Digital Commons Network^™

Contemporary Painting: Autopoietic Improvisation And A Relational Ecology, Philip James Gurrey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Contemporary painting as a form of research-making and knowledge acquisition through applied practice calls for a re-evaluation of the relationship between painter and painting. This dissertation examines the complexity of this relationship by displacing authority over the artwork and its meaning from the artist. From this poststructuralist starting point the thesis expands upon Derridean ideas of deconstruction by folding them back into Martin Heidegger’s concepts of earth and world. The aim is to reintroduce the physical materiality of paint back into the relationship between painter and painting, prompting a reassessment of the importance of a wider ecological context. Through an …

Exploring The Quality Performance Of Ethno-Specific And Mainstream Not-For-Profit Long-Term Care Homes In Ontario, Lanei Amein

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine how ethno-specific not-for-profit long-term care (LTC) homes in Ontario perform in comparison to mainstream not-for-profit LTC homes using nine RAI-MDS 2.0 quality indicators. Publicly available data from three sources: the Canadian Institute for Health Information "Your Health System: In Depth" database from the Continuing Care Reporting System, data on Ontario ethno-specific not-for-profit LTC homes from the Home and Community Care Support Services, and data on home and ownership records from the Ministry of Long-Term Care “Public Reporting” website, between 2017-2022, were retrieved and analyzed. Descriptive analysis suggests that for all quality …

Bioarchaeological Knowledge Mobilization And The Museum As Knowledge Broker, Teegan Muggridge

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Knowledge mobilization – the process of creating, disseminating, and using knowledge to generate real-world value and impact – is essential in research. The highly contextual nature of human remains poses unique challenges for successful bioarchaeological knowledge mobilization, requiring these projects to address historico-cultural, sociopolitical, and ethical contexts in order to mobilize knowledge in a way that is both accurate and appropriate for diverse communities. This thesis considers the way that museums, as places of community heritage and engagement, may serve as knowledge brokers, facilitating meaningful interactions between researchers and the wider public. Exploring museum professional perspectives in conjunction with an …

Older Adolescent Perspectives On The Use Of Research Within Online Communities, Ahrrabie Thirunavukkarasu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study explores the attitudes of older adolescents (aged 16 to 19) regarding researchers collecting personal information from Social Networking Sites (SNSs) through passive observation to support Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) research. The aim of this study is to add to the ongoing discourse in the scientific community, by providing a unique perspective on how researchers can uphold ethical conduct throughout their research process. This study adopts a mixed-methods approach and incorporates a Qualtrics^XM survey and online focus groups (FGs). The findings reveal that participants have reservations toward passive, hidden observational researchers. Despite their concerns, participants support researchers using their …

A Comprehensive Study Of Neural Entrainment In Developmental Language Disorder And Reading Disability, Christine Moreau

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Prior research has suggested that reading disability (RD, dyslexia) and developmental language disorder (DLD) stem from deficits in rhythmic auditory processing, specifically in synchronizing neural oscillations (Cumming et al., 2015; Goswami, 2011). Speech relies on rhythmic patterns for signaling linguistic information at multiple timescales (e.g., phonemes, syllables; Giraud & Poeppel, 2012). The disruption of regular neural entrainment is hypothesized to lead to difficulties in processing fast acoustic changes in speech, negatively affecting phonological processing, and speech segmentation. In this dissertation, I studied neural entrainment to uncover possible areas of impairment related to speech tracking, which could help inform interventions. In …

Beyond The Portable Classroom: Investigating Portable Classrooms From Secondary Sources And Reframing Spatial Needs In Canadian Schools, Marzieh Forozantabar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite the prevalence of portable classrooms in Canadian schools, research on their characteristics, utilization, and effects is limited. This study investigates portable classrooms in Canada through a two-stage research approach. First, it explored news articles to identify common concerns about portable classrooms in Canada. The dataset comprises 243 news articles. The analysis revealed three overarching concerns about these structures: 1) The factors that lead school districts to use portable classrooms; 2) Safety and comfort in portable classrooms; 3) Strategies to alleviate accommodation issues. Then, Nair’s (2014) principles of contemporary school design were used to critically interrogate the utilization of portable …

Vibes At The Village Vanguard: Hauntings, History, And The Construction Of Jazz Place, Mark Mccorkle

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

There are ghosts that haunt the Village Vanguard. Or at least that’s what people say.

This dissertation examines the role of the contemporary jazz club as a site of heritage and meaning making in jazz cultures. I take New York’s revered jazz club, the Village Vanguard, as a case study, as it is the subject of many fanciful tales. These stories describe the club’s history as alive; the spirits of the legendary musicians from a bygone era of jazz who once performed at the Vanguard are said to haunt the present club’s soundwaves. Often described by writers as the club’s …

Chilean Canadian Literature In English: Memories Of Home And Belonging, From The Postcolonial To Decolonial Practice, Luis Jaimes-Domínguez

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation aims to present a compelling exploration of identity and cultural hybridity, and of the intricate tapestry of diasporic experiences. As such, it delves into the significance of Chilean Canadian literature written directly in English, with a specific focus on the works authored by female writers as part and parcel of an emerging diasporic literature. Employing a postcolonial and hemispheric lens, this research employs a multidimensional methodology embedded in cultural memory, border studies, and representational intersectionality. Within this framework, this study attempts to unravel how Chilean Canadian literature written in English might contribute to a repository of Chilean Canadian …

Differentiated Performance In Native And Instructed Nonnative Spanish: The Impact Of Task Demands And Individual Differences During Performance With Grammatical Gender, Martha Black

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Adult language learners demonstrate extensive variation and are believed to rely largely on explicit knowledge and declarative memory, directly impacting how target language input is processed, represented, and retrieved. The overarching aim of this thesis is to identify and better understand the factors that are most important for adult language acquisition by examining how linguistic features, task demands, and individual learner differences may impact performance with Spanish grammatical gender. This research seeks to draw principled conclusions about what knowledge types and memory systems language users exploit as proficiency develops. 115 language users of Spanish from diverse language backgrounds, including native …

The Sense Of Waste, Sean Sokolov

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis begins with the observation that waste is to an outsized degree subject to the modal verbs; we might say that waste gives way to the sense of waste. As a result, waste appears as an unusually animate–and animating–actant, producing in those who apprehend it the impulse to put that which is wasted to use. The introductory chapter establishes this fact and provides a brief overview of scholarly approaches to the study of waste, asserting that in order to transcend mere description of the phenomenon it is necessary to establish how waste as an actant entered into its present …

My Embodied Transformative Educational Journey As An East Asian International Student Learner: A Self-Study Approach, Yixuan Pang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis is my personal, educational, and embodied journey of a female Chinese student learner who has travelled across contexts for education in both Canada and my home country China. Using a self-study approach, this thesis examines how embodied knowledge informs my educational experiences and learning in different contexts. I question the taken-for-granted knowledge (Greene, 1995) existing in the education I have received, and challenge the assumptions I have toward my learning. Through processes of creative writing, new knowledge and understandings emerges and I explore possibilities of how knowledge can be considered, in fluid and malleable ways shaped by different …

Acquisition Of Main-Clause Wh-Questions In Egyptian Arabic-English And Spanish-English Bilingual Children, Riham H. Mohamed

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines the production and judgment of Egyptian Arabic (henceforth EA) main-clause wh-questions in EA-English bilingual children living in Ontario, Canada, or in the United Kingdom. The three comparison groups are EA monolingual children and EA monolingual adults living in Egypt, and first-generation Egyptian immigrants. The results are compared to previous research on the acquisition of obligatory subject-verb (S-V) inversion in Spanish wh-questions.

The focus of this study is to investigate the potential role of cross-linguistic influence in narrow syntactic structures. Until fairly recently, it was believed that only structures that exhibit syntax-pragmatics interfaces are vulnerable to cross-linguistic influence …

Hiring Criteria And Employability Of Esl/Efl Instructors In The Tesol Job Market In Canada And The United Arab Emirates, Shaden S. Attia

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigated the hiring criteria and employability of ESL/EFL instructors in Canada and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in higher education. It also explored challenges facing instructors and program administrators in today’s global TESOL job market, and how they both tackled these challenges. The study drew on intersectionality and Critical Race Theory and a qualitative methodological approach to answer the research questions. The research methods included an online questionnaire, analyses of online job advertisements and instructors’ journal reflections, and interviews with instructors and program administrators.

The findings indicate that educational qualifications, and teaching experience and certification constituted the primary …

Teacher Anxiety And Resilience As Socio-Ecological Experience: A Critical Ethnography Of Early-Career English As An Additional Language Teachers In Post-Pandemic Ontario, Canada, Aide Chen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This critical ethnographic study investigated the anxiety and resilience experiences of English as an Additional Language (EAL) teachers in Ontario, Canada during their early careers after the pandemic. The study drew on literature regarding the TESOL profession’s precarious nature, resilience and anxiety concepts, pandemic impacts on language education, and debates on native-speakerism. It employed four-level theoretical frameworks, including the theories of critical praxis (Freire, 1970), reflexivity (Byrd Clark, 2020), ecological systems (Bronfenbrenner,1979), and the community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) for its design and implementation. Four pre-service and three in-service English language teachers participated, providing weekly reflective journals for …

Learning To Teach For Equity, Diversity, And Social Justice: A Mixed Methods Case Study Of Initial Teacher Education In Ontario, Canada, Kate Paterson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Drawing on critical race theory, culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogy, and ecological systems theory, this mixed methods case study explored the integration of equity, diversity, and social justice across one initial teacher education program in Ontario, Canada. Survey data (n=272) provided insight into prospective teachers’ endorsement of social-justice-related beliefs at program entry and exit. Demographic data were collected to obtain a current snapshot of initial teacher education representation rates, addressing a dearth of such data in the Ontario context. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with teacher candidates (n=15) and key stakeholders (n=4) to gain an understanding of how equity was conceptualized …

Capacious Feminism: Intimacy And Otherness In Mina Loy's Poetry, Elise Ottavino

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation explores Loy’s interest in the “woman’s cause” to interrogate how the poet was recaptured as an early feminist figure by the academy. After Virginia Kouidis “rediscovered” Loy’s work in the 1980s, the poet has been consistently drafted as a central feminist figure despite her lack of commitment to organized feminist movements of her time. This retrospective lens offers a catachrestic view of Loy’s feminism. I use “catachresis” to refer to the slightly inaccurate use of “feminism,” tinted by current perceptions of the term, but also to hint at Loy’s capacious feminine poetics. While the rise of feminist theories …

Investigating The Language Of Time: Evaluating The Use And Comprehension Of Before And After, Kimberley R. Henderson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Before-initial sentences are thought to be more difficult to comprehend than after-initial sentences because they structurally mismatch the temporal order of real-world events (Münte et al., 1998). Although event knowledge is known to affect how people understand before/after-initial sentences, little is known about the role of language knowledge in comprehending these sentences. A corpus analysis of before/after-initial sentences revealed that before typically is paired with a pronoun (Before he…) whereas after is paired with verb-ing (After leaving…). Participants' eyes were tracked while they read Before/After-pronoun/verbing sentences. Reading times did not match the …

Higher Education Students And Digital Literacies: A Systematic Literature Review, Filipe Malafaia Cerqueira

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study is a systematic literature review of digital literacies and students in higher education. It sought to identify the state of knowledge on digital literacies in higher education including what studies have been conducted in this nexus and what remains to be known. The deductive themes drew on two prominent concepts of digital literacies: the Seven Elements of Digital Literacies (Jisc, 2014), and the Charter for 21st Century Literacies (Burnett & Merchant, 2018). The review’s methodology identified 23 studies published in the last five years across 21 countries. The findings suggest that researchers demonstrated interest in discussing how students …

Algorithmic Hypnosis, Suarjan Prasai

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis is about futures which are inscribed in the present. It is about the past determining the future and the future determining the present. It is also about artificial intelligence, algorithmic learning and the politics of mediums as they curate our sense of time. Today’s landscape is curated by algorithmic machines that are quickly taking over all aspects of social relations. Looking at media-theorist Wendy H.K. Chun’s analysis of homophily (i.e., love of sameness; commonality), I observe the regionality of standard critiques of capital and feel out new modes of resistance which do away with the discourse of the …

English Literacy Curricula In A Sino-Canadian Transnational Education Program: Teachers’ Implemented Curriculum, Rong Hai

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This case study explored the English literacy curricula in a Sino-Canadian Transnational Education Program that is accredited by British Columbia (BC). Underpinned by nested pedagogical orientations and critical multimodal literacies, this study focuses on how the BC English literacy curricula were implemented in three English literacy teachers’ classes. Data show that two pedagogical orientations (i.e., transmission and social constructivist) were used by English literacy teachers in the transnational education program. This study also found little evidence of transformative pedagogy in all three teachers’ English literacy teaching. The implications include missed opportunities to engage students to critically analyze and evaluate the …

Conceptual Engineering & Contextualism, Madhavi Mohan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this dissertation, I explore the relationship between conceptual engineering and contextualism in philosophy. Conceptual engineering evaluates philosophical theories about concepts against whether they meet normative and political objectives, while contextualism highlights the influence of context on meaning and truth. I argue that conceptual engineering is subject to contextualism, rendering theories about concepts applicable only in specific contexts.

The first chapter examines essentially contested concepts: concepts inevitably subject to contestation, owing to different, equally legitimate reasons philosophers may have for valuing them. Nevertheless, within specific contexts, these concepts serve particular purposes, and conceptions aligned with those purposes better capture their …

A Critical Phenomenological Inquiry Into Disabled Embodiment And Identity, Heather Twele

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis uses critical phenomenology to investigate disabled embodiment and identity. I argue that (in)accessible subjective accounts of disability experience reveal disability to be a unique form of ever-changing embodiment: disability is the lived experience of a critical phenomenology. I turn to eclectic art, film, and poetry case studies involving a medical, surgical gaze to explore how ableist, sexist, and racist systems structure daily experience, forcing disabled people who “misfit” to analyze and confront systems of oppression, exclusion, and stigmatization. Disability experience challenges and resists ableist binaries of ability/disability, well/unwell, subject/object, mind/body, and inside/outside. The interdependence of these fluid, intertwining …

The Impact Of Access To Oral Health Care On Inadequate Oral Health And Multimorbidity, Luis Limo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The connection between oral health and other non-communicable chronic conditions—commonly referred in the dental literature as the oral-systemic health connection—emphasizes the role of oral health care on both oral diseases and chronic conditions, particularly in vulnerable populations like the elderly. This thesis comprises 2 studies: the first is a systematic review on the impact of oral health care interventions, as an indicator of access to oral health care, on chronic conditions of which their co-existence would result in multimorbidity; the second study is a cross-sectional investigation of the associations between oral health, access to oral health care, and multimorbidity among …

Knowledge Of Late-Emerging Reading Disabilities Amongst Current And Future Ontario Educators, Chastine Lamoureux

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Children with Late Emerging Reading Disabilities (LERD) are believed to represent a significant proportion of children with reading disabilities (Badian, 1999; Leach et al., 2003; Shaywitz et al., 1992). Yet, these disorders have gone unnoticed or are minimally discussed in educational settings (Chugh, 2011; Catts et al., 2012). Little is known about the extent of teachers’ LERD knowledge, which is problematic given their role in supporting students with reading difficulties. In the first study of this dissertation, in-service teachers’ knowledge, and perceptions of LERD was investigated. Results showed that teachers had little knowledge of LERD and limited confidence in their …

Latina Immigrant Women’S Experiences Of Higher Education And Leadership: An Intersectional Perspective, Isabella Alencar Maroja Chaves

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigates the career progression of Latina immigrant women to achieve leadership positions in higher education. The purpose of this research is to examine, from an intersectional perspective, the career progression of Latina immigrant women in educational leadership roles in higher education in Southwestern Ontario. The central point of this research is the study of the lived experiences of Latina women navigating the obstacles of being immigrants and women attaining educational leadership positions. The intersectional perspective, via the lens of Latina feminist theory, serves as both a conceptual framework and a theoretical approach. Considering the methodological approach, this study …

Language, Reading, And Resting-State Oscillatory Power In Adhd, Dld, And Comorbid Adhd/Dld, Kaitlyn M.A Parks Ms

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

High rates of comorbidity in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and developmental language disorder (DLD) have motivated interest in utilizing psycholinguistic and physiological metrics to distinguish between these conditions. However, past studies have focused on one disorder and overlooked the significant overlap in symptoms between ADHD and DLD. Consequently, less is known about how these assessments can distinguish between “pure” (no comorbidities) cases of either disorder or comorbidities. This thesis aims to elucidate the basis of these overlapping disorders by examining language, reading, and resting-state oscillatory power differences and assessing their potential in distinguishing ADHD and/or DLD. Chapter 2 presents a scoping …

Young Arabs In Canada: Ethnic Identity And Intersectionality, Rama Eloulabi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Arabs make up almost 2% of the population in Canada, and their numbers are growing rapidly. Yet, literature on Arabs in Canada is sparse, both from academic and governmental sources. Using ethnic identity and intersectionality frameworks, this study explores the meanings of Arab identity for youth in Ontario, Canada, and the interactions between their Arab identity and their other identities. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted in Arabic and English with 30 participants (ages 18-30) who are from, or whose background is from, the Arab world. Findings highlighted the diversity of the population, and the themes that emerged regarding self-identification with …

The Effects Of Audiovisual Input On Second Language Learning: A Meta-Analysis, Dru M. Sutton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This meta-analysis investigates the contributions of viewing audiovisual input on second language (L2) learning. We calculated 75 effect sizes from 56 experiments (n = 1954). We assessed the effects of audiovisual input on language learning using a within-group (pre-post) meta-analytic approach. The extent to which fifteen moderator variables influenced results was assessed. Several methodologically and pedagogically relevant results were found. Results showed that a) there was a medium effect of audiovisual input on L2 learning (g = 1.01); b) no differences were found between the effects of viewing audiovisual input on different areas of L2 learning (vocabulary, grammar, …

The Use Of Digital Storytelling In Bilingual/Multilingual Students' Meaning-Making: A Systematic Literature Review, Qianhui Ma

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis is a systematic literature review of 24 empirical studies on using digital storytelling for bilingual/multilingual students’ meaning-making. Through thematic and scientific analyses, this review identifies the contextual backgrounds of the reviewed studies; for example, most of them were conducted in secondary schools in America. The strength analysis reveals that more than half of the papers lack sufficient details in analyzing and presenting data, and this may impact the trustworthiness of the claimed results. The reported uses of digital storytelling for bilingual/multilingual students include supporting learners as designers, promoting education equity, and incorporating multiliteracies pedagogy. The review also reported …

Single-Subject Writing Strategy Instruction: A Meta-Analysis, Madelyn A. Casola

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This meta-analysis reports on single-subject design (SSD) writing strategy instruction research conducted in the 15 years since Rogers and Graham's (2008) meta-analysis on SSD writing instruction. The analysis reviewed 36 studies and aimed to answer four questions: 1) Are writing strategy interventions tested using single-subject methodology effective with students in Grades 1 to 8? (2) Is writing strategy instruction more effective for some grades than others? (3) Is writing strategy instruction more beneficial for specific samples of students? (4) Do studies deemed higher quality based on What Works Clearinghouse (2022) (WWC) indicators have more or less overlap than those deemed …