Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sociological aspects of Disfigured children'

This study identified school and district level variables relevant to the relationship among advanced academic achievement, as defined by a score of 3, 4, or 5 on at least one Advanced Placement exam, and high school context, opportunities for social support and advanced academics, and district support for high ability students in grades K-12. Using school and district-level data from the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE), district level data on services for high ability students from the IDOE Division of Exceptional Learners, and school-level data from College Board, 49 variables are described for 339 public high schools. A hierarchical linear regression was applied to 15 independent variables thought to be most relevant to the explanation of the variance among high schools. After review, a second hierarchical regression was conducted with 9 retained independent variables explaining 80% of the variance in high performance. The retained variables included size of the graduating class, SAT average, demographic classification according to local population density, percentage of the community with less than a high school education, number of different AP exams offered by the school, ratio of the number of students scoring between 55 and 80 on the math portion of the PSAT to the number of graduates, ratio of the number of students taking SAT Subject Tests to the number of graduates, percentage of the school corporation enrollment identified as high ability, and the number of grade levels and subject areas in which advanced instruction differentiated for high ability students was offered for at least 150 minutes per week. The variables included in the first regression are delineated for the highest 34 (10%) and lowest 34 (10%) performing schools on the dependent variable to construct profiles of a high and low performing school. High performance is limited in small and rural schools. The overarching finding is that schools make a significant difference in the opportunities and development of high performance in adolescents of high ability. Future research directions are suggested and implications of the findings for policymakers are discussed.
Department of Educational Psychology

The purpose of this study was to ascertain if formal early childhood education was related to the likelihood of later criminal activity. The secondary data analysis within this study did support inferences for four specific crime factors. This study found that preschool attendance lessened the incurrence of future criminal activity in crime categories of total numbers of damage offenses, total numbers of theft offenses, total numbers of damage alone offenses, and total numbers of injury and theft offenses.

This thesis examines the phenomenon of child-soldiering from a different perspective. It seeks to challenge, using a novel approach, earlier studies on the roles of former child-soldiers in post-war societies. It focuses on the subjectivity of young veterans, that is war veterans formerly associated with armed forces and groups as children during the 14-year gruesome civil war which bedevilled Liberia between 1989 and 2003. This civil war claimed roughly 250,000 lives, and saw the active participation of approximately 21,000 child-soldiers. This thesis departs from previous works which mostly painted an apocalyptic picture of young veterans, and explores the nexus between their self-agency, Foucauldian technologies of the self and their transformation in the post-war society. The majority of previous scholarly works which have dominated the field of child-soldiering dwelt on the impact of armed conflict on the child-soldiers, the negative consequences, the causes of child-soldiering, and the rehabilitation and reintegration of the young veterans after their disarmament and demobilization. What this thesis seeks to do however, is to establish that, rather than considering the young veterans simply as social misfits, distraught and dispirited human beings, it should be noted that young veterans through their agency, are capable of ensuring their reintegration into their war-ravaged societies. Sadly, these young former fighters’ self-agency and technologies of the self in defining their civilian trajectories have often been overshadowed by vaunted humanitarian aid and multilayered war-profiteering. This study is underpinned by interpretive constructivism, symbolic interactionism, social identity theory, sociometer theory and expectancy theory, and sheds light on how young veterans’ self-agency, instrumental coalitions, and decision-making processes, synergistically shifted the negative identities foisted on them as a result of their participation in the war.

The aim of this study is to develop an understanding of how Grahamstown teenagers are affected by the label ʹdyslexiaʹ; by providing a space in which their feelings about being labelled dyslexic and their experiences can be voiced. Historically much international and local research has focussed on causation and remediation of dyslexia and has neglected the social aspects of the diagnosis. Causation and remediation are categories which form part of the medical or educational models. A social model of dyslexia needs to be applied. Due to the paucity of South African literature on the social experiences of dyslexic teenagers, this research thesis aims to add to the body of knowledge and hopefully provide an avenue for more research within the context of Sociology. This is a micro study, situated in Grahamstown Eastern Cape, South Africa, and the author recognizes that responses cannot be generalized to the greater dyslexic population. All human environments consist of objects which are given meaning through social interaction. Meaning is central to human behaviour and therefor explains the ways in which humans conduct their lives based on these meanings. For this reason George Herbert Mead’s (1934) and Herbert Blumers (1969) symbolic interactionist positions have framed the theoretical approach to this research. Qualitative methods of interviewing provide an opportunity for dyslexic individuals to discuss the meaning dyslexia gives to them, from their perspective and in their own words. The following conclusions have been arrived at: Educational psychologists in Grahamstown are reticent to diagnose individuals as dyslexic. This lack of identification hinders early intervention which can be very detrimental to individuals struggling with reading, writing and spelling as well as the associated co-morbid conditions of dyslexia. Teenagers who have had early diagnosis and intervention with support structures in place identify with their dyslexic identity more positively as they are able to make sense of their struggles of a dyslexic nature.

Grounded in previous research on academic engagement and resilience, this study presents a clear conceptualization of re-engagement, defined as students' ability to bounce back from everyday academic challenges and setbacks, as a process of everyday resilience in school, and examines how teacher support can promote it. Data from 1018 third through sixth grade students and their 53 teachers were used to examine the extent to which teacher autonomy support and involvement (individually and in combination) predicted changes from fall to spring of the same school year in students' re-engagement (behavioral and emotional). Overall, correlational results provided consistent support for study hypotheses. In terms of unique effects, teacher autonomy support (both student- and teacher-reported) was a unique predictor of both behavioral and emotional re-engagement, whereas involvement (both student- and teacher-reported) was a unique predictor for behavioral but not emotional re-engagement. In terms of predicting change over the school year, student perceptions of autonomy support predicted changes in both behavioral and emotional re-engagement, but teacher-reports predicted changes only in behavioral re-engagement; teacher-reported involvement showed the same pattern of effects. When both involvement and autonomy support (student-reported) were used as predictors of changes in re-engagement, both made unique contributions, although teacher-reports did not, due to multi-collinearity. Students' perceptions of teacher support were more closely related to their re-engagement than was teacher-reported support, and those perceptions acted as mediators between the teacher-reported support and students' re-engagement, partially mediating the relationship between teacher-reported support and students' behavioral re-engagement, and fully mediating the relationship between teacher-reported autonomy support and emotional re-engagement. The relationships between teacher support and student re-engagement played out similarly for students at all grades and both genders, with the exception that student perceptions of teacher autonomy support were more important predictors of behavioral re-engagement for boys than for girls. This study has implications for the conceptualization of re-engagement within a larger motivational model, for the importance of considering both teachers' and students' perspectives when studying teacher-student interactions, and for next steps in conceptualizing the construct of re-engagement as potentially encompassing separate behavioral and emotional components.

The purpose of the study is to discover whether exposure to domestic violence leads to higher rates of special education placement. The problem of concern is the effect of domestic violence exposure to children, which results in psychological and behavioral problems that may lead to school difficulties and placement in special education programs.

"The influx of children adopted into the United States from other countries has increased the need for social workers experienced in practice techniques that asssist in building rapport between the parents and children in these newly formed families. This study explored the use of employing the kinetic family drawing as a tool to build rapport between parents and children. This was an exploratory multiple case design. Six families participated in the process of drawing a picture of their family engaged in an activity together. It was anticipated that the drawings would be an effective tool to build rapport between parent and child."

The purpose of the current study was to examine delinquent pre-adolecents. It was hypothesized that both predictor variable [exposure to community violence (number of events; preception of events) and stressful life events (number of events)] would impact delinquent behavior (violent thoughts, violent behaviors, and promiscuity).

The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a different personality trait between Department of Children's Services, intake and carrier workers. If there is a difference, does it effect job satisfaction when the worker is placed in a position that is not compatible with their personality trait?

This qualitative study explored the foster care emanicipation experience of adults who had "aged out" of the foster care system. This study found that foster care had negative impacts on participants' ability to form attachments while in foster care and in their adult relationships.

122 Leaves printed on single pages, preliminary pages and numbered pages 1-113. Includes bibliography, list of abbreviations, list of definitions, list of tables and figures and list of appendices. Pdf format (OCR).
Thesis (MEd (Educational Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Research into bullying has brought with it an awareness of many aspects of this phenomenon. Firstly, it has shown a distinction between various types of bullying and also how these are further delineated by means of gender. Secondly, by mere omission, it has shown the lack of research on bullying amongst girls. Bullying amongst girls is rife, however the research in this area is limited. The aims of this research are to further explore the complex nature of bullying amongst girls and to gain understanding of its impact; to use the perspectives of the participants to drive intervention and preventative strategies; to dispel the myths which support the practice of bullying; and to raise awareness of an invisible problem, thereby rendering it visible. This interpretive study explores bullying amongst girls by using the perspectives of Grade 5 girls in a parochial school in the Western Cape. The process of inquiry is embedded in the ecosystemic approach and constructivism, which emphasises the importance of context and the belief that knowledge is not passively received, but actively constructed on the basis of the experiences of an individual. Data was collected through the use of semi-structured recorded interviews with focus groups, which were then transcribed verbatim and categorised into themes. The themes which emerged include the varied and complex nature of bullying techniques and the effects of bullying. The main finding was that some girls have innate characteristics which help maintain bullying while others have characteristics which protect them from bullying. The environment also plays a large part in either maintaining bullying or protecting girls from bullying. The implication was that intervention and preventative strategies need to be based on these personal and contextual factors in order to effect change.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Navorsing oor afknouery (bullying) het 'n nuwe bewustheid van vele aspekte van hierdie fenomeen na vore gebring. Eerstens het dit 'n onderskeid tussen verskillende soorte geniepsigheid getoon en ook hoe geniepsigheid verder deur middel van geslag bepaal word. Tweedens het dit ook die gebrek aan navorsing oor geniepsigheid tussen meisies onder die aandag gebring, bloot deurdat dit feitlik nie genoem word nie. Geniepsige gedrag tussen meisies is algemeen, maar navorsing binne hierdie veld is beperk. Die doelstellings van hierdie navorsing is om die komplekse aard van geniepsigheid tussen meisies verder te verken en om 'n begrip van die impak daarvan te verwerf; om die perspektiewe van die deelnemers te gebruik om tussentrede en voorkomingstrategieë te bewerkstellig; om mites wat die praktyk van afknouery ondersteun, te verdryf; en om bewustheid van 'n onsigbare probleem te bemiddel en dit daardeur sigbaar te maak. Hierdie interpretatiewe studie verken geniepsigheid tussen meisies met behulp van die perspektiewe van Graad 5-meisies in 'n kerkskool in die Weskaap. Die ondersoekproses wat gevolg is, is op die ekosistemiese benadering en konstruktiwisme gegrond, wat die belangrikheid van konteks en die oortuiging beklemtoon dat kennnis nie op passiewe wyse bekom word nie, maar aktief op die grondslag van die ervarings van indiwidue gekonstrueer word. Data is met gebruik van semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude met fokusgroepe wat op band opgeneem is, ingesamel, waarna dit woordeliks vanaf opnames getranskribeer en volgens temas gekategoriseer is. Die temas wat na vore gekom het, omvat die wisselende en komplekse aard van afknoutegnieke en die uitwerking van geniepsigheid. Daar is gevind dat sommige meisies ingebore trekke het wat help om geniepsige gedrag te onderhou terwyl ander meisies trekke het wat hulle teen geniepsigheid beskerm. Die omgewing speel ook 'n aansienlike rol in die ondersteuning van geniepsige gedrag of die beskerming van meisies daarteen. Die impliseer dat tussentrede en voorkomende strategieë op hierdie persoonlike en kontekstuele faktore gebaseer moet word om verandering te bewerkstellig.

Capes
Essa pesquisa pretende refletir sobre as interações socioculturais no uso técnico-estético da fotografia. Para tanto, seguiu-se uma metodologia de análises de imagens, e observações de práticas de oficinas de fotografia com jovens e crianças de Curitiba e Região Metropolitana, realizadas pela autora anteriormente a esse estudo. As análises basearam-se em estudos da imagem e semiótica visual. Contudo, tornou-se essencial estimular a compreensão dos sistemas de representações como construção social e possibilidades de expressão através da fotografia, tema desafiador em um tempo em que as representações visuais são naturalizadas, sem uma percepção crítica do que nos é colocado diante dos olhos. Partindo de um breve histórico da fotografia, seus modos de utilização na transformação social, buscou-se articular a prática e a apropriação fotográfica na construção do olhar de si, do outro e do entorno. Considerando a percepção um processo interativo e criador, atualizada nos usos da fotografia, tanto como linguagem quanto como aparato tecnológico, faz-se necessário despertar novos olhares e dar sentido a interpretações além das próprias imagens.
This research aims to reflect on the socio-cultural interactions in the techno-aesthetic use of photography. To do so, it was served as a method data analysis and observations of practices in photography workshops with youth and children in the metropolitan region of Curitiba, applied by the author before this research. The analyzes were based on studies of image and visual semiotics. Hence, it became essential stimulate the understanding of the systems of representations as a social construction, and the possibilities of expression through photography, challenging theme in a time when visual representations are naturalized, without having a critical awareness of what is placed in front of our eyes. We start with a brief historical analysis of photography, its modes of using it in social transformations, seeking to articulate the practice and photographic appropriation, the look construction the of yourself, of the others, and of the environment. Considering the perception as an interactive and creative process, and updated in different uses of photography, and it is used both as language and as a technological device, it became necessary to arouse new looks ans give more sensibility to other interpretations beyond the images themselves.

The main objective of this study is to investigate the practical treatment of Unaccompanied Minor Refugees (UMR) in Ghana and South Africa, and to explore whether such treatment is in accordance with existing international norms and standards for the protection of refugee children. The study will focus on the realisation of children’s socio-economic rights in order to measure treatment. This study also seeks to address the obstacles which prevent the full and proper treatment of UMR, and to make recommendations as to how the international community can better regulate the treatment of UMR. In essence, this paper aims to investigate whether there is a discrepancy between the rights of child refugees acknowledged in international law and the situation of UMR in practice, and, if so, how this can be remedied. This paper seeks to show, through the case studies of Ghana and South Africa, that UMR are, to a certain extent, lost in the system
A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Mr E.Y. Benneh of the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, Legon
http://www.chr.up.ac.za/
Centre for Human Rights
LLM

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of why social workers believe a male juvenile would commit a sexual abuse act toward another child and how this juvenile should be understood within the social services system and society. Social workers believe interventions are needed once the abuse has occurred.

Esta investigação tem por objetivo analisar o significado e o sentido que “reincidentes” na Medida Socioeducativa de Internação paranaenses dão para a reincidência e a maneira pela qual reincidiram. Trata-se de uma abordagem qualiquantitativa, exploratória e descritiva, operacionalizada por meio da pesquisa bibliográfica e documental e da entrevista semi-estruturada. A orientação teóricometodológica de base empírica e documental que ilumina os procedimentos lógicos seguidos é a hermenêutica-dialética. A pesquisa descreve e contextualiza os principais instrumentos jurídico-normativos e teórico-praticos que atualmente regulamentam e informam, no Estado do Paraná, o tipo de intervenção estatal consubstanciada nas instituições, políticas, práticas profissionais e agentes especializados que compõem o Sistema Estadual de Atendimento Socioeducativo, apontado a conservação de uma estrutura material e institucional distintiva da modernidade penal, encoberta sob a perspectiva de uma “infância universal” e operacionalizada por um pretenso “reordenamento político-institucional” que ampliou o uso do encarceramento como resposta institucional à violência e à criminalidade juvenil partindo, primeiramente, da ideia de “reinserção” e, depois, de “prevenção” e gestão dos “fatores de risco”. Os resultados apontam uma seletividade penal focada na distinção de raça e classe, onde os “reincidentes” na Medida Socioeducativa de Internação representam 17,5% do total de adolescentes em “cumprimento” desta mesma Medida. Trata-se de jovens (92,7% entre 16 e 18 anos) não-brancos (61,8%), do sexo masculino (98,2%), com pouca escolaridade (74,5% na Fase II do Ensino Fundamental), excluídos do mercado de trabalho (81%), provenientes de famílias despossuídas (49% recebem entre 1 e 2 salários mínimos) e dos territórios precarizados dos grandes centros urbanos (80%). A “natureza” dos atos infracionais atribuídos aos “reincidentes” confirma a predominância de uma “criminalidade de rua” (76,3%) com destaque para os atos infracionais tipificados como crimes contra o patrimônio (roubo: 41,2%) e contra a incolumidade pública (tráfico de drogas: 21,4%). A chamada “criminalidade violenta” (crimes contra a pessoa) equivale a 13,4% de todos os atos infracionais atribuídos aos “reincidentes”. A investigação desvela que a privação de liberdade impede o acesso dos sujeitos a processos de socialização, pertencimento, reconhecimento e alteridade necessários à sua emancipação. Privilegiando a entrevista com “informantes-chave” e a constituição de suas trajetórias, vivências e experiências (tanto na relação com as instituições e organizações sociais quanto com as instituições de privação de liberdade), a investigação ratifica que a privação de liberdade, além de retirar o sujeito de seus círculos de relacionamentos e sistemas de trocas simbólicas, impedindo seu desenvolvimento pleno, reproduz injustiças sociais e estigmatizações, causando sofrimento inútil, alienação, controle, segregação e neutralização.
This research aims to analyze the meaning and the sense that "recidivists" in Measure Socioeducative of deprivation of liberty paranaenses give to the recidivism and the manner in which they relapsed. This is a qualitative and quantitative, exploratory and descriptive approach, operationalized through the bibliographical and documentary research and through the semi-structured interview. The theoretical and methodological, empirical and documentary guidance that illuminates the logical procedures followed is the hermeneutics-dialectics. The research describes and contextualizes the main legal-normative and theoretical-practical instruments that currently regulates and inform, in the State of Paraná, the type of state intervention consubstantiated in institutions, policies, professional practices and specialized agents that comprise the Socioeducative System of the State of Paraná, pointing out conservation of a institutional and material structure of the penal modernity, hidden from the perspective of a "universal childhood" and operated by an alleged "politicalinstitutional reorganization" which extended the use of imprisonment as an a institutional response to the juvenile violence and crime, starting, first, of the idea of "resocialization" and, then of the ideas of "prevention" and management of "risk factors". The results indicate a criminal selectivity focused on race distinction and on class distinction, where the "recidivists" on Measure Socioeducative of deprivation of liberty represent 17.5% of adolescents in "fulfillment" of that same Measure Socioeducative. It is young (92.7% between 16 and 18 years) non-whites (61.8%), male (98.2%), with low education (74.5% in Phase II of the Elementary School ), excluded from the labor market (81%), from dispossessed families (49% receive between 1 and 2 minimum wages) and of precarious areas of large urban centers (80%). The "nature" of the infractions attributed to the "recidivists" confirms the predominance of a "street criminality" (76.3%) highlighting the illegal acts typified as crimes against property (robbery: 41.2%) and against public safety (drug trafficking: 21.4%). The so-called "violent crimes" (crimes against persons) equals to 13.4% of all infractions attributed to the "recidivists". The research shows that deprivation of freedom prevents access of individuals to the socialization processes, belonging, recognition and otherness necessary for their emancipation. Privileging the interview with "key informants" and the constitution of their trajectories and life experiences (both in relation to the institutions and social organizations and with the institutions of deprivation of liberty), the research confirms that the deprivation of liberty, besides withdraw the subject of the your circles of relationships and of the your symbolic exchanges systems, preventing their full development, reproduces social injustices and stigmatization, causing suffering unnecessary, alienation, control, segregation and neutralization.

In recent years, there has been a growing body of research demonstrating that the way parents make choices about schools is anything but colorblind. In fact, some research suggests that parents, particularly middle- or upper-middle-class white parents, make choices about where to live and send their children to school based on perceptions of public school quality and the race and class composition of the school district and/or schools (see Johnson and Shapiro, 2005; Cucchiara, 2008; Lewis, 2003; Holme, 2002; Posey, 2012; Roda & Wells, 2013). This qualitative case study extends this body of literature by not only examining parents' choices between highly segregated schools and school districts but also within an urban elementary school that offers two self-contained academic programs--a majority white Gifted and Talented ("G&T") program and a majority black and Latino General Education ("Gen Ed") program. It asks how the meanings that parents make about their available school choice options and their sense of "place" within the school system and larger society help to perpetuate and legitimize the separate, stratified system and how this "sense making" is intertwined with the inertia working against changing the system. This study begins to address these questions by examining the ways that "advantaged" parents--namely white, higher income and highly educated parents (see Bilfulco, Ladd and Ross, 2009)--make sense of their child's place[ment] within a demographically changing New York City elementary school with a G&T and Gen Ed program. Interviews were conducted with 41 advantaged parents with similar degrees of economic and social advantage whose children were enrolled, based on one test score, in the G&T program, Gen Ed program or both to understand the ways in which these social actors simultaneously embody, resist, and reproduce the social structures in which they live their lives and educate their children. Findings indicate that parent's struggle for high-status positions in the status hierarchy across programs and classrooms in their school. Meanwhile, they embody contradictory dispositions related to their sense of the "place" where they and their children belong within a segregated two-track school, their desire for their children to be exposed to racial/ethnic and socio-economic "diversity" - at least in the abstract and if their children are not in the minority, and their drive to provide their children with the "best" education, even when they are uncertain about what that means within this context. In contradictory ways, parents say they would prefer to enroll their children in diverse schools that have strong educational programs. But, for most of these advantaged parents, having their children enrolled in a program with other students "like them" in terms of their social status and privilege and thus being associated with other parents "like them" was the most important factor, superseding all other desires, including "diversity." They continue to make choices that privilege their children and perpetuate the status quo. Therefore, studying the contradictions that result from their school choices in a highly segregated system can tell us important information about why social conditions change or get reproduced and how policies could be altered to create fewer distinctions between schools and programs.

M.A. (Library Science)
Children's literature transmits values regarded as important by society and is an important means of socialisation. It will tend to reflect those· values regarded as important and fundamental to the dominant social class. Alternative values and the questioning of traditional values only takes place in children's literature when society in general begins to question its values. Reading is a transactional process. Meaning is not "contained in the text" but the result of interaction between the reader and the text. The reader's cultural background and attitudes will play an important role in determining how a text will be understood. Children from diverse backgrounds will not necessarily understand a text in the same way, as they bring their background to the text and understand it or interpret it in the light of that background or schema. Values are the foundation on which people base their actions, beliefs and attitudes. Each culture develops its own value system in terms of which values will be ranked in order of importance. Through socialisation these value systems will be passed on to new generations...

D.Litt. et Phil. (Library & Information Science)
One of the characteristics of publishing in South Africa is that it does not reflect the demographic make-up of South Africa. Publishing in South Africa has been largely financed and controlled by whites and little effort until recently has been expended on the incipient black reader. This has contributed to the lack of a reading culture amongst black people in South Africa. Oral cultures or even cultures with residual amorality Her from Western literate societies. These differences affect cultural products, such as stories, and responses to cultural products. Readers whose norms and expectations of formal discourse are governed by residual oral mindset relate to a text quite differently from readers whose sense of style is fundamentally textual. When an author writes, he postulates an audience. He has to know the tradition - the intertextuality - in which he is working. He can then create fictional roles that the reader is willing and able to play. It is not easy to get into a reader's mind, but it is not an impossibility if both the reader and writer are familiar with the 1iterary tradition in which they work, whether this tradition is oral or literate. There are major differences between an oral and literate culture in their thought processes, perceptions of the world, narrative structures and understanding and response to literature. This must affect cultural accessibility of text. An oral culture, such as black South Africans, will look for different structures, characters and types of discourse in their literature.

A question addressed in this study is; how are identities of children constructed using narratives and photographs in humanitarian discourse? This study is a sociological exposition of ethical issues that arise from representations of children within humanitarian discourse. Humanitarian discourse is treated as a special type of cultural representation. This discourse entails uses of a special form of language that constructs represents and portrays stereotypical identities of children. Such cultural representation illustrates how children’s identities are socially constructed realities. Constructions of realities of children are shaped, influenced and ‘controlled’ by intentions of humanitarian professionals as social actors. Humanitarian professionals’ actions as agents are also located within socio-cultural structures and contexts that give rise to the humanitarian discourse. This means reality is not ‘unified’ but a product of intentional and conscious inter-subjective human actions in specific contexts. Such is an assumption of phenomenological sociological theory that situates this study. This assumption also influenced qualitative research methods of this study. Qualitative methods emphasise the significance of individual perceptions and interpretations when analysing social issues. Identified ethical issues arise from practical program situations causing humanitarian professionals to collect children’s narratives and photographs in the first instance. Those situations include; conducting child focused researches, designing children’s programs, writing child rights advocacy articles and policy briefs, marketing children’s issues, media publishing, writing project proposals, monitoring and evaluating projects. Ethical issues that arise from the above include; violations of children’s privacies, lack of informed consent to collect and use children’s narratives and photographs, uses of enticements to induce information from children, disclosures of sensitive data, exaggerations, sensationalising and manipulations of children’s identities. Based on study findings, knowledge or academic contribution situated within phenomenological sociology is proposed. The study’s knowledge contribution is that constructions of children’s identities reveal how perceptions and interpretations of identities create socially determined realities within humanitarian discourse.
Sociology
D. Phil. (Sociology)

This dissertation deals with the understanding of policies and interventions that foster human development, with a focus on children and youth, and to build a link between human development and a learning society by using an interdisciplinary approach. This thesis studies how individuals develop their learning capabilities as well as their creative, entrepreneurial, and socio-emotional skills. The dissertation is structured in three main chapters in addition to this brief introduction. The first chapter, "Affective Neuroscience meets Labor Economics: Assessing Non-Cognitive skills on Late Stage Investment on at-Risk Youth,” studies the role of a program designed to foster entrepreneurial and self-confidence through learning by failure using insights from micro-econometric, behavioral economics and applied neuroscience. The second chapter, "How Much Should We Trust Self-reported Measures of Non-cognitive Skills?,” explores the relation between transient emotional states and self-ratings on self-reported measures of socio-emotional skills using a behavioral and a neuro-physiological experiment. This chapter also works as a “proof of concept” of the methods —e.g. emotion-detection theory and lab-in-the-field experiments implemented on chapter 1. The third chapter, “Can Art-based Programs Nurture Human Capital? Evidence From Public Schools in Chile,” studies the impacts of an art-based program in high school in Chile following a quasi-experimental design using propensity score matching techniques.

This study explores and critically analyses the lived experiences of female inmates in six selected prisons in Cameroon. The study contributes to the available knowledge regarding prison conditions from the perspectives of female inmates– a subject which has been under researched globally and has received little attention from researchers in Cameroon. The Cameroon Penitentiary Regulation (CPR) professes to be gender neutral and, therefore, it ignores the special needs of female inmates. The central research question is: How do the national policies and laws on prison conditions in Cameroon relate to the lived and narrated experiences of female inmates? The study is informed by two major frameworks, namely, Foucault’s analytical framework from his seminal work Discipline and Punish (1977) and a feminist analytical framework, standpoint feminism, which fills the gap in Foucault’s thesis that is largely devoid of gender analysis. The study is qualitative, using in-depth interviews and observations. It involved a sample of 38 research participants, comprising 18 female inmates, 18 prison staff members and two NGO representatives. The findings reveal that both international and national ratified policies are merely “paperwork”, lacking effective implementation in the prisons selected for this study. There is a general lack of infrastructural facilities in prisons and this prevents classification as suggested by the CPR 1992 and ratified international instruments. In general, there was a lack of educational and other training facilities in all the prisons visited. The few educational facilities available were those supported by NGOs and FBOs, suggesting that, without their presence in prisons, prison conditions would have been even more appalling than the findings revealed. Torture and corporal punishment were meted out to female inmates, regardless of the regular visits by human rights organisations to prisons. There are no provisions made for conjugal visits in the prisons. Same-sex relationships exist in Cameroonian prisons, either because of sexual preference or as a substitute for heterosexual relationships. The reform of the dated CPR 1992 and the Cameroon Penal Code 1967 is essential. Such reform should take into consideration both the specific needs of female inmates and current debates on the imprisonment of women.
Sociology
D. Litt. et Phil. (Sociology)