The awareness of having a good information quality (IQ) in organizations has been increasing in the past decades. Despite that the well-accepted definition of information quality emphasizes the fitness of information to its consumers, IQ itself is known as context sensitive (Wang and Strong, 1996). It may be perceived differently depending on different contexts. This thesis presents a study of investigating IQ under the lens of practice theory. Practice theory intends to reveal the very idea of how the nexuses of human activities are organized (Schatzki, 2001). In this thesis, IQ was interpreted under the lens of Swidler’s perspective on practice theory specifically (2001), who stresses culture as the core that lies behind every aspect of social causation. The purpose of this study is to gain an in-depth knowledge on information quality. The empirical setting in this study is the sibling support system in Sweden, which has a rather unique organizational context as they do not have a classic top-down organizational structure and standard working procedure. The inquiry of this study focuses on three aspects; how IQ is perceived under this particular organizational context and the reasons behind it, also whether IQ is context sensitive in this type of organization. A mixed methods research was performed as the research methodology. A questionnaire was firstly sent out to the participants, and then interviews were followed up in order to obtain more detailed information. The contribution includes an account on a new perception on IQ under this specific organizational setting, and why it is perceived in such a way. Also the answer to whether IQ is context sensitive in this kind of organization is argued. Further secondary findings on the issues raised from the applied questionnaire are presented, as they are unexpectedly uncovered but worth attention for future IQ studies. This study presents a new angle of perceiving IQ, which offers certain reference value to future relevant studies.

No description available.

This thesis examines middle leadership in four international secondary schools in Malaysia. It focuses on five main areas; roles, responsibilities, role relationships, instructional engagement and leadership involvement. Data were collected through observations, documentary analysis and 52 semi-structured interviews with four principals, 12 heads of department and 36 teachers. The empirical data indicate that the middle leaders’ roles suffer from lack of clarity, with managerial tasks dominating their job scope. Different role interpretations have led to the development of misunderstanding and uneasy relationships between and among the participants. Despite this, and in contrast to the literature, there is more coordination between the middle leaders and the senior leaders, mainly due to the nature of accountability in private international settings. The empirical findings show teaching and learning to be the most powerful feature of the four case-study schools. Among all the themes identified, lesson observations are conducted and taken seriously in all the schools. Criticisms about monitoring persist but the general trend is positive. Time constraints, as suggested by international literature, continue to hamper the work of the participating middle leaders. This thesis holds that autonomy to take and implement decisions is an essential component of distributed leadership. Broadly speaking, the empirical evidence suggests that opportunities for middle leaders and teachers to participate and influence key decisions in their schools are limited. While they claim great autonomy in the domain of the classroom, they report limited satisfactory experience outside it. The observational findings indicate four departmental models; ‘island’ & ‘shopping mall’, in which isolation prevails; ‘solar system’, with its asymmetrical balance of attention; ‘magnet’, where a few are attracted and the rest repelled, and ‘bicycle wheel’, with a hub to which all ‘roads’ lead. The main significance of this thesis is inter-sectionality, which occurs at the interface between autonomy and expertise. This model suggests that the transition from middle management to middle leadership is contingent upon the proportional provision of these two constructs. A lack of equilibrium between autonomy and expertise can influence the extent to which middle-level practitioners can be described as leaders.

This thesis presents four case studies of Head Teachers whose schools received the lowest Ofsted inspection rating of 4 – Inadequate. It examines the impact of the judgement on the individual Head Teachers, both on their career and also on their emotional lives. It considers the role of Ofsted inspection within an era of increasing accountability, and looks at the extent to which these four individuals were able to lead their schools from this failure to a more successful and stable situation, and the emotional journeys that accompanied this process. The case studies are based on a series of semi-structured interviews with the four Head Teachers over a period of two to three years after the initial inspection. Other key sources of evidence are considered, including Ofsted reports, school achievement data, and interviews with other stakeholders. The study concludes that long-term success for the school and the school leader depends upon the Head Teacher successfully managing the key stages in this emotional journey, from surviving the initial emotional crisis, through a period of emotional labour, to emotional regulation, before achieving emotionally healthy leadership. The successful navigation of this process by some of the Head Teachers enabled them to focus on key leadership practices resulting in long-term improvement. Where this journey was not successfully managed, the impact on long-term success and career advancement was considerable. Hundreds of schools each year are graded inadequate by Ofsted, with a larger number judged to be requiring improvement. The outcomes of this research have potential implications for the way that Head Teachers can be supported to improve their schools following this failure, whilst at the same time safeguarding their own emotional health and wellbeing.

This research aims to explore the experiences of counsellor educators and counselling trainees of teaching and learning group work. Group work is one of the core courses that aims to prepare trainee counsellors to be group work leaders. However, there is no specific research that explores the preparation of counselling trainees for group work practice from both trainees’ and educators’ perspectives. In this qualitative study, the counsellor educators’ and counselling trainees’ experiences of teaching and learning group work courses are explored. As a collective case study, in-depth exploratory data was collected from six group work lecturers and six groups of undergraduate counselling trainees from three Malaysian public universities and analysed using thematic analysis. The analysis highlighted three important components, which are: 1) experiential learning activities, 2) therapeutic factors in group work training, 3) personal qualities in relation to teaching and learning group work and 4) the interaction of experiential learning activities, personal qualities and therapeutic factors during the teaching and learning group work. These elements are interrelated in the process of understanding both educators’ and trainees’ experiences to promote the best practices in teaching and learning group work courses, especially for informing counsellor educators about the process of teaching and learning group work in counsellor education.

Background: Research does not always translate into improved patient outcomes because of difficulties implementing complex health interventions. Distinguishing between effectiveness and factors affecting implementation is critical to improving trials of rehabilitation interventions. Understanding barriers and facilitators encountered when delivering complex interventions, such as rehabilitation, in the research environment requires examination. Implementation research is the study of methods to promote the uptake of research findings into routine practice and can help identify and explain barriers and facilitators. The aim of this project was to understand factors that affect the delivery of complex rehabilitation interventions in research, focussing on vocational rehabilitation for people with traumatic brain injury. Methods: Exploratory mixed methods were used to understand factors (barriers and facilitators) affecting the implementation of rehabilitation interventions delivered in research for people with long term neurological conditions including traumatic brain injury. In study 1, a systematic review investigated barriers and facilitators to the implementation of complex rehabilitation interventions delivered in clinical trials and other research. The review method involved developing search terms and searches included 11 databases, trial registries and author citations. All research methodologies were included. After screening titles and abstracts, two reviewers independently shortlisted studies. A third resolved discrepancies. Studies were appraised using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. One reviewer extracted data in two stages; 1) descriptive study data, 2) units of text describing barriers and facilitators to implementation. Data were synthesised by; 1) mapping determinants to the Conceptual Framework for Implementation Fidelity and the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research; 2) thematic analysis. Study 2 describes the development of a training package, used as an implementation strategy, to train NHS occupational therapists to deliver Early Specialist Traumatic brain injury Vocational Rehabilitation in three English NHS sites in the context of a rehabilitation trial. The training package was developed by "experts" in vocational rehabilitation and traumatic brain injury. It included a manual, direct instruction and mentoring. The confidence of the occupational therapists to deliver the intervention to trial participants with traumatic brain injury was measured before and after training and its usefulness examined via mentoring records and through early and late interviews with the trained occupational therapists. Implementation issues were mapped to the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research and Comprehensive Framework for Implementation Fidelity. In Study 3 the extent to which the intervention was delivered as intended was investigated. A content form and fidelity checklist were developed. Fidelity was measured using these tools and triangulated with clinical and mentoring records. Barriers and facilitators were explored in interviews with the occupational therapists, trial participants, their employers and NHS staff in each site and triangulated with clinical and mentoring records and mapped to CFIR and CFIF. Results: Study 1 found it was possible to identify factors affecting the implementation of complex interventions in rehabilitation trials, even when researchers had not set out to report these. Treatment adherence, its acceptability and causes of attrition were the most frequently reported barriers and facilitators. The quality of intervention delivery, the preparedness of organisations to implement an intervention as part of a trial and the developmental readiness or ‘trialability’ of interventions were rarely reported. The findings from this study highlighted the potential barriers that trial occupational therapists might encounter when delivering Early Specialist Traumatic brain injury Vocational Rehabilitation. Study 2 found that experienced occupational therapists can be trained to deliver a complex intervention in a rehabilitation trial. Barriers and facilitators identified individual and organisational level barriers and facilitators. Soon after being trained, occupational therapists identified that direct instruction and the training manual were important in helping them implement the intervention. However, later they indicated that the manual was not used. Mentoring was identified as the most useful element of the training package in both early and late interviews. Study 3 found that occupational therapists delivered Early Specialist Traumatic brain injury Vocational Rehabilitation with fidelity. Factors facilitating implementation fidelity included expert mentoring, community rehabilitation experience and an intervention that could be tailored to individual need. Barriers included lack of access to NHS systems, backfill and support from NHS managers. The following factors both helped and hindered; communication with participants, acceptability of the intervention, individual and changing needs of study participants and interagency working. Conclusion: Using implementation research frameworks, such as Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research and Conceptual Framework for Implementation Fidelity, to identify, measure and describe barriers and facilitators can elicit important information to assist researchers in improving rehabilitation trial design, ensuring more robust trial outcomes, reduce the risk of type III errors and expedite translation of research into improved patient outcomes. Expert mentoring was considered essential to ensuring implementation fidelity, alongside case discussions and direct instruction about research contamination issues. Implementation of complex rehabilitation interventions, such as Early Specialist Traumatic brain injury Vocational Rehabilitation, is affected by a number of factors acting as barriers and or facilitators at the individual and organisational level.

Cette recherche aborde la médiation familiale comme une nouvelle pratique sociale en expansion dans plusieurs pays. Plus particulièrement, elle interroge les spécificités des modèles de médiation familiale dans des pays aux traditions et aux cultures bien différentes comme la France et le Brésil. Cette étude met en évidence des modèles dominants et leur influence sur les pratiques des médiateurs. Elle identifie leurs principales caractéristiques et les pratiques de médiation qui sont reconnues au Brésil et en France, ainsi que leurs effets auprès des couples.La recherche a été élaborée à partir d’un recueil de données construites par une enquête par entretien semi-directif et une enquête par questionnaire auprès des médiateurs familiaux français et brésiliens et auprès des couples bénéficiaires des services de médiation. La méthode d’analyse des données a été faite par informatique à l’aide du logiciel Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Dans les deux pays, les résultats indiquent que la médiation extrajudiciaire convient mieux aux couples interviewés pour les raisons suivantes : elle se situe en amont de la procédure judiciaire, même pour les couples déjà engagés dans une médiation judiciaire ou pour ceux qui ont fait l’objet d’une ordonnance du juge ; elle favorise une meilleure communication dans le couple ; elle obtient une plus grande cote de satisfaction de la part de ceux qui en ont bénéficié ; elle est davantage recommandée aux autres personnes, surtout au Brésil ; elle n’est pas imposée mais plutôt perçue comme un atout pour la gestion des conflits.Applicable aussi bien au modèle de médiation familiale brésilien qu’au français (qui sont pourtant différents de par leur niveau d’évolution), la médiation extrajudiciaire est plus efficace dans le règlement des conflits, car elle favorise, entre autre, une meilleure communication, ainsi qu’un taux de satisfaction plus élevé dans le couple et chez les médiateurs. / This research approaches family mediation as a new social practice in expansion in many countries. In particular, it questions the specific models of family mediation in countries with different traditions and cultures as well as France and Brazil. This study highlights the dominant models and their influence on the practices of mediators. It identifies the main characteristics and practices of mediation that are recognized in Brazil and France, and their effects on couples.The research was drawn from a collection of data constructed by semi-guided interviews and questionnaires applied to both the French and Brazilian family mediators as couples who are benefited by mediation services. The method of data analysis was done by computer using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for organizing, processing and descriptive data analysis.In both countries, the results indicate that extrajudicial mediation is more appropriate to the interviewed couples for the following reasons: lies before court proceedings, even for those couples already undergoing a judicial mediation or for those who were subject for a determination by the judge; develops a better communication between the couple; obtains higher satisfaction rate from those who were benefited by it; is most recommended to other people, especially in Brazil; is not imposed but rather perceived as an advantage for the management of conflicts.Extrajudicial mediation is applied to both the French model as the Brazilian one (which are however different in level of evolution), and is more effective in the regulation of conflicts, because it favors, among other things, better communication, and a higher rate of satisfaction by the couples and mediators.

The teaching of Carl Czemy was influential in the first half of the nineteenth century. His Complete Theoretical and Practical Piano Forte School and its supplement, The Art ofPlaying the Ancient and Modern Piano Forte Works, are especially relevant to the performance of Beethoven's piano sonatas. Much of the information in this monumental treatise reveals how Beethoven would have performed his sonatas. His pedalling techniques, for example, are similar to those described in Czerny's treatise. Although The Art was published in 1846, some of the ideas in tl-ds book date back to Czemy's Haslinger II edition of the late 1820s, thereby showing a. certain consistency over a period of about twenty years. Most of Czemy's teaching on the performance of Beethoven's piano sonatas, hs recorded in his piano treatise, stem from Beethoven's own practice. However, he sometimes altered Beethoven's directions because he considered his solution to be better (such as the fingering. in the trio of Op. 2/l/iii), or because they did not conform to contemporary performing styles, or simply because they did not suit the more resonant pianos of his day.

Bullying in schools is a widespread problem, attracting a great deal of interest and publicity in recent years. The negative impacts of bullying can have consequences for not just the victims, but also for the school, perpetrators and wider community members. Such consequences can be experienced instantaneously and/or at a subsequent time, often in later life. In recent years bullying has unquestionably moved into the spotlight as researchers and governments have investigated the phenomenon in greater depth. However, according to the NSPCC, it remains the top problem for children aged 11 and under contacting them and was the single biggest reason for boys calling CHILDLINE in 2015/16 (NSPCC, 2016). Bullying in primary school is, thus, of critical concern to educational policy makers and school leaders alike. Research would suggest that some schools experience more bullying incidents than others and that schools vary widely in both their approaches to and successes in dealing with the issue. Initiatives and approaches to bullying enter schools that serve particular communities, with particular experiences, individuals and histories, making them site specific. They are mediated by the practices of school leaders and are executed by staff with diverse levels of confidence, commitment and capacity. There is, thus, always variation in the ways in which practices are taken up. Even where schools profess to enact the same approaches they often meet with widely ranging outcomes for anti-bullying, as was evidenced through this investigation. This research, therefore, set out to understand what it is that more successful schools do in initiating and managing anti-bullying practices. It investigates the less frequently examined area of the effects of head teacher practices on the success of anti-bullying cultures. Set in the contexts of five diverse primary school settings, this thesis scrutinizes the approaches of head teachers as they facilitate and cultivate practices that enable or constrain anti-bullying cultures. It utilizes a mixed methods approach, where questionnaires, observations and semi-structured interviews and focus groups enable the voices and experiences of school community members to be heard. To facilitate this the methodological approach began as one that combined the lenses of Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological model (1979) and Lave and Wenger’s Communities of Practice (1991). However, it evolved to look beyond the latter and to incorporate the work of Kemmis and Grootenboer’s Practice Architectures which champions a dual purpose of education: to help people live well in a world worth living in (Kemmis and Gootenboer, 2008), suggesting a social justice approach to this research. This is an aspect that, until recently, was generally omitted in the discourses surrounding the nature, efficiency and sustainability of developing anti-bullying cultures’ in primary schools. I show that, in successful anti-bullying schools, although policy and targeted intervention are vital for providing focus and understanding, there is a culture of respect, care and collaboration that pervades the sayings, doings and relatings at every level. I argue that head teachers, in shaping the cultures of their schools, are fundamental to these aspects as they maneuver the intersubjective spaces of practice architectures (Kemmis and Gootenboer, 2008). This research reinforces the need for head teachers to build upon existing practices, taking account of the histories and social and political actualities of their schools. It suggests that, taking account of these, the perceptions of players within the field may be as important as the actuality of situated practices as they unfold.

This mixed-methods study investigates the teaching of Iinformation Technology (IT) subjects at polytechnics and community colleges in Malaysia as the policy for the medium of instruction for Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects at primary and seconday education sector changed from Bahasa Malaysia to English in 2003 and back to Bahasa Malaysia again in 2009. However, as polytechnics and community colleges are under the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE), they are guided by the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (Higher Education) (2015). The higher learning institutions in Malaysia do not clearly define English or Bahasa Malaysia as the only medium of instruction due to factors such as internationalization and the needs to be able to produce globally competitive graduates. Due to these factors, the use of English or bilingualism at higher education sector becomes necessary. This research provides an insight into the transition period when the polytechnics and community colleges started receiving the first batch of students who had gone through ETeMS in 2008, and therefore, the lecturers were required to teach Technical subjects through English. The objectives of the study are to investigate the attitudes and motivation levels of the lecturers at polytechnics and community colleges in Malaysia with regards to the policy of teaching IT subjects through English, to examine the strategies the lecturers used to upgrade their English and to explore the strategies the lecturers used to teach their subjects through English. The quantitative data were collected via a survey during the first phase of the study. 211 out of 265 IT lecturers from polytechnics and community colleges across Malaysia had responded to the survey. The data from the survey provided information regarding the demography of the population, their attitudes and motivation towards the teaching of content subjects through English, as well as the strategies that they used in order to improve their own English so that they could teach their students better. The survey also gathered information regarding the lecturers’ experiences and the strategies they used when they had to teach their students through English. The findings from the survey were used to categorize the lecturers according to their motivation levels and teaching practice. In order to obtain lessons from best practices, a group of lecturers representing positive disposition were selected and finally, seven lecturers managed to participate in the observation sessions. The qualitative phase consisted of observation sessions and in-depth exploration of the lecturers’ background and experiences as well as the views concerning the teaching of IT through English. The teaching practice and strategies were then grouped, interpreted and rationalized through research lenses, which include CLIL, Multimodal approach and good teaching practices. The findings revealed that the majority of the lecturers had positive attitudes and moderate to high levels of motivation with regards to the policy of teaching IT subjects through English. The majority of the lecturers received little training to upgrade their English level, especially while in-service, and they were not self-driven to pursue the upgrading of English through their own initiatives. Learning to upgrade English was mainly obtained through incidental learning. For the teaching strategies, about half of the lecturers used only English for certain functions of teaching IT such as when giving instruction, advice, explanation and introduction or conclusion. Some other lecturers used code-mixing and translation when giving instruction, advice, explanation and introduction or conclusion. The majority of the lecturers also used simple English and English Technical terms, and they also had the freedom to adapt their teaching strategies. The majority of them did not teach English to make the students understand the lesson on IT. Teachers’ personality including years of experience play a role in effective teaching. Teachers with more years of experience were observed to be more able to conduct student-centred and dialogic interactive teaching compared to new teachers. Nevertheless, new teachers could also steer away from being teacher-centred while teaching if they had the initiatives to upgrade their knowledge and skills. Finally, recommendations were made in order to improve current teaching practices so that both lecturers and students were able to gain benefits. This requires not only the lecturers to be able to embrace change but also the commitment from MoHE, the polytechnic and community college policy makers and administrators as well as the positive attitudes of the students and the public. With the improvements in the teaching practices, it is hoped that polytechnics and community colleges will be able to produce quality graduates that meet the demands of the industries in Malaysia and worldwide.