Thesis and Research Data Repository Leeds Beckett University
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Indentured Child Labour: The Restavek System of Haiti’s Child Slaves
No full textThis piece will focus on how the Restavek child slavery system in Haiti is underpinned by migration, gender and commodification. Haiti is the poorest country within the Western hemisphere (Wagner, 2008). Its Restavek system of child domestic slavery is ingrained within society due to tradition and culture, affecting approximately 300,000 children (Mauraszkiewicz et al., 2015). The term Restavek originates from the Creole meaning “to stay with” (Restavek Freedom, 2011). Restavek’s are poor, usually rural children (most often girls) living with and employed by an urban, more economically stable family in return for unpaid domestic labour (Duvivier, 2008). This system was intended to supply education, providing a better life for children who live in poverty: however, it created a system of slavery and trafficking (Restavek Freedom, 2001).</p
A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study of the Experience of Using Appreciative Inquiry in Jordan
No full textThis study employed hermeneutic phenomenology paradigm to investigate the ‘lived experiences’ and ‘perceived outcomes’ of using Appreciative Inquiry (AI) in organisations in Jordan, and how AI approach and its tools have been implemented through analysing the lived experiences of people using AI in these organisations.
This study used the hermeneutic phenomenology within the interpretive paradigm to design and analyse research qualitative data. Three organisations that have been engaged with AI activities in Jordan were selected as research sites, where 34 participants across the three organisations participated in the study. A qualitative data approach utilizing multiple methods that included participants’ reflective notes, researcher’s observations and semi-structured interviews; 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted. A hermeneutical cycle for interpreting the qualitative data is adopted. Specifically, an ongoing interpretation of the phenomenon of AI, through three data analysis stages; transcription and naive reading stage (stage one), structural analyses and interpretation stages (stage two), and comprehensive understanding, and illustrating the phenomena stage (stage three).
The findings of the lived experiences and perceived outcomes of using AI suggest that adoption of the AI increased employee’s independence, their engagement, better employment relationships, and improved emotional management. The results also indicate that adoption of the AI increases the climate of trusting and respectful employment relationships, increases the sense of self-awareness and confidence through shared stories and ideas. Individuals felt more aware of their impact on others and been recognised the power of active listening to understand and work with difference. The findings also suggest that adoption of the AI process offered a new way of thinking that allowed individuals to challenge assumptions and consider options and collaborative working. AI also been seen as tools and a method for an organisation to develop its strategy and make quality decisions. Overall the findings of lived experiences indicated the perceived outcomes of using AI that involvement and inclusion, collaboration and relationship development, positive focus, energy and leadership.
This study has contributed to the existing literature in three ways. First, this study contributes to the limited and emerging literature regarding AI within organisations, and more specifically in Jordan context, as the current study is the first of its nature to evaluate the lived experiences of AI in Jordanian context. Second, this study has used a methodology worthy applied in the AI literature, the use of a hermeneutic phenomenology approach, specifically; to analyses the AI lived experiences in the organisational context enables access to a phenomenon that is often subconscious and provides a means of interpreting participants’ understanding and their experiences of AI. Third, the finding of this study has implications for organisations and business managers and those involved in Organisation Development and change. This study will be of interest to organisations and business managers to understand how to establish real relationships among their employees to achieve the best practices drawn from grounded past positive experiences.</p
More than just a chat? Online teacher-learning communities as sites for professional learning and teacher agency
No full textWhile large numbers of teachers engage with social media sites such as Twitter, it continues to be the case that professional learning and development is often subject to narrow interpretations which focus on the physical actions of practitioners (Evans, 2019). This research makes visible the informal learning which is often unrecognised (Eraut, 2004) as more formalised, traditional models of professional learning remain privileged in an audit culture which favours a tick box approach to continuing professional development.
This study explores the informal and self-directed professional learning of teachers through focusing on an established weekly Twitter chat which is aimed at FE educators in the UK context. It considers how their participation in the chat supports professional learning and the development of teacher agency. A netnographic approach is taken to the study which uses multiple methods in order to provide both ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ perspectives on the site through a combination of participant observation, social network analysis and interviews.
The findings build on previous research by highlighting the ways in which the structure of the Twitter chat is key to providing opportunities for teachers to share resources, experiences and ideas; to make and build connections both on and beyond Twitter; and to offer and receive emotional and professional support. It contributes new knowledge by considering a Twitter chat through the lens of ecological teacher agency and providing insights into how such spaces may help to ‘grow’ both individual and collective agency as well as examining the links between teacher agency and professional learning explicitly. The methodological and ethical approach taken in the study provides a rich picture of an online teacher-learning community and foregrounds the voices of those who participate in it in ways which future studies can continue to develop.</p
Life After Combat: A qualitative intrinsic case study exploring the impact of military experience on British Army veterans Coldstream Guards
No full text‘Life after Combat’ is a qualitative study exploring how the military experience of ex-infantry soldiers impacts on their civilian existance upon leaving the army. The participants (four male infantry combat veterans) were selected from those who had served in military conflict since the 1970s, including Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. This study employs a constructionist approach with its research methods developed through a process referred to as ‘emergent design’, whereby the researcher responds to the unfolding process and constantly adapts the method to suit the task. Semi-structured interviews were coded in the style of grounded theory and the resulting themes were provided for participant validation, from which four individual in-depth intrinsic case studies were created. Having served in the army myself, the whole research process was influenced by my ‘insider researcher’ perspective. The insider perspective is further enhanced in a biographical chapter presenting my experiences of life after combat and the challenges I encountered in the transitional process from soldier to civilian. Findings A number of key themes were identified under three main sections, pre-service, in-service and post-service. Pre-service: Rite of passage. A place to grow. Joining the army was reported as an opportunity to belong to something bigger and build a positive sense of self. In-service: Personal growth. Sense of comradery. Sense of meaning and purpose. In-service experiences were reported as holding a strong sense of comradery and mutual support, living within a ‘we’ oriented culture, and fulfilling existential needs through generating meaning and purpose. Post-service: Post Trauma Growth. Loss of identity. Loss of comradery. Post-service themes showed a strong sense of loss as a result of the cultural changes encountered in the transition to civilian life. Conversely, there were reports of post trauma growth (PTG), where veterans built on their strengths to navigate the challenges of re-entering civilian existance. Conclusions The research benefits and therapeutic value of veteran-to-veteran collaboration and dialogue were highlighted. The veteran was portrayed as holding ‘insider knowledge’ that non-military ‘outsiders’ tend to lack, which can lead to an ‘empathy gap’ between the civilian and the veteran. These findings suggest that there may be opportunities to enhance veteran services through developing veteran-to-veteran contact and support, and to promote an awareness amongst serving personnel of the potential challenges transitioning into civilian life can hold
Influencing factors to sustainability transitioning in commercial buildings in the Nigerian built environment: a grounded theory study
No full textThe adoption of renewable energy technologies (RETs) into buildings will be key to making the necessary transition to a low-carbon and resilient built environment particularly, in countries such as Nigeria, which suffers from abject energy poverty, despite having diverse and significant renewable energy potential. In Nigeria, commercial buildings present a unique case because a significant proportion of the energy demand for offices is provided by privately powered off-grid fossil-fuel generators instead of RETs, such that generators are designed for in buildings. Given that this undermines achieving a low carbon future, there lacks an in-depth, and context-based empirical study addressing it, therefore, the current implications of the practice of designing for generators and the extent of RET adoption in office buildings are not fully known.
The study aims to develop a theoretical framework of the contextual influencing factors to sustainability transitioning practices and processes in commercial buildings, with a focus on solar PV. A qualitative research strategy, guided by Constructivist Grounded Theory method using interviews with 34 multidisciplinary BE professional’s was employed. This led to the development of four interrelated theoretical categories, hostage syndrome’, ‘being sheltered - avoiding responsibility’, ‘following the leader’, and ‘future proofing - reflecting the local perspective’ from which a substantive theory ‘Being part of us’ was constructed. Hostage Syndrome and Being Sheltered – Avoiding Responsibility represent negative influencing factors based on what BE professional’s believe they can do or must do and manifest as ‘‘surrendering and compromising’ and ‘evading’ practices respectively. Following the Leader and Future Proofing - Reflecting the Local Perspective are positive influencing factors based on what BE professional’s believe they are expected to do or should do, and manifest as ‘copying, learning and navigating’ and ‘tailoring to suit and devising anew’ practices respectively.
The theory reflects duality and co-existence of elements representing the varied manifestations of sustainability and/or being sustainable within the context of psychological, cultural, social, and historical factors, etc. It offers a framework in which the varied manifestations and their associated practices can be explained, situated, and examined, thereby, providing reliable and relatable points of reference to ground actionable interventions that would aid in the development and promotion of sustainable building strategies and policies suited to its context. The study contributes theoretically, empirically, and practically by providing new and grounded insight and understanding of issues associated with adoption. By implementing the recommendations suggested in the study, it would engender the practice of ‘designing for sustainability’ as opposed to ‘designing for generators’ within the Nigerian context. Furthermore, it will benefit further research within the SSA - and wider developing - context as well as provide valuable lessons with adopting Grounded Theory Method in construction management research for methodological pluralism
An investigation of stakeholders’ strategies for external crisis preparedness: the Nigerian tourism industry perspectives
No full textThis research has used a qualitative, descriptive phenomenological approach to evaluate the realities of how government and private sector tourism stakeholders in two Nigerian destinations plan for, and respond to, external crises. The two case study locations - Nigeria’s capital territory, Abuja, and Jos, Plateau State, - have experienced several crises, including terrorist attacks and other disruptive events. The research employed a conceptual framework designed from existing crisis management theories, frameworks, and models for data collection and analysis of findings. The study’s field research was based on semi-structured and in-depth interviews with government and private sector tourism stakeholders to establish the strategies they employ towards crisis management and to ascertain whether their experiences of crises provide opportunities and lessons for future preparedness. Participants included managers and executives of tourism businesses, including hotels and tour organisations, and key government officials of tourism bureaus and emergency agencies, amongst others.
The research findings suggest that tourism stakeholders in the two case study destinations were generally deficient in efficient crisis management measures, owing to inadequate
resources from the government and, in some instances, a lack of efficient crisis management strategies. Consequently, the main contribution of this research is the development of a crisis management framework, which has been inductively derived from the interview findings, available documents from the study sites, and key extant literature on crisis management. The developed tourism crisis management framework is a refinement of the conceptual framework
employed for the primary research and reflects the peculiarities of the study sites. The framework is innovative as it can be adapted by government and private sector tourism
stakeholders in other West African destinations experiencing similar crises as the stakeholders of this research. The framework could also be adapted by the individual government and private sector stakeholders in the study sites towards enhancing collaborative and effective crisis management in their tourism sectors
Streetwalker, the passante, and the politics of women walking: picking up the fragments
No full textMy Practice as Research Ph.D. comprises three works accompanied by a critical reflection: Echoes from a Berlin Childhood (Sheffield: Gordian Projects, 2016), ‘Articles Lost’ (London: MA BIBLIOTHÈQUE, 2017), and a set of ten posters titled Voices from the Archive (2018), presented as a broadsheet newspaper. The works explore the politics of women’s bodies in the public space of the street. Lone and collective urban walking is considered as a political act. I present the city as autobiography, exploring this through the figure of the flâneuse in literature and visual art from the nineteenth century to contemporary walking practices, emerging with the passante as the figure whose pace is more in step with mine. Each work employs quotation as a method. The book works take extracts from Walter Benjamin’s Berlin essays, placing his writing on the city into new contexts. In Echoes from a Berlin Childhood, Benjamin’s words from Berlin Childhood Around 1900 (1932) are poetically re-composed with photographs made on the streets of his childhood walks, using a 5MP wearable camera with automatic shutter. ‘Articles Lost’ takes extracts from ‘A Berlin Chronicle’ on dreaming and walking in cities, and presents them — and the gaps in Benjamin’s text — as spaces for reinvention. Both works present an alternative mapping of Berlin, a multitude of voices in the writing of the city are heard in my interventions. Voices from the Archive re-composes archival material from the Reclaim the Night movement, encountered during a residency at the Feminist Archive North in 2018. I propose the use of quotation in my practice as an allegorical method, taken from Sigrid Weigel’s Body-and Image-Space: Re-reading Walter Benjamin. I break the thought-images from their continuum in order to speak the text, retaining its origin through citational method while re-instating the urban woman walker. I situate this practice in the field of conceptual, autobiographical writing by women, alongside practices of iteration that reimagine canonical texts, employing the fragment as method, such as the writing of Lisa Robertson, Lauren Berlant, Kathleen Stewart, Anne Boyer, and Moyra Davey. The thesis presents the contextual field of walking practices (and contemporary walking research), considering artist and writer Sharon Kivland’s Freud on Holiday series, and her work on the passante. I propose the allegorical method — where visual and textual fragments are composed to create political statements — as confirmation of the value of the quotation/fragment in both academic/art writing and visual art practice.</p
Architecture Live Projects: Situated Learning Agility
No full textThis practice-based research is about architecture Live Projects. Through an architecture Live Project programme managed by Project Office, Live Project pedagogy, unique to Leeds Beckett University has been established. The invention of the ‘school-based practice’ Project Office acts as a bridging entity, prototyping a new mechanism for facilitating the process and production of Live Projects, one which intersects architects/lecturers, students/agents and clients/public. Using 23 case studies, this PhD demonstrates that Project Office is indispensable as a means of enabling and enriching the architecture Live Project programme and student experience. The research also focusses on myself as a Live Project educator, by introducing the term situated learning agility to theorise and reflect upon this key role
Addressing a Health Inequality: Weight Management Experiences of Disabled Young People
No full textPurpose: Disabled young people are at a substantially increased risk of obesity, together with an increased risk of developing serious health conditions. A lack of current provision, guidelines and data on effective weight management programmes serve to maintain this health inequality. The aim of this research was to explore and understand the weight management programme experiences of disabled young people and key stakeholders within a special school setting. This insight addresses a clear gap in the literature and provides a better understanding of how more suitable programmes can be developed.
Methods: Conducting a systematic review provided a transparent and reliable synthesis of existing weight management programmes and focused on disabled young people with obesity. Following the systematic review, the main primary research was undertaken and underpinned by a qualitative approach to data collection. This explored how a group of 11 disabled young people aged 10-12 years, their parents, school staff and service staff experienced a special school-based weight management programme in England. Innovative data collection techniques of repeat semi-structured interviews, scaffolding techniques and visual aids captured insights before, during and after the programme. Thematic analysis enabled the interpretation of participants’ experiences.
Findings: The findings of the systematic review demonstrated a clear need for further qualitative-orientated research focusing on weight management programmes for disabled young people. The review also demonstrated the need to consider additional outcomes independent of effects on adiposity or weight status. The qualitative research offered a unique contribution into how multiple stakeholders experienced a weight management programme. Specifically, findings revealed an increased awareness of healthy eating, more physical activity, dietary changes, social exposure and wider, longer-term effects in school. The findings from this research highlighted features that other providers could incorporate into the development and delivery of future weight management interventions for disabled young people. These features include programme adaptations that accommodate the ii specific needs of disabled young people and reframing the focus away from weight data in favour of other noteworthy outcomes. Similarly, valuing the individual personality and prior knowledge of practitioners, and recognising the need to involve parents and family life were highlighted as being fundamental to effective implementation and could be utilised in future delivery.
Conclusions: This research provides new insight and evidence that disabled young people and stakeholders working together can begin to address inequalities. The findings may have important implications for health services, practitioners and policy-makers in facilitating and developing more suitable and inclusive public health interventions, to better meet the needs of disabled young people.</p
Food and Northern Identities in the mid-Nineteenth Century
No full textThis dissertation examines two related issues: how food and its consumption were used by northerners and by others to describe and reinforce northern English identities in the mid-nineteenth century; and how this can be related to other aspects of identity and place. It brings together evidence from varied sources to build on existing descriptive work about food in and of the North in the nineteenth century. Alongside this, it draws on ideas about the North and northernness previously articulated in other contexts and largely in relation to later periods, complementing them with approaches to the study of food and identity more broadly. It concludes that in the discourse relating to food, its consumption, and its lack, we can already see clear signs in this period of the development of the northern identities that had been observed later in the century. The early symbolism of the North, linked to differences in staple grains and seen for example by Celia Fiennes in the seventeenth century, remained and developed further. In both the Hungry Forties and the Lancashire Cotton Famine the North was often identified as a place of hunger and poverty. However plenty, prosperity and civic pride were seen in both the way northernness was performed by its people, and the way the North was perceived from elsewhere. While some of these features relate to the North as a whole, pan-regional feeling was not always well developed and more local northern identities could be seen in many ways, from the preference of working women who had migrated within the North for the local oatcakes they had learned to make at their mothers’ knees, to the civic pride of elite men in their city expressed at banquets. So in this period, and through the lens of food, we can see a proto-northernness, the beginnings of the northern identity that has been noted in relation to other aspects of elite and popular culture in the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries