Education Commons^™

Privilege, Power, And Marginalization: Creating Teacher Alliances For An Inclusive International School Community, Clarence Kerry Best

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

NXS began as an experimental bilingual school in a major urban city in Taiwan. Over its twenty-year history, the school transitioned from offering English language instruction for local students to a fully WASC accredited and IB authorized World School. The foreign staff grew from a few staff to comprising two-thirds of the 150-teaching faculty. Despite the size and potential impact of foreign teachers, they have no voice in the school, are excluded from setting the direction of the school, and are largely absent from the life of the school community. Limited opportunities for advancement and intense competition result from few …

Learning New Words From Ted Talks: Strategic Use Of L1 Subtitles And L2 Captions, Injung Wi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In recent years, studies examining the effectiveness of audiovisual input and on-screen text for incidental vocabulary learning have proliferated. However, no studies have explored the potential of repeated viewing with an alternation of L1 subtitles and L2 captions for incidental vocabulary learning although both types of on-screen text have been proved to be beneficial for vocabulary acquisition. Given this gap in the literature, we designed the present study, the rationale for which was guided by the notion of desirable difficulty, the role of retrieval from memory, and conflicting findings regarding the benefits of trial-and-error learning. The research questions were whether …

Soundfullness In Early Childhood Education: An Ecological Sound Art Inquiry With Educators And Children, Malvika Agarwal

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Sounds exist everywhere, and early childhood classrooms are no exception. Sounds resonate with us, and sometimes they move us. However, engagement with sound has a limited trajectory. This thesis traces movements from a sound inquiry in an early childhood centre through three research questions: (a) How is sound consumed and produced in ECE? (b) What other ways of being might be enacted through sounds and ecological sound art in ECE? (c) How might sound become an agentic entity through pedagogical documentation and digital technology? The inquiry took a multimodal approach using text and sound, and embraced methods of ecological sound …

The Development, Short-Term Efficacy, And Pilot Implementation Of An E-Learning Course In Physical Activity And Sedentary Behaviour For Pre-Service Early Childhood Educators, Brianne Bruijns

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The overarching purpose of this dissertation was to develop an e-Learning course in physical activity and sedentary behaviour and test its short-term efficacy and implementation among pre- and in-service early childhood educators (ECEs). The Delphi approach was adopted for Study 1, wherein a panel of international experts in physical activity and sedentary behaviour suggested topics for the course and, together with a panel of ECE experts, rated their importance. Study 2 employed a pre-post design to explore the changes in pre- and in-service ECEs’ physical activity and sedentary behaviour-related knowledge, self-efficacy, behavioural intention, and perceived behavioural control following course completion. …

“I Can’T Trust Anyone”: International Students’ Experience With Student Support Services In Canada, Cathlin Sullivan

MA Research Paper

The number of international students in Canada continues to rise. Out of the 642,480 international students in Canada, 60% of them want to immigrate to Canada permanently after completing their studies (CBIE, 2018). Using data from a qualitative research study, I will discuss the transition of international students to university at a research institution in Southwestern Ontario. This paper focuses on their transition to Canada through their engagement with on-campus support services. The findings suggest very different levels of support in accessing resources within the International Student Centre compared to other student service offices on campus. Within the purview of …

Moving Toward Wellness: A Transformative Approach To Addressing Inadequacies In Mental Health Supports For Indigenous Youth In Residential Treatment Resource, Tsion Tekie

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

Indigenous youth are overrepresented in the child welfare system in Canada. Organization X, a Ministry of Children and Families program provider, has made significant efforts to address the needs of Indigenous youth in care, including creating the Residential Treatment Resources (RTR) program. While behavioural-focused RTR program is an important step in the right direction, the program fails to address the causal mental health needs, which has resulted in high numbers of recidivism among Indigenous youth after discharge. After careful review of the literature, the possible solutions revealed mental health counselling is a vital supportive resource required for this population. Additionally, …

The Effects Of Multilingualism And Music Experience On Tone And Vowel Discrimination Ability, Niloufar Ansari Dezfuly

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigates the effects of language background (monolingual/bilingual and early/late bilingual exposure), knowledge of a tonal language and music experience on auditory discrimination by employing tone and vowel discrimination tasks. A total number of 8,769 observations were analyzed using logistic regression to answer the following questions: (1) Do vowel and tone discrimination abilities correlate with language background in diverse groups of speakers such as monolinguals and bilinguals of different types (early/late bilinguals)? (2) Does musical training affect tone and vowel discrimination? (3) Does knowledge of tonal language affect tone discrimination? The findings suggest that with regard to vowel discrimination, …

Supporting The Integration Of Internationally Educated Teachers To Foster Equitable Schools, Nadine Trépanier-Bisson

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

Within a change process grounded in constructivist and transformative worldviews, internationally educated teachers (IETs), an underemployed group in the education sector, can support equity efforts in Ontario schools. The Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) presents an overview of the organizational and environmental factors that contribute to the necessity for change and which influence the change process. A new way of supporting equity work in schools is proposed through a dual change process intended to bring change at the principal organization (meso) and in schools (micro). Kotter’s (2012) eight-stage process is embedded within Cawsey et al.’s (2016) change path model to support …

Troubling Service User Involvement In Health Professional Education: Toward Epistemic Justice, Stephanie Leblanc-Omstead

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

It has become increasingly popular in health professional education to solicit the contributions and involvement of people who have firsthand or ‘lived’ experiences of using mental health services – a practice hereafter referred to as service user involvement (SUI). SUI is founded on the premise that service users ought to be involved in the development and evaluation of services and systems they experience, which includes the education of future health professionals. Despite the momentum this practice has gained in a range of international contexts, SUI is often conceptualized, organized, and implemented uncritically, and with tremendous inconsistency across health professional education …

Peer Mentorship In An Undergraduate Health Professional Education Program: An Embodied Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study, Helen F. Harrison

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Student peer mentorship, in which a more senior student mentors a more junior student for at least one term, is on the rise in health professions education programs. The research presented adopts an embodied hermeneutic phenomenological approach to investigate student peer mentors’ perceptions of teaching, learning and relationships within peer mentorship interactions in the context of one collaborative nursing program in Ontario, Canada.

This dissertation is composed of five integrated manuscripts, in addition to introductory, body-map findings, and conclusion chapters. The first manuscript describes the theoretical foundations of the doctoral research, drawing on phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s concepts of embodiment, intersubjectivity …

Global Citizenship Education And Scout Movement Curriculum In Egypt: Perspectives From Scouts And Scout Leaders, Tarek M. Faid

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigated Scouting’s contribution, as a non-formal educational movement, in educating global citizens. To address the research questions, I used a mixed-methods case study design, which necessitated the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data concurrently using varied data sources (surveys, interviews, and the senior scout curriculum document). The study explored the Egyptian scouts and scout leaders’ perspectives of global citizenship and their views on the potential of the Arab senior scout curriculum (2011) to contribute to the development of 15-17 years old scouts as global citizens. In addition, I assessed the extent to which the curriculum encompasses critical …

Teacher Professionalism, Embodiment, And Surveillance: An Autoethnographic Study, Melanie Cloutier-Bordeleau

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This autoethnographic study entails using my own situated knowledge and experience as a white bisexual secondary school teacher from a low socioeconomic background as a basis for data generation and analysis. Attention is given to examining the current enforcement of specific norms governing behavioural and physical conduct, and the role these norms play in constructing and reinforcing hierarchical structures of identity related to race, gender, socioeconomic status and sexuality. The main question the study explores is: How does the performativity and performance of educator “professionalism” contribute to constructing/reinforcing hierarchies of identity with respect to gender, sexuality, social class and race? …

A Systematic Review For Identifying Instructional Design Strategies And Principles In Extended Massive Open Online Courses (Xmoocs), Jingrui Jiang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Extended massive open online courses (xMOOCs), which follow traditional university learning models, have become a popular platform for structured learning over the past few years. Despite this popularity, xMOOCs are generally poorly designed, which has caused dramatic drop-out rates; therefore, they require extensive revision using instructional design strategies and principles. Hence, the purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic review of empirical studies that present best practices in the instructional design of xMOOCs and inductively identify effective instructional principles with the aim of improving the effectiveness of xMOOC instruction. We used the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Study …

(Re)Thinking Anti-Racist Pedagogies In Early Childhood Education: An Exploratory Case Study Of The Perspectives Of Muslim Mothers In Ontario, Hanaa Ghannoum

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This exploratory multiple case study explored Muslim mothers' perspectives and experiences in relation to their young children's education in Ontario, Canada. The study included seven cases, each being one Muslim mother of a child/children aged between 4 and 8. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with each participant mother and analyzed through a deductive and inductive thematic analysis. The five main deductive patterns discussed are home-school partnerships, sense of belonging, mothers’ conceptualization of education, the influence of media, and Islamophobia. The six inductive patterns discussed are fear as an emergent feeling, mothers as ambassadors, celebrations as a barrier, secular education, …

Combating Racial Microaggression In Higher Education: A Case Study Of East Asian Students' Experiences On Campus Space, Vivian Leung

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In recent years, universities in Ontario have intensified their anti-racism efforts in response to calls for greater accountability in creating safer and more inclusive campus environments. This study investigates the experiences of East Asian students in higher education—a demographic that has traditionally been overlooked in studies of racism in education. Critical Race Theory was employed as the main theoretical framework and qualitative case study as the research methodology. Data was drawn from individual semi-structured interviews with five East Asian university students; all of whom reported having experienced various forms of racial microaggression on campus space. The findings highlight the gaps …

Common Worlding Pedagogies In Early Childhood Education: Storying Situated Processes For Living And Learning In Ecologically Precarious Times, Kelly-Ann Macalpine

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As a society, we must prepare children for unknown futures—to live well amid the ruinous effects of ongoing human-induced climate change and the growing waste crisis. Given these enormous challenges, early childhood education for the 21st century requires a significant shift in pedagogical and curricular approaches that are both creative enough and receptive enough to meet them. This integrated thesis is based on a project that engages with the problematics that surround educating future generations faced by ecological devastation. I do this by engaging with common worlding pedagogies in early childhood education, in two different classrooms in two different locations. …

A Systematic Literature Review: The Modalities, Pedagogies, Benefits, And Implications Of Storytelling Approaches In Early Childhood Education Classroom, Xinyu Du

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract

The purpose of this systematic literature review was to investigate and synthesize several aspects of storytelling in the reviewed scholarly research, providing a holistic summary and potential insights for early childhood educators. The study asked: (1) What are the various forms, modes and media, and involved pedagogies that storytelling in early childhood education can take? (2) What are the reported benefits of storytelling in early childhood education? (3) Based on the literature, what understandings and pedagogical implications are enriched for early childhood educators to utilize storytelling in their pedagogies? Using a theoretical framework based in multimodal literacy and sociocultural …

A Transformative Journey: The Lived Experience Of Healthcare Learners Participating In Pain Management Education, Zoe A. Leyland

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

There is little emphasis on pain management education for healthcare providers. In September 2019, the Master of Clinical Science (MClSc) program in Advanced Healthcare Practice at Western University in London, Ontario introduced a new, “Interprofessional Pain Management” (IPM) field. The program follows a competency-based framework, and the learners are all practicing healthcare providers with a special interest in pain. Part of the purpose of this thesis is to describe the process of development and implementation. The objective is to provide educators and healthcare providers an in-depth look at how the pain education is experienced. This includes exploring the lived experience …

Evolving Inclusive Learning: From Retrofitting Disability To Designing For Variability, Monica Braat

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

The problem of practice (PoP) addressed in this organizational improvement plan (OIP) is that curriculum is not currently interpreted, designed, and delivered to be inclusive of the range of learner variability present in Sursum Corda School Division (SCSD) classrooms. Although all students are physically included in SCSD classrooms, the learning of those who cannot assimilate to current instructional practices is generally supported through alternative, and often disconnected, practices and materials. Researched and experienced concerns with this approach include an increased potential to isolate, limit, or stigmatize targeted students and the inhibition of innovative instructional practices more generally. This OIP aims …

Using A Self-Paced Reading Task To Examine The Comprehension Monitoring Abilities Of Children With And Without Adhd, Olivia J. Ward

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The current study examined how children with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) deployed their attention while reading and the cognitive processes thought to be related to successful comprehension. 42 children between 9 and 14 years of age read passages during a self-paced reading task. Half of the passages contained semantic inconsistencies. Of interest was the two groups of children’s subsequent comprehension and the extent that they noticed the inconsistencies. The children’s working memory, inferencing ability, verbal and non-verbal intelligence and decoding ability were also measured. Only the typically developing children’s reading times were impacted by the passages’ consistency. …

Muslim Girls' Experiences With Islamophobia, Sexism, And Anti-Black Racism In Ontario Secondary Schools: A Case Study, Sarah Halabi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This qualitative case-study explored the experiences of 20 Muslim girls who attended public secondary schools in Ontario, Canada. The main objective of this research was to understand how Muslim girls’ intersecting identities shaped their school, family, and community experiences. Drawing on anti-racist and postcolonial feminism, this study builds upon existing research conducted on Muslim girls by exploring how other categories of social difference, in addition to gender and religion, converge and influence their educational experiences.

The findings from this study uncovered the impact of racial diversity in Muslim girls’ school and community experiences. Namely, anti-Black racism was central to some …

Managing Interpersonal Conflict: Adolescents With And Without Intellectual Disabilities, Olivia Faulconbridge

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Social Information Processing (SIP) informs the way we engage in social problem solving, such as conflict management. Although research has shown that adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) struggle more with the components of SIP when compared to typically developing peers, very little research has examined how adolescents with ID experience conflict with peers. This study examines the way adolescents with and without ID report experiencing and responding to conflict with best friends and non-friends utilizing their own rather than hypothetical scenarios. Nineteen adolescents (14 adolescents without ID and 5 with ID) were interviewed about their own real-life conflict experiences with …

Increasing And Supporting Gender Equity, Diversity And Inclusion Within Service X: Interrogating Leadership, Recruitment And Culture, Gary Conn

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

Abstract

Police services across Canada have been criticized for years surrounding their lack of equity, diversity and inclusion of females within their respective organizations. The problem of practice (POP) addressed in this organizational improvement plan (OIP), analyzes and focuses on the lack of female recruits applying to Service X. A gap and PESTE analysis identified three main areas of focus to effect organizational change associated to this organizational improvement plan. Recruitment and a need for examining the fitness testing of the constable selection system along with implementing advance/proactive recruitment interventions. Organizational culture and a plan for implementing a robust training …

Disrupting The Status Quo: Leveraging Collective Teacher Efficacy For The Achievement And Wellbeing Of Bipoc And Low Socioeconomic Students, Marjorie E. Macdonald

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

Abstract

At Mel Morgan Middle School (MMMS) a high percentage of students are of low socioeconomic status (SES). Compounding this problem is data which shows that students at MMMS also experience significant academic challenges. Educational challenges for students of low SES are like those experienced by Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC). Faculty beliefs and assumptions about how to effectively educate students from low SES and BIPOC communities are posited as a problem beyond their control. Despite the Legacy Regional Centre for Education’s (LRCE) commitment to student success through policies and documents such as student success planning, inclusive education, …

Reframing Behaviour To Foster Safe And Supporting Schools, Shannon L. Cassidy-Rouleau

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) examines educator support to students who present with chronically challenging behaviours. Educators are experiencing an increase in the frequency and severity of interfering student behaviours affecting classroom learning, school climate, and educator mental well-being (RRDSB, 2018a, 2019b; Santor et al., 2019). Educators frequently disengage from these students and their discipline is managed by administration (RRDSB, 2019b). These students, often already members of marginalized communities (Bailey, 2015), are further marginalized by the use of exclusionary, punitive measures. This mandates a social justice framework that benefits from the moral dialogue evoked by transformative leadership (Shields, 2018). In …

Education Technology: A Story Of Faith, Community, And A Vision For Change, Brenda Becker

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) explores technology use at Traditional Christian School (a pseudonym), a small, independent Christian school in British Columbia. The Problem of Practice (PoP) recognizes a gap between how teachers currently use education technology (EdTech) and how it could be used for greater impact. In this self-proclaimed traditional school, technology is primarily used to support teacher-directed learning; however, with teachers as change agents, effective integration of EdTech could enable a shift to student-centredness that gives students agency over their learning. Nevertheless, understanding of the transformative nature of EdTech is minimally evident at TCS, possibly because barriers based …

Towards A Common Vision For Innovation: Making Sense Of Complexity In A Health Sciences Program, Nina L. Blanes

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

The growing use of digital educational technologies in higher education has seen considerable change resulting in significant institutional energies directed towards maintaining currency with today’s emerging trends. The move to digital transformation is an inevitable assumption and generally positively accepted by academia. Despite this, technology integration has emerged in an ad hoc and reactive fashion rather than purposeful and strategic. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) addresses the need for a shared vision for technology adoption across a health sciences program in a mid-sized institution. Although faculty participate enthusiastically in developing curricular initiatives, their roles and engagement with technology visioning are …

Two-Eyed Seeing To Support Indigenous Education, Mark Dolmont Mr.

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released its 94 ‘calls to action’ to address the atrocities of residential schools, while providing guidance to support reconciliation. Education was identified as one area where reform is necessary. Within the Nikosis Public School Division (NPSD) (a pseudonym), Indigenous students experience significantly lower academic results than their non-Indigenous peers. The colonized approach to education founded heavily on Eurocentric ideology lacks cultural connections that relate to Indigenous students. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) will focus on Buffalo Elementary (a pseudonym) and look to support stronger cultural connections as a method to provide …

Igniting Change In Equity, Diversity And Inclusion At A Canadian Community College Coll, Jennifer Phyllis Gorman

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

This organizational improvement plan addresses the need to develop an equity, diversity, and inclusion strategy that will lead to systematic institutional and cultural change at Mountain College (a pseudonym). This organizational improvement plan draws upon transformational and ethical leadership principles to gain support and momentum from across all levels of the College to develop a shared vision for change and reach the new organizational state. Bolman and Deal's (2013) four frames have been used as a strategic tool to examine Mountain College and identify the actions and decisions the team can take in the organizational improvement process. Following this analysis, …

Improving Stem Graduate Students' Mental Health And Wellbeing, Aneesa Khan

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

An emerging problem with graduate education is the unprecedented rise in mental health and wellbeing concerns across higher education institutions in Canada. Graduate education is widely associated with emotional, physical, and psychological stress. Graduate students are at risk of the onset of mental health illnesses due to a culture of acceptance that graduate studies is synonymous with stress and anxiety. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) explores approaches to improve the mental health and wellness of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) graduate students to promote their personal wellbeing and academic success. The goal of my Problem of Practice (PoP) is …