Fundamental nationalism. Furthermore, to explain Russia's foreign policy and their behaviour, we are going to use the two foreign policy doctrines from 2000 and 2008. In addition, books and articles will also be used to explain how Russia's foreign policy is conducted and developed.

From a social constructionist understanding of social reality, this research explores how the female entrepreneurs and female entrepreneurship are represented in official discourses. From the view point of post-structuralist feminism, this research takes the position that discourses are linguistic practices that create truth effects. It finds that the texts on the official website, including the policies and the female entrepreneurs¡¦ stories, have the potential to reproduce the stereotype of gender.

Since 1995, the Transparency International (known as TI in brief) has assembled and set up the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) based on the findings of investigation into a variety of corrupt practices and promulgated the CPI simultaneously to the entire world every year. Today, CPI has been extensively adopted throughout the world as the index of social economy to deal with corruption. The International Institute for Management Development of Switzerland (known as IMD in brief), on the other hand, promulgates the national competitive edge assessment report every year. The assessment report has aroused critical concern from all key people concerned, both in and out of the government and has been taken as the guidepost for government performance. The disclosure of the aforementioned figures apparently suggests that the overall government performance signifies the spirit, construct, lifestyle, integrity and the performance of duty in combination. The ¡§Proposal to Enhance Decent Moral¡¨, if put into effect thoroughly, must upgrade and spruce up the government image in integrity and function as a catalyst to guide the entire society up to further enhancement. As a result, countries throughout the world have faithfully enforced the anti-corruption. The present study conducts analysis over such systems well performed in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and such countries take a comparison with the anti-corrupt organization in Taiwan and anti-corrupt laws and regulations concerned to find out the differences. I, the researcher of the present case, have served with the jurisdictional authority. In my capacity and my expertise in such backgrounds, I will probe into the roles and duties played and performed by the anti-corrupt functionaries through my in-house capacity. It is hoped that in the project of jurisdictional reform, we will be able to enhance the public confidence in the jurisdictional discipline and jurisdictional reliance. The findings so yielded from the study will function as handy reference to the anti-corrupt authorities and functionaries as well as the judicial reform. Among the six major national governance indices latest promulgated by the World Bank, the Republic of China on Taiwan was rated in significant improvement in democracy and freedom of speech. On the other hand, nevertheless, the government efficiency shows a phenomenon of standstill. Meanwhile, Taiwan shows backwardness in the aspects of rule of law, anti-corruption and political stability (Cf. China Times 2005). The findings yielded through the present study may be generalized into the following highlights:¡]I¡^ Taiwan government shows inadequate effort to publicize the ¡§anti-corruption and government official integrity¡¨¡]II¡^ The top barriers against the government efforts in anti-corruption are apparently ¡§insufficient resolve and boldness in the government. ¡]III¡^. The public lack in the trust on the judicial officers. ¡]IV¡^ Enhancement in education in promoting the judicial reform to eradicate bribery, lobbying and unsound social culture should be stepped up.¡]V¡^. The public definitely desires to set up the exclusive anti-corruption authorities as the short-term measures to bring up immediate results. In-short, in the efforts of ¡§government reform¡¨, integrity and efficiency represent the very fundamental demands in the eyes of public. Chang Chu-cheng, a renowned premier in the Ming Dynasty, once said: ¡§The trouble of a nation does not necessarily result from legislation. It results from inadequate enforcement of laws¡¨. The present study, therefore, yields the concrete proposal that the government should set up ¡§Integrity Agency¡¨ as the exclusive anti-corruption authority which is indispensable to eradicate corruption and boost national competitive edge. Key words: Department of government ethics, government ethics official , roles, performance in enforcement, corruption.

Since the ¡§Reinventing Government¡¨ trend started in 1980s, it soon became a sweeping fashion around the world. Looking into the objectives of these ¡§reinventing government¡¨ projects, they mainly expect to build an innovative, flexible and responsive government by introducing corporate management mechanism, so that governmental departments may provide efficient, flexible, innovative and governable services as private enterprises do, and hence the country¡¦s competitiveness can be greatly enhanced. Promoting the ¡§reinventing government¡¨ project is the goal of all countries around the world nowadays, and Taiwan and China are no exception. Content of the ¡§reinventing government¡¨ project mainly includes: organizational restructuring, manpower and service restructuring and legal restructuring. No matter in what direction the government reform takes place, formulation and execution of the government policies have to be carried out by civil servants. Therefore, a good official training system is critical for the achievement of the government reform, and also the focus of this study. In Taiwan area, different reforming emphases are set down in response to the government¡¦s reform, and for meeting the needs of different periods. Major reforms have also been presented in the manpower restructuring of civil servants. The training concept and goal of ¡§lifelong leaning¡¨ has been introduced recently, representing a lively and spirited effort in upgrading both quality and quantity of the civil service manpower. In China, since the adoption of the open-door policy in the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Communist Party Congress in 1978, the country has progressed towards a modern performance-based personnel administration system, and importance has been attached to the training of civil servants. Moreover, the country¡¦s accession to the WTO will definitely constitute another major impact on the training of civil servants in China. This thesis starts from the common base on the two governments¡¦ reform, to deduce the future ¡§civil service manpower development¡¨ from their respective ¡§governmental organization¡¨ trend and ¡§governmental operation¡¨ trend. In addition, the actual civil official training situation of the both sides of Taiwan strait is analyzed for discussing the sticking points of their respective civil official training systems and recommending the necessary amendment in the future. It is expected to provide a reference for subsequent researchers and for legislation or amendment of the official training system of the two governments