Digitized Theses and Dissertations
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Item Conflict in the classroom: an examination of teacher management strategies(1999) Birrell, Sandra Helen; Hett, GeoffreyThe language, structure, and gestures used by teachers to reprimand children in grades 6 to 8 were examined. These reprimands were defined as teacher-student conflicts and Deutsch's (1994) theory of cooperative and competitive conflict management was applied as the theoretical framework. This study examined both the structure of teacher communication (literal/non-literal) and its social messages (cooperative/competitive). Videotapes of 4 teachers in a total of 9 middle school classes were scored for conflict episodes, teacher communication, and student variables such as gender, number, and frequency. Results showed teachers were 3 times more likely to use a non-literal reprimand than a literal one when dealing with an individual student (male or female), but only slightly more likely to use a non literal reprimand when addressing student groups. Most significantly, teachers engaged i n more conflicts with male students, and when they did, they elected to use competitive strategies almost 91% of the time.Item Dropping in on school administrators: Conversations regarding "at-risk" youth and administrative decision-making(2000) Anderson, Patti Lynn; Ricks, FrancesThis ethnographic study explores the relationship between administrative decision-making and the difficulties associated with maintaining "at-risk" youth in the public school system. The study was based upon four, one hour interviews with six school administrators who dealt regularly with disciplinary matters involving "at-risk" youth. It identifies how school administrators perceive their role and provides a context for the manner in which decisions involving disciplinary action are made. The study identifies 1) that there are distinct, identifiable forms of administrative practice operating within the public school system, 2) that administrative decisions are governed by the particular beliefs, values and assumptions held by individual administrators and 3) that given these conclusions, administrative decision-making may or may not reflect the values espoused by current legislation, standards of practice or the profession's code of ethics. In light of the level of discretionary authority available to administrators in making disciplinary decisions and thus their capacity to influence so significantly the future of a young person, the author proposes the need for ongoing reflection within administrative practice, in order to increase the likelihood that disciplinary decision-making is consistently exercised in a deliberate and principled manner.Item Understanding mentoring that facilitates personal growth in a school setting(2003) Adlparvar, Bijan; France, HonoreThis study explores the experience of mentoring between teachers and high school students. Through semi-structured one-to-one interviews, two mentors and four proteges share their reflections on their mentoring relationships. An analysis of the data, using hermeneutic phenomenological methodology, has produced the reconstructed stories of these relationships. These stories have revealed 99 themes that characterize them. Thirty-three of these themes are considered essential to the experience of mentoring. Presented together, these themes provide two exhaustive descriptions of mentoring from the perspectives of both mentor and protege. The interpretation of the essential themes provides a deeper understanding of the nature of mentoring. An examination of the pedagogical qualities and actions of the mentor discovered in this research reveals that these are identical with those of the teacher. This study challenges teachers to see themselves as mentors and to recognise that educating a child requires a deep commitment to one's own moral development.Item The use of the term "culture" by the Supreme Court of Canada : a comparison of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cases since 1982(2003) Vallance, Neil; Stephenson, Peter H.; Asch, MichaelThis thesis is intended to provide both a preliminary reconnaissance of the use of the term 'culture' by the Supreme Court of Canada in non-aboriginal rights cases, and a basis for comparison with Aboriginal rights cases. First, the extent of the use of the term by the Court in all Aboriginal and non-aboriginal rights cases over the last twenty-one years was surveyed. Secondly, selected cases were subjected to a more in depth analysis. The survey confirmed that there is no equivalent, in any area of Canadian law, to the "distinctive culture test" in R. v. Van der Peet (1996). In no area of law, other than Aboriginal rights, were cases found where claimants were required to prove anything about their 'culture' as a prerequisite for entitlement to rights. Analysis of the selected cases revealed the Court's use, without any critical awareness, of out-dated concepts of culture.Item Politicizing privacy: focusing events and the dynamics of conflict(2001) Todd, David Jeffrey Allan; Bennett, Colin J.In the past, the issue of information privacy has rarely captured the attention of the political agenda beyond the enactment of national data protection regimes. However, there is compelling evidence to suggest that privacy is an "issue whose time has come". While analysis of the politics of privacy has tended to examine the various dimensions of the policy cycle, a rationalistic and technocratic approach obscures the often neglected and politically salient dimensions of privacy: the politicization of privacy issues and the dynamics of privacy conflicts. To explore this notion, two recent high-profile privacy conflicts are presented, one in the public sector of Canada over Human Resource Development Canada's 'Longitudinal Labour Force File', and one in the private sector involving the Internet advertiser DoubleClick Inc. Evidence of shared processes and similar dynamics is presented, as well as insights into the new politics of privacy and the emergence of a privacy industry.Item The Effectiveness of computer-assisted learning: a case study of the learning equation(2000) Tan, Ivy Kim-Geok; Francis-Pelton, LesleeThis study examined the effectiveness of “The Learning Equation" (TLE) software for grade nine Mathematics. The data were collected through interviews with seven students in a public school, their teacher, two teachers from a distance education agency, a student from the distance learning agency, a parent and two teachers who successfully implemented TLE in their classrooms. The study examined the factors involved in the successful implementation of this CAI software, examined how the software matches current design recommendations, and relates that to different cognitive styles and learner abilities. Students were given an opportunity to voice their opinion of TLE and compare it to the usual classroom lessons. The effects of TLE on morale and attitude towards Mathematics for the students in this case study were also investigated. The study revealed that success with TLE depends on its proper implementation. The teachers interviewed who successfully implemented the program insisted that it was a worthwhile effort. Although interviewed students enjoyed learning using TLE, they still reported a preference for being taught by a teacher. The high rate of transfer from TLE programs to regular classrooms appears to support this claim. Final grades, as reported by students and teachers, did not improve while using TLE. Although TLE appears to technically match recommended design principles, it appears best suited for self-motivated, self-selected students who are average or above average sequential learners.Item Perceptions of reading: kindergarten children and their teachers(1999) Swan, Sandra J.; Mayfield, MargieThough researchers have been attempting to solve the mystery of beginning to read, few studies have explored early literacy and reading from the perspective of the child. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the attitudes and perceptions of kindergarten children and kindergarten teachers about reading. It was a partial replication of a study of grade one children by Dr. P. Michels (1988, 1994). Participant interviews with 20 kindergarten children and five kindergarten teachers were the basis for data collection. Kindergarten teachers were interviewed in order to examine how children's perceptions of learning to read fit together with instructional strategies. The research clearly indicated that children understood the process of learning to read. When asked how they would define reading, they ref erred to the process by making a direct reference to learning phonics and sounding out words. These insights into reading clearly paralleled the teachers' instructional practices. The teachers defined reading primarily as a decoding process. The study provided evidence that kindergarten children did indeed understand the status of membership in various reading groups. The importance of parental and family involvement in the process of early literacy development surf aced throughout the study. It is evident from this study that further research on children's attitudes and perceptions of beginning to read is needed. Such investigation may include an examination of the relationship between teachers' instructional practices and students' perceptions, long term longitudinal studies, and additional exploration of children's perceptions of reading.Item The concept of suffering in human rights discourse: a response to Richard Rorty's "Human rights, rationality and sentimentality"(2002) Sutherland, Elizabeth Jane; Magnusson, WarrenThis thesis is a response to Richard Rorty's essay entitled, "Human Rights, Rationality, and Sentimentality," in which Rorty suggests that existing approaches to human rights concerns should be discarded in favour of an approach he calls 'sentimental education,' through which people learn about the particularities of others' lives - and particularly their suffering - in order to foster more enriched cross-cultural understanding and action to end violence and oppression. My method entails an analysis of Richard Rorty's writings, theoretical writings on human rights and suffering, and critical analyses of Rorty's writings. I explore the implications of attempting to use the concept of suffering as a foundation for a new approach to human rights problems. I argue that, although Rorty avoids some problems inherent in universalist approaches to human rights and some pitfalls inherent in constructivist discourses, his proposal does not provide a satisfying resolution to the central debates in human rights discourse.Item Making sense of photographs in science textbooks and lectures(2003) Pozzer-Ardenghi, Lilian; Roth, Wolff-MichaelPhotographs constitute a major aspect of high school biology textbooks, which dominate current classroom approaches to teaching and learning. However, little is known about how students make sense of and learn from photographs; even less is known about the different resources available for making sense of photographs both in textbooks and in lecture situations. Constituted of three interrelated studies, this thesis is concerned with the use of photographs as pedagogical resources to teach scientific concepts. In the first study I investigate the semiotic resources for interpreting photographs that high school biology textbooks make available to their readers. In the second study, I analyze gestures and body position as semiotic resources made available by lecturers who used photographs as part of their presentations. In my third study [ investigate how students make sense of photographs associated with written texts. The results of my study have implications for textbooks' authors and readers, and for teachers and lecturers.Item Speeded discrimination training, fluency and generalization in the laboratory: training fluency and promoting generalization using choice reaction time(2000) Peters, Chris Deborah; Goldwater, BramThe primary objectives of the present study were to assess the degree to which generalization would occur to novel, untrained stimulus discriminations following fluency training on a variety of choice reaction time (CRT) tasks. A choice reaction time paradigm and a program called "Speeded Discrimination Training" (SDT), which utilized a computer screen and a two-key response box, were used to deliver the probe and training stimuli to the four female participants who were given alternating probe and training sessions in this study. All participants were trained on various decks in tasks comprising homonym phrases, letter pairs, synonym and antonyms pairs, and sentences for which they received per cent correct and rate correct per minute (RCPM) feedback, upon which goals and monetary reinforcement were set and distributed. This study differs from previous work in the author's laboratory as the tasks and exemplars employed in the present study were more difficult, variable and diverse. The tasks were more difficult in that they required the participants to make grammatical discriminations among the stimuli being presented rather than simply discriminating among highly familiar word categories, letters, or numbers as in studies carried out by Kristofferson (1977) and Pashler and Baylis (1991). Evidence for generalization from trained decks to novel, untrained decks within tasks, as well as from trained tasks to untrained tasks, was revealed upon examination of the various figures produced from the participants' probe and training data. Generalization was demonstrated by participants starting at higher levels on successive training decks, for a particular task, than the decks in previous training sessions; participants requiring less time for successive training decks within and across tasks to reach, or exceed, previous RCPM levels; and participants showing improvement trends across the novel decks in successive probe sessions, as well the tasks that had not yet been trained and only seen in previous probe sessions. Overall, fluency-based training appeared to be successful in promoting generalization within, and in some instances, across speeded discrimination tasks.Item A little younger than fire: personal storytelling, drama, and learning(1999) Nyman, Jennifer L.; Saxton, JulianaThis thesis is a story about story; a story which explores the relationship between personal storytelling and drama as instruments of learning. In providing a thorough, comprehensive analysis of this relationship, this researcher has sought to address the following questions: 1) What is personal storytelling, and how is it different from other forms of narrative? 2) What role does personal storytelling play in one's cognitive and emotional development? 3) How might the utilization of personal storytelling within the curriculum effect school learning? 4) How might personal storytelling be utilized to enhance learning in drama education? The answers to these question will be addressed within this thesis as I provide a detailed account of the current research which surrounds these issues and of the outcomes of my human subjects research project. The project, conducted during the Summer of 1998, serves to illuminate the reciprocal educative relationship maintained by personal storytelling and drama, how the two may work in tandem as effective pedagogic tools, both within school learning and drama education.Item Boundaries on fire: hybridity and the political economy of culture(2000) Krishnamurti, Sailaja Vatsala; Kamboureli, SmaroCurrent debates about globalization have generated interest in hybridity, a term which refers to the identities, representations and productions of people who live between cultures that are perceived to be fixed geographically. The complex relationships between producers and consumers of hybrid commodities constitute the political economy of culture. This economy obscures the hidden hegemonies within globalization, and makes authenticity the exchange value of cross-cultural commodities and their producers. Control over the production of hybridity is manipulated by transnational culture industries, in order to defuse the hybrid's transgressive properties and reclaim hybridity as symbol of global homogenization. This thesis examines several hybrid cultural productions and producers, including Deepa Mehta's 1997 film Fire; Star Rise, a 1997 tribute album to the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; and musical groups Asian Dub Foundation and The Fire This Time. These examples illustrate the manipulation of hybridity within the political economy of culture.Item Pacific partners: a comparison of Canadian and Japanese peacekeeping experiences, looking for avenues of cooperation(2002) Kimura, Yuko; Roy, PatriciaCanada and Japan share similar circumstances and interests as America's allies, trading nations and middle powers in the Pacific region. However, they have widely different histories of peacekeeping involvement. Analyzing their experiences of UN Peacekeeping Operations (PKOs) from perspectives of history and political science allows us to understand the role they play in their respective foreign policies. The role of PKOs has evolved over the half·century history of the UN. The increasing complexity and number of armed conflicts in recent years has increased the personnel and financial burden on many UN members, including Canada. Japan faces a question of how far it can participate in PKOs under the Constitution. The rationale exists for Japan and Canada to share personnel and financial costs, knowledge and technology for peacekeeping as pacific partners. Understanding their different strengths abilities, advantages, and interests can help make co·operation more beneficial.Item An exploration of literacy practices within culturally diverse families(2000) Gower, Cynthia Louise; Mayfield, MargieFamily literacy is the reading, writing, drawing, and conversing that occurs incidentally and deliberately among all family members. This study explored the literacy practices of six families with a child between the ages of 1 and 4, from a country other than Canada. Emergent literacy (the first signs of abilities and knowledge with regard to written language) was the focus, as none of the children was attending school. A Cultural Interview (Cl), a questionnaire, was developed to determine each family's background, religious/spiritual beliefs, and the parents' level of education and employment. A journal was developed so that a parent could document her child's literacy practices. A Reading and Writing Inventory (RA WI), based on the work of Genisio (1998) was developed to determine the incidental/deliberate literacy practices of parents and child. A purposive sample of 6 participants (mothers) was selected from the Inter-Cultural Association (ICA). During a 30- to 50-minute interview family practices and culture were explored. The journal generated several recurrent themes: (a) morning ritual, (b) television, (c) playtime, (d) schedule of eating habits, (e) visiting friends, (f) learning, and (g) exercising and chores. The inventory provided examples of everyday literacy practices of both child and parent. The three instruments provided evidence that literacy is occurring in each home, both in English and the first language. The instruments provide a format that may be used by daycare workers, counsellors, and teachers, as they enable an exploration of a family's unique culture and daily literacy routines.Item Who gets to go to school?: parental schooling choices among the Ariaal Rendille of northern Kenya(2000) Giles, Joyce Lynn; Roth, Eric AbellaAn enormous literature details the benefits of educating female children with respect to lowered fertility and infant/child mortality levels. Far less examined are patterns of parental decision-making with respect to selecting specific children for schooling. This thesis uses logistic regression methodology to delineate parental decision-making patterns concerning childhood education in the Ariaal Rendilie community of Karare, Marsabit District, northern Kenya. Results reveal clear, predictable parental strategies reflecting specific household characteristics and larger cultural traditions.Item Attitudes of grade one children towards two approaches to reading instruction: basal reader and language experience(1993) DeVuono, Nancy Ann Page; Olson, A.This study describes the Provincial Reading Assessments 1977-1998, analyses the results of reading comprehension skills, and relates these results to background variables of gender, preferences of reading material and instructional practices. It addresses the context for gender differences in reading on both a national and international level. The thesis includes a historical overview of the Provincial Learning Assessment Program and a description of each Provincial Reading Assessment completed in the period 1977 to 1998. The results of the study indicate that at every grade level, on every assessment during the period 1977 to 1998, females outperform males on Provincial Reading Assessments in the area of reading comprehension. The difference with which they do so increases from grade 4 to grade 10 and this gap is widening over time. Differences were noted between genders regarding preferences in reading materials and reading habits and these variables are shown to effect reading comprehension achievement. The review of literature surveys the social and instructional context for reading and the gendered nature of reading materials.Item Reading comprehension and gender in provincial reading assessments 1977-1998(2001) de Boer, Jennifer Anne; Robertson, MargaretThis study describes the Provincial Reading Assessments 1977-1998, analyses the results of reading comprehension skills, and relates these results to background variables of gender, preferences of reading material and instructional practices. It addresses the context for gender differences in reading on both a national and international level. The thesis includes a historical overview of the Provincial Learning Assessment Program and a description of each Provincial Reading Assessment completed in the period 1977 to 1998. The results of the study indicate that at every grade level, on every assessment during the period 1977 to 1998, females outperform males on Provincial Reading Assessments in the area of reading comprehension. The difference with which they do so increases from grade 4 to grade 10 and this gap is widening over time. Differences were noted between genders regarding preferences in reading materials and reading habits and these variables are shown to effect reading comprehension achievement. The review of literature surveys the social and instructional context for reading and the gendered nature of reading materials.Item Changing conceptions of virtue in western education(1999) Daniel, Craig; Fleming, ThomasThis paper attempted to sample the meanings, understandings, appreciations, and conceptions of virtue during four distinct historical periods. The published educational record of educational thinkers and scholars from the Classical Greek and Roman period, the European Middle Ages and Renaissance, and the Modern era in North America were examined. Commentary on the world of educational practice was made only if it revealed some aspect of a particular conception of virtue; educational practice itself was not a focal point. 'Through a process of critical analysis of scholarly writings, monographs, theses, and periodical literature published in leading scholarly journals, the paper came to argue that visions of virtue found in educational theory were influenced by the larger social and philosophical conceptions of particular time periods. Narrow definitions of virtue were of little use in the examination of such a diverse and vast historical record. Thus, virtue in this study was broadly defined as those qualities of character which educational theorists and teachers hoped their students would acquire through habit, training, and the inclinations of their own natures.Item Relational networks of women in Victoria and the issue of women abuse in intimate bonds(1988) Wickson, Elise Jonina; Gallant, Mary J.This study examines and compares the role of women's network structure in marriages. Particular emphasis is placed on relationships where the traumatic bond of wife abuse is present. Women in normal couple bonds are compared with those where abuse has occurred in order to describe the possible impact of the structure of the interpersonal networks of these women with regards to the factor of isolation. The data were based on results of a mailed questionnaire sent to a random sample of 112 married women over 18 years of age who resided in Greater Victoria in 1987. Results show that in fact abused women do have isolating structures in the way they interact with friends and family as well as the kind of communication involved in the bond with their husband. There is a tendency to sporadic bursts of conflict, more extreme and intense in abused women's couple-interaction than in non-abused women's bonds. Also, abused women's networks were focused on interaction with specific family members than were non-abused women's networks. The associations in the results gave a qualified support to the hypotheses. However, new indications of network structure to show long- term interaction patterns with friends, family and in the couples' interaction is needed in future research in order to broaden the comparison so that conditions prompting continuation of abusive behaviour may be more clearly specified and their actual effects determined.Item The location of freedom: Hannah Arendt, Jürgen Habermas and Michel Foucault(1999) Vo-Quang, Edouard; Tully, JamesIn the thesis, I discuss Hannah Arendt's conception of freedom. More particularly, I discuss her restriction of freedom to the public realm, and argue, using some of Michel Foucault's analyses of power and freedom, that this very restriction is problematic. But just as Foucault's analyses render Arendt's categories problematic, so they point to ways in which her analysis of freedom may be enriched or revised. It is this revision that I undertake in the thesis. I argue, through a comparison of Arendt' s discussion of freedom with Jurgen Habermas's historical analysis of the public realm, that Arendt's categories can be read as temporal categories (instead of the somewhat standard interpretation of them as spatial categories), and that by so ' temporalizing' her categories, one ' liberates' Arendtian freedom from its restriction to the public realm.