Shakamohtaa: Connecting And Coming Together To Support International Student Career Readiness, Sabreena Macelheron

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

Abstract

In the evolving Canadian landscape, permanent residency acquisition has undergone a transformative shift from land sales to educational credential procurement. Canadian higher education markets post-secondary qualifications to international students (IS) seeking migration routes, posing nuanced challenges. IS, despite holding higher education credentials, often find themselves relegated to non-field specific jobs due to existing disparities in the Canadian job market. Amid this equation, IS grapple with the essential need for pre-and-post graduate career experiences to fulfill eligibility criteria for permanent residency application. This pursuit extends beyond merely aligning with their credentials, requiring conformity to approved national occupation codes aligned with …

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 …

How To Drink From A Firehose: Systemic Supports For Polytechnic Chairs, Jocelyn R. Crocker

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) is centred on the Problem of Practice of the inadequate institutional supports for academic Chairs at Prairie Polytechnic (a pseudonym), a large public higher education institution in Western Canada. Chairs are pivotal for higher education institutions because they impact student, departmental, and institutional outcomes; however, the leadership development needs of Chairs are overlooked, and the limited training available for Chairs is primarily ad hoc, episodic, short-term, and self-guided. The objective of this OIP is to determine how Prairie Polytechnic can provide more effective systemic supports for Chairs. Postmodernism is used to explore the relationships between …

Stop The Burnout: Enhancing Support Practices For Principals, Jennifer M. Mcmullen

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

Principals are essential for ensuring student success. Effective principals have a significant positive impact on student achievement, teacher effectiveness, a positive school culture and inclusive school climate. Increased demands of the role which include mounting managerial tasks and a lack of systems and centralized support for principals, is decreasing the focus on effective school improvement. Current research reveals an alarming trend regarding the absence of positive principal well-being and support structures. The River District School Board (RDSB; a pseudonym) requires a detailed change process and plan to improve this issue. This Problem of Practice (PoP) and Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) …

Disengaged Or Differently Engaged? Students’ Motivations, Expectations, And Engagement In The Multi-Expectational Undergraduate Experience, Clifford Davidson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examines the undergraduate experience from the student perspective, specifically as it applies to the dominant engagement success narrative. is narrative articulates that, for undergraduate students to successfully navigate and gain the most from their time at university, they must engage in educationally purposive activities and enriching educational experiences. Research also connects students’ motivations for enrolling in university to engagement and suggests that intrinsically motivated students are more likely to engage according to the dominant narrative, leading to a successful undergraduate experience. Conversely, students who are more extrinsically motivated tend to not engage correctly or at acceptable levels and …

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 …

Building Capacity For Deep Learning, Seonaid J. Davis

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

Post COVID-19, gives school leaders the opportunity to build back a better school system focusing on the needs of students, preparing students to thrive in the 21^st century by shifting from teacher-centred to learner-centred pedagogy. Changing teachers’ attitudes, beliefs, and skills to make this shift requires new learning through creating an effective professional learning environment. This organizational improvement plan explores how to build teacher capacity for 21^st century learning at the Family of Independent Schools (a pseudonym) in Ontario through the creation of collaborative inquiry teams where teachers develop an individual and collective understanding of deep learning. Deep …

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 …

Building An Adaptive Culture Where Collaborative Teaching Teams Leverage Data To Improve Student Achievement And Wellbeing, Anand Mahadevan

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) seeks to open up the black box of classroom teaching to data informed collaborative inquiry by teachers for teachers using formative feedback as the model for instructional improvement. Teacher collective efficacy is developed through ongoing professional learning in collaborative teaching teams that use multiple measures of data to limit bias and improve equity of outcomes for students. Such a process is iterative, and the OIP envisions the combined use of adaptive leadership and distributed leadership approaches to support Kotter’s 8-step model for change implementation. The desired outcome is an adaptive and agile school culture where …

Steering At A Distance: A Qualitative Case Study Of Institutional Autonomy At A Vietnamese Public University, Anh Thi Hoai Le

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In 2012, the Vietnamese government enacted the Higher Education Law to give public universities institutional autonomy. Since the passage of the law, the term institutional autonomy has become contested; different interpretations have arisen among different actors concerned with implementing the policy. In a qualitative case study, I explore the meaning of autonomy in the context of Vietnamese higher education where the legacy of centralized governance is strong. To understand what autonomy means in this context, I use thematic analysis and interpretive policy analysis and draw on state steering theory (Wright, 2019b) as a theoretical framework through which to gain insight …

Creating A Unified School Culture In A Rural School Serving Families In Multiple Communities, Elliott Roellchen-Pfohl

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) addresses the fractured culture of School X resulting from an influx of staff and students from neighbouring communities following rural school closures. The problem of practice (PoP) presented explores ways that a unified school identity can be developed in a receiving school with a student population coming from three separate communities. Through the utilization of both distributed and authentic leadership, the methods that principals of rural schools can use to address this problem are explored. The focus of the problem when viewed through the social capital theory is that all stakeholders of the school have …

Addressing Student Attrition In An Era Of Evolving Student Demographics, Christine Sawchuk

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

Student attrition is a concern for all organizations that provide education, as high levels of attrition can have a significant impact on an organization’s finances and reputation. Online learning provides access to individuals of varying educational and experiential backgrounds who may not have otherwise embarked in an education or training program (referred to here as “Underserved Students”). While education supports personal and professional growth, if students feel that an Education Program is not meeting their needs in terms of curricular relevance or student support, attrition will likely result. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) addresses a problem of practice concerning high …

Frame-Bending Quality: Leading Through Discourses Towards Equity And Student Success, Christopher F. Mcgrath

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

In 2018, the Government of Ontario introduced a post-secondary accountability framework that attributes up to 60% of colleges’ annual public funding to the achievement of ten government-directed performance outcomes. The new framework’s shift from the previous enrollment-based funding model intensifies neoliberal and post-structural policy discourses of quality and accountability, further relegating social inequities to the margins of post-secondary education. At the same time, burgeoning social movements have appealed to governments and post-secondary institutions to dismantle systemic barriers that impede students from equity-deserving communities from accessing and flourishing in college. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) explores how a large urban college …

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 …

Investigating All-Gender Bathrooms In Ontario Schools: A Multi-Sited Case Study, Kenan Omercajic

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This integrated article thesis presents a multi-sited case study that investigates how the space of the all-gender bathroom is constructed by trans-affirmative policy, education stakeholders, and students. Specifically, through four interconnected articles, I draw primarily on trans-informed theoretical frameworks and scholarship to address questions about how the all-gender bathroom is constituted and written into policy discourse, which is subsequently enacted (or conversely, not at all) by education stakeholders in one school board. I conduct a paradigmatic and instrumental multi-sited case study which details specific policy analysis and entails interviewing a policymaker, administrators, educators, and students to engage numerous perspectives about …

Building Leadership Capacity For The Effective Implementation Of A Professional Development Tool In K-12 School In A Region In Arctic Canada, Sonia Osbourne

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) aims to identify and remediate the organizational factors that are presently leading to the faulty delivery of a professional development framework (PDFM) tool in an educational organization in the Canadian Arctic. Implementation of change initiatives in organizations is a complex undertaking and can be further complicated by contextual factors such as culture. In this region, a large percentage of students are Inuit, and teachers and school leaders are both Inuit and non-Inuit. Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ), translated as Inuit traditional knowledge, is a foundation upon which education is delivered in the region. Therefore, this organizational change …

Interdisciplinary Explorations: Setting The Stage For Change Through Understanding Culture And Attending To Psychological Safety In An Ontario Community College, Louise Chatterton

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

Central to this Organizational Improvement Plan is the desire to close the gap between a curriculum that is disciplinary-centric to one that is more interdisciplinary. This change will better prepare college graduates for the future skills required in the workplace where increasingly complex problems require interdisciplinary solutions. While this may, at first, appear to be solely about the curriculum, the problem is that moving from a disciplinary to an interdisciplinary mindset involves disturbing deeply rooted disciplinary boundaries and, in turn, challenging faculty identities. In order to influence the culture of College X towards interdisciplinarity, the cultural context of the institution …

Unifying Services To Students With Complex Needs Within A Newly Amalgamated School District, Meghan L. Miskolzie

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) addresses the inequitable services and supports currently available to students with complex needs throughout a newly amalgamated First Nations school district. This problem of practice explores how services for students with complex needs can be unified in a way that provides equity between schools, while being responsive to individual student needs. An overview of historical and current organizational contexts is provided, and personal and organizational leadership positions and lenses are investigated. Guiding questions emerging from this problem of practice are explored, including the capacity and professional learning needs of school-based staff, physical and human resourcing …

Enhancing Support For Student Mental Health And Wellbeing Through Service Renewal At A Canadian College, Sterling Crowe

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

As the postsecondary education sector has evolved toward mass education, the proportion of students studying at postsecondary institutions experiencing mental health and wellness-related challenges has continued to rise. This continued growth in prevalence and severity of mental health and wellness conditions impacting students in the postsecondary sector has occurred without similar growth in resourcing for departments responsible for supporting these students in successfully navigating their learning environments. These realities require that institutions begin developing strategies to address this gap. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) presents a possible solution to enhance the capacity of a large urban College in Canada to …

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 …

Creating Sustainable Support Systems For The Cultural Integration Of International Students At A Medium Size Ontario University, Muzi Li

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

This OIP investigates the lack of cultural integration and support for international students at Medium-Size Ontario University (MSOU). The support for cultural integration of the international students at MSOU is inadequate and international students are facing social, emotional and academic challenges as they are not provided with the needed assistance to acclimatize to Western culture. Three potential solutions to address the PoP are demonstrated and evaluated. The chosen solution of implementing extended orientation and workshops is inspected in detail. Transformational Leadership and Confucianism are examined to ensure their relevancy and appropriateness to address this PoP and OIP and connected to …

How Do We Increase Educator’S Engagement With Learning Management Systems In Higher Education?, Abby Al-Takriti

Education Presentations

Abstract

As a former Faculty Assistant at Ivey Business School, I contributed directly to research, theory, case study development, while working alongside practitioners in management. I supported several faculty members, delivering quality education across several high-profile business programs. In this paper, I will outline a Problem of Practice (PoP) within academia and discuss its delineation and associated solutions. The following definition of PoP is used: “A problem of practice is a persistent, contextualized, and specific issue embedded in the work of a professional practitioner, the addressing of which the potential to result in has improved understanding, experience, and outcomes.” (CPED, …

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 …

Undergraduate Student Retention: Using Leader Member Exchange As An Organizational Change Driver, Joe Stokes

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

University student retention is one of the most studied enrolment management concepts in academia, with large amounts of theoretical and empirical research that has influenced campuses around the world (Astin, 1993; Habley, Bloom & Robins, 2012; Swail, 2004; Tinto, 1987). Although the considerations surrounding student retention are many and complex, the definition of retention is fairly straightforward. Berger, Ramirez, and Lyons, (2012) defines retention as “the ability of an institution to retain a student from admission through graduation” (p.5). This organizational improvement plan will discuss student retention in the context of a problem of practice at a Canadian university. Specifically, …

A Study Of Respiratory Therapy And Medical Radiation Technology Faculty Who Transitioned From Clinical Practice Into Academia: Their Transition Experiences, And Perceptions Of Students With Disabilities., Christine M. Griffith

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract

Challenges experienced by allied health clinicians transitioning to educator roles in post-secondary institutions are well reported in the literature. Indeed, the Western world-based research contends that such allied health faculty retain their health identity as their primary professional identity, alongside that of educator. More specifically, the influence of retention of the health identity by nursing faculty on their attitudes towards students with disabilities requiring accommodations is also well reported in the literature. Fears held by nursing faculty that students with disabilities may compromise patient safety can act as barriers to the full inclusion of those students in nursing education …