Dissertations / Theses on the topic '130202 Curriculum and Pedagogy Theory and Development'

Touch keyboarding as a vocational skill is disappearing at a time when students and educators across alleducational sectors are expected to use a computer keyboard on a regular basis. there is documentation surrounding the embedding of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) within the curricula and yet within the National Training Packages touch keyboarding, previously considered a core component, is now an elective in the Business Services framework. This situation is an odds with current practice overseas where touch keyboarding is a component of primary and secondary curricula. From Rhetoric to Practice explores the current issues and practice in teaching and learning touch keyboarding in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. Through structured interview participants detailed current practice of teachers and their students. Further, tertiary students participated in a training program aimed at achquiring touch keyboarding as a skill to enhance their studies. The researcher's background experience of fifteen years teaching touch keyboarding and computer literacty to adults and 30 years in Business Services trade provides a strong basis for this project. The teaching experience is enhanced by industry experience in administration, course coordination in technical, community and tertiary institutions and a strong commitment to the efficient usage of a computer by all. The findings of this project identified coursework expectations requiring all students from kindergarten to tertiary to use a computer keyboard on a weekly basis and that neither teaching nor learning tough keyboarding appears in the primary, secondary and tertiary curricula in New South Wales. Further, teachers recognised tough keyboarding as the prefered style over 'hunt and peck' keyboarding while acknowledging the teaching and learning difficulties of time constraints, the need for qualified touch keyboarding teachers and issues arising when retraining students from existing poor habits. In conclusion, this project recommends that computer keyboarding be defined as a writing tool for education, vocation and life, with early instruction set in primary schooling area and embedding touch keyboarding with the secondary, technical and tertiary areas and finally to draw the attention of educational authorities to the Duty Of Care aspects associated with computer keyboarding in the classroom.

This thesis is a work-in-progress that articulates my research journey based on the development of a curriculum innovation in environmental education. This journey had two distinct, but intertwined phases: action research based fieldwork, conducted collaboratively, to create a whole school approach to environmental education curriculum planning; and a phase of analysis and reflection based on the emerging findings, as I sought to create personal "living educational theory" about change and innovation. A key stimulus for the study was the perceived theory-practice gap in environmental education, which is often presented in the literature as a criticism of teachers for failing to achieve the values and action objectives of critical environmental education. Hence, many programs and projects are considered to be superficial and inconsequential in terms of their ability to seriously address environmental issues. The intention of this study was to work with teachers in a project that would be an exemplar of critical environmental education. This would be in the form of a whole school "learnscaping" curriculum in a primary school whereby the schoolgrounds would be utilised for interdisciplinary critical environment education. Parallel with the three cycles of action research in this project, my research objectives were to identify and comment upon the factors that influence the generation of successful educational innovation. It was anticipated that the project would be a collaboration involving me, as researcher-facilitator, and many of the teachers in the school as active participants. As the project proceeded through its action cycles, however, it became obvious that the goal of developing a critical environmental education curriculum, and the use of highly participatory processes, were unrealistic. Institutional and organisational rigidities in education generally, teachers' day-to-day work demands, and the constant juggle of work, family and other responsibilities for all participants acted as significant constraints. Consequently, it became apparent that the learnscaping curriculum would not be the hoped-for exemplar. Progress was slow and, at times, the project was in danger of stalling permanently. While the curriculum had some elements of critical environmental education, these were minor and not well spread throughout the school. Overall, the outcome seemed best described as a "small win"; perhaps just another example of the theory-practice gap that I had hoped this project would bridge. Towards the project's end, however, my continuing reflection led to an exploration of chaos/complexity theory which gave new meaning to the concept of a "small win". According to this theory, change is not the product of linear processes applied methodically in purposeful and diligent ways, but emerges from serendipitous events that cannot be planned for, or forecast in advance. When this perspective of change is applied to human organisations - in this study, a busy school - the context for change is recognised not as a stable, predictable environment, but as a highly complex system where change happens all the time, cannot be controlled, and no one can be really sure where the impacts might lead. This so-called "butterfly effect" is a central idea of this theory where small changes or modifications are created - the effects of which are difficult to know, let alone determine - and which can have large-scale impacts. Allied with this effect is the belief that long term developments in an organisation that takes complexity into account, emerge by spontaneous self-organising evolution, requiring political interaction and learning in groups, rather than systematic progress towards predetermined goals or "visions". Hence, because change itself and the contexts of change are recognised as complex, chaos/complexity theory suggests that change is more likely to be slow and evolutionary - cultural change - rather than fast and revolutionary where the old is quickly ushered out by radical reforms and replaced by new structures and processes. Slow, small-scale changes are "normal", from a complexity viewpoint, while rapid, wholesale change is both unlikely and unrealistic. Therefore, the frustratingly slow, small-scale, imperfect educational changes that teachers create - including environmental education initiatives - should be seen for what they really are. They should be recognised as successful changes, the impacts of which cannot be known, but which have the potential to magnify into large-scale changes into the future. Rather than being regarded as failures for not meeting critical education criteria, "small wins" should be cause for celebration and support. The intertwined phases of collaborative action research and individual researcher reflection are mirrored in the thesis structure. The first three chapters, respectively, provide the thesis overview, the literature underpinning the study's central concern, and the research methodology. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 report on each of the three action research cycles of the study, namely Laying the Groundwork, Down to Work!, and The Never-ending Story. Each of these chapters presents a narrative of events, a literature review specific to developments in the cycle, and analysis and critique of the events, processes and outcomes of each cycle. Chapter 7 provides a synthesis of the whole of the study, outlining my interim propositions about facilitating curriculum change in schools through action research, and the implications of these for environmental education.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Antioch University, 2007.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Apr. 10, 2007). Advisor: Jon F. Wergin. Keywords: transformative learning theory, deliberative curriculum theory, graduate professional education, theory building, higher education. Includes bibliographical references (p. 377-399).

There has been increasing interest in open innovation in academic research as well as industry application since the concept was introduced in 2003. The concept got much attention because of its economic benefits and novel means for facilitating innovation. This thesis aims to adapt the concept of open innovation to the university environment, in order to foster innovation in the development process for intellectual property (IP) derived from academic research activities. It contributes to the literature on open innovation adapted to the university context, i.e. open collaboration on the development of intellectual property towards a commercial ready stage. In order to investigate the potential of open innovation in the university environment, a focus group was conducted. In addition, the business process of Quirky Inc. was analysed as an example to better understand how open innovation works in the business context. The results of the study’s data analyses inform new opportunities for interventions in universities towards fostering different approaches to IP development as research outcomes. Further, it reveals interventions that can promote open innovation approaches in the university’s context more generally.

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Leadership development is an essential and valuable tool for capacitating police leaders in the South African Police Service to deal with the diverse challenges that they face in the policing environment. There seem to be a need for leadership development processes that can stimulate change, and for perspective transformation to enable police leaders to find alternative ways of dealing with the challenges experienced in their working environment. This thesis explored transformative learning as a tool to enhance the leadership development processes of police leaders. The essential elements of transformative learning are: centrality of experience; critical thinking; rational discourse; and policy praxis. Theory development were chosen as best to carefully construct the foundational argument through non-empirical literary-based sources, in which the literature itself became the database towards theoretical formulation in this non-empirical study. The alignment and integration of the elements of transformative learning were explored as a strategy to capacitate police leaders to: reflect on past experiences; think critically about ways of dealing with policing challenges based on experiences; discuss these challenges with other police leaders; and act on reflections made during leadership development processes. The study is limited to the analysis of the status of leadership development in the South African Police Service, which was the context of this study.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Leierskapsontwikkeling is ‘n essensiële en waardevolle hulpmiddel om leiers in die Suid-Afrikaanse Polisiediens te bemagtig om die uiteenlopende uitdagings waarmee hulle te kampe het, beter te hanteer. Dit blyk egter dat daar ‘n behoefte is vir leierskapsontwikkelingprosesse wat intrinsieke verandering en ‘n paradigmaskuif vir polisieleiers te weeg kan bring en wat hulle in staat kan stel om die uitdagings binne hul beroepsveld meer doeltreffend te hanteer. Hierdie tesis ondersoek transformatiewe leerteorie as ‘n instrument om leierskapsontwikkeling van polisieleiers te bevorder. Die hoofelemente van transformatiewe leerteorie is: sentralisering van ondervinding; kritiese denke; rasionele diskoers en beleidsvorming. Teorie-ontwikkeling as navorsingsmetodologie was selekteer as die mees geskikste metodologie om die argument deur nie-empiriese literêre bronne te konstrueer, waarvolgens die gekose literatuur die databasis van die teoretiese formulasie rondom die argument gevorm het in hierdie nie-empiriese studie. Groepering en integrasie van bogenoemde elemente was ondersoek as ‘n strategie om polisieleiers te bemagtig om te reflekteer oor vorige ondervindinge; kritiese denkwyses oor hantering van uitdagings in beroepsveld met inagneming van vorige ondervindinge toe te pas; diskoers oor uitdagings met ander polisieleiers te hê en om aktief te reageer op refleksies tydens leierskapsontwikkelingsprosesse. Die studie is beperk tot die analise van die status van leierskap in die Suid-Afrikaanse Polisiediens as konteks waarbinne hierdie studie onderneem is.

We have many developmental theories contributing to our understanding of children as they meander steadfastly toward maturation. Yet, none have reported on how young children interpret the qualitative meaning and importance of their own music-making experiences. Music created by average, not prodigious, young children is perceived by adults as “play” music rather than “real” music. But do young children take the same view as adults? When Piaget speaks of the young child’s qualitatively unique view and experience of the world (Ginsberg & Opper, 1988), can we assume that his statement encompasses young children’s predispositions related to music-making? Music is understood to occur when people act intentionally to produce and organize sound into rhythm and form. The guiding questions for this study are, What evidence is there to show that, when following an adult music leader, young children can engage in authentic music-making behavior and produce identifiable musical structures that move beyond random sounds or ‘noise’? What evidence is there to show that children's music-making behavior develops according to developmental stages? trek This qualitative field study observed and videotaped over 100 children between 2 and 7 years old who chose to engage in music-making behavior in a socially-rich school environment during structured activities guided by an adult “music leader.” The data gathered from this study suggest that young children’s motivation to make music derive from predispositions unrelated to notions of cultural and artistic expression thereby differing from adult musical needs and are instead based on more primary responses to their own developmental needs and their social environment. Functioning as “music leader,” the PI appeared to serve as an indispensable interface for assuring authenticity in the children’s music-making at all stages of development. The older children did not introduce any novel behavior specifically related to making music. However, due to the progression of cognitive and social maturity across the range of ages, new extra-musical behavior (EMB) slowly emerged at each developmental stage always seeming to enrich the experience relative to a particular group.

Idén till denna studie kom när ett barn talade om att vår planet skulle må bättre om vi återanvände saker. Däri väcktes vår idé om en låne-/bytesplattform mellan förskolor av material som tillfälligt inte används på förskolan. Vår studie har förankrats teoretiskt i läroplansteori samt forskning om utbildning inom hållbar utveckling i barns tidiga levnadsår. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur verksamma inom förskolan förhåller sig till en låne-/bytesplattform, där material som inte används på en förskola återanvänds på en annan förskola, i arbetet för hållbar utveckling. Studien har genomförts i två delar, delstudie I och delstudie II utifrån kvantitativ metodik. Delstudie I omfattade 13 förskolor inom ett förskoleområde och bestod av ett projekt med en epostplattform för utbyte som skulle följas upp i form av en enkät. Delstudie I upphörde efter utebliven aktivitet bland verksamma inom förskoleområdet. Delstudie II genomfördes därefter i form av webbenkät publicerad på Facebook, för att nå ut till olika delar i landet med flera verksamma personer inom förskolan. Resultatet från delstudie II visade att en större del av de 60 respondenterna ansåg att en låne/bytesplattform kunde ha en positiv effekt på den hållbara utvecklingens tre dimensioner dvs. ekonomisk, social och ekologisk hållbarhet. Dels uppfattade respondenterna att låne-/bytesplattformen var miljövänligt och ekonomiskt fördelaktigt men också ett sätt för barnen att skapa förståelse för andra människors livssituationer. Dock visade resultatet från båda delstudierna att olika faktorer kan påverka låne-/bytesplattormens tillämpning på förskolorna. Studien i sin helhet visar att det finns en potential för en låne-/bytesplattform och att den har inverkan på arbetet med hållbar utveckling inom förskolan.

Performing autoethnographic explorations as curriculum development strategies, and using autoethnographic modes (e.g., storytelling) as curriculum, may provide queer multicultural social justice education curriculum workers, and explorers, with opportunities to explore their own multicultural identities (e.g., race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, exceptionality, religion, sexual orientation, and gender), how their identities may intersect with curriculum development, and their stories alongside those of others. In Part One, I tell three (hi)stories highlighting how multicultural education, queer theory, and autoethnography support the practice of identity awareness (of self and others). In Part Two, I share nine explorations developed for this project, along with my performances and reflections of each exploration, which include how performing the explorations impacted their development. Finally, in Part Three, I apply these ideas to my practice of becoming a queer educator. I reflect on some of the tensions I wrestled with, on being aware of myself as a teacher and a student simultaneously, and on my use of language and curriculum development practices. In sum, I advocate for queering autoethnography and using it for curriculum development—thus, simultaneously queering the act of curriculum development—for the purposes of developing identity awareness (of self and others) and of honing queer multicultural social justice education curriculum development practices. During your engagement with this text, I invite the reader to reflect on these practices, perform the explorations, and ponder how these explorations may impact your curriculum development practices. I also encourage you to share your stories.

For African Americans, literacy has historically been rooted in passion, collaboration, and social justice. This study explores two distinct sites of historical African American literacy development: literary societies of the 1800s and print culture of the Harlem Renaissance. Notably, literacy and culture were fundamentally intertwined during these times, creating an urgency and inspiration for literary pursuits not often seen today. In an effort to rekindle this reverence and utility for literacy in classrooms today, a culturally sustaining pedagogy is called for. Culturally sustaining pedagogy seeks to leverage students’ cultural knowledge and skills. By culturally aligning curriculum and instruction, educators position students to experience the transformative power of literacy—a transformative power that was evident in African American literary societies and through the Harlem Renaissance print culture. This study seeks to merge historical and contemporary approaches to literacy development to reconceptualize literacy education and engagement for all students.

abstract: Teacher learning in the workplace is situated within a complex context involving the individual and multiple aspects of an educational organization. The present action research study uses a socio-constructionist inquiry lens to further research the local and multifaceted nature of professional learning in schools. The goal is to re-conceptualize professional development away from reductionist approaches that assume teacher practice can be isolated, packaged, and directly transferable into the classroom. The present study examines how lesson study can structure interdisciplinary professional learning to address the current gap in the literature regarding professional development of secondary specialty teachers. Five teachers participated in two lesson study cycles for a period of 13-weeks. This study focused on how teachers co-construct pedagogical knowledge and the extent to which they make changes to their practice. Using a sequential mixed methods research design, this study collected qualitative and quantitative data in three phases. In the initial phase, participants completed a demographical survey and shared a digital ethnography of their philosophy of teaching. Phase two consisted of video recordings for two lesson study cycles. Phase three involved a second survey and semi-structured interviews. Classroom observations were conducted during the first and last phase of the study. All qualitative data was analyzed inductively using open and thematic coding. Cross-case analysis was employed at the analysis stage to integrate data tools for the purpose of complementarity. Results suggest lesson study was an effective, job-embedded model that supports active and continuous professional development that is sustained and transferrable to the classroom. The type of disposition reported and displayed by teachers changed positively over time having transformational effects in the depth of relationships among teachers, increasing co-creation of pedagogical knowledge, and increasing reflectiveness. Teachers' level of openness to learning related to higher levels of effective practices implemented during lessons. Further research is needed to examine the ways in which teacher disposition influences professional learning when secondary specialty teachers engage in lesson study.
Dissertation/Thesis
Ed.D. Leadership and Innovation 2014

This dissertation explored South Korea’s efforts in implementing multicultural education through examining how various stakeholders interpreted and applied multicultural education in relation to creating alternative schools for international marriage migrant women and children of multicultural families. In this research, I discussed multicultural education in South Korea through the lens of US multicultural education theories applied to the South Korean context. I employed the methodology of narrative inquiry to examine (1) two models of alternative multicultural schools for diverse learners, (2) four Korean educators’ perspectives on multicultural education and diverse learners (two of educators were additional participants whose insights were included), and (3) the learning experiences of two marriage migrant women who are mothers.

I applied narrative inquiry by creating narrative as stories (Polkinghorne, 1995). I interviewed six participants over two and half months. The data was transcribed, translated and read iteratively in order to recount rich stories (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). I created profiles of four participants and narratives of their varied experiences to understand the experience of Korean teachers and international marriage migrant women. Other forms of data included field-notes, document collection (e.g., the alternative school’s curriculum, a Korean government proposal for funding alternative schools, flyers/brochures of two alternative schools), physical artifacts (e.g., photos of events and activities and the text messages of interactions with students and teachers via Korean messenger applications), research journal reflections, and observations of schools and classrooms.

From my analysis, I identified challenges in the implementation of multicultural education in South Korea. First, the current state of the Korean education system is in the process of integrating ideas of multicultural education in its implementation. This ongoing process has culminated in various challenges, frustrations, opportunities, and hopes. Some of the challenges and frustrations for Korean teachers were insufficient teaching resources and the lack of awareness of multicultural education in both alternative and public schools. I also found that marriage migrant women utilized educational opportunities gained through alternative schooling to navigate and reposition themselves to fulfill what they deem as their role as women in Korean society. This research provides insights into multicultural education building a deeper understanding of educational approaches to alternative education for diverse populations in South Korea and around the globe.

The thesis deals with the theoretic concept of Contextual Pedagogy and its application in the context of a disempowered and marginalized society, the Ju/'hoansi ("Bushmen") of Nyae Nyae in North Eastern Namibia. Contextual Pedagogy derives from the notion of Contextual Theology and is thus initially based on a pedagogical analysis of the KAI ROS-Document, whereby its sociopolitical content and its inherent methodology are being transferred into a context of pedagogy. Referring to theoretical concepts of Critical Theory and Liberation Pedagogy, Conditional Fields are being identified in a first analysis which determine and explain the pedagogical situation in a colonial context of Apartheid South Africa. During a three-year qualitative field research, central aspects of Contextual Pedagogy are being applied within the framework of the development of a post-colonial and community-based school programme in Nyae Nyae, the Village Schools Project. This school programme comprises a curriculum for a teacher training course as well as a curriculum for Grade 1-3 learners in five selected villages of Nyae Nyae, and is based on the dynamic processes between the communities, the Student Teachers and the author as their Teacher Trainer and Village Schools Co-ordinator. A further theoretical evaluation and reflexion of the field research gives rise to a pedagogical superstructure of Contextual Pedagogy, which also investigates the notions of power, empowerment and over-empowerment within a context of development work. By doing so, the previous Conditional Fields of pedagogic work within a theoretical framework of Contextual Pedagogy become extended in relevance for a pedagogical context of a post-colonial society with special reference to marginalized subjects. In conclusion, the finalization of the research project and its subsequent handing-over process to the Namibian government analyzes the paralyzing effects of an excessive bureaucracy, and the resurgence of conservative and colonial thought in the young and fragile democracy of Namibia.
Educational Studies
D.Ed.(Didactics)

The Elon Research Seminar, Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer, was a coalition of rhetoric and composition scholars’ attempt at codifying writing transfer knowledge for teaching and research purposes. Although the seminar was an important leap in transfer research, many ‘behind the scenes’ decisions of writing transfer, often those not involving the writing program, go unnoticed, yet play a pivotal role in how writing programs encourage and reproduce writing transfer in the classroom. This dissertation study, inspired by a pilot study conducted in Fall 2018 on writing across the curriculum programs and their role in writing transfer, illustrates how an institution’s context systems (e.g., macrosystem, mesosystem, microsystem, etc.) affect writing programs’ processes—i.e., curriculum components, assessment, and administrative structure and budget—and vice versa. Using Bronfenbrenner and Morris’ (2006) bioecological model, I show how writing programs and their context systems interact to reproduce writing transfer practices. Through ten interviews with writing program administrators at state comprehensive universities, I delineate specific actions that each writing program could take to encourage writing transfer. I develop a list of roles and responsibilities a university’s context systems play in advocating writing transfer practices. The results of the study show that research beyond the writing classroom and students is necessary to understand how writing transfer opportunities arise in university cultures of writing.

In an era of widespread automation—from grocery store self-checkout machines to self-driving cars—it is not outrageous to wonder: can teachers be automated? And more specifically, can automated computer teachers instruct students how to write? Automated computer programs have long been used in summative writing evaluation efforts, such as scoring standardized essay exams, ranking placement essays, or facilitating programmatic outcomes assessments. However, new claims about automated writing evaluation’s (AWE) formative educational potential mark a significant shift. My project questions the effectiveness of using AWE technology for formative educational efforts such as improving and teaching writing. Taken seriously, these efforts portend a future embrace of semi, or even fully, automated writing classes, an unprecedented development in writing pedagogy.

Supported by a summer-long grant from the Purdue Research Foundation, I conducted a small-n quasi-experiment to test claims by online college tutoring site Chegg.com that its EasyBib Plus AWE tool can improve both writing and writers. The experiment involved four college English instructors reading pairs of essays comprising one AWE-treated and untreated version per pair. Using a comparative judgment model, a rubric-free method of writing assessment based on Thurstone’s law, raters read and designated one of each pair “better.” Across four raters and 160 essays, I found that AWE-treated essays were designated better only 30% of the time (95% confidence interval: 20-40%), a statistically significant difference from the null hypothesis of 50%. The results suggest that Chegg’s EasyBib Plus tool offers no discernible improvement to student writing, and potentially even worsens it.

Finally, I analyze Chegg’s recent partnership with the Purdue Writing Lab and Online Writing Lab (OWL). The Purdue-Chegg partnership offers a useful test case for anticipating the effects of higher education’s embrace of automated educational technology going forward. Drawing on the history of writing assessment and the results of the experiment, I argue against using AWE for formative writing instruction. In an era of growing automation, I maintain that a human-centered pedagogy remains one of the most durable, important, effective, and transformative ingredients of a quality education.

Reading this dissertation means joining me on an 8-year journey that began with my desire to understand the lives and decisions of African immigrants in relation to retention and transmission of our native languages and cultures. The Akan say that ntontom pe n'ase fi ako, na nframa ebo no. Wherefore, like the mosquito propelled by the wind blowing me towards my desired direction, I sat under the shade of the heritage tree as I pondered how to get there. The journey became a quest to find an approach or methodology that will not just talk about African languages and cultural retention and transmission, but also center histories, worldviews, and philosophies while actively encouraging these values. Thus, approaching storytelling from the African oral tradition, I arrived at the development of the African Oral Traditional Storytelling (AOTS) Framework as an ethical and culturally centered approach to studying with African peoples. Because I wanted to go far and not fast, two heads (African families in the Midwest) collaborated with me by sharing through our African oral traditions and storytelling, our lived experiences of how we (as parents) navigate usage, retention and transmission of our living native languages and cultures while in the U.S. Emergent in this approach to storying, was the AOTS Framework. Now, what was needed was a description of the framework retrospective of the shared stories; what does it look like? What did/will she do, and how will she birth a transformative and relevant approach to satisfy that hunger for African histories, worldviews, indigenous knowledges and philosophies in research? The AOTS Framework, through African oral traditional storytelling, brings to the fore the relevant and essential role that African philosophies, worldviews, languages, and cultures play in understanding African peoples' experiences. Our stories reveal how our African worldviews and languages (embedded with our indigenous knowledge) inform how we navigate decision on 1) building a community of like-minded people from the continent, same country and ethnic group; 2) decolonizing our minds about the value of African languages, cultures, and worldviews: building a sense of pride in our indigenous ways and teaching them to our children as a resistance to neocolonialism and global erasure; 3) cultural, linguistic, and identity reconceptualization, revitalization, redefinition, and resistance; 4) conscious effort to use native language in the home; and 5) racialized experiences that influence decisions about heritage language retention and transmission. With that, we stand on the shoulders of postcolonial and decolonial theory, as we move through postcolonial indigenous methodologies in resisting imperialism and coloniality in education, research and language in relation to African peoples. Additionally, the AOTS Framework is the arable land that is not selective in growing varied linguistic, cultural, and philosophical perspectives of African peoples in research albeit challenges in relation to transitioning oral techniques into writing. As a framework, our desire and interests in learning with African peoples is not a question-and-answer approach. Instead, it is a collaborative, communal approach where the privileged gatherer shares in co-creating stories, meanings, and understandings with African peoples.

This thesis explores three main questions: (1) How is diversity and equity in education in Manitoban schools addressed and does this include mixed-raced students?, (2) What are mixed-race students’ experiences with and perceptions of ethnocultural equity in the Manitoban secondary school system and how do these experiences impact their personal and collective identities in the following areas: Social (relationships with peers and family members), Political (notions of Canadian identity and citizenship), Identity (sense of cultural and racial identity and social positioning), Cultural (influences of related cultural groups and communities), and Pedagogical (instructional materials, relationships with teachers and staff, teaching practices and pedagogies, school policies and initiatives) and (3) What can educators and teacher-educators learn from this research that could be used toward a more informed and successful practice? Conclusions are that more work needs to be done to develop a provincial antiracism and ethnocultural policy document for development and implementation that will help establish a system of accountability and consistency, assist our leaders in understanding the complexities of mixedness, establish relationships with different relevant community groups and families, critically examine the curricula for bias, investigate student placement, provide opportunities for counselling staff, explore how to prepare staff to deal with racial and ethnocultural harassment, and consider the representation of mixedness in the staff population.
February 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate the participation of cisgender collegiate men in community engagement activities. As a group, collegiate men disproportionately engage in unhealthy behaviors compared to their female counterparts. Additionally, they are less likely to participate in community engagement activities. Community engagement activities have a multitude of benefits for both male and female college students, yet national data shows that college men are more likely to play video games or sports when given the choice. This qualitative study used a narrative inquiry method and ten participants were interviewed using a semi-structured process. Several themes from the participants’ narratives emerged including 1) having an insular group that is representative of individual values; 2) commitment to service is deeply entrenched into career or life goals; 3) complex relationship between service and fraternity; and 4) importance of childhood and boyhood as it relates to identity; matriculated masculinity. The study encouraged reconsidering the definition of service and the power of student voice. This study contributes to several interwoven threads of scholarship focusing on the experiences of collegiate males, community engagement, and masculinity. Results suggest implications for higher education practitioners to more effectively support the needs of college men as well as considering new ways to engage more college men in community engagement activities.

The desire to produce a learning environment which promotes student motivation, collaboration, and higher order thinking is common within the higher education system of today. Such learning environments also have the ability to address challenges’ Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) students face entering the workforce. Through the vertical and horizontal integration of courses, this research presents how a scaffolded learning environment with a centralized theme of energy can increase motivation and conceptual retention within students. The integration of courses allows students to systematically translate their competency of concepts between energy based courses through experiential learning. The goal of this work is to develop a competency based learning model where students earn a professionally recognizable credential. The credential is earned through demonstrating their mastery of industry desired skills at a level that goes above and beyond the stock curriculum. The result is a more continuous curriculum that enhances multi-disciplinary problem solving while better preparing MET students for the workforce.

This dissertation presents in the form of two distinct chapters conceptually related in nature. The first chapter integrates literature from various fields such as indigenous, womanist, and feminist lenses to propose nine principles when working with Muslim women. The purpose of the second chapter is to examine Muslim women’s experiences in therapy at university counseling centers. The study explores women’s experiences from a social determinants of health perspective and a narrative inquiry method—namely, how intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional, community, and policy factors inform women’s experiences. Qualitative analysis from interviews with six women suggests Muslim women navigate multiple systems which inform their beliefs about health and their experiences in therapy.

Innovations in technology are changing not only everyday life for many individuals around the world but are also influencing the expansion of online learning opportunities at an accelerated rate (Collins & Halverson, 2018; Mah, 2016). Online learning platforms allow for scalability, flexibility, greater global access, and innovative and new ways to deliver education (Goodman, Melkers, & Pallais, 2019; Kizilcec et al., 2019). Enrollments in online learning programs and opportunities have seen significant growth in recent years (Seaman, Allen, & Seaman, 2018; U.S. Department of Education, 2018) with continued and steady growth expected into the future. The ubiquity and newness of new online learning formats present a challenge in linking research and practice. Through three separate academic papers, the following dissertation discusses and considers key questions and topics with regards to the use of digital badges and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), two types of emerging online innovations and platforms, and aspects of their efficacy. The three papers respectively 1) identify and discuss the theoretical and empirical foundations digital badges use in specific learners groups by reviewing current literature; 2) highlight the application of a use case in which digital badges have been implemented as a means to offer training; and 3) explore the perceptions of MOOC instructors toward quality learning in their courses in a case study. Conclusions are drawn and solutions as well as potential future directions for research and practice of discussed.