Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-145). Also available in print.

The essay originates from the idea that the United States has a history of racism evidenced in the displacement and discrimination of Native Americans and that the representation of Native Americans in films reflects the changing views of the indigenous population in the surrounding society. The purpose of this essay is to investigate how the Native American characters are portrayed in western films. Two films are going to be analysed; Stagecoach from 1939 and The Revenant from 2015. The theoretical framework that is used for the analysis is Postcolonialism. The findings reveals that Native American characters are portrayed more humanely in The Revenant than in Stagecoach. By applying the findings into the classroom the students can be given the opportunity to discuss human rights, equal value and solidarity between people, which can lead to reflections about the fundamental values of the curriculum.

Beginning in earnest in the 1990s, research and political communities have taken a strong interest in citizenship education both in Canada and worldwide, but in the context of secondary schools this has resulted in primarily theoretical papers rather than empirical analyses of student experiences. The student voice is particularly important to the study of citizenship education given the complexity of constructed civic subjectivities and the rapidly changing definitions of community, including the relationships between local, national and global. Canada has been characterized as post-national or even without identity, and its young people are caught up in the persisting narrative of young apathy when it comes to politics and civic duty. Drawing on theories of national and global citizenship, this exploratory mixed methods study of 104 British Columbian secondary students investigates student vocabularies of citizenship in order to map current youth understandings of citizenship and experiences in their secondary education. In discussing the results, I challenge the narratives of Canada as a meaningless signifier and youth as apathetic, and investigate scholarly concerns regarding the depoliticization of citizenship, and the potential conflict inherent to the globalization of youth identities. Finally, I discuss best practices in citizenship education with reference to established scholarly research and the student-based findings of the present study. / Graduate

The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory study was to develop a deeper understanding of educational and other social experiences and relationships of post-secondary students who were clinically diagnosed with primary obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The researcher also investigated their strengths, weaknesses, coping strategies, and quality of life through mental and physical health. The majority of people with OCD have obsessions and compulsions that last greater than an hour each day or severely impact daily life. Obsessions are irritating feelings or mental pictures that individuals try to block or mitigate with irrational physical or mental compulsions, often appearing as excessive hand washing in reaction to a contamination obsession. Participants comprised seven university students who completed three self-report questionnaires and two semi-structured interviews with the researcher. Five participants submitted self-report journals. These data were examined using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).The present study advanced previous research as it documented extensive lifelong characteristics, experiences, and relationships from these students. It yielded salient findings related to their OCD functional impairment and quality of life. Further, it showed that as students, their intellectual integration seemed to play a greater role in academic persistence than did their social integration. In addition, participants’ university policy and practice recommendations were congruent with a similar study from about a decade ago indicating that perhaps few or none of the past recommendations were implemented for the benefit of such students. Present recommendations should be implemented accordingly.

A mental health crisis is happening on post-secondary campuses in Ontario today. Post-secondary institutions provide mental health services to students in an effort to respond to this crisis and manage students in distress. The management of students and the implementation of these mental health services is the main concern of this thesis, more specifically, the ways in which these services expose conscious and/or unconscious beliefs about student mental health. By extension, these beliefs constitute the ways in which we can think about, talk about, and know about patient safety. The object of study is the intersection of the neo-liberal university with the ‘good’ student and the resulting effects of this relationship on the development and implementation of mental health services. These intersections themselves create possibilities for acting on students in distress, but that also create unintended contradictions in the services themselves. An examination of this intersection can address a gap in the literature on post-secondary student mental health. The conceptual framework used in this study is primarily built from Michel Foucault’s concepts of subjectivity, and governmentality. The object of consideration is limited in this study to senior employees directly involved in student mental health at a university in Ontario. Documents are analysed to show how student mental health problems have been problematized nationally, provincially and locally and, thus, a behaviour to be regulated with governing practices. Data from interviews with senior University employees and observations of wellness events are analysed to examine the imbrication of advanced liberal rationalities and techniques in the implementation of mental health services on campus. The thesis argues that the development of these services is not an unproblematic process, whereby services and activities act simply as neutral tools to improve the mental health and well-being of students. Rather, these services aim to produce successful, enterprising students. Discourses of mental health and student success produce certain truths about practices and student subjectivities, obscuring and narrowing the definition of health and well-being and creating contradictions for students experiencing mental distress. In particular, this thesis shows how the University’s objectives for providing mental health services have implications for the development of mental health services and the governing of post-secondary in advanced liberal ways.

This paper has the purpose to investigate the relationship between historical consciousness and use of history. In this context the historical consciousness is the way a person can orient themselves through different times. Thus, the paper investigates how temporal orientation can be expressed by upper secondary students. This is achieved by analysing student texts which deal with use of history after the attacks on the twin towers of 9/11. Earlier research suggests that use of history can activate the historical consciousness in the form of temporal orientation. It also suggests that students have difficulties orientating themselves through time especially concerning expressions that connects the different time dimensions. Through the theoretical perspectives of historical consciousness as temporal orientation this paper aims to find out how the use of history can engage students’ historical consciousness and how this historical consciousness expresses itself. This paper concludes that the relationship between the use of history and historical consciousness is that the temporal orientation is activated through symbolism, the need of history at certain times, interlocutors of the use of history as well as narrative capability.

Aligning Individual Education Program (IEP) goals of students with severe disabilities with the general education curriculum is required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEIA). This study sought to determine the perspectives of special educators regarding this requirement. Special educators from three school districts participated in focus groups to offer their perspectives in aligning IEP goals with the general education curriculum. The researchers also sought the special educators' perspectives with regards to providing access to the general education curriculum. The study found that special educators are striving to align IEP goals through the use of general education classes, the extended core, and portfolios. The main approaches to providing access to the core curriculum were general education classes, peer tutors, and adapted curriculum.

Psychological factors and their appearance in upper secondary English education are the focus of this study to collect knowledge regarding the effects on written and oral language production among upper secondary students. Three specific factors are mainly covered, videlicet depression, stress, and anxiety. This issue was selected because of personal interest, furthermore, to collect knowledge and didactic tools regarding the area. The psychological factors are explained in the study and thereafter explored in the context of upper secondary students, specifically in their English language production. The study targets upper secondary students and the psychological factors affecting their language production in English, therefore the survey research had this specific age group as correspondents. The survey included was constructed to collect the quantitative data necessary to answer the research questions. The study involves suggestions for didactical improvements for teachers to consider in future education to be able to support the students suffering from psychological factors. The results observed a presence of psychological factors in the majority of cases and severe effects of it during language production in English.

The purpose of this degree project is to investigate in what types of situations and to what extent some upper secondary students write in English in their spare time, what reasons they have for doing so and what text types and genres are represented in their writing. Qualitative interviews were carried out with a group of six students in year two in an upper secondary school in the southern part of Sweden, three with MVG as a final grade and three with VG as a final grade in English A.The results show that all of the students write in English each day in instant text messages on MSN messenger. However, they mostly use English in the form of abbreviations, single words, phrases and sentences. Longer pieces of text, like poems and other literary pieces, written in English were created only by the three students with MVG.

Studien utforskade användningen av den Artificiell Intelligens chatbot, ChatGPT, i undervisningen av engelska (ELT) och hur elever och lärare på svenska gymnasieskolor uppfattade användningen av ChatGPT i engelskundervisningen. Studien har samlat båda kvantitativa data från 63 gymnasieelever genom en online-enkät och kvalitativa data från intervjuer med två engelsklärare på gymnasienivå. Forskningen undersökte i vilken utsträckning och för vilka syften elever använde ChatGPT, förändringarna i undervisningsmetoder inom ELT, samt fördelar och utmaningar med ChatGPT ur lärarnas perspektiv. Studien använde teoretiska ramverk som The Unified Technology Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), Language teacher cognition och Learner Autonomy. Resultaten indikerar att elever huvudsakligen använder ChatGPT för idegenerering och inspiration. Dock har anvädningen av ChatGPT för engelskinlärning inte blivit populär bland eleverna. Förändringar i undervisningsmetoder märks främst i klassrum bedömningar, aktiviteter, och hjälp med lektionsplanering och materialförberedelse. Fördelar med ChatGPT inkluderar idegenerering, främjande av Learner Autonomy, medan utmaningar inkluderar oro för tillförlitlighet, begränsad inlärning, och frågor om akademisk ohederlighet. Detta understryker behovet av noggrant övervägande vid inkluderingen av ChatGPT i pedagogiska sammanhang. / The study explored the application of artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, in English language teaching (ELT) and learning, exploring how Swedish upper secondary school students’ and teachers’ perceived ChatGPT in English class. The study collected quantitative data consisting of 63 upper secondary school students’ through an online questionnaire, and qualitative data from interviews with two upper-secondary ELT Teachers. The research explores the extent and purposes of students’ use of ChatGPT, the changes in ELT instructional practices, and the affordances and challenges of ChatGPT from teacher’s perspectives. This study adopts the unified technology acceptance and use of technology theory (UTAUT), Language teacher cognition and Learning autonomy as theoretical frameworks. The results indicate that students primarily use ChatGPT for brainstorming and inspiration, however, using ChatGPT for English learning has not become popular among students. Changes in instructional practices are noticeable in in-class assessments, activities, and assistance with lesson planning and material preparation. The affordances of ChatGPT are brainstorming, promoting learner autonomy, and the challenges include reliability concerns, limited learning, and issues of academic dishonesty. This emphasises the need for careful consideration when including ChatGPT in pedagogical implications.