A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Educational Psychology in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Needs Education at the University Of Zululand, 2018 / The dispute of inclusion is one that has not only been a challenge for South African schools but for the country as a whole. The success of the implementation of the inclusion policy will not only talk to the progress at the schools in South Africa (SA), but it will also provide us with a glimpse of the nation’s progress towards the implementation of democracy itself. Considerable work has been done internationally with regards to the practicality of full-service schooling; however, a limited expanse locally. The objectives of the study were: (i) To determine the nature of experiences of primary school teachers in full service schools; and (ii) To establish if there is any relationship between the teachers’ experiences in full service primary schools and the variables of interest: gender, age, qualification, race and teaching experience. In order to address the study questions, a mixed method research design was employed. A sample of 63 teachers in Full Service Schools (FSSs) in Umlazi district was purposefully selected based on experience and expertise. For data collection, self-developed questionnaires comprising a demographic information section and a Likert-type inventory were used. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) accounted for statistical and descriptive analysis; and Thematic Analysis for qualitative analysis. The findings of this study revealed that a greater number of teachers had positive experiences within FSSs in Umlazi district. However, disabling conditions that prevent teachers to be completely convinced of Inclusive Education (IE) were found to be: Lack of support from the Department of Education (DoE), teachers’ perceived incompetency when dealing with impaired children, insufficient resources, maltreatment of disabled children by their non-disabled peers, lack of parental support, large class sizes and shortage of staff. With regards to the variables of interest in relation to the experiences of teachers in FSSs, it was discovered that: male teachers expressed more positive experiences than their female counterparts; it appeared that the higher the qualification, the more teachers felt confident about teaching in FSSs; more Indian teachers reported having favorable experience than black African teachers; and teachers with more years of teaching experience indicated optimism towards teaching in FSSs than teachers with less teaching experience. Recommendations from the current study suggest that teacher pre-service training be tailored in accordance with the requirements of teaching in a FSS. Workshops and conferences should be conducted to provide teachers with recent updated teaching material that will allow them to stay relevant with the IE curriculum. Furthermore, psycho-education around the maltreatment of disabled children should be provided to schools and communities in an attempt to bring awareness about disability and advocacy against the exclusion and the ill-treatment of the disabled. Again, psycho-education should be provided to families to bring awareness regarding the importance of the caregiver’s active role in the academic and personal life of a child. This would entail the process of providing education and information to families of children that attend FSSs. These recommendations would bridge a gap in the challenges that are experienced in FSSs.

Introdução: A sociedade atual tem sofrido com o agravamento dos problemas ambientais e da crise ecológica. Enfrentar essas questões impõe à Educação um grande desafio. A educação ambiental escolar pode proporcionar o empowerment dos educandos, por meio da reflexão, da tomada de consciência e da formação de valores compatíveis com a construção de uma sociedade sustentável. Objetivos: Verificar se a educação ambiental é praticada nas escolas investigadas, suas estratégias, os atores envolvidos e as dificuldades enfrentadas; conhecer a opinião e o envolvimento de educadores, pais e alunos com a democracia participativa e o protagonismo dos estudantes; identificar os impactos do trabalho pedagógico na saúde ambiental e na qualidade de vida de suas comunidades educativas. Métodos: Pesquisa qualitativa do tipo pesquisa-ação. Instrumentos de investigação: grupo focal com professores, entrevistas com alunos e pais e questionários com as equipes técnicas de dez escolas públicas municipais de São Paulo. Resultados: A Educação Ambiental, a democracia participativa e o empowerment dos alunos ainda é uma realidade distante na maioria das escolas. As estratégias carecem de planejamento, são pontuais e individualizadas. Os educadores necessitam de formação e condições de trabalho adequadas. A forte cultura hierárquica e a acomodação dos educadores dificultam a democracia participativa nas escolas, mas há exemplos bem sucedidos de protagonismo dos alunos e participação da comunidade. Há divergências sobre a saúde ambiental da escola, a influência governamental e o papel de cada membro da comunidade educativa sobre o sucesso ou fracasso dos projetos pedagógicos. Conclusões: Prevalecem os currículos, práticas e concepções típicas de uma educação conservadora na maioria das escolas, apesar do consenso geral sobre a necessidade de formar alunos cidadãos críticos, participativos, éticos e felizes para uma sociedade melhor e sustentável / Introduction: Nowadays the ecological crisis and the environmental problems around the world have been an important preoccupation. To the education it means a great challenge. So, the environmental education in school could provide the empowerment of the students by making them conscious about the values and acts necessary to get a sustainable society. Objectives: To verify if the environmental education had been practiced in the schools; the strategies adopted, the actors, and difficulties of them; to know the opinions and the involvement of teachers, students and parents with participative democracy and protagonist acts of the students; to identify the effects of the education projects in the environmental health and quality of life of the schools. Method: Thats a qualitative method with three investigation instruments: focal groups (teachers), interviews (students and parents) and questionnaires (technical groups members) of ten public schools of São Paulo City. Results: A few number of the school developed environmental education, democratic participation and empowerment of their students. Most of them explained that they developed their work by the use of punctual and disconnected actions. In general, teachers showed that they need to be better prepared to this task. Also their work conditions need to be improved. The strong power structure of the schools is a great problem to install the democratic participation of their members. There were different opinions about health environmental conditions of the schools, the educations projects and the governments or members of the schools papers over them. Conclusions: Traditional curriculums and practices based on old conceptions of education were presented by the most of schools, although they had the aim to make conscious, ethics, participative and happy citizens for a healthy and sustainable society

Introdução: A sociedade atual tem sofrido com o agravamento dos problemas ambientais e da crise ecológica. Enfrentar essas questões impõe à Educação um grande desafio. A educação ambiental escolar pode proporcionar o empowerment dos educandos, por meio da reflexão, da tomada de consciência e da formação de valores compatíveis com a construção de uma sociedade sustentável. Objetivos: Verificar se a educação ambiental é praticada nas escolas investigadas, suas estratégias, os atores envolvidos e as dificuldades enfrentadas; conhecer a opinião e o envolvimento de educadores, pais e alunos com a democracia participativa e o protagonismo dos estudantes; identificar os impactos do trabalho pedagógico na saúde ambiental e na qualidade de vida de suas comunidades educativas. Métodos: Pesquisa qualitativa do tipo pesquisa-ação. Instrumentos de investigação: grupo focal com professores, entrevistas com alunos e pais e questionários com as equipes técnicas de dez escolas públicas municipais de São Paulo. Resultados: A Educação Ambiental, a democracia participativa e o empowerment dos alunos ainda é uma realidade distante na maioria das escolas. As estratégias carecem de planejamento, são pontuais e individualizadas. Os educadores necessitam de formação e condições de trabalho adequadas. A forte cultura hierárquica e a acomodação dos educadores dificultam a democracia participativa nas escolas, mas há exemplos bem sucedidos de protagonismo dos alunos e participação da comunidade. Há divergências sobre a saúde ambiental da escola, a influência governamental e o papel de cada membro da comunidade educativa sobre o sucesso ou fracasso dos projetos pedagógicos. Conclusões: Prevalecem os currículos, práticas e concepções típicas de uma educação conservadora na maioria das escolas, apesar do consenso geral sobre a necessidade de formar alunos cidadãos críticos, participativos, éticos e felizes para uma sociedade melhor e sustentável / Introduction: Nowadays the ecological crisis and the environmental problems around the world have been an important preoccupation. To the education it means a great challenge. So, the environmental education in school could provide the empowerment of the students by making them conscious about the values and acts necessary to get a sustainable society. Objectives: To verify if the environmental education had been practiced in the schools; the strategies adopted, the actors, and difficulties of them; to know the opinions and the involvement of teachers, students and parents with participative democracy and protagonist acts of the students; to identify the effects of the education projects in the environmental health and quality of life of the schools. Method: Thats a qualitative method with three investigation instruments: focal groups (teachers), interviews (students and parents) and questionnaires (technical groups members) of ten public schools of São Paulo City. Results: A few number of the school developed environmental education, democratic participation and empowerment of their students. Most of them explained that they developed their work by the use of punctual and disconnected actions. In general, teachers showed that they need to be better prepared to this task. Also their work conditions need to be improved. The strong power structure of the schools is a great problem to install the democratic participation of their members. There were different opinions about health environmental conditions of the schools, the educations projects and the governments or members of the schools papers over them. Conclusions: Traditional curriculums and practices based on old conceptions of education were presented by the most of schools, although they had the aim to make conscious, ethics, participative and happy citizens for a healthy and sustainable society

There has been much consideration given to supporting the post-16 transition needs of young people with learning difficulties and complex needs who have been educated within special school settings, but limited attention paid to those within mainstream schools. This study explores the transition planning and support experiences of four young people with identified additional educational needs, attending a mainstream comprehensive secondary school as they approach their transition into further education or work-based training. It also explores the views of their SENCO, Connexions Personal Advisor and a teacher in order to illuminate professional perspectives. The impact of the framework for transition support outlined in the SEN Code of Practice (DfES, 2001) on the support delivered and the resulting experiences of young people constitute a further area of enquiry. Within an integrating conceptual framework derived from Bronfenbrenner's (1979 & 2001) ecological systems theory and bioecological model, qualitative data derived from semi-structured interviews were analysed and interpreted using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Within Bronfenbrenner's (2001) 'person, process, context and time' model, a range of factors that independently and in combination influenced the transition planning and support experiences, were indentified. The research highlights how these factors interact with one another, and how the complex interactions within and between systems further mediate the young person's experiences. The research also draws attention to a difference between espoused theory and theory in practice (Argyris & Schön, 1974), in regard to transition support and planning provided in the school.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2003. / Title from title page screen, viewed Aug. 13, 2004. Dissertation Committee: Rodney P. Riegle, Barbara S. Heyl (co-chairs), Mary Anne Moffitt, Amee Adkins, Will Ashton. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-116) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2009. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Mar. 10, 2010). Thesis advisor: Daniel Feller. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.R.E.)--B.Y.U. Dept. of Graduate Studies in Religious Instruction.

No description available.

The main goal of this thesis is to describe the current situation of capacity of primary schools in the selected area of Prague and suggest optimization options. In the first part of my thesis the theoretical apparatus needed to understand the issue of education is presented. The main focus here is on the legislation related to the issue of education. The practical part of my thesis is based on the results of questionnaire survey focused on primary schools and additional e-mail survey focused on the founders of these schools. The public elementary schools established by the Prague 1 to Prague 10 municipalities were selected for the survey. On the basis of the information found, the practical part is closed by suggestions for solving the unsatisfactory situation both from the viewpoint of individual primary schools and from the point of view of their founders.

No description available.