MSVU e-Commons

The MSVU e-Commons is the institutional repository for Mount Saint Vincent University. It allows MSVU faculty, students, and staff to store their scholarly output, including theses and dissertations. Works in the e-Commons have permanent URLs and trustworthy identifiers, and are discoverable via Google Scholar, giving your work a potential local and global audience.


In addition to free storage, the e-Commons provides Mount scholars with an open access platform for disseminating their research. Depositing your work in the e-Commons complies with the requirements for open access publication of work supported by Tri-Agency funding (CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC).


If you would like to deposit your work in the e-Commons, or you have any questions about institutional repositories, copyright, or open scholarship, please contact the MSVU Library & Archives.


 

Communities in DSpace

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Recent Submissions

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Making Competence Visible: The Relationship Between Educators’ Image of the Infant and Their Empowerment of Young Children as Active Decision Makers
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2022) Ahearn, Krista
I have been working as an Early Childhood Educator for the past fourteen years, the last twelve of which I have practiced emergent curriculum and Reggio-inspired philosophy. For most of this time I have worked with infants and young toddlers, from 4 months to 2 years of age, and have come to understand just how capable and competent these young explorers are. It seems to me that because babies are generally pre-verbal or have limited verbal language abilities, they are often viewed by adults as less aware, less intelligent, and less capable of independent thought and inquiry than older children. However, my observations of and interactions with infants, and the in-depth relationships I have built with so many of them over time, have given me a much different image of the diverse ways babies learn and develop. Infants have many ways of expressing their thoughts, emotions, ideas, interests, needs, wants, and so much more. I believe that they are born ready to communicate and connect with others through vocalizations, gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, sign language, and many other methods. In turn, babies require adults to “listen” with so much more than just their ears. By reflecting on my own experience and observing other educators, I have come to recognize the power adults can have in either supporting or stifling infants’ self-perceptions and their ability to actively learn from their environments and the people within them. At its core, my professional philosophy centres on the belief that infants, like all children, deserve adults’ respect, trust, and support in realizing their full potential as competent, active learners. They have the right to be seen, heard, and included in their classrooms, schools, and communities. For young children to be active participants in their lives, they need to be allowed to make decisions for themselves related to their own well-being, fulfillment, and the ways they want and deserve to be treated by others. It is up to the adults in their lives to support their desire to make choices, experiment with options, evaluate outcomes, and reflect on future possibilities. Educators can act as guides and partners in exploration with infants by getting to know them and their ways of communicating, and providing as many developmentally appropriate opportunities for autonomy and decision making as possible. By doing so, teachers not only become an advocate for the children in their care, but also help infants to find and project their own voices, and share these with others.
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By the People, For the People or Of the People: Influences Shaping the Social Licence Discourse of Hydraulic Fracturing in New Brunswick
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2022-12-20) Somerville, Sheri
The Narratives and Networks (N&N) Model of the Social Licence (Boutilier, 2020) is a new model proposed by R.G. Boutilier in 2020, which may have the potential to create more understanding about social licence (SL), its presence or absence, and how its complexities are navigated and negotiated among various discourse participants. This thesis illustrates the use of the N&N model by applying a qualitative Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) methodology to a case study (the New Brunswick hydraulic fracturing controversy occurring between 2012 and 2017) to assess the model’s usefulness for understanding the presence or absence of a social licence and its practical implications for communications professionals. First, this thesis reviews available scholarship identifying factors that contribute to the influence and establishment of a SL, including: its definition, the rise of activism and engagement, influences on opinion formation, and associated political dimensions. Next, it provides a review of previous SL models, the N&N model, and the theoretical basis for using CDA as the research method. This is the first trial of the model using such a methodology and the hydraulic fracturing controversy in New Brunswick. While several areas for additional research are uncovered, the results reveal the N&N model accomplishes the intended purpose. It provides a deeper understanding of the dominant discourses, the networks and actors influencing those discourses, emerging themes and strategies, the presence or absence of a SL, and the obstacles or facilitators used to constrain or support the capacity to conduct the activity. This research reinforces the importance for narratives to be present in the public sphere, but concludes by encouraging more research investigating the capacity to achieve SL if you are not part of the public sphere.
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Disability Construction Among Early Childhood Educators in Nova Scotia
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2022-10-07) Alarcón, Rafaela Muriel
Traditionally, disability has been viewed through the medical model, which views disability predominantly through an individual’s medical signifiers. The medical model in the context of education continues to construct disability as something to be fixed and remediated. However, this study proposes static medicalized constructions on disability need to be disrupted with attendance to the wider dimensions of experience, including disability as a viable identity marker in the lives of young children. The aim of this study was to explore Nova Scotia early childhood educators’ (ECEs) knowledge and perspectives on how inclusion is delivered, including how ECEs construct disability in their everyday practice. Focus groups were mobilized as the research method to gain new understandings on the ECEs beliefs and philosophies as they relate to disability and inclusive approaches. The ECEs shared their perspectives on disability and inclusion within their daily practice and their inclusive training. During the focus groups, the ECEs discussed how language was a powerful mitigating factor and that the phrases and terms ECEs use often inform how a young child experiences inclusion. The ECEs also acknowledge that delivery of inclusion is complex and that an ECEs own histories and education impact inclusive pedagogy. The ECEs also expressed the barriers that families can experience in relation to accessible programming and the requirement for more training to support young children and their families in their centers.
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Turning the Dial: A Quantitative Discourse Analysis to Study the Opportunities and Limitations for Women in Podcasting
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2022) Venas, Kate
This graduate research project was conducted to survey the opportunities, constraints, and limitations for women participating in podcasting, while querying the historical opportunities and limitations available to women involved in radio. Are the opportunities for women in podcasting in juxtaposition or in tandem to the history of gender in radio? To identify these queries, a thematic discourse analysis was conducted with the texts of the 2017 Werk It Women’s Podcast Festival, supported by an overview of the current state of the relationship between gender and podcasting. Seven themes were subsequently identified and interpreted based on the gendered history of radio, the present and future of podcasting, and my own experiences working as a young woman in commercial radio.
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The Acute Effect of a Pizza Meal with Partial or Complete Replacement of All-Purpose Wheat Flour with Lentil Flour of Similar Particle Size on Postprandial Blood Glucose, Subjective Appetite, and Food Intake in Healthy Young Adults
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2022-12) Thamotharampillai, Gowshigga
Lentil consumption has been associated with a lower glycemic response. Previous in vitro study has shown that the larger the particle size of lentil flour, the less glucose is produced in the process mimicking the digestion in the gastrointestinal tract (Kathirvel et al., 2019). With the limited information reported on particle size in studies comparing various food flours and powders, it was unknown whether the differences detected in metabolic responses were determined by a difference in particle size, or composition, or both. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of a pizza meal formulated with either lentil flour or wheat flour of similar particle size or their combination on postprandial blood glucose, subjective appetite, physical comfort and food intake. We hypothesized that the partial or complete replacement of wheat flour with processed lentil flour of similar particle size in a formulated pizza would result in lower blood glucose and subjective appetite due to a higher content of resistant carbohydrates and protein in lentil flour compared to wheat flour.