Ghana and South Korea have experienced regime changes from politically closed regimes to liberal democracy since their independences from Britain and Japan. This study elaborates on important factors that affect regime shifts in both countries. After reviewing a vast array of literatures, I argue that economic reform and civil society directly influenced democratization in Ghana. Neo-liberal economic reform led by international forces created decentralization and social movements that gave pressures to President Jerry Rawlings to consider running for a democratic presidential election. Social movements from below directly caused the democratization in South Korea. The dictator Chun gave up his power in the face of massive demonstrations of students, labor, and oppositions and so on. Modernization indirectly contributed to democratization with social changes such as increasing level of education and urbanization in both countries. Political culture has affected democratic consolidation rather than democratic transition. / text

Nicaragua has undergone several major upheavals in the last three decades that have fundamentally shaped and reshaped society. The Sandinista government (1979-1990) ended with the election of Violeta Chamorro in 1990 that ushered in 16 years of neoliberal government. In 2006 former president and leader of the current Sandinista Party, Daniel Ortega, was reelected to the presidency. At every step, education has been an essential component of the struggle to shape the state according to certain ideological precepts. Each administration has produced its own educational reforms that are ostensibly in the name of improving quality, but more precisely about developing schools consistent with the philosophy of the ruling classes. In this study, I seek to examine the Nicaraguan educational system as a site of multiple global and local processes that interact to produce lived experiences for teachers and students in and out of the classroom. In examining the most recent iteration of educational reforms and their effects in the communities of San Marcos, Estelí and Bluefields, I ask the questions: What role or function does education play in society? How does it “work” to (in most cases) normalize certain values, ideas and beliefs? And what forms do resistance and acquiescence to these processes take in an educational system like that of Nicaragua that has numerous internal and external forces attempting to condition it in contrasting ways? Major themes that emerge from the research include the prominence of social, historical and geographical factors that people use to fashion their language and perceptions of the world and the dominant influence of local power relations in conditioning people’s behaviors and actions. Analysis of responses to the current educational reform efforts demonstrates that local social connections and networks are paramount to studies of ideology and hegemony. The overriding message from Nicaragua is that chronic underfunding and constant reform have weakened the ability of the educational system to disseminate ideas, beliefs and values, particularly when they run counter to those of other powerful institutions in society. / text

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

This dissertation is a study of economic, political, and social reforms in contemporary Turkey and how they are experienced by the country's Romani ("Gypsy") population. By focusing on urban renewal projects, the pluralization of cultural identities, and the proliferation of civil society organizations, this dissertation analyzes these changes in urban Romani communities, examining how state and civil society initiatives impact identity and civic engagement. This research contributes broadly to work in anthropology studying the relationship between culture and power, specifically investigating how local cultural identities and practices intersect and interact with transnational political-economic processes. While the meaning and application of the concept of 'culture' has been much debated in the social sciences, this analysis is situated within studies that consider culture a site of governance. Many modern forms of governance work less through force than by subjecting culture to the political logic of empowerment and improvement. This study interrogates this process via ethnographic research with dislocated Roma and Romani rights civic actors in three Turkish cities, focusing in particular on one dislocated Romani community from a neighborhood in Istanbul known as Sulukule. The project is unique in that it addresses Romani identity, culture, and citizenship where they intersect with current politics around urban development in Turkey. While 'urban renewal' projects are incorporating the land of the urban poor into new plans for Istanbul as a global city, Romani residents find themselves increasingly dispossessed. More than interventions that aim to improve the conditions of Turkey's Roma, urban development has renewed the politicization of urban Romani communities, particularly the youth, who have begun participating in social movements and Romani rights activism. The study finds that, while the changes resulting from liberalization and democratization in Turkey are typically posed by scholars, politicians, and civil society actors as either positive or negative, the advantages and disadvantages for marginalized populations like the Roma are actually simultaneously produced and mutually constituted. While Turkey's Roma are being integrated into discourses, practices, and institutions of Turkish national belonging and transnational Romani rights solidarity, they are also facing the dissolution of their local communities, traditional occupations, and cultural life. This dissertation suggests broader repercussions for anthropological understandings of the impact of free-market liberalization and democratization in so-called 'developing countries,' and particularly interrogates the politics of 'openness', the relationship between civil society and 'political society', and the role of transnational networks in urban politics.

The dissertation describes a study of the instructional validity of the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS), a standards-based assessment. The study addresses the third- and fifth-grade mathematics portion of the 2005 AIMS test, focusing on two performance objectives per grade level. The study centers on the following questions: Can variation in students' mathematics achievement on AIMS be explained by instructional validity measures, namely: (1) alignment between test items and instructional characteristics and (2) by the degree of teacher emphasis on the two skills of interest to the study? Does the relationship between these measures and AIMS performance differ across grade levels? What possible explanations exist to account for grade level differences? Is there a relationship between the instructional validity measures and performance on the objectives of interest to this study?The dissertation discusses the evolution of thinking about instructional validity as standardized testing has changed. The study methods, including developing alignment measures from interview transcripts and classroom assessment examples collected from 16 third-grade teachers and 20 fifth-grade teachers in one school district are also described. Findings include that, although the method of using qualitative data to gauge instructional validity yields rich information about instructional practice, there was little instructional variation between classrooms in the district studied. This may have occurred because the district requires teachers to provide instruction exactly as specified in the district-adopted mathematics text. Some between-grade level differences do exist in the curricular alignment with AIMS. Teachers attempted to overcome this in their instruction despite district mandates to the contrary. Results support the instructional sensitivity of AIMS at third grade, but not at fifth grade. Differences in instructional sensitivity across grade levels might be linked to curricular differences; some third-grade teachers reported supplementing the curriculum to address the state standards while fifth-grade teachers largely reported that this was not necessary. Interestingly, the degree of alignment at third- and fifth-grade did not vary, although fifth-grade teachers placed more emphasis the study objectives. This speaks to third-grade teacher commitment to address the standards, and the challenges in emphasizing them when district-adopted curricula are not well-aligned with state standards.