Faculty of Education -- Graduate Theses

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10587/592

Graduate theses completed in the department of Education as part of:

Master of Education (Concentrations in: Lifelong Learning, Curriculum Studies, Educational Foundations, Educational Psychology, Elementary and Middle School Education, Literacy Education, School Psychology)
Master of Arts in Education (Research)
Master of Arts in Education
Master of Arts in School Psychology

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Now showing 1 - 5 of 318

Mainstreaming Gender Equality into Legal Education: Perspectives and Challenges in a Vietnamese University
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2026-04) Nguyen, Phuong Khanh
Gender inequality silently permeates Vietnamese society, often dismissed as a “no-problem’s problem” (Rhode, 1991), where gender stereotypes are viewed as natural or unalterable. While Vietnam’s legal framework promises equality, a profound gap persists between the law on paper and lived reality. This thesis argues that mainstreaming gender equality into legal education is vital for planting the “seeds” of gender justice. Adopting a qualitative in-depth interview design, this study explores how six law professors in Southern Vietnam negotiate gender perspectives during their teaching. Findings reveal that integration remains marginal, spontaneous, and discretionary. Decision No. 678, issued by the Minister of Education and Training, acts as an “institutional architect of silence,” omitting gender from mandated learning outcomes and allowing leadership to prioritize political and economic objectives over social justice. Furthermore, pedagogical insecurity and the persistent myth of legal neutrality lead law professors in Vietnam to reduce complex gender issues to safe and abstract principles. The study also notes students’ reactions, as observed by law professors, including a “hibernation” of marginalized voices and student resistance to the “privileges” women enjoy under the law. To transform constitutional promises into reality, Vietnamese legal education must move beyond a “one-size-fits-all” doctrinal model toward a critical feminist pedagogy, from a purely doctrinal epistemology toward a standpoint epistemology. Only by recognizing the gendered nature of law and identifying systemic gender biases through the lens of feminist legal theorists can the next generation cultivate a truly just legal system.
P-2 French Immersion Teacher Perspectives on Implementing the Neurolinguistic Approach
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2026-04) Chisholm, Cheryl
The Neurolinguistic Approach (NLA) is a paradigm that focuses on encouraging students to use authentic and targeted language structures (Netten & Germain, 2012). The NLA reflects a shift in focus to oral language development, which has been found to propagate the development of other linguistic aptitudes (Haj-Broussard, Beal & Boudreaux, 2017). The following qualitative research study collected French Immersion teachers' perspectives on the NLA through semi-structured interviews with the purpose of gathering perspectives on what the approach is, what benefits they perceived from implementing it in their classrooms and the barriers they might have encountered while implementing it. The participants were seven French Immersion teachers in P-2 classrooms who previously received professional development on the NLA. The interview data were categorized through thematic analysis to highlight salient themes across conversations. The advantages included the NLA reaching a wide range of students, benefiting beginner French learners, increasing students’ confidence and engagement and giving teachers an explicit structure around which they could plan lessons. The obstacles included time constraints in teaching, being overwhelmed accessing literacy resources, difficulty adapting the approach to older grades and some limits to organic French conversations. A fourth category of resources was added to highlight future directions for supporting French Immersion teachers when using the approach which included more opportunities for teachers to learn about the approach and more pre-made resources to address time constraints. Most teachers expressed that they saw the benefits to the approach in the beginner French classrooms but also expressed that they would benefit from more professional development, opportunities to collaborate with colleagues and premade resources to make the approach more accessible to them and easier to integrate into their regular classroom routines.
University Students in Canada and Contextual Considerations: A Rapid Scoping Review
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2025-09) Long, Rachel P.
The complex needs of university students are (and have been) present across the (globalized) Canadian landscape and continue to rapidly evolve with conditions and dynamic contextual settings in which students (and instructors) are situated. Although the importance of context is widely accepted and commonly emphasized across education literature (e.g., in bridging theory and practice), the complexity of context as a concept is evident through fragmented contextual discourse and understanding. Considering the complexities of context and its interrelated nature with other variables, a fragmented literature landscape and clarity issues surrounding terminology, distinct landscape in which university students in Canada are situated, along with diverse and evolving student needs: the aim of this study is to provide a preliminary exploration into what is known (and what is not known) about the concept of contextual considerations relating to students enrolled in Canadian public university institutions, and the practical application of these considerations in university teaching practice. This review was modified from the standard scoping review process with the implementation of a rapid approach and structure which caters to a master’s thesis project. The theoretical framework critical social theory and conceptual frameworks (1) adult education and lifelong learning discipline and (2) Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory (process-person-context-time [PPCT] model) has been utilized. Scholarly literature has been primarily considered for this review (e.g., peer-reviewed journal articles), those of which were available in English and published between 2015 to 2025. Included sources offer discourse surrounding ideas of context and university students in public universities across the Canadian provinces. With only one reviewer for this study, a few consultations were made with the project supervisor and a research librarian to support the project. A broad Novanet catalogue search was conducted and titles, abstracts, and full-text sources were screened. Data from included sources were extracted utilizing an extraction form in Excel. Data analysis was conducted through descriptive statistical analysis and descriptive content analysis, presented in tables added to the appendices. The PRISMA-ScR reporting criteria with updated guidance by Peters et al. (2020) supported in the structure of the following thesis.
Unlocking Quality Enhancement in Nova Scotia’s Family Home Child Care Programs by Understanding the Key Role of Family Home Child Care Consultants
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2025-09) Crocker, Cheryl
Family home child care is an integral but under-studied part of Nova Scotia’s early learning and child care system. While there is a substantial body of literature on the topic of quality in regulated child care, most of this literature focuses on child care centres. The differences between quality in child care centres and quality in family home child care are not yet well understood. Recognizing that the early childhood educators who work as family home child care consultants are adult educators who play a pivotal role in supporting quality in family home child care, this study contributes to the discourse around what quality means in family home child care. Possibilities for the provision of targeted professional development for family home child care consultants who work in a mentorship and supervision role with care providers who are often untrained in early childhood education are also considered. Using a critical feminist perspective, this qualitative study included interviews and focus groups to explore the following research questions: 1) What does quality mean to family home child care consultants? 2) What is the connection between the role of family home child care consultants and quality in family home child care? 3)How are family home child care consultants prepared for working in a role that provides both supervisory support and regulatory oversight? Data was analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Key findings were that consultants view themselves as pedagogical leaders and value having time to spend building relationships with care providers. Quality was defined by the consultants as being a “safe, responsive, nurturing, inclusive environment that is welcoming to all families.” There is currently no training specific to the role of family home child care consultants in Nova Scotia. The consultants who participated in this research advocated for the introduction of consistent training for family home child care consultants that would prepare them for their role as a mentor, coach, supervisor, and pedagogical leader for family home child care providers.
Understanding Refferral Barriers: A Scoping Review of Psychoeducational Assessment Pathways for EAL Students
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2025-09) Hammam, Christina
This scoping review explores systemic inequities and missed opportunities in the psychoeducational referral process for English as an Additional Language (EAL) students in Canadian school systems. While research has focused on distinguishing language acquisition from learning disabilities, limited attention has been given to how institutional tools, policy frameworks, and educator perceptions collectively shape referral decisions. Guided by Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit), this review synthesizes findings from 14 empirical studies and 18 Canadian grey literature sources to examine how the intersecting dimensions of race, language, and ability influence whether, how, and when EAL students are referred for assessment. The analysis identifies four key themes shaping referral dynamics: bias and misclassification, multilingual and sociocultural considerations, inadequate professional knowledge, and limitations in referral decision-making tools and practices. These themes operate across two interrelated dimensions: Educator Perception, referring to how educators perceive and respond to student difficulties, and Systemic Instruments, encompassing the institutional structures that formalize or reinforce those perceptions. Despite increasing policy emphasis on inclusion, the review highlights persistent variability in practice, a lack of Canadian empirical research, and entrenched structural norms that privilege Whiteness, monolingualism, and normative ability. Recommendations include embedding culturally and linguistically responsive frameworks into referral policy, expanding professional learning grounded in cultural humility, and generating context-specific research to support more equitable and linguistically responsive assessment pathways for EAL learners.

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