VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Identity formation and the meaning of youth participation in democratic spaces: the case of student trustees
Keywords: School boards, Ontario
Student participation in administration, Ontario
Identity (Psychology)

Youth participation is on the rise with young people engaged in a range of activities aimed at improving their communities. Despite increased opportunities for youth involvement, few studies address the meaning of youth participation from the perspectives of the participants. This study offers the first comprehensive analysis of the student trustee role, a new form of youth participation within the education system. Student trustees represent their fellow high school students at the school board level. Although representation implies a form of democratic practice, student trustees are not allowed to vote at the board table and are often not elected by their peers. The main purpose of this study was to examine the perspectives of student trustees, to ascertain what was meaningful to them about their participation and to determine whether they experienced developmental change. A mixed method design included qualitative interviews with sixteen participants, field observations and quantitative questionnaires administered to 39 outgoing and 22 incoming student trustees. Bronfenbrenner's ecological model provided the main conceptual framework while theories of participatory democracy and social reproduction illuminated areas of personal transformation through democratic engagement and the effects of social class and political power. Through an integration of these theories, a comprehensive framework emerged that could address the many facets of student trustee involvement. Data analyses generated a developmental theme consisting of two models. The first model cites a developmental trajectory and identifies factors involved in fostering student participation. The most prominent factors included socio-economic status, early involvement in school governance and the significance of supportive adults. The second model presents evidence of developmental changes associated with transformative learning in political participation. This model elucidates important changes in participants' attitudes and behaviours, which in part, elicited identity formation processes. Changes were noted in participants' orientation toward future goals, an increased self-awareness, and a more expansive worldview. For this reason, participants' perceptions reflected a transcendent quality or outward looking process. Finally, the study provides a critique of the student trustee role and offers recommendations for enhancing youth participation in this democratic space such as improving representation mechanisms and ensuring more inclusive decision-making processes.
Pregnant bodies and the need for privacy: An embodied reading of pregnancy
Keywords: Pregnant women, Attitudes
Body image in women
Privacy

The aim of this study was to examine the function of expectations and social perceptions on the pregnant woman's embodied experience. How does body image, the exposure of the belly and expectations of privacy affect the experience of pregnancy for first time mothers? A qualitative approach was used to interview five women who participated in two in-depth semi-structured interviews. The interviews were constructed into case studies portraying each woman's embodied experience of pregnancy. Results suggest that pregnancy is a unique and complicated time for women to negotiate their changing body. Underlying emergent themes suggest that relationships and creating a close social network is essential for women to negotiate their journey through pregnancy. Body image can be influenced during pregnancy and by the growth of the belly and it is not simply a time for women to dismiss their bodily concerns.
An empirical investigation of factors affecting Likert-type rating scale responses
Keywords: Likert scale
Psychiatric rating scales, Design and construction

Likert-type scaling has been widely used in survey and social science research. This study investigated the effects of choice of scale labels and of semantic compatibility on rating scale responses in Likert-type scaling, via three experiments. Experiment 1 estimated the scale values of four types of scale labels: evaluative, frequency, agreement and competence labels. Scale values obtained from Experiment 1 were used to construct the rating scales for Experiments 2 and 3. Using the modified magnitude estimation method, 60 education students rated evaluative, frequency, agreement and competence labels. Results showed that in general these labels were good descriptors of evaluative, frequency, agreement and competence domains. Experiment 2 examined the effects of centredness and packedness of rating scale labels on rating responses. Using frequency labels, two levels of centredness were crossed with three levels of packedness. 210 education students rated their attitudes towards university student life on a five-point scale questionnaire. Results showed that there was no significant interaction between centredness and packedness, but that there were significant main effects of centredness and packedness. Since there is limited research available on the effects of centredness and of semantic compatibility on rating scale responses, further investigations on these factors should be undertaken. Limitations of the study and directions for future research are also discussed. Experiment 3 examined the effects of semantic compatibility between item content and rating scale labels on rating responses, and the internal consistency of these responses. Using agreement and evaluative labels, two levels of packedness were crossed with two levels of type of scale labels. 160 education students rated their attitudes regarding their academic abilities on a five-point scale questionnaire. Results showed that where semantically compatibility exists between item content and rating scale labels, the mean score was higher for the equal interval scale than that for the right packed scale, but where semantic compatibility does not exist, the mean scores of the equal interval and right packed scales were equal to each other. Reliabilities for the right packed and equal interval scales in the matched condition were also not significantly different from those in the mismatched condition.
Child sexual abuse prevention: feminism, masculinity, and preventing the socialization of future offenders
Keywords: Socialization
Child sexual abuse, Prevention
Masculinity
Abusive men, Psychology
Feminism
Sex role

The purpose of this research is to examine the current assumptions of child sexual abuse prevention in light of the new research and theories that have developed over the last two decades. This research presents a feminist, decolonizing perspective on child sexual abuse prevention and explores an extended feminist perspective linking child sexual abuse to the social construction of masculinity, male sexual socialization, and hierarchical masculinities. I perform an analysis of prevention research and materials to compare what is taught, where it is taught, and to whom it is taught to the public knowledge of, research on, and reality of abuse. From this analysis, I argue the prevention of child sexual abuse must result from a significant ideological and structural change in our culture. The paper concludes with new and practical guidelines for child sexual abuse prevention aimed at preventing the socialization of future abusers.
The MIL Project, a case study: Midwives + Internet + Learning = knowledge building
Keywords: Midwifery, Study and teaching
Midwifery, Computer network resources
Midwives, Training of
Internet in education

Midwifery is a small but growing profession in Canada. As health professionals practicing evidence based care, midwives require access to continuing professional development (CPD) that accommodates the needs and characteristics of their profession. The purpose of this case study is to understand what kinds of computer based educational approaches would be effective for midwives, how best to make CPD meaningful and how CPD can be progressive in enhancing communal knowledge. This study examines midwives Internet use, midwives existing learning approaches and possible pedagogical approaches to online learning. This is the first Canadian research examining this topic and it develops a picture of midwives as frequent Internet users, who use the Internet to connect with other midwives, do research and read periodicals. This study details ways that midwives are meeting their learning needs, formally and informally, and suggests the use of technological and pedagogical supports to make professional education more progressive.
Towards an understanding of the constructs underlying the situational interview and the patterned behavior description interview in predicting typical versus maximum performance
Keywords: Organizational behavior
Dissertations, Academic, Canada

When selecting new employees, organizations can strive to predict both typical and maximum job performance. Variations in the ongoing performance on the job, typical performance, are attributed to differences in both employees' ability and motivation. In contrast, variations in performance during short and highly evaluative situations, maximum performance, are attributed primarily to differences in employees' ability, given that motivation is constrained to be high in these situations. The personnel selection literature has focused extensively on measures of ability to the relative neglect of measures that predict applicants' motivation on the job. Researchers have argued whether structured interviews, particularly the situational interview (SI) and the patterned behaviour interview (PBDI), assess primarily motivation in the form of intentions and past choices, or facets of ability such as cognitive ability, practical intelligence, or job knowledge. This study addressed this controversial issue in predicting both typical and maximum performance. If the SI and the PBDI measure motivation in the form of intentions or past choices, they should primarily predict typical performance. However, if they measure facets of ability, they should primarily predict maximum performance. Seventy nine incoming MBA-students received a SI and a PBDI on their teamplaying behaviours before the start of their studies. Peers assessed maximum teamplaying performance at the end of a week-long group project that contributed to the students' grade in one of their courses. Other peers assessed students' typical teamplaying performance at the end of the students' first term. Results revealed that the SI showed predictive validity for both typical ( r = .41, p < .01) and maximum (r = .25, p < .05) performance. The difference between the correlations was marginally significant. The PBDI showed predictive validity for typical performance (r = .34, p < .01), but not for maximum performance (r = .11, n. s.). The difference between these correlations was significant. Practical intelligence and job knowledge mediated the SI's predictive validity for maximum performance, but not the predictive validity of either interviews for typical performance. Practical implications for the use of structured selection interviews to predict typical and maximum performance in business schools and industry are discussed.
Through writing for publication, a biracial, bicultural, bilingual adolescent explores identity and normalcy: Sarah in her own words
Keywords: Self-perception in adolescence
Biculturalism
Teenagers' writings
Bilingualism
Racially mixed people
Ethnicity
Identity (Psychology) in youth

This research attempts to fill gaps in the literature concerned with language and identity of interracial, intercultural, bilingual individuals. First, the literature is dominated by black-white racial mixing in the U.S. context. Other racial mixes in other contexts receive scant attention. Second, perhaps because the literature is dominated by U.S.-based research, little attention is paid to language in the context of being interracial. Third, research has made little use of these individuals' own voices. Therefore, I invited mixed race individuals who grew up in Japan and Canada to contribute to a collection of writing about their experiences as interracial, intercultural, bilingual individuals growing up and going to school in Japan or Canada. This research attempts to apply activity theory in the analysis of the data of one writer, Sarah, to examine the relationship of the individual to the social structures or institutions that make up her worlds. As I understand and use activity theory, it provides a temporary and permeable boundary for the phenomena I wish to examine. Activity theory presents a way of identifying and tracing the interaction of individuals with social constructions, particularly through the flow of artifacts, in this case the drafts of Sarah's writing. Activity theory also has limitations. I hope to be able to identify the strengths and limitations by the end of this analysis. This research also attempts to break ground in research methodology by gathering the data through a writing-for-publication process. I engaged in a collaboration with twenty-three students as writers with the goal of producing publishable prose. The young people participated simultaneously as writers and research participants. I worked simultaneously as an editor and a researcher. Through the process of writing and editing individuals constructed the self they wish others to see and recognize. This thesis presents one of those writers, her writing and editing. The thesis is my attempt to show the complexity, dynamism, and ongoingness of that process of self construction rather than a reductive, static, consideration of the variables affecting language and identity development.
The state got under my skin: "Giving flesh" to state theory, employing Black feminist epistemologies
Keywords: Feminist theory
Women, Black, Attitudes
Political activists
Welfare recipients, Abuse of
Welfare recipients, Attitudes

This thesis focuses on the activism of Black women that has confronted the Welfare state and in doing so posed important theoretical and epistemic challenges to state theory. This project seeks to articulate the ways in which Black women's activism and its attendant theory (Black feminist thought) and epistemological framework force theories of the state to engage more substantively the analytic categories of race and gender. The political auto/biographies of Black women activists will serve as the narratives/theories1 that this thesis employs to re-conceptualize Marxian, Foucauldian, Weberian and other well established theories of the state. By assuming the vantage point of Black women activists, we will reveal how dominant theories and epistemologies of the state which rely on abstraction limit the range of theorizing permitted in the development of state theories. Our examination of Black women's narratives/theories of the state, introduce an alternative conceptualization of state processes and formations. 1James, J. (1993). Teaching Theory, Talking Community in Spirit, Space and Survival: African American Women in (White) Academe. Ed(s) James, J. and Farmer, R. New York: Routledge.
Shareholders' formal activism: The Canadian context
Keywords: Stockholders, Legal status, laws, etc
Stockholders, Canada
Stock ownership, Canada

Shareholders' proposals do not represent a widespread mode of activism amongst shareholders as opposed to the U.S. Though the rules that provide for the shareholder proposal mechanism are inspired by the U.S. rules, the Canadian corporate context, mainly because of its ownership structure, does not favour this type of activism. The analysis of the proposals presented during the years 2004 to 2006 shows that only a handful of shareholders present the same proposals to number of firms and that these proposals are generally not adopted and are not necessarily tailored to the specifics of these firms. There are trends to the type of shareholder proposals presented. The analysis of the effect on the share price has not been conclusive. Shareholder proposal mechanism in Canada may have some benefits but does not seem to fulfill its initial purpose which was to further corporate democracy by enabling shareholders to more easily communicate amongst each other.
The redefined role of the Ismaili Muslim woman through higher education and the professions
Keywords: Ismailites, Education (Higher)
Ismailites, Social conditions
Ismailites, Canada
Muslim women, Education (Higher)
Muslim women, Social conditions
Muslim women, Canada

Finally, the findings indicated that their higher education and their professional status had led to a significant change in these women's roles in society. They were now active participants in society, and able to challenge the political knowledge-validation processes that had externally defined, controlled and stereotyped them in the past. This study investigates the effects of higher education among Nizari Ismaili Muslim women, and its impact on traditional cultural mores regarding gender. It explores the lives of seven professional Canadian Ismaili women of Indian descent, from a hitherto traditional society, at different stages of their acculturation, and examines how higher education has affected their roles as Muslim women in society. Stories of the lives of the women's mothers also emerge through the voices of the participants. This is a qualitative study based on the narrative analyses of women whose cultural moorings are rooted in tradition. Primary sources for data collection included texts and in-depth interviews with women who shared a common background: their Indian descent, their colonial African connection, their Islamic faith, their quest for higher education, and their diasporic experiences. The data analyses took a thematic approach as patterns of life stories and relationships began to emerge. Findings. Results of this study showed that there was no essential Islamic or Ismaili woman, even though images based on various geopolitical movements tend to suggest so. The women of this study managed to extricate themselves from an otherwise patriarchically obsessed exegesis of the Qur'an on women's rights, solely by relying on the guidance of their Imams, who, in their persuasion of Islam, hold the authority and prerogative to interpret the faith according to the times. Other important variables that were implicated in their oppression were the British and other European colonial policies of racial discrimination, especially regarding educational opportunities. Their Imams worked proactively to counteract this problem. The study also shows that the practice of their faith and its manifestations are largely private. Their adherence to it was neither anachronistic, nor incompatible with their professional lives, though its form and symbols had changed for them compared to what it was for their mothers.
Masked ball at the White Cross Cafe: the failure of Jewish assimilation in post-emancipation Hungary
Keywords: Jews, History
Jews, Hungary
Judaism, History
Jews, Cultural assimilation
Jews, Hungary
Assimilation (Sociology)

Not many decades after the emancipation of the Jews in Western Europe, studies began to appear investigating the causes of anti-Semitism. This study is part of that body of work. However, it differs significantly from recent efforts in that it is situated within Western European history as opposed to Jewish history. This means that it will not be reliant upon Jewish sources. Furthermore, it does not look at anti-Semitism from the viewpoint of liberalism---which declared the illegitimacy of such sentiments---nor is it informed, as is so often the case, by the shadow cast by the Holocaust. It throws into sharp relief a continuum---the rejection of the Jew as Jew---historically achieved through marginalization and reconfigured as a series of stipulated reforms by the Enlightenment thinkers meant to culminate in assimilation. It is the rupture of this continuum---the emancipation of the Jews, the vast majority of whom did not conform to these stipulations---which created the conditions that eventually led to the Holocaust. After summarizing the centuries-long era of Toleration, I address in great detail Enlightenment discourse as it pertained to the Jews. Whereas the Church steadfastly offered only conversion in order to gain acceptance into the general society, the Enlightenment thinkers arrived at a new paradigm, based on Enlightenment ideals. However, it will be shown that their strategy had exactly the same impulse as that of Christianity: to erase all distinctiveness of the Jew. The discussion of this discourse forms the backbone of my study and, in the process, reconfigures the very definition of anti-Semitism. This study maintains that the non-Jewish context was a uniform one, modified only by national and local issues, an assertion many historians have recoiled from. As a first step in confirming uniformity, I have analyzed the response to the failure of emancipated Jews to assimilate in the prescribed ways in Hungary, and then inquired into the same phenomenon in Britain. The similarity of the responses outweighs the differences, demonstrating that the Jewish effort to reform, and thereby to assimilate into the host society was equally unsuccessful in both countries. Christian Europe responded uniformly to the presence of unreformed Jews in its midst.
Manufacturing process optimization for improved failure performance of thick composite structures
Keywords: Manufacturing processes
Production engineering
Multidisciplinary design optimization

A method is presented for finding the optimal autoclave temperature history for pre-impregnated thermoset composites based on their failure performance. A coupled finite element model which incorporates a thermo-chemical and incremental elastic analysis is used to predict the residual stress distribution at the edge of a thick composite beam. The optimal autoclave temperature is sought by formulating an objective function and an associated set of constraints. The objective is designed to maximize the minimum failure load of the manufactured beam amongst a set of load cases, while the constraints are imposed to ensure that the composite is uniformly cured and does not sustain temperature damage during the manufacturing process. A novel semi-analytic gradient evaluation technique is developed which incorporates elements of the adjoint and direct sensitivity methods. Initial results show that significant improvements in the failure load can be achieved for certain beam constructions.