This dissertation interrogates the links between immigration, citizenship, and social inequality by exploring temporary migrants' lived experiences of social exclusion in Manitoba. Based within a provincial context that supports temporary migrants' transitions to permanent residency through the Provincial Nominee Program, I examine how the promise of permanent settlement and a two-step immigration process influences migration decisions and the lived experiences that follow. Also, this dissertation highlights the ways in which temporary migrants find ways to exercise agency as they negotiate a complex migration system that is designed to exclude them. Drawing on twenty-six in-depth qualitative interviews and informed by a narrative methodology, I analyze accounts of temporary migrants who work in the hog processing industry in two rural communities. Using a theoretical lens informed by segmented labour market theory and citizenship theories, the dissertation reveals how processes of social exclusion are the outcomes of both labour market positions and legal exclusion from full membership in a nation-state. As a result, temporary migrants are positioned in an uncertain state of partial legal and social belonging. Theorizing the social effects of temporary migrants' location both in the labour market and in the complex matrix of legal statuses demonstrates the nuanced ways that temporary migrants understand how they can and do fit in Canadian society and make decisions based on such understandings. A significant empirical finding from this research is that having options for permanent residency is not a panacea for temporary migrants' unequal and marginalized social locations. In fact, the promise of permanent residency can contribute to an imbalance of power where employers have control over the futures of temporary migrants and their families. Pervasive effects of non-permanent status persist long after transitions to permanent resident status and are compounded by social dimensions such as language, class, gender, and race to shape temporary migrants' ability to engage in Canadian society. My analysis reveals the ways in which government designations (legal status) lack the ability to entirely erase social markers, making it questionable whether such classifications can restructure the social interactions and experiences of temporary migrants. / February 2016

In the context of early childhood education, in England and internationally, ideas and practices of ‘readiness’ have been of interest within research, policy and practice for some time. Much critical research, scholarship and activism has focused on exploring developmental aspects of this phenomenon arguing for: more ‘appropriate’ standards of ‘readiness’ against which to judge children’s learning and development; closer relationships between schools, preschools and communities that produce culturally responsive concepts of ‘readiness’; and the critical examination of the relationship between early childhood and compulsory school education. Within this body of work there is significant emphasis on developing and articulating alternative ideas and approaches that can unsettle dominant, normalizing practices of teaching and learning. Within these critical explorations of ‘readiness’ however, there is an avenue of scholarship that, seemingly, is as yet unexplored – one that addresses the concept of ‘readiness’ itself and asks how it may be possible to conceptualize ‘readiness’ in a way that is consistent with, and responsive to, complex processes of teaching and learning. This is not just a shift in practice, or in policy narratives, but is an ontological and epistemological change – a reconceptualization of ‘readiness’ that takes as its starting point a fundamental assumption of the positive and productive force of difference, in learning and in life. This thesis explores the ontological and epistemological shifts required to move away from ideas of ‘readiness’ that attach progression to a mechanistically linear movement. It develops and articulates an approach that embraces the emergent and unpredictable nature of learning, from which a concept of ‘readiness’ emerges which works with open, non-linear and emergent dimensions of education as necessary aspects of the complex systems within which we work. The thesis works with the concept of a ‘diffractive methodology’, exploring the concept of ‘readiness’ through ideas and theories drawn from complexity theory, from the immanent philosophy of Deleuze, and Deleuze and Guattari, and through onto-epistemological ideas of materiality and the entanglement of matter and meaning explored in particular by Barad. Methodologically, this study works within the space opened up by recent developments within ‘post-qualitative’ approaches to research. Working with concepts of ‘sensation’ and ‘affect’ it engages critically with often taken for granted concepts and practices such as: assumptions concerning empirical/theoretical research; ideas of ‘data collection’ and ‘data analysis’; and the production of knowledge in and through experience. Deleuzian philosophy (among other influences) is approached in this methodological context as an open system, as opposed to a totalizing structure. Concepts including ‘sensation’ and ‘affect’ are approached as potentialities, the methodological value of which is affirmed through the ways in which they have been productively put to work in the context of this study in order to produce spaces in which it is possible to think and act in ways that challenge conventional structures. What is developed in this thesis is a concept of ‘readiness’ as an ‘active-affective-ethical-relation’, as opposed to a fixed and normalizing identity. It is argued that, through this reconceptualization of ‘readiness’ as a central concept within early childhood education, other taken for granted concepts are unsettled, in particular ideas and practices of assessment. In exploring these concepts, the original ideas produced within this thesis, in relation to both early childhood education and research methodology, aim to contribute to the creation of more ethical and inclusive spaces of early childhood education and educational research.

A preliminary literature review of mental models and the quantum organisation clearly indicated a gap, particularly in the South African context. The gap was evident on two levels: literature fails to agree on existing definitions and there is little guidance on research methodology in the context of complexity and leadership. The aim of this study was to explore and describe the form and function of leaders’ mental models in a complex environment. A postmodernist qualitative methodology as theoretical framework and constructivism as research paradigm were employed. It was important not to be restricted and limited by a specific method. Therefore a constructivist grounded theory was used to navigate in a pragmatic manner towards answers which could best describe and interpret findings in response to the initial set of research questions. Purposive sampling was used and the population consisted of individual South African leaders and academics that do research on and write extensively about the constructs investigated. Data were obtained through intensive semi-structured interviewing. Semi-structured interviewing implies that only a few research questions were selected to guide the interview, whereas the rest of the interview was a co-constructed conversation, which yielded narratives with rich data that were systematically analysed through computer-assisted coding. An initial conceptual framework was thus created and used to substantiate the findings by means of a second literature review. It is concluded that the quantum organisation, being a leader in a complex environment, the dynamics of the mental models and the complex environment itself collectively represent a constellation of complex adaptive sub-systems, affecting one another in an interdependent manner and co-evolving accordingly. The conceptual framework describes the mindful sense-making process of a leader in a complex environment, consisting of a) an active acceptance of the current reality, b) catalytic questioning, c) letting go of, d) knowing that not knowing the solution, e) trusting what they do know, f) observing the actuality of unfolding patterns and g) realisation. Criteria for rigour, authenticity, trustworthiness and credibility were applied and demonstrated. The findings provide insight into the form and function of a leader’s mental models in the complex South African context. The practical contribution of this study specifically applies to the practice of leadership development and coaching. In addition, this study contributes methodologically to the field of mental model research by demonstrating the appropriateness of a constructivist paradigm for describing and interpreting the complexities of mental models of leaders in a complex context. Recommendations and opportunities for future research were also made. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to gain insights into the perspectives of child welfare alumni related to the educational experiences that facilitated or presented obstacles to academic and social-emotional resilience and well-being and to what extent. Through qualitative methodology, I sought to understand the life and experiences of these participants who experienced foster care and “came out” on the other side of the experience with the ability to live successful lives. Furthermore, I sought to discover how the school setting contributed to building well-being for this population. Data was collected from individual and focus group interviews. My sample consisted of four women who met the criteria for my study as they were taken into custodial care due to maltreatment issues and were with child welfare for at least two years following the placement decision. Results of the study indicated that alumni of child-welfare identified the school environment as contributing to feelings of safety, and as a venue in which they were provided encouragement and support from educators (i.e., teachers, guidance counselors). The findings of this study reinforce the need for school to play an active role in supporting youth in care by providing a safe, supportive environment in which students can learn the skills they need later in life, including the development of basic skills, the ability to inquire, and the ability to express themselves. While school systems are not responsible for meeting every need of their students, schools must meet the challenge when the need directly affects learning.

This dissertation explores the experience of participating in collective protest. I performed an existential-phenomenological analysis of five participants’ in-depth accounts of their involvements participating in collective protest. I considered my interviewees’ discourse to be reflective of their lived, embodied experiences of being in protest with others. Participants each described distinct protesting experiences. I explored their accounts in relation to six basic aspects of existence: self, other, embodiment, time, space, and choice/freedom. From within these existential realms, participants’ accounts revealed five key existential themes of participating in collective protest: (1) Existential Crises and Activation; (2) Existential Magnification; (3) Existential Horizons; (4) Existential Stakes; and (5) Existential Time-Space. These themes emerged from the ways my participants discussed their experiences in contingent and concrete interrelationships with the six basic states of existence. I considered phenomenological similarities and departures across participants’ descriptions and uncovered 30 distinct modes, or manners in which they experienced their participation in embodied collective protest. My insights suggest that collective protests frequently emerge during periods of heightened cultural disorder. During such anxious times, many participants seek the company of others in collective protest to have their voices heard and to be with people who are similarly concerned. Participants discussed the importance of preserving and exercising their First Amendment rights to publicly communicate dissent in this way. My interviewees also described understandings that protesting is a potentially dangerous activity, but that the risks are assumed collectively. While protesting can be unsafe, this collective action pertains to individuals banding together to make an ethical statement addressing the sense that something bad is on the horizon. While in protest together, people often meet like-minded others, and sometimes these connections bond members in enduring activist communities. At the heart of participating in collective protest are individuals who make a personal choice to adventure out in public to demonstrate in communicative interaction with fellow citizens.

Yes / Illness representations shape responses to illness experienced by the self or by others. The illness representations held by family members of those with long-term conditions such as dementia influence their understanding of what is happening to the person and how they respond and provide support. The aim of this study is to explore components of illness representations (label, cause, control and timeline) in caregivers of people with dementia. This was an exploratory study; the data reported came from the Memory Impairment and Dementia Awareness Study (MIDAS). Data from semi-structured interviews with 50 caregivers of people with dementia were analysed using content analysis. The majority of caregivers gave accounts that appeared to endorse a medical/diagnostic label, although many used different terms interchangeably. Caregivers differentiated between direct causes and contributory factors, but the predominant explanation was that dementia had a biological cause. Other perceived causes were hereditary factors, ageing, lifestyle, life events and environmental factors. A limited number of caregivers were able to identify things that people with dementia could do to help manage the condition, while others thought nothing could be done. There were varying views about the efficacy of medication. In terms of timeline, there was considerable uncertainty about how dementia would progress over time. The extent of uncertainty about the cause, timeline and controllability of dementia indicated that caregivers need information on these areas. Tailored information and support taking account of caregivers' existing representations may be most beneficial.

Healthcare education is continually evolving to reflect therapeutic advances in patient management. Society demands assurances regarding the ongoing competence of HCPs including pharmacists. The use of OSCEs to evaluate competence of medical staff as well as nurses is well documented in the literature however evidence of its use with undergraduate pharmacy students is still sparse.

<p>Cilj rada je da se ukaţe na prednosti i ograniĉenja kvalitativnih istraţivaĉkih pristupa u saznavanju i unapreĊivanju pedago&scaron;ke stvarnosti, kao i da se ukaţe na mogućnosti i probleme kombinovanja kvalitativnih i kvantitativnih metoda u prouĉavanju odreĊenih pedago&scaron;kih problema. U prvom delu rada, razmatraju se teorijske pretpostavke koje leţe u osnovi kvalitativnih istraţivaĉkih pristupa, predstavljajući ih kao kritiĉke i kao komplementarne kvantitativnim pristupima. Diskutujemo o posebnim pitanjima koja smatramo vaţnim za polje kvalitativnog pedago&scaron;kog diskursa: o kriterijumima nauĉnosti, strategijama formiranja uzorka i relevantnosti ovih istraţivanja za praksu i planiranje obrazovne politike. Detaljnije su razmotrena tri kvalitativna istraţivaĉka pristupa: studija sluĉaja, etnografski pristup i akciono istraţivanje, odnosno dometi i ograniĉenja primene ovih pristupa u prouĉavanju pedago&scaron;kih fenomena. Na kraju prvog dela rada, raspravljamo o mogućnostima i ograniĉenjima istraţivaĉkih nacrta u kojima se kombinuju kvalitativne i kvantitativne metode. U drugom delu rada, na primeru na&scaron;eg akcionog istraţivanja u osnovnoj &scaron;koli ilustrujemo doprinos ovog pristipa saznavanju i menjanju pedago&scaron;ke stvarnosti. Reĉ je o razvijanju i evaluaciji alternativnog programa razredne nastave, ĉija je jedna od osnovnih karakteristika primena grupno-istraţivaĉkog modela uĉenja. U istraţivaĉkom nacrtu kombinovani su kvalitativni i kvantitativni postupci i tehnike za prikupljanje podataka. Detaljnije je prikazan deo rezultata istraţivanja koji se odnosi na primenu grupno-istraţivaĉkog rada uĉenika u nastavi na tematski organizovanim nastavnim sadrţajima Poznavanja dru&scaron;tva u ĉetvrtom razredu, kao ilustracija mogućnosti akcionog istraţivanja da doprinese lak&scaron;em uvoĊenju inovacija u pedago&scaron;ku praksu. U tom smislu, kao poseban doprinos istraţivanja, dajemo predlog za izmene u programskim sadrţajima ovog predmeta i pristupima za njihovo izuĉavanje.</p> / <p>The goal of this paper is to point out to the advantages and limitations of qualitative research approaches in learning about and advancing the pedagogical reality, as well as to point out to the possibilities and problems of combining qualitative and quantitative methods in studying certain pedagogical problems. In the first part of the paper, we discuss theoretical assumptions underlying qualitative research approaches, presenting them as critical and complementary to quantitative approaches. We discuss special issues that we consider important for the field of qualitative pedagogical discourse: the criteria of scientific nature, the strategies for sample formation and relevance of these types of research for practice and planning of educational policy. Three qualitative research approaches have been considered in more detail: case study, ethnographic approach and action research, that is, the scope and limitations of application of these approaches in studying pedagogical phenomena. In the end of the first part of the paper, we discuss the possibilities and limitations of research designs that combine qualitative and quantitative methods. In the second part of the paper, on the example of our action research in primary school, we illustrate the contribution of this approach to learning about and changing the pedagogical reality. We are dealing with the development and evaluation of an alternative program of primary school, which has as one of its basic characteristics the application of group-investigation model of learning. This research design combines qualitative and quantitative procedures and data collection techniques. There is a more detailed presentation of that portion of research results that refers to the application of group-investigation work of pupils in class on topically organised teaching contents of Social Science in the fourth grade, as an illustration of the possibilities of action research to contribute to the easier introduction of innovations in educational practice. In that sense, as a special contribution of this research, we provide a suggestion for changes in program contents of this subject and approaches to their studying.</p>

In work with clients having profound learning disability, music therapists may include in sessions assistants not trained as music therapists. This study is a qualitative inquiry addressing the questions: 1) How does improvised music influence the interaction between teenagers with profound and multiple disability and learning support assistants? 2) Which aspects of the music are associated with any influences found? A survey of music therapists, exploring how assistants are used and how effectively they perform their role, found that assistants are often used as ‘interaction partners’. To explore how the therapist may facilitate client-assistant interaction, about which little is known, video clips from the writer’s clinical practice were purposively selected in order to illustrate an approach entitled Triadic Support of Interaction by Improvisation (TSII). Seven learning support assistants (LSAs) each viewed a video clip showing her own interaction with a teenager having profound disability, supported by the writer’s improvised music. Semi-structured interviews explored the LSAs’ understanding of the behaviour and inferred mental processes of the teenagers, their own behaviour and mental processes and the music improvised by the therapist to support the interaction. A variant of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis generated shared themes, which included concern for the teenagers’ autonomy, interest in their communicative behaviour and understanding of the mutuality of interaction. The therapist’s improvisation was seen by the LSAs as influencing only the teenagers. All the clips were also viewed by three music therapists, who used a mechanical continuous response device to register the influence of the therapist’s improvisation on four ‘scenarios’: the teenagers’ behaviour, their inferred mental processes, the LSAs’ behaviour and their inferred mental processes. Inter-rater agreement between the three therapists’ continuous responses was generally low, but some intra-rater correlations were found between pairs of scenarios, which the music was perceived as influencing in similar ways. This finding supports the conclusion that musical influences, although they may be analysed according to the four scenarios, actually function as a mutually inter-related system rather than as four independent processes. Each therapist selected decision points from the graphic record of her/his individual responses to discussed with the other therapists as a panel. Positive evaluations were made of the role of TSII in supporting the observed teenager-LSA interactions and the inferred underlying mental processes. This research design was exploratory, and not intended to test specific hypotheses about the mechanisms of musical influence. Tentative suggestions of associations between influences and musical features are however offered by the writer. Indications for the use of TSII are given and other applications suggested for novel aspects of the methodology developed for this study. A refinement of the continuous response task is proposed, and the requirements for any future formal evaluation of TSII are outlined.

Objetivo O acolhimento é de fundamental importância nos serviços de saúde. O objetivo da pesquisa foi estudar o processo de acolhimento entre pacientes e profissionais de saúde em uma Unidade de Saúde da Família (USF) e em um Ambulatório de Especialidades Médicas (AEM). O acolhimento entendido não apenas no sentido do acesso à demanda espontânea, mas no sentido de aceitação do doente como sujeito de direitos, desejos para o qual torna-se necessário uma boa comunicação e relacionamento profissional-paciente, a fim de estabelecer uma relação de compromisso e de confiança mútua. Métodos. Trata-se de uma pesquisa de campo, descritiva, com emprego do método quantiqualitativo. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevista semi-estruturada. A amostra foi intencional com 32 doentes com tuberculose e 35 profissionais de saúde. A análise das questões fechadas foi descritiva e as questões abertas por meio da técnica do Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo (DSC). Resultados. Na USF os doentes exaltam o acolhimento e a boa qualidade da consulta médica e a atuação dos Agentes Comunitários de Saúde (ACS); observou-se dificuldades de acesso ao serviço. Em contrapartida a queixa no AEM é centrada no modo impessoal e rápido do atendimento. A visão do acolhedor sobre o acolhido é divergente no AEM e USF. No AEM alguns profissionais imputam a culpa ao doente, que é tachado de malandro e desinteressado no cuidado de sua saúde. Na USF essa visão se respalda nos problemas sociais do doente e no estigma causado pela tuberculose. Conclusões. Entre outros aspectos conclui-se que o AEM estudado, apesar da resolutividade dos casos, apresenta falhas na sua capacidade de acolhimento ao doente de tuberculose. Na USF a estratégia do PSF favorece um melhor acolhimento aos doentes com tuberculose, principalmente por meio do trabalho dos agentes comunitários de saúde. / Objective: The warming reception is crucially important in health services. The objective of this research was studying the warming reception procedure between patients and health professionals in a Family Heath Unit (USF) and in a Clinic of Medical Specialties (AEM). This reception is not only understood as the acceptance of a spontaneous necessity, but also the patients rights acceptance, for which a good communication as well the professional-patient relationship become essential in order to establish commitment and mutual reliability. Methods: It refers to a descriptive survey using the quanti-qualitative method. Data was collected by a semi-structured interview. The sample was intentional with 32 patients with tuberculosis and 35 health professionals. The closed questions analysis was descriptive and the opened questions one was done by the Collective Subject s Speech technique (DSC). Results: In the USF, patients praise the warming reception, the good quality medical consultation and the Health Community Agents job (ACS); however some difficulties in the access to the service were observed. On the other hand, complaints concerning the AEM are related to a quick and impersonal service. The professionals point of view about the patients differs in the AEM and in the USF. In the former one, some professionals attribute the fault to the patient, who is considered idle and uninterested in his/her health care. In the latter one, the problems are social related to the patient and the stigma caused by the illness. Conclusions: Among other features, it can be concluded that the AEM studied is faulty in the warming reception to the patient with tuberculosis, despite cases resolution. In the USF, the PSF strategy provides the patients with a better reception, mainly through the health community agents job.