The integration of postmodern values and rhetorical analysis: A case study

Both traditional preaching theory and the listening context of the hearers have undergone radical changes within the last thirty years. Contemporary preachers no longer can assume the authority inherent in their position or preaching methods, and postmodern listeners exhibit the desire for increased diversity and points of view in sermons. This thesis will address these challenges by advancing the notion that attention to rhetorical criticism in the exegesis of biblical texts sheds new light on the nature of preaching in terms of form and function. The resulting multi-vocal and non-hierarchical leadership orientation has application for postmodern audiences. The methodological structure of theological interpretation undergirding this thesis involves four tasks of the hermeneutical cycle adapted from Richard Osmer’s approach. This approach engages in the task of contextual interpretation that connects with both Christian tradition and Scripture, and furthermore leads to the construction of a pragmatic plan for future homiletics. Chapter 1 introduces the problem facing contemporary homileticians: the changed context of preacher and hearer. The chapter advocates that one way forward for preaching involves the use of rhetorical criticism as the exegetical basis for a values-based homiletic, and then finishes with an overview of the thesis chapters. Chapter 2 demonstrates the fourfold task of the hermeneutical cycle by establishing the provenance of the method, critiquing it and grounding the approach of the thesis in the contemporary postmodern setting. Chapter 3 engages in a contextual interpretation of historic shifts in the fields of rhetoric, biblical studies and homiletics, analyzing and evaluating these trends. The chapter concludes by constructing a pragmatic plan for future biblical studies, a rhetorical-critical-narratological methodology that will be applied to the text of Ezekiel. Chapter 4 demonstrates that a contextual interpretation, evaluation and analysis of the New Homiletic results in the formation of a values-based approach to preaching and leadership orientation that is appropriate to postmodernity. Chapter 5 builds upon a contextual interpretation of synchronic and diachronic methodologies and advances a complementary approach to exegesis. The chapter then applies the rhetorical-critical-narratological approach developed in Chapter 3 to the discourse of Ezekiel to establish its contextual and rhetorical situation. The chapter then engages in a close rhetorical-critical-narratological reading of the literary unit of Ezekiel 15. Chapter 6 engages in a contextual interpretation and evaluation of three Ezekiel commentaries and sermons from Ezekiel 15, locating them along the pendulum-like series of shifts identified within Chapter 3. Chapter 7 demonstrates the integration of biblical studies and homiletics with the production of a sample multiple point-of-view sermon based upon the exegesis of Ezekiel conducted in Chapter 5. The chapter critiques the sermon and provides an example of the rhetorical-critical method applied to a discursive genre from 1 Corinthians 4.18-5.13. Chapter 8 concludes the thesis by reviewing the contributions made by the study, proceeds to interpret contextually the challenge of postmodern homiletics, and finishes with recommendations for areas of future studies outside the scope of the thesis

Towards the development of culturally and contextually relevant model of coping for low income, urban, African American adolescents

Low income, urban African American adolescents are exposed to disproportionately high rates of stressors in their everyday lives (Allison, Burton, Marshall, Perez-Febles, Yarrington, & Kirsh, 1999; Attar, Guerra & Tolan, 1994; Gaylord-Harden, Gipson, Mance & Grant, 2008). In order to succeed in their own context and beyond, these adolescents must learn to cope effectively with the stressors they face. Little of the extant coping intervention literature has incorporated low income, urban African American adolescents, even though these youth could benefit from such interventions. The following research develops a model of the culturally and contextually relevant factors that contribute to coping for low-income, urban, African American youth. It is hoped that such a model will inform the development of coping interventions for these youth. In this mixed methods research, a total of nine focus groups were conducted at a public elementary school in a large Midwestern city with a student population that was predominantly low income and African American. Focus groups were conducted across three stakeholder groups (fifteen parents, nineteen adolescents in the 7th and 8th grades, and eight teachers and staff members) to determine the culturally and contextually based coping strategies employed by youth. Adolescents, teachers and parents contributed their perceptions of the types of skills adolescents should learn to cope with stressors associated with an impoverished, urban context. Additionally, participants provided information about the ways in which a coping intervention could best meet the need s of low income, urban African American adolescents. Based on these findings, a culturally relevant and contextually based model of coping was developed to inform the development of future coping interventions. The model suggests that aspects of coping influenced by culture include religion and spirituality interconnectedness, knowledge of cultural heritage, and emotion focused strategies. Aspects of coping influenced by a low income, urban environment include neighborhood stressors, limited protective settings, compromised relationships, and pressure for survival or adaptation. These cultural and contextual influences were integrated into a conceptual coping model based on cognitive, behavioral and social elements of coping. Cognitive components included cultural strategies such as prayer to accept problems and religious reframes. Cognitive components related to context include perspective taking in relationships with neighbors. The behavioral components of the model included cultural strategies distracting action defined as the use of rhythm, dance and music for expression. Contextually based behavioral included avoidance in some community contexts and portraying a tough image for self-preservation. Social components of the model linked to culture included seeing advice from religious figures and family members, and relying on family connections. Social components linked to context included seeking support from limited protective settings. Based on these findings, culture and context play an important role in coping for low income, urban African American adolescents. Future research should incorporate specific aspects of culture and context to increase the relevancy of coping interventions for these youth. In terms of specific recommendations for intervention development, study participants’ suggested that the intervention utilize active and engaging methods to teach coping strategies. In terms of the mentorship, participants suggested that mentors have knowledge of the community. Participants also suggested that the coping intervention incorporate a parent component that would enable parents to learn coping skills. Additionally, participants indicated that protective settings were limited and youth should be linked to both protective settings that exist in the community (i.e. churches or community centers) and protective settings outside the community

Women and Agroforestry: A Human Ecology Approach to Understanding The Needs and Priorities of Women Farmers in Africa

This study examined rural Ugandan women's lives to discover reasons why they may or may not practice agroforestry. These women are responsible for the triple roles of reproduction, production and community maintenance work, all carried out within the context of a gendered social environment. From the perspective of the social manifestations of gender, six key factors were identified. The findings were used to create a theoretical model of the interaction between rural women's lives and agroforestry systems. The model shows that agroforestry is not only a biophysical farming system; There is a human component in that interacts with other components to determine the success or failure of an agroforestry initiative. The model can be used to identify and understand the human component of the agroforestry system on an individual and community level.women in development, agroforestry programs, human ecology, women and work, Crop Production/Industries, Labor and Human Capital,

Investigation of user-centred approaches to design practice in Botswana

Increased competition of product offering has led to the need to better understand the end-user, in order to create a more appropriate product. Furthermore, the ever increasing individualistic culture has led to the need for more customised products; where a New Product Development (NPD) team has to balance user needs and wants. Initial study assumptions were that the more the user involvement the better the product outcome. The aim was to investigate design awareness and use of User-centred Design (UCD) practices in full in the design industry in Botswana; and the training needs of the design industry in relation to UCD. Literature review determined the study focus areas; design awareness (DA), design practices (DP) and UCD. Best global practices were identified since there was little to no literature on UCD practice in Botswana and the researcher investigated products developed for the Base of the Pyramid (BoP). This study has been carried out from the NPD team s perspective. Data collection began with the scoping study, which provided an early overview of UCD practice utilisation in NPD; it also provided a guideline to data collection in Botswana. The survey study provided a broader overview of the use of design and UCD practices within the design industry. The interviews provided a follow-up to questions arising from the survey study and are focused on the Graphic and Advertising (GA) and Furniture and Interior (FI) industries for more in-depth analysis. The case studies were conducted to better understand how specific projects were conducted in relation to UCD practices; they also provided an evaluation mechanism for findings from previous studies. The results show case study findings correlating with findings from previous studies; the lack of documentation, heavy user involvement at the start stage of the PDP followed by the end stage. The vast majority of the participants failed to obtain product needs directly from the end-user and instead used the client as a proxy for the user. Design is viewed as an act of planning; user reaction was also viewed as the most important measure of design effectiveness. The majority of participants reported educational institutions not offering the needed skills. Two thirds of the participants did little market research; but the majority agreed user involvement in the PDP was important and that the user can effectively share ideas with the NPD team. The data was not clear as to whether, user involvement helped or hindered NPD team s creativity. The researcher s views on the user involvement in NPD have evolved to the need of an organised way for obtaining and documenting user and product needs, instead of treating the user like a co-operation partner. More case studies are expected to evolve case study questionnaire to, a tool for facilitating UCD practice use in Botswana s design industry

The Role of Workarounds in Benefits Realisation: Evidence from a Field Study in Saudi Arabia

Recent studies show that more than half of Saudi Arabian (SA) organisations fail to realise business benefits from their IS investments. This has been largely attributed to the contextual misalignment between information technologies and the needs of developing countries. In the IS literature on benefits realisation, the application of benefits dependency networks (BDN), have been established as being helpful in improving IS projects outcomes. This research investigates current IT development practice in SMEs in Saudi Arabia and reports on some of the challenges that these businesses need to overcome to achieve benefits from their IT investments. Evidence from the literature and a field study suggests that workarounds are widely used when implementing new IT, particularly to facilitate the continuation of embedded cultural practices. The paper argues that integrating the Theory of Workarounds into frameworks for benefits realisation would offer a useful conceptualisation of IT implementation practice to support businesses in developing countries such as Saudi Arabia to improve outcomes when investing in IT

Implementation of Context Input Process Product Model on Healthy Indonesia Program Policy with a Family Approach

Background: The Healthy Indonesia Program with a Family Approach started in 2017, has now reached the first visit coverage rate of 26.80% as of October 3, 2018, with a Healthy Family Index (IKS) value of 0.165. This figure is still far below the expected target, namely in 2019 it is expected that the visit coverage rate has reached >90% so that in 2019 an intervention plan at the com­mu­nity health center (puskesmas) level can be carried out in accordance with the roadmap of the Ministry of Health. This study aimed to investigate the implementation of the context input process product (CIPP) model in the healthy Indonesia program policy with a family approach.Subjects and Method: This research is a qualitative descriptive study using a sample of policy makers and implementers of the Healthy Indonesia program with a Family Approach (PIS – PK), namely: Head of Public Health Center, Head of Health Service Division of Karanganyar District Health Office, Person in Charge of Healthy Indonesia Program, implementer of PIS – PK visits, and the surrounding community. The research was conducted in August 2021. Data were collected by means of document review, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions (FGD), and partici­patory observations. Data is presented in analytical descriptive form.Results: Data were collected from 16 research respondents. In the input aspect, the implemen­tation of PIS PK is supported by sufficient human resources, although there are still gaps in the fulfillment of types of positions. Financial support, infrastructure, methods, implementation time and cross-sectoral support look very good and in accordance with the mandate of the Minister of Health 39 of 2019 concerning PIS PK. There are still problems in the application of healthy families, making the PIS PK output results not in accordance with manual calculations, so that family interventions both individually and in groups cannot be carried out optimally. Not all puskesmas have also implemented total coverage in the implementation of PIS PK, nor have all puskesmas used IKS value data as one of the inputs in planning puskesmas in the form of RUK and RPK.Conclusion: The Healthy Indonesia Program (PIS PK) in Karanganyar Regency can be imple­mented well in terms of context, input and process, but it is still not optimal in the aspect of output because of obstacles in the application of healthy families and the output of PIS PK has not been fully used as a basis for planning at the puskesmas level.Keywords: : context, input, process, product, Healthy Indonesia ProgramCorrespondence: Ninawati. Masters Program in Public Health, Universitas Sebelas Maret. Jalan Ir. Sutami 36A, Surakarta 57126, Central Java. Email: [email protected]. Mobile: 08112632356.Journal of Health Policy and Management (2022), 07(01): 34-45https://doi.org/10.26911/thejhpm.2022.07.01.04.

A process for transition to sustainability: Implementation

This paper reports the outcomes of the second action cycle of an ongoing project at Edith Cowan University (ECU) called Transition to Sustainability: ECU South West which is located in a small, single faculty regional university campus. The overall project has comprised three action research cycles, the first of which was the planning cycle which established the importance of building a community of practice with a learning stance for sustainability transition. It also highlighted the issue of a common definition of the term sustainability; of including cross-disciplinary perspectives; and of working with the local community. The second action cycle which was the first implementation phase, is the subject of this report. In this phase, we found that by not foreclosing on the meaning of sustainability, important aspects of sustainability were included. Although research participants initially expressed some concern about using an open understanding of sustainability, the problem of the meaning functioned to foster involvement in dialogue. In fact, these ongoing discussions around sustainability and the notion of a sustainable future formed the heart of this action cycle. However there were constraints associated with the subject of dialogue. These included problems of site communication, the maintenance of effective networks and issues around power and authorisation. We observed that each of these elements could work together in ways that enrich and/or obstruct a transition to sustainability. Finally, we found that lack of time hinders participation in sustainability transition projects because of its effect on authentic dialogue, thereby impacting upon the development of collaborative ways of working within the university. Our project is distinctively Australian in that it reflects an emerging movement in Australia to create social frameworks for embedding sustainability education activities. In our project, the transition process by which learning and change has been facilitated comprises the action research itself. (Contains 1 endnote and 1 table.

Determinants of Bancassurance Adoption in Emerging Economies: Qualitative Evidence from Uganda

This study was conducted to establish the determinants of bancassurance adoption in emerging economies. The research adopted a qualitative approach based on interviews as a main form of data collection. The study pursued an inductive approach in order to generalize the results. In the analysis process, NVIVO software was used to analyze in detail the different qualitative responses obtained from the data collection phase. The research concentrated primarily on urban Kampala, which is endowed with the majority of commercial banks. This study provides a good insight into the factors (both internal and external) banks consider essential while providing the bancassurance service. As a result other prospect banks can be guided by these factors in their need to provide the bancassurance service. The research explores the supply side of the determinants banks focus on while providing bancassurance. This is new as the majority of studies take a look at the banks’ demand-side perspective. In addition, the challenges faced by banks in offering bancassurance while providing alternatives to prospective banks are being included in the adaptation of bancassurance. The research is purely qualitative as opposed to most previous findings, which are either solely quantitative or partly quantitative and partly qualitative with respect to the determinants of the adoption of bancassurance. Specifically, the focus on bancassurance research in Uganda is also new and original, since bancassurance is new in Uganda