Aulas de física apoiadas por recursos virtuais: mapeando um projeto de alfabetização em Ciências no Ensino Médio

Pós-graduação em Educação para a Ciência - FC

Discurso político, mídia e ação parlamentar: a Amazônia no Congresso Nacional

Este trabalho de pesquisa, com enfoque interdisciplinar, transita nos campos político e midiático no intuito de mostrar o teor dos discursos nas proposições, ações e entrevistas dos membros da Comissão da Amazônia, Integração Nacional e de Desenvolvimento Regional (CAINDR), da Câmara dos Deputados do Brasil. Ao indicar se os eixos temáticos ‘Desenvolvimento’ e ‘Sustentabilidade’ estão inseridos ou não nas políticas públicas construídas no âmbito deste fórum, o principal objetivo desta tese é responder que tipo de desenvolvimento se defende nesta comissão e como a Amazônia é retratada por seus membros. Através de um minucioso levantamento de projetos, requerimentos, documentos discursos e ações dos parlamentares que compuseram a comissão durante a 52ª Legislatura (2003-2006), como também da produção midiática associada a determinadas ações e proposições apresentadas na CAINDR durante esse período, partiu-se para a Análise de Discurso. Mais do que uma ferramenta metodológica, a Análise de Discurso constitui-se uma abordagem teórico-metodológica essencialmente interdisciplinar que possibilita a compreensão das estratégias discursivas em um determinado campo social. Analisar os sentidos das falas, as marcas ou pistas deixadas na produção de sentidos, como também elucidar o lugar social desta produção (relações) e as vozes convocadas pelos discursos dos atores desse fórum permitem identificar o que estes priorizam para a região e como a retratam - resultado que fica ainda mais interessante ao se cruzar com o noticiário em questão, situando a relação entre os campos político e midiático. Nesse sentido, adotou-se a Teoria dos Campos Sociais como referencial teórico para esta pesquisa, não somente por buscar compreender as relações e representações do mundo social, mas também por ajudar a localizar, na disputa do poder simbólico, o eixo organizador dos interesses e estratégias dos atores do campo social em foco. O resultado deste trabalho foi compensador e permitiu confirmar a sua hipótese central: a de que o modelo de desenvolvimento defendido na CAINDR prioriza o avanço de fronteiras e de mercado em detrimento ao caráter ambiental – dando continuidade ao modelo espoliativo e concentrador que há muito vigora na Amazônia brasileira.

Direito e inclusão da pessoa com deficiência: uma análise orientada pela teoria do reconhecimento social de Axel Honneth

The law that justifies the inclusion of people with disability in schools and companies has been in force since the end of the 1980thies. In view of its coercion, people with disabilities have been enrolled at schools and been employed in companies. This research attempts to analyze the inclusion process according to Axel Honneth's Social Recognition Theory. Backed by his three dimension recognition process, we show firstly that inclusion signifies a process of individuation and social inclusion. Then, we study the law in force, its goals and strategies of achievement. We show that recognition's approach allows interpreting the law of inclusion more generously - in a less positivistic way. Finally, we approach the conditions for schools and companies to accomplish the law of inclusion so conceived.

Formação de professores: uma breve reflexão sobre as razões da escolha profissional

This text, supported by the Social Representations Theory (SRT), reports some results of a research with students from the 1st/4th years of the College of Sciences and Technology from the State University of São Paulo (FCT-Unesp) on the teacher’s work/identity. We applied 278 questionnaires (free association questions on the teacher’s work and profile). Two groups with former students (five with teaching degrees and four with degrees in Education) were organized. We analyzed issues regarding the choice for the teaching profession (Geography - 3; Math - 04; Physical Education - 01 and Pedagogy – 10). Partial results: 1. There are differences between the social representations of students enrolled in Teaching and Education courses; 2. These people say the profession requires dedication and commitment; 3. They establish a strong relationship between career choice and the “taste” for the profession; 4. They believe that their role is greatly challenging: it involves helping prospective students and commitment to the school.

The social construction of cooperation: exchange, identification and collective intentions within the organization

My aim is to develop a theory of cooperation within the organization and empirically test it. Drawing upon social exchange theory, social identity theory, the idea of collective intentions, and social constructivism, the main assumption of my work implies that both cooperation and the organization itself are continually shaped and restructured by actions, judgments, and symbolic interpretations of the parties involved. Therefore, I propose that the decision to cooperate, expressed say as an intention to cooperate, reflects and depends on a three step social process shaped by the interpretations of the actors involved. The first step entails an instrumental evaluation of cooperation in terms of social exchange. In the second step, this “social calculus” is translated into cognitive, emotional and evaluative reactions directed toward the organization. Finally, once the identification process is completed and membership awareness is established, I propose that individuals will start to think largely in terms of “We” instead of “I”. Self-goals are redefined at the collective level, and the outcomes for self, others, and the organization become practically interchangeable. I decided to apply my theory to an important cooperative problem in management research: knowledge exchange within organizations. Hence, I conducted a quantitative survey among the members of the virtual community, “www.borse.it” (n=108). Within this community, members freely decide to exchange their knowledge about the stock market among themselves. Because of the confirmatory requirements and the structural complexity of the theory proposed (i.e., the proposal that instrumental evaluations will induce social identity and this in turn will causes collective intentions), I use Structural Equation Modeling to test all hypotheses in this dissertation. The empirical survey-based study found support for the theory of cooperation proposed in this dissertation. The findings suggest that an appropriate conceptualization of the decision to exchange knowledge is one where collective intentions depend proximally on social identity (i.e., cognitive identification, affective commitment, and evaluative engagement) with the organization, and this identity depends on instrumental evaluations of cooperators (i.e., perceived value of the knowledge received, assessment of past reciprocity, expected reciprocity, and expected social outcomes of the exchange). Furthermore, I find that social identity fully mediates the effects of instrumental motives on collective intentions.

The Making of a Shiite Bourgeoisie in Lebanon Political Mobilisation, Economic Resources and Formation of a Social Group

The thesis analyses the making of the Shiite middle- and upper/entrepreneurial-class in Lebanon from the 1960s till the present day. The trajectory explores the historical, political and social (internal and external) factors that brought a sub-proletariat to mobilise and become an entrepreneurial bourgeoisie in the span of less than three generations. This work proposes the main theoretical hypothesis to unpack and reveal the trajectory of a very recent social class that through education, diaspora, political and social mobilisation evolved in a few years into a very peculiar bourgeoisie: whereas Christian-Maronite middle class practically produced political formations and benefited from them and from Maronite’s state supremacy (National Pact, 1943) reinforcing the community’s status quo, Shiites built their own bourgeoisie from within, and mobilised their “cadres” (Boltanski) not just to benefit from their renovated presence at the state level, but to oppose to it. The general Social Movement Theory (SMT), as well as a vast amount of the literature on (middle) class formation are therefore largely contradicted, opening up new territories for discussion on how to build a bourgeoisie without the state’s support (Social Mobilisation Theory, Resource Mobilisation Theory) and if, eventually, the middle class always produces democratic movements (the emergence of a social group out of backwardness and isolation into near dominance of a political order). The middle/upper class described here is at once an economic class related to the control of multiple forms of capital, and produced by local, national, and transnational networks related to flows of services, money, and education, and a culturally constructed social location and identity structured by economic as well as other forms of capital in relation to other groups in Lebanon.

Book Review of “Human Behaviour and the Social Environment: Models, Metaphors, and Maps for Applying Theoretical Perspectives to Practice”. 640 pages, Thomson Brooks/Cole, 2007, by James A. Forte

This voluminous book which draws on almost 1000 references provides an important theoretical base for practice. After an informative introduction about models, maps and metaphors, Forte provides an impressive presentation of several perspectives for use in practice; applied ecological theory, applied system theory, applied biology, applied cognitive science, applied psychodynamic theory, applied behaviourism, applied symbolic interactionism, applied social role theory, applied economic theory, and applied critical theory. Finally he completes his book with a chapter on “Multi theory practice and routes to integration.”

Influences of Discriminatory Incidents on Immigrants’ Attitudes Toward German Society

This article presents findings from a quantitative survey (N = 301) to evaluate the impact discriminatory incidents have on the attitudes of immigrants towards the majority society in Germany.The findings show that there is a strong relationship between experiences of discrimination and a hostile or alienated attitude towards German society. As an attempt to explain this generalization from single incidents to the macro relation between immigrants and autochthonous Germans in general a theory of framing, taken from developments in the field of rational choice theory, is applied. The reasoning is that a generalizing and rather hostile framing in terms of the attitude towards Germans can minimize psychic, emotional and social costs resulting from acts of discrimination.

Book Review of “At Risk: Social Justice in Child Welfare and Other Human Services” by Karen J. Swift and Marilyn Callahan, 2009, Toronto: University of Toronto Press

The newest book by Canadian social work scholars Karen Swift and Marilyn Callahan is exemplary of how other disciplines can invigorate social work theory. “At Risk” uses child welfare practice as an entry point for exploring the continuing movement away from addressing needs and towards the management of risk in the human services.

Social role effects on gender stereotyping in Germany and Japan

Social role theory postulates that gender stereotypes are restrained for men and women observed in the same social role. Cultural differences in the valuation of communal attributes might moderate this effect. To examine this possibility, 288 participants (144 German, 144 Japanese) estimated the communal and agentic attributes of an average man or woman described in a male-dominated role, a female-dominated role, or without role information. We hypothesized and found that in Germany and Japan, participants perceived men as more agentic than women without role information and as similarly agentic in the same role. However, for communion, German and Japanese participants reacted differently. German participants perceived women as more communal than men without role information and in male-dominated roles and perceived men as more communal than women in female-dominated roles. Japanese participants perceived all targets as similarly communal, regardless of role or gender, suggesting that communion is generally expected in Japan.

Social and cognitive predictors of fruit and vegetable intake among adolescents: The context of changes in body weight

Two studies investigated differences in the relationships between adolescents' fruit and vegetable intake (FVI) and the predictors specified in the Health Action Process Approach and Social-Cognitive Theory. Retrospective (Study 1; N = 502) and prospective (Study 2; N = 668) designs were applied. Among adolescents with overweight/obesity, intention was cross-sectionally associated with FVI (Study 1); no social or cognitive predictors explained FVI at 14-month follow-up (Study 2). The planning - FVI and self-efficacy - FVI relationships were stronger among adolescents who reduced their body weight to normal, compared to effects observed among those who maintained their body weight (Studies 1 and 2).

The impact of social roles on trait judgments: a critical reexamination

Consistent with social role theory's assumption that the role behavior of men and women shapes gender stereotypes, earlier experiments have found that men's and women's occupancy of the same role eliminated gender-stereotypical judgments of greater agency and lower communion in men than women. The shifting standards model raises the question of whether a shift to within-sex standards in judgments of men and women in roles could have masked underlying gender stereotypes. To examine this possibility, two experiments obtained judgments of men and women using measures that do or do not restrain shifts to within-sex standards. This measure variation did not affect the social role pattern of smaller perceived sex differences in the presence of role information. These findings thus support the social role theory claim that designations of identical roles for subgroups of men and women eliminate or reduce perceived sex differences.

Research Note—Why Following Friends Can Hurt You: An Exploratory Investigation of the Effects of Envy on Social Networking Sites among College-Age Users

Research findings on how participation in social networking sites (SNSs) affects users’ subjective well-being are equivocal. Some studies suggest a positive impact of SNSs on users’ life satisfaction and mood, whereas others report undesirable consequences such as depressive symptoms and anxiety. However, whereas the factors behind the positive effects have received significant scholarly attention, little is known about the mechanisms that underlie the unfavorable consequences. To fill this gap, this study uses social comparison theory and the responses of 1,193 college-age Facebook users to investigate the role of envy in the SNS context as a potential contributor to those undesirable outcomes. Arising in response to social information consumption, envy is shown to be associated with reduced cognitive and affective well-being as well as increased reactive self-enhancement. These preliminary findings contribute to the growing body of information systems research investigating the dysfunctional consequences of information technology adoption in general and social media participation in particular.

Something real: A social marketing approach to smoking prevention among Montevideo youth

Uruguay has some of the strictest tobacco-control laws in Latin America. Despite this, youth smoking rates in Uruguay are amongst the highest in South America. Thus, it is important to identify strategies to prevent youth smoking in Uruguay. The current qualitative research study sought to identify intrapersonal and socioenvironmental factors that are associated with smoking among middle school youth in Uruguay. It also sought to develop potential prevention strategies and media messages that would resonate with youth for a social media campaign. The study was grounded in social cognitive theory and the theory of reasoned action/planned behavior, among other behavioral science theories; anthropological perspectives were also considered. To achieve these goals, 29 group and individual structured interviews were conducted in two private middle schools catering to lower and higher SES youth in Montevideo, Uruguay during the summer of 2012. One hundred and three study participants, including students, parents, and teachers, were interviewed. The structured interviews were recorded, transcribed, translated, back translated, coded and analyzed. The study findings show that positive attitudes towards smoking (i.e. to be seen, to increase status, to ensure women's equality, to looking old, and to service as a rite of passage), delinquent behavior (i.e. transgression/deviant behavior), social norms that support smoking (i.e. peer pressure and modeling, group membership/sense of belonging, parental modeling, and family support), easy access and availability to tobacco (i.e. retails stores) were factors associated with youth smoking. Potential protective factors may include parental support, negative attitudes towards smoking, sports/music, and smoke-free environments. Because study participants are accustomed to government-sponsored strong countermarketing graphic imaging, study participants selected even stronger images and messages as the preferred way to receive tobacco prevention messages. Something Real ("Algo Real") was a theme that resonated with the participants and chosen as the name for the proposed campaign. This campaign was designed as a multiple component intervention that included mass, school base, and family based strategies to prevent tobacco use. Some intervention materials specific to these intervention components were developed to target relevant intrapersonal and socioenvironmental factors identified above. These materials will be tested in future pilot studies and larger scale evaluation with this population, outside the scope of this dissertation. ^