Towards Explaining the Tasks and Roles of the Boards of Directors

While previous research has helped to improve our understanding of corporate governance and boards of directors, less is known about the factors that affect boards’ tasks and roles and directors’ motivation and engagement. This requires knowledge of how board decisions are being made and the internal and external factors that affect the decision-making process. Large inferential leaps have been made from board demographics to firm performance with equivocal results. This thesis concentrates on how the institutional, behavioral and social identification factors impact the enactment of board roles and tasks. Data used in this thesis were collected in 2009 through a mailed survey to Finnish large and middle-sized corporations. The findings suggest that firstly, the national context of an organization is reflected in board roles and shapes how and for what reasons the board roles are carried out; secondly, the directors’ human and external social capital invariably impacts their engagement in board tasks and that conflicts among directors moderate those relationships; finally, directors’ identification with the organization, its shareholders and its customers affect the directors’ involvement in board tasks. By addressing the impact of organisational context, board-internal behaviour and social identification of board members on board roles and tasks, this thesis firstly complements the shareholder supremacy view as the only reason for the board’s involvement with specific tasks; secondly questions the existence of the board as separate from its institutional context; and thirdly questions the view that a board is a ‘black box’, subject to a selection of input demographic variables and producing quantifiable results. The thesis demonstrates that boards are complex organisational bodies, which involve much interaction among board members. Director behaviour and its influence on board decision making is an important determinant of board tasks and boards are likely subjected to inter-group tensions and are susceptible to the influence of internal and external social forces.

Modality as portrayed in upper secondary school textbooks : A corpus-based approach

Tämän pro gradu -lopputyön aiheena on englannin kielen modaalisten apuverbien ns. ydinjoukko: will, would, can, could, shall, should, may, might ja must. Semantiikan kannalta nämä apuverbit ovat erityisen kompleksisia: niiden tulkinnassa on usein huomattavaa monivivahteisuutta, vaikka perinteiset kieliopit antavat ymmärtää niillä olevan kaksi tai kolme toisistaan selkeästi erillään olevaa merkitystä. Ne asettavatkin vieraan kielen oppimisympäristössä erityisiä haasteita. Viimeaikainen kehitys korpuslingvistiikan metodeissa on tuottanut entistä tarkempia kuvauksia siitä, miten modaalisia apuverbejä nykyenglannissa käytetään ja mihin suuntaan niiden kehitys on lyhyenkin ajan sisällä kulkenut. Tämän tutkielman tavoitteena on ollut verrata näiden uusien tutkimusten tuloksia siihen todellisuuteen, jonka englannin kielen lukiotasoinen oppimateriaali Suomessa opiskelijalle tarjoaa. Lähdin siitä, että opetussuunnitelman vaatima autenttisuus ja kommunikaativisuus kieltenopetuksessa tulisi näkyä tasapuolisena modaalisten apuverbien kohteluna. Alkuperäinen hypoteesini kuitenkin oli, että siinä miten modaalisuus ilmenee autenttisessa ympäristössä ja siinä miten se esitetään oppikirjoissa, on poikkeavuuksia. Lähestymistapani tähän tutkielmaan oli korpuslähtöinen. Valitsin kahdesta lukion kirjasarjasta ne kirjat, joissa modaaliset apuverbit mainittiin eksplisiittisesti. Skannasin jokaisen neljästä eri kirjasta löytyvän (kokonaisen) tekstin ja rakensin näistä aineksista pienen korpuksen. Tästä korpuksesta hain korpusanalyyseihin tarkoitetulla ohjelmalla kaikki lauseet, joissa esiintyi modaalisia apuverbejä. Tämän jälkeen analysoin jokaisen modaalisen apuverbin semanttisesti lauseyhteydessään. Tämän analyysin tuloksena pystyin rakentamaan taulukoita ja vertailemaan tuloksia uusimpien tutkimusten tuloksiin. Tämän tutkielman perusteella poikkeavuuksia on olemassa. Yleisesti ottaen modaalisten apuverbien keskinäinen frekvenssi oli oikean suuntainen: mitään apuverbiä ei ollut käytetty merkittävästi enemmän tai vähemmän kuin mitä viimeaikaisen tutkimuksen valossa olisi suotavaa. Sen sijaan apuverbien semanttisessa jakaumassa oli paikoin suuriakin eroja siinä, mitkä merkitykset oppikirjoissa painottuivat ja mitkä taas nykyenglannissa vaikuttaisivat olevan frekvensseiltään suurempia. Erityisesti can ja must erottuivat joukosta siinä, että oppikirjojen tarjoama kuva niiden käytöstä on päinvastainen kuin mitä voisi odottaa: can-verbin käyttö painottui selvästi tarkoittamaan ’kykyä’ eikä ’mahdollisuutta’, joka nykytutkimuksen valossa on sen pääasiallinen käyttötapa. Toisaalta must tarkoitti aineistossa ylikorostuneesti ’pakkoa’, kun se useimmiten nykyään tarkoittaa yhtä usein ’johtopäätöstä’ kuin ’pakkoa’. Lisäksi ’lupaa’ pyydettiin aineistossa merkillisen harvoin. Tulosten perusteella esitän, että oppikirjojen tekijät yleisellä tasolla luopuisivat kielioppikirjojen luutuneista käsityksistä ja uskaltaisivat altistaa opiskelijat koko modaalisten apuverbien merkityskirjolle.

Leikin asia : Näkökulmia varhaisnuorten romanttiseen seurustelukulttuuriin

The subject of my research is the romantic dating culture, the practice of 'going with', among preadolescents ('tweens') in Finland during the 1990s. Preadolescence is a cultural construction of the post-industrial period, experienced by school students between the ages of 7 to 13. Deemed by researchers as a shallow, unchallenging and uninteresting period, it has been shadowed in previous studies by early childhood and puberty. This study combines paradigms of the folkloristic research of children's lore, which began in the 1970s, with those of later, turn-of-the-century girls study. The phenomena of romantic girl culture are studied in several ways, through ample and varied subject materials collected in different places at different times. The research material was collected directly from schoolchildren through interviews, questionnaires and the observations of preadolescents' behavior in discos, among other methods. Part of the material consists of reminiscent thematic writings and parts have been quoted from tween message boards. A general picture of romantic preadolescent dating culture is formed in this study from five previously published articles and a summary. The influence of western culture, with its respect for relationships, is evident in tween dating culture. Seven- to thirteen-year olds use the elements of the society around them to construct an appropriate way for themselves to 'go out' with someone. Many expressions in preadolescent dating culture are contrary to the models of adult relationships. For example, a couple isn't necessarily expected to meet each other even once, or the other party, the boy, doesn't even need to know he's dating someone. Girls organize and experience relationships by playing card fortune-telling, calculating 'Love Percentages', and other methods. Categorizing tween dating culture and its related emotional qualities from an adult point of view as simply a play is one example of the hierarchical system of generations where childhood emotions, actions and conceptions of reality aren't valued as highly as the 'real life' of adults. Lowest on the totem pole are little girls, who in this study get their voices backed up by the researcher's adulthood and research-based sisterhood. Keywords: childhood, children's lore, dating culture, girls and boys, girls study, fortune-telling games, preadolescence/tweens

School and choice : Anethnography of a primary school with bilingual classes

Based on a one-year ethnographic study of a primary school in Finland with specialised classes in Finnish and English (referred to as bilingual classes by research participants), this research traces patterns of how nationed, raced, classed and gendered differences are produced and gain meaning in school. I examine several aspects of these differences: the ways the teachers and parents make sense of school and of school choice; the repertoires of self put forward by teachers, parents and pupils of the bilingual classes; and the insitutional and classroom practices in Sunny Lane School (pseudonym). My purpose is to examine how the construction of differentness is related to the policy of school choice. I approach this questions from a knowledge problematic, and explore connections and disjunctions between the interpretations of teachers and those of parents, as well as between what teachers and parents expressed or said and the practices they engaged in. My data consists of fieldnotes generated through a one-year period of ethnographic study in Sunny Lane School, and of ethnographic interviews with teachers and parents primarily of the bilingual classes. This data focuses on the initial stages of the bilingual classes, which included the application and testing processes for these classes, and on Grades 1─3. In my analysis, I pursue poststructural feminist theorisations on questions of knowledge, power and subjectivity, which foreground an understanding of the constitutive force of discourse and the performative, partial, and relational nature of knowledge. I begin by situating my ethnographic field in relation to wider developments, namely, the emergence of school choice and the rhetoric of curricular reform and language education in Finland. I move on from there to ask how teachers discuss the introduction of these specialised classes, then trace pupils paths to these classes, their parents goals related to school choice, teachers constructions of the pupils and parents of bilingual classes, and how these shape the ways in which school and classroom practices unfold. School choice, I argue, functioned as a spatial practice, defining who belongs in school and demarcating the position of teachers, parents and pupils in school. Notions of classed and ethnicised differences entered the ways teachers and parents made sense of school choice. Teachers idealised school in terms of social cohesiveness and constructed social cohesion as a task for school to perform. The hopes parents iterated were connected to ensuring their children s futurity, to their perceptions of the advantages of fluency in English, but also to the differences they believed to exist between the social milieus of different schools. Ideals such as openmindedness and cosmopolitanism were also articulated by parents, and these ideals assumed different content for ethnic majority and minority parents. Teachers discussed the introduction of bilingual classes as being a means to ensure the school s future, and emphasised bilingual classes as fitting into the rubric of Finnish comprehensive schooling which, they maintained, is committed to equality. Parents were expected to accommodate their views and adopt the position of the responsible, supportive parent that was suggested to them by teachers. Teachers assumed a posture teachers of appreciating different cultures, while maintaining Finnishness as common ground in school. Discussion on pupils knowledge and experience of other countries took place often in bilingual classes, and various cultural theme events were organized on occasion. In school, pupils are taught to identify themselves in terms of cultural belonging. The rhetoric promoted by teachers was one of inclusiveness, which was also applied to describe the task of qualifying pupils for bilingual classes, qualifying which pupils can belong. Bilingual classes were idealised as taking a neutral, impartial posture toward difference by ethnic majority teachers and parents, and the relationship of school choice to classed advantage, for example, was something teachers, as well as parents, preferred not to discuss. Pupils were addressed by teachers during lessons in ways that assumed self responsibility and diligence, and they assumed the discursive category of being good, competent pupils made available to them. While this allowed them to position themselves favourably in school, their participation in a bilingual class was marked by the pressure to succeed well in school.

Personality and social psychological studies on computer-mediated communication in school settings

The present study examined how personality and social psychological factors affect third and fourth graders' computer-mediated communication. Personality was analysed in terms of the following strategies: optimism, pessimism and defensive pessimism. Students worked either individually or in dyads which were paired homogeneously or heterogeneously according to the strategies. Moreover, the present study compared horizontal and vertical interaction. The study also examined the role that popularity plays, and students were divided into groups based on their popularity level. The results show that an optimistic strategy is useful. Optimism was found to be related to the active production and processing of ideas. Although previous research has identified drawbacks to pessimism in achievement settings, this study shows that the pessimistic strategy is not as debilitating a strategy as is usually assumed. Pessimistic students were able to process their ideas. However, defensive pessimists were somewhat cautious in introducing or changing ideas. Heterogeneous dyads were not beneficial configurations with respect to producing, introducing, or changing ideas. Moreover, many differences were found to exist between the horizontal and vertical interaction; specifically, the students expressed more opinions and feelings when teachers took no part in the discussions. Strong emotions were observed especially in the horizontal interaction. Further, group working skills were found to be more important for boys than for girls, while rejected students were not at a disadvantage compared to popular ones. Schools can encourage emotional and social learning. The present study shows that students can use computers to express their feelings. In addition, students who are unpopular in non-computer contexts or students who use pessimism can benefit from computers. Participation in computer discussions can give unpopular children a chance to develop confidence when relating to peers.

Posttraumatic stress symptoms among school personnel after the Jokela school shooting : A longitudial study of exposure, interventions, and symptom changes

Objectives. School personnel who are exposed to school violence are at risk in developing post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In Finland there have been two such events in recent years, Jokela school shooting on 7.11.2007 and Kauhajoki school shooting about a year later. The aim of the present study was to examine the presence and change in PTSD symptoms during the first year after the Jokela school shooting. A second aim was to study how the initial exposure and treatment affects the symptom levels of PTSD. There were four hypotheses: 1) The PTSD symptoms are higher for the people who were exposed to the school shooting than for the people who did not face the stressor. 2) The PTSD symptoms increase in the follow up for the people at the school which was not attacked because of the second incident brought up the memories from the Jokela school shooting. 3) Those who have greater exposure to the shooting will have higher level of PTSD symptoms at both 4 and 11 months after the shooting than those who were not directly exposed to the shooting. 4) The PTSD symptoms are reduced more in the group that starts treatment right after the traumatic event than in other groups. Methods. A sample of 24 members of Jokela school personnel were examined four months after the incident and 16 were reassessed 11 month after the incident. To study the change and level of symptoms in other schools during the same period, a group with no exposure to the shooting was used as a control group (n=22). The assessment included Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist Specific (PCL-S) and a social and professional support questionnaire. In addition questions about timing of support and experiences of psychological debriefing were asked. Results and conclusions. Most participants in the study group experienced some symptoms of PTSD at both 4 and 11 months. In both measures three participants from the study group fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. The study group and control group differed significantly in overall symptom levels. The study group had more PTSD symptoms in the first measure but in the follow-up the study group’s PTSD symptoms decreased and the control group’s increased. There was a significant change in the study groups PTSD symptom level for those who started treatment right after the traumatic event. The results from this study showed that an exposure to school shooting has long-term effects on school personnel. The findings suggest that it is crucial to plan a comprehensive and long-term treatment for school personnel in the aftermath of school shooting.

Teacher Education, School Effectiveness and Improvement : A Study of Academic and Professional Qualification on Teachers' Job Effectiveness in Nigerian Secondary Schools

This academic work begins with a compact presentation of the general background to the study, which also includes an autobiography for the interest in this research. The presentation provides readers who know little of the topic of this research and of the structure of the educational system as well as of the value given to education in Nigeria. It further concentrates on the dynamic interplay of the effect of academic and professional qualification and teachers' job effectiveness in secondary schools in Nigeria in particular, and in Africa in general. The aim of this study is to produce a systematic analysis and rich theoretical and empirical description of teachers' teaching competencies. The theoretical part comprises a comprehensive literature review that focuses on research conducted in the areas of academic and professional qualification and teachers' job effectiveness, teaching competencies, and the role of teacher education with particular emphasis on school effectiveness and improvement. This research benefits greatly from the functionalist conception of education, which is built upon two emphases: the application of the scientific method to the objective social world, and the use of an analogy between the individual 'organism' and 'society'. To this end, it offers us an opportunity to define terms systematically and to view problems as always being interrelated with other components of society. The empirical part involves describing and interpreting what educational objectives can be achieved with the help of teachers' teaching competencies in close connection to educational planning, teacher training and development, and achieving them without waste. The data used in this study were collected between 2002 and 2003 from teachers, principals, supervisors of education from the Ministry of Education and Post Primary Schools Board in the Rivers State of Nigeria (N=300). The data were collected from interviews, documents, observation, and questionnaires and were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods to strengthen the validity of the findings. The data collected were analyzed to answer the specific research questions and hypotheses posited in this study. The data analysis involved the use of multiple statistical procedures: Percentages Mean Point Value, T-test of Significance, One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and Cross Tabulation. The results obtained from the data analysis show that teachers require professional knowledge and professional teaching skills, as well as a broad base of general knowledge (e.g., morality, service, cultural capital, institutional survey). Above all, in order to carry out instructional processes effectively, teachers should be both academically and professionally trained. This study revealed that teachers are not however expected to have an extraordinary memory, but rather looked upon as persons capable of thinking in the right direction. This study may provide a solution to the problem of teacher education and school effectiveness in Nigeria. For this reason, I offer this treatise to anyone seriously committed in improving schools in developing countries in general and in Nigeria in particular to improve the lives of all its citizens. In particular, I write this to encourage educational planners, education policy makers, curriculum developers, principals, teachers, and students of education interested in empirical information and methods to conceptualize the issue this study has raised and to provide them with useful suggestions to help them improve secondary schooling in Nigeria. Though, multiple audiences exist for any text. For this reason, I trust that the academic community will find this piece of work a useful addition to the existing literature on school effectiveness and school improvement. Through integrating concepts from a number of disciplines, I aim to describe as holistic a representation as space could allow of the components of school effectiveness and quality improvement. A new perspective on teachers' professional competencies, which not only take into consideration the unique characteristics of the variables used in this study, but also recommend their environmental and cultural derivation. In addition, researchers should focus their attention on the ways in which both professional and non-professional teachers construct and apply their methodological competencies, such as their grouping procedures and behaviors to the schooling of students. Keywords: Professional Training, Academic Training, Professionally Qualified, Academically Qualified, Professional Qualification, Academic Qualification, Job Effectiveness, Job Efficiency, Educational Planning, Teacher Training and Development, Nigeria.

Is a Majority Enough? Psychological Well-being and Its Relation to Academic and Prosocial Motivation, Self-regulation and Achievement at school

This cross-sectional study analyzed psychological well-being at school using the Self-Determination theory as a theoretical frame-work. The study explored basic psychological needs fulfillment (BPNS), academic (SRQ-A), prosocial self-regulation (SRQ-P) and motivation, and their relationship with achievement in general, special and selective education (N=786, 444 boys, 345 girls, mean age 12 yrs 8 mths). Motivation starts behavior which becomes guided by self-regulation. The perceived locus of control (PLOC) affects how self-determined this behavior will be; in other words, to what extent it is autonomously regulated. In order learn and thus to be able to accept external goals, a student has to feel emotionally safe and have sufficient ego-flexibility—all of which builds on satisfied psychological needs. In this study those conditions were explored. In addition to traditional methods Self-organizing maps (SOM), was used in order to cluster the students according to their well-being, self-regulation, motivation and achievement scores. The main impacts of this research were: a presentation of the theory based alternative of studying psychological well-being at school and usage of both the variable and person-oriented approach. In this Finnish sample the results showed that the majority of students felt well, but the well-being varied by group. Overall about for 11–15% the basic needs were deprived depending on the educational group. Age and educational group were the most effective factors; gender was important in relation to prosocial identified behavior. Although the person-oriented SOM-approach, was in a large extent confirming what was no-ticed by using comparison of the variables: the SEN groups had lower levels of basic needs fulfillment and less autonomous self-regulation, interesting deviations of that rule appeared. Some of the SEL- and GEN-group members ended up in the more unfavorable SOM-clusters, and not all SEN-group members belonged to the poorest clusters (although not to the best either). This evidence refines the well-being and self-regulation picture, and may re-direct intervention plans, and turn our focus also on students who might otherwise remain unnoticed. On the other hand, these results imply simultaneously that in special education groups the average is not the whole truth. On the basis of theoretical and empirical considerations an intervention model was sug-gested. The aim of the model was to shift amotivation or external motivation in a more intrinsic direction. According to the theoretical and empirical evidence this can be achieved first by studying the self-concept a student has, and then trying to affect both inner and environmental factors—including a consideration of the basic psychological needs. Keywords: academic self-regulation, prosocial self-regulation, basic psychological needs, moti-vation, achievement