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Valuating All Parts Of The System: Addressing Administrator Health And Well-Being To Support Optimal Wellness And Effective School Leadership, Melissa L. Hunte

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

This Organizational Improvement Plan addresses key aspects of the overarching complexities of school administrators’ workload that has compromised and adversely affected their overall health, wellness, and well-being. Deep consideration of research on principal and vice principal well-being is explored, as their leadership affects and influences effective teacher instruction and optimal student learning and achievement. The Wheel of Wellness details the interconnectedness of various aspects of life and health, permitting this organizational improvement plan to utilize a holistic approach to physical, emotional, and mental wellness and well-being. Using an interpretivist lens, through the change path model, applied with a balanced scorecard …

Bribery In Higher Education In Former Soviet Countries: A Systematic Review, Roya Karimli

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Corruption, such as bribery, exists in varying degrees in many countries around the globe. In some of them, it has become systemic due to a large proportion of the population engaging in it and accepting it as the normal way of solving daily issues. In some countries (e.g., Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine), it is widely perceived by the general public as one of the biggest problems in education.

This research examines the existing scholarly literature on bribery, the most visible type of corruption, in the former Soviet Socialist Republics’ higher education space, focusing on social and economic reasons and common …

The Enactment Of Quality Assurance Policies In Ecuadorian Higher Education: A Case Study In The Public Universities In The Province Of Manabí, Diego R. Sornoza Parrales

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigates how the administrators in the research and quality assurance offices in the regional universities in Ecuador enact the national research quality assurance policy. The massification and diversification of higher education and the internationalization, as well as globalization of higher education institutions create an increasingly competitive environment. Given this competition, resources are scarce, resulting in more frequent and more aggressive budgetary constraints. Government and national funding agencies are including the notion of “quality” in their policies to measure the performance and efficiency of universities and determine budget allocation, demanding universities to “prove their value” to remain operational. In …

Teachers’ And Students’ Experiences Using Social Media As A Pedagogical Tool Within Classrooms: A Systematic Literature Review, Rozan Trad

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study is a systematic literature review (SLR) that intended to understand the reported views and experiences of teachers and students about using social media in elementary and secondary classrooms in existent literature. This SLR also explored the pertaining challenges in using social media in classroom settings and implications of using social media in education. A total of 40 articles were included for the SLR and thematic data analysis was implemented. Reported findings show that using social media in classrooms was positively and negatively perceived by teachers and students, where positive perceptions overweighed negative ones. Social media was viewed as …

Policy Problems: Preparing Students For The “Real World”, Shannon Mckechnie

Education Publications

Employability of students has risen as a key indicator of success of institutions, alongside an increased focus on policy for skills development in Canada. In Ontario, a hub for Canada’s economy, the issue of the “skills gap” has sustained interest as a significant but contested policy issue in public post-secondary education (Viczko, Lorusso, & McKechnie, 2019). Directed by policy and by public demand, significant resources at universities are invested into efforts to increase students’ skills capacities, career prospects, and overall employability. For student affairs staff (SAS), developing student career readiness and employability is central to many portfolios of our work …

The Experiential Learning Connections Between University And Community: Recent Ontario Experience, Emmanuel Asafo-Adjei

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Experiential Learning (EL), including a range of pedagogical approaches such as co-ops and community service learning, connect the university and its external community. Universities are considering such approaches to meet a number of needs and priorities both on and off-campus. As it unfolds rapidly at the present time, EL becomes the connection between the university and the community beyond its gates, both locally and more extensively. However, university-community or so-called town-gown (TG) connections traditionally focus on research and/or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This thesis focuses on the teaching and learning connections, especially in Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences …

Politics Versus Policies: Fourth Wave Feminist Critiques Of Higher Education’S Response To Sexual Violence, Rita A. Gardiner Ph.D, Michelle Shockness, Jennifer Almquist, Hayley Finn

Education Publications

This article uses the lens of fourth wave feminism to examine media accounts of institutional and student responses in two cases of sexual violence at institutions of higher education. Competing discourses reveal a disconnect between what institutions say they do and students’ actual experiences of the institutional handling of sexual violence cases. When policies, actions, and values are not fully aligned, institutions of higher education are unable to respond to societal and institutional injustices. Hence, recommendations for better alignment between institutional values and actions are proposed.

Barriers To Policewomen's Promotion: An Ontario Case Study, Susan Dick

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This exploratory case study delved into why many policewomen elect to bypass the promotion process in a large Ontario police service. Although there is research on the number of policewomen at each rank in the Ontario police services and a considerable amount of research about the barriers policewomen face in many parts of the Western world, it is not clear why many abstain from the promotion process. This research asked the question why, and participants provided some insight as to how the situation regarding policewomen’s career promotion could be improved in the future.

Forty-three policewomen participated in this research …

From Expectation To Experience: My Changing Identity As A Chinese International Student, Yin Wang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This autobiographical narrative inquiry investigates what we can learn from my experience as a Chinese international student in both writing and art-based ways, which can inform Chinese international students’ expected supports that can improve their mental wellbeing. The study asks: Are my pre-departure expectations for studying in Canada different from the realities? If so, how and why are they different? And, what is my changing identity to be a Chinese international graduate student? The data sources of the study are my autobiographical memories, posts, blogs, journals, drawings and photography works. Intergroup relationship theories and identity theories are used flexibly as …

Skills And Student Affairs: A Discourse Analysis, Shannon Mckechnie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Media, industry, and other public actors have claimed that a ‘skills gap’ exists in students exiting post-secondary education and entering the workforce. The Ontario provincial government has developed policy, the Highly Skilled Workforce Strategy, to provide directives to universities in the province to provide skills development to students to aid in closing the gap and providing a workplace relevant education. In this study, I explore the experiences of student affairs and services (SAS) staff responsible for enacting provincial policy related to skills development at the university level by investigating the discourses that shape policy and practices of these staff …

Relationships Among Authentic Leadership, Manager Incivility And Trust In The Manager, Ohood Ali Alkaabi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

There have been growing concerns about manager incivility toward new graduate nurses which hinders their adaptation to the workplace environment. Manager incivility impairs the relationship between managers and their staff. Furthermore, nursing managers have a significant responsibility to facilitate new graduate nurses' transition into the nursing profession. The purpose of this secondary analysis was to examine the relationships among authentic leadership of managers and new graduate nurses’ experience of manager incivility and their subsequent degree of trust in their managers. Secondary analysis of the baseline data using a non-experimental, correlational design was conducted. A random sample of 1020 new graduate …

Perspectives Of Organizational Change Initiatives And Culture In A University’S Department, Kristen K. Boujos

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The current state of contemporary higher education institutions reveals challenges such as changing enrolment patterns (Association of American Colleges and Universities [AACU], 2002; Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada [AUCC], 2007; Levac & Newman, 2009), greater calls for accountability (AACU, 2002; Usher, 2015) and decreased public funding (AACU, 2002; Charbonneau, 2013; Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations [OCUFA], 2016). In addition to the external challenges of the higher education landscape, institutions are confronted with intersecting organizational issues such as the need for increasing productivity, improving communication processes, and motivating workforces (Jackson, 2010). These challenges require action, which often make …

Perspectives On Teachers' Work In One Ontario Remote First Nation Community, Dawn V. Burleigh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The nature of teachers’ work in one northern Ontario remote First Nation community is explored through three articles that address the following questions: Why do teachers work in the North? What contributes to teacher retention and attrition? And, how do teachers navigate the professional and personal boundaries of their lives as teachers in the North?

The articles are based on a case study of teachers’ work in one community and use data collected through interviews with 15 teachers, focus groups with sub-sets of those teachers, and observations collected as field notes. Article 1, Teacher attrition in a Northern Ontario remote …

Educational Assistants Supporting Inclusive Education In Secondary Schools, Amy C. Kipfer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As school boards in Ontario move towards more inclusive models of learning, more students with disabilities are taught in regular classes instead of self-contained placements. This move results in a role change for the educational assistant (EA). Research is needed to determine the overall framework that will make the use of EAs a more effective practice for student and school. Fifteen EAs working in secondary schools within a school board in southwestern Ontario which was moving to a more inclusive model of education were individually interviewed. EAs chosen for the study had a background of supporting students with developmental disabilities …

Physical Culture As Citizenship Education At Pelican Lake Indian Residential School, 1926-1970, Braden Paora Te Hiwi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Pelican Lake Indian residential school, also known as Sioux Lookout Indian residential school, was an Anglican run institution that was a part of the Canadian residential school system; the school operated from 1926 to 1970. It is well established in the literature that the Department of Indian Affairs intended to evangelize, assimilate, and civilize its students, but the function of citizenship in the residential schools is less well known. The focus of this study was to examine physical culture activities, specifically sport, exercise, and recreation as a form of training for citizenship. In particular, I centered this research on the …

La Formation Initiale Des Enseignants Au Québec Et En Finlande : Une Étude Comparative, Adriana Morales Perlaza, Maurice Tardif

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Initiée dans les années 1980 aux États-Unis, la professionnalisation de l’enseignement constitue aujourd’hui un mouvement international (OCDE, 2005). Comment a-t-elle marqué les systèmes de formation initiale des enseignants finlandais et québécois? En Finlande, la formation initiale dure 5 ans, tandis qu’au Québec, elle est de 4 ans après deux années d’études postsecondaires au cégep. Dans les deux contextes, les enseignants ont donc 17 ans de scolarité totale. Mais au-delà de cette durée commune, qu’elles sont les similitudes et différences spécifiques entre les programmes de formation des enseignants en Finlande et au Québec? Afin de répondre à ces questions, cette recherche …

A Systematic Review Of The Critical Factors For Success Of Mobile Learning In Higher Education (University Students’ Perspective), Muasaad Alrasheedi, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Arif Raza

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

The phenomenon of the use of a mobile learning (m-Learning) platform in educational institutions is slowly gaining momentum. While this can be taken as an encouraging sign, the perplexing part is that the fervor with which mobile phones have been welcomed into every aspect of our lives does not seem to be evident in the educational sector. In order to understand the reason, it is important to understand user expectations of the system. This paper documents a systematic review of various research studies seeking to find the success factors for effective m-Learning. A total of 30 studies were included in …

South African Principalship, Agency & Intersectionality Theory, Michèle Schmidt, Raj Mestry

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Gender bias towards South African female principals remains a problem and compelling issue for research. The Constitution policy addresses gender equality, yet women still do not experience equal rights in practice. This study uses a theory of intersectionality to examine two Black South African women’s leadership experiences in their roles as principals in two South African schools. The goal of the paper is to examine how these women negotiate obstacles in their work that may constrain their agency as leaders in South African schools. The project involves semi-structured interviews and the results provide a significant contribution to the small body …

Indigenous Urban School Leadership: A Critical Cross-Cultural Comparative Analysis Of Educational Leaders In New Zealand And The United States, Lorri J. Santamaría, Andrés P. Santamaría, Melinda Webber, Hoana Pearson

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

This qualitative inquiry compares the practice of one Māori primary school leader of urban education for indigenous multicultural multilingual learners in New Zealand (NZ), to research on the practices of nine educational leaders of colour in the United States (US). This study identifies and compares leadership practices for leaders struggling with ways to positively impact learner outcomes in similar settings (e.g., UK, Canada). From a critical comparative perspective, this school principal shares her leadership practice and lessons learned to inform leadership practice in similarly multifaceted urban settings. This research is undertaken by a collaborative cross-cultural team of educational leaders and …

Educational Leadership In A Fragile State: Comparative Insights From Haiti, Gaetane Jean-Marie, Steve Sider

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Although there has been extensive examination of educational leadership in the developed world (e.g. Fullan, 2001; Leithwood & Sun, 2012), there has been much less research on school leadership in fragile states such as Haiti. This paper responds to Dimmock and Walker’s (2000) call for greater attention to comparative and international research on educational leadership specifically by examining school leadership in the Haitian context. The study on which this paper is based examines the experiences of eight school leaders in Haiti in response to the question: What types of leadership practices do school leaders in Haiti exhibit? Three themes are …

Generation X Global City Leaders: An Emerging Process For Examining Leadership Experience In Multi-National, Multi-Layer Comparative Perspective, Karen Edge, Paul Armstrong

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.

Learning From School Leadership In Chile, Joseph Flessa

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Teacher Leadership In The Career Advancement Of Schoolteachers: A Case Study, Paul Newton, Gus Riveros, Jose Dacosta

Education Publications

In this paper, we explore the influence of a professional development initiative based on a model of teacher leadership development in the career advancement of a group of school leaders. We investigated the perceptions and understandings held by these school leaders regarding how their experiences as teacher leaders contributed to their career advancement and growth as educational leaders. The findings of this study augment existing scholarship on the nature of leadership development and career advancement in educational systems and educational jurisdictions. The study findings suggest that teacher leadership roles may have a significant effect in generating skills and interest in …

International Students As Lucrative Markets Or Vulnerable Populations: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of National And Institutional Events In Four Nations, Grace L. Karram

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

The migration of post-secondary students is an increasingly debated phenomenon as the number of students living outside of their home country has risen to more than three million in the past decade. Governments, regions and institutions have developed new structures and strategies to facilitate and benefit from this worldwide student movement. This research article uses Fairclough’s (1993) notion of critical discourse analysis to explore the relationship between two distinct discourses on foreign students: national-level economic competitiveness and institutional-level student success. A comparative approach examines these discursive events in the four leading, Anglophone destination countries: Australia, Britain, Canada and the United …

The Problem Of The Penumbra: Elementary School Principals' Exercise Of Discretion In Student Disciplinary Issues, Nora M. Findlay

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Maintaining order and discipline is one of the most challenging aspects of the school-based administrator’s role. School officials make disciplinary decisions within a context that is established, in part, by case law, legislation and regulations, school board policies and social, organizational and individual values. The exercise of administrative discretion is vital to the decision-making process. It offers school leaders creativity and flexibility. The interpretation and implementation of school discipline policies by in-school administrators can provide insight into their discretionary decision-making. The purpose of this study was to determine how principals in an urban school division in Western Canada negotiated within …

Chinese Immigrant Parents’ Communication With School Teachers, Fan Jiang, George Zhou, Zuochen Zhang, Clinton Beckford, Lan Zhong, Fan Jiang

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Parent-teacher communication has great influence on children’s school performance. Using Walker et al.’s model of parent involvement as a theoretical framework, this study investigated Chinese immigrant parents’ communication experience with teachers and the psychological factors that influenced such communication. The study collected data through survey and revealed that Chinese immigrant parents recognized their responsibility to maintain regular communication with school teachers and believed that such communication could bring beneficial outcomes to their children’s education. The study found that Chinese immigrant parents had more frequent communication with teachers than those recorded in previous literatures. Among the five psychological factors, communication self-efficacy …

Thomas Greenfield And The Quest For Meaning In Organizations: A Postponed Dialogue With Ludwig Wittgenstein, Gus Riveros

Education Publications

In this paper I highlight the role of the notion of meaning for educational administration. I want draw attention to Thomas Greenfield’s theses regarding the role of meanings in organization. I explore the relations between Greenfield’s thesis about meaning in organization and Ludwig Wittgenstein’s thoughts about language and meaning. I shed some light on the encounters and distances between these two thinkers. My account is both exploratory and critical. On the one hand, I point up the relationships between meaning, practices, and action in organization. On the other hand, I identify one aspect of Greenfield’s thought that can be further …