This study explores the complexity of teachers’ attitudes towards promoting their pupils’ mental health in Kuwait middle schools, teachers’ perceptions of the contextual factors that shaped those attitudes, the barriers they identify that might hinder the implementation of the promotion process, and changes required to put such a promotion process into practice. A mixed-methodological research approach is adopted within a complementary research design, consisting of two stages. A total of 497 Kuwaiti middle school teachers completed a systematic survey and twelve teachers were subsequently chosen purposely to take part in semi-structured interviews. The study’s findings suggest that Kuwaiti middle school teachers tend to hold moderately favourable attitudes towards promoting pupils’ mental health. However, a variety of personal, interpersonal, socio-cultural, and structural-organizational barriers were perceived by teachers, which could undermine positive attitudes and impact on the implementation of promoting pupils’ mental health. The study also showed teachers’ attitudes and perceptions as markedly embedded within their socio-cultural and religious context.

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF A DEGREE OF MASTER IN EDUCATION Wits School of Education, Curriculum Studies University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa 2015 / This study presents an exploration of the pedagogic modalities displayed by SiSwati and English teachers during teaching and learning in two Swaziland government schools. The study further seeks to explore the links between the pedagogic choices teachers make in the classroom and the socio-cultural context of Swaziland. The idea of pedagogic modalities being classified as either learner-centred or teacher-centred is used as a starting point for the study but the dichotomy set up between these two modes is challenged. The study uses a phenomenological qualitative methodology. It uses semi-structured interviews and lesson observations of two teachers who teach both SiSwati and English in two different government high schools located in the Lubombo region of Swaziland. A major finding of the study was that both teachers’ understandings of learner-centred pedagogy only partially engaged with descriptions of learner-centred pedagogy as outlined in the literature reviewed for this research. This finding highlights the possibility that teachers are not empowered to confidently describe their own practice in teacher-centred terms. It was also found that the teachers’ perceptions of knowledge, their view of their own role and the learners’ role in the classroom influenced the pedagogic approaches selected by each teacher during teaching and learning. Additionally, some pedagogic moves could be linked to the socio-cultural context of Swaziland. The study also revealed that learner- and teacher-centred modalities are not mutually exclusive. It was found that despite being predominantly teacher-centred in their practice, teachers were able to draw on techniques classified in both modes. This means teachers displayed variety in their practice, exhibiting what Brodie, Lelliot and Davis (2002) describe as “hybrid practice” (p. 545), as they used a range of approaches that fit with local views about knowledge, learner participation and the teachers’ role in the classroom. Finally the study calls for further empirical research that documents teachers’ practices in order to generate a theory which would describe pedagogy from the perspective of teachers and their context. This would place sub-Saharan African teachers at the centre of the debate, rather than keeping them on the periphery, silenced as their practice is spoken over and interpreted by the dominant and hegemonic culture of those who would promote LCE in developing country contexts. Key words: pedagogy, pedagogic modality, learner-centred, teacher-centred, pedagogic choices, binary, socio-cultural context, Swaziland.

The new Graduate Entry Medical Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand widens access to study and aims to change the learning process. Content is integrated horizontally and vertically and the learning is organized around facilitated, problembased learning (PBL) tutorials. This study investigated the approaches students have adopted to learning in the curriculum. Questionnaire data, PBL tutorial observation and focus group discussions revealed that uptake and adaptation were not the same for different groups of students. Those who were most mature in age showed the greatest tendency towards self-directed learning behaviour, while many students were unable to make appropriate use of the available time and resources. Although most students believed that they were able to integrate disciplinary information, they valued the psychosocial content areas less than the biomedical sciences. The attitudes, skill and identity of the facilitators were important for engaging students in the PBL process. These findings suggest that the social context of the learning may impact on the ability to access knowledge and develop a professional identity.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / HIV/AIDS has made a huge impact on human development and sexual reproductive habits in this century in the world and especially in sub-Saharan Africa. It has only recently been acknowledged that HIV/AIDS has an equal if not greater effect on or threat to people with disabilities. Survivors of traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) with resultant disability are incorrectly believed to be sexually inactive, unlikely to use drugs or alcohol and at less risk of violence or rape than their non-disabled peers. This group can thus be described as economically, educationally and socially disadvantaged, which in itself, suggest that they are a high-risk group for HIV infection. The overall aim of this study is to examine the factors that could contribute to the risk and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS among individuals with spinal cord injuries in South Africa. The specific objectives of the study are to assess the behavioral and protective factors that could contribute to risk and vulnerability to HIV infection among individuals and spinal cord injuries; and to explore the socio-cultural issues that might increase individuals with spinal cord injuries’ vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. The design of this study was a mixed methods design, particularly the sequential explanatory strategy was used will used in this study. The study was conducted in four (4) conveniently selected provinces (highest prevalence of SCI). The Quad-Para Association of South Africa’s (QASA) provincial databases was used to invite individuals with SCI to participate in the study. Data for quantitative part of the study was collected by means of self-administered questionnaires. The questionnaire consisted of various sections requesting for information on: Demographics; HIV-Knowledge (HIV- KQ-18); Sexual behaviours; Sexual communication and negotiation skills; Self-efficacy to refuse sex. Separate binary logistics analysis was done to assess which of the selected factors are associated with risky sexual behaviour. The forced entry method approach was used to determine which of these factors have the greatest productive power to predict sexual risk behaviour. No “a priori” sample size was developed for the qualitative part, but participants were recruited until saturation has been reached of all the categories. Consenting participants were visited by the researcher for data collection in the environment indicated by the participant. Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). The study was conducted according to ethical practices pertaining to the study of human subjects as specified by the UWC and Faculty of Community and Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee of the UWC.

A continuing debate within Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research is how to elucidate, improve, and optimize the relationship between social context and technology use. Social context is conventionally understood as immediate use context while an understanding informed by social science suggests a wider scope, involving actors and structures. The focus of this thesis is the use of a communication environment using audio and video, established to span and connect three geographically distant call-centre workplaces in the Stockholm archipelago, Sweden. The research was carried out as intermittent fieldwork, spanning unevenly over a period of three years. The fieldwork was carried out at two sites: the premises of the Swedish Police Contact Centre in the archipelago and within the research project Community at a Distance. Methods included participant observation, interviews, and the analysis of documents, everyday talk, and images. This thesis offers a broad analysis of the socio-cultural context of technology use investigating the question how a sense of togetherness is promoted and negotiated at the Swedish Police Contact Centre and around and across the communication environment. The technology served as a means of overcoming the distance between the sites and making everyday encounters between the dispersed staff members possible. The sense of togetherness—fellowship and belonging, caring for each other, fostering a sense of solidarity, and achieving consensus in everyday practices—had an impact on the uses (and non-uses) of the technology. The use of the communication environment reflects the values and arrangements of the workplace and reproduces its conventions. The discussion is explorative, outlining an analytical approach to the socio-cultural context of technology use informed by interpretive social science, and provides a partial analysis of the organizational culture of the Contact Centre and its technology use. The argument is that analysis should aim at exploring the relationship between individual actors and social structures. Rewriting context allows us to understand the socio-cultural embeddedness of technology. While the analytic framework is not comprehensive for the purpose of detailed design implications in HCI research, it does provide a reconsidered terminology that links individual practices to socio-cultural context. / QC 20100629

Existing research on inclusive education deals primarily with the effectiveness of inclusion programs and the theoretical frameworks behind their limitation. However, no extensive research has been conducted that explores the role of the socio-cultural context and the development level in determining the best way in which the educational needs of children with special needs can be met. Recognizing that the effectiveness of different special education services may depend on the socio-cultural context as well as the development level, this literature review seeks to identify the ideal method of treating children with disabilities in developed and developing countries. By assessing the global theoretical approaches behind special education, the tenets of inclusive education, the role of the socio-cultural context and the significance of development on the success of inclusive education, this paper concludes that the needs of special education children in developing countries are best met through positive community attitudes and the development of vocational skills. In comparison, children with disabilities in the United States are served most effectively through positive community attitudes and inclusive school cultures.

Ce travail de recherche propose une analyse sémiotique et rhétorique du discours de l’affiche et de l’affichage, relatif à la prévention contre le SIDA via la transmission sexuelle. Dans le sillage des travaux sémiotiques de l’École de Paris et du Groupe μ, notre recherche se divisera ainsi en trois grandes parties, respectivement la sémiotique de l’affiche, la rhétorique de l’affiche et la sémiotique de la pratique de l’affichage, afin de conduire une étude complète et approfondie du discours visuel et communicatif. En partant de l’hypothèse de l’existence d’une influence étroite du contexte socio-culturel sur l’affiche et l’affichage, l’analyse sémiotique et rhétorique, basée sur un corpus varié multiculturel, met en lumière le rôle important et significatif des codes socio-culturels dans tous les aspects constitutifs de l’affiche et de l’affichage dans notre recherche / This research proposes a semiotic and rhetoric discourse analysis of the poster and the display, about the prevention of AIDS through sexual transmission. In the wake of the School of Paris and the Groupe μ, our research is divided into three parts, respectively: the semiotics of the poster, the rhetoric of the poster and the semiotics of the display, in order to have a complete and extensive study of the visual and communicative discourse. Based on the hypotheses about the influence of the socio-cultural context of the poster and the display, the semiotic and rhetoric analysis through a multicultural corpus illustrates that the socio-cultural codes concern with all aspects of the poster and the display in our research

This study arose from the experience of difficulties in individuating incorporating tensions in the self-group, self-other, and self-self relational dimensions. This situation initiated the questions: What does individuation mean in collectivist cultures? Can selfexpression occur in a different way to opposing public opinion? Can one conceptualise experiential dialectics to facilitate their resolution in practice? The literature initiated the questions: How do Western theories on individuation incorporate 'culture'? Does a relationship between the socio-cultural context and the process of self-expression exist? Conclusions were: - that the socio-cultural context influences this experience directly by influencing the process of self-expression via defining what is experienced as narcissistic, altruistic, or individualistic behaviour, and indirectly by the theories which reflect its norms; - that the relationship between experience, and theory and personal epistemologies potentially initiate tensions, and facilitate their resolution; - that a theory of individuation in collectivist cultures is lacking. A way of interpreting 'individuation' was discussed. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

This study arose from the experience of difficulties in individuating incorporating tensions in the self-group, self-other, and self-self relational dimensions. This situation initiated the questions: What does individuation mean in collectivist cultures? Can selfexpression occur in a different way to opposing public opinion? Can one conceptualise experiential dialectics to facilitate their resolution in practice? The literature initiated the questions: How do Western theories on individuation incorporate 'culture'? Does a relationship between the socio-cultural context and the process of self-expression exist? Conclusions were: - that the socio-cultural context influences this experience directly by influencing the process of self-expression via defining what is experienced as narcissistic, altruistic, or individualistic behaviour, and indirectly by the theories which reflect its norms; - that the relationship between experience, and theory and personal epistemologies potentially initiate tensions, and facilitate their resolution; - that a theory of individuation in collectivist cultures is lacking. A way of interpreting 'individuation' was discussed. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Theological Education by Extension (TEE) for parishioners is the general area of study. However, focus is placed on the developing of a curriculum, particularly on the problems and challenges around developing of a relevant TEE curriculum. Four different TEE programmes in Botswana were studied. The findings showed that problems were experienced by respondents and others who are involved in TEEs in Botswana. The respondents could identify and describe some of such problems and challenges. Therefore the researcher could arrive at the following conclusion:- Students, staff and all other parties of a TEE must collectively and fully participate in the developing of the curriculum. Moreover, the socio-cultural context influences TEE curriculum; therefore, students need to be trained to respond to such influences in their life situations. Once again, it is important that the curriculum policy and the process of planning take into account of some basic concerns like the theological presuppositions, aims and objectives and basic commitments or foci behind the curriculum. If these concerns are well attended, a more relevant TEE curriculum can be developed. / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / Th. M. (Practical Theology)