8,905 research outputs found

    UNCOVERING THE MENTAL WORLD OF CHILDREN: ATTACHMENT QUALITY, MENTALIZATION, AND CHILDREN’S DRAWINGS

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    Although we have long been aware of the widespread benefits of drawing for children (Goodenough, 1926), there is much to learn from a clinical perspective about children’s attachment patterns and mentalization capacities in analyzing their drawings. The present study utilized archival data to uncover trends associated with children’s drawing characteristics, attachment qualities, and mentalization capacities. This study further explored the extent to which mentalization mediates the relationship between attachment quality and Formal Elements (FE) scores as well as the relationship between attachment quality and Content scores of children’s drawings. Two samples of 5–12-year-old children and their caregivers were recruited: one child sample from a public elementary school in White Plains, NY (n = 54), and the other child sample recruited consecutively following admission to a child psychiatric inpatient unit in White Plains, NY (n = 45). Each of the 99 children, including both the inpatient and nonpatient samples, completed three drawings: a drawing of family, primary caregiver, and self, totaling 297 drawings. These drawings were coded using the Formal Elements and Content rating scales (Tuman, 1998, 1999a). Attachment quality and mentalization data for these samples were obtained from previous studies, using the Attachment Story-Completion Task (ASCT) and Children’s Apperception Test (CAT). Attachment quality was found to have a significant positive relationship with the Content scores of family drawings within the inpatient sample. Attachment quality was also found to have a significant positive relationship with mentalization in both the nonpatient and inpatient samples. Mentalization was found to have a significant positive relationship with the Content and FE scores of children’s drawings. This relationship held true for Content scores of caregiver drawings and FE scores of family drawings within the nonpatient sample, and for both the Content and FE scores of family drawings within the inpatient sample. In general, drawings appear to hold promise as tools to access both psychiatrically compromised and nonpatient children’s internal working models and mental states. Gender differences and clinical implications are discussed

    Conscience and Consciousness: British Theatre and Human Rights.

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    This research project investigates a paradigm of human rights theatre. Through the lens of performance and theatre-making, this thesis explores how we came to represent, speak about, discuss, and own human rights in Britain. My framework of ‘human rights theatre’ proposes three distinctive features: firstly, such works dramatise real-world issues and highlights the role of the state in endangering its citizens; secondly, ethical ruptures are encountered within and without the drama, and finally, these performances characteristically aspire to produce an activist effect on the collective behaviours of the audience. This thesis interrogates the strategies theatre-makers use to articulate human rights concerns or to animate human rights intent. The selected case-studies for this investigation are ice&fire’s testimonial project, Actors for Human Rights; Badac Theatre; Jonathan Holmes’ work as director of Jericho House; Cardboard Citizens’ youth participation programme, ACT NOW; and Tony Cealy’s Black Men’s Consortium. Deliberately selecting companies and performance events that have received limited critical attention, my methodology constellates case-studies through original interviews, durational observation of creative working methods and proximate descriptions of practice. The thesis is interested in the experience of coming to ‘consciousness’ through human rights theatre, an awakening to the impacts of rights infringements and rights claiming. I explore consciousness as a processual, procedural, and durational happening in these performance events. I explore the ‘éffect’ of activist art and examine the ways in which makers of human rights theatre aim to amplify both affective and effective qualities in their work. My thesis also considers the articulation of activist purpose and the campaigning intent of the selected theatre-makers and explores how their activism is animated in their productions. Through the rich seam of discussion generated by the identification and exploration of the traits of a distinctive human rights theatre, I affirm the generative value of this typological enquiry

    The role of school governing bodies in the democratization of secondary school education in Zambia : a case study

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    The functioning of school governing bodies (SGBs) has been extensively studied worldwide. However, the literature has revealed few studies in Zambia. This study sought to explore SGBs with a view to establishing the democratic enablers/disenablers present in secondary schools in Zambia. The research was guided by the following questions: What are the enablers/disenablers of democratic school governance; to what extent do the SGBs contribute to democracy and how could they be used to promote it? The study was informed by the concepts of decentralization and democratic school governance and adopted a qualitative approach. An interpretive/constructivist research paradigm was applied in the study. School governors from two public secondary schools in the Southern province formed the study population. The sample comprised members of SGBs (14 parents, 14 educators and 8 learners). Data collected from interviews and focus group discussions were analysed thematically, while observations and document review data were analysed using content analysis. The study established the existence of both enabling and disabling elements in SGBs. The study concluded that the SGBs were, in the main, democratic and had implemented the principle of decentralisation with participation by all eligible stakeholders. Despite the presence of democratic features, certain undemocratic elements were identified in the SGBs Democratic structures include the SGB itself, parent–teacher associations and learner’s representative councils and these were recognised as legal entities for promoting democratic school governance. Despite that, SGBs’ lack of adequate preparation impacted negatively on effective delivery by members. Furthermore, the study revealed that stakeholders’ participation on boards enhanced their leadership skills. The SGBs had therefore succeeded in nurturing decision-making skills and stakeholder participation. Whether the acquired democratic values will be transferred to real-life situations remains a matter for further empirical investigation. Based on the evidence and the key findings, the study recommends the need to strengthen enabling democratic practices related to equity, collective decision-making, deliberation, freedom of expression and member participation at all levels of the school governance process. The study also advocates for the training of governors if they are to act more democratically.Educational Leadership and ManagementPh. D. (Education

    Empowering People Living with Dementia Through Designing

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    The ‘wicked problem’ (Rittel and Webber, 1973) of dementia is a leading global healthcare concern. The prevalence of diagnosis is increasing significantly and correlats with longer life expectancy (Spijker and Macinnes, 2013). In the UK has an estimated 850,000 people living with dementia (PLWD). For whom the greatest burden of care is placed on loved ones and privately funded approaches (Alzheimer Society, 2015). The result can be hugely challenging for the person diagnosed with dementia and their loved ones, leading to further issues of ill-health (Marriot, 2009). The Prime Minister’s challenge on dementia (2012) has encouraged development of multi-faceted responses and interventions to deliver improvements in care and research. As a result, designers have been encouraged to become skilled specialists engaged in thinking differently around dementia and the associated problems. This research explores co-design (Scrivener, 2005) with people living with dementia in order to understand their complex problems, and to propose and to shape interventions or solutions that can alleviate pressures which include, social isolation, stress, infantilisation and a sense of hopelessness (Kitwood, 1990). Through fifteen projects achieved within series of co-design workshops, the research explores empowerment of PLWD through their own advocacy. The research shares how co-design can be an enduring process that stimulates new behaviours and memories whilst building resilience and keeping people active in society. Which, ultimately asks questions as to how common practices of co-design can change hierarchy and ownership in order to transform practices of design done ‘to’or ‘for’ PLWD to integrated projects ‘with’ and ‘by’ them. The results propose that people living with dementia can maintain highly significant efficacy in shaping lived experiences, making decisions, building relationships, and producing impactful designs. The resultant projects and proceses supports their right to make decisions and to develop their own prowess through meaningful, deeply involved, and astutely delivered designs

    The stuff of strategy: the potential of the material turn in strategy studies

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    This thesis explores the potential of the material turn in strategy studies to explore how nonhuman ‘things’ contribute to strategy production. Drawing on the ontologies and methodologies of the strategy-as-practice and actor-network theory domains, the empirical research informing this thesis is an immersive mixed methods ethnographic study in a higher education school of art and design conducted over a period of 24 months. The study combines observation and a qualitative interview protocol to build four explorative case study narratives that consider various aspects of material agency in strategy production. Analysis and discussion inform a re-theorising of strategy production that foregrounds the agency of materials beyond that of human intent, providing a counterpoint to prevailing approaches that centre the affordances ‘things’ offer to human action and suggesting instead a novel extension to strategy studies that emphasises emancipatory critique of normative organisational practices and ontologies

    Mastery Motivation and Executive Functions as School Readiness Factors: Enhancement of School Readiness in Kenya

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    The overall goal of this study is to enhance school readiness assessment in Kenya by developing an easy-to-use tablet-based android app that can support teachers and learners during the assessment of Pre-academic skills, Mastery Motivation (MM) and Executive Functions (EF) in the Kenyan context. We operationalised MM and EF as components of Approaches to Learning (ATL): one of the poorly assessed domains of school readiness. This research was based on the theory of ATL and followed a non-experimental longitudinal research design. One study was a Scoping Review that identified the gap in the literature in the assessment of School Readiness domains using game-like apps. This study formed the basis for developing Finding Out Children's Unique Strengths (FOCUS) app for Kenya following Education Design Research Approach. Two studies tested and evaluated the psychometric properties of the FOCUS app in the Kenyan context. Another two empirical studies focused on adapting the Preschool Dimension of Mastery Questionnaire 18 (DMQ 18) and the Childhood Executive Functioning (CHEXI) to complement the assessment of MM and EF, respectively. In addition, one study addressed the role played by MM and EF on school academic performance. A total of 40 teachers, 497 preschool and 535 grade 1 children were involved in this study. Both parametric and non-parametric statistical analyses were used to analyse the generated data. The FOCUS app, CHEXI and DMQ 18 fit well with the data and exhibited strong psychometric properties, thus being suitable for the Kenyan context. Furthermore, both MM and EF were directly and indirectly, involved in grade one children's academic performance. FOCUS app tasks, pre-academic skills, and number and letter search tasks at preprimary II strongly predicted preschool and grade one academic performance. MM assessed using the FOCUS app as a better predictor of academic performance than the DMQ 18. Interventions to improve MM and EF promise to enhance School Readiness in the Kenyan context. The FOCUS app can greatly complement Kenya School Readiness Test to give teachers and parents a broader spectrum to make correct decisions concerning the child

    Play Among Books

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    How does coding change the way we think about architecture? Miro Roman and his AI Alice_ch3n81 develop a playful scenario in which they propose coding as the new literacy of information. They convey knowledge in the form of a project model that links the fields of architecture and information through two interwoven narrative strands in an “infinite flow” of real books

    Exploring Cross-linguistic Effects and Phonetic Interactions in the Context of Bilingualism

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    This Special Issue includes fifteen original state-of-the-art research articles from leading scholars that examine cross-linguistic influence in bilingual speech. These experimental studies contribute to the growing number of studies on multilingual phonetics and phonology by introducing novel empirical data collection techniques, sophisticated methodologies, and acoustic analyses, while also presenting findings that provide robust theoretical implications to a variety of subfields, such as L2 acquisition, L3 acquisition, laboratory phonology, acoustic phonetics, psycholinguistics, sociophonetics, blingualism, and language contact. These studies in this book further elucidate the nature of phonetic interactions in the context of bilingualism and multilingualism and outline future directions in multilingual phonetics and phonology research
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