VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Parental involvement in child care centers: The role of informal parent-staff communication
Keywords: Day care centers, Employees
Parents
Interpersonal communications

Based on extensive naturalistic observations, this study examines the quality of parent-staff communication in child care centers. Predictors of that communication and its relations with other aspects of quality are also explored. The sample consisted of staff and parents in 122 classrooms serving preschool-aged children from 83 child care centers in Toronto and Colorado. Through a series of 20-second time-sampled observations, informal parent-staff communication was captured for 1087 parents as they dropped their child off at their child care center. In general, communication between parents and staff was limited with staff providing child-related information to less than 9% of parents. Hierarchical linear models revealed that parent-staff communication is an individual rather than classroom or center characteristic. Informal communication occurring at drop-off was generally not related to other parent involvement measures or to other measures of process quality. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Making visible: photography, witnessing and the nuclear era
Keywords: Education, Curricula
Chronophotography
Art and society
Art and photography

This dissertation examines recent theories of documentary photography and the tensions that exist between historical contextualization and acts of remembrance in documentary artworks. This critical investigation considers the work of the Atomic Photographers Guild, which is an international collective of photographers dedicated to making visible aspects of the cultural, traumatic and historical legacies of the nuclear era. Considering the cultural invisibility of nuclearism as an organizing thread, my research theorizes the conditions for an art of â€˜post-documentationâ€™ that moves beyond the ocularcentric discourse of evidence insisting instead on a mode of attention much closer to that of testimony and witness. The dissertation begins and concludes with a consideration of photographic interventions into commemorative sites of the atomic bomb. This frames a detailed examination of three documentary projects that construct differing forms of historic witness in book format: Robert Del Tredici's At Work in the Fields of the Bomb (1987), Carole Gallagher's American Ground Zero: The Secret Nuclear War (1993) and Hiromi Tsuchida's Hiroshima (1985) and Hiroshima Monument II (1995). Responding to the broadly based pedagogical mandates of documentary photography, I argue that these works utilize the informal educational settings of galleries, museums and bookworks to develop an informed nuclear citizenship in ways that are potentially transformative. This potential for developing transformative viewing subjectivities constitutes an ethical and critical witnessing practice for documentary art.
Aboriginal educators' stories: rekindling aboriginal worldviews
Keywords: Indigenous peoples, Canada
Indians of North America, Canada
Indians of North America, Education
Indians of North America, Canada
Indians of North America, Study and teaching
Indians of North America, Canada

Tansi N'tootemak, Ke nunaskamitin ni m'untoom ka kuskytayan ooma masinahikan e masinaman. (Cree to English: Greetings my friends, I thank Creator that I am able to write this thesis.) The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences and the meanings attached to the experiences of the Aboriginal Teachers' Circle (ATC) members who worked within mainstream education systems. Conducted in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, the study focused on Atchanookewina (the stories), experiences and events, of the ATC members' practices as educators and the meanings of those experiences. Data gathering occurred (during 1994â€“1998) through the following ways: I documented pre-study emerging themes and issues in the lives of ATC members; Participants completed a biographic questionnaire (including a personal/career inventory of their activities); I conducted taped sharing circles and one-on-one interviews of participant experiences. Finally, I drew from selected literature in the field (highlighting Aboriginal scholars' works) and various ATC recorded documents to make meaning of the themes and issues. The participants of this study produced a rich array of data that reflected their backgrounds, perceptions and knowings, which were sorted into main themes then analyzed. These themes included: a biographic profile of their backgrounds; uneasy relations due to differences; career paths; cultural/heritage identities and developing Aboriginal perspectives into their professions; and finally asserting Aboriginal education through core Aboriginal knowings and processes. Through my writing up of the thesis (1998â€“2001) and â€˜storyingâ€™ and analysis of their words, the participants in this research highlighted the importance of several â€˜truthsâ€™ about the complex situation of being Aboriginal and an educator working in mainstream education: Understanding and grounding Aboriginal education in decolonizing processes and core values of Aboriginal knowings and processes. The understanding and navigating of the various tensions were evident in their stories. They indicated the importance of challenging oppressive assimilative forces while developing positive identification and connections with Aboriginal heritage. Finally their understanding of the depth and complexity of an Aboriginal educator's work and the value of children in the educational process was evident. Ah ho, Ki nunaskamitinawaw N'totemak. (I thank you, my friends.)
Making diversity meaningful: a study of inter-cultural interaction among undergraduate students at a large public research university
Keywords: Cultural pluralism, Ontario
Intercultural communication, Ontario
Minority students, Ontario

Higher education research indicates that structural diversity--the racial and ethnic diversity of the student population--is only one of several conditions that must exist within an institutional setting in order for the educational benefits of diversity to be realized (Gurin, Hey, Hurtado Gurin, 2002; Chang, Astin Kim, 2004). Recent survey results at the University of Toronto would seem to support this finding. Conducted in the context of a large research university with a high level of structural diversity, this study uses a variety of data sources--including National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) data from the University of Toronto and aggregate NSSE data from U of T's peer comparison groups; a follow-up questionnaire on cultural diversity experiences; and focus groups--to isolate some of the conditions and interventions that serve to stifle or facilitate inter-cultural interaction in a large public research university.
Decolonizing the social sciences: aboriginal-centered theorizing and aboriginal relationships with postcolonial theories
Keywords: Postcolonialism
Decolonization
Social sciences, Philosophy
Ethnophilosophy
Indian philosophy, North America

This Aboriginal-centered thesis explores the potential dialogue between Aboriginal-centered theorizing and Postcolonial theorizing. I map North American Aboriginal scholars' and writers' responses to--and relationships with--Postcolonial theories in order to decolonize the latter and promote Aboriginal agendas. I put forth the argument that if Postcolonial theories are to be successful, and relevant to Aboriginal peoples, substantive changes are required. I arrive at this argument by examining the ways in which Aboriginal theorists conceptualize, interpret, utilize and critique Postcolonial theories. To this end, I draw upon literatures of critical Aboriginal knowledge production and responses to Postcolonial theories in the works of well-known Aboriginal theorists, such as Marie Battiste, Louis Owens, Thomas King, and Marcia Crosby. I conclude by articulating two promising stances with regard to this issue: indigenizing Postcolonial theories, and promoting Aboriginal-centered frameworks. Furthering the discussion, I imagine the possibilities of decolonization that lie within each of these stances.
Middle to Late Holocene paleoenvironments in a Great Lakes coastal wetland, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada
Keywords: Paleoecology, Ontario
Paleogeography, Ontario
Paleoecology
Paleogeography

This study evaluates the factors that have constrained wetland development since the middle Holocene at a Great Lakes coastal marsh. Peat stratigraphies were examined in the two major depositional environments at the Lake Erie field site. A series of short cores from the geomorphically dynamic Rondeau spit provided a 2200-year record in which the construction of storm beach ridges, providing protected backshore environments, is a fundamental control on wetland development. Century-scale Lake Erie transgressions, however, acted to restart it episodically. Longer peat records were obtained from the head of Rondeau Bay, extending to the Nipissing Highstand 4200 radiocarbon years before present, during which time a diatom-rich Zizania marsh existed. Following the Nipissing Highstand, this community was replaced by a shrub dominated swamp at one core location and a fern dominated marsh at another, located less than 1 km to lakeward. Taken as a whole, the peat records from Rondeau show evidence for post-Nipissing Lake Erie transgressions at approximately 2200, 1300 and 750 radiocarbon years before present. Correspondence analysis is used to compare fossil and modern proxy indicator spectra and to illustrate the reduction in community diversity that has occurred since European settlement. The paleoecological records show long periods of stasis in wetland plant communities and do not contain any evidence for the autogenic processes specified in the traditional hydrosere model. The study concludes that geomorphic activity and hydrological change, controlled by climate as well as crustal movement, interact with autogenic processes that take the form of ecological community dynamics, to result in the diverse wetland complexes that have existed at the study site since the middle Holocene. The thesis also demonstrates techniques to identify pollen grains of the common wetland dominant Typha and presents data on the modern pollen rain and diatom assemblages across the study site, showing that the wettest sites dominated by Zizania aquatica are the most distinctive palynologically and in terms of diatom assemblages. A species-specific approach was used to show low pollen production relative to plant abundance in Phragmites, Sparganium and Typha. Cephalanthus and Zizania produce large amounts of pollen, which in Cephalanthus, is deposited locally.
Distributed control of a retinal imaging adaptive optics system
Keywords: Biomedical engineering
Mechanical engineering

In recent years a technique known as adaptive optics (AO), commonly used to correct the dynamic wavefront error caused by atmospheric turbulence in ground-based telescopes, has been studied as a means of correcting the dynamic wavefront error caused by aberrations in the human eye, allowing for higher resolution retinal images. In order to compensate for these dynamic aberrations, a compact AO system that tracks and compensates for these changes in real-time is needed. To realize such a system, improvements must be made in two key components, namely the control algorithms and the design of the wavefront corrector. The latter represents the main focus of this thesis. The control problem in adaptive optics systems is generalized to that of shape control for a flexible membrane representing a deformable membrane mirror used in the wavefront corrector. Due to the dynamic nature of the aberrations in the eye, the shape control problem addressed is the tracking of an unknown and time-varying shape for a distributed membrane (i.e., desired shape of the mirror). The proposed controller design approach relies on two steps. The first step is to construct a Q -parameterized set of stabilizing controllers for the system under consideration and to derive conditions on the Q parameter in the controller expression to achieve regulation. Since the desired shape of the mirror is unknown and time-varying, the second step is to derive an online tuning algorithm for the Q parameter in the expression for the parameterized stabilizing controller. The online tuning of the Q parameter allows the controller to converge to the controller needed to achieve regulation, hence compensating for the lack of information on the desired shape for the deformable mirror. Decoupling introduced in the closed loop system allows tuning to be performed using decentralized algorithms.
Changing gender roles over three generations of Eritrean women
Keywords: Women, Eritrean
Sex role, Eritrean
Social ethics, Eritrean

This thesis provides a theoretical and conceptual analysis of the changing gender roles of three generations of Eritrean women based on my recollections of the lives of my grandmother, my mother and myself. It is based on African feminist principles and examines Eritrean women's gender roles from the perspective of patriarchal institutions and practices and the influence of colonialism, neocolonialism and racism. My main findings are that traditionally Eritrean women acted in multiple roles to support their families and communities. They drew upon traditional networks of women for support and as a means of sharing and maintaining women's substantial indigenous knowledge. However, much of their work was concentrated in the private sphere and so was either unrecognized or unrecorded. Over my mother's generation and my own, the private sphere focus of women's gender roles began to shift and to take on a much more public aspect, particularly when large numbers of Eritrean women joined the Eritrean People's Liberation Front as freedom fighters. This research is based on first-hand, lived experience and my recollections of the oral history I heard when I was growing up. The three life histories and the changing gender roles they reflect are documented in a story format.
Law and technology: politics complexity, and legitimacy in online copyright reform
Keywords: Software protection, Law and legislation
Intellectual property
Internet, Law and legislation

This thesis examines recent copyright law reform proposals in the context of a theory of technology. The theory posits that technology is political and complex. The paper argues that any law of cyberspace must consider these features of technology if it is to be effective and if it is to comport with norms in society. The paper ultimately posits a theory for the law of cyberspace drawing on the international law theory of legitimacy. Law for the internet that is 'legitimate' will be effective precisely because it does not require coercion. The thesis concludes that the challenges of regulating cyberspace can be overcome by taking into account the politics inherent in technology and the complexity of the internet.
Kaleidoscopic signs and hyperreal icons: the genesis of a national visual language on American television
Keywords: Television, Semiotics
Visual communication

Among the most prominent legacies of the twentieth century is the astonishing renaissance of the picture as manifested in a ubiquitous visual legacy. With the advent of television, pictorially-based communication ultimately seized the central role in both entertaining and informing American society. However, due not only to its sheer quantity, but also to its puzzling quality, the imagery of the past stubbornly resists scientific evaluation. In offering a new theoretical approach to the nature of visual communication, the thesis proposes a novel scientific corset tailored for analyzing the pictorial sources as truly sign-based artifacts. The argument centers on the notion of dialectically interconnected visual signs, whose meanings are generated in a historically dynamic process of creating, collecting, and cultivating a pool of general, semantic expressions, before they are possibly able to specify any relevant information in their actual immediate detail.
Examining the case fo a journalist-source privilege: a comparative analysis of the level of protection afforded to journalistic sources in the UK, the US and Canada
Keywords: Journalists, Legal status, laws, etc
Journalists, Great Britain
Journalists, Legal status, laws, etc
Journalists, United States
Journalists, Legal status, laws, etc
Journalists, Canada
Attribution of news

The vexed question of the appropriate level of legal protection for journalistic sources is currently the subject of global debate. There are various ways to afford protection to sources, but this thesis is concerned particularly with a proposed journalist-source privilege. This paper contends that such a journalist-source privilege is fundamentally desirable, whether qualified or absolute. It analyses the costs of a privilege and balances them against the disadvantages of having little or no protection for sources. The thesis examines the differing levels of protection offered by three different jurisdictions. It discusses the situation in the United Kingdom, in the United States and finally in Canada. It is suggested that the law relating to journalist-source privilege (or source protection) remains unsettled in each of these major jurisdictions. In recent years journalists in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada have come under increasing pressure to reveal their sources, and this thesis argues that a journalist-source privilege is necessary to ensure that freedom of the press does not become an empty ideal.
"Can racism": a critical inquiry into a social justice education project
Keywords: Racism, Study and teaching
Racism, Canada
Race awareness, Canada
Race discrimination, Canada
Educational equalization, Canada

This thesis is based on my experience of developing and piloting a social justice, media arts-based project entitled “Can Racism” in a high school setting in Peterborough, Ontario, in 2000. My primary aim in the project was to develop a pedagogical strategy that disrupted the hegemonic production and reproduction of ‘culture’ within schools and art galleries. The study examines the impact on the media arts participants of some of the pedagogical strategies embedded in “Can Racism”. I carried out a series of interviews with students, teachers, and parents; and while the views of students are my primary concern, I also include the perspectives of educators involved in “Can Racism” and of parents of the student participants. Literature from the fields of cultural theory and education informs my analysis of the words of the research participants. The thesis raises important issues about anti-racist education within a predominantly Euro-cultured and rural space.
Neighbors: a comparative study on gender access to education, employment and politics between Iran and Turkey
Keywords: Women, Social aspects
Women, Turkey
Women, Social aspects
Women, Iran
Sex differences in education, Turkey
Sex differences in education, Iran
Sex discrimination, Turkey
Sex discrimination, Iran
Sex role, Turkey
Sex role, Iran

This thesis is a comparative study between Iran and Turkey. Three variables are studied: access to education, to employment and to the politics by gender. The thesis is composed of five chapters. The first chapter serves as an introduction in which the field of the study and the variables and the reasons of the study are introduced. The second chapter discusses the history and methodology of comparative education, and the methodology of this study. The third chapter is devoted to Turkey and the fourth to Iran. Each of the chapters three and four starts with a historical background of the respective country followed by some up-to-date general information about it. The statistical and analytical studies of each of the variables come in a specific section in each chapter. Since Iran and Turkey are very traditional countries, the intervention of traditions with each variable is studied, as well. The last chapter serves as a direct comparison between the two countries.
Walking the labyrinth: its impact on healthcare professionals in a hospital setting
Keywords: Countertransference (Psychology)
Psychic trauma, Treatment
Imagery (Psychology)
Labyrinths

SWCHSC was the first Canadian hospital to install a permanent labyrinth. This qualitative study focused on exploring the impact of walking the labyrinth on healthcare professionals in their workplace setting. Eleven participants were interviewed. Results included positive and negative experiences. Not all participants' expectations were met; however, the majority deemed the labyrinth to be beneficial. Participants found it offered â€œtime outâ€ in a hectic workplace environment and created opportunities to â€œre-energizeâ€ , â€œre-focusâ€ , â€œreduce stressâ€ , â€œseek clarityâ€ , â€œfacilitate calmâ€ , and â€œnurture the soulâ€ . It was believed to assist in teaching healthcare providers to better care for themselves at work and improve their coping mechanisms in a demanding and stressful workplace environment. All participants expressed interest in walking the labyrinth again and would recommend it to others based on their experience. Methods to improve the utilization and potential benefit of the labyrinth in this setting were identified and future research directions suggested.