Health care reform has been a controversial topic in America since the early 1900s (PBS, 2010). Today, the United States spends more on health care than any other industrialized nation (National Center for Health Statistics, 2011), but despite spending more, the U.S. has 46.3 million citizens who are uninsured (CDC 2009). To date, only two studies were located that analyzed health educators' behaviors related to health policy (Cooper, 1986; Holtrop, Price, & Boardley, 2000) and no studies were found using qualitative research designs to study health educators' experience with and recommendations for any policy issues, including health care reform issues. The purposes of this study were to explore recommendations from health educators for health care reform in relation to the different levels of the determinants of health ecological model and to examine potential new roles for the health education profession in achieving an effective health care system. An interpretive approach was used to gain contextualized, value-laden, specific knowledge from health educators to understand and interpret their perceptions about what needs to be in place on multiple levels for health care reform to be successful, and the Healthy People 2020 determinants of health ecological model (USDHHS, 2011) was used to elicit their perceptions. Twelve online, chat room focus groups and two online, chat room interviews were held with CHES and MCHES certified health educators over a three-week period. Three overarching themes emerged from the data: prevention, health literacy, and a focus on larger levels of the determinants of health ecological model. In addition to the overarching themes, recommendations were made at each level of the determinants of health ecological model, participants suggested an increased role of health educators in the medical and political setting, and responses revealed that participants in this study were involved in many advocacy experiences. Results of this study suggest that this group of health educators wants to see health care become a right for everyone. Participants want prevention and health education to become a social norm in society and a visible component of health care reform policies in the United States. Basically, there is a real need for our health care system to change into a system that does not focus on treatment after people get sick, but one that focuses on preventing illness and promoting wellness throughout the lifecycle and at multiple levels. Recommendations for the health education profession include compiling priority recommendations into a position statement or white paper to influence policy makers and politicians in Washington D.C. If health educators can become an interest group supporting health care reform proposals that include prevention and health education, then maybe they can influence health policies that promote their recommendations and ideals.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / It was John Malcolm Forbes Ludlow (1821-1911) who conceived of English Christian Socialism and convinced many contemporaries of its value. He was responsible for establishing the Christian Socialist producer co-operatives of 1849-50 in accordance with ideas gained in France from the socialism of Louis Blanc and Benjamin Buchez. With F. D. Maurice, John Ludlow shares the credit for founding a college for the education of working men (still in existence as the Working Men's College of London). As a lawyer, Ludlow acted as constant legal advisor to the great 19th century organizations of self-help: labor unions, friendly societies, and co-operatives. [TRUNCATED]

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xiv, 354 p. : ill. A print copy of this title is available from the UO Libraries, under the call number: KNIGHT JV8222 .F75 2007 / In both Sweden and the United States immigration has increased, and public concern over immigration, integration, and social citizenship has become heightened. Across affluent Western countries, immigration and integration concerns have been molded into a consensus on the need to instill discipline, but conflict has emerged through public discussions of where discipline is to be applied. Analyzing media content and public documents, I find that in Sweden and in Europe more broadly, as in the United States, some disciplinary political narratives suggest that immigrants themselves are deviant and should be targeted for exclusion from the social rights of citizenship; other narratives hold that immigrants can best be incorporated by using the state to facilitate the expansion of the secondary labor market. It is popularly claimed that the expansion of secondary labor markets promotes economic inclusion, which is held to be the foundation for integration. While this has proven an effective wedge among voters, I probe the validity of this neoliberal claim by reviewing the integration of previous labor immigrants in Sweden through industrial-sector jobs, and by examining immigrant economic inclusion and social citizenship in the U.S. I use comparative data on inequality and immigration within the United States and across Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries to assess trends in relationships driving social citizenship politics. In interviews with policy makers and integration officials and reviewing the labor union confederation literature in Sweden, I find satisfaction with the operation of the Swedish social democratic division of labor in immigrant policy-setting and integration; as well I find on the national level a lack of concern with the wider, politically-transformative implications of prominent social citizenship politics. This allows me to demonstrate how state actors and even labor institutions can be steered into facilitating neoliberal wedge politics and reforms that undermine social citizenship in favor of concentrated accumulation. / Adviser: Linda Fuller

The goal of general education is to provide students with an education that is broad and holistic, teaching transferable intellectual skills such as critical thinking, written and oral communication, problem solving and teamwork. General education courses are typically offered through the academic subjects of mathematics, science, English, and social science. Recent studies document concern that college graduates are not capable of demonstrating the intellectual skills expected. Through the use of content analysis, this study examined institutional practice to determine if the goals of general education are being met. A nationally representative sample of general education course syllabi and work products were analyzed for evidence of the intellectual skills expected of students and if those expectations were communicated. Findings indicate that learning expectations were not consistently provided and the goals of general education to deliver complex cognitive skills were not met. Implications provide insight for those responsible for general education reform.

The exercise of federal and/or state power is inherent to policymaking. The principal-agent theory, borrowed from economics, describes the difficulties in motivating one party (agent) to act in the best interests of the other party (principal). The theory provides insights into the roles of self-interested choice, information asymmetry, and sense making in political relationships. The extent to which the state understands the inherent challenges expressed in this dynamic and is responsive to the local school district’s specific circumstances is not well understood and thus presents an opportunity for research. This mixed methods study uses a confirmatory approach to analyze Oregon’s 40-40-20 education reform legislation and the state’s ability to operationalize education reform through the principal-agent framework, focusing on the implementation of full-day kindergarten legislation.

This thesis seeks to contribute to our understanding of why creditors and debtors do not ordinarily use China's reformed Enterprise Bankruptcy Law ('EBL'), whether the low use of the EBL is problematic, and if so, what can be done to ensure a more efficient resolution of corporate insolvencies and corporate financial distress in China. The EBL has been lauded – domestically and internationally – as a major legislative success. However, despite the rapidly growing number of companies, level of corporate indebtedness and non-performing loans – which should, one might expect, lead to an increase in the use of the EBL – the number of court-run insolvency cases has in fact been decreasing since the law was implemented in 2007. The thesis draws on newly collected insights from a series of interviews in China - to supplement the scarce and often incoherent data that is available - to determine what motivates debtors and creditors not to use the EBL. The findings are presented as four complementary constraints on a more effective and efficient operation of the EBL. First two constraints relate to the low payoffs under the EBL that debtors and creditors expect to receive due to (i) flaws in the EBL itself and (ii) problems in surrounding non-bankruptcy rules and practices that reduce or prevent recoveries under the EBL. A third constraint affects those debtors and creditors who wish to use the EBL despite the low expected payoffs – for example to avoid directors' liability for corporate insolvency – but are prevented from doing so due to (iii) potential enforcers' limitations and biases. A fourth and final constraint on the use of the EBL that reinforces debtors' and creditors' unwillingness to use the EBL is (iv) the parties' (often inaccurate) perception that alternative debt enforcement mechanisms may offer comparatively higher payoffs (v. the EBL). Building on this discussion, the thesis then considers the desirability of, and options for, reform. It argues that reform and subsequent greater use of court-enforced insolvency law are desirable in China because the (reformed) EBL has the potential to contribute to economic development through more efficient resolution of complex financial distress; better control of bad debt; easier and cheaper corporate financing; more efficient allocation of resources; and more entrepreneurial activity. However, because the necessary changes to deliver this are likely to be slow in coming, it proposes a dual-track reform encompassing (i) substantive reform of the EBL and select non-bankruptcy laws and practices; accompanied by (ii) the introduction of a new speedy, independent and confidential mechanism for insolvency resolution, 'MedArb'.

Based on the theory of pedagogic discourse developed by Bernstein, this thesis proposes a framework to analyse the relationship between the production of intellectual discourse and the Chinese State. The framework is developed on the basis of the theory of the pedagogic device developed by Bernstein and a comparison of the theoretical approaches adopted by Bernstein, Bourdieu and Foucault. The thesis then identifies three different dominant ideological positions in China between 1949 and 1993. They are, namely, traditional collectivism (before the Cultural Revolution), radical collectivism (during the Cultural Revolution) and regulated individualism (after the Cultural Revolution). The empirical work is a study of the most important education journal, jiaoyu Yanjiu (Educational Research) published by the Central Institute of Educational Research. The journal was created in 1978 by the Institute to support the new education reform initiated as part of the Post Cultural Revolution reform in China. Two major empirical studies are conducted. The first analysis is on the editorials published by the journal. The second analysis is on the papers published by the journal on moral education. Essentially, the paper argues that the reform policy in China introduced by the Chinese Government in 1978 had necessitated a fundamental shift in what constituted the core elements of the dominant ideological positions of the State. This involves certain elements of autonomy introduced to the intellectual field. But the exercise of the newly granted freedom is conditional. This fundamental shift led to a shift in the modality of controlling the intellectual field exercised by the State and has an effect upon the ways in which educational theories are produced and reported in the journal.

This study has addressed three core questions: What is the current state of School Library Services? How is the Education Reform Act affecting these services? Why are specific choices being made by School Library Services from the options available post-ERA? Information was gathered from questionnaires, consultation, seminars etc., and also by contact 1989-91 with 14 authorities in England and Wales. Specific matters investigated over the two-year period were: Structures; Policies; Service range and level; Relationships. The study found evidence that ERA had a significant effect during this period on library support services to schools, but that other influences on change were at work, most notably the community charge and its repercussions. All the School Library Services in the contact authorities changed between 1989 and 1991, although in different degrees, and it was observed that the effect of national legislation was being mediated by local cultures. The hypothesis that 'The Education Reform Act is leading to new perceptions of School Library Service effectiveness' was upheld, and factors making for effectiveness were identified.

This thesis is a comparative examination of prisoners' rights in England and Germany. The thesis has three dimensions: first, it is a description of the legal status of the prisoner in Germany and England; second, it is an examination of the social, political and cultural dynamics which have shaped prisoners' rights in each jurisdiction; and third, it is in itself an exercise which seeks to address the problems of comparative law which are identified in the introduction. England and Germany have been chosen as comparators as their respective approaches to prisoners' rights present illuminating contrasts. In England, despite significant judicial activity in the development of a prisoners' rights jurisprudence, prisoners' rights protection remains partial and equivocal. Many aspects of prison life are left within the realm of executive discretion, and the present Government, much like its predecessors, is unlikely to entrench a bill of prisoners' rights. Proponents of prison reform in England argue that the system of prisoners' rights protection is inadequate, not only in terms of the rights which prisoners can claim, but in terms of the possibilities of enforcement and the independence of enforcement bodies. This equivocal commitment to rights in England is heightened when juxtaposed against Germany's highly articulated rights culture and ambitious system of prisoners' rights protection under the Prison Act 1976. The German Prison Act, which is underpinned by a considerable constitutional jurisprudence on prisoners' rights, sets out foundational principles of prison administration, affords prisoners positive rights, defines the limitations of prisoners' constitutional rights and provides prisoners recourse to a Prison Court. Moreover, the rights and principles under the German Prison Act have been developed and refined in a substantial body of prison law jurisprudence over the last thirty years. Chapters one to three of the thesis make available to an English audience an in-depth account of the conception and protection of prisoners' rights in Germany and the broader context in which this has taken place. Chapters four and five of the thesis examine the method and manner of conceiving of the prisoner's legal status in England in the light of the German conception and explore the deeper political and cultural reasons for the divergence between England and Germany.