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No / Through qualitative in-depth interviews, we collected the views of persons with Parkinson¿s disease (pwPD) and their close relatives in care homes to establish their collective views of the effectiveness of care. We also reviewed the corresponding care plans. Drawing on these two forms of data collection, we compared similarities and differences between the qualitative interview data and the care plan analysis to elaborate on the experience of residential care for pwPD. Close relatives of care home residents can be a fruitful source of information for care home staff, throughout the care planning process, especially in relation to the specific needs of a pwPD. Although health and social policy advocate active collaboration between people with long-term conditions, their families, and their formal carers, there is limited evidence of such collaboration in the data examined here. There is an apparent shortfall in the knowledge and understanding of PD among care home staff. There are important pragmatic (e.g. drug administration) as well as psycho-social reasons for flexibility in routine care provision to meet the dynamic needs of pwPD. The findings here support the need for further, larger scale research into the quality of care for pwPD who are care home residents.

No / This paper aims to identify a wider holistic view of the inter-relationships relating to food security from a people, process and policy perspective. This is so that decision and policy makers can identify relevant alignments between disparate and conflicting priority elements in the field. Noting the complexity of inter-related challenges posed by food security, food supply chains and growing concerns over food waste, this paper also seeks to identify cross-cutting themes relative to shared energy and water security objectives also. The authors develop and adapt an existing food security framework to encapsulate the above culminating in a systems archetype that defines the intimate feed-forward relationship. As a viewpoint piece, there is no empirical work to report in this paper. An exploratory review of the literature has allowed for the extraction of food security concerns that need the attention of stakeholders across the enterprise to ensure robust food supply chains can be created, maintained and sustained through a better understanding and usage of information, knowledge and data. The authors present an adaptation of an existing food security framework to include dimensions of people, process and policy through the inclusion of a number of broad thematic areas including (amongst others): management best practices; sustainable business operations; consumption rights, behaviours and trading policies; lifecycle management; recovery and extraction; regulatory changes and policy reform; environmental and climate change impacts. The authors outline an overarching systems archetype based upon a combination of the Limits of Growth, Tragedy of the Commons and Attractiveness Principle archetypes. In doing so, providing decision and policy makers to identify and explore a range of food security scenarios and potential outcomes. This paper is a position paper that provides strategic directions on the impact of people, process and policy aspects on the development of food security policies from the perspective of local and central government decision makers. This paper provides a holistic worldview on key aspects of the global and national food security debate that seeks to assist decision and policy makers frame their decisions and policy interventions across dimensions of people, process and policy. Noting the impact of securing and maintaining the production, supply, consumption, health benefits and waste recovery aspects of food this paper provides a perspective on the inter-relationships that exist within the topical area and the socially mediated inter-relationships which exist and should be considered when engaging with the food security and food supply chain topical area. The paper raises awareness and highlights inherent inter-relationships within the food debate for the benefit of decision and policy makers present at the organisational level, specifically around people, process and policy.

Published Article / The aims of this article are to describe the findings of the author over the last decade regarding traditional distance education which eventually became Open and Distance E-Learning (ODEL) at the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) and secondly, the integration of Open Education Resources (OER) within ODEL. Up for debate in Perspectives in Education is the question whether ODEL and OER have not already stimulated a new constellation for higher education? After attending several international conferences of the International Organization for Open and Distance Education (lODE), the National Association for Open Distance Education of South Africa (NADEOSA), Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA) as well as the South African Association for Research Development in Higher Education (SMRDHE), it became evident to the author that global trends forced a number of changes onto the South African higher education system. Subsequently, the CUT also had to reconsider the role of distance education within the Free State and Northern Cape provinces where it operates. In 2004 for example, students enrolled for distance education countrywide already constituted between 4% and 32% at traditional face-to-face universities while for universities of technology the figure was only 4,74% (CHE, 2004:185-186). However, universities of technology since expanded tremendously in using ODEL.

This thesis takes as one point of departure the concept of the expanded curriculum where curricula encompass both the formal steering documents, as well as that which goes on within the framework of preschool education and through the actors in preschools. The overarching purpose is therefore to generate knowledge about what conditions for learning the work of teachers make possible when curricula are created in preschool settings for children aged between 1 and 3. The purpose is also to contribute with knowledge about what these created curricula would mean for children’s agency, and the importance they can have for children’s opportunities for learning and development. The three empirical studies consist of digitally recorded interviews with teachers and video observations with a focus on teachers’ communication with children in preschool. The discussion in the overarching text is constructed around three aspects that emerge in the overall results of the studies. First, the studies reveal how teachers’ work can be likened to a limiting curriculum which, on the one hand, is entirely child-centered, with the children as seen actors, but, on the other, can be interpreted as entirely teacher-centered. Secondly, there is the discussion about the affirmative curriculum, where children are presented as affirmed actors. In other words, content becomes those things that children are interested in, and their modes of expression are seen, affirmed and often repeated. Finally there is the discussion about the possibilities and dilemmas related to an expanding curriculum where children are regarded and treated as real actors in the sense that their intentions and expressions are taken seriously as relevant challenges. The current curriculum text for Swedish preschool can, in this sense, be seen as an obstacle in that its formulations are extremely broad-based, as discussed related to the results of this thesis.

The aim of this thesis is to study male questioning of masculinity. The study of the questioning will be conducted through a literature study, that will be done using an anthology that holds a critical perspective towards masculinity. The study of the questioning, will be done through mapping the most common patterns within the questioning together with patterns in the form used for presenting the questioning. Apart from the focus on the questioning and its form, which norms that are being questioned will also be studied. Apart from the focuses mentioned above, the last focus is directed towards finding patterns within the chosen themes vulnerability and homosociality. Since the focuses of the thesis will be studied through finding patterns within the material, thematic analysis will be used as a method. The method queer reading will also be used for studying norms. What has been found is that the form of the questioning mainly contains alternative thinking and reflections about ideals, as well as frustration related to trying to live up to these ideals. Overall few innovatory perspectives were brought up in the questioning, but the own father was rather commonly brought up in relation to reflection of the own masculinity. Regarding the chosen themes, avoiding to express emotions of vulnerability openly was found to be most common regarding vulnerability. Within the theme of homosociality, the most common pattern was that the men maintained a distance to each other. The most interesting discovery was found within the reflective form, which became interesting, since the stories contained an understanding that reflection should be avoided in order to uphold a masculine identity. Paradoxically then, the overall form of the material was reflective stories, making the form of the stories a break against a central norm found within their content.

The Ministry of Education in Abu Dhabi launched an extensive reform initiative developed by the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) in partnership with international operators. The reform has introduced innovative teaching methodologies, modern books, a new curriculum and the use of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in mathematics and science classes. The research carried out for this thesis investigated 11 Emirati female teachers. The data was collected from interviews and several informal observations carried out in a public middle school in a town outside Abu Dhabi city, UAE. The rationale for this study is to critically investigate the effects that rapid reform is having on the performance of the female teachers in the classroom and the impact of this speedy reform on their professional and personal lives so as to highlight differences between reform theory and practice. This study is significant because few studies on female teachers in a Gulf educational reform environment have been undertaken and it is essential to uncover the foreign and non-egalitarian nature of the reform programme. Therefore, the study’s aims are to highlight teacher perspectives and teacher marginalization, EMI and consider whether the reform is being implemented successfully at the classroom level. Of course, an important aim of this critical study has also been to raise the consciousness of those participating in the reform. This study has revealed mostly negative perceptions regarding the Abu Dhabi education reform programme, in particular with teachers’ perceptions of the work environment and the new pedagogy. It has also disclosed several instances of teacher marginalization as the result of a top-down reform and has exposed a prevailing sentiment of teacher disempowerment because of the presence of foreigners operating in the country. Teacher perceptions regarding EMI have been numerous in particular with cultural issues relating to the use of EMI in mathematics and science classes. Surprisingly, the study revealed a few unexpected positive findings with certain aspects of reform.

This longitudinal study examined the relationship between Zimbardo time perspectives (TPs) and career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE). In total, 1,753 young adults participated in the longitudinal study. For the present study, we selected only participants who were students and provided information on TPs, CDMSE, and sociodemographic characteristics (n = 492, M = 22.97 years, SD = 1.32, 82.9% women). The results of multilevel modeling showed that future orientation and present-hedonistic TPs were positively related to CDMSE, whereas present-fatalistic and past-negative TPs were negatively related to CDMSE. These findings indicate that besides the beneficial effect of widely studied future TP, the negative role of past-negative and present-fatalistic TPs should be considered in connection with the career development of emerging adults.

This piece is an empirical study of how students experience and conceptualise internationalisation of higher education at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa. The central question of this empirical study is, how do students experience and conceptualise internationalisation of higher education at Wits? The conceptual framework presents Wits within three domains, which are the Official, Pedagogical and Social, as the context within which the university operates. Using a qualitative methodology – phenomenography – that aims to explore the qualitatively different ways in which a group of people experience a specific phenomenon, in this case internationalisation of higher education, four main constructs about internationalisation have emerged from students’ accounts: (I) internationalisation as Wits is striving to be a top global university; (II) internationalisation as the presence of international students; (III) internationalisation as an issue of mutual respect and acceptance, and (IV) internationalisation as enhancing the students’ learning experience. The argument is that, though students converge on these conceptions, their differences regarding the emphasis and significance points to a scenario of unbalanced institutional mediation, with strong mediation within the logic of dominant pedagogical practice in the university, constrained by forms of weak mediation in the social domain.

Thesis advisor: Christopher Constas / Thesis advisor: Brian Braman / The literary character of Batman, first introduced by Action Comics in 1939, has been reincarnated several times in popular culture through graphic novels, radio, video games, television shows, and movies (Boxer). Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies, however, portray only a fraction of the episodes and villains presented in the comic books, while reflecting on universal cultural, psychological, mythological, and social themes, archetypes, and conflicts. In an interview with the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Nolan explains that he was trying to portray Batman as an extraordinary character in the fabric of an ordinary city with familiar traits that would be recognizable to the audience. The theatrical Batman, with high-tech devices and powerful combat tactics, creates a stunning contrast against the dismal background of Gotham. Nolan designed Gotham in this way to remind the public that “[i]n America we take for granted a stability to our class and social structure that has never been sustained elsewhere in the world. In other words, this sort of thing has happened in countries all over the world, why not here? And why not now” (Foundas)? While he acknowledges that his movies are open to numerous political, religious, philosophical, and economical interpretations, on a deeper level, Nolan seems to have wanted to create these movies as a response to this eternal struggle of society against the forces of chaos and injustice, part of the inherent conflict of the human condition. Nolan also addresses the numerous factors that contribute to the incitement of such chaos, including government censorship, lying, and covert violence, which, paradoxically, are often used as justifications for preserving the social order. Several of the aspects of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises are applicable to modern society; others are influenced by monumental historical events. One of the crucial themes of Nolan’s trilogy is the search to understand what it truly means to fulfill the role of the Batman, that is, the role of a guardian of order and justice against the forces of chaos and injustice. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy Honors Program. / Discipline: Philosophy.