The Hybrid Spirit Animating Chinese Pentecostals in Malaysia

This dissertation interrogates the assertion in postcolonial scholarship, especially from the work of Homi Bhabha that the construction and performance of hybrid identities act as a form of resistance for marginalized communities against structures of oppression. While this study supports this assertion, it also critiques how hybridity fails to address issues of unequal power relations. This has led to an uncritical use of hybridity that reproduces the very idea of static identity which its proponents claim to transcend. Through qualitative study of Chinese members of a Pentecostal church in Malaysia, this study argues that church members engage in "unequal belonging" where they privilege certain elements of their identities over others. In concert with Pierre Bourdieu's conceptions of habitus, field, and capital, unequal belonging highlights how hybridity fails to capture the intersecting and competing loyalties, strategies, and complexities of identity formation on a contextual level. Unequal belonging challenges postcolonial scholars to locate the subtle workings of power and privilege that manifest even among marginalized communities. The study first situates the Chinese through an analysis of the historical legacy of British colonialism that has structured the country's current socio-political configuration along bounded categories of identification. The habitus constrains church members to accept certain Chinese ethnic markers as "givens." Although they face continuous marginalization, interviewee data demonstrates that church members negotiate their Chineseness and construct a "Modern Chinese" ethnic identity as a strategic move away from Chinese stereotypes. Moreover, conversion to Christianity affords church members access to cultural capital. Yet, it is limited and unequal capital. In particular, the "Chinese Chinese," who church members have demarcated as backward and traditional, are unable to gain access to this capital because they lack fluency in English and knowledge in modern, westernized worldviews. Unequal belonging nuances monolithic conceptions of hybridity. It demonstrates how church members' privilege of Christianity over Chineseness exposes the complex processes of power and privilege that makes westernized-English-speaking Chinese Christians culturally "higher" than non-English-speaking, non-Christian, Chinese. This study provides significant contribution to the complex aspect of hybridity where it is both a site of resistance and oppression.

Relationships between First Generation College Students and Faculty: A Case Study of a Small Rural Private University

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Desperately seeking the global subject: international education, citizenship and cosmopolitanism

This article takes the case of international education and Australian state schools to argue that the economic, political and cultural changes associated with globalisation do not automatically give rise to globally oriented and supra-territorial forms of subjectivity. The tendency of educational institutions such as schools to privilege narrowly instrumental cultural capital perpetuates and sustains normative national, cultural and ethnic identities. In the absence of concerted efforts on the part of educational institutions to sponsor new forms of global subjectivity, flows and exchanges like those that constitute international education are more likely to produce a neo-liberal variant of global subjectivity.

ENTRE NÚMEROS E PALAVRAS: DIFERENÇAS QUE COLIDEM NO FRACASSO ESCOLAR

Esta dissertação - Entre números e palavras: diferenças que colidem no fracasso escolar - procura observar, inicialmente, as diretrizes curriculares e os sistemas avaliativos, com ênfase sobre o Currículo Oficial, instituído em 2008, e o Sistema de Avaliação do Rendimento Escolar (SARESP) do Estado de São Paulo, para, posteriormente, buscar compreender as relações que se estabelecem quando observados pelo discurso dos professores, que em sala de aula são o ponto de contato entre o currículo e os alunos. Para tanto, além da análise dos documentos curriculares e dos sistemas de avaliação oficiais, referendamo-nos em pressupostos teóricos relacionados ao campo curricular, tendo como principal viés os conceitos de Capital Cultural e Habitus desenvolvidos por Pierre Bourdieu. A partir destas discussões e conceitos se organizam as entrevistas realizadas com professores de Língua Portuguesa do 9º ano do ensino fundamental da rede pública do Estado de São Paulo, em que buscamos problematizar o Currículo Oficial, as metas e resultados de desempenho estabelecidos pelo SARESP, as relações de poder e ideologia presentes nas diretrizes curriculares no encontro com o Capital Cultual dos alunos. Deste modo, este estudo observa um amplo conjunto de práticas que mobilizam as ações educativas, com reflexos sobre o funcionamento da escola, bem como sobre os professores e os alunos; bem como, problematiza a constituição de diretrizes curriculares, o estabelecimento de currículos oficiais e sua unicidade, os resultados advindos das avaliações sistêmicas, as relações de poder e ideologias que atravessam os documentos oficiais e sua influência sobre a formação escolar dos alunos.

OS SENTIDOS DO FUTEBOL ESPETÁCULO PARA ESTUDANTES DE DISTINTAS CLASSES SOCIAIS

O presente estudo busca identificar em que medida o pertencimento de classe social interfere nos sentidos e perspectivas do jovem brasileiro frente ao futebol espetáculo, bem como compreender os mecanismos sociais que determinam a decisão de os sujeitos investirem na carreira profissional esportiva em detrimento da trajetória escolar longa. Começamos com uma abordagem sociológica, a análise crítica dos processos de difusão, massificação e profissionalização do futebol ocorridas no contexto da sociedade pós-industrial. Enfocamos a conflituosa mutação da modalidade, inicialmente elitizada com fins social-distintivos para esporte de massa ideal de ascensão social da classe popular , além da dependência com a mídia, das razões que levaram a caracterizar-se como produto da indústria cultural, culminando com a transformação do futebol em mercadoria submetida às leis e lógica da sociedade de consumo. Em seguida, entrelaçamos as relações de poder, aliança e concorrência dos agentes sociais que participam do complexo campo das práticas esportivas com os canais com que o público jovem estabelece contato com o esporte espetáculo. Neste aspecto, especial atenção foi dada à mídia, difusora da ideologia de uma sociedade capitalista aberta, que reforça a idéia do esporte como via de ascensão social para indivíduos de baixa renda, na mesma medida em que oculta em seu discurso as reais probabilidades de concretização do sucesso esportivo. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada em duas escolas do município de São Bernardo do Campo (SP), uma da rede pública estadual e outra da rede particular de ensino. Assim, constituímos dois grupos com alunos de distintas classes sociais, compostos por estudantes do 1º ano do Ensino Médio, sexo masculino, com 15 anos de idade e praticantes de futebol nas aulas de Educação Física. Metodologicamente, fizemos uso da observação participante e de entrevistas como instrumentos para a coleta de dados. Conjugadas aos objetivos do estudo, estruturamos a análise do material colhido em seis categorias, articulando questões sobre o prosseguimento nos estudos e o trabalho, as tendências para a pratica esportiva profissional, as representações sociais em torno do futebol, os usos e costumes no tempo livre e as expectativas da pratica esportiva implicadas pela herança cultural familiar. Como referencial teórico de análise, utilizamos de Pierre Bourdieu os conceitos de campo, habitus, estratégia, capital econômico, social e, principalmente, capital cultural, partindo da hipótese de que o nível cultural dos alunos e seus familiares interferem nos sentidos e formas de apropriação do esporte. Entre outras conclusões, obtivemos como resultado a configuração de uma trajetória esportiva profissional voltada para os alunos de baixa classe social, em oposição à trajetória escolar longa, estrategicamente adotada pelos alunos de classe social alta.(AU)

A EXPECTATIVA DOS PAIS DIANTE DA EDUCAÇÃO INFANTIL: UM ESTUDO DE CASO

A partir do estudo de caso de uma unidade privada de educação infantil, a presente pesquisa pretendeu investigar, através das expectativas dos pais diante da educação infantil, a influência da herança cultural familiar na trajetória escolar da criança. O interesse teórico de uma pesquisa empírica sobre esse universo é atestado pelo fato de que, conforme Pierre Bourdieu, a valorização e a compreensão da escola, já nos primeiros anos de vida da criança são comuns entre as famílias que possuem um maior nível de escolarização e que conseqüentemente começam a traçar desde cedo a trajetória escolar de seus filhos. Assim, ao estudarmos os pais de alunos de uma unidade privada de educação infantil, estaremos abordando, sobretudo, as expectativas educacionais de famílias da classe média. Apoiados em algumas idéias básicas sobre a conexão entre capital cultural e estratégias educacionais apresentados por Bourdieu, trabalhamos com a hipótese de que as diferentes categorias sociais são desigualmente predispostas a compreender e a valorizar a escolarização em geral, e que este fato está diretamente relacionado ao capital cultural familiar. De acordo com o autor é o volume e o tipo de capital (econômico, social e cultural) que o indivíduo possui que irá definir sua posição na hierarquia social, bem como suas expectativas diante da escola. Nota-se, então, que a cultura de um modo geral opera como um patrimônio de diferenciação de classe.(AU)

O professor diante do fracasso escolar: um estudo de caso da ideologia docente

A partir do estudo de caso de uma unidade pública de ensino, esta pesquisa almejou investigar a existência de mecanismos ideológicos presentes no discurso docente a cerca do fracasso escolar das camadas menos favorecidas, buscando captar algumas das estratégias acionadas pelos professores para se eximir de qualquer responsabilidade que possa recair sobre eles quanto ao baixo rendimento escolar dos alunos. Apoiado na conexão existente entre a valorização do capital cultural e os processo de seleção desempenhado pelo sistema escolar dentro do modelo capitalista e tendo como principais referenciais teóricos os autores Pierre Bourdieu & Jean Claude Passeron e Christian Baudelot & Roger Establet, os quais fazem uma crítica social ao sistema de ensino, pretendeu-se verificar a participação do professor enquanto agente social do sistema escolar, que contribui para a reprodução das relações sociais, buscando analisar como os docentes se reconhecem no sucesso ou fracasso escolar de seus aluno e os mecanismos ideológicos veiculados por eles para ocultar sua contribuição no processo de produção do fracasso escolar, em especial, dos alunos das classes sociais menos favorecidas, que muitas vezes são rotulados e estigmatizados como fracassados ou incapazes, por não conseguirem obter êxito nas atividades escolares.(AU)

Retail restructuring and consumer choice 2:understanding consumer choice at the household level

This paper complements the preceding one by Clarke et al, which looked at the long-term impact of retail restructuring on consumer choice at the local level. Whereas the previous paper was based on quantitative evidence from survey research, this paper draws on the qualitative phases of the same three-year study, and in it we aim to understand how the changing forms of retail provision are experienced at the neighbourhood and household level. The empirical material is drawn from focus groups, accompanied shopping trips, diaries, interviews, and kitchen visits with eight households in two contrasting neighbourhoods in the Portsmouth area. The data demonstrate that consumer choice involves judgments of taste, quality, and value as well as more ‘objective’ questions of convenience, price, and accessibility. These judgments are related to households’ differential levels of cultural capital and involve ethical and moral considerations as well as more mundane considerations of practical utility. Our evidence suggests that many of the terms that are conventionally advanced as explanations of consumer choice (such as ‘convenience’, ‘value’, and ‘habit’) have very different meanings according to different household circumstances. To understand these meanings requires us to relate consumers’ at-store behaviour to the domestic context in which their consumption choices are embedded. Bringing theories of practice to bear on the nature of consumer choice, our research demonstrates that consumer choice between stores can be understood in terms of accessibility and convenience, whereas choice within stores involves notions of value, price, and quality. We also demonstrate that choice between and within stores is strongly mediated by consumers’ household contexts, reflecting the extent to which shopping practices are embedded within consumers’ domestic routines and complex everyday lives. The paper concludes with a summary of the overall findings of the project, and with a discussion of the practical and theoretical implications of the study.

The dynamics of organizational change : an analysis of power, professions and new managerialism in the case of CoastElectric

It is widely accepted that the Thatcher years and their immediate aftermath were associated with substantive social and organizational change. The privatisation programme, 'the rolling back of the State', prosecuted by the successive Conservative Governments from 1979-1997 was a central pillar of Governmental policy. This thesis seeks to engage with privatization through the of CoastElectric, a newly privatised Regional Electricity Company. This thesis contributes to the extant understanding of the dynamics of organizational change in four major ways. Firstly, the study into CoastElectric addresses the senior management decision making within the organization: in particular, it will attempt to make sense of 'why' particular decisions were made. The theoretical backdrop to this concern will draw on the concepts of normalization, cultural capital and corporate fashion. The argument presented in this thesis is that the decision-making broadly corresponded with that which could be considered to be at the vanguard of mangerialist thought. However, a detailed analysis suggested that at different junctures in CoastElectric's history there were differences in the approach to decision making that warranted further analysis. The most notable finding was that the relative levels of new managerialist cultural capital possessed by the decision-making elite had an important bearing upon whether the decision was formulated either endogenously or exogenously, with the assistance of cultural intermediaries such as management consultants. The thesis demonstrates the importance of the broader discourse of new managerialism in terms of shaping what is considered to be a 'commonsensical, rational' strategy. The second concern of this thesis is that of the process of organizational change. The study of CoastElectric attempts to provide a rich account of the dynamics of organizational change. This is realized through, first, examining the pre-existing context of the organization; second, through analyzing the power politics of change interventions. The master concepts utilised in this endeavour are that of: dividing practices, the establishment of violent hierarchies between competing discourses; symbolic violence; critical turning points; recursiveness; creative destruction; legitimation strategies and the reconstitution of subjects in the workplace.

Empirical research into white racialized identities in Britain

The intellectual project of using whiteness as an explicit tool of analysis is not one that has taken root in Britain. However, there are a number of empirical studies that investigate the racialization of white identities. In this article, I look at some empirical sociological fieldwork carried out on white identities in Britain since the early 1990s and identify the key themes arising. These themes are (in)visibility, norms and values, cultural capital and integration, contingent hierarchies and Empire in the present. In Britain, a pertinent distinction is between rural and urban settings for the enactment of white identities vis-a`-vis those of minorities, and there is an exploration of some of the contingency that draws the boundary between ‘white’ and ‘Other’ in different places. Areas of commonality and distinctiveness are noted in terms of the American work. In the last section, I argue that there are a number of issues to resolve around continuing such studies, including linking the micro-level to the macro-level analysis, and expanding to international comparative work.

Boundary maintenance in Qatar: Interpretation of domination, segregation and subordination

This study explores the interaction of expatriates in Qatar and their perception of their subordination. The study design included participant observation in an all female University and University housing as well as interviews with Qatari government agencies and ministries, expatriate embassies and expatriates. Semi-structured interviews were conducted across seven expatriate groups: domestic workers, unskilled laborers, semiskilled, professionals, housewives, second-generation expatriates with host country other than Qatar, second-generation expatriates with host country Qatar, and Gulf Cooperation Council citizens. Forty-two subjects completed the interview schedule while 87 interviews were incomplete. ^ Physical control of expatriates occurs through the Gulf practice of sponsorship (The Kafeel System), and local cultural and Islamic related controls intertwined with the Arab Code of honor. Interviews and observations revealed rankings of Arabs and foreigners which emphasize Qatari superiority such as tribal identity, moral ranking of female groups by dress, legal protection and power, sexual consideration and desexualization and salaries and job opportunities based on nationality and ethnicity. Individuals who desire to transcend boundaries into the Qatari realm through citizenship or marriage view Qataris as possessing the “image of the unlimited good” and have acquired Qatari social and cultural capital. Members from all expatriate groups engaged in various forms of resistance to labor and gender domination which ranged from forms of “exit,” expressing a hidden transcript in the privacy of their own group, disguised resistance in public, and occasionally, direct confrontation with the Qatari. Although the legal arena created the appearance that worker's needs were being addressed, laborers engaged in forms of “exit” to escape their oppression. Omani students in the hostel disguised their resistance by spreading gossip, nick-naming homosexual Qatari students at the University, acting out a skit depicting their exclusion from Qatari privilege, spreading rumors of impending freedom, and singing songs of despair in the courtyard. Other sites of resistance were expatriate embassies, the road, the newspaper and technology. This study emphasizes that blaming oppression of the expatriate worker on globalization is a simplistic view of oppression in the Gulf, and ignores complex issues within Qatari society and other Gulf States. Sponsorship, servitude, and gender segregation intersect in Qatar to create a system of segregation and domination of expatriates. ^

The relationship between the secondary mathematics curriculum, college persistence, and success at an urban community college

According to Venezia, Kirst, and Antonio (2003) and Barth’s 2002 Thinking K16 Ticket to Nowhere report, the disconnect between K-12 and postsecondary education was a contributing factor to high attrition rates. Since mathematics emerged as a primary concern for college readiness, Barth (2002) called for improving student transitions from K-12 to postsecondary institutions through the use of state or local data. The purpose of the present study was to analyze mathematics course-taking patterns of secondary students in a local context and to evaluate high school characteristics in order to explore their relationships with Associate degree attainment or continuous enrollment at an urban community college. Also, this study extended a national study conducted by Clifford Adelman (The Toolbox Revisited, 2006) as it specifically focused on community college students that were not included his study. Furthermore, this study used the theoretical framework that human capital, social capital, and cultural capital influence habitus—an individual’s or a group’s learned inclination to behave within the parameters of the imposed prevailing culture and norms. Specifically, the school embedded culture as it relates to tracking worked as a reproduction tool of ultimate benefit for the privileged group (Oakes, 1994). ^ Using multilevel analysis, this ex post facto study examined non-causal relationships between math course-taking patterns and college persistence of public high school graduates who enrolled at the local community college for up to 6 years. One school-level variable (percent of racial/ethnic minorities) and 7 student-level variables (community college math proportion, remedial math attempts, race, gender, first-year credits earned, socioeconomic status, and summer credits earned) emerged as predictors for college persistence. Study results indicated that students who enter higher education at the community college may have had lower opportunities to learn and therefore needed higher levels of remediation, which was shown to detract students from degree completion. Community college leaders are called to partner with local high schools with high percentages of racial/ethnic minorities to design academic programs aimed at improving the academic preparation of high school students in mathematics and promote student engagement during the first year and summers of college. ^

Syndemic health disparities and resilience processes related to HIV transmission risk among African American/Black men in south Florida

Rates of HIV infection continue to climb among minority populations and men who have sex with men (MSM), with African American/Black MSM being especially impacted. Numerous studies have found HIV transmission risk to be associated with many health and social disparities resulting from larger environmental and structural forces. Using anthropological and social environment-based theories of resilience that focus on individual agency and larger social and environmental structures, this dissertation employed a mixed methods design to investigate resilience processes among African American/Black MSM.^ Quantitative analyses compared African American/Black (N=108) and Caucasian/White (N=250) MSM who participated in a previously conducted randomized controlled trial (RCT) of sexual and substance use risk reduction interventions. At RCT study entry, using past 90 day recall periods, there were no differences in unprotected sex frequency, however African American/Black MSM reported higher frequencies of days high (P<0.000), and drugs and sex used in combination (P<0.000), and substance dependence (P<0.000) and lower levels of social support (P<0.024) compared to Caucasian/White MSM. At 12- month follow-up, multi-level statistical models found that African American/Black MSM reduced their frequencies of days high and unprotected sex at greater rates than Caucasian/White MSM (P<0.001).^ Qualitative data collected among a sub-sample of African American/Black MSM from the RCT (N=21) described the men's experiences of living with multiple health and social disparities and the importance of RCT study assessments in facilitating reductions in risk behaviors. A cross-case analysis showed different resilience processes undertaken by men who experienced low socioeconomic status, little family support, and homophobia (N=16) compared to those who did not (N=5).^ The dissertation concludes that resilience processes to HIV transmission risk and related health and social disparities among African American/Black MSM varies and are dependent on specific social environmental factors, including social relationships, structural homophobia, and access to social, economic, and cultural capital. Men define for themselves what it means to be resilient within their social environment. These conclusions suggest that both individual and structural-level resilience-based HIV prevention interventions are needed.^

A educação básica na região metropolitana de Natal: uma análise da qualidade educativa e sua relação com o contexto familiar dos alunos

This dissertation aimed to investigate the formal learning process of children and teenagers through elementary education and, mainly, the support of family on domestic school activities as a step in the teaching-learning process. The student's family, with its cultural capital, provides an assistance which was the bias of the essay analyzes presented on this paper, using a spatial area of public elementary schools of the municipalities of the Natal metropolitan region. Such frame of Natal metropolis has been justified by the recent review of their basic education, taken by the Brazilian Ministry of Education, diagnosed in 2011, only 1% of students were in a adequate mathematics learning stage. While 62% were considered in a critical stage in this discipline. Given this issue, this dissertation offers a theoretical analysis about inherited and acquired within the family cultural capital, mainly focusing in the distances between the cultural level of the student's family and the defendant by the school. Then, presents the fundamental aspects of the issue on the urban phenomenon, focusing on social hierarchies and structures of city spaces that express differentiation, segmentation and socio-spatial segregation, and social exclusion. The emphasis on inequalities points to the development of an urban ethos, through formal schooling, which develops from social singularities. To theoretically develop the theme of Cultural Capital Family, this study sought to operationalize the concept through the interpretation of the phenomenon studied by a logical validation work hypotheses. The operation concepts systemically transformed into statistical indicators in order to measure the impact of individual, social and cultural characteristics of students elements. Finally, this dissertation found that the components evaluated, family cultural capital and housing conditions, can influence the development of skills and competencies of students in the educational sphere

Narrativas poéticas e trajetórias dos poetas em Mossoró/RN

The city of Mossoro/RN has showed up as a “cultural capital” in the state of Rio Grande do Norte due to a politic of events that enhance historical facts occurred in that region. These actions evoke researches about a construction of a self-identity of the city and attract many tourists that provides a boost to local economy. Considering this, this paper aims to understand the insertion of poets in this cultural context, analyzing the cultural performances that they participate and their personal narratives. Semi-structured interviews and participant observation in cultural events were employed to get this aim, privileging the observation of popular poets, whose presentations are more frequent. This overview took to the approximation with two artists associations, of which the interviewed poets were selected: “POEMA – Associação de Poetas e Prosadores de Mossoró” and “Casa do Cantador”. The relationship observed among the artists of these institutions – writers, improvisers, cordel makers, musicians and “emboladores de coco” – raised questions about the complexity of popular culture and the social connections among the artists of the city, discussed in this study.