VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Ethical Transformative Leadership of Mid-level District Leaders in Ontario Working to Advance Educational Equity

Today, the advancement of equity dominates the reform and policy agenda of educational jurisdictions around the world. School districts are thus charged with advancing educational equity. In the United States, as in some Canadian provinces, school district staff report to a chief executive officer who is referred to as the “superintendent.” However, in publicly-funded districts in the province of Ontario, with the exception of small districts, groups of “superintendents” report to the director of education who occupies the role of chief executive officer in their district. In Ontario, the term “superintendents” therefore refers to mid-level district leaders. The extant American and Canadian literature and current Ontario professional standards, provincial education policy and leadership frameworks, and professional associations offer little guidance to mid-level district leaders on how to advance equity. In recognizing how educational leaders are struggling to advance equity, Dr. Carolyn Shields (2003, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2017) positioned her theory of ethical transformative leadership as being more conducive to the advancement of equity than transformational leadership theory which has dominated the field of educational leadership and educational reform efforts since the 1990s. Shields has conducted two studies of ethical transformative American superintendents working to advance equity, but no research has been conducted to explore the utility of her theory in relation to mid-level district leaders or how they work to advance equity. In response to these gaps in the literature, the purpose of this qualitative project was to study how eleven ethical transformative Ontario superintendents, identified by reputation and drawn across seven districts, work to advance equity by exploring their adherence to Shields’ theory and their praxis. Qualitative interview data suggested that participants adhered to ethical principles and lenses and transformative leadership principles inherent in Shields’ theory. Findings also identified that participants enacted praxis to advance equity in their districts which can be categorized into six areas of practice. This study forms the beginning of a knowledge base on ethical transformative Ontario superintendents and how they work to advance educational equity. It concludes with a discussion of implications and recommendations related to professional standards, policy, practice, theory and research.

Keywords: district leadership
educational equity
ethical transformative leadership
leadership frameworks
mid-level district leaders
social justice
Advisor: Campbell, Carol
Internationalization of Higher Education and Imported Universities in Post-conflict Iraq through a Policy Borrowing Lens

The U.S.-led invasion in 2003 has created opportunities for Iraq to reconnect with the international academic community, adopt some internationalization activities and establish American-style universities. Drawing on policy borrowing and educational transfer theory, this study examines how internationalization and the American-style university are rationalized, appropriated, or resisted, by various actors at national, sectoral, and institutional levels. I used a vertical case study research design with interviews as the primary method of data collection. The findings suggest that various stakeholders in Iraqi higher education have rationalized internationalization activities, such as twinning programs and international university partnerships, differently. While the Iraqi government was motivated by an economic rationale to develop urgently needed manpower to participate in the economic and social development of the post-2003 democratic Iraq, the Ministry of Higher Education and some of the universities’ administrators framed the rationales around rebuilding the reputation of higher education institutions. At the institutional level, the rationales centered around finding a better alternative to the local system that seems resistant to change, bringing in financial aid, and the potential for revenue generation. The findings suggest that the primary framing used by various external and internal actors to justify adopting internationalization activities is the conceptualization of Iraq as a cradle of civilization that has collapsed, and desires help from the international community to reform its higher education institutions. The founders’ rationales for establishing American-style universities in post-conflict Iraq include peace and social cohesion, reviving the history of excellence and greatness of Iraq, and revolutionizing public higher education. While the American-style university model promises an environment for cultural tolerance and unity and encourages positive social change, the findings show that the chaotic transition to democracy in Iraq has yet to provide a safe environment for the university to fully realize its social and political agendas. Lack of financial support could make these universities more isolated rather than fully engaged in shaping Iraq’s new society. In the conclusion, I critique internationalization that occurs without regard for Iraq's specific contextual factors and suggests the establishment of a policy sector that could guide educational change for Iraq.

Keywords: American Liberal Arts University Model
Imported Universities
Internationalization of higher education
Iraq
Policy Borrowing
Post-conflict society
Advisor: Hayhoe, Ruth RH
Rocks Will Melt With the Sun: Higher Education, National Identity and the Independence Debate in Scotland

Higher education has become connected to the political debate around independence in Scotland, playing a significant role in both regular elections for the Scottish Parliament and in the debate around the 2014 Independence Referendum. Using the nationalism-social policy nexus as a framework for analysis, this thesis explores how contemporary higher education policy has been deliberately connected to a historical conception of a distinct tradition of higher education in Scotland to position nationalist political actors as the protectors of Scotland’s political values and identity, and independence as the only way to ensure the continuity of these values in the face of England’s differing approach to higher education and social service provision. Using document review, a content analysis, key informant interviews and several international comparative case studies, this dissertation validates the existence of a belief in a distinct Scottish tradition, and how appeals to that tradition can be motivating in certain political contexts, such as normal parliamentary elections. It also find that the nationalism-social policy nexus helps explain both the sharp policy divergence, particularly on tuition fees, between Scotland and the United Kingdom, and why higher education came to play a role in the 2014 Independence debate. Interestingly, higher education was deployed by both the “Yes” and “No” campaigns to support their respective arguments. This fact enriches our understanding of the nexus, in that it is effective in explaining why a nationalist sub-state government may make certain policy choices, but is unable to predict whether these choices become politically motivating for voters. The dissertation furthers our understanding of the relationship between higher education and the state, notably how political forces such as sub-state nationalism drive policymaking in postsecondary education systems. State power is often theorized as unitary, where one central political authority exerts influence on higher education institutions to further specific nation-building or ideological goals. The case of Scotland suggests that higher education policy is not only driven by what is useful to the state, but also by those who seek to re-negotiate or dismantle it.

Keywords: Higher Education
Independence Referendum
Nationalism
Scotland
Social Policy
Tuition fees
Advisor: Jones, Glen A.
Retinal Stem Cells: Expansion and Progeny Characterization

Growing retinal stem cell (RSC) clonal spheres in traditional static culture is associated with low expansion rate and poor survival attributed to loss of cells during the enzymatic dissociation steps. Another problematic issue is the difficulty to mimic in vivo stem cell niche conditions. Using our traditional lab protocol, only 0.2% of the pigmented ciliary epithelium cells (CE) give rise to floating RSC clonal spheres in serum free conditions. These issues have hindered our ability to study the signaling pathways governing RSC proliferation and expansion in vitro. To overcome these limitations, I used microcarriers (MCs) in a suspension stirring bioreactor (SSB) to help achieve sufficient numbers suitable for differentiation and transplantation. Using this new protocol, I achieved a significant (10-fold) enrichment of RSC yield compared to conventional static culture techniques using a combination of FACTIII MCs and relative hypoxia (5%) inside the bioreactor. My work showed that hypoxia (5% O2) was associated with better RSC expansion across all platforms which was attributed to hypoxia-induced boosting survival and/or symmetric division of stem cells. RSC spheres were thought to be unvaried and were randomly picked and placed on laminin extracellular matrix (ECM) in static plates. In my work, I found noticeable variance in the pigment distribution between RSC spheres which led me to categorize them into three different groups according to their pigmentation, I also noted that this variance in pigment level and distribution was associated with contrasting differentiation potentials. RSCs were classified into three morphological groups: heavily pigmented (HP), lightly pigmented (LP) and centrally pigmented (CP) spheres. Unlike the other two sphere types, CP spheres were capable of producing highly proliferative progenitors (producing large number of cobblestone-like cell lawns) in adherent culture that differentiate into retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells. I found that the individual stem cells that (clonally) formed the three sphere types appear homogeneous, but it is their downstream progenitors that are different. I showed that CP spheres contain a population of early RPE progenitors that respond to proliferative signals from the surrounding non-pigmented neural retinal cells while The HP and LP spheres do not respond to these signals.

Keywords: Bioreactors
Microcarriers
Retinal degeneration
Retinal stem cells
Stem cells
Vision
Advisor: van der kooy, Derek
Casual Crossings: The Muslim Attendance of Coptic Spaces in Provincial Egypt

This dissertation examines overlapping ethics, traditions and histories at four Coptic sites frequented by Muslims in the provincial Egyptian city of Beni Suef. Despite operating beneath the weight of a narrative of worsening sectarian relations, these sites, like many others in Egypt, reveal patterns of casual and confident interfaith crossing. Based on years of participant observation, interviews and institutional archives, this dissertation argues that these crossing practices relied on the ubiquity of practical ethical judgement in people’s everyday lives. At the same time, this dissertation illustrates how powerful traditions and institutions can also be marked by fluidity, flexibility and pragmatism. Critiquing the great explanatory power some anthropologists have granted to formal concepts (such as secularism), this dissertation employs historicism to better elucidate the social and political contexts of a particular place in time. When people at these sites of crossing did express feelings of doubt, failure or anxiety, it was almost always related to historically-situated socioeconomic and political pressures. Hence, while interactions at these interfaith sites usually did not hinge on religious difference, they provide a compelling lens into how provincial Egyptians have experienced neoliberalism, colonialism, the religious revivals, globalization, secularism, and the state in their everyday lives. In turn, this project reveals how these complex historical processes have shaped “Muslim-Christian relations” in Egypt.

Advisor: Mittermaier, Amira
The Role of the State in the Problem of Intra-group Vulnerability: Addressing Polygamy and Forced Marriage Practices in Minority Communities

This thesis examines the intra-group vulnerability of minority women subject to polygamy and forced marriage practices. The thesis focuses on these vulnerabilities in the context of the Bedouin-Arabs in Israel, and explores two questions: 1) should the liberal state address concerns about the oppressive potential of minority cultures’ practices for women? And, 2) if so, what approach should be taken to this end, and how should this approach inform state laws?Critical work discussing liberal multiculturalism has generated different proposals for addressing intra-group vulnerability concerns. But if we attempt to practically implement these proposals, we find that the proposed solutions come down to a binary choice between heavy-handed interventionism and a laissez-faire approach. Looking into actual cases of intra-group vulnerability to critically reflect on this theoretical scholarship reveals that the scholarship suffers from a striking gap in its proposed solutions – it overlooks the state’s role in creating and perpetuating the problem. This oversight can explain the tendency of scholars to fall into this binary. Viewing the state as a bystander restricts these scholars to ‘response strategies,’ either intervening against other community members, or holding back from acting at all. Investigating the vulnerability of Bedouin women to oppressive marriage arrangements highlights how the state could be implicated in this problem on different levels. This investigation illustrates how Israel’s policy of pushing the Bedouin out of their lands has reinforced this vulnerability. It further elucidates how Israel’s legal treatment of these practices has been significant in perpetuating this vulnerability. Finally, it reveals how discriminatory accessibility barriers to public resources, including family courts, welfare assistance, and protection against domestic violence, have made it harder for Bedouin women to resist and break away from oppressive marriage arrangements. This investigation also allows us to see why recognizing the (partial) responsibility of the state for this problem provides the key to escaping the laissez-faire/heavy-handed interventionism binary. Most significantly, it indicates how removing barriers impairing minority women’s access to various public resources can open up paths for these women to leave and resist unfavourable aspects of their community life, without forcing them to exit their community altogether.

Advisor: Réaume, Denise
Association Between Early Life Exposure to Phthalates and Organophosphate Esters and the Development of Childhood Asthma and Wheeze

Asthma is the most common chronic disease among children. Children spend most of their early life indoors, exposed to chemicals used in consumer and building products, which may present a risk to asthma development, including phthalates, used as plasticizers, and organophosphate esters (OPEs), used as flame retardants and plasticizers. Few epidemiological studies have examined early life exposure to these chemicals and the development of childhood asthma, as well as the interplay with genetics, which was examined by this dissertation using data from the Canadian CHILD Cohort Study. Using urine samples from 1,578 children collected across early life and 726 house dust samples collected at 3-4 months, I found that Canadian children have ubiquitous early life exposure to phthalates and OPEs. I found higher phthalate metabolite concentrations among children in lower income families. OPE concentrations were higher in dust collected here compared to other studies, possibly due to sampling of the child’s sleeping environment that contains sources of OPEs and phthalates. Using a case-cohort study, I examined the association between early life exposure to phthalates and OPEs, measured in house dust samples collected at 3-4 months, and the development of asthma at 5 years and recurrent wheeze between 2 to 5 years. I found a four-fold increased risk of asthma associated with the highest concentration quartile of di(2-ethyl-hexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and a two-fold increased risk of recurrent wheeze across all quartiles of DEHP compared to the lowest quartile. For OPEs, I observed a two to four-fold increased risk of asthma diagnosis across quartiles of tris(2-butoxyethyl) phosphate exposure compared to the lowest quartile. Using a Genetic Risk Score (GRS) combining multiple genetic loci, I examined whether genetics modifies the association between early life phthalate exposure and the risk of childhood asthma and recurrent wheeze. The GRS did not modify the association with childhood asthma or recurrent wheeze. These results highlight the need to reduce exposure to phthalates and OPEs during early life, especially the first year of life, and the importance of exposures among low-income populations and within the sleeping microenvironment.

Keywords: Asthma
Children
House dust
Organophosphate esters
Phthalates
Wheeze
Advisor: Brook, Jeffrey R.
Diamond, Miriam L.
The Sustainment and Sustainability of Quality Improvement Initiatives for the Health Care of Older Adults

Quality Improvement (QI) is increasingly viewed as the vehicle of choice by health care organizations seeking to respond to the changing health care needs of an aging population while making efficient use of limited resources. However, evidence suggests that 40% to 60% of QI initiatives fail to achieve lasting improvements. Despite the potential waste this statistic represents, we have a limited understanding of factors which promote a QI intervention’s continued use in practice (sustainment) and the maintenance of its benefits (sustainability). Moreover, existing research has largely focused on large academic institutions in urban centres. As such, recommendations derived from these studies may not be appropriate for less-resourced, rural, or remote settings, where adaptations—planned changes to the intervention—may be needed to ensure its survival. The impact of such adaptations on QI sustainment or sustainability has not been studied. This thesis draws from a scoping review and subsequent artificial neural network analysis of empirical studies of the sustainment and sustainability of QI interventions for the health care of older adults to identify contextual, intervention and implementation factors which predict sustainment and sustainability. This model significantly predicted sustainability, but not sustainment. Omission of organization type, intervention target, or reported adaptations resulted in a significant loss of predictive power. To further investigate this result, I conducted a comparative case study to examine how the dynamic interaction between adaptations and organizational context impacts sustainment and sustainability. By comparing 3-year trajectories for elder care QI interventions implemented through participation in a quality improvement collaborative in a 375-bed academic hospital and a 56-bed remote hospital 2500 km away from its nearest referral centre, I found evidence that ongoing adaptations which are responsive to changes in organizational or environmental context (e.g. patient needs, government and local health authority supports) promote sustainment. In addition, adaptations that promote sustainment and are consistent with the core functions of a QI intervention contribute to the sustainability of QI. To close, I offer a new framework informed by organizational learning theory which will help contextualize adaptations’ impact on the people, tasks and/or tools of an intervention and its long-term sustainment and sustainability.

Keywords: Implementation science
Older adult
Quality improvement
Sustainability
Advisor: Berta, Whitney
Sinha, Samir K
Identifying Novel Therapies to Reduce Injury following Ischemia Reperfusion in Kidney

Renal ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) is associated with early inflammation, including neutrophil infiltration, that exacerbates the initial ischemic insult. The molecular pathways involved in these responses are poorly characterized and there is no treatment targeting these early events. We first performed a proteomic analysis of porcine kidneys biopsies collected during transplantation to identify early changes in protein expression following IRI. Systems biology analysis identified animportant role of inflammation, specifically pathways converging on NFκB. Normothermic exvivo kidney perfusion of kidneys during transplantation attenuated inflammation. Based on these findings, we then performed an in silico analysis and confirmed marked changes in NFκB-mediated gene expression in early renal IRI. We then evaluated the effect of NFκB-blockade with a BRD4 inhibitor on neutrophil adhesion to endothelial cells in vitro prior to testing the effect of BRD4 inhibition in an in vivo murine IRI model. BRD4 inhibition attenuated TNFα-induced and hypoxia re-oxygenation-induced neutrophil capture and adhesion to endothelial cells in vitro, and improved cell viability following hypoxia re-oxygenation. In vivo, IRI led to increased expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and adhesion molecules at 6 hours post-IRI with sustained upregulated expression up to 48 hours post-IRI. These effects were attenuated, in part, by pretreatment with the BRD4 inhibitor. Flow cytometry analysis showed absolute neutrophil counts increased significantly in the bone marrow, blood, and kidney 24 hours post-IRI. Activated neutrophils also increased in the blood and kidney as early as 6 hours post-IRI and remained elevated at 24 and 48 hours-post IR. BRD4 inhibition reduced both total and activated neutrophil counts in the kidney. IR-induced tubular injury correlated with the neutrophil infiltration and was reduced by BRD4 inhibition. In summary, NFκB signaling is the primary pathway upregulated following SCS, and targeting NFκB with a BRD4 inhibitor reduces neutrophil infiltration, neutrophil activation, and tubular cell injury in kidneys subjected to IRI. BRD4 inhibition may represent a new therapeutic approach to the management of acute kidney injury.

Keywords: Acute Kidney Injury
BRD4
Ischemia Reperfusion Injury
NEVKP
NF kappaB
Advisor: Scholey, James W.