Faculty of Education -- PhD Dissertations

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An Exploration of Early Reading Instruction: Listening to the Voices of Early Elementary Teachers in a Pandemic
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2022-09-11) Hollis, Heather
Children who do not learn to read by Grade 3 face increased barriers to achieving basic levels of literacy. The purpose of this dissertation was to determine how early elementary classroom teachers are instructing their students in reading and to identify supports they believed were necessary to help more students learn to read. This qualitative study, set in the midst of a global pandemic, involved focus groups and semi-structured individual interviews with 11 early elementary teachers from Atlantic Canada. The data was analyzed using constructivist grounded theory. Study findings indicated that half the teachers expressed low self-efficacy around the use of reading instruction that requires a systematic, explicit approach to teaching phonological and phonemic awareness. While the research demonstrates that this type of instruction is essential for some students and beneficial for most, studies have shown that not all teachers have the education or training necessary to teach using this approach. The participants in this study recommended that phonological and phonemic awareness, as well as the instructional methods necessary to teach these concepts, be offered both in pre-service teacher education and through on-going in-servicing. Participants described being flexible with their instructional methods, when necessary, to ensure student understanding. The results of this study will be beneficial to educators and policy makers as they illustrate some of the challenges early elementary teachers face when teaching early reading. Recommendations are also suggested for policy makers and schools of education to address these challenges.
Children’s Shared Understanding of Media Marketing
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2016) LeBlanc, Lyse Anne
Through an examination of the contextual relationship between theory of mind and media literacy, this exploratory research study contributes to the fields of both education and psychology, as well as the broader digital economy, in its production of knowledge about children’s understanding and for their well-being. “Children think differently from adults and there are qualitative differences in the way children of different ages understand the world around them” (Greig & Taylor, 1991, p. 31)—a world, today, that greatly encompasses media. In Western societies, where contemporary digital and electronic media forms and the marketing messages they disseminate are primary social and cultural influences, it is crucial that parents and educators have a solid understanding of children’s developmental ability to interpret and engage critically with media forms. Theory of mind is the ability to understand the mental states and intentions of others and ourselves (Premack & Woodruff, 1978; Doherty, 2009; Astington & Edward, 2010; Miller, 2012). If we consider that the development of a mature theory of mind enables individuals to explain, predict, and manage others’ behaviours and is considered to be an integral component for developing the ability to reason logically and abstractly (Frye & Moore, 1991), it seems both logical and plausible to consider it in relation to the necessary skills for thinking critically about media.
The Discursive Construction of ISIS Identity: A Critical Discourse Analytic Study of ISIS Textbooks
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2022) Kharbach, Mohamed
Over the last few years, ISIS terrorism has been the subject of a growing interdisciplinary scholarship, one that was disproportionately focused on the group‘s media discourse covering topics such as ISIS propaganda, its recruitment and communication strategies, the group’s use of digital technologies and social media, among others. However, unlike its media discourse, ISIS textbook discourse received scant research attention. The present study seeks to address this gap by shifting the analytic focus to the group’s curricular materials. The purpose was to explore the ‘pedagogic’ dimension of ISIS terrorism through the study of ISIS textbooks using an identitybased critical discourse analytic framework. To this end, five ISIS textbooks were analyzed. Analysis was conducted at two levels: the narrative level and the discursive level. Findings highlighted three main identity models embedded in ISIS textbook discourse: the collective identity model, the religious identity model, and the jihadi identity model. Drawing on the interpretative framework of social identity theory, these models were found to be at the core of a divisive social categorization process used the by the terrorist group to create an antagonistic and dichotomous worldview, one in which the Other is demonized and vilified. ISIS terrorism, this study concluded, is identity-based and draws on the canonical power of a highly religious curricular discourse to indoctrinate young learners and to manufacture future jihadist.
The Historical Formation of Adult Education Discourses in the Shift from Liberalism to Neoliberalism
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2019) MacPhail, Scott
This dissertation provides the theoretical under-labouring needed for adult education theorists to understand the ways in which adult education has become part of the ideological veil behind which capitalism maneuvers in our contemporary world. To understand the purpose of adult education in the regime of neoliberalism, this dissertation tracks its historical formation in a context of influential liberal discourses that were supportive of the development of capitalism. An in-depth review of key liberal philosophers provides adult education researchers with insights into how liberal theory moved from its roots as a critique of government to be a regime of justification for the growth of modern capitalism. Using Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, as a regional exemplar, the dissertation examines the shifting nature of adult education in response to shifting national and international liberal, capitalist, and, now, neoliberal discourses.
How Objects in Spaces Help People in Places: Material Object Interactions Affecting Adults’ Informal Learning: Arts-Informed Research using Sculptural Mobile Forms
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2020) Mason, Stephanie M.
This work is a wide-ranging exploration into the ways adults can be supported to learn informally through material object interactions in public places. In keeping with my methodological lens of arts-informed research, I use a mobile kinetic sculpture to represent entwined strands of thought relating to adults’ informal learning, material object composition, and places’ spatial and historical changes. The design consisted of qualitative interviews and a focus group, in addition to creatively-inspired hand-drawn maps and crafted models, to gather insights from 6 adult participants with lived experiences of 4 public place sites in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The resulting collection of voices, impressions, and images revealed 3 themes–time, tensions, and change–showing attitudes and awarenesses about adults’ informal learning understandings, material objects’ literal and symbolic associations, and public places’ learning opportunities. Enquiry elements proved deceptively complex, revealing that Halifax’s public places are rarely visited for learning purposes, that people value public places reflecting broad social concerns and changes over time, and that visually stimulating displays and features may prompt public place informal learning. Major findings show that • adults rarely connect learning with material object interactions, and generally do not expect to learn in public places, yet are not resistant to these learning possibilities; • public places’ ongoing evident and hidden changes permit balanced tensions that allow different learners’ needs to be accommodated in shared space; • adults who are assisted in imagining places’ size and historical reach through activities like walking or artistic representations are better equipped to recognize materialities connected to buried narratives fostering expanded knowledges; and, • arts-informed research fits this enquiry because entangled ideas are celebrated and because the mobile form permits layers of meaning-making in representing findings, demonstrating research process, and affording adults’ informal learning as itself a material object for interaction. Constructivist positionalities, ecological and new materialisms theories, and stylistic influences from postmodernism and feminisms fashion this writing, producing a bricolage of effects and wayfinding and discovery mirrored in textual author intrusions and literary vignettes. This work adds to knowledge about adults’ informal learning made possible in everyday spaces, and is methodologically significant as a model of interconnected research practice and artful forms. Plus: cats.
The Interrelationship amongst Depression, Loneliness, Self-Regulation, and Academic Achievement in Canadian and International Students
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2020) Shahidi, Mehrdad
Background: The number of international students in Western universities was estimated to be 7.2 million (CBIE, 2017, 2018) or 8 million in 2025 (Quacquarelli Symonds, 2020). In Canada, this number was 642,480 on December 31, 2019 indicating a 13% increase over 2018 (CBIE, 2020a). This unique historical trend in most Western higher educational systems has engaged researchers’ attention locally and globally. Although, few studies were recently focused on the different economical, educational, and psychological aspects of international students in Canada (Smith, 2016; Sondhi, 2014) or in the other Western countries (Migration Advisory Committee, 2019; Muller & Daller, 2019; Poyrazli, 2015), the literature review revealed that there are several disparities or gaps among those studies that have particularly focused on depression, loneliness, self-regulation, and academic achievement in international and local students in Western countries. Some of these gaps include the lack of replication, ignoring the direct and mediating roles of the above-noted factors in academic achievement, and the lack of comparative studies to explore differences/similarities in International and Canadian students. Also, previous studies were not focused on the interrelationships between and the predictive roles of depression, loneliness, and cognitive regulation in educational performance. Moreover, they had scant attention to the impact of university influencers, involvement, and social connectedness on academic function in relation to above-noted psychological factors. Purpose of Study: To reduce some of these disparities among the literature, the research questions revolved around the predictability of academic achievement through university influencers, academic involvement, social connectedness, depression, loneliness, and self- 2 regulation. In addition to exploring path models to explain academic achievement, the differences and similarities between International and Canadian samples were examined. Method: Based on statistical methods (Meyers, Gamst, & Guarino, 2006; Krejcie & Morgan, 1970), 427 Canadian and International students aged 19 to 37 years old attending MSVU participated in this study and completed five questionnaires/scales. These questionnaires include the Research (Demographic) Questionnaire, Kutcher Adolescent Depression Scale - 11, R-UCLA Loneliness Scale, Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), and Academic Self-Report Questionnaire. Multiple regression, ANOVA, MANOVA, path analysis, and some other parametric and non-parametric statistical procedures were used to answer the research questions. Results: The research revealed several findings such as higher levels of loneliness, adaptive self-regulation, connectedness to faculty, and involvement in social activities in International samples. As well, lower levels of academic achievement in International samples and some other differences were found. Loneliness, depression, social connectedness, and university involvement could predict between 20% and 28% of variability of academic achievement in both groups of samples. Path analysis showed an appropriate model to explain depression as a significant mediating factor in academic achievement. Implication: Several recommendations and implications for mental health practitioners, educators, educational policy makers, and future researchers were discussed.
“It Just Happened”: How Motherwork is Learned and Experienced by Canadian Stepmothers in an Online Support Group
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2018) Careless, Erin Jennifer
This doctoral dissertation study explores the ways in which Canadian stepmothers learn and experience “motherwork” through the negotiation of their role and their participation in an online support group. Life history interviews informed by literature around adult learning, motherwork, and stepmothering pointed to several sites and processes of learning and the factors impacting this learning which is explored as a digital community of practice. The public and private negotiation of motherwork as informed by traditional gender roles, and the Western ideology of mothering has a significant impact on role negotiation for stepmothers – women who are involved in the care of children not biologically their own. The goals of this study are to explore the experience of stepmothering from an adult learning perspective, to question and challenge the impact of traditional gender roles and mothering ideology for diverse families, and to explore the role of modern technologies (online support groups in particular) on the negotiation of traditional caring roles for stepmothers in Canada. This study expands the literature around adult learning, motherwork, stepmothering, and digital communities of practice.
Learning to Lead in Health Care: A Narrative Inquiry of Physician Leadership
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2018) Jolemore, Shawn
Active physician leadership within health care organizations can shape the way health care is delivered and contribute to improving and strengthening the system. Yet physicians often struggle to be effective in organizational leadership positions due to lack of leadership experience and the preparation that helps develop requisite competencies and skills. Informed by a qualitative narrative approach, this doctoral study explores the question of how physicians who transition into formal leadership positions learn to lead. Twelve physician leaders based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, were interviewed to gain their perspective on this particular adult learning experience. Categorical content analysis was applied in a multi-stage coding process that yielded four main themes: professional identity, organizational culture, workplace context, and leadership learning, along with relevant sub-themes. Communities of practice, organizational learning and transformative learning theories served as a theoretical framework to inform the analysis. Findings illustrate that the reality of formal physician leadership in health care organizations is ill-matched to the core values and professional identities of doctors. Physicians move along a path through a social learning landscape, negotiating a sense of identity that spans multimembership in different practice communities. For some, the product of this cross-boundary learning is the creation of a superordinate leader identity. For others, it seems to be the understanding and appreciation of a dual identity — physician and leader — the relative importance and weight of each varying over time and context This study emphasizes that physician leadership development can be enhanced by attending more explicitly to how people learn and, concomitantly, supports the assertion that adult education theories and practices can make a significant and valuable contribution to enhance leadership development in medical contexts.
“Live and Let Learn” Student Perceptions of Educational Stratification: An Arts-informed, Narrative Inquiry
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2024-07) Greenough, Jacqueline A.
This inquiry offers adult students an opportunity to story their childhood experiences within urban public schools in Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) to seek a greater understanding of how student identities are shaped through participation in public education. An ontology of critical pedagogy and an epistemology of anti-oppressive/strengths-based discourse is used to co-construct researcher and participant accounts of school story. Creativity and depth of conversation is invited through usage of arts-informed, narrative methodologies to inform person-centred dialogue; with collage making serving as the introductory method to open researcher and participant exchange. Space is given to enable the participant articulation of their story pictorially, thus unconventionally. The purpose of this inquiry is to glean insight into the personal impact of school-based oppression (named in this study as educational stratification) from the perspective of the student participant. This study likewise serves to facilitate and demonstrate anti-oppressive possibilities to research, learning, and relating in spheres of research, pedagogy, and beyond. Most importantly, student voice is invited to inform and possibly reform education practices.
A Lunenburg County Settler’s Account of Her Role and Responsibility in Decolonization
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2022-03-10) Knickle, Margaret J. A.
The goal of this study was to contribute to decolonization through an examination of a settler's recent decolonizing initiatives. This study examines the role of the author and her responsibility in decolonization, truth and reconciliation, and ways to practise Indigenous allyship authentically. The focus of this study is on the Mi'kmaw Peoples of Atlantic Canada and their traditional Mi'kmaw territory known as Mi'kma'ki. The work for this thesis involved particular attention to Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, Canada, where the author and her family have lived since European settlers arrived in 1753. The project required the personal exploration of the biases and prejudices of the author that stemmed from her upbringing, which the European Canadian white supremacist patriarchal colonial ideology heavily influenced. An additional feature was an examination of the mechanisms that supported the invention of the settler identity, such as myths and stereotypes and the erasure of the Mi'kmaw’s longstanding existence in Lunenburg County. Another aspect of this dissertation is the documentation of the Mahone Bay Museum's decolonizing initiatives and what the author learned as a volunteer on the museum's decolonizing committee. During the short time of working together, the committee was able to highlight the plethora of Mi'kmaw history in Lunenburg County. Honouring the Mi'kmaw perspective of local history is an essential piece of this work because it disrupts and challenges local colonial discourse. This Mi'kmaw-settler way of understanding shared history also supports the transformation of personal, local/community, regional, and decolonial initiatives. The crux of this study lies in following an Indigenous research paradigm that emphasizes a holistic learning process and the importance of emotional learning, a perspective that traditional western objective approaches to research generally overshadow. An Indigenous research paradigm also held the author and all aspects of this work accountable to Indigenous ways of knowing. The types of Indigenous methodology that guided this study included practising relationships from an Indigenous perspective and incorporating Jo-ann Archibald's Storywork Principles to build and maintain Indigenous-Settler relationships, to name a few.Part of this work was an examination of the relationship between the European colonialization of Canada, the colonial narrative and settler identity, on the one hand, and their juxtaposition with white supremacy and racism, and how these discriminatory norms continue to play out across every aspect of Canadian society today, on the other. Integral to understanding these contemporary connections is also the role and responsibility of the author in combattingracism today. Lastly, the author believes this work can facilitate strengthened peace and friendly relations between the Mi'kmaq and settlers as well as promote their shared responsibility to represent the history of Canada in a way that supports reconciliation. The intention is the development of transformative education that produces constructive social change and applies to other educational institutions, such as public schools and universities.

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