My research is a critical examination of technology policy discourse between four organizational groups: Alberta Education, the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA), the College of Alberta School Superintendents (CASS) and the Alberta School Councils’ Association (ASCA). I adopt a discursive theoretical position, to examine how education policy promotes a way of thinking about technology by endorsing some values over others and is therefore qualitative. One overarching question and a related sub-question guide my inquiry: 1. What ways of thinking about technology are evident in Alberta’s education policy discourse? • What relationship exists between the ways of thinking about technology in Alberta’s education policy discourse and nodal discourses, specifically, the knowledge-based economy and globalization? The literature base informing my inquiry encompasses three fields of research, the philosophy of technology, education policy and critical organizational discourse. Since my study is based on technology policy in education through an interest in discourse, meaning and power, I employ critical discourse analysis to excavate the common sense notions and assumptions in documents and interview data from the four organizations. Feenberg suggests the various ways of thinking about technology can be summarized into four categories, instrumentalism, determinism, substantivism and critical theory (1999). Feenberg’s model (1999) serves as a lens through which to roughly classify the philosophical positions of the organizations. The findings illustrate technology policy discourse in Alberta is divided along the values axis between the ATA and ASCA taking up substantivist and critical theory positions and Alberta Education moving between instrumentalist or determinist positions. In addition, the data suggests a value-neutral view of technology has dominated the discursive field with significant implications on implementation. Despite the apparent philosophical divide in the ways of thinking about technology in education, the concept of 21st century learning emerged across all four philosophical positions. My findings point to a need for future policy dialogue to adopt a more philosophically inclusive and balanced approach to ensure the potential of technology to support student learning does not go unrealized or continue to narrowly support technical goals.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgetown University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

The main topic of this thesis is the influence of the Kurdish Question on Turkey’s relations with Europe and the USA. Aiming to develop a triplex framework of (1) the Kurdish Question in Turkey, (2) Turkey’s Foreign and Security Policy, and (3) Turkey’s Relations with Western Society, this thesis specifically studies the international dimension of the Kurdish Question. It has two basic arguments: first, the Kurdish issue is the major cause of the deterioration in the relationship between Turkey and the West, in spite of alliances that go back over half a century. Second, Turkey’s Foreign and Security Policy is the main catalyst of that long-lasting troublesome relationship. The Kurdish Question is evaluated using empirical data that examines its impact on the relationship between Turkey and the West in the period 1989-2007. Within this the problem is examined by applying a normative approach and analyses that are carried out within a theoretical framework provided by a constructivist approach. In order to present research questions by empirical evidence, discourse analysis is used that goes in hand with the theoretical approach. Three Foreign and Security Policy norms are examined, namely “Sèvres Syndrome”- the suspicion of influence of external powers and interests on Turkey, the principle of “Status Quo” applicable in FSP and internal security arrangements, and finally, the “Westernism” that foresees being pro-Western in foreign policies and internal socio-political field. Findings suggest that those three norms played significant roles in shaping Turkey’s Foreign and Security Policy for decades, while important changes occurred within the recent years.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Communication and Culture. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 364-375). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR29524

No description available.

This degree project will include a document and discourse analysis on diversity and integration strategic work in the Falun municipality. Three steering documents will be evaluated regarding diversity in Falun municipality in relation to appropriate guidelines, as well as collected information from executive directors of administration regarding implementation of steering documents and of diversity and integration work, as well as evaluation material on the public health policy and other written material connected to the policies. The aim is to understand and evaluate the diversity and integration strategic work within Falun and Falu Municipality (both as geographical area/city and as the employer), understand if you can reach social change through the policies related to diversity and integration strategic work, and what role the citizen plays in that process. I aim to analyse and highlight the major findings and concluding with ideas for further research or development areas. The research question is; How are diversity and integration strategic work defined and communicated in Falun municipality through their policies and can a participatory approach to policy and policy-making lead to social change?The result show that steering documents – policies - somewhat works as the platform for strategic diversity and integration work in theory, but not in practice. National and international guidelines regarding the subject has proven to be used very well in the case of Local Public Health Program, but not as well in the Integration Policy Program or in the Plan for equal rights and possibilities 2012-2014. Collected information from executive directors of administration regarding implementation of the Integration Policy Program and implementation of diversity work, as well as evaluation material on the public health policy showed very little implementation, and very little participation from the executive directors, employees and the citizens, which raises questions regarding availability of the programs. In order for policy making to be successful executive directors, employees and citizens need to be participating in the policy-making process, as well as the implementation and evaluation. If not; policymaking is only by politicians, for politicians and therefor it will not reflect on the developing society as a whole.

This study set out to explore the ways in which non-STEM academics, working within UK universities that had positioned themselves publicly as ‘entrepreneurial’ institutions, interpret and negotiate the related concepts of the entrepreneurial academic and university. The entrepreneurial university concept has become a ubiquitous theme in higher education and policy literatures in recent decades, having been described variously as an ‘idea for its time’ (Shattock, 2010) and the ‘end-point of the evolution of the idea of the university’ (Barnett, 2010, p.i). This research set out to interrogate some of the key ways in which this institutional form, and the corresponding concept of the entrepreneurial academic, have been discursively constructed by advocates in the UK and beyond. Further to this, the study aimed to collect narratives of experience from non-STEM academics employed by self-described ‘entrepreneurial’ universities, both to enquire into how they interpreted the ‘entrepreneurial paradigm’, and to invite them to report on how they felt that their university’s assumption of an enterprise mission had, or had not, influenced its organisational ‘culture’ and their subjectively experienced academic work-lives. The researcher’s interest in the relationship between enterprise discourse and the organisational ‘culture’ of universities stemmed from the apparent consensus within the scholarly and policy literature about the need for universities to develop an integrated ‘entrepreneurial culture’ (Clark, 1998, p.7)(Gibb, 2006b, p.2)(Rae, Gee and Moon, 2009) by pursuing a policy of ‘organisational culture change’, with culture here denoting ‘the realm of ideas, beliefs, and asserted values’ (Kwiek, 2008, p.115) which inhere within institutions. To this end, a series of semi-structured, interpretive interviews were carried out with participants from a range of non-STEM disciplines, working in a variety of university types in the UK. The researcher then employed a discourse-analytic method to delineate some of the ‘discursive repertoires’ that participants used to account for their professional practices, and report on their experiences in - and understandings of - the entrepreneurial university. What emerged from this analysis was a complex picture of ‘enterprise discourse’ within the contemporary university setting, as well as a general tendency amongst participants to adopt a position of ontological scepticism where the issue of ‘university culture’ was concerned. Further to this, it was determined that the ‘inclusive’ interpretation of entrepreneurialism typically employed by advocates for the paradigm had not generally been taken up by participants, for whom it was, for the most part, a phenomenon associated variously with ‘managerialism’, ‘market values’, ‘the business agenda’, ‘income generation’, ‘money making’, and the figure of the ‘individual, lone, romantic, heroic capitalist’. Additionally, where subjects were conversant in broader, more ‘social’ conceptions of academic entrepreneurialism, they typically reported that it was rarely articulated in the internal communications of their respective universities.

O campo da Psicanálise e Educação se sustenta em um entendimento do educar como sendo da ordem de uma profissão impossível. Não há garantias dos resultados na medida em que a relação entre meios e fins não é previsível. É a partir desse pressuposto ético que a questão acerca dos efeitos de uma política do analista no campo educativo se fez ouvir. Para depreendermos um entendimento sobre o tema específico de uma política própria à psicanálise, estabelecemos um debate com autores contemporâneos que recortaram essa questão no escopo freudo-lacaniano. Ao trabalharmos com os discursos propostos por Lacan, acessamos as políticas próprias a cada um deles e empreendemos uma análise das políticas públicas em Educação Infantil tomando-os como operadores de leitura. Desse debate foram extraídos três eixos de análise políticas assistencialistas, diagnósticas e preditivas que evidenciaram que a Educação Infantil vem sendo agenciada predominantemente sob a égide do discurso universitário ou do capitalista na contemporaneidade. Demonstramos que a própria teoria psicanalítica também é apropriada em diversos momentos como mais um saber explicativo acerca dos impasses escolares e educativos, mas isso não se configura como um exemplo do agenciamento da política do analista. Apresentamos a articulação entre a ética e a política na psicanálise e fundamentamos que a política do discurso analítico visa a permitir que o sujeito se separe de uma posição alienada a um saber que lhe é extrínseco. Assim, o psicanalista que trabalha na fronteira com a educação busca possibilitar que o educador se pergunte acerca desses saberes pedagógicos hegemônicos de modo a encontrar uma resposta singular que o autorize a se lançar na prática educativa, mesmo não havendo garantias de antemão dos resultados a serem alcançados. / The field of Psychoanalysis and Education is based on an understanding of educating as being an impossible profession. There is no guarantee of results insofar as the relationship between means and ends is not predictable. The whole issue of the effects of the analyst\'s politics in the educational field was based on this ethical assumption. In order to formulate an understanding of the issue of a psychoanalysis own politic contemporary authors who managed this issue in the Freudo-Lacanian scope were examined. The specific politics of each of the discourses proposed by Lacan were used as reading operators to analyze public policies in Early Childhood Education. Three axis for analysis were adopted: assistentialist, diagnostic and predictive politics. It became evident that in contemporaneity Early Childhood Education has been predominantly organized in line with the university or the capitalist discourse. We have shown that psychoanalytic theory itself is also undertaken as yet another explanatory knowledge about school and educational difficulties, although that should not be regarded as an example of agency of the analyst politics. The articulation between ethics and politics in psychoanalysis is discussed and we argue that the politics of the analytic discourse aims to allow the subject to break away from an alienated position to a knowledge that is extrinsic to him. Thus, the psychoanalyst who works on the frontier with education seeks to enable the educator to ask about the hegemonic pedagogical knowledge in order to find a singular answer that allows him to embrace the educational practice, even though there is no guarantee of the results to be achieved.

This study contributes to the developing countries' public policy discourse by linking outcomes of the past and present urban housing policies in Tanzania to both the organisational structures and work methods of the state and to environmental factors. By tracing the historical development of urban housing policy formulation and implementation in Tanzania, the study provides a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the factors responsible for the poor performance of urban housing policies in Tanzania. The study is also important because it locates the policy development within the general literature of urbanisation and housing in the developing countries and within theoretical debates relating to policy explanation in these countries. The study documents a detailed case study of a specific project (the National Sites and Services and Squatter Upgrading Project - NSSP) aimed at addressing urban housing problems in Tanzania and uses this to identify a range of politico-administrative issues which affect policy formulation and implementation in Tanzania. In pursuing this task the study adds to the understanding of the factors affecting policy performance in developing countries experiencing constraints and contextual variables similar to those of Tanzania.