http://hdl.handle.net/10063/73 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:45:41 GMT 2012-02-09T21:45:41Z http://hdl.handle.net/10063/2002 Quality of Education offered to Children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in the era of Free Primary Education (FPE) in Rural Kenya: Perspectives of Educationists, Teachers and Parents Omoke, Charles Makori The education of children with special educational needs (SEN) has been a focus of international inquiry. There is a strong advocacy for the inclusion of children with SEN in regular schools although this remains contentious and challenging. Despite an emphasis by the Kenyan government that children with SEN should be included in regular schooling, there has not been substantial investigation especially in rural settings on how these children can receive quality education. This thesis seeks to address this issue by exploring the perspectives of educationists, teachers and parents on the quality of education offered to children with SEN in the era of free primary education in a rural setting. A qualitative interpretive approach to research was used to generate data through interviews with government officials, teachers and parents, focus group discussions with regular teachers and observations in three schools spread over three rural districts. Thematic analysis was employed in analysing the data. A critical theory approach focussing on social justice and rights of children as enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was used as a lens. The findings revealed that despite policy articulation, children with SEN occupied the role of “others” in schools and the society and were described in negative terms. Participants, especially regular staff and parents were emphatic that children with SEN required “experts” and “special” resources both of which were not available in regular schools. The participants felt that the available curriculum was relevant for “normal” children and therefore could not meet the educational needs of children with SEN. The broad conclusion drawn from this study is that there is need to distinctly define the terms inclusive education, special education and mainstream education in a way that the core stakeholders can understand, interpret and implement within their contexts. Designing a means of progress monitoring other than national examinations may help motivate both regular teachers and parents to see the need to have children with SEN in regular schools. There is need for further investigation on how regular teachers can be persuaded from existing beliefs that they are not qualified to teach children with SEN and how to convince parents that their children are worthy of an education. Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10063/2002 2011-12-20T11:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10063/1959 Structure and Agency: Exploring Aspirations of Youth Trainees Kilpatrick, Leah This case study explores the aspirations of young people in a youth training programme and how structure and agency shape their aspirations. Transition policy is currently based on the pathways framework which provides many different educational and training ‘pathways’ to assist young people to move from school to work. The pathways framework uses the ‘pathways metaphor’ as a response to the knowledge-wave economy where the individual is responsible for creating their own ‘pathway’ in a flexible and complex labour market. For youth in Youth Training their ‘pathway’ is often non-linear and complex; not having followed conventional or mainstream transitional markers they are easily labelled problem-youth and ‘at-risk’ or vulnerable to failure. This study endeavoured to move beyond the labels of young in Youth Training to explore their stories in the context of the lived-experiences. It gave them the opportunity to voice their aspirations for the future and considered the structure or societal constraints associated with their transitional experience. A case study was undertaken with a group young people in Youth Training aged between 16 and 17 years old. Eight semi-structured interviews and two focus groups were held with four male and four female participants, of which the interview questions gave the opportunity to explore how young people felt about their future aspirations, the relevance of their training to their aspirations and how the students exercise their agency during training. Themes were drawn from the data and interpreted using choice biography, youth agency frameworks and discourse theory. The discussion of the data also explored the structural constraints within which the data sits. Findings showed that the future aspirations of young people in youth training are shaped by their lived-experiences. These lived-experiences are mediated by structural constraints and their ability to use agency. Structural constraints negatively affected their lived-experiences; and therefore, at times impacted on their future aspirations. The young people in this study described many complex and unique stories that exhibited the use of agency. Agency was exercised in the context of their lived-experiences to move beyond structural constraints and pursue their future aspirations. This study recommends the use of the contextual research approach when exploring youth transition research. Tue, 29 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10063/1959 2011-11-29T11:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10063/1951 A Youth Perspective: Collaboration for Youth Development within Aotearoa New Zealand Lavini, Amy Collaboration is an increasingly popular approach to addressing the multi-faceted needs of youth-at-risk both within academic literature and government policy in New Zealand. Due to being a relevantly new concept, there is limited evidence in the literature regarding how it is being implemented and whether implementations are successful. There is aparticular gap within the literature regarding the experiences of frontline workers and youth themselves. As youth are the key benefactors of youth services it seems important to understand whether and how they perceive the collaborative approach to be working to assist them in their development. To determine this, the following study explores the experiences of nine youth in New Zealand regarding collaborative processes used by services they have been privy to over recent years. Youth participants came from across New Zealand and altogether have experienced a range of youth interventions, from alternative education to Family Group Conferences, aimed at addressing anti-social and criminal behaviours. Taking a phenomenological approach, the study is carried out using concepts from the framework of Appreciative Inquiry (AI). The use of AI ensured the study was strengths focussed and allowed youth to become active agents rather than subjects of enquiry. Furthermore, it has allowed a positive paradigm for discussing ways to ensure that youth services are better focussed on youth's needs, feelings and understandings. Along with the findings regarding collaboration a common theme arose when youth were invited to share their stories which highlighted further areas for discussion when addressing successful service outcomes. That is, the importance of relationship building. Sun, 27 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10063/1951 2011-11-27T11:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10063/1941 Understanding the Congruence Between Teacher Intention and Student Learning Outcome Rush, Perry Research into what takes place between the instructional intent of a teaching act and students’ experience of the same act is central to better understanding teaching and learning. In this case study, individual teacher and student interviews, qualitative observation and textual analysis were used to compare teacher intention with student learning outcome, to judge congruence between the two. The study, in a large urban primary school, focused on two classrooms of students from 9-­‐13 years old. Congruence between teacher intention and student learning outcome, was examined over five consecutive lessons that aimed to achieve a particular outcome. It was found that teachers’ and students’ explanatory context was influential. In particular, the alignment between conceptions of learning informing teacher intention and task was significant. Where the conceptions aligned, there was greater congruence. Where there was a disjuncture, congruence was compromised. In addition teacher knowledge of curriculum content, the pervasiveness of task perception and the impact of outcome space was material. The study highlights an opportunity for further research into the congruence between teacher intention and student learning outcome where deep conceptions of learning inform instructional intent and into the impact of teacher belief systems on the conceptions of learning held. Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10063/1941 2011-11-23T11:00:00Z