VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Further Than Pluto: A Novel and Compendium Based on a Real Case of a Young Woman's Struggle with Autism, Communication, and the Paradox of Simultaneously Inviting in and Shutting out the World

This thesis is divided into three texts. The first is a compendium, which situates the major themes of the second text (a fictitious novel) into a scholarly context and delves into the broader academic questions that arise from it regarding the treatment and care of people with special needs. Those themes are put into a context that enables special education teachers to expand thier notions about communicating with and understanding their autistic and special needs students. It not only examines my own autobiographical connection to the novel (by the fact that I have a sister with a combination of Down Syndrome and autism) but also extends the themes into a broader context, and looks at typical expectations in families with mentally handicapped members and the various methods and approaches of communicating with them. The third text elaborates on specific aspects of these themes in an endnote format.

Keywords: autism
communication
animals
special needs
arts-informed
language
Advisor: Cole, Ardra
Cooper, Karyn
Rethinking Education: A Paradigm for Education for Sustainability

In this thesis I will argue that the current predicament we find ourselves in of unsustainable practices can only be addressed through a fundamental shift in the way we view the world and ourselves in it. It is my contention that our most immediate path to achieving this shift is through education. In this thesis I investigate the philosophical basis and justification for education as the impetus for change that will lead to sustainable societies. This inquiry will rethink Freire’s work within our current socio-historical context. Limitations and critiques of Freire’s work will be examined in order to investigate the ability of his work to form the foundation of a paradigm shift towards education that promotes sustainability. The work of C.A. Bowers is used as the basis to interrogate Freire’s work and to re-think some areas to overcome limitations of Freire’s work in his application to Education for Sustainability.

Keywords: Education
Education for Sustainable Development
Sustainability
Education for Sustainability
Sustainable Education
Paulo Freire
Advisor: Portelli, John P.
Internet Use for Lesson Preparation by Pre-service Teachers: A Mixed Methods Study

This exploratory study examined how pre-service teachers use the Internet while preparing lesson plans. Participants (N=30) prepared a literacy-focused lesson using the Internet as their only resource. Data were collected through screen capture technology, tracking where participants went and how they used the Internet, and afterwards, participants’ reflections were obtained through structured interviews. Most participants first visited the Google search engine to find information, or the Ontario curriculum document to check the grade level expectations. Participants conducted three or more Google searches on average, and government, commercial, teacher hosted, and organization sites were the most often visited. These sites were used to find more information on the selected lesson plan, generate ideas by seeing what lessons are available online, look for materials for the lesson, check curriculum expectations and/or, in a few instances, copy a lesson plan directly from a website. Many participants reported regularly preparing lessons in the observed manner.

Keywords: teachers and Internet use
lesson planning
Advisor: Willows, Dale
The Role of Democratic Family and School Environment in Urban and Rural Chinese Adolescents’ Attitudes about Children’s Rights and their Psychological Well-being

This study examined the significance of perceived parent and teacher support for autonomy and responsiveness, along with perceptions of democratic social organization, in the development of conceptions of children’s rights. Relations between these family and school environments and adolescents’ psychological well-being were also examined and a contrast between urban and rural settings within mainland China was included. Current findings suggest that Chinese adolescents display patterns of children’s rights attitudes similar to those found in Western settings. Different possible pathways of family and school environmental impact on children’s rights attitudes are found and explored. Current findings support psychological models that propose that the promotion of autonomy and responsiveness is critical to adolescents’ psychological well-being across cultures. Moreover, these findings provide strong evidence that features of democratic environments (e.g., mutual respect between parents and children, opportunities for children to express their opinions, shared decision making) are relevant to people in non-Western cultures.

Keywords: children's rights
social attitudes
parenting
school climate
culture
autonomy
psychological well-being
Advisor: Helwig, Charles C.
Educating for Citizenship in the English Secondary Classroom: A Case Study of Teacher Perspectives and Practice in Public and Islamic Schools in Ontario

This thesis explores the extent to which English curriculum, teachers’ literary choices, and a high demographic of Muslim students, influence the way English teachers educate for citizenship, in public and Islamic schools in Ontario. The three aspects this thesis examines are the following: how English teachers conceptualize citizenship education using informed, purposeful, and active citizenship learning expectations; in what ways their practice and literary choices enhance dimensions of citizenship education; and to what extent the English citizenship educator provides an inclusive space for Muslim perspectives. While the study shows that English teachers were successful at infusing purposeful citizenship, the study suggests that a more explicit link is needed in curriculum and in teacher practice, to inculcate informed and active citizenship outcomes in English. This study also implies, that teachers’ specific literary choices coupled with a citizenship education pedagogy, provides a more inclusive space for Muslim hybrid identities in English.

Keywords: Citizenship Education
Secondary English
Muslim Students
Inclusive Learning
Advisor: Cameron, Linda
Imagining Glace Bay: An Exploration of Family, History and Place

This is an inquiry that explores both then and now. Father and Daughter. Temporality and Geography. Within these pages stories are used to explore my family’s present and past; migration, settlement, memory, experience and connection to place – Glace Bay, a village on Cape Breton Island. Through narrative, poetry and photography, the contrasting experiences of having lived in Glace Bay in the past, and the struggle to connect with Glace Bay in the present, and future, are explored. Finally, within this manuscript I examine the impact of my father’s stories and I identify storytelling as an important factor in developing a critical consciousness. My father inspired my sense of social justice at a young age and the impetus for this project was not just to document his stories for the sake of posterity, but also to exemplify the way consciousness is cultivated and passed down; across generations, despite changing landscapes, through story.

Keywords: arts-informed methodology
Glace Bay
Cape Breton
life history
unions
labour movement
critical consciousness
social justice
poetic transcription
poetry
visual inquiry
photography
narrative
Advisor: Knowles, J. Gary
Cole, Ardra
Knowledge Mobilization at the World Bank: A Bibliometric Analysis of World Bank Publications on Public-private Partnerships in Education

This study examines the ways that knowledge on public-private partnerships in education (PPPE) spreads due to the knowledge mobilization (efforts to incorporate research into policy and practice in education) work of World Bank Education Sector. Specifically, this study looks at the role of the World Bank in research mediation between research producing contexts and research using contexts. Using bibliometric analysis this study a) traces the citations in five World Bank publications on PPPE in order to clarify the origins of the evidence used; and b) maps the spread of this research through its online take-up by other organizations. This study provides baseline data about the knowledge mobilization efforts of the World Bank around PPPE, and illuminates the broader discussion in the literature on who is included (and excluded) from this research enterprise.

Keywords: knowledge mobilization
World Bank
bibliometrics
public-private partnerships
Advisor: Levin, Ben
Dropping Out or Opting Out?: A Qualitative Study on how Young Men of Portuguese Ancestry in Toronto Perceive Masculinity and how this Informs Educational Attainment

Young men of Portuguese heritage in Toronto continue to demonstrate lower levels of educational attainment. American and Canadian research increasingly points to gender and masculinity to address boys’ academic underachievement, yet studies have not focused a gender lens on Portuguese male youth in Toronto to interrogate educational achievement. This qualitative exploratory study explores gender through constructions of masculinity to better understand young Portuguese-Canadian men and their choices concerning education. Through their narratives, participants revealed that masculinity does inform their attitudes and choices concerning education and school. Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and field are used to explore how masculinity and educational mobility generate considerable struggle and tension in participants’ lived experiences. This study ultimately surfaced more questions surrounding resistance to help-related educational resources, effects of educational mobility on ethnic identity and cultural cohesiveness, and how and when young men of Portuguese ancestry arrive at decisions to de-select education.

Keywords: Portuguese
Educational attainment
Educational de-selection
Masculinity
Boys' education
Academic underachievement
Portuguese-Canadian youth
Educational mobility
Gender relations
Determinants of academic achievement
Portuguese-Canadian boys
Boys' academic underachievement
Gender
Advisor: McCready, Lance T.
Opening the Jar: Autoethnographic Reflections on Teaching and Developing Resiliency

Utilizing autoethnographic reflections in the forms of lyric, collage, and personal narrative, this inquiry shows how one teacher developed resiliency. That teacher is me. My early teaching experiences in an Ontario high school provide a qualitative focus of an inner, emotional journey to regaining strength and rediscovering passion after a period of burn-out. Tracing the passage from idealism to defeatism to resilience through metaphors, this arts-informed inquiry represents the inner life of a young woman and teacher.

Keywords: autoethnography
mental wellness
resiliency
teachers
metaphor
arts-informed inquiry
Advisor: Knowles, J. Gary
Weight-based Stigma and Deficit Thinking about Obesity in Schools: How Neoliberal Conceptions of Obesity Are Contributing to Weight-based Stigma

This thesis examines weight-based stigma in schools, and examines body size as an issue of difference, subject to discrimination, from within a critical democratic framework. I raise a paradox when it comes to dealing with the issue of obesity; we don’t want to say that weight is within individual control, however, we don’t want to say obesity is outside individual control and nothing can be done to affect it. Neoliberal conceptions of obesity in Western countries are highly individualistic, and blame obese individuals for failing to adhere to social norms. This leads to deficit thinking about obese individuals, wherein a group of students are seen as inherently deficient. Turning to Freire’s conception of ethics, which calls for respect for all students, it becomes clear that conceiving of a group of students as inherently deficient is unethical. This then renders the neoliberal conception of obesity unethical. I then offer pedagogically and ethically sound alternatives to current practices.

Keywords: obesity
stigma
weight
size
deficit thinking
discrimination
Advisor: Portelli, John P.
Guilt, Shame and Model Minorities: How South Asian Youth in Toronto Navigate the Canadian Educational System

The present study examines issues that South Asian youth face as members of a model minority group. Using 14 semi-structured interviews, South Asian youth (aged 18-26) discussed issues they encountered as they navigated educational institutions in Canada. The study found that participants were not aware of the term model minority. Furthermore, participants received input, either directly or indirectly, from family and community members regarding their career choices. Lastly, participants experienced guilt and shame during decision-making processes, but ultimately chose their own path with [eventual] acceptance from parents. Results indicate that schools in the GTA are not attuned to the needs of South Asian students which often left students at a disadvantage when making future career and educational choices. There is a need for educators, administrators, and policymakers to develop more specialized programs toward helping South Asian youth navigate the Canadian educational institutions.

Keywords: South Asian
Education
Model Minority
Racism
Advisor: Coloma, Roland Sintos
Transformative Community Art: Re-visioning the Field of Practice

Community art is a multidisciplinary practice that was engendered by two main perspectives on art; a functionalist approach and an ‘art as essential to humanity’ approach. These differing ideological positions led to the construction of polarizing dichotomies that divided the field of practice and stagnated the community art discourse. This thesis re-visions community art as transformative community art (T.C.A.) to integrate a diverse range of practice into a distinct, recognizable field, transcend the binaries inherited from its founding fields, and identify the field as an innovative artistic movement and radical practice for social change. In this thesis T.C.A. is employed as a framework for theorizing practice. Threats to T.C.A. from funding structures, cooptation, and institutionalisation are explored and strategies of resistance identified. The concept of T.C.A. is mobilized to identify areas for future work; raising questions and ideas that can contribute to advancing a more complex, nuanced, and productive discourse.

Keywords: transformative
community art
Funding
Cooptation
Institutionalisation
Professionalisation
theoretical framework
integrative framework
community art theory
community art discourse
community art practice
community art as distinct discipline
community mural
community theatre
transformation
transformative community art
Clay and Paper Theatre
Clay & Paper Theatre
institutionalization
professionalization
Advisor: Simon, Roger I.
An Achievement Gap Revealed: A Mixed Method Research Investigation of Canadian-born English Language Learners

This study uses a mixed methods approach to investigate an achievement gap observed in the reading of Canadian-born students with a first language other than English. Quantitative analyses of large-scale reading assessment data identified characteristics of these students and showed a relationship between reading levels and students’ home language environments. This relationship was further explored using a case study approach based on interviews with students and parents. Interviews revealed the role that parental language learning can play in children’s reading. The study revealed the relative invisibility of Canadian-born English language learners, and the consequent difficulties educators have responding to their English language learning needs. School registration data was shown to be an inaccurate indication of students’ home language use. The study’s findings point to the need for policies that support the systematic identification of Canadian-born English language learners and a deeper understanding of the language learning needs of these students-at-risk.

Keywords: English language learner
achievement gap
Canadian-born
mixed method
reading
home language
L1 loss
Advisor: Jang, Eunice
Imagining India: The Nation as a Brand

This thesis critically analyzes the phenomenon of nation branding as a technique of neocolonial governmentality. The study focuses on Brand India - postcolonial India’s attempt to imagine the nation and its people through the discourse of branding. I argue that India’s nation branding exercise hollows out the postcolonial imagination so that the nation can now only be imagined through a language and within a framework ‘always-already’ constituted for the postcolony. This thesis builds on Michel Foucault’s analysis of governmentality and utilizes a postcolonial framework, to show that when the practice of nation branding is applied to a postcolonial nation, it works to reinscribe the colonial legacy and reaffirm colonial power relations

Keywords: Neocolonial governmentality
nation branding
Brand India
Advisor: Delhi, Kari
Dancing With Our Partners: An Exploration of Story and Resonance in the Literacy Environment

This thesis describes a study that was done with tutors and students in Frontier College’s Beat the Street: Literacy and Basic Skills program. Using a qualitative methodology, it focuses on stories of literacy, life and learning from tutors and students. The author’s own experiences, stories and reflections as a tutor are an important piece of the work. The thesis operates on and argues for the notion that people are made up of their stories, and that they interact with other people and the world through those stories. This research process revealed many ways in which tutor and student perceptions of literacy, learning, and each other were affected by their stories. It also revealed that in the overlaps between stories lies the potential for a moment of profound connection and learning the author describes as resonance. The thesis explores some of the ways resonance was perceived to enhance the literacy environment.

Keywords: story
stories
resonance
adult education
literacy
literacies
narrative
learning
Frontier College
youth
arts based learning
adult literacy
holistic learning
literacy tutors
critical pedagogy
Beat the Street
Advisor: Jackson, Nancy
Measuring Phonological Short-term Memory, apart from Lexical Knowledge

The current research examined whether nonword repetition (NWR) tasks, designed to measure phonological short-term memory, are also influenced by familiarity with lexical representation of a given language. In Study 1, children with and without exposure to Hebrew were administered a NWR task based on the Hebrew language structure (HNWR). On the HNWR, participants with Hebrew exposure significantly outperformed participants who had no familiarity with any Semitic language. This indicates that long-term phonological and lexical knowledge can be used to aid NWR performance. Study 2 investigated whether a NWR task based on a foreign language could minimize the lexicality effect. English speaking undergraduate students rated the less familiar HNWR task to be lower in wordlikeness than English-like NWR tasks. These findings demonstrate that regardless of language background a NWR task based on an unfamiliar language structure is a more valid measure of the phonological processing skills required for vocabulary acquisition.

Keywords: Phonological short-term memory
Repetition of nonwords
Cognitive development
Wordlikeness of nonwords
Advisor: Geva, Esther
Motivations and Experiences of Elected Governing Council Members

This qualitative study explores the motivations and experiences of individuals elected to serve on the Governing Council of the University of Toronto. Elected governors include alumni, students, staff and faculty. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted with 2 alumni governors, 2 student governors, and 2 staff/faculty governors. Interview questions helped to examine personal motivations behind serving in university governance, activities and duties of governors, self-perceptions of effectiveness and improvements to the experience of elected members. The responses were used to create interview summaries and discover common themes in the experiences of elected governors. Four theme areas emerged. They are (1) initial motivations, (2) learning and informal communication, (3) personal benefits, pride and positive experience, and (4) approach to governance. This study includes a discussion of the unique position of alumni governors and suggests improvements to the governor experience as recommended by the research participants.

Keywords: University
Governance
Elected
Governor
Student
Staff
Faculty
Alumni
Governing
Board
Council
Senate
Motivation
Experience
Trustee
Member
Advisor: Jones, Glen A.
Chambers, Tony
Creative Engagement Through the Arts as Health Care for Older People: Potential and Problems Provoked

Programs that use the arts to engage older people promote health, foster community, and give voice and legacy to participants. Creative practice in health care settings facilitates emotional, mental, and physical wellness for participants and staff, while improving the culture of care. Yet there is resistance to arts-in-medicine as a legitimate tool of health care. The predominant biomedical paradigm privileges quantitative assessment methods over qualitative studies which may accept anecdotal, arts-informed, or “common sense” evidence. Successful creative programs face challenges translating their benefits when evaluated inappropriately. This arts-informed inquiry uses creative writing to address multiple dimensions of knowing, integrating autoethnographical insights from work as a caregiver, artist, educator, and administrator of collaborative art. Serendipity and imagination in research were employed to explore how collaborating artists can facilitate creative engagement for elders, embodying preventative, community-based medicine to successfully address and transform myriad challenges and opportunities as the population continues to age.

Keywords: gerontology
aging
elders
creativity
art
arts
healing
health
wellness
well-being
learning
holistic
old
engagement
creative
artist
Advisor: Knowles, J. Gary
Cutting off the Homeless: Reexamining Social Housing Service and Activism in Ontario

The importance of housing has been discussed in several disciplines as a basic need, a fundamental human right, and a source of economic and social security; but the social housing system in Ontario has been downloaded from higher levels of government to municipalities with little to no increase in funding or program governance. In this thesis, I argue that the policies and programs that govern the social housing system in Ontario focus on a service provision perspective that maintains the status quo, particularly the stigma attached to social housing projects and homeless people. Using interviews with activists and a review of the literature, I suggest that activists have a role in changing the way this service-oriented perspective works by bringing forward the realities of homelessness in the public realm to alter social thought, agendas, and actions.

Keywords: social housing
activism
Ontario
social service
Advisor: Mirchandani, Kiran