No description available.

This thesis explores the impact of the new Children’s Act, Act 38 of 2005 on the acquisition by unmarried fathers of parental responsibilities and rights. The research has shown that the Children’s Act has fundamentally transformed the way in which parental responsibilities and rights are acquired. Parental responsibilities and rights can now be automatically acquired by a committed unmarried father. Although the Act has undergone major changes, unmarried fathers must still satisfy many more requirements than mothers, and thus it is asserted that the Act is deemed not to have been progressive enough. Granting full parental responsibilities and rights to both parents, based on their biological link to the child, would meet the constitutional demands of sex and gender equality. This would also place the focus on the child, and the best interests of the child. The importance in securing these best interests that the presence of both parents has in the life of the child is emphasised. / Thesis (LL.M. (Comparative Child Law))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011

This thesis presents a Fuzzy Consensus Building Framework (FCBF), which enables construction project parties to align their teams on their roles and responsibilities early on in their projects. The framework introduces a model that (1) incorporates consensus of construction project teams in aggregating their opinions to decide on the party responsible for every standard task of a construction project; (2) classifies the quality of experts in the decision making process by weighting their responses during aggregation, based on their attributes; and (3) resolves residual conflicts between project teams on their perceived shared tasks, using a consensus reaching process. A template of project and construction management tasks is extracted from relevant standard guidelines and interviews with industry peers. Different extents of the roles and responsibilities of the owner and contractors are described using seven linguistic terms. A modified similarity aggregation method (SAM) aggregates experts opinions in a linguistic framework, using a consensus weight factor for each expert. A fuzzy expert system (FES) determines an importance weight factor for each expert, representing expert quality; opinions are aggregated using this factor and the consensus weight factor. Based on the aggregated opinions of experts, the tasks are classified into three responsibility lists: the owners, the contractors, and the shared responsibility list. The fuzzy preference relations consensus (FPRC) approach is applied to the tasks of shared responsibility, and a linguistic consensus measure is applied to resolve potential conflicts between team members on their perceived shared tasks. Using a case study approach, the FCBF is applied to aid a project owner organization in the field of oil and gas to determine its roles and responsibilities in a customized project delivery system, called owner managing contractor (OMC). The FCBF contributes to the construction industry by solving a fundamental problem for project owners: it helps identify and reduce potential conflicts over the extent of project teams responsibilities prior to the construction stage. It also provides an improvement over previous consensus-based approaches, which rely on a subjective assessment of experts importance weights in aggregating their opinions, and it modifies the SAM to adapt it to a linguistic environment. / Construction Engineering and Management

Magister Legum - LLM / The fragmented approach of provinces in the use of legislation and policies, coupled with the uncertainty of key terms in the context of section 139(1) of the Constitution, have resulted in provincial executives not being consistent or not always complying with the use of the steps necessary for interventions in terms of section 139(1) of the Constitution. In order to assess the impact of the fragmented approach and uncertainties on how provincial executives apply the above mentioned steps, this study answers eight questions designed to test the way in which provincial executives applied the aforementioned steps and the effectiveness of the use of aforementioned interventions. The assessment is based on the tallies from the answers to the eight questions, and the grouping of these answers in accordance with the tallies. Each of the three main groups characterises how the relevant provincial executives applied the steps necessary for the use of interventions in terms of section 139(1) of the Constitution for the last five years. The fourth group assesses the effectiveness of such interventions. The answers are derived from the data relating to the notices to the Minister and NCOP, and complemented by the progress reports from the Minister and NCOP. The findings of the four groupings are as follows: the first group presented the steps which present no difficulty in terms of compliance; the second group presented the steps which provincial executives mostly complied with but which at times present some difficulty; and the third group presented those steps which are problematic. The fourth group determined that the effectiveness of the role of provinces in the use of interventions in terms of section 139(1) of the Constitution is questionable due to the repetition and duration of a number of interventions. In order to address the issue of non-compliance by provincial executives with the steps necessary for the use of interventions, the study recommends the drafting of legislation and formulation of clear policy guidelines which will ensure a consistent, coherent and uniform approach when invoking interventions.

The purpose of this study was to assess the opinions of Utah State University music graduates regarding (a) the effectiveness of their training at Utah State University and (b) the applicability of the current music and secondary education department objectives to the graduates own teaching situations. An additional objective was to compare teaching assignments of the graduates. A survey questionnaire was utilized to obtain the data and a return of 85% of the accessible sample was achieved. The sample included all music graduates of Utah State University from 1970- 1977. Based on the graduates responses three recommendations were made: (l) more electives and less requirements should be established in the music education degree program, (2) the course content in music education courses should be centered around the secondary classroom, rather than at the higher education level and (3) students should be encouraged to enroll in the professional education sequence earlier in their program of study.

The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) requires that each school district throughout the state employ a licensed administrator serving as the federal programs coordinator, director, or administrator in a full or part-time capacity (Mississippi Department of Education, 2013). The federal program director is responsible for the management and implementation of federal funds in public schools. Federal funds are defined by law and used to improve student achievement, enhance teacher quality, increase equity and access to educational resources, and provide innovative strategies for recruiting teachers and improving graduation rates (No Child Left Behind, 2001). The work of federal program directors involves a number of activities such as promoting student achievement through strategic planning, administering professional development, providing research-based curriculum and instructional materials, and organizing extended school day and school year tutorial or enrichment learning opportunities for students. Federal program directors in Mississippi are required to be properly licensed and endorsed by the Mississippi Department of Education’s Office of Teacher Certification and Licensure (Mississippi Department of Education, 2015). In addition to certification, several other factors are associated with the role of the federal programs director. These areas include working knowledge of federal program requirements, legal issues, personnel evaluation, and effective school reform initiatives. In terms of educational leadership, the federal programs director’s role includes establishing the vision and direction of a school district’s federally funded programs, resolving complex issues and problems, and continually staying abreast of new state and federal regulations (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2004). Role definition varies from school district to school district. For example, some federal programs directors may also function as assistant superintendents and are integral members of the district leadership team. Conversely, other federal programs directors may be given leadership roles such as technology coordinator, special education coordinator, or curriculum director.

The purpose of this study was to describe the influence of increased legal requirements on current or former Inter local tenured special education teacher attrition or retention by reporting their reasons for staying or leaving through the theoretical perspectives of organizational learning and organizational culture. I conducted a qualitative multiple case study of two units of analysis through a constructionist epistemology. Data were collected from current and former Inter local tenured special education teachers through focus groups, semi-structured interviews, the Left Hand and Right-Hand Column Case Method (LHRHCCM), and review of appropriate documents. Data collected were analyzed using text analysis software, content analysis, and pattern matching. Four salient findings from my study were: (1) Current tenured special education teachers want to be listened to and have their needs considered, (2) Current tenured special education teachers feel overwhelmed by the workload related to state assessments, (3) Current and former tenured special education teachers believe that legally-required changes affected them in practice, and (4) Current and former tenured special education teachers perceive that time requirements for administrative tasks reduce time for student services. Implications for praxis include organizational learning and organizational culture that encourage listening to the experience of tenured special education teachers and including them in decisions that affect them in an effort to retain them. My study adds to the body of knowledge surrounding special education teacher attrition by describing how tenured special education teachers believe increased legal requirements influence their retention or attrition. Areas for future research include studying the time it takes special education teachers to complete legally-required administrative tasks and why those tasks are perceived as stressful, and the impact of special education administrator leadership on special education teacher retention, including the application of resources within an inter local. During this time of critical shortage of special education teachers, findings from this study may be crucial to understanding the factors related to the retention and attrition of tenured special education teachers in the Inter local and elsewhere. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Education, Dept. of Educational Leadership

Uppsatsen centrerades kring ett accelererande problem- med konsekvenser även för skolan - nämligen de digitala kränkningarna. Syftet med själva projektet är att primärt belysa hur skolledning och skolpersonal dels uppfattar och dels hanterar möjliga digitala kränkningar, oavsett var och hur dessa kränkningar framförs.Uppsatsen bygger på intervjuer med nyckelinformanter i skolorganisationen i en kommun, från politisk nivå till verkställande nivå i form av rektorer m fl. Dessa intervjuer speglas mot svar från Skolverket, barnombudsmannen m fl. Intervjuerna - med nyckelinformanter – visade på vissa svårigheter med detta problemområde. En svårighet visade sig vara ansvarsfördelningen skola - hem. Informanterna upplevde att en dominerande del av kränkningarna sker på fritiden och ansåg i varierande grad att detta är hemmets problem och inte skolans. En åsikt som inte helt delas av de informanter som har anknytning till Skolverket eller Barnombudsmannen.

Magister Legum - LLM

The doping culture represents an issue for sport and for society. Normative debates on doping have been mainly concerned with questions of the justifiability of doping. The practice of assigning responsibility for doping behaviour has chiefly been individual-based, focusing mainly on the individual athlete’s doping behaviour. The overarching aim of this thesis is to investigate the relevance and the importance of the ideas of responsibility in relation to ethical debates on doping. The more specific aim is to examine the possibility of broadening the scope of responsibility beyond the individual athlete, and to sketch a theoretical framework within which this expansion could be accommodated. In the first study, it is argued that bioethicists have a moral/professional responsibility to start out from a realistic and up-to-date view of genetics in ethical debates on gene doping, and that good bioethics requires good empirics. In study 2, the role played by affective processes in influencing athletes’ attitudes towards doping behaviour is investigated, both on an individual and on a collective level. It is concluded that an exclusive focus on individual-level rule violation and sanctions may entail overlooking the greater social picture and would prove to be ineffective in the long term. In study 3, the common doping-is-cheating arguments are examined and it is argued that they fail to capture vital features of people’s moral responses to doping behaviour. An alternative account of cheating in sport is presented in terms of failure to manifest good will and respect. It is concluded that putting cheating in the broader context of human interpersonal relationships makes evident the need to broaden the scope of moral responsibility and agency beyond the individual athlete. In study 4, the particular case of assigning responsibility for doping to sports physicians is used to examine the current individual-based approach to responsibility. This approach underestimates the scope of the responsibility by leaving out a range of other actors from the discourse of responsibility. The central conclusion of the thesis is that transforming the current doping culture requires broadening the scope of responsibility to include individuals and groups of individuals other than the athletes themselves.