Exploring Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions About The Use Of School Gardens In Education For Sustainability, Dona Ishara Madushani Yahampath

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study examines pre-service teachers' attitudes, interests, and views about the use of school gardens in education for sustainability, as well as pre-service teachers’ range of understanding about the use of school gardens in education for sustainability and how they think school gardens impact students' cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning for sustainability. To answer the main research questions, a mixed-methods research approach was used in the study. Parajuli’s Partnership Model of Sustainability was used as the conceptual framework for this research, which emphasizes four main aspects of sustainability: ecology, economy, equity/social justice, and bio-cultural diversity. The research findings revealed that …

Organizing And Sustainable Development Between The Local And Global: The Case Of A Tibetan Enterprise, Haitao Yu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this dissertation, I investigate how place and space guide organizations towards sustainable development. The current paradigm for business organizing seeks economic efficiency, whereas a sustainable development paradigm requires businesses to accommodate the ecological, social, and economic principles between the local and global. Yet, as organizations are increasingly globalizing and virtualizing, they are becoming increasingly placeless. The loss of local connection to place is one of the primary reasons sustainable development is so elusive.

I am motivated to understand better organizations' role between the local and global on sustainable development. To answer the question, I collected qualitative data through conducting …

Effectiveness Of Social Enterprises: Aligning Strategies And Supply Chains For Impact, Kelsey M. Taylor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Social enterprises use market mechanisms to address social issues that are undesirable targets for intervention by conventional businesses. The pursuit of these goals comes with inherent operational constraints that must be mitigated for the organization to survive, but that are unavoidable without compromising the organization’s social mission. However, the assumption embedded in much of the SCM literature, that profit maximization is the ultimate goal, may lead to the implementation of practices that are inappropriate or even detrimental for social enterprises. This dissertation aims to address this issue through an investigation into how a social enterprise’s social value creation strategy (SVCS) …

Towards Sustainable Mixed Reality Technology Institutionalization At A Major Urban College In British Columbia, Canada, Brent Fraser Mekelburg

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

The organization at the centre of this Organizational Improvement Plan, College X, is a publicly funded college located in a major urban centre in British Columbia, Canada. The problem of practice is the inconsistent implementation for disruptive technology—mixed reality (MR). Currently, faculty are in charge of integrating MR into andragogy. Decisions that enable or hinder MR institutionalization are made by administration; faculty needs and administration support are not necessarily aligned. Failed institutionalization not only deprives learners of the opportunity to acquire digital literacy skills but also threatens institutional legitimacy. Within his role as a program leader, the author proposes a …

Building Environmental Education Capacity In Classrooms And Schools, Linda Sue Thomas

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

Abstract

There is growing global acknowledgement that our planet is facing an imminent environmental crisis (Kensler, 2012; Kensler & Uline, 2017). Issues such as climate change, loss of biodiversities, water quality, the impact of long term fossil fuel use and single use plastics are compelling countries around the world to calls for action. In the education sector, there is an increasing recognition that raising awareness of environmental issues needs to begin in the schools where students will learn about the impact of individual choices on our environment. Research has shown that environmental education programs in schools have a positive influence …

Shaping The Leadership Practice Of Effective Principals, Katie Maxwell

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

Principal leadership in schools is a critical factor in promoting student achievement and fostering a climate for continual professional learning among teachers. The principal sets the tone for the school and it is the principal’s leadership approach that affects the school’s culture, climate for professional learning, and impact on promoting deep student learning and critical thought. In Ontario, school principals are being tasked on a daily basis with the dual challenge of leading the professional learning of teachers while overseeing a multitude of managerial responsibilities for operating a school. Add to this a new era of accountability and a focus …

Static And Dynamic Properties Of Controlled Low-Strength Materials Incorporating Treated Oil Sands Waste, Ahmed Mneina

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Controlled Low-Strength Materials (CLSM) is a self-compacted self-leveling cementitious material with compressive strength of 8.3 MPa or less. It is used as an alternative of soil backfill materials in geotechnical and infrastructure applications. This study investigates the effects of incorporating treated oil sand wastes (TOSW) as a partial replacement of sand or fly ash on fresh and hardened properties of CLSM. In addition, the environmental impact of the proposed new mixtures was evaluated. The results show that CLSM mixtures incorporating TOSW had satisfied the limits and requirements of ACI committee 229 for CLSM with no environmental hazards. The incorporation of …

Confrontational Stigma And Contested ‘Green’ Developments: Biosolid Facility Siting In The Rural Landscape, Sarah A. Mason-Renton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examines responses and reappraisal of a proposed and now operational biosolid (sewage sludge) processing facility, the Southgate Organic Material Recovery Centre (OMRC), in the Township of Southgate in rural Ontario. This research is grounded in geographical literatures related to the geography of health, emotional geography, and risk perception and facility siting. The significance of this research is based on a relative absence of literature on public perceptions of transformed waste products, such as biosolids, in rural landscapes and the need to better understand these perceptions and felt impacts in the context of rural residents’ attachments to place. This …

Innovating Two-Stage Concrete With Improved Rheological, Mechanical And Durability Properties, Manal F. Najjar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Two-stage concrete (TSC), also known as preplaced aggregate concrete, is a special type of concrete that is produced using a unique procedure which differs from that of conventional concrete. TSC is distinguished by its high coarse aggregate content and exceptional placement technique, whereby aggregates are first pre-placed in the mold then injected with a special grout. The preplacement of aggregates saves substantial energy since only the grout needs mechanical mixing; the grout is self-leveling and needs no vibration and no mechanical compaction. However, TSC applications are still limited despite substantial advancement of modern concrete technology. Therefore, there is a need …

Soil Aquifer Treatment For Wastewater Reclamation In A High Water Demand Society, Diego J. Velasquez

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Water resources around the world are under increasing pressure from the rapidly growing demands of rising population and industrialization. Furthermore, changes in global weather patterns are expected to intensify its current and future stresses. In the present study, knowledge and perceptions towards wastewater reclamation for potable and non-potable uses were investigated by the used of an on-line survey distributed amongst the university community at Western university. Subsequent statistical analysis of the results was performed using IBM-SPSS software. Survey results show that member of the university community are more likely to accept reclaimed wastewater for applications that do not involve drinking …

Impacts Of Agricultural Disturbance On Communities Of Selected Soil Fungi (Agaricomycetes), Jessie R. Wong

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The objective of this study was to use phylogeny-based and community-based analyses to compare the community composition of Agaricomycetes among four different agricultural treatments at the Kellogg Biological Station Long Term Ecological Research (KBS LTER) site. A phylogenetic tree that included 591 ribosomal DNA sequences previously obtained from KBS LTER documented the composition of Agaricomycete communities in each treatment. Sequences from KBS LTER were placed into 472 OTUs (putatively species-level operational taxonomic units defined by 99% or greater sequence similarity) and these were dominated by the Agaricales (with 330 OTUs), Cantharellales (39 OTUs), Hymenochaetales (29 OTUs), and Polyporales (23 OTUs). …

Sensing Commute Spaces And Automobilized Places By Foot, Bike And Car In Vancouver, Bc, Denver V. Nixon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Some scholars argue that different modes of mobility produce different ways of knowing the world. Automobiles and their associated physical and social constructs are accused by some of alienating their drivers and those outside the car, whereas others see the human-machine hybrids they create as inherently connecting. Bicycling and walking are often seen as providing a more connected experience of places traversed, though the “automobilization” of these environments may conversely alienate cyclists and pedestrians through a host of social and environmental injustices, both local and global. Little empirical research has attended to this debate. This dissertation research is founded upon …

Brownfield Redevelopment In London, Ontario: Developing A Methodology For A Brownfield Database And An Examination Of Policy Initiatives Aimed At Promoting Redevelopment, Michael Hayek

Digitized Theses

Brownfield redevelopment, because of its contributions to urban sustainability and environmental quality, has become a critical issue on cities* policy agendas and in urban development literature of late. There have been no studies examining the issue of brownfield redevelopment in London, Ontario, Canada nor have there been any studies that detail a method to create a city-wide inventory of brownfield sites. This research has three main objectives: to develop a GIS based methodology for creating a brownfield inventory; through interview analysis, indentify the barriers to successful brownfield redevelopment in London; and to determine whether or not the financial incentives in …