Environmental quality is a construct that has currency at the interface between science and policy—it is used both to describe current conditions as well as prescribe desired future conditions. However, environmental quality has a multiplicity of definitions, owing to: a) the fact that there are a number of terms (or "sub constructs") taken to be synonymous with environmental quality (i.e. environmental health, sustainability, biodiversity, integrity, and the like), and b) the fact that each of these sub constructs, in turn, have multiple meanings. Many in the field of natural sciences have been working on this problem of ambiguity—attempting to develop precise and powerful definitions. Still others argue that environmental quality is a concept open to societal negotiation (in addition to scientific discovery). In this thesis, I argue that environmental quality can be understood and discussed by examining understandings of Nature and evaluations for Nature that seem to contribute to the ambiguity of meanings and outcomes for environmental quality. To reach these conclusions, I interviewed 24 stakeholders who represented a broad range of concerns about and interests in environmental quality on private forest land in Southwest Virginia. I reviewed nearly 300 pages of interview text, looking for emerging themes and structures from their hour-long (on average) discussions of environmental quality. I found that among these 24 stakeholders, there were indeed, many ways of defining environmental quality (i.e. health, biodiversity, site productivity, et cetera). Additionally, I found that these different definitions for environmental quality seem to correlate with different understandings of Nature (what is Nature like?) and different values for Nature (how should Nature be used?) I conclude by discussing these implications, using examples from forestry outreach and extension. / Master of Science

The transition from preschool to primary school is considered by many researchers as being one of the most challenging transitions that children can experience in their educational development. In 1998, in an effort by the Swedish government to facilitate this transition, preschool class was introduced as a voluntary bridge year between preschool and primary school.  Changes in school legislation in 2018 made attendance to preschool class compulsory. Despite the introduction of preschool class in the Swedish system, a lack of knowledge and research about the policies and practices in preschool classes for successful supporting this transition has been observed. The aim of the present qualitative study was to characterize preschool, preschool class, and primary school teachers’ understandings of the transition from preschool to primary school as reflected in their teaching practices. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with preschool, preschool class and primary school teachers at one school and affiliated preschool in a town in the South of Sweden. Observations of the preschool class were also conducted. Theories of transition were applied to analyze the teachers’ understandings of the transition from preschool to primary school.  All of the participating teachers considered the change to compulsory attendance in preschool class to be beneficial for a successful transition for the children from preschool to primary school. Two key factors were identified that appeared to be consequential for how the teachers understood and worked with children’s transitions: (a) the organizational structures in place to support the teachers’ work, related to the teachers’ ability to coordinate with each other and have access to information relevant to prepare the children for the transition; and (b) the lack of a common pedagogical framework across the preschool and school.

The purpose of this study is to explore high school students’ understandings of achievement and opportunity through their lived experiences which are constructed under a high-stakes testing environment in Korea. This study undertakes a critical analysis of high-stakes testing and its intersectional effects in terms of structure and culture, attending to students’ everyday experiences in testing practices as these are embedded in certain discourses. Recent scholarship reveals that high-stakes testing reinforces a correspondence between socioeconomic status and educational attainment under the neoliberal educational policies of school choice, privatization, and high-stakes testing. In the analysis of educational policies such as the accountability movement, some studies contend that the political and economic discourses underpinning high-stakes testing are effectively hidden behind educational practices ostensibly aimed at raising standards. To date, however, there has been little attention to how students internalize the logic of neoliberal competition and how they experience educational achievement and opportunity structure within a high-stakes testing environment. Drawing on in-depth interviews of high school students from varying economic and academic backgrounds, this study found that students’ experiences of the high-stakes testing environment are influenced by their social class and achievement levels. High-stakes testing does not contribute to reducing achievement gaps between classes but rather reinforces educational alienation as well as opportunity gaps. Furthermore, high-stakes testing, as a cultural practice which affects students’ daily lives and their experience of curriculum and instruction, contributes to the ideological construction of students’ understandings of achievement and opportunity structure. While students experience structural constraints in achievement, they believe in testing as being a fair and equal opportunity. Concealing students’ struggles within structural barriers as well as their contradictory experiences in relation to ideologies of achievement and success, high-stakes testing becomes the medium through which students’ social desires are reproduced. An intersectional analysis in terms of culture and structure of students’ experiences in relation to high-stakes testing can help us to understand how the achievement ideology responds to students’ aspirations and also how those aspirations help this ideology persist. This study urges educational policies to focus on opportunity gaps and to look at contradictions and struggles that students experience in high-stakes testing. / text

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / Ulwaluko is a Xhosa word that refers to male circumcision, an initiation ritual performed to transform boys into men. The ritual is supposed to instill good moral and social values. Research has demonstrated that, the practice of Ulwaluko has undergone many changes primarily because of urbanization, acculturation and the emergence of back-door circumcision schools amongst other things. This has culminated in instances of moral decline such as criminal activity, drug abuse, risky sexual behaviour and inhumane behaviour among some of the initiates. There has been a recent upsurge in research on Ulwaluko in South Africa. However, lacking in this body of scholarship is a focus on how Ulwaluko constructs masculinities. This served as the motivation for my study. Given the above, my study explored the role of Ulwaluko in the construction of masculinity in men at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1994; Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005) was used as a theoretical framework conceptualizing this study. The study utilised a qualitative framework and data was collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews. Seven participants aged from 19 to 32, consented to be part of the study. These were recruited using purposive sampling. The ethical considerations of the study adhered to the guidelines stipulated by UWC. Data was transcribed, and analysed using thematic decomposition analysis. The findings of this study indicate that Ulwaluko constructs masculinity in hegemonic ways. Through hegemony it establishes, maintains and retains control over young men, boys and women. It constructs an idealised masculine identity that is morally upright, faced with ritual challenges and burdened by a prescriptive set of masculine role expectations. This study also shows the self-reflexive, critical and imaginative engagement by men as they negotiated Ulwaluko‟s ideal masculinity. Such contestations resulted in the creation of rival masculinities. It also demonstrates how subject position(s) impact understandings and constructions of masculinities. This study provided a richer and more nuanced contextual understanding of the psychosocial realities of men who underwent Ulwaluko

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This research aims to promote the construction of points of view (POV) among students of the 9th year of elementary school, enrolled in the ESWF School, located in the city of Estância - Sergipe, when they position themselves on themes related to social events. Because it is considered a category that is at the center of dialogism (RABATEL, 2005), the POV shows a cross-perspective, so it can be elaborated on the basis of different linguistic resources, among which are the strategies of constructing implicit and the direction of argumentative operators, which are linked to communicative purposes. Understanding as a linguistic and enunciative concept, the POV allows the expression of a subject's subjectivity through articulated positions in texts, which requires attention to the discursive and lexical choices, for the sentence structure, for the use of linguistic- arguments for the composition of paragraphs as well as for the mechanisms for progression of ideas that contribute to coherence. The intention to collaborate with the practices of other teachers directed the choice for the elaboration of a Pedagogical Notebook in which the sequence of activities directed to the production of POV by students of basic education will be found. This research is exploratory, since it brings together the teaching productions, made based on the theoretical basis and the needs of the classroom, whose results were obtained by the students after the analysis of the productions made in class. The set of pedagogical actions provided the students with writing practices whose productions allowed to observe that students have an ability to establish relationships between texts and social contexts, as well as to understand and use the linguistic elements that collaborate with the organization of a discursive positioning. We conclude, then, that student participation in language practices associated with social problems can be a satisfactory textual production strategy to the development of well elaborated points of view. In addition, we note that the teacher needs to assume the role of collaborator in this process through the articulation of activities and mediator at the moment of the exchange of views points. / Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo promover a construção de pontos de vista (PDV) entre estudantes do 9º ano do ensino fundamental, matriculados no colégio CESWF, localizado no município de Estância – Sergipe, quando se posicionam a partir de temas relacionados a acontecimentos sociais. Por ser considerada uma categoria que se situa no centro do dialogismo (RABATEL, 2005), o PDV evidencia o cruzamento de perspectivas, por isso pode ser elaborado com base em diferentes recursos, entre os quais se encontram as estratégias de construção de implícitos e o direcionamento de operadores argumentativos, que estão ligados a propósitos comunicativos. Compreendido como um conceito linguístico e enunciativo, o PDV possibilita a expressão da subjetividade de um sujeito por meio de posicionamentos articulados em textos, o que requer atentar para as escolhas discursivas e lexicais, para a estruturação de sentenças, para o uso de articuladores linguístico-argumentativos, para a composição de parágrafos, bem como para os mecanismos de progressão de ideias que colaboram com a coerência. A intenção de colaborar com as práticas de outros professores direcionou a escolha para a elaboração de um Caderno Pedagógico no qual será encontrada a sequência de atividades voltadas à produção de PDV por estudantes de educação básica. Esta pesquisa configura-se como exploratória, uma vez que reúne as produções docentes, confeccionadas com base na fundamentação teórica e nas necessidades de sala de aula, cujos resultados foram obtidos pelos estudantes após a análise das produções realizadas em classe. O conjunto de ações pedagógicas proporcionou aos discentes práticas de escrita cujas produções permitiram observar que os estudantes têm facilidade para estabelecer relações entre os textos e os contextos sociais, bem como para compreender e utilizar os elementos linguísticos que colaboram com a organização de um posicionamento discursivo. Concluímos, então, que a participação discente em práticas de linguagem, associadas a problemas sociais, pode ser uma estratégia de produção textual satisfatória ao desenvolvimento de pontos de vista bem elaborados. Além disso, notamos que o professor precisa assumir o papel de colaborador nesse processo por meio da articulação das atividades e de mediador no momento das trocas de pontos de vista. / São Cristóvão, SE

[pt] Motivada pelos relatos da professora Walewska Braga e de seus alunos nos encontros do grupo da Prática Exploratória, decidi aprofundar meu entendimento sobre as ideias centrais da Prática Exploratória (Allwright e Hanks, 2009) e sobre como a professora consegue usar seus princípios e proposições para nortear sua vida profissional e pessoal. Para isso, foram realizados dois encontros com a professora Walewska: primeiro uma entrevista, transcrita e lida por ambas as participantes, e após uma conversa sobre a entrevista anterior, que também foi transcrita. Houve também a participação da autora desta dissertação em aulas ministradas pela professora, com a co-construção de um diário dessas aulas, e trocas de e-mails entre ambas durante esse período. A microanálise de trechos selecionados da entrevista e da conversa foi realizada com base (a) no modelo de tomada de turnos de Sacks, Schegloff e Jefferson (1974), (b) no conceito de sobreposições cooperativas (Tannen (2010), e (c) da análise da narrativa como estratégia de envolvimento (Tannen, 1984); e foi complementada com a reflexão sobre trechos selecionados dos e-mails e do diário. A análise teve como foco o meu processo de convencimento sobre a viabilidade da Prática Exploratória, que é uma filosofia de ensino-aprendizagem que busca estimular o pensamento críticoreflexivo, na medida em que integra o questionamento e o trabalho pedagógico, através de atividades pedagógicas com potencial exploratório (APPE). Nesse processo, a Prática Exploratória integra as pessoas nesse trabalho e na criação de espaços para refletir sobre as relações entre colegas e sobre a relação entre os alunos e o professor. Com isso, espera-se que tornem-se cada vez mais autônomos e reflexivos, ao mesmo tempo em que continuam se desenvolvendo linguisticamente, através de comportamentos que incentivem o pensamento crítico, ao mesmo tempo que possibilitam que o professor cumpra o conteúdo programático estipulado pelo colégio e pelo governo. Através de uma reflexão analítica sobre as identidades projetadas por Walewska, juntamente com a dinâmica de tomada de turnos, sobreposições cooperativas, e análise da narrativa como estratégia de envolvimento, aliados aos Princípios e Proposições da Prática Exploratória, busquei melhor compreender a sala de aula exploratória de Walewska Braga, e como essa professora incorporava a Prática Exploratória em todos os aspectos da sua vida em sala de aula e fora dela. A minha busca por um melhor entendimento da Prática Exploratória como um modo de viver as experiências do cotidiano, como uma filosofia de vida, resultou no presente trabalho, que também se constituiu na realização de uma Atividade Pedagógica de Potencial Exploratório. / [en] Motivated by the various accounts given by teacher Walewska Braga and her students in the meetings of the Exploratory Practice group, I decided to deepen my understanding about the main ideas of Exploratory Practice (Allwright and Hanks, 2009) and about how this teacher manages to use its Principles and Propositions as guidance for her personal professional life. For that purpose, two meetings were held: first an interview, transcribed and read by both participants, and afterwards a conversation about the previous interview, which was also transcribed. The author of this dissertation participated in classes given by the teacher, wrote a journal of these classes, and exchanged e-mails with the teacher during this period. The micro analysis of the selected passages of the interview was done based on (a) the turn-taking model proposed by Sacks, Schegloff e Jefferson (1974), (b) the concept of cooperative overlap (Tannen, 2010), and (c) the analysis of narrative as involvement strategies (Tannen, 1984); and was complemented with my reflection over excerpts selected from the e-mails and the journal. The focus of the analysis was my process of gradual understanding and growing conviction about the viability of the Exploratory Practice, which is a teaching-learning philosophy that aims to stimulate critical-reflexive participation by integrating questioning and pedagogic work, through Potentially Exploitable Pedagogical Activities (PEPAs). In this process, Exploratory Practice integrates people in this work and in the creation of opportunities to reflect about the relationships between teacher and students as co-practitioners. With Exploratory Practice, teachers and students are expected to become increasingly more independent and reflexive, as they continue to develop linguistically, through actions that prompt critical thinking, while enabling the teacher to carry out the curriculum designed by the school or the government. Through an analytical reflection about the identities projected by Walewska Braga, together with the dynamics of turn-taking, cooperative overlap and the analysis of narratives as involvement strategies, together with the Principles and Propositions of the Exploratory Practice, I looked for a better comprehension of Walewska’s exploratory classroom, and how she incorporated Exploratory Practice in all aspects of her life in and outside school. My search for a better understanding of Exploratory Practice as a way of dealing with life, as a philosophy of life, resulted in this paper, which also turned out to be a Potentially Exploitable Pedagogical Activity.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Educational Leadership, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-94).

[pt] O presente trabalho propõe a interface entre três campos de saber entrelaçados pela linguagem: a Psicologia Educacional, a Prática Exploratória e a Sociolinguística Interacional. A partir de prévia experiência da pesquisadora como professora de língua inglesa e de Psicologia Educacional, esta tese sustenta que é preciso entender o mal-estar socioafetivo na escola e as formas de abordá-lo a partir do conceito de practitioner (praticante), um dos pilares da proposta metodológica da Prática Exploratória. Em alinhamento com os pressupostos da Prática Exploratória e da Psicologia Educacional de orientação psicanalítica constrói entendimentos sobre a forma como a equipe educacional da Escola Saint Francis elabora formas diferentes de entender, escutar e lidar com o mal-estar apresentado pelo aluno. Para fins de análise, divide os dados em dois blocos distintos. O primeiro versa sobre reuniões de trabalho entre a psicóloga educacional (representada pela pesquisadora) e cada professora; todas gravadas e transcritas. O segundo consiste de intervenções em sala de aula em parceria com cada professora, chamadas de Dinâmicas Exploratórias; anotadas em forma de diário. Baseia as análises nos pressupostos da Prática Exploratória, da Análise da Narrativa, da Análise da Conversa, e principalmente no conceito de produção de sentido (meaning making). Quanto aos dados analisados, indica que a reflexão dos praticantes, a partir das diferentes fases do processo, contribui para a pesquisa acerca da qualidade de vida do grupo de alunos. No que diz respeito aos profissionais envolvidos, conclui que esta investigação colaborativa promove o desenvolvimento profissional da psicóloga e dos professores, enquanto praticantes trabalhando juntos, para construir entendimentos no contexto escolar. A discussão dos dados dá suporte para problematizar a medicalização na infância e apoiar novas formas de manejo do sofrimento no campo escolar, assim como traz especial destaque para a parceria família-escola. / [en] This thesis presents an interface between three fields of knowledge intertwined with language: Educational Psychology, Exploratory Practice and Interactional Sociolinguistics. Based on the researcher’s previous experience as an English teacher and as an Educational Psychology university professor, the present thesis proposes that we need to understand hardship at school and ways of approaching it by considering the concept of practitioner, one of the pillars of Exploratory Practice. The study aims to investigate how the discursive practice between an educational psychologist (represented by the researcher) and the teachers involved can contribute to the understanding and the handling of socio-emotional hardship in the school scenario. Based on the propositions of Exploratory Practice and on Educational Psychology, as oriented by psychoanalysis, the investigation intends to gain deeper understandings on how the educational team of Saint Francis School can weave together different ways of listening, understanding and dealing with the discomfort presented by the students referred. For analytical purposes, the data were separated into two groups. The first one consists of professional meetings (recorded and transcribed) between the psychologist and the teacher(s). The second one consists of interventions named Exploratory Dynamics carried out in the classroom with the teacher and the students. The analysis was based on the constructs and methodology of Exploratory Practice, Narrative Analysis, Conversation Analysis and the concept of meaning making. The analyzed data indicates that the involvement of these practitioners in different phases of the investigative action promotes understandings regarding the quality of life lived by the group of students. It can be concluded that this investigation promotes professional development for teachers and Educational psychologist. The interpretation of the data gives support to a deeper reflection on the recent issue of childhood medicalization and also indicates new ways of listening and managing symptoms with special emphasis to the importance of the family-school partnership.

[pt] Transparência, no sentido de translúcido, é um conceito presente em uma enorme variedade de âmbitos e, recentemente, tem sido explorado no contexto de software. Um software transparente é aquele que informa sobre si mesmo, disponibilizando informação sobre o que faz, como e porque o faz. A abordagem da transparência no contexto de software se iniciou através da instanciação de um catálogo de requisitos não funcionais (RNFs), que inicialmente foi desenvolvido para transparência de processos. Durante a construção deste catálogo, notou-se que os RNFs dependência, rastreabilidade e detalhamento, presentes no catálogo, estão relacionados a problemas clássicos da Engenharia de Software. Estes problemas são, respectivamente, a definição de critérios para modularização do software, rastreabilidade entre seus artefatos e entendimento do seu código. Neste trabalho, propomos estratégias para lidar especificamente com estes três problemas, contribuindo também para construção de softwares mais transparentes, uma vez que sua solução implica na satisfação de qualidades do catálogo. Estas estratégias foram estruturadas através de um processo de construção de software. Esse processo tem como escopo software para Web, utilizando arquitetura MVC, desenvolvido através do paradigma de programação procedural. A ideia central do processo é a utilização de dois artefatos de requisitos, Léxico Ampliado da Linguagem (LAL) e cenários, durante todo processo de construção do software. O LAL é utilizado na definição dos módulos do software. Os cenários são refinados em diferentes níveis de abstração, de modo que permeiam todo o processo, desde os requisitos até serem integrados ao código fonte do software. Os rastros entre os diferentes níveis de abstração dos cenários são mantidos. As operacionalizações propostas no processo foram anexadas ao catálogo de transparência de software, possibilitando futura reutilização orientada a qualidades. O processo e suas operacionalizações foram avaliados através de estudos empíricos envolvendo diversos sujeitos. O resultado das avaliações sugere que o processo contribui positivamente para as qualidades de detalhamento, dependência e rastreabilidade, presentes no catálogo de transparência. / [en] Transparency is a concept that permeates different disciplines, and recently has been explored in the context of software engineering. Transparent software aims to make information about it transparent and also aims to provide transparency on its behavior. The study of transparency in the context of software started by instantiating a catalog of non-functional requirements (NFRs). During the construction of this catalog, we realized that the NFRs of traceability, dependability and detailing are related to classical problems in software engineering. These problems are, respectively, the definition of software modules, traceability between its artifacts and the understanding of its source code. In this work we propose strategies to deal specifically with these three problems. As these problems are also related to the transparency catalog, then if we contribute to solving these problems, we will also be contributing to software transparency. These strategies were structured through a software construction process that has Web software as its main target. The process uses MVC architecture and procedural oriented programming languages. The central idea of this process is to use two requirements artifacts, the Language Extended Lexicon (LEL) and scenarios, throughout the construction process. The LEL is used in the definition of the software modules. The scenarios are refined at different levels of abstraction so that they permeate the entire development process, from requirements documentation until their integration with the software source code. The traces between these scenarios are maintained. The strategies proposed in the process were attached to the software transparency catalog to allow for quality based reuse. The process and its operationalizations were evaluated through empirical studies involving different subjects. The results of the evaluations suggest that the process contributes positively to the quality of detailing, dependency and traceability, present in the transparency catalog.

Submitted by Nadir Basilio (nadirsb@uninove.br) on 2016-05-05T20:06:08Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Kacianna Patricia De Jesus Barbosa E Amorim.pdf: 939340 bytes, checksum: 74b0181dd08c29571b1bcb047c8d54f1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-05T20:06:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Kacianna Patricia De Jesus Barbosa E Amorim.pdf: 939340 bytes, checksum: 74b0181dd08c29571b1bcb047c8d54f1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-15 / The democratic management is a legal principle of national education and is part of the current discussions about education, rank as one of the 20 targets for the next decade, the PNE 2014. The objective of this research is to get an understanding of the educational supervisors of a State Board of Education, the southern region of São Paulo state, as well as collate democratic management of development actions emanating from the practices of social subjects of research and the Board itself. To this end was adopted qualitative method, with single case study and data collection through interviews, observation and documents. The information collected was triangulated and its contents were analyzed according to the Bardin (1977) procedures. The results point to a timid ownership but significant concept of democratic management by supervisors, although procedures for encouraging schools, courses, guidelines and projects do not appear to be part of the very management agenda and therefore to show incipient . / La gestión democrática es un principio jurídico de la educación nacional y es parte de las discusiones actuales sobre la educación, para clasificar como uno de los 20 objetivos para la próxima década del PNE 2014. El objetivo de esta investigación es obtener una comprensión de los supervisores educativos de una Junta Ejecutiva Educación del Estado, la región sur de São Paulo, así como acciones de financiación Intercalar de gestión democrática que emanan de las prácticas de los sujetos de investigación social y de la propia Junta. Con este fin, hemos adoptado el método cualitativo, con el estudio de caso único, y la recopilación de datos a través de entrevistas, observación y documentos. La información recogida fue triangulado y su contenido se analizaron de acuerdo con los procedimientos de Bardin (1977). Los resultados apuntan a una propiedad tímida pero el concepto importante de la gestión democrática de los supervisores, aunque los procedimientos para fomentar escuelas, cursos, guías y proyectos no parecen ser parte de la agenda propia Junta y por lo tanto para mostrar incipiente. / A gestão democrática é um princípio jurídico da educação nacional e faz parte das mais atuais discussões sobre educação, ao figurar como uma das 20 metas para o próximo decênio do PNE 2014. O objetivo desta pesquisa é levantar o entendimento dos supervisores de ensino de uma Diretoria Estadual de Ensino, da região sul do Estado de São Paulo, bem como de cotejar ações de fomento da gestão democrática emanadas das práticas dos sujeitos sociais da pesquisa e da própria Diretoria. Para tanto, foi adotado o método qualitativo, com estudo de caso único, e coleta de dados por meio de entrevistas, observação e documentos. As informações coletadas foram trianguladas e seus conteúdos foram analisados seguindo os procedimentos de Bardin (1977). Os resultados apontam para uma apropriação tímida, mas significativa do conceito de gestão democrática por parte dos supervisores, embora os procedimentos de incentivo às escolas, com cursos, orientações e projetos pareçam não fazer parte da agenda da própria Diretoria, por isso, se mostram incipientes.