The entrepreneurial learning process within business incubators, particularly among novice entrepreneurs in Sweden's entrepreneurial landscape, still needs to be explored. The present study, centered around the question, "Through a social constructivist perspective, how do novice entrepreneurs learn within business incubators in Sweden?", adopts a social constructivist perspective to fill this knowledge gap. Using a qualitative, inductive approach and the Critical Incident Technique (CIT), the study focuses on novice entrepreneurs at the Uppsala Innovation Centre (UIC), Sweden. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews and a two-step sampling method, while data analysis was grounded in Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory. This methodology aimed to unravel the intricacies of the entrepreneurial learning process within the UIC. These findings offer valuable insights to novice entrepreneurs and a particular business incubator, suggesting how they might structure more conducive incubator environments for effective entrepreneurial learning. It also underscores the importance of networking within the incubator's environment. However, these findings have certain limitations. They are based on data from a single Swedish incubator and may not be generalized across diverse entrepreneurial ecosystems. Moreover, the reliance on self-reported experiences introduces potential biases. Future research should address these limitations by incorporating multiple incubators across different countries and by introducing diverse perspectives and external assessments for more comprehensive and objective findings. The study concludes that providing a conducive social constructivist environment in business incubators is essential for fostering effective entrepreneurial learning, with emphasis on learning from networking with the more knowledgeable others (MKOs). These conclusions offer valuable directions for policy-makers, incubator managers, and novice entrepreneurs, aiming to enhance the sustainability and success of startups in dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystems.

yes / This paper considers the importance of applying sound instructional systems design to the development of a learning intervention aimed at developing skills for the effective deployment of an enhanced methodology for engineering systems design analysis within a Product Development context. The leading features of the learning intervention are summarised including the content and design of a training course for senior engineering management which is central to the intervention. The importance of promoting behavioural change by fostering meaningful learning as a collaborative process is discussed. Comparison is made between the instructional design of the corporate learning intervention being developed and the systems engineering based product design process which is the subject of the intervention.

In 1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower charged an ad hoc advisory group with assessing the current U.S. Cold War effort and offering recommendations for an 'unified and dynamic' way forward. This work investigates the case of Eisenhower's Presidential Committee on International Information Activities and its role in the United States' approach to the Cold War. Problematizing that which is often taken for granted, this empirical, interpretive study uncovers the discursive conditions of possibility for and the discursive activities taking place within Jackson Committee decision making processes. Employing a constructivist discursive framework, this project builds on an understanding of policy making as a process of argumentation in which actors intersubjectively define problems and delimit policy and strategy options. Revealing discursive conditions of possibility enables a deeper understanding of the substance, tensions and discursive maneuvers informing subsequent U.S. strategy and policy choices during the Cold War and may offer insights into understanding and addressing geopolitical challenges in the 21st century. The thick analytic narrative illuminates the 'witcraft' involved in conceptualizing the unique threat posed by the Soviet Union whose practices challenged existing categories, and in extending wartime discourses to the post-war geopolitical environment. It examines discursive practices informing the nascent concepts of national strategy, psychological warfare, and political warfare, including arguments for constituent elements and relationships between them. In so doing, this dissertation conceptualizes national strategy as practices underpinning a prioritized drive for competitive advantage over adversaries. Additionally, political warfare represents practices intended to create and present alternatives to foreign actors that are in the U.S. interest through the integration and coordination of diplomatic, economic, military, and informational activities. Based on its conceptualization of a long-term adversarial competition with the Soviet Union, the committee recommended solutions for a sustainable national strategy of political warfare prioritizing the free world and liberal world order. Its recommendations sought to recast strategic panic into strategic patience. / Ph. D. / Within geopolitics, threats sometimes emerge that policymakers consider unique because of their goals and/or methods for challenging the status quo, including communicating directly with foreign populations to confuse or gain support. These can be periods of strategic panic and conceptual confusion as policymakers, the press, and even academics work to classify these new threats and develop appropriate responses. The reasoning process usually begins by using familiar categories which individuals extend through storytelling and debates as a means to develop a shared understanding and language to describe the new geopolitical situation and possible policy options. Today the Cold War seems like a familiar and well-understood competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. However, in the early post-World War II years, policymakers wrestled with understanding and addressing Soviet actions, including Communist propaganda activities throughout the world. In 1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked an ad hoc advisory group to assess the Cold War situation and offer new “unified and dynamic” ways for securing the United States and advancing U.S. interests. This research examines the advisory Jackson Committee’s rhetorical activities informing its recommendations for a national strategy of political warfare that would create and offer alternatives to foreign populations that were in the U.S. interest. The Committee recommended prioritizing the development of a liberal world order as a way to gain a competitive advantage over the Soviet Union and the Communist bloc. It offered solutions for directing and mobilizing integrated and coordinated national activities across diplomacy, economics, information, and the military. Additionally, the Committee envisioned the possibility of inspiring and guiding quotidian societal activities to reinforce the foundations of the aspirational world order. This study stems from the premise that understanding how recommendations come about are as important as the recommendations themselves. Illuminating meanings and practices considered during the policy making process can provide insights into subsequent substance and tensions within national security strategies and policies. To do so, this study re-creates a narrative of the storytelling and debates involved in defining workable problems, addressing conceptual confusion, and developing solutions deemed sustainable over the “long-haul.”

The potential of community building through computer-mediated communication (CMC) in virtual learning environments has received increasing attention in recent years, yet little empirical research has been conducted in this field in Middle Eastern countries particularly based on a social constructivist approach as in this case. This research is concerned with the processes of community building as experienced by university students in computer-mediated distance education classes in Iran. Its overarching concern was to see if convergence happens in an on-line university discussion forum in a Middle Eastern cultural context, and if so, to explore how it happens and with what strategies it can be supported in such environment. The research addressed the role of collaborative interaction as the process of co-construction of knowledge and identities, by looking at: (i) the students’ beliefs as reflected in a survey; (ii) patterns and outcomes of interaction derived from an analysis of on-line transactions; (iii) students’ perspectives based on interviews and their responses to a survey. The participants came from four different Middle Eastern cultural and linguistic backgrounds and were all students studying at Masters Level. The academic context was an Iranian university that has a large face-to-face student population as well as a large number of distance students. The participants’ common meeting ground was primarily a virtual environment created for the students to share their learning experience and to communicate with each other and the tutors. The participants’ beliefs and ideas in terms of choice, opportunity, culture and expectations were examined through a survey in the first phase of the study. Then, to investigate their roles in shaping the on-line community, an additional university e-forum was designed and implemented by the researcher in the second phase of the study. In this forum the participants were free to contact each other without pre-planned tasks or interventions by the class tutors. Social constructivist approaches were used to analyse interactions between students and the outcomes of these interactions. The findings suggest that participants moved their communicative competence from tangible topics towards shaping new beliefs and ideas; creating the VSD-Virtual Social Development- model. These developments are regarded as something unique for an area such as the Middle East where gaining confidence is hard especially when there is no face-to-face contact with other participants, and individuals often have concerns about revealing their real personalities in untried situations. The findings of the interviews support the findings of the second phase of the study and show what strategies the participants used in community building. The research also highlighted many issues for further study, one of which is the various interpretations of the concept of community building in on-line contexts.

The capacity for online learning environments to provide quality learning experiences for students has been the focus of much speculation and debate in the higher education sector from the late 1990s to the present day. In this area, 'quality' has become synonymous with engaging students in a learning community. This study reports on a qualitative research project designed to explore the significance of community for students when they study in online learning environments. This project used three case studies to explore tertiary students' thoughts and expectations about community in the online environment. The research was constructed iteratively. Data from the initial case suggested the need to explore the relationship between the constructed online learning environment and the development of learning communities or what I have termed Social Learning Support Networks (SLSN). To explore this issue further, the project was expanded and subsequent cases were chosen that included fundamentally different types of online learning environments. The project had two significant results. Firstly, students not only confirmed popular educational theories on the value of learning communities, but also described how this form of social connection might practically benefit their learning. Secondly, the project found that certain forms of synchronous online environments provided enhanced opportunities for students to form social connections that supported their learning. This project provides new evidence of the benefit of community for students studying online and argues that future online learning environments should be shaped by five key principles designed to foster a sense of social connection between students.

The purpose of this study was to discover, document, and describe the salient actions, events, beliefs, attitudes, social structures and processes related to professional learning conversations from the perspective of nine assistant principals (APs). The participants were elementary, middle and high school APs, three at each level. Using a modified critical incident technique through participant written response and two in depth interviews with each respondent, this study investigated the lived experiences of these APs related to the practice of professional learning conversations in their schools. The research questions focused on: (1) the participants' beliefs and attitudes about professional learning conversations, (2) their roles in facilitating these conversations, (3) their ability to identify elements of trust within the groups of teachers with whom they work and (4) their roles in building trust. The research literature is clear that teacher collaboration is a key factor in professional growth and self-efficacy, yet often the structure of the school day, a negative emotional environment, and a culture of teacher isolation prohibit meaningful teacher collaboration. Although faced with many obligations and directives, school administrators have considerable influence over the organizational structure within their individual schools. Furthermore, assistant principals often become the face of administration within their schools as they directly supervise teachers and APs are less studied than students, teacher or principals. How these individuals perceive and value professional learning conversations will likely impact the level of collaboration at their individual schools. The findings of this study indicate that professional learning conversations for teacher growth were more prevalent at the elementary school level, that trust may be more difficult to cultivate at the middle and high schools, and that protocols as structures for facilitating conversations and building trust were not widely in use. A better understanding of the opportunities and barriers schools face related to professional learning conversations as well as a better understanding of the dynamics of trust will assist district and school administrators to engage in a problem solving process for better collaboration. Ultimately, administrators have an opportunity and a responsibility to touch the hearts and minds of the individuals on the front line of the work - the teachers in the classrooms working with students. Without teacher confidence, hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy, no amount of financial incentive, cajoling, or sanction will improve student learning.

Framed by Social Constructivist theories of learning, this project employed a descriptive case study approach to investigate the types of social and verbal interactions that occurred as four Reading Recovery teachers worked with their respective students to devise and record a brief message during the 10-12 minute writing section of a Reading Recovery lesson. Data was collected over a period of two months and each teacher was observed working with the same student on two separate occasions. The conversations that transpired were audiotaped and transcribed and the cognitive and affective dimensions of the teachers’ communications were specifically examined. Findings indicate that effective teaching interactions more often arose when the teachers continually endeavored to understand the meanings behind their students’ words and actions. When teachers considered their students’ perspectives, when they gave them cognitive space to think, speak, and act, and when they designed literacy activities that centered on children’s demonstrated understandings, they ensured their students’ continued motivation thereby fostering cognitive development.

This research investigated teachers'perceptions, understandings and implementation of education standards in elementary and primary schools in Papua New Guinea. The main research question and two sub-questions were designed to explore teachers' perceptions and understanding of national standards. This exploration engaged teachers in identifying factors which they believed influenced their professional work. This study also explored stakeholders' perceptions of teachers' interpretations of national education standards. This study adopted social constructivist epistemology, symbolic interactionism, and ethnographic case study methodology. This provided the basis for its theoretical framework to purposefully understand human interactions within their culture and context. Social constructivism accommodates situated learning, a conceptual framework which was adapted to interrogate understanding and implementation of national education standards. A variety of research methods were used to elicit teachers' and stakeholders' perceptions and experiences of their professional world. These methods included in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, documentary analysis, field notes and observations. Most of the focus group discussions engaged participants to "tell their stories", thus storytelling became an avenue for eliciting teachers' and stakeholders'perceptions. Workshops conducted for teachers became another important strategy for data collection. Two schools, one rural and one urban, became case studies to understand national education standards as an external phenomenon. A total of 595 participants were involved in this study including teachers and pupils, parents and community members, school board members, members of curriculum committees, and policy makers. The study found numerous contextual factors influenced teachers' understandings, interpretation and implementation of standards at the school level. Foremost, teachers' own knowledge of formal education standards was deficient thus influencing their commitment to and enthusiasm in their professional work. Teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical skills influenced their ability to translate content standards into clear benchmarks for pupils' learning. The absence of effective monitoring systems of teachers' performance contributed to pupils' superficial assessment reports and of uncoordinated mastery of subject content and performance skills. The absence of effective school leadership affected teachers' commitment, attitudes and professionalism. This generated a culture of isolationism acute in both schools. Teachers were performing to hierarchically externally imposed requirements, and in the process, overlooked essential knowledge and skills that were needed to improve quality of students' learning. The national education standards are an inherited policy from the colonial administration. This study found that successful implementation of education standards is highly dependent on the social and cultural expectations of Papua New Guinea's rapidly changing society. At the local level, education standards are highly influenced by teachers' professionalism, provincial education boards and community expectations. This is compounded by the mismatch of priorities and policies between the national and provincial education divisions. Such a practice impacts negatively on the successful implementation of educational reform agendas. The study implies that a reconsideration of national education standards is necessary. This process will involve a rethinking of teacher education programmes, dismantling previous assumptions of national standards and local implementation, and accommodating challenges presented by economic, political, social and cultural change in Papua New Guinea.

Magister Artium - MA / According to migrant research in South Africa, after the advent of democracy in South Africa, in 1994, the country has received an influx of foreign migrants, more especially from the African continent. However, much focus has been on the negative outcomes of the host community and its relationship with immigrants. Recent immigration research labelled South Africa as a xenophobic nation, and much emphasis on xenophobia was in Black South African townships. Although townships in South Africa are widely known for their hostile attitudes towards African nationals, in recent years, townships like Gugulethu have become homes for many African immigrants. This study investigates the integration of foreign migrants into the South African community: a case of Zimbabweans living in Gugulethu, Cape Town. Qualitative research methods' adopting an in-depth interpretation of the findings was used to answer the research question posed by this study. The research question posed by this study is, in the absence of a strategic plan to integrate African foreign nationals into South Africa society, how do African migrants living in Gugulethu use their social capital to integrate themselves into the local community, which is widely regarded as xenophobic? Qualitative data was collected through in-depth interviews and observations and data was analysed according to the research questions by making codes and themes. In addition, the number of study participants was 30 people; 25 Zimbabwean immigrants and for comparative purposes 2 Ugandan immigrants and 3 local South Africans were also included. Both convenience and snowballing sampling techniques were used. The study found that despite the challenges faced by migrants in their host community, these migrants used their social capital in the form of social networks to integrate themselves into the host community.

Magister Artium - MA / According to migrant research in South Africa, after the advent of democracy in South Africa, in 1994, the country has received an influx of foreign migrants, more especially from the African continent. However, much focus has been on the negative outcomes of the host community and its relationship with immigrants. Recent immigration research labelled South Africa as a xenophobic nation, and much emphasis on xenophobia was in Black South African townships. Although townships in South Africa are widely known for their hostile attitudes towards African nationals, in recent years, townships like Gugulethu have become homes for many African immigrants. This study investigates the integration of foreign migrants into the South African community: a case of Zimbabweans living in Gugulethu, Cape Town. Qualitative research methods’ adopting an in-depth interpretation of the findings was used to answer the research question posed by this study. The research question posed by this study is, in the absence of a strategic plan to integrate African foreign nationals intoSouth Africa society, how do African migrants living in Gugulethu use their social capital to integrate themselves into the local community, which is widely regarded as xenophobic? Qualitative data was collected through in-depth interviews and observations and data was analysed according to the research questions by making codes and themes. In addition, the number of study participants was 30 people; 25 Zimbabwean immigrants and for comparative purposes 2 Ugandan immigrants and 3 local South Africans were also included. Both convenience and snowballing sampling techniques were used. The study found that despite the challenges faced by migrants in their host community, these migrants used their social capital in the form of social networks to integrate themselves into the host community