VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Filtered Out: LGBTQ Parents Engage with Special Needs Service Systems

Using ethnographic methods, this study started from the everyday activities and narratives of LGBTQ parents of children with 'special needs'. A critical approach to intersectionality was employed to consider how certain parents, children, and families are constructed as "different" or "not fitting" in particular settings and contexts, and what consequences follow (Crenshaw, 1991; Gibson, 2013). Fifteen parents and six key informants were interviewed, all of whom were based in the Greater Toronto Area. Methods used were drawn from institutional ethnography (Smith 2005) and discourse analysis (Gee, 2005; Riessman, 2008). The study found that special needs services systems operate to `filter out' potential service users at multiple points of contact, regardless of the intentions of individual providers or the written policies of organizations. Parents encounter interpersonal and text-based, procedural barriers that discourage, deny, and defer claims. As a result, parents do extensive `systemwork' to improve the chances that their children will receive needed supports, and to fill in the gaps when they do not.This institutional reliance on parental work and the resulting framework of competition means that what children and families receive is highly variable. Parents marshal whatever financial, social, and relational resources they have in support of their efforts. Often `going private' is the only or best means of being able to secure or augment public services, however only some parents have the financial means to do so. For parents and children with fewer resources and privileges, it is more difficult to avoid being filtered out. Parents reported particular vulnerabilities and strategies related to their LGBTQ identities as they navigated special needs services. Parent narratives reflected the ways that parents both contend with and reshape dominant ways of thinking about queerness and disability. The impact of dominant notions about `desirable' children and parents could not only be seen in parents' narratives and strategies, but also in their reluctance to engage with special needs systems. This discursive background is thus another means in which parents are filtered out. These findings have implications for users, researchers, and providers of special needs service systems, particularly those who want to make special needs service provision accessible and responsive to all.

Keywords: Disability
Gender
Parents
Service Systems
Sexuality
Social Work
Advisor: Sakamoto, Izumi
Legal and Policy Implications for Early Childhood Professionals in Ontario's Kindergarten Programs

The integration of child care and early education systems has been driving staffing change in early learning environments globally over the past decade. Rationales for staff integration often include concurrent movements to professionalize and regularize the early childhood sector. The legal and policy implication of systems integration in Ontario includes the movement of a largely unionized private non-profit sector workforce into the realm of public education in Full Day Kindergarten (FDK). Ontario was the first jurisdiction in Canada to introduce a team teaching model comprised of a Registered Early Childhood Educator (RECE) and Kindergarten Teacher, bringing approximately 10,000 new RECEs into the public education sector. At the same time, the College of Early Childhood Educators was also established to develop standards of practice and provide public accountability for early childhood professionals.This thesis explores the new "professional" role of the RECE within the integrated FDK staff team in the education sector and the concurrent movement to professionalize and regularize the early childhood profession in Ontario. Through a series of four interrelated manuscripts that use a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches including feminist legal policy research and text analysis, this compilation thesis documents the legal and policy impact of FDK staffing policy, and how it has influenced the way the new professional RECE role in FDK is being developed through legislation, policy and practice. By conceptualizing professionalization as a site of struggle and using feminist legal and policy research perspectives to understand policy implementation, I describe ways in which policy makers can have a more meaningful impact through FDK program implementation at all levels, and disclose strategies on how the policy intent of a more professional status and role for RECEs in Ontario's education system can be realized.

Keywords: early education (kindergarten and early childhood)
education law and policy
feminist legal analysis and gendered work
integrated early learning systems
integrated staff teams
professionalization
Advisor: Pelletier, Janette
Observation of the Higgs Boson Decaying to WW to Leptons and Neutrinos

The search for the Higgs boson produced through gluon fusion and vector boson fusion and decaying to WW bosons is performed. The WW bosons subsequently decay to combinations of electrons, muons and neutrinos. The final states are accompanied by up to two jets. The search is performed using 25 fb^{-1} of data collected by the ATLAS detector in centre-of-mass 7 TeV and 8 TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHC. Comparing the collected data to Standard Model expectations, in which the Higgs boson is assumed to not exist, yields a 6.1 sigma excess at around a Higgs mass of 130 GeV and over a wide mass range. The significance is the same for a Higgs mass of 125.36 GeV, which is the Higgs mass determined by the Higgs to two photons and Higgs to two Z bosons searches. The vector boson fusion production process is observed with a significance of 3.2 sigma at a Higgs mass of 125.36 GeV. The ratio of the expected to the observed values of the total production cross section times branching ratio is 1.08 (-0.20, +0.22) at a Higgs boson mass of 125.36 GeV. When separated by Higgs production modes, this value is 1.01 (-0.25, +0.27) for gluon fusion, and 1.27(-0.45, +0.53) for vector boson fusion. The total cross sections for the gluon fusion and vector boson fusion processes are measured. The fiducial cross section for the gluon fusion process is measured in final states containing zero and one associated jets.

Keywords: ATLAS Detector
Di-bosons
Higgs
High Energy Physics
Particle Physics
Advisor: Teuscher, Richard
Negotiating School: A Narrative Study

Negotiating School is an investigation into the work of parents who adapted schooling to custom fit their child rather than simply depositing the child at the neighbourhood school and trusting the school to decide what to do. Following the methodology of narrative inquiry, this study analyzes the experiences of the author's family and seven other families as they dealt with school. This study identifies many strategies parents may employ as they navigate their child's schooling. This continuum of strategies starts with minor actions such as maintaining close communications with teachers to the radical move of quitting school altogether for unschooling. Although Negotiating School never intended to make any claim of generalizability, the strategies that emerged from the participant's stories seem to cover the territory of possible school negotiations available to parents. Initially, this thesis had in mind parents who sought a humanistic, child-centred education which would reflect their own intensive parenting style. However, as they told their stories, it became clear that some of my participants privileged traditional concerns, such as the quality of teaching, the coherence of the curriculum, and the conduct of the other students in the building. Regardless, the techniques of negotiating school served both ends of the educational spectrum, the progressive and the traditional. Without intending to, Negotiating School has taken on some features of a longitudinal study. Children I met in kindergarten are now in university. Experiments have played out. Some utopian hopes have taken a bad turn. But all my participants were school negotiators, intensely involved in their children's schooling.

Keywords: alternative education
home schooling
parenting
private schools
school choice
special education
Advisor: Cameron, Linda
Cognitive Modelling: A Case Study of Reading-to-write Strategy Instruction and the Development of Second Language Writing Expertise in a University English for Academic Purposes Writing Course

This case study investigates how the teaching of cognitive strategies in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing course at a Canadian university occurs and relates to students' engagement in course writing tasks. While universities offer writing courses in order to improve academic writing skills, English Language Learners (ELL) may still be considered poor writers by mainstream standards. Perhaps the problem is not writing skill, but an ineffective linking of reading and writing strategic knowledge to the task at hand. Pedagogically interconnecting reading and writing skills reciprocally supports learner proficiency development, which may be enhanced by directly teaching awareness raising strategies. This doctoral study seeks to investigate the declarative, procedural and conditional knowledge of what a teacher actually does in the classroom. This instrumental qualitative case study took place in a 10-week EAP writing course. Data collection involved classroom observation, open-ended interviews, reflective questionnaires and retrospective think-aloud tasks of 6 focal students. Analysis of the classroom observations, stimulated recalls, interviews and end-of-term questionnaires were thematically analysed for links between observed teaching activities and student perceived awareness of learning. Taxonomies of teaching activities and learning activities incorporated five aspects of reading and writing behaviours. Teaching episodes are being analysed in one of three ways: Episodes of Raising Awareness (ERA), where teachers may only raise cognitive awareness by mentioning strategies for learning; Episodes of Strategy Explanation (ESE), where teachers explain and demonstrate the strategy; and Episodes of Cognitive Modelling (ECM), which entails the teacher verbalising by thinking aloud and demonstrating strategies as the expert. Student stimulated recalls were analysed as Episodes of Cognitive Learning (ECL). Analyses of the observations and the stimulated student recalls reveal results that link explicit teacher task modelling (ESEs and ECMs) by using think-alouds and demonstration to learner task awareness and strategy implementation. This study provides insights for researchers and educators across disciplines on the importance of the relationship between actively teaching cognitive strategies and how learners problem-solve or apply learning.

Keywords: academic literacy
cognitive modelling
reading-to-write
teacher modelling
think-alouds
writing instruction
Advisor: Gagné, Antoinette
Adhesion and Microleakage of CAD/CAM Crowns Using Self-adhesive Resin Cements

Ceramic and composite resin CAD/CAM restorations were introduced as indirect restorative materials that combine high esthetics and superior mechanical properties. However, an important requirement for successful function of these restorations is adequate adhesion between the restoration and tooth substrate. Several factors affect the adhesion of these restorations to the underlying substrate. The aims of this in-vitro project were to analyze some of the factors that can influence adhesion of lithium disilicate ceramic and composite resin CAD/CAM materials to different substrates and to develop more reliable adhesion testing methodologies.This project consisted of four parts. The first part aimed to develop new microtensile bond strength testing methodology and to evaluate the effect of the resin cement, crown material and bonding substrate on the microtensile bond strength between CAD/CAM crown materials and different substrates. Results indicated that all three variables significantly affected mean microtensile bond strength.The second part aimed to modify the current microshear testing methodology and to evaluate the effect of the resin cement, crown material and bonding substrate on the microshear bond strength between CAD/CAM materials and different substrates. Results indicated that the type of resin cement and substrate significantly affected the mean microshear bond strength. Crown materials had no significant effect.The third part aimed to develop a methodology to measure the retention strength of CAD/CAM crowns to the underlying substrate and to evaluate the effects of the resin cement, crown material and bonding substrate on the retention strength. Results indicated that all three variables significantly affected mean retention strength.The fourth part aimed to test microleakage at the interface between CAD/CAM crown materials and tooth substrate and evaluate the effects of the resin cement and crown material on the sealability of the bonding interface. Results indicated that only the cement had a significant effect on microleakage.In conclusion, etch-and-rinse adhesive resin cement provided better bond strength and retention strength and adhesive-interface sealability when used with lithium disilicate and composite resin CAD/CAM crown materials. Furthermore, the bonding substrate had an effect on adhesion;unrestored teeth provided better retention than teeth restored with composite resin and amalgam.

Advisor: El-Mowafy, Omar
Importance of Working Collaboratively and Risk-taking with Digital Technologies when Teaching Literacy

As classroom landscapes and digital technologies are constantly changing, this qualitative research study investigated the challenges for elementary educators as they implement and sustain digital-based literacy practices. The perceptions of 15 participating elementary teachers, from rural and urban Ontario, Canada, as they reflected on their own teaching practices and curriculum planning involving literacy and digital tools, were explored through the lens of New Literacies (Coiro et al., 2008). The following research questions guided this study: a) What do teachers who use multimodal practices perceive as their teaching strengths? b) How do teachers describe their understanding of literacy and learning? c) How do teachers utilize digital technologies to support teaching and learning through multimodal methods? d) What types of environments support teachers to address the challenges of teaching with multimodal practices? Primary sources of data for this study were semi-structured interviews and the teachers' educational resources and documents, sourced to plan teaching and learning literacy activities, and collected and analyzed through a grounded theory approach. Findings suggest that the 15 teachers effectively integrate multimodal and digital tools and resources into their literacy curriculum, through supportive environments and peer collaborations. This shift in teaching and learning illustrated challenges with common technological and connectivity issues as well as finding space for professional development with Web 2.0 applications. The teachers experienced tensions when teaching through multimodal means, such as inequity of access to digital resource sharing and daily implementing digital tools in the elementary literacy curriculum. Constantly seeking out new ways to integrate digital technologies, tools and resources, while embracing the tensions of teaching digitally, these pedagogical risk-takers provided opportunities to further understand the importance and challenges of facilitating multimodal practices in the elementary literacy classroom.

Keywords: digital literacies
elementary teachers
literacy curriculum
multimodal practices
pedagogical risk-takers
teacher collaboration
Advisor: Stagg Peterson, Shelley
Images of the Diversity Educator: Indian and Canadian Perspectives of Diversity Education in Teacher Education

Increasingly, diversity education in initial teacher education (ITE) is identified as a global need in pluralist contexts. Recent policies in India and Canada make explicit commitments to addressing diversity and inclusion as part of teacher education reforms. Despite strong and growing policy recommendations, limited information is available on how ITE programs approach diversity education in practice. In response, I conducted a qualitative international comparative study of ITE programs in Ontario, Canada, and Delhi, India. The purpose of this study is to identify the similarities and differences of approaches to diversity education in ITE programs. The study analyzes six programs--three in Canada and three in India--that prepare novice teachers for diversity. I focus primarily on two of the programs and include the other four as context for the regional beliefs and practices in each country. Through interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis, I explore: a) participants' understandings of diversity education; b) program policies, structures and procedures; c) curriculum content and pedagogy; and d) the challenges of approaches to diversity education.The findings reveal that the approaches of both programs are framed by three images of the diversity educator--the affirmer, the conscious practitioner, and the social reformer--albeit in varying ways and with different emphases. The affirmer focuses on empowering students, reinforcing positive views of diversity, and building community in the classroom; the conscious practitioner on being mindful of diversity and aware of the implications of social issues on candidates' lives and practice; and the reformer on implementing diversity education curriculum for social reform. Each image highlights distinct conceptions of diversity, inclusion, professional knowledge, and social action.The images of the diversity educator offer a framework for comparative international inquiry on diversity education in ITE. They generate insights into how diversity education is approached in three ways: 1) as distinct forms based on sociocultural context, ITE participants' beliefs, and program practices; 2) as important opportunities for social action in education; and 3) as multiple forms simultaneously operating in a single ITE program. The images provide new directions on how to best understand and improve diversity education in ITE.

Keywords: Canada
Comparative Education
Diversity Education
India
Preservice
Teacher Development
Advisor: Thiessen, Dennis
Character Sum Estimates in Finite Fields and Applications

In this thesis we present a number of character sum estimates for sums ofvarious types occurring in finite fields. The sums in question generally have anarithmetic combinatorial flavour and we give applications of suchestimates to problems in arithmetic combinatorics and analytic number theory.Conversely, we demonstrate ways in which the theory of arithmetic combinatorics can be used to obtain certain character sum estimates.

Keywords: Character sums
Combinatorics
Finite fields
Number theory
Advisor: Friedlander, John B
The Influence of Polymer Sequence on the Formation of Bulk-heterojunctions in Organic Solar Cells

The rapid development of polymer solar cell technologies has lead to the implementation of multi-chromophore polymer structures, such as donor-acceptor, block, or statistical polymers that provide better energy-gap tuning ability or spectrum coverage, but also make controlling morphology more complicated. We compare the morphology and solar cell device performance of two fullerene acceptor with diffident crystallinity, PCBM and ICBA, and two selenophene-thiophene copolymers that have the same degree of polymerization and composition, and differ only in their sequence (statistical vs. block copolymers). P3HS-b-P3HT spontaneously undergoes phase separation and P3HS-s-P3HT does not. P3HS-b-P3HT performs best when the intrinsic self-assembled nanostructure is the most perturbed. P3HS-s-P3HT does not undergo intrinsic phase separation, and vapor annealing can be used to optimize the polymer:fullerene morphology, where better nanostructure is well correlated with the best device. On the other hand, different fullerene structures not only have distinct morphology evolution, but also affect the self-assembly of polymers. Inspired by previous results, we also propose a "blocky" structure that incorporates selenophene into a donor-acceptor copolymer in order to improve molecular ordering.

Keywords: molecular ordering
nanostructure
organic solar cell
polymer sequence
Advisor: Seferos, Dwight S
Fractal, Classical, and Active Grid Turbulence: From Production to Decay

The turbulence produced in the wake of fractal grids has been shown to exhibit peculiar decay properties that contrast with expectations for canonical grid turbulence flows. Such flows have been termed `non-equilibrium' turbulence, and feature an unexpectedly high decay rate of turbulent kinetic energy and rapid growth of the normalized dissipation rate relative to canonical grid turbulence flows. The primary aim of this work is thus to reconcile modern fractal-generated grid turbulence with canonical grid turbulence via a series of wind tunnel experiments using hot-wire anemometry. The turbulence produced by a square-fractal-element grid, that is known to generate a significant non-equilibrium region in its wake, is compared to the turbulence produced by two regular square mesh grids and an active grid. The three passive grids all have the same blockage, while the blockage of the active grid is transient. The regular grids and active grid are used as benchmarks for comparison because they are known to produce quasi-equilibrium turbulence that matches many of the predictions of Richardson-Kolmogorov equilibrium turbulence phenomenology, save the existence of a k−5/3 spectrum in the inertial range. It is found that non-equilibrium and quasi-equilibrium turbulence are two phases of the same turbulence evolution downstream of turbulence generating grids. The flow begins as non-equilibrium turbulence close to the grid, and evolves downstream into quasi-equilibrium turbulence. Evidence for this finding is provided by showing that sufficiently far downstream of the fractal geometry the flow returns to a quasi-equilibrium state with traditional decay rates and constant normalized dissipation scaling. It is found that the non-equilibrium region is characterized by transverse transport of turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent production, both of which are consequences of the mean flow inhomogeneity in the near-grid region. For non-equilibrium turbulence, the production is found to penetrate to wavenumbers inside the inertial range, giving the appearance of a k−5/3 spectrum, but this same penetration by production makes non-equilibrium turbulence theoretically incompatible with Kolmogorov's k−5/3 prediction. As the homogeneity of the flow improves downstream, the flow reaches a state of approximate equilibrium, although a k−5/3 spectrum is never observed behind any grid in this study. This result was absent from previous studies because large fractal geometries limited the observable downstream range in a wind tunnel. This limitation was overcome by using a square-fractal-element grid that was composed of a 12 × 8 array of small square fractal elements.

Keywords: fractal
homogeneous
isotropic
turbulence
Advisor: Lavoie, Philippe