Magister Artium - MA / This study explores the lives of Kanana residents, an informal settlement in Gugulethu Township on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. It pays particular attention to their everyday lives to dispel negative and simplistic representations of informal settlement residents when they collectively take part in protests. Although there are extensive reasons for the protests in the informal settlements, the media and the South African government have reduced these protests to portraying them as demands for “service delivery”, and furthermore as criminally induced protests. I point out that this problem is partly due to scholarly work that does not engage these misleading representations and illustrate the lives of shack residents in the ordinary, when they are not protesting. Thus the focus of this thesis is life beyond protests. I argue that the lives of shack residents who participate in the protests are complex. As opposed to negative and simplistic representations, this thesis illustrates that one needs to be immersed in the lives of shack residents so as to understand them as identifiable human beings who make meaning of their lives. I explore their lives in the shack settlement further and argue that these human beings live their ordinary harmonious lives centred on the practice of greeting. To highlight the complexity of life of protesting informal settlement residents this thesis makes a point that there exist unsettling realities in the shack settlement; unsettling realities that make residents feel to be less of human beings. Kanana residents, therefore, draw from these perpetual unsettling realities to organise and protest. This thesis is based on ethnographic research, which was conducted between September 2015 and February 2016. During fieldwork, I observed and interacted in informal conversations with Kanana residents. With the main co-producers of this work, I carried out their life histories and further in-depth interviews.

The shortage of secondary agricultural education teachers within the United States is nothing new. Several studies have investigated the supply and demand of secondary agricultural education teachers to fill teaching vacancies. However, learning how to prevent secondary agricultural education teacher attrition is another problem. The purpose of this research was to determine the effect education level attainment and method of teacher certification of secondary agricultural education teachers in Region IV (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio) of the National Association of Agricultural Educators had on who may be at risk for leaving the teaching profession. Risk analysis was based on the constructs 1) Alternative Career Opportunities, 2) Expectations versus Realities, 3) People Frustrations, and 4) Passion for the Profession. A descriptive and ex post facto, causal comparative design was utilized for this study. The population for this study consisted of 2,125 secondary agricultural education teachers in Region IV of the National Association of Agricultural Educators. Participants (n = 425) were randomly selected based upon a 20% sample size from each of the states within NAAE Region IV. Potential participants were emailed invitations to participate as well as an active link to the survey through Qualtrics® program. A final sample size (n = 137) was used once missing and incomplete data were removed leaving a 33.3% response rate. Data analysis revealed that secondary agricultural education teachers in the sample were primarily male (61%), most often held a Bachelor’s plus degree (28%) as the highest level of education obtained, were traditionally certified (87.6%) and taught an average of 11.7 years. Seventyive percent of respondents were married. The results indicated the Expectations versus Realities construct as having the highest attrition risk means followed by Alternative Career Opportunities, People Frustrations, and Passion for the Profession. There were no differences found for the overall attrition risk and four constructs when comparing traditionally and alternatively certified secondary agricultural education teachers. Additionally, no differences were found in overall attrition risk scores and the four construct scores among educational levels for secondary agricultural education teachers in Region IV.

This thesis is a study of ethics and multiplicity as found within contemporary commercial settings. Drawing on Science and Technology Studies (STS) sensibilities and ethnographic-style research, the thesis proposes that current ethical phenomena should be understood as a user-enacted chimerical object: an object that is multiple in its ontology and as much enacted by what it is, as what it is not. This research is particularly pertinent now because the term 'ethical' has become commonplace in modern Western life, including crucially within commercial activities. In certain uses, doing ethics becomes synonymous with doing business. Despite the increasing prevalence of what is considered 'ethical business', the exploration of how the term is appropriated and enacted remains largely under-examined. Through examination of research material gathered during extensive ethnographic studies in three self-avowedly 'ethical organisations' - an ethical start-up, an ethical confectionery company, and an ethical consultancy - the thesis addresses this research gap. By focusing on the users of ethical business, the investigation questions traditional market assumptions of homogeneity within producing organisations, the supposed linear transfer of ethical knowledge, what we can know about 'users', and the genesis of novel ethical realities. Through this questioning the thesis provides new insights on the ethical object. The thesis additionally builds upon questions of how far we can push the boundaries of what we can know about knowledge, and whether it is possible to bring the mess of investigation back into the reporting. Developing previous applications of constitutive reflexivity, the research symmetrically investigates the appropriateness of my application of STS sensibilities to ethical business as a new research area, and interrogates my thesis as an ethical object in order to address the underlying question(s) of whether 'STS means ethical business?'

Images of nature and family comprise the gestural and abstracted interpretations of my life events. I use my photographs as inspiration for my work. I fuse layers of color, light, and line into glass and onto wood to suspend a personal memory. I want to capture those moments that flit by in life and envelop them in the media. In my fused glass work, I manipulate color, light, and line. In these pieces, I layer frits and sheets of glass onto an abstract sculpted relief of fiberglass and fuse them into one thick slab. The sculpted relief creates a textured deflection of light. In each layer of glass, I encapsulate simple line drawings of my family, elements of the landscape, and organic shapes. In my works on wood, I pour and layer transparent color using acrylic and a water-based polyurethane mixture. I do not fully cover the natural grain of the wood but allow it to contribute to the imagery. I repeat linear marks and create layers of texture using a palette knife, and attach mud and caulk to the natural surface. I further manipulate the surfaces by sanding and carving to express my emotions and memories. The layered media symbolically references layers of time in my personal journey.

La thèse se présente en trois parties qui reprennent les trois mots clés du titre et mettent en perspective la fonction d’observation territoriale, par une approche de la complexité essentiellement empirique et faisant référence de manière récurrente à la systémique.La première partie s’intéresse à la notion polysémique de territoire. La modélisation du processus de territorialisation permet alors de contourner la difficulté sémantique qui découle des multiples acceptions du terme rencontrées dans la littérature et au cours des entretiens conduits auprès de spécialistes. Le territoire se révèle alors sous la forme d’une représentation, combinant des dimensions matérielles et immatérielles, des représentations individuelles et collectives.La deuxième partie s’appuie sur des réalisations concrètes d’observatoires pour élaborer et mettre en oeuvre une approche comparée, entre une trentaine d’observatoires, sous l’angle de leur structuration et de leur fonctionnement. Cette seconde partie du travail révèle des situations très contrastées et l’absence d’un modèle consensuel qui sont les signes de réalisations opportunes, et non d’une approche normalisée de la fonction d’observation.La prise en compte des jeux d’acteurs s’opère au cours de la troisième partie qui traite de la gouvernance pour et par l’observation. Nous réinterrogeons alors les structures et les organisations qui se mettent en place autour des observatoires et d’un enjeu qui est celui de l’aide à la décision par l’instrumentation de l’information géographique. / The thesis is presented in three parts which include the three key words of the title and put intoperspective the function of territorial observation, with an approach to complexity mostly empiricaland constantly referring to systemics.The first part focuses on the polysemic notion of territory. Modeling the process of territorializationallows us to bypass the semantic difficulty that arises from multiple uses of the term in the literatureand in interviews conducted with experts. The territory is then revealed in different forms ofcombinations of tangible and intangible dimensions, and individual or collective representations.The second part is based on concrete achievements of observatories to develop and implement acomparative approach between thirty observatories according to their structure and functioning. Thissecond part of the work reveals sharp contrasts and lack of a consensual model which are the signs ofachievement and not an appropriate standard approach based on observation.Consideration sets of actors takes place during the third part which deals with governance for and byobservation. We raise questions about the structures and organizations which exist or should be set upso as to allow a better integration of observatories and an issue that is the decision support by theinstrumentation of geographic information

A pesquisa \"Habitar híbrido: interatividade e experiência na era da cibercultura\" buscou estudar as transformações ocorridas na família contemporânea e em seus modos de vida, verificando os impactos das novas tecnologias de informação e comunicação no cotidiano doméstico e social do habitar híbrido e interativo advindo da virtualidade, analisando a concepção projetual de arquitetura, sua produção e o resultado espacial alcançado em projetos de habitação, fornecendo critérios que possam auxiliar na reflexão sobre o design e a domesticidade. / The research \"Hybrid habitation: interactivity and experience in the cyberculture era\" aims to study the transformations occurred in contemporary family and their way of life, verifying the impacts of new information and communication technologies at hybrid dwelling, in the social and domestic quotidian, succeeded by virtuality; analyzing architectures project conception, its production and its spatial result in habitation projects, supplying criteria that can be helpful for designing and domesticity reflections.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:31:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Aline Paes de Barros.pdf: 1438160 bytes, checksum: abd6134daf8bc50590337007daecf7b9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The dissertation refers to the childhood education curriculum in use within two different socioeconomical realities oriented by the same official school curriculum. The study investigates conceptions and practices presented by children education teachers from these two realities, one private school and another one a school accredited by São Paulo City Hall. The participants were five teachers from each one of the schools and the listening was performed based on questionnaires and individual interviews carried out by the researcher. The work starting point is an historical rescue on the Brazilian children education that shows up unequal treatment to children, determined by socioeconomical contexts. Following, the theorizing on the curriculum in use supports the matters on the educational practices and more specifically, the actions in children education linked to the way determined by the curriculum orientations given by the Education Ministry (MEC). A documental analysis on the official curriculum that is being discussed and the contextualization of the two schools allow the establishment of a relation among the written text, the context and the speech of the teachers. The results enable the understanding of the differences and similarities of these realities, showing up the influence of the contexts as well as of the peculiarities of each place. However, the study also enables the conclusion that while the private school curriculum is tailored to the requests brought by the families that seem to prioritize early school practices, the actions of the accredited school show more autonomy, however presenting more assistentialist traces in dealing with the children and their families. Nevertheless, both schools showed great commitment to the childhood cause, that is reveals in the teachers speech / A dissertação refere-se ao currículo em ação da educação infantil em duas realidades socioeconômicas diversas que se orientam pelo mesmo currículo oficial. O estudo investiga concepções e práticas apresentadas por professoras de educação infantil dessas duas realidades, uma escola particular e uma escola conveniada à prefeitura de São Paulo. Foram sujeitos participantes cinco professoras de cada uma das escolas e a escuta foi realizada a partir de questionários e entrevistas individuais realizadas pela pesquisadora. O trabalho parte de um resgate histórico acerca do atendimento da educação infantil brasileira que evidencia um tratamento diferenciado às crianças, determinado a partir de contextos socioeconômicos. Em seguida, a teorização acerca do currículo em ação respalda as questões sobre as práticas educacionais e, mais especificamente, as ações na educação infantil atreladas ao percurso traçado pelas orientações curriculares do Ministério da Educação (MEC). Uma análise documental sobre o currículo oficial em questão e a contextualização das duas escolas permite estabelecer uma relação entre o escrito, o contexto e a fala das professoras. Os resultados possibilitam entender no que se diferenciam e no que se assemelham estas realidades, evidenciando a influência dos contextos e das peculiaridades de cada local. Contudo, o estudo permitiu também verificar que, enquanto o currículo em ação da escola particular molda-se a partir das demandas trazidas pelas famílias que demonstram priorizar práticas escolares precoces, as ações da escola conveniada demonstram ter mais autonomia, porém trazem resquícios assistencialistas no trato com as crianças e com suas próprias famílias. Não obstante, ambas as escolas evidenciaram grande compromisso com a causa da infância, que se revela nas falas das professoras

Re-framing is the documentation and analysis of a process of theoretical and practical performance research. The terms of reference for this research were to experiment with the practical workshopping and development of three productions which each restructured and reconceived a 'canonical' written playscript in a format which combined audio-visual media with live performance. The perfromances were specifically developed for highschools in New South Wales and developed models and ideas for using portable technology so that they could easily travel from location to location. The research methodology also included the practical investigation of a process of collaborative production of a multimedia theatre piece with a group of highschool students (from Plumpton High School in Western Sydney). The documentation consists of an interactive multimedia component and a number of text 'modules' that correspond to sections of the interactive. The analysis formulates the process of construction, execution and reception of the performances in terms of a number of interesting and interacting spaces. The focus is on the practice and effects of creating combinations and interactions between these otherwise discreet spaces. The nature of these spaces helps to define and situate the performance but the space can, conversely, be redefined by the performance. In the specific context of multimedia theatre performances for highschools, the spaces that may come into interplay and be modified include: those of the audio-visual media, the meeting space of live performer and audience, the school environment and the wider institution of public education that it is a part of, the written text of a playscript as a space for constructing a fictional reality and the 'virtual space' where this fiction is reconstructed within the mind of the spectator in response to the symbolism of the performance. If such spaces are bounded by frames which are at least partly socially and discursively defined, the thesis proposes, then the performance can act as a catalyst to create new spaces, with languages and ways of structuring reality that differ to those of the old spaces. The implications of this hybridisation may reach beyond the immediate time, space and subject of the performance to reframe ideas, images, narratives and mythologies in domains that extend into many areas of social life and destabilize the systems upon which they are based. Reframing a space can reform the perception and structuring of realities within it / Master of Arts (Hons)(Performance)

Using qualitative methods, this study is about the attitudes and daily practices of parents who genuinely want the best for their children who have been diagnosed with autism. The study examined the everyday realities of living with autism from a parent's perspective. The purpose of this study was to describe the range of specific behaviors, practices, attitudes, and ways of being that families adopt when they engage in the world of autism. Three families were interviewed in these case studies. A content analysis of the interviews identified five thematic clusters that are described and examined in close detail. The five thematic clusters include (1) managing the diagnostic process, (2) child's behavior and educational needs, (3) impact on parent's well-being, (4) impact on the family as a whole, and (5) full integration into mainstream society. These themes were further categorized according to the "challenges" facing the families and the specific "strategies" families used to face these challenges. Parents shared their stories with the researcher with the hopes that their life experiences could be beneficial to other families facing the same challenges as they navigate complex educational, health, and social systems. The research presents a set of recommendations that were embedded in the participants' stories. These recommendations represent advice from the parents in the study to other parents with children diagnosed with autism. Their recommendations are based on what the participants have learned as they raised their own child with autism.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis is a feminist exploration of how violence against Filipino women in Australia is represented in the Australian and Philippine media and the relationship between the women’s lives and media images of their abuse. It is fundamentally concerned with the problem of the absent and silenced voices of Filipino women in media portrayals of violence. It aims at creating a space in which the women’s stories can be told. Based on interview data and discourse analysis of Australian and Philippine newspaper articles, the study investigates how the homicides and disappearance of seven Filipino women are represented. Case studies drawn from interviews with family members and friends of these women comprise the core of the study. An exploration of additional articles and interviews further reinforces the issues and themes that emerge in the case studies. The case studies contextualise the women’s experiences. Analysing media images in light of the interviews reinstates the absent and silenced voice in media accounts of violence. By charting the lives of these seven women, their hopes and aspirations as well as the pain and fear they suffered at the hands of abusive male partners, the case studies illuminate the way media accounts have largely misrepresented their experiences. Many of the Australian articles, in particular, bore little resemblance to the women’s lived realities. Juxtaposing Australian with Philippine portrayals further illuminates the racism and sexism of a large section of the Australian print media. A major theme to emerge out of this study is that the relationship between media image and actual violence also involves struggle and conflict over constructions of identity. It is a site of contested realities. Most of the articles analysed in this study failed to tell the story from the deceased woman’s perspective. It is argued that to hear these women's voices, journalists need to move beyond using sexist, racist and class-based stereotypes, such as mail order bride, to describe Filipino women or explain their abuse. It also means accounting for the history of domestic violence that was a large part of their lives.