Education Commons^™

Early Childhood Educators' Experiences Of The Ontario Full-Day Early Learning: Promises To Keep, Rose M. Walton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

School-based kindergarten is a place where Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and schooling practices meet and overlap. This initiative has resulted in many changes including a legislated partnership between Early Childhood Educators and kindergarten teachers under the umbrella of the Ontario Ministry of education. In classrooms, these two diversely positioned partners shared professional space within the context of the newly minted program.The purpose of my narrative case study was to learn about participants’ experiences of a legislated partnership with a kindergarten teacher. Three early childhood educators employed by three different district school boards, I posed semi-structured interview questions and …

Why Are Secondary School Girls Not Embracing Science?, Felicia F. Ibrahim

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examines some of the factors that impact upon secondary school girls and the subsequent decisions that they make, whether to continue their study of science, once it becomes an elective area of study. Specifically, the girls were asked about their previous experiences in science classes, their perceptions and beliefs about science teachers, and the girls’ attainment or lack of success in science and perceptions about self-efficacy.

For the first component all female students in their grade twelve year were asked to fill out a questionnaire, to determine general perceptions about science learning, based on opinions and personal experiences …

Elementary Students' Beliefs About The Causes Of Learning Difficulties: A Comparison Between Canada And Saudi Arabia, Huda Saleh Felimban

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this cross-cultural comparison, students from inclusive schools in Canada and Saudi Arabia shared their beliefs about the causes of and factors associated with learning difficulties. Qualitative data were collected through interviews with 36 Canadian and 62 Saudi elementary students in Grades 5 and 6. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Six categories emerged: Lack of Knowledge, Achievement, Academic Skills; Cognitive and Social-Emotional Barriers; Lack of Attention and/or Motivation and Behavioural Issues; Home and Parental Concerns; Teacher-Related Issues; and Physical/Sensory Disabilities and Innate Conditions. Results showed that participants from both countries had a general understanding of the factors …

Exploring Teachers’ Understanding Of Equity And Inclusive Education And Their Pedagogical Choices, Kelley G. Porteous Jones

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis investigates how teaching in a low-diversity school environment affects equity education. The theoretical frameworks as elaborated by Banks with regards to critical multiculturalism and Kumashiro’s approach to anti-oppressive education underpin the analysis. Four Ontario elementary teachers participated in semi-structured interviews. The purpose was to examine their decisions when teaching about equity and how they arrived at those decisions. By drawing on their experiences and viewpoints, the perceptions and practices of these participants were analyzed. Consistent with teachers in high-diversity environments, these teachers in low-diversity classrooms taught about equity when they saw a student need. Since they did not …

The Public School Washroom As Heterotopia: Gendered Spatiality And Subjectification, Jennifer C. Ingrey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation investigates how secondary school students understand their own gendered subjectivity and the discursive and material processes that contribute to it through visual artifacts (photovoice projects) the students created of school washroom spaces. Drawing primarily on Foucault’s analytics of disciplinary space and the heterotopia (Foucault & Miskowiec, 1986), I view the washroom space as producing and perpetuating gendered power relations that invert, suspect, or neutralize those existing in exterior spaces. Deploying both a Foucauldian and Butlerian analytics, these visual student responses are framed as confessional, queering or (de)subjugating (Stryker, 2006) and cartographic products, and hence, understood in terms of …

Transition Of Newcomer Youth In Ontario Educational Policies: A Critical Discourse Analysis, Cameron Scott

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Transition in school is an inherent function of each student’s educational experience. However, newcomer youth face unique transitional challenges. This qualitative study was conducted to answer how Ontario educational policies shape the transition of newcomer youth. A critical discourse analysis was used to analyze practical guides and policy texts, framed through critical policy sociology and critical pedagogy. Findings illustrated that a fractured policy landscape exists, where there is a heavy emphasis on literacy, language development, and language acquisition for newcomer youth, but there remains a lack of policies to support a more holistic transition. Dominant policy discourses serve to construct …

Internationalizing Canadian Higher Education Through North-South Partnerships: A Critical Case Study Of Policy Enactment And Programming Practices In Tanzania, Allyson M. Larkin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The contemporary internationalization of higher education promotes the formation of North-South (N-S) partnerships to facilitate access to new research sites and opportunities for international programming. This study conceptualizes N-S partnerships as an extension of internationalization policy. In the current context of internationalization, there is a reliance on higher education to produce economic benefits to support national economic objectives. There are particular concerns, however, with a practice of N-S partnerships that are enacted in communities located in the Global South. Internationalization policy does not adhere to the principles of N-S partnership outlined in multilateral agreements and is increasingly focused on the …

Interprofessional Socialization And Dual Identity Development Amongst Cross-Disciplinary Students, Hossein Khalili

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this study was to develop and test an interprofessional socialization (IPS) framework through assessing the impact of an IPS-based interprofessional education program on interprofessional socialization and dual identity development among health professional students. Although health professional educational programs have been successful in equipping graduates with skills, knowledge and professionalism, the emphasis on specialization and profession-specific education has enhanced the development of a uniprofessional identity, which has been found to be a major barrier towards Interprofessional Person-Centered Collaborative Practice (IPCPCP). Despite the growing acknowledgment of IPS in the current IPE and collaborative practice literature, there is a lack …

Multimodal Literacy Learning Opportunities In One Grade Six Classroom: Possibilities And Constraints, Terry S. Loerts

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The goal of this qualitative case study was to provide insights into the place of multimodal literacy learning opportunities in the classroom literacy curriculum in a junior level context that is under-represented in the research literature, to ascertain the possibilities and constraints for multimodal literacy learning opportunities therein, and to document the students’ literacy practices within these opportunities. To achieve these ends, the study explored the multimodal literacy learning opportunities that were afforded by a grade six classroom curriculum within Ontario, Canada. Specifically, the study asked: What, if any multimodal literacy learning opportunities does a grade six classroom curriculum afford? …

Cognitive Activity Support Tools: Design Of The Visual Interface, Paul Parsons

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation is broadly concerned with interactive computational tools that support the performance of complex cognitive activities, examples of which are analytical reasoning, decision making, problem solving, sense making, forecasting, and learning. Examples of tools that support such activities are visualization-based tools in the areas of: education, information visualization, personal information management, statistics, and health informatics. Such tools enable access to information and data and, through interaction, enable a human-information discourse. In a more specific sense, this dissertation is concerned with the design of the visual interface of these tools. This dissertation presents a large and comprehensive theoretical framework to …

The Self-Efficacy Beliefs Of Novice Elementary French As A Second Language Teachers, Shelley Cooke

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This mixed-methods study was conducted to examine the self-efficacy beliefs of novice elementary French as a Second Language (FSL) teachers in Ontario. Comparisons were made between the self-efficacy appraisals of English-dominant and French-dominant teacher participants, and core French (CF) and French immersion (FI) teacher participants. An online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Findings showed that French-dominant novice FSL teachers felt more effective in delivering a FSL program as compared to their English-dominant colleagues. As well, the FI teacher participants demonstrated a higher sense of efficacy than their CF colleagues. Factors identified as contributing to the participants’ sense of efficacy …

A Case Study Mapping Literacy Learning Opportunities And Identity Construction Among African Immigrant Youth In A Canadian Secondary School, Wambui J. Gichuru

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Studies with immigrant and refugee youth highlight challenges, school failure and early push-out rates (Anisef, 2008; James, 2012; Roessingh, 2010). There is limited research about how immigrant students especially from continental Africa negotiate their identity at school for positive outcomes. The goal of this qualitative case study was to explore literacy learning opportunities afforded by the school for African youth who were learning to become literate in English as an additional language in a Canadian secondary school and the implications for the students’ communicative and identity options.

The study utilized ethnographic tools, i.e., interview, classroom observation, mapping literacy activities and …

Perspective Transformation Amongst Student Interns, Robert V. Gough

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This case study is an attempt to understand the impact of an International Service-Learning (ISL) experience on changing the world view or perspectives of 25 student participants in a three month internship to East Africa through a large Canadian research intensive university in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis. Using Kiely’s (2004) model of emerging global consciousness and a post-colonial lens, findings indicate that participants’ ‘common sense’ assumptions are disrupted and that they experience complex, ambiguous and varied shifts in their world view. The study identifies some of the experiences and contexts that contribute to perspective transformation and highlights the significance …

Core French Teachers’ Perceptions Of Ell Inclusion: A Mixed-Methods Investigation, Jordana F. Garbati

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Canada is perceived around the world as a bilingual country that embraces linguistic and cultural diversity. The purpose of this study was to examine French as a second language (FSL) teachers’ attitudes toward inclusion of English language learners (ELLs) and the contributing factors affecting teachers’ attitudes toward ELLs. The province of Ontario served as the context for this study and the participants were elementary core French (CF) (where French is taught as a subject) teachers. Theories of multilingualism and positioning theory were drawn on in order to understand CF teachers’ perceptions of ELL inclusion and the contributing factors affecting these …

Telling Tales Out Of School: Principals' Narratives Of The Relationship Between School Literacy And The Home Literacy Practices Of A Minoritized Culture, Wendy A. Crocker

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Much of the literature in the area of school leadership pertains to the role of the principal in school improvement – specifically in raising reading and writing scores in large-scale assessments. However, what is less represented is how administrators who are confronted daily with the socially constructed and multiple representations of literacies demonstrated by the English Language Learners in their schools view the focus on reading and writing referred to in the literature as school literacy. This Narrative Inquiry explores administrators’ perspectives of the relationship between school-literacy and home-literacy practices of a minoritized culture taking as its case the …

Out Of Alignment: Managing Literacy Assessment Work In The Primary Classroom, Holly Carol Parkinson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis presents findings that were investigated using Institutional Ethnography (IE) into teachers’ accountability work in four Ontario primary classrooms. Informed by the writing of Dorothy E. Smith (1987, 2005, 2006), my thesis documented and analyzed curriculum work using IE strategy to explore the social relations organizing the teachers’ accountability work. Specifically my study asked: What work do primary teachers carry out as they engage in literacy assessments? How are literacy assessments implicated in the coordination of teachers’ curriculum work? How is this work coordinating and being coordinated with the work of students, administrators and policy makers at local, national …

"Sit-Still And Shut-Up": The Construction Of Childhood And Classroom Management Pedagogies In A Preservice Education Textbook, Marlene P. Frederick

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study addresses the limitations and restrictions of approaches to classroom management that are promoted in one particular textbook that is used in Teacher Education faculties in Canada. It contributes to building an understanding of the role of textbooks in endorsing certain truth and knowledge claims about childhood and classroom management. The thesis is informed theoretically by Foucault (1977-1982), Gee (2001) and poststructuralists such as Weedon (1999). Through undertaking a discourse analysis informed by the work of Gee and Foucault, I conduct a single case study of one particular textbook to highlight the particular role of educational psychology as ‘a …

A Case Study Of Pedagogical Practices And Learning Environment In An Ontario Francophone Child Care Centre, Alan D. Russette

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explores the pedagogy and learning environment in an Ontario Francophone child care centre. This study is an exploratory descriptive case study using ethnographic tools. Relying on Cummins’ (1989) Minority Empowerment Framework and Lyster’s (2007) Counterbalanced Approach to Second Language Teaching as reference points, this study investigated how Franco-Ontarian culture and linguistic character are reinforced in this child care centre; how language instruction was integrated into educational activities; and what supports were in place to assist and support Anglophone and Allophone children in this environment. Over ten weeks, the researcher found that the centre promoted a culture of universal …

A Comparative Analysis Of The Implementation Of Education For All (Efa) Policies In Two Countries: Barbados And The Republic Of Ghana, Carolyne Verret

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study’s goals are to analyze Education for All (EFA) policies in these two Global South countries, Barbados and Ghana, and compare their adaptation, their implementation processes and the outcomes, in conjunction with UNESCO’s EFA goals. The research design used to carry out this project is a comparative case-study as it provides an understanding between the context and the processes, the structures and the actions pertaining to EFA in these two countries. This comparative case-study is based on a document analysis as a method for data collection and analysis with a critical democratic perspective. The findings have shown that factors …

Reducing Epilepsy-Related Stigma: Teachers' Implementation Of An Epilepsy Education Program, Gayle Michelle Gibson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis presents an investigation of teachers’ implementation of Brain Matters, an education program designed to reduce the stigma associated with epilepsy. Five local Grade 12 Biology teachers were interviewed to examine their implementation and consistent with previous research, a multilevel ecological framework was used to understand the factors affecting their implementation. The findings indicate that there were three factors that worked to either facilitate or limit teachers’ implementation of Brain Matters: pedagogical content knowledge and beliefs, characteristics of the resource, and professional development. The results of this study offer developers of stigma-reduction programs insight into the challenges …

Balanced Bilinguals' Unique Emotional Expressiveness, Maya Salloum

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the contemporary globalized world, with diverse situations of language contact emerging, bilingualism is taking on dynamic new forms, yielding a new kind of bilinguals: balanced. Adopting a stance of resistance to the monolingual bias and with a view to refining the frameworks applied to the study of bilinguals, this research examines how balanced bilinguals process and express their emotions in each of their languages. This is a qualitative study that incorporates narrative inquiry and uses the narratives and autobiographical memories of five balanced bilinguals, of different language pairs and age/gender groups to better understand how these balanced bilinguals perceive …

Listening To Voices Of Exceptional Students To Inform Art Pedagogy, Christina Yarmol

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study explored the pedagogical practices that fostered engagement for seven participants with physical disabilities and in some cases multiple exceptionalities who successfully earned a credit in a high school Visual Arts course. It answered the key question: What can art educators learn from students' stories of art education that would better enable art educators to enact a pedagogy that engages students with disabilities in the Visual Arts classroom? A narrative inquiry methodology was employed to gather stories and art work from these key informants acting as active agents in their own storied responses that were triangulated with field notes …

An Investigation Into Identity, Power And Autonomous Efl Learning Among Indigenous And Minority Students In Post-Secondary Education: A Mexican Case Study, Colette Despagne

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This critical ethnographic case study draws on Indigenous and minority students' process of learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Mexico. The study specifically focuses on students who enrolled in a program called A wager with the Future. The aim of the study is to identify and understand contributing factors in these students’ struggles with the process of learning English by focusing on factors that influence their investment in EFL. The research is framed by (critical) applied linguistics and post-colonial theories that favour the integration of an understanding of these students’ socio historical context in their learning of …

A Structured Conceptualization Of Reasons To Accelerate: Words From The Wise, Lynn Dare

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Existing research indicates that carefully planned acceleration offers academic benefits with little social or emotional risk to high-ability learners. However, acceleration is seldom practiced and little is known about how students perceive acceleration. This study provides a structured conceptualization of reasons why secondary students chose acceleration through concurrent enrollment. Participants who were concurrently enrolled at Western University while in their final year at high school completed a concept mapping exercise based on Trochim’s methodology. A seven cluster model provided the best graphical representation of reasons to choose concurrent enrollment. Key concepts included (a) university preparation, (b) demonstrating initiative, (c) getting …

Reflecting On Multimodal Pedagogy: An Autoethnographic Narrative Of The Inclusion Of Art Across The Elementary Classroom Curriculum, Jessica S. Taylor Charland

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explores the inclusion of art and visual modes of literacy across the elementary classroom curriculum in Ontario. Positioned within social semiotics, multimodal literacy and multimodal pedagogy, it situates art as a literacy practice. I use autoethnographic narratives to share stories of classroom experiences teaching multimodal literacy, and reflect on the following questions: What were my experiences using art as a multimodal literacy? What resources enabled or constrained the enactment of multimodal pedagogy in my practice? and What were the affordances and limitations of the modes and multimodal pedagogies for my students and for myself as a teacher? Reflections …

The Effects Upon Students Of Supplementing Aboriginal Post-Secondary Transition Programs With Traditional Cultural Activities, Karen Favell

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THE EFFECTS UPON STUDENTS OF SUPPLEMENTING ABORIGINAL POST-SECONDARY TRANSITION PROGRAMS WITH TRADITIONAL CULTURAL ACTIVITIES

Karen Favell

Department of Education

University of Western Ontario

ABSTRACT

This study investigates Aboriginal student experiences in an Aboriginal transition program that was co-developed by the student-participants. Data was collected from participants in the study through a focus group, journals, and surveys. The results show that adding Aboriginal cultural activities to the curriculum improved the experience of students in the transition program. Students felt that their contributions were important and valued, that they learned more about their traditional culture, and that their contributions enhanced their experience …

Investigating The High Attrition Rate Of Boys In Iranian Schools: A Case Study Of Key Stakeholders’ Perspectives, Sirous Tabrizi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

For the first time in the history of Iran, the literacy levels of women are higher than that of men. However, males are culturally and socially preferred in positions of influence and decision making. Therefore, education in Iran is not having the beneficial effects that it should as the people who end up in positions of power may lack the needed education. This thesis investigates the reasons why boys choose to drop out of school, and the societal perceptions, influences, and consequences of boys dropping out of school. To conduct this research, I interviewed 8 dropouts, 5 teachers, and 1 …

Barriers To Education In Homeless Youth, Michelle S. Solomon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Most homeless youth in Canada have not completed high school. Lack of education is a critical issue that affects pathways to gainful employment, financial security, and positive health. Several risk factors affect their ability to succeed in school; however, there has been limited research in Canada that identifies the most influential factors. This study is a secondary analysis of the Youth Matters in London: Mental Health, Addiction and Homelessness study in London Ontario. It is guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of human development. The effects of several environmental factors on the academic achievement of 187 homeless youth with mental health …

Fostering Creativity: Ontario Teachers’ Perceptions, Strategies, And Experiences, Catharine M. Dishke Hondzel

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study provides a broad overview of perceptions elementary school teachers hold regarding creativity, the strategies those teachers use to foster creative thinking and behaviour in their students, and the environmental challenges and opportunities they navigate when striving to develop 21^st century skills in students. Earlier research examining teachers’ perceptions and creativity-fostering behaviours have typically asked teachers to describe their classroom practices, or self-report their perceptions regarding creative children or children’s creative actions. Using a mixed-methods approach, in this study 22 Grade 5-7 teachers working in Ontario completed an online questionnaire which measured their creativity-fostering behaviours. Following the survey, …

A Comprehensive Mental Health Training Format For Adult Education Teachers, Fiona Meek

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The present study investigated the needs of adult education staff pertaining to adult students’ mental health issues within a local school board by utilizing a mixed-methods design. The study was divided into progression of three separate studies. An initial focus group was conducted in order to identify the 12 participants’ concerns and provide a direction for the needs assessment survey that was administered to the entire population of adult education teachers in the board. Two 2-hour workshops were designed for the 120 members of the staff based on the needs identified by the surveys. An evaluation of the workshops indicated …