Faculty of Education -- PhD Dissertations
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- ItemNo Strings Attached: Public Debt and the Transformation of Educational Policy in Nova Scotia, 1993-1997(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2025) Turner, KarlThis thesis will examine the history of Nova Scotia’s public debt and will attempt to argue that the money it borrowed (and continues to borrow) from the bond market comes with conditions that not only supersede our societal interests, but the democratic institutions citizens trust to protect them.
- ItemAfrican Nova Scotian Dream Keepers: Culturally Responsive Teaching and Promising Practices(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2025) Morrison, Martin A.The systemic educational inequities experienced by African Nova Scotian learners have been well documented over the years. The Nova Scotia government’s acknowledgment and institutional responses to these inequities, have so far failed to address the persistence of the disproportionate representation of African Nova Scotian learners scoring low on provincial student performance assessments, and high in school suspensions. This study explored two research questions: (1) How are teachers of students of African ancestry culturally responsive? and (2) What are the fundamental characteristics and approaches to culturally responsive pedagogy in the context of the history and experiences of people of African ancestry in Nova Scotia? It relied on a qualitative methodology informed by principles embedded in critical ethnographic studies. My methods included consultation with the African Nova Scotian community to identify teachers who are culturally relevant and responsive to the needs of African Nova Scotian learners, and who have championed promising practices and approaches. I conducted one-on-one, semi-structured interviews with four African Nova Scotian and six white teachers using anti-racist, Africentric and culturally relevant and responsive lenses to analyze the data. Decolonialism and critical race theory were applied in the literature review to help analyze and better understand the Nova Scotian context. My study relied on the expertise of African Nova Scotian community members through community consultations to indicate which teachers they understand to be culturally relevant and responsive to the needs of African Nova Scotian learners. My findings reveal that research participants generally prioritized: (1) the value of growth and learning to academic success, (2) the necessity of creating safer learning environments so students can bring their full selves into the classroom, while practicing the ability to communicate across their differences effectively, and (3) the importance of teaching students to critically reflect on the ways systems preserve the human rights and dignity of every individual, and to take appropriate actions when they do not. In terms of characteristics, the participants demonstrated an ability to empathize with students, which inspired an internalized commitment to their students’ social, emotional, cultural, and academic needs. The research participants were able to develop meaningful and authentic relationships with their students and community. They were able to focus on students’ well-being based on the needs identified through the relationship and improve their ability to become better equipped to respond to their students’ academic, social, emotional, and cultural needs through an ongoing commitment to teaching and learning. The interaction and overlapping of these findings model the type of allyship required to respond to the inequities experienced by racialized learners. This dissertation concludes with recommendations for Bachelor of Education programs, in-service teachers, and the education system in general.
- Item“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.
- ItemUnderstanding Nursing Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic Through Narrative Inquiry and Art. A Feminist Exploration in Educational Research(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2023-07) Flegg, Carol A.The resilience and retention of nurses is a complex and urgently compelling phenomenon in the global context, made even more critical given the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative research on nursing resilience is an under-researched topic, particularly within nurses’ personal stories of resilience. This study incorporated narrative inquiry and arts-based research seen through the lens of a feminist theoretical framework. It explored the stories of nursing resilience told from the perspective of four public health nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the spirit of Connelly and Clandinin (1990), the focus of this narrative inquiry is not only on the individual's experience but also on the social, cultural, and institutional narratives within each individual’s experiences that are derived, shaped, expressed, and enacted. The stories of nursing resilience were shared in group discussions, one-on-one interviews focused on conversations and artistic collages with artist statements. This research wove together stories of nursing resilience and elucidated the impact of emotional labour, camaraderie, mentorship, and self-care on the developmental process of resilience. The positive effects of feeling valued within the power structure in nursing are highlighted. Higher education curricula do introduce the concept of nursing resilience, but the focus in nursing education programs is on medical and technical knowledge. There are many factors which are influencing the need for nurses to be more resilient in the workplace, nursing students will need to learn much more about this subject and how it can impact them both personally and professionally. Implications for further research on mentorship, the group effect of research and the therapeutic nature of storytelling through art are illuminated.
- ItemAn Exploration of Early Reading Instruction: Listening to the Voices of Early Elementary Teachers in a Pandemic(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2022-09-11) Hollis, HeatherChildren 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.