Using a Marxist perspective, this thesis examines Venezuela’s Socialist Production Units (SPU). SPUs have emerged as a clear alternative to the neoliberal model that characterized Venezuela and most of Latin America for the past 30 years. However, SPUs exist within capitalism and their political economy remains contradictory, a reality that manifests in the concrete experiences of their workers. Although facing contradictory experiences, SPU workers are acquiring important learning that challenges dominant market relations and builds the preconditions for a new, more just society. This learning is being acquired informally, in particular, through workers’ democratic participation in their SPU. For these reasons, SPUs should be considered important sites where revolutionary praxis is taking place. Therefore, I conclude, SPUs are making a significant contribution to the building of ‘socialism in the 21st century’, but further struggles, in particular, against the state bureaucracy and large local landowners are needed to advance their goals.

This research examines problematic and taken for granted issues in Scottish Secondary Education, from a critical community psychological perspective. Young people are positioned as central to the research, in particular young people experiencing exclusion being the most disempowered group in education, and to fully understand problems they experience the thesis develops a standpoint with young people. Methodologically the research is grounded in a particular approach to praxis. Critical reflection, action and knowledge construction all influence one another cyclically in complex relationships, at times conflicting and at others developing together dialogically and these relationships are embraced and reflected upon carefully. Power and knowledge are viewed as being inextricably linked and knowledge, what is legitimated within a certain frame of reference as ‘truth’ or ‘reality’, is viewed as being constructed by dominant groups with the power to do so. Ethnography was carried out in three educational settings: a mainstream High School; a Special School in a city centre catering for young people experiencing exclusion; and a Youth Project where permanently excluded young people were on an alternative curriculum. Qualitative methods were used in a varied and tailored way for each setting and group of people and included Participatory Action Research and group work with young people, interview and group work with teachers, active participation in settings leading to fieldwork notes, and collection of textual information. Analysis involved careful examination of a wide variety of material, drawing on various methods of discourse analysis. The research material was analysed for the ways in which education made possible and placed limits on legislation, social practices, ways of speaking and ways of being. The assumption that adults must be in control of young people in education was found to be absolute and pervasive, stemming from societal ideas of young people, but also perpetuating them. This emerged throughout my research, from practices in mainstream school to ways of speaking available to adults and young people. Inclusion, while often spoken of in relation to equality and social justice, in practice is often conditional, and is re-positioned in this thesis as a form of control. School exclusion is often described in education as being expelled or suspended, but is repositioned in this research more generally as being excluded from learning and peers, and is argued as inherently problematic. Problematic, institutional, educational discourse is constructed as often placing limits on ways of speaking, such that critical reflection and action within secondary education becomes very difficult for adults and young people. Ways of speaking available to young people are examined and demonstrate that while education imposes particular ways of speaking and being, young people find opportunities to resist and reconstruct. Ways of being are examined, between adults and young people in educational settings, and an account of performance of resistance and compliance between young people and adults is developed. This research draws on a complex and multi disciplinary use of theory, literature, methodology and methods, and in doing so constructs an account of young people’s experiences in education that is based on a standpoint with young people. By grounding the research in the interests of young people, particularly those experiencing school exclusion, it challenges assumptions of dominance and control that have implications for education as a whole and all those operating within.

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Die zunehmende Praxisorientierung des Musikunterrichts, welche im Laufe der letzten Jahrzehnte mit dem allmählichen Paradigmenwechsel didaktischer Konzeptionen einherging, führte u.a. dazu, dass Improvisation als ein wesentlicher Teil der Musizierpraxis in den Lehrplan aufgenommen wurde. Was sich diesbezüglich in der Realität hinter den geschlossenen Türen der Musikräume abspielt, beabsichtigt diese Arbeit zu enthüllen. Unter der Forschungsfrage: "Welche Möglichkeiten der Realisierung und effizienten Vermittlung von Improvisation bietet der gymnasiale Musikunterricht und wie werden diese derzeit in der Praxis umgesetzt?" wird dabei zugleich die Bedeutung von Improvisation im Kontext des Musiklernens und –lehrens einbezogen. Um das Bild von einer Improvisationspraxis, wie sie an heutigen Gymnasien tatsächlich stattfindet, zu fundieren und auszubauen, werden die Erfahrungen und Meinungen von Lehrkräften auf Grundlage einer durchgeführten Befragung zusammengefasst und diskutiert.

A study of students’ mathematical identity was carried out in February 2009 involving participants from two colleges of education, one in Dublin (Republic of Ireland) and one in Belfast (Northern Ireland). All participants were pre-service primary school teachers in the third year of their B.Ed. programme, having chosen to specialize in mathematics. Data was gathered using a questionnaire (with, mainly, open-ended questions) followed by focus groups, involving the same participants, on each campus. This paper considers how students’ exploration of their mathematical identity led them to deepen their insight into learning and teaching mathematics. Recommendations are made for how the methods used in this research might be beneficial on a larger scale, in different environments.

Over the last two decades research into the notion of empowerment has been focused on the three primary dimensions of process, outcomes and environment within the contexts of the individual, community groups and business organisations. As a psychological attribute, empowerment at the individual level has been investigated significantly by such theorists as Rappaport (1995) and Zimmerman (2000). However, studies in this field neglect deep understanding of the reality of the individual's experiences of the empowerment process. Definitions within the literature refer to empowerment as being a process which occurs over time for the individual who is personally challenged to achieve power and control within his/her own life context by the application and reflection of learning new knowledge and skills. The purpose of this investigative case study is to examine the reality of the empowerment process as it occurs in the individual lives of a group of women who have actively participated in the learning environment of an investment club over a 2 year period in Brisbane. The three dimensions of empowerment support the structure of the study with the findings evidencing 'authentic empowerment' is achieved when the individual seeks to operate within the dual learning environments of the supportive group as well as the solo learning environment. The reality of individual authentic empowerment proved to be a continuum of experience dependent upon the individual's levels of motivation, energy, decision-making abilities, knowledge, risk taking, confidence, time and goals. Sustainability of empowerment related to the participant's level of active involvement in the dual learning environments while accepting complete responsibility for actions and consequences.

O Termo Síndrome de Asperger é utilizado para descrever uma perspectiva moderada do espectro autista, inserindo-se nos chamados Transtornos Invasivos do Desenvolvimento. Apresenta como características principais: dificuldades dos sujeitos com neologismos, linguagem recitada, função comunicativa limitada, não metaforização de situações, limitação de fantasias, preferência por ambientes domésticos, objetos pessoais e situações cotidianas, incoordenação motora, contato social pobre, rigidez de procedimentos, desorganização em situações de surpresas, inabilidade nas relações interpessoais e inteligência preservada, com áreas de interesse específicas. Pode ser considerada um tipo novo (do ponto de vista de estudos organizados) de transtorno de desenvolvimento, sendo designada como tal somente nos últimos quinze anos e inserida no DSM apenas em 1994. A presente tese apresenta como objetivos principais: compreensão do universo autista (Síndrome de Asperger) estabelecendo relações entre a clínica psicopedagógica e a práxis pedagógica; análise dos processos de escolarização, aprendizagem e ensinagem de sujeitos com Síndrome de Asperger, refletindo a cerca das propostas que se referem como inclusivas e o tensionamento docente frente à diversidade. Para tal, o trabalho foi desenvolvido a partir do estudo de quatro casos em atendimento psicopedagógico, dos quais partiram e se organizaram os recursos teóricos e as categorias de análise. A interface psicanálise - clínica psicopedagógica - práxis pedagógica justifica-se através da escuta, compreensão e construção de possibilidades nas três dimensões em que a atuação foi remontada: em relação aos sujeitos, na subjetivação, identificação e criação de espaços de vida, possibilitadores de sua inserção na cultura e da construção de um lugar próprio no mundo; em relação às famílias, na retomada das matrizes identificatórias; e, em relação ao professor, na compreensão dos processos inconscientes vividos e construção de espaços de significação para si e para os alunos. Estas proposições apresentam-se imersas no decorrer do trabalho e detalhadas na descrição dos casos, em que são delineadas as estratégias desenvolvidas e as análises conseqüentes. Sem buscar generalizações, mas generalidades, cada caso originou uma proposição teórico-prática apresentadas no desenvolvimento da tese , composta pelos capítulos: Capítulo I, introdução e localização do tema, Capítulo II, princípio metodológico que serviu de sustentação à pesquisa, Capítulo III, desenvolvimento da tese, permeada pelos recursos teóricos, categorias de análise e proposições. Capítulo IV, considerações finais. Como apêndices, descrevo o detalhamento de cada caso, bem como apresento as linhas de ação/intervenção consideradas como indicativos, por se tratarem de vidas em andamento, cujas complexidades não se esgotam em tempos definidos. / The phrase, Asperger's Syndrome, is employed to describe a moderate outlook in the autistical spectrum, inserted within the so-called Pervasive Development Disorders. The main symptoms shown are, subject's trouble with neologism handling; singsong speech; restricted communication functions; absence of situational metaphorization; fantasy limitation; marked preference for familiar environments, such as home, personal assets, and daily situations; lack of motor coordination; poor social interactions; rigidity in personal demeanor; lack of responsive organization before unexpected events; awkwardness in interpersonal relationships; and reserved intelligence turned toward specific choice areas. This can be faced as a new disturbance type [as from the viewpoint of organized studies] within the Development Disorders, as it was so designated only for the last fifteen years and also by its being entered into the MHD [Mental Health Disorders] index in 1994 alone. The herein enclosed thesis presents as its main goals, the understanding of the autistical universe [Asperger's Syndrome], as handled by the establishment of relationships between the psychopaedagogical clinical procedures and the paedagogical praxis; the analysis of schooling, learning, and teaching processes as applied to subjects presenting Asperger's Syndrome, along with a reflexive assessment of such proposals that as referred as socially inclusive and the teachers' siding before diversity. To attain same, the survey was developed from the evaluation of four case studies on psychopaedagogical care of as many subjects, from which theoretical resources and analytical categorization departed and were organized. The psychoanalysis/psychopaedagogical clinical procedures/paedagogical praxis interfaces will be justified through the listening, comprehension, and possibility-building within those three dimension in which the acting was re-staged: the subject-oriented dimension, in the life space subjectivation, identification, and creation that are meant to render feasible their insertion within a cultural environment and the setting-up of their own place within the world at large; the family-oriented dimension, inasmuch as the identifying matrices are taken up anew; and the teacher-oriented dimension, as it might be pertinent for the understanding of unconscious life processes and the creation of signification areas for themselves and the students both. All the mentioned propositions will present themselves as immersed throughout the work development as well as being detailed in each case study depiction, in which developed strategies and outstanding analyses will be spanned. Setting aside the search for generalizations but enfolding generalities, each case study has generated a theoretical-practical proposition, all of which shall be presented along thesical development. The thesis itself will be composed by the following chapters, Chapter I, Introduction and Theme Placement; Chapter II, Methodological Principles Supporting the Survey; Chapter III, Thesis Development, as Suffused by Theoretical Resources, Analytical Categories, and Propositions; Chapter IV, Final Considerations. In Appendices, each case study details are described, as well as the lines of action/intervention are presented, as far as such were considered as indicative, taking into due note that the the lives highlighted by the case studies are ongoing ones and therefo

Chronological Bible storying generally assumes a universality of the story teller's theological perspective in selecting and shaping Bible stories interculturally. This paper argues against this approach and proposes a method of crafting contextualized Bible stories which resonate with the worldview of a receptor culture. The influence of the theological and cultural presuppositions of the story teller is reduced through the utilization of the receptor culture's worldview assumptions - those values and beliefs through which the impact of scripture is experienced. The empirical research consisted of observing the responses of Sindhi Muslim men to a reading of John 13:1-10 and then interviewing them to generate cultural expressions which revealed a relationship between their culture and the scripture passage. Analysis of the data disclosed themes which have scriptural referents and can be used as the basis for selecting and crafting Bible stories that resonate with worldview assumptions. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

A constatação da necessidade da presença do Ensino Religioso na escola, como base para a formação integral do ser humano, nos provocou uma motivação para a construção desta pesquisa, que procura em uma perspectiva de investigação, através de um estudo bibliográfico, mostrar a importância da presença do Ensino Religioso, cujo objetivo principal é compreender a proposta atual do Ensino Religioso na escola e a sua importância na formação integral do ser humano. São observados os fundamentos históricos e legais do Ensino Religioso no Brasil, a partir de um breve panorama, fazendo uma leitura de textos de autores que abordam a evolução do tema na LDBEN e nas constituições brasileiras desde o início da República, onde se podem constatar as raízes históricas desse entrelaçar de interesses; logo em seguida procura entender a proposta atual para o Ensino Religioso, a partir da Constituição de 1988. A legislação comprova e apresenta na atualidade o Ensino Religioso no espaço público e laico, como disciplina facultativa. Nesta dissertação é apresentado também o resultado de uma pesquisa do mapa do Ensino Religioso no Estado da Bahia. É feita uma análise da construção do conhecimento religioso, a partir dos PCNER (Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais do Ensino Religioso), fazendo um paralelo dos ciclos da vida com a educação por ciclos e, da convivência com a diversidade e novas tendências procurando mostrar que a escola e o Ensino Religioso podem ser um espaço de entendimento e respeito ao outro. Também são analisados os fundamentos pedagógicos e metodológicos do Ensino Religioso em termos de currículo, formação docente e práxis. / Observing the need for the presence of Religious Education in the school as a base for the holistic formation of the human being, provoked in us a motivation for the construction of this research which seeks, through a perspective of investigation through a bibliographic study, to show the importance of the presence of Religious Education. The main goal is to understand the current proposal of Religious Education in the school and its importance for the holistic formation of the human being. The historical and legal foundations of Religious Education in Brazil are observed based on a brief panorama of the reading of texts of authors who dealt with the evolution of the theme in the LDBEN and in the Brazilian constitutions from the beginning of the Republic, where one can perceive the historical roots of this intertwining of interests; after this we seek to understand the current proposal for Religious Education based on the 1988 Constitution. The legislation proves and presents the current situation of Religious Education in the public and lay space as an optional discipline. This thesis also presents the results of a research of the map of Religious Education in the State of Bahia. An analysis is made of the construction of religious knowledge based on the PCNER (Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais do Ensino Religioso [National Curricular Parameters of Religious Education]), making a parallel of the life cycles with the cycles of education and, of the communal interaction with diversity and new tendencies seeking to show that the school and Religious Education can be a space of understanding and respect for the other. The pedagogical and methodological foundations of Religious Education are also analyzed in terms of curriculum, teacher training and praxis.