Faculty of Education -- PhD Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
- ItemQuiet the Mind, Open the Heart: A Phenomenological Approach to Reading Indigenous Literatures for Non-Indigenous Readers(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2025-09) Bartlett, R. AllanaIn Canada, a growing body of Indigenous Literatures is weaving narrative threads of Indigenous worldviews into settler consciousness adding complexity and clarity, vibrancy and depth, to our collective tapestry. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada urged all to think and act in new ways to establish and maintain mutually respectful relationships between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Peoples. To think and act in new ways is, in essence, to transform. Given the power of story to tell, teach, and transform, Indigenous Literatures may be an accessible and pragmatic means for people of settler ancestry to initiate engagement in reconciliation, decolonization, and treaty relations. This was the impetus for a phenomenological exploration of transformative learning in settler readers of Celia’s Song by Sto:lo author Lee Maracle (2014), first as a solitary reader and then as a member of an established book club. Hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry extends beyond descriptive understanding to interpret aspects of experience that are externally observable, as well as aspects of experience revealed only through the narrative an individual composes as the product of the phenomenon and their lifeworld. Seven adult readers of settler ancestry provided four points of access to the lived experience: 1) one-on-one interviews to explore the reading lifeworld of each participant as the context in and through which they live and subjectively structure their reading experiences; 2) reading journals to document the intellectual, emotional, and embodied experience of reading; 3) observations and audio recording of the book club discussion to capture the relational reading experience; and, 4) one-on-one interviews to explore the overall experience as reflected on by each participant. All gathered materials were transcribed to text and underwent iterative cycles of reading, reflecting, and writing to dwell in the individual and collective experience of reading Celia’s Song. The research process revealed engagement with Celia’s Song as one of reading as reckoning rather than reconciliation for most of the reader-participants. One reader, however, formed an intention to approach the story and the storytelling by quieting her settler-colonial mind and being open to the content and the broader social and cultural context of the text. The reading approach mirrored the phenomenological research approach used in the study and suggests a framework for settler readers to engage with Indigenous Literatures as reader-witnesses.
- ItemLove as Inquiry: My Autoethnographic Story of Coming Out Later in Life(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2024) Flemming, Christina J.Love as Inquiry: My Autoethnographic Story of Coming Out Later in Life is a PhD dissertation in two parts. Part One is comprised of a collection of autoethnographic stories based on my own lived experiences as a queer woman, mother, writer, and educator. Part Two of this autoethnographic research details process-related elements, ethical considerations, and the non-linear nature of doctoral research with the aim of offering new educational researchers guidance and insight on autoethnographic writing. This work: • serves as a disruptive force, while striving to unhinge normative narratives, • reinforces the importance of storytelling within the field of education, • seeks to honour members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community who may struggle to embrace authenticity and their own vulnerability, and • enables future researchers to consider the complexity of the ethical considerations necessitated by autoethnographic methodology. At the heart of things, this research is about love: losing love, finding love, maternal love, and romantic love. In using love as both process and product, this research aims to help explore the question posed by Sameshima and Leggo (2013): What does love have to do with education?
- 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.