The Use of Nervous System Drugs and the Risk of Fractures in Old Adults

Hermostoon vaikuttavien lääkkeiden käyttö on yleistä iäkkäässä väestössä. Erityisen yleistä käyttö on pitkäaikaisessa laitoshoidossa asuvilla iäkkäillä. Hermostoon vaikuttavien lääkkeiden haittavaikutuksia on tutkittu paljon, ja useat hermostoon vaikuttavat lääkeaineryhmät on tunnistettu murtumien riskitekijöiksi. Aikaisemmin ei ole kuitenkaan tutkittu usean hermostoon vaikuttavan lääkkeen yhteiskäytön yhteyksiä murtuman riskiin 65 vuotta täyttäneillä. Väitöskirjatutkimuksessa havaittiin, että usean hermostoon vaikuttavan lääkeaineen yhtäaikainen käyttö oli hyvin yleistä Porin kaupunginsairaalan viidellä pitkäaikaisen laitoshoidon osastolla (n = 154) vuosien 2004 ja 2005 vaihteessa. Kolmasosa tutkituista käytti säännöllisesti kolmea tai useampaa hermostoon vaikuttavaa lääkettä samanaikaisesti. Kun huomioitiin myös tarvittaessa otettavat lääkkeet, vastaava luku oli 53 %. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin myös viitteitä lääkkeiden epäasianmukaisesta käytöstä, kun potilaiden käyttämiä lääkkeitä verrattiin heidän kognitiiviseen ja fyysiseen suorituskyynsä sekä asetettuihin diagnooseihin. Liedon kunnassa 1990-luvulla toteutettuun väestöpohjaiseen Liedon Iäkkäät -seurantatutkimukseen osallistui 1177 lietolaista 65 vuotta täyttänyttä. Lääkitystietoja sekä seuranta-aikana tapahtuneita murtumia analysoimalla havaittiin, että kahden tai useamman bentsodiatsepiinin sekä kahden tai useamman psykoosilääkkeen käyttö oli yhteydessä murtuman riskiin 65 vuotta täyttäneillä miehillä. Opioidin ja psykoosilääkkeen yhteiskäyttö sekä opioidin ja bentsodiatsepiinin yhteiskäyttö oli yhteydessä iäkkäiden miesten murtuman riskiin. Naisilla vastaavia tilastollisesti merkitseviä yhteyksiä ei havaittu. Väitöskirjatutkimuksen uusin osa-aineisto perustui Porissa vuosina 2009–2010 toteutetun Satauni-tutkimuksen aineistoon. Tutkimuksessa osoitettiin 89 potilaan aineistossa, että hallittu, yhden kuukauden aikana lääkärin ja hoitajan tuella toteutettu bentsodiatsepiinivieroitus paransi merkitsevästi 55 vuotta täyttäneiden naisten käden puristusvoimaa kuuden kuukauden seuranta-aikana. Vastaavaa yhteyttä ei havaittu miehillä. Bentsodiatsepiinivieroituksella ei ollut yhteyttä osallistujien tasapainotestin tulosten paranemiseen kuuden kuukauden seurantaaikana. Murtumilla on vakavia seurauksia sekä yksilötasolla että yhteiskunnallisesti iäkkäässä väestössä. Murtumien ehkäisy on hyvin tärkeää. Siinä tulee kiinnittää huomiota potilaan käyttämään lääkitykseen ja arvioida erityisesti usean hermostoon vaikuttavan lääkkeen yhteiskäytön tarpeellisuutta.

Negotiating home and belonging. Young Kurds in Finland

This study looks at negotiation of belonging and understandings of home among a generation of young Kurdish adults who were born in Iraq, Iran, and Turkey and who reached adulthood in Finland. The young Kurds taking part in the study belong to the generation of migrants who moved to Finland in their childhood and early teenage years from the region of Kurdistan and elsewhere in the Middle East, then grew to adulthood in Finland. In theoretical terms, the study draws broadly from three approaches: transnationalism, intersectionality, and narrativity. Transnationalism refers to individuals’ cross-border ties and interaction extending beyond nationstates’ borders. Young people of migrant background, it has been suggested, are raised in a transnational space that entails cross-border contacts, ties, and visits to the societies of departure. How identities and feelings of belonging become formed in relation to the transnational space is approached with an intersectional frame, for examination of individuals’ positionings in terms of their intersecting attributes of gender, age/generation, and ethnicity, among others. Focus on the narrative approach allows untangling how individuals make sense of their place in the social world and how they narrate their belonging in terms of various mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, including institutional arrangements and discursive categorisation schemes. The empirical data for this qualitative study come from 25 semi-structured thematic interviews that were conducted with 23 young Kurdish adults living in Turku and Helsinki between 2009 and 2011. The interviewees were aged between 19 and 28 years at the time of interviewing. Interview themes involved topics such as school and working life, family relations and language-learning, political activism and citizenship, transnational ties and attachments, belonging and identification, and plans for the future and aspirations. Furthermore, data were collected from observations during political demonstrations and meetings, along with cultural get-togethers. The data were analysed via thematic analysis. The findings from the study suggest that young Kurds express a strong sense of ‘Kurdishness’ that is based partially on knowing the Kurdish language and is informed by a sense of cultural continuity in the diaspora setting. Collective Kurdish identity narratives, particularly related to the consciousness of being a marginalised ‘other’ in the context of the Middle East, are resonant in young interviewees’ narrations of ‘Kurdishness’. Thus, a sense of ‘Kurdishness’ is drawn from lived experiences indexed to a particular politico-historical context of the Kurdish diaspora movements but also from the current situation of Kurdish minorities in the Middle East. On the other hand, young Kurds construct a sense of belonging in terms of the discursive constructions of ‘Finnishness’ and ‘otherness’ in the Finnish context. The racialised boundaries of ‘Finnishness’ are echoed in young Kurds’ narrations and position them as the ‘other’ – namely, the ‘immigrant’, ‘refugee’, or ‘foreigner’ – on the basis of embodied signifiers (specifically, their darker complexions). This study also indicates that young Kurds navigate between gendered expectations and norms at home and outside the home environment. They negotiate their positionings through linguistic repertoires – for instance, through mastery of the Finnish language – and by adjusting their behaviour in light of the context. This suggests that young Kurds adopt various forms of agency to display and enact their belonging in a transnational diaspora space. Young Kurds’ narrations display both territorially-bounded and non-territorially-bounded elements with regard to the relationship between identity and locality. ‘Home’ is located in Finland, and the future and aspirations are planned in relation to it. In contrast, the region of Kurdistan is viewed as ‘homeland’ and as the place of origins and roots, where temporary stays and visits are a possibility. The emotional attachments are forged in relation to the country (Finland) and not so much relative to ‘Finnishness’, which the interviewees considered an exclusionary identity category. Furthermore, identification with one’s immediate place of residence (city) or, in some cases, with a religious identity as ‘Muslim’ provides a more flexible venue for identification than does identifying oneself with the (Finnish) nation.

Induction of oral tolerance and the effect of interleukin-4 on murine skin allograft rejection

We studied the effect of oral and portal vein administration of alloantigens on mouse skin allograft survival. Graft receptor BALB/c mice received spleen cells (30, 90, 150 or 375 x 10(6)) from donor C57BL/6 mice intragastrically on three successive days, starting seven days before the skin graft. Allograft survival was significantly increased with the feeding of 150 x 10(6) allogeneic spleen cells by one gavage (median survival of 12 vs 14 days, P <= 0.005) or when 300 x 10(6) cells were given in six gavage (12 vs 14 days, P < 0.04). A similar effect was observed when 150 x 10(6) spleen cells were injected into the portal vein (12 vs 14 days, P <= 0.03). Furthermore, prolonged allograft survival was observed with subcutaneous (12 vs 16 days, P <= 0.002) or systemic (12 vs 15 days, P <= 0.016) application of murine interleukin-4 (IL-4), alone or in combination with spleen cell injection into the portal vein (12 vs 18 days, P <= 0.0018). Taken together, these results showed that tolerance induction with spleen cells expressing fully incompatible antigens by oral administration or intraportal injection partially down-modulates skin allograft rejection. Furthermore, these findings demonstrated for the first time the effect of subcutaneous or systemic IL-4 application on allograft skin survival suggesting its use as a beneficial support therapy in combination with a tolerance induction protocol.

In search of good relationships to music : understanding aspiration and challenge in developing music school teacher practices

This study focuses on teacher practices in publicly funded music schools in Finland. As views on the aims of music education change and broaden, music schools across Europe share the challenge of developing their activities in response. In public and scholarly debate, there have been calls for increased diversity of contents and concepts of teaching. In Finland, the official national curriculum for state-funded music schools builds on the ideal that teaching and learning should create conditions which promote ‘a good relationship to music’. The meaning of this concept has been deliberately left open in order to leave room for dialogue, flexibility, and teacher autonomy. Since what is meant by ‘good’ is not defined in advance, the notion of ‘improving’ practices is also open to discussion. The purpose of the study is to examine these issues from teachers’ point of view by asking what music school teachers aim to accomplish as they develop their practices. Methodologically, the study introduces a suggestion for building empirical research on Alperson’s ‘robust’ praxial approach to music education, a philosophical theory which is strongly committed to practitioner perspectives and musical diversity. A systematic method for analysing music education practices, interpretive practice analysis, is elaborated with support from interpretive research methods originally used in policy analysis. In addition, the research design shows how reflecting conversations (a collaborative approach well-known in Nordic social work) can be fruitfully applied in interpretive research and combined with teacher inquiry. Data have been generated in a collaborative project involving five experienced music school teachers and the researcher. The empirical material includes transcripts from group conversations, data from teacher inquiry conducted within the project, and transcripts from follow-up interviews. The teachers’ aspirations can be understood as strivings to reinforce the connection between musical practices and various forms of human flourishing such that music and flourishing can sustain each other. Examples from their practices show how the word ‘good’ receives its meaning in context. Central among the teachers’ concerns is their hope that students develop a free and sustainable interest in music, often described as inspiration. I propose that ‘good relationships to music’ and ‘inspiration’ can be understood as philosophical mediators which support the transition from an indeterminate ‘interest in music’ towards specific ways in which music can become a (co-)constitutive part of living well in each person’s particular circumstances. Different musical practices emphasise different aspects of what is considered important in music and in human life. Music school teachers consciously balance between a variety of such values. They also make efforts to resist pressure which might threaten the goods they think are most important. Such goods include joy, participation, perseverance, solid musical skills related to specific practices, and a strong sense of vitality. The insights from this study suggest that when teachers are able to create inspiration, they seem to do so by performing complex work which combines musical and educational aims and makes general positive contributions to their students’ lives. Ensuring that teaching and learning in music schools remain as constructive and meaningful as possible for both students and teachers is a demanding task. The study indicates that collaborative, reflective and interdisciplinary work may be helpful as support for development processes on both individual and collective levels of music school teacher practices.

Mentorships and co-op placements as a means of heightening the need for a secondary school diploma to the education of at-risk students.--

Both educators and politicians appear to be quite concerned about a dropout rate in Ontario's public schools of some 30 percent. With the basic understanding that a high dropout rate is costly both in economic terms and in human terms, something quite obviously needs to be done to reduce the dropout rate in Ontario schools and, in doing so, ensuring Ontario and its graduates an active role in a growing global economy. This study is an exploratory pilot study in that it examined mentoring and the role that mentoring can play in assisting a student in staying in school and graduating from secondary school. Also incorporated in this is co-operative education and the role it can play, through mentoring, in making students aware of lifestyle level of employment, and of the skills necessary to obtain gainful, meaningful employment. In order to gain information on student attitudes, needs and expectations of a mentoring situation, a series of three questionnaires was used. Also, a questionnaire was distributed to the various co-operative education employers. The intent of this questionnaire was to probe the attitudes, needs and expectations of a mentoring situation from the perspective of an employer. The findings of this study indicated that co-operative education and mentoring are a very valuable and useful component in education. There exist certain factors in a co-operative education setting that serve to enhance and to augment the traditional or "theoretical" setting of the classroom. In addition, a mentoring situation tends to add a sense of relevance to education that students seem to require. Also, an opportunity is offered that allows a student to practice and further refine the skills that have been taught over the course of the student's academic life. Results from this study suggested that a mentoring situation, occurring through a co-operative education situation, adds relevance and a sense of "application" to the traditional or classroom schooling situation. The whole idea of mentoring bodes well for the future of education and of the student. Many advantages are identified in a mentoring situation. One of the advantages is that the schools are able to work quite closely with the community and business in order to stay current and informed on the needs and expected needs of the business community. Co-operative education has now gone beyond being an "experimental" mode of education. All students can benefit from being involved in the program. Certainly at-risk students are aided with staying in school. Those students who are said to be not at-risk can also benefit from being enrolled in the program by gaining hands-on work experience and some of the necessary skills to ensure a place in a growing world economy.

School funding and education policy-making models in Ontario /

The purpose of this thesis is to examine various policy implementation models, and to determine what use they are to a government. In order to insure that governmental proposals are created and exercised in an effective manner, there roust be some guidelines in place which will assist in resolving difficult situations. All governments face the challenge of responding to public demand, by delivering the type of policy responses that will attempt to answer those demands. The problem for those people in positions of policy-making responsibility is to balance the competitive forces that would influence policy. This thesis examines provincial government policy in two unique cases. The first is the revolutionary recommendations brought forth in the Hall -Dennis Report. The second is the question of extending full -funding to the end of high school in the separate school system. These two cases illustrate how divergent and problematic the policy-making duties of any government may be. In order to respond to these political challenges decision-makers must have a clear understanding of what they are attempting to do. They must also have an assortment of policy-making models that will insure a policy response effectively deals with the issue under examination. A government must make every effort to insure that all policymaking methods are considered, and that the data gathered is inserted into the most appropriate model. Currently, there is considerable debate over the benefits of the progressive individualistic education approach as proposed by the Hall -Dennis Committee. This debate is usually intensified during periods of economic uncertainty. Periodically, the province will also experience brief yet equally intense debate on the question of separate school funding. At one level, this debate centres around the efficiency of maintaining two parallel education systems, but the debate frequently has undertones of the religious animosity common in Ontario's history. As a result of the two policy cases under study we may ask ourselves these questions: a) did the policies in question improve the general quality of life in the province? and b) did the policies unite the province? In the cases of educational instruction and finance the debate is ongoing and unsettling. Currently, there is a widespread belief that provincial students at the elementary and secondary levels of education are not being educated adequately to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. The perceived culprit is individual education which sees students progressing through the system at their own pace and not meeting adequate education standards. The question of the finance of Catholic education occasionally rears its head in a painful fashion within the province. Some public school supporters tend to take extension as a personal religious defeat, rather than an opportunity to demonstrate that educational diversity can be accommodated within Canada's most populated province. This thesis is an attempt to analyze how successful provincial policy-implementation models were in answering public demand. A majority of the public did not demand additional separate school funding, yet it was put into place. The same majority did insist on an examination of educational methods, and the government did put changes in place. It will also demonstrate how policy if wisely created may spread additional benefits to the public at large. Catholic students currently enjoy a much improved financial contribution from the province, yet these additional funds were taken from somewhere. The public system had it funds reduced with what would appear to be minimal impact. This impact indicates that government policy is still sensitive to the strongly held convictions of those people in opposition to a given policy.

Exploring the emergent literacy needs of preschoolers with language impairments

Current research indicates the need to identify and support children at-risk for reading difficulties as early as possible. Children with language impairments are one group of children who have been shown to be at-risk for literacy problems. Their difficulties likely stem from the challenges they tend to experience with acquiring emergent literacy skills as preschoolers. Very little empirical work has been done with preschoolers with language impairments to explore the nature of their emergent literacy development or their response to interventions which target emergent literacy skills. In the present study, 55 preschoolers with language impairments were recruited from a speech and language centre in Southern Ontario. The nature of the relationship between children's early language and literacy skills was explored using measures of their written language awareness, phonological awareness and oral language abilities, in an attempt to better understand how to conceptualize their emergent literacy abilities. Furthermore, a between-subjects design was used to compare two language interventions: an experimental emergent literacy intervention and a standard intervention based on traditional models of speech and language therapy. Results indicated that preschooler's emergent literacy abilities can be understood as a broad, multi-dimensional construct consisting of three separate but interrelated components: written language awareness, phonological awareness, and oral language. The emergent literacy-enhanced intervention was generally superior to the standard language intervention in improving children's skills in written language awareness, and children with the most severe impairments seemed to benefit the most from the experimental intervention. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as areas for future research are discussed. .

Developmental and individual differences in novelty and error detection in 10-year-old children and young adults /

Event-related potentials were recorded from 10-year-old children and young adults in order to examine the developmental dififerences in two frontal lobe functions: detection of novel stimuli during an auditory novelty oddball task, and error detection during a visual flanker task. All participants showed a parietally-maximal P3 in response to auditory stimuli. In children, novel stimuli generated higher P3 amplitudes at the frontal site compared with target stimuli, whereas target stimuli generated higher P3 amplitudes at the parietal site compared with novel stimuli. Adults, however, had higher P3 amplitude to novel tones compared with target tones at each site. Children also had greater P3 amplitude at more parietal sites than adults during the novelty oddball and flanker tasks. Furthermore, children and adults did not show a significant reduction in P3 amplitude from the first to second novel stimulus presentation. No age differences were found with respect to P3 latency to novel and target stimuli. These findings suggest that the detection of novel and target stimuli is mature in 10-year-olds. Error trials typically elicit a negative ERP deflection (the ERN) with a frontal-central scalp distribution that may reflect response monitoring. There is also evidence of a positive ERP peak (the Pe) with a posterior scalp distribution which may reflect subjective recognition of a response. Both children and adults showed an ERN and Pe maximal at frontal-central sites. Children committed more errors, had smaller ERN across sites, and had a larger Pe at the parietal site than adults. This suggests that response monitoring is still immature in 10-year-olds whereas recognition of and emotional responses to errors may be similar in children and adults.

The Clemente Course in the Humanities and critical pedagogy : a comparative analysis of Earl Shorris and bell hooks on poverty, racism, imperialism and patriarchy

The Clemente Course in the Humanities is an anti-poverty intervention for adults who self-identity as "poor" and humanities instructors. The course was created in 1995 by journalist Earl Shorris, who based the curriculum on a Socratic method of pedagogy and the "great books" canon of Robert Hutchins. It began as a community-based initiative in urban US settings, but since 1997 Mayan, Yup'ik and Cherokee iterations have been created, as well as on-campus bridge courses for non-traditional students to explore college-level education in Canada and the USA. The course potentially conflicts with critical pedagogy because the critical theories of Paulo Freire and contemporary cultural studies reject traditional notions of both the canon and teaching. However, a comparison between Shorris' and bell hooks' theories of oppression reveals significant similarities between his "surround of force" and her "capitalist imperialist white supremacist patriarchy," with implications for liberal studies and critical pedagogy.

Religious Diversity and Teacher Education: Experiences and Perspectives of Muslim Women as Teacher Candidates in Pre-service Programs

This qualitative research project explores the insights of Muslim women as teacher candidates completing pre-service programs in Ontario. Ontario schools cater to students from many ethnic, cultural and religious groups, including a sizable Muslim population. Muslims make up 4.6% of Ontario’s population with the highest concentration of Muslims in the GTA (Statistics Canada, 2011). The Muslim population in Ontario is of a significant enough number that, in a post 9/11 world, it has prompted discussion of how to integrate Muslim populations in Canada. In this research, I explore how Islamophobic sentiment is experienced in Ontario-based teacher education programs. I use Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Critical Race Feminism (CRF) to analyse and deconstruct experiences of female Muslim teacher candidates in pre-service programs. I discuss how Muslims are a racialized group that experience racism as discussed by critical race literature; however, there is a marked difference between how Muslim men and women experience gendered Islamophobia. By using in-depth research-based interviews, I explore how Muslim women perceived diversity, education, accommodations and Islamophobia in pre-service programs. This study adds to the current literature on critical race theory and anti-racist practices in education. Furthermore, this study adds to the voice of Muslim women in the discussion of diversity and inclusivity in educational institutions.

Nonsuicidal Self-Injury and Suicidal Risk: An Examination among Young Adults

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), which refers to the direct and deliberate destruction of bodily tissue in the absence of suicidal intent, is a serious and widespread mental health concern. Although NSSI has been differentiated from suicidal behavior on the basis of non-lethal intent, research has shown that these two behaviors commonly co-occur. Despite increased research on the link between NSSI and suicidal behavior, however, little attention has been given as to why these two behaviors are associated. My doctoral dissertation specifically addressed this gap in the literature by examining the link between NSSI and several measures of suicidal risk (e.g., suicidal ideation, suicidal attempts, pain tolerance) among a large sample of young adults. The primary goal of my doctoral research was to identify individuals who engaged in NSSI at risk for suicidal ideation and attempts, in an effort to elucidate the processes through which psychosocial risk, NSSI, and suicidal risk may be associated. Participants were drawn from a larger sample of 1153 undergraduate students (70.3% female) at a mid-sized Canadian University. In study one, I examined whether increases in psychosocial risk and suicidal ideation were associated with changes in NSSI engagement over a one year period. Analyses revealed that beginners, relapsed injurers, and persistent injurers were differentiated from recovered injurers and desisters by increases in psychsocial risk and suicidal ideation over time. In study two, I examined whether several NSSI characteristics (e.g., frequency, number of methods) were associated with suicidal risk using latent class analysis. Three subgroups of individuals were identified: 1) an infrequent NSSI/not high risk for suicidal behavior group, 2) a frequent NSSI/not high risk for suicidal behavior group, and 3) a frequent NSSI/high risk for suicidal behavior group. Follow-up analyses indicated that individuals in the frequent NSSI/high risk for suicidal behavior group met the clinical cutoff score for high suicidal risk and reported significantly greater levels of suicidal ideation, attempts, and risk for future suicidal behavior as compared to the other two classes. Class 3 was also differentiated by higher levels of psychosocial risk (e.g., depressive symptoms, social anxiety) relative to the other two classes, as well as a comparison group of non-injuring young adults. Finally, in study three, I examined whether NSSI was associated with pain tolerance in a lab-based task, as tolerance to pain has been shown to be a strong predictor of suicidal risk. Individuals who engaged in NSSI to regulate the need to self-punish, tolerated pain longer than individuals who engaged in NSSI but not to self-punish and a non-injuring comparison group. My findings offer new insight into the associations among psychosocial risk, NSSI, and suicidal risk, and can serve to inform intervention efforts aimed at individuals at high risk for suicidal behavior. More specifically, my findings provide clinicians with several NSSI-specific risk factors (e.g., frequent self-injury, self-injuring alone, self-injuring to self-punish) that may serve as important markers of suicidal risk among individuals engaging in NSSI.

La compétence orthographique d'élèves dyslexiques du primaire

Les élèves dyslexiques éprouvent de grandes difficultés à lire et à écrire. Leurs difficultés en production orthographique sont reconnues pour être persistantes. Elles peuvent être expliquées par un déficit des procédures phonologiques. Or, pour orthographier une langue alphabétique comme le français, il est indispensable de développer des connaissances phonologiques puisque l’entrée dans l’écrit repose en grande partie sur la mise en correspondance de la langue orale et de sa réalisation à l’écrit. En plus des connaissances phonologiques, le système orthographique du français exige du scripteur d’acquérir des connaissances visuo-orthographiques et morphologiques. Les recherches menées sur la compétence orthographique des élèves dyslexiques se rapportent majoritairement à l’anglais et sur la compétence en lecture. La présente étude a pour objectif général de décrire, dans une visée explicative, la compétence orthographique de 26 élèves dyslexiques québécois âgés de 9 à 13 ans. Les objectifs spécifiques sont de décrire les performances de ces élèves en contexte de productions libres et de les comparer à celles de 26 élèves normo-lecteurs de même âge chronologique (CA) et à celles de 29 normo-lecteurs plus jeunes mais de même niveau en lecture (CL). Pour ce faire, nous avons analysé les erreurs en prenant en compte les propriétés phonologiques, visuo-orthographiques et morphologiques des mots écrits. Les résultats indiquent que les élèves dyslexiques ont des performances inférieures à celles des CA, mais aussi, dans certains cas, à celles des CL. Les résultats sont discutés en fonction des connaissances que doivent développer les scripteurs dyslexiques et des pistes orthodidactiques à envisager.

L’évolution des représentations sur les langues d’élèves plurilingues du 3e cycle du primaire lors de l’implantation d’un projet d’Éveil aux langues

La présente recherche documente l’évolution des représentations sur les langues de cinq cas d’élèves plurilingues et immigrants ou issus de l’immigration, scolarisés en fin de cycle du primaire en milieu pluriethnique à Montréal, tout au long de l’implantation d’un projet d’Éveil aux langues, sur une période de deux ans. La méthodologie adoptée permet de décrire en profondeur et de façon nuancée, l’évolution des représentations des élèves sur les langues de leur répertoire plurilingue d’une part, et plus largement, sur les langues et de la diversité linguistique d’autre part. Les résultats de la recherche ont permis de mettre en évidence que l’implantation d’un projet d’Éveil aux langues sur deux ans : 1) a des effets positifs sur les représentations sur la diversité linguistique de ces élèves; 2) permet de soutenir le développement de représentations positives sur les langues du répertoire linguistique des élèves qui passe par l’acceptation de compétences partielles dans l’une ou l’autre des langues de leur répertoire et par l’expression d’un sentiment de fierté à propos de leur répertoire plurilingue; 3) permet le développement, chez les élèves, de diverses stratégies pour légitimer l’intégration de langues dans lesquelles ils ont des compétences partielles au sein de leur répertoire linguistique : apporter un jugement de valeur sur leurs compétences, spécifier leur domaine de compétence (expression orale ou écrite, compréhension orale ou écrite), qualifier, étiqueter leurs langues (langue maternelle, langue d’origine, langue seconde), adapter les définitions formelles présentées dans le projet sur le plurilinguisme à leur situation; 4) les représentations sur les langues par les élèves peuvent être marquées par le poids des représentations sociales; toutefois, cette tendance se lénifie au fur et à mesure de l’implantation du projet et une majorité d’élèves partage des représentations plus individualisées et moins marquées par des stéréotypes en fin de projet; 5) permet, pour les élèves de niveau scolaire fort et moyen, le développement d’un vocabulaire de haut niveau ainsi que le développement d’une curiosité envers la langue de l’Autre; 6) permet, pour les élèves de niveau scolaire faible, et à partir de la seconde année d’implantation, le développement d’un engagement dans les activités qui passe par une participation accrue au projet et le développement de compétence langagière (meilleure qualité argumentative); 7) offre la possibilité aux élèves de se connaître les uns les autres, d’être à l’écoute de l’Autre et d’exprimer de la curiosité envers la langue de l’autre et de reconnaître l’expertise de l’Autre, ceci participant à la mise en place d’une dynamique relationnelle propice aux apprentissages

Engendered Conversations: Gender Subversion Through Fictional Dialogue in Lawrence, Hemingway and Forster

This dissertation examines gendered fictional dialogue in popular works by D.H. Lawrence, Ernest Hemingway and E.M. Forster, including Howards End (1910), The Sun Also Rises (1926) and Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928). I apply Judith Halberstam’s notion of female masculinity to direct speech, to explore how speech traits inform modernist literary aesthetics. My introduction frames this discussion in sociolinguistics, Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, M.M. Bakhtin’s discourse theory, and gender studies. It provides an opportunity to establish experimental dialogue techniques, and the manipulation of gendered talk, in transgressive texts including James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922), Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (1928) and Radcyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness (1928). The first chapter discusses taboos and dialect in D.H. Lawrence’s fictional dialogue. The second chapter establishes gender subversion as a crucial element in Ernest Hemingway’s dialogue style. The third chapter contrasts Forster’s latently gendered speech with his techniques of dialect emphasis and dialect suppression. Finally, my conclusion discusses gender identity in the poetry of Dorothy Parker and Baroness Elsa von Freytag Loringhoven, and the temporality of gender in “Time Passes” from Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (1927). New Woman characters like Lady Brett Ashley typified a crucial moment in women’s liberation. They not only subverted stereotypes of womanhood through their dress or sexual freedom, they also adopted/adapted masculine idiom to shock, to rebel against and challenge male dominance. Different speech acts incited fashionable slang, became a political protest symbol or inspired psychoanalytic theory. The intriguing functions of women’s masculine speech in early twentieth century fiction establishes the need to examine additional connections between gender and talk in literary studies.

Essays on education and family planning

Le capital humain d’un pays est un facteur important de sa croissance et de son développement à long terme. Selon l’Unicef, ce capital humain est constitué en donnant à chaque enfant un bon départ dans la vie : non seule- ment la possibilité de survivre, mais aussi les conditions nécessaires pour se développer et réaliser tout son potentiel. Malheureusement, cet état de fait est loin d’être une réalité en Afrique Subsaharienne. En effet, selon toujours l’Unicef et sur la base d’enquêtes ménages dans 21 pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre, c’est près de 32 millions d’enfants qui ont l’âge officiel d’être scolarisés, mais qui ne le sont pas. A ces chiffres, il faut ajouter 17 millions d’enfants scolarisés qui risquent fortement l’exclusion. De son Côté, l’OMS pointe du doigt la mauvaise santé des enfants dans cette région. Ainsi, les décès d’enfants sont de plus en plus concentrés en Afrique subsaharienne où les enfants ont plus de 15 fois plus de risques de mourir avant l’âge de cinq ans que les enfants des régions développées. Les difficultés économiques apparaissent comme la première explication des obstacles à l’amélioration du bien être des enfants aussi bien du côté de l’offre que de la demande. Cette thèse relie trois essais sur d’une part le lien entre conflit armés, l’éducation et la mortalité des enfants et d’autre part sur le lien entre fertilité et éducation des enfants en milieu urbain. Le premier chapitre identifie l’impact de la crise politico-militaire de la Côte d’Ivoire sur le bien être des enfants, en particulier sur l’éducation et la mor- talité infanto-juvénile en exploitant la variation temporelle et géographique de la crise. Il ressort de cette analyse que les individus qui vivaient dans les régions de conflit et qui ont atteint durant la crise, l’âge officiel d’entrer à l’école ont 10% moins de chance d’être inscrits à l’école. Les élèves qui habitaient dans des régions de conflit pendant la crise ont subit une diminu- tion du nombre d’années scolaire d’au moins une année. Les élèves les plus v vi âgés et qui sont susceptibles d’être au secondaire ont connu une décroissance du nombre d’année scolaire d’au moins deux années. Il ressort également que la crise ivoirienne a accru la mortalité infanto-juvénile d’au moins 3%. Mes résultats suggèrent également que la détérioration des conditions de vie et la limitation de l’utilisation des services de santé au cours du conflit con- tribuent à expliquer ces effets négatifs. Des tests de robustesse incluant un test de placebo suggèrent que les résultats ne sont pas dus à des différences préexistantes entre les régions affectées par le conflit et celles non affectées. Le deuxième chapitre étudie les disparités intra-urbaines en matière d’arbitrage entre le nombre d’enfant et la scolarisation des enfants en se focalisant sur le cas de Ouagadougou (Capitale du Burkina Faso). Dans cette ville, au moins 33% des deux millions d’habitants vivent dans des zones informelles (appelées localement des zones non-loties). Cette sous-population manque d’infrastructures socioéconomiques de base et a un niveau d’éducation très bas. Dans ce chapitre, prenant en compte la possible endogénéité du nombre d’enfants et en utilisant une approche "two-step control function" avec des modèles Probit, nous investiguons les différences de comportement des mé- nages en matière de scolarisation entre zones formelles et zones informelles. Nous nous focalisons en particulier sur l’arbitrage entre la "quantité" et la "qualité" des enfants. Compte tenu de l’hétérogénéité des deux types de zones, nous utilisons les probabilités prédites pour les comparer. Nos princi- pales conclusions sont les suivantes. Tout d’abord, nous trouvons un impact négatif de la taille de la famille sur le niveau de scolarisation dans les deux types de zone. Cependant, nous constatons que l’impact est plus aigu dans les zones informelles. Deuxièmement, si nous supposons que le caractère en- dogène du nombre d’enfants est essentiellement due à la causalité inverse, les résultats suggèrent que dans les zones formelles les parents tiennent compte de la scolarisation des enfants dans la décision de leur nombre d’enfants, mais ce ne est pas le cas dans les zones informelles. Enfin, nous constatons que, pour des familles avec les mêmes caractéristiques observables, la probabilité d’atteindre le niveau post-primaire est plus élevée dans les zones formelles que dans les zones informelles. En terme d’implications politique, selon ces résultats, les efforts pour améliorer la scolarisation des enfants ne doivent pas être dirigées uniquement vers les zones rurales. En plus de réduire les frais de scolarité dans certaines zones urbaines, en particulier les zones informelles, un accent particulier devrait être mis sur la sensibilisation sur les avantages de l’éducation pour le bien-être des enfants et leur famille. Enfin, du point vii de vue méthodologique, nos résultats montrent l’importance de tenir compte de l’hétérogénéité non observée entre les sous-populations dans l’explication des phénomènes socio-économiques. Compte tenu du lien négatif entre la taille de la famille et la scolarisation des enfants d’une part et les différences intra-urbaines de comportement des ménages en matière de scolarisation, le trosième chapitre étudie le rôle des types de méthodes contraceptives dans l’espacement des naissances en mi- lieu urbain. Ainsi, en distinguant les méthodes modernes et traditionnelles et en utilisant l’histoire génétique des femmes, ce chapitre fait ressortir des différences de comportement en matière de contraception entre les femmes des zones formelles et informelles à Ouagadougou (capitale du Burkina Faso). Les résultats montrent que les deux types de méthodes contraceptives aug- mentent l’écart des naissances et diminuent la probabilité qu’une naissance se produise moins de 24 mois après la précédente. Prendre en compte les caractéristiques non observées mais invariants avec le temps ne modifie pas significativement l’amplitude du coefficient de l’utilisation de la contracep- tion moderne dans les deux types de zone. Toutefois, dans la zone informelle, la prise en compte les effets fixes des femmes augmentent significativement l’effet des méthodes traditionnelles. Les normes sociales, la perception de la planification familiale et le rôle du partenaire de la femme pourraient expli- quer ces différences de comportement entre les zones formelles et informelles. Par conséquent, pour améliorer l’utilisation de la contraception et de leur efficacité, il est essentiel de hiérarchiser les actions en fonction du type de sous-population, même dans les zones urbaines.