The primary objective of this study was to describe and analyze visions of 21st century education articulated by prominent individuals involved with current school reform and restructuring efforts. A second objective was to describe and analyze those images of the most likely educational scenario in the 21st century and the perceived barriers that would prevent realization of those idealized visions.

Problemformulering och syfte: I februari 2016 infördes fri entré för 18 statliga museer i Sverige genom en statlig reform. I och med fri entré kan det tänkas att kommunikationsavdelningarna på museerna fick ett till viss del nytt uppdrag i och med att förmedla denna förändring. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka vad anställda på kommunikationsavdelningarna möjligtvis anser att de gjort annorlunda i sin externa kommunikation efter att den fria entrén infördes, och om det har påverkat hur de tänker kring målgrupper då denna reform hade syftet att demokratisera den gemensamt ägda kulturen. Metod och material: Resultatet i denna uppsats är grundat på intervjuer med anställda på kommunikationsavdelningarna på 17 av 18 berörda museer. Huvudresultat: Trots att målet med reformen var att demokratisera och öppna för att fler och nya besökare skulle komma till museerna har museerna inte gjort speciellt mycket för att försöka nå nya människor och målgrupper. Detta kan bero på att många museer jobbar med strategier som är kraftigt influerade av kommersiell marknadsföring.

Mothers of children with disabilities face a variety of problems compared to other mothers, but their experiences are not universal. This thesis provides a critical analysis of caregiving and disability by examining the experiences of a group of low-income African American mothers with children with disabilities. It explores the impacts of race, class, gender, and disability on mothers' experiences in the context of conflicting employment and caregiving demands for poor women. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with ten low-income African American mothers of children with disabilities, I illustrate how the struggles of raising a child with a disability are amplified in the face of race and class inequalities. As a result, these women redefine the notion of personal responsibility and employ a series of survival strategies.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the US prison system was expanding at an unprecedented rate. This research charts how prisoners at the nation’s largest maximum-security prison, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly referred to as Angola, founded the Angola Special Civics Project to collectively organize for prison reform. Using a combination of oral history and archival research, this thesis argues that the Angola Special Civics Project emerged during an era of political opportunity created by the coupling of political openings and contractions. Unlike outside advocates who focused their reform efforts on internal conditions, the Angola Special Civics Project centering of prisoners’ experiential knowledge led them to organize for an end to life sentencing through a combination of research, political education, electoral organizing, and coalition building. This thesis further asserts that their organizing should be conceptualized as a form of prison abolitionist reforms.

As teacher evaluation practices become increasingly high-stakes, principal observation has been made an important source of data in the evaluation process. Driven by the federal Race to the Top initiative, implementation of teacher evaluation systems has been rapid and questions remain about the preparedness of principals to successfully implement the new evaluation processes. The researcher conducted a qualitative case study that focuses on the implementation of the Louisiana Department of Education's COMPASS teacher evaluation system and its impacts on principals in one school district. Interviews were conducted with six principals, a focus group was held with the four members of the district central office that supervise and support these principals, and two more focus group were held with selected teachers from the schools of each of the participating principals. Viewed through the lens of Transformational Leadership, data was collected, transcribed, analyzed, and organized into themes in order to present a practical and real-life perspective on how the COMPASS mandate has impacted principals. Findings indicate that principals perceive that COMPASS was implemented too quickly and they have had to change several of their practices as a result. Additionally, principals believe their biggest success in implementing COMPASS was supporting teachers, while they believe their biggest challenge in implementing COMPASS to be setting student learning targets that are both reasonable and challenging, and aligning school practices with those set forth in the COMPASS Rubric. Implications of this research include practical knowledge for current principals and administrators, and a ground-level view for policy makers regarding how mandates and change impact principals, as well as scholars seeking to understand the change process.

The Ministry of Education in Abu Dhabi launched an extensive reform initiative developed by the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) in partnership with international operators. The reform has introduced innovative teaching methodologies, modern books, a new curriculum and the use of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in mathematics and science classes. The research carried out for this thesis investigated 11 Emirati female teachers. The data was collected from interviews and several informal observations carried out in a public middle school in a town outside Abu Dhabi city, UAE. The rationale for this study is to critically investigate the effects that rapid reform is having on the performance of the female teachers in the classroom and the impact of this speedy reform on their professional and personal lives so as to highlight differences between reform theory and practice. This study is significant because few studies on female teachers in a Gulf educational reform environment have been undertaken and it is essential to uncover the foreign and non-egalitarian nature of the reform programme. Therefore, the study’s aims are to highlight teacher perspectives and teacher marginalization, EMI and consider whether the reform is being implemented successfully at the classroom level. Of course, an important aim of this critical study has also been to raise the consciousness of those participating in the reform. This study has revealed mostly negative perceptions regarding the Abu Dhabi education reform programme, in particular with teachers’ perceptions of the work environment and the new pedagogy. It has also disclosed several instances of teacher marginalization as the result of a top-down reform and has exposed a prevailing sentiment of teacher disempowerment because of the presence of foreigners operating in the country. Teacher perceptions regarding EMI have been numerous in particular with cultural issues relating to the use of EMI in mathematics and science classes. Surprisingly, the study revealed a few unexpected positive findings with certain aspects of reform.

This is a sociological study of children's work in Indian families based on research carried out in Coventry (UK) and Lucknow (India). The data was gathered through unstructured and in-depth interviews of children from 10 Indian families in Coventry and 10 Indian families in Lucknow who run small-scale retailing businesses in each city. The research questions the assumptions of the existing literature on children's work in the family, where it is considered as a useful and beneficial task, and something that children ought to learn. Contrary to this understanding which marginalises the importance of children's work in the family, the evidence presented in this thesis demonstrates that children's work in the family is a specific part of their agency, which helps them to construct and reconstruct their own childhood and maintain their family's social order. It is the contention of the thesis that children's domestic activities are to be considered as meaningful 'work' that is not always oriented toward (future) goals of socialization, but rather toward the structuring of social relationships between children and adults. The data shows that although there is a slight difference in the expression of children's agency in Coventry and Lucknow due to different socio-cultural contexts, children's active involvement in housework and shop-work in both cities places them within the division of domestic labour. In particular, children's experiences in family businesses not only demonstrate them to be socially and economically useful members of their families, it also provides them with an opportunity to realise their potential.

Diploma thesis describes the development and prospects of greek economy, mainly focused on Economic adjustment programme for Greece introduced in May 2010. Main chapter introduces the goals of the programme and design of main reforms. Estimates of further economic development and the possible restructuring of greek debt was presented.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the successful tax reform in the European Union countries. In successful countries, where reforms were implemented, I chose the Slovak Republic, it has been long time a part of our history. Of the Western countries Belgium, Denmark and Finland, because my friends live there and I want to analyze how the reforms affected their financial life. This work is focused on the reasons which led to the changes, those changes also affected the important indicators such as GDP, employment and tax revenue structure.

This research paper examines China's urban housing reform with a historical perspective, which provides an insight into current housing policy. In the past two decades, urban housing in China has been under a drastic transformation. As a critical component of the economy, the housing sector has played a very active role in restructuring China's economic system. The housing reform has encountered significant resistance. This research focuses on the property rights issue, which is a major concern in housing reform. With a comparative approach, the study addresses the basic research question, what are the fundamental barriers in urban housing reform. The research also involves a comprehensive review of the concept of the property rights and related issues in Western countries to establish a theoretical framework for furthering China's housing reform in term of property rights. The research also involves an inspection of housing reform in selected post-socialist countries to explore alternative transformation policies. Further housing reform policy is also articulated. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning