Graduate Theses

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    Promoting Early Literacy Through Play-based Learning: Supporting the Foundations of Early Literacy Through Child-Directed Play
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2023) Mohamed, Dina
    Learning literacy in the pre-school years is dominated by play-based practices, but as children enter the formal school system literacy instruction takes a more systematic and explicit form. There is a significant body of literature that acknowledges the numerous benefits of child- directed play that outweigh teacher-directed instruction, but despite the proven evidence of the benefits of play, there remains a tendency towards explicit teacher-directed instruction in the early years. Moreover, play is often regarded as spontaneous, chaotic, and an environment where learning is accidental and unplanned. This research study will investigate how intentional, purposeful literacy learning through child-directed play can support the foundations of early literacy. The research uses secondary qualitative data analysis guided by a constructivist approach to investigate the following research questions: 1. How can intentional, purposeful literacy learning through play support the foundations of early literacy? 2. How does the educators’ role influence the intentionality and purposefulness of play? The investigation involved reflexive thematic analysis of data, that consisted of images and discussions. Key findings highlight the foundational literacy building blocks that occur in a play-based environment, as well as underscore intentional practices of educators in the pre-primary program. Thus, drawing attention to the use of intentional purposeful play to promote the foundations of literacy which can have far reaching impact on literacy learning practices.
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    Persistence of Female Genital Mutilation in Kenya: A Case of Meru County
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2023-08) Kubai, Faith Kairuthi
    The goal to end FGM in Kenya by 2022 seems bleak since the practice persists in hotspot areas such as Meru County. This study discusses the persistent crisis of FGM by examining existing discursive practices using feminist content analysis on online content in three organizations that work in the county. The analysis demonstrates that despite having a clear goal to end FGM, there are internal divisions on the use of Do No Harm language, effectiveness of the anti-FGM law, structural gender inequalities fueled by patriarchy and the insider-outsider differences in the African-led movement to end the harmful practice. The divisions emanate from gendered functions of FGM relative to the economic, political, and sociocultural organization of the community that are further exacerbated by the historical positions of sexism, racism, and colonialism characterized by top-down approaches. These are noteworthy because they are key contributing factors in the inability of present approaches to stem FGM and they show that the problem necessitates a bottom-up approach where activists need engagement with what works in their community context and get support to eradicate the practice. Use of discourse analysis in this study helped to consider activists’ standpoints, and grassroots and funder community input that ultimately call for dialogue among stakeholders. The voice of activists is expressed through the content they post in the online media while the grassroots community standpoint is taken from their verbal and written content in the form of testimonies and quotes from anti-FGM campaign training feedback. The funder community as a stakeholder plays a part through the stipulations and recommendations for grantees. This study shows that more successful eradication interventions will depend on factors such as sensitivity to the insider/outsider perspective, dialogue about the FGM law with the community and a focus with more attention on the role of patriarchal power in maintaining FGM practice and on shifting structural changes through women empowerment especially economically.
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    How Home Care Communication Adapts Over Time to Meet Clients’ Needs: A Case Study of Home Care Constellations
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2023-09) Burke, Rosanne
    Home care is an invisible, yet essential component of the health care system in Canada (Hewko et al., 2015). It is a complex, interdependent, and interactional process involving clients, families, and home support workers (HSWs) (Shaw et al., 2021) referenced as care constellations in this research. Every home care interaction involves communication (Gustafsson et al., 2021), therefore communication in home care is critical because it facilitates both task-based and psychosocial needs of clients being met (Höglander et al., 2020). Another essential principle in home care is the centrality of the client – namely person-centred care (PCC). Communication is a key component of a PCC approach, yet few studies have focused on communication in home care (Sundler et al., 2016; Kristensen et al., 2015). Using longitudinal secondary data (28 semi-structured qualitative interviews) from the Home Care Pathways Project (Keefe et al., 2020) and framed by person-centred care and critical relational theory, this study examined communication within two Nova Scotian care constellations and how communication adapted over time. An additional research question assessed how and if factors such as societal, structural, political, and historical factors influenced communication within the care constellation. Data analysis of each case was performed using thematic and temporal analysis of the qualitative interviews. A cross-case analysis between the two constellations revealed similarities and differences in the themes. Findings revealed three key themes. One temporal theme was identified in both cases: formal communication processes may or may not meet clients’ needs. Also, in constellation 1, the theme ‘the role of conversations in meeting clients’ psychosocial needs’ emerged and in constellation 2, the theme, ‘communication associated with maintaining independence’ was identified. The COVID-19 pandemic was a contextual factor that negatively impacted the health of both clients. Structural factors including a focus on safety, lack of accountability and time constraints were found to be barriers to client-centred communication. As noted in previous research, as the least powerful members of the caregiving network, HSWs and clients were the most depended upon for communication of clients’ needs (Funk et al., 2022). Implications of the study include recommendations for how to improve the education and training of home support workers as well as policy changes to enhance the delivery of client-centred care at both the organizational and systemic levels. Although specific to Nova Scotia, the findings will be of interest to other jurisdictions looking to improve home care communication within a client-centred care model.
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    Affective Democratic Discourse and Lisa Hanna: The Representation and Treatment of a Jamaican Woman Politician on Social Media
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2023-09) Atkinson, Esrick
    This graduate project was conducted to get a better understanding of how women, specifically women politicians in the Global South, are treated on social media. The unique case of Lisa Hanna was chosen and 167 posts were extracted from her Facebook page during the period of March and October 2022. A Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was undertaken, in order to get a better understanding of how Hanna self- presented personally and politically on Facebook. The CDA was also instrumental in helping the researcher to highlight the manner in which the discourse from the comments section on Hanna’s posts represented her as well as the role played by affect in determining how Hanna was treated on Facebook. Eight major themes were extracted from the discourse and interpreted based on the theories of intersectionality and affect. The findings were also discussed within the Jamaican context from which they emerged, and my experiences and personal observations as a Black Jamaican man, who studied political science, were incorporated into the interpretation of these findings.
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    Re-setting the Table: Exploring the Counter-stories of Racialized Dietitians in Canada
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2023-09) Dhami, Gurneet Kaur
    On the first day of orientation at the School of Nutrition at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) in August 2012, I was told that only some people in the room would become dietitians going into this nutrition program. I thought to myself, “What a discouraging thing to say before we even start, right?!” Looking around the room, I will not say I was not judging, but we were all judging; I felt it. Although I was shy and quiet since day one, I made it a mission to chase this title I dreamed of in my high school’s home economics class. As a resourceful child of immigrants, I knew I would have to forge a unique path like the movie characters that taught me about university life. My parents immigrated from Panjab, India, and like many folks in my Etobicoke North suburbs of Rexdale, worked in blue-collar jobs to afford a working-middle-class lifestyle. The students in my orientation class were a mix, but now that I think of it, I was naive not to name the difference in economic and racial class representation since day one. Also, never did I think these small moments would lead me to stir the pot and question dietetic diversity in the profession I am about to join as a dietitian. During my undergraduate studies, many small moments made me internally question the lack of diversity and race conversations in dietetics. Over five years, certain exchanges with colleagues and educators made me feel odd, and I often would equate that to not being seen as “dietitian material”. The nicest way I could rationalize that feeling was the unconscious bias towards me. One of the few stand-out moments is my interaction with my course counsellor. I often see them giving pep talks to white students, which would cut into my meeting time which was never appropriately booked on their end. I still sought help despite the judgmental interactions with the course counsellor surrounding my potential- I knew deep down I would return and share the program I got into so the counsellor would see my value. However, today I was not as important as the white student with their problems. I hated being overlooked and almost switched out of the program until my friend convinced me otherwise on our commute home. Because I saw the dietetics profession differently, I would seek out events and activities outside the program. Most of my university friends came from various sociology electives- something I was advised not to pursue as a minor. Understanding how society functions through pop culture, relationships, and theory opened my mind to many intersections we did not explore in our nutrition program. How can I support racialized communities to eat healthily despite economic and social hardships? How does colonialism impact our relationship with Indigenous communities? These questions and intersectional conversations were missing from nutrition courses. I felt the privilege reflected in the student’s behaviours in some nutrition class presentations around health promotion activities in neighbourhood improvement areas and raised questions. My peers did not have much to share, and an educator later shared that my questions were good, but everyone was too competitive at this stage in the program to engage in discussion. I felt discouraged and never uncomfortable fitting into the mould, so I attended business, political and art events on campus. Whenever I asked nutrition peers to join, I was asked, “Is that nutrition-related?” because they did not see the point, and that is what made me gravitate towards having friends in fields outside of my study. Beyond the program, volunteer commitments in my Rexdale community and around Toronto kept me busy. I tried to get into any small area that I could, be it a food bank, kids’ program, health promotion, events, you name it, I tried it out. Although I faced resistance, I found the best time to be spent with people outside of nutrition sharing their thoughts on nutrition, which in the long run, helped me craft a better idea of my career goals. I never stopped researching. I always tried to get a certificate, meet with someone cool and work on my resume. In my final year of the program, I decided on a few internships I wanted to pursue and master’s programs. My networks came through during this challenging time to provide me with references and guidance for the interview process. By March 2017, I got two offers fulfilling my dietitian dream and one belligerent comment from a peer reminding me that I still did not belong in dietetics. As much as you do not want word to go out on not getting into a program, the harshest comments are from those who got into a program. I was away at a business conference when we heard back from dietetic internship programs, so I do not know what that atmosphere was in class the day everyone found out. A week or so later, when I was with a classmate discussing our extra-curricular activities, they hesitantly told me about an incident they felt bad holding back. A classmate commented on whether peers would sink or swim during internship or master’s programs. My classmate was present at the time of the discussion, which was cruel and honestly just unprofessional from my understanding. When my name came up, the person said something along the lines of “It is going to be hard for Gurneet to fit in” to my rural internship or East Coast master’s program, which is where my classmate interjected and said, “Gurneet’s not that dark”…and things were just left at the moment. When sharing this story, they got emotional and feared I would too. I was taken back by a classmate who said this is also racialized…like why ?! I laughed it off and replied, “I knew my social location before I applied to these places,” to soften the blow…which again took me back to the isolating feel I felt on day one. Despite getting in, I still felt like I did not belong. Ultimately, I chose the master’s program over the internship because I wanted to research. And the very topic I was going to research was chosen when I shared this story with my thesis advisor over a Skype call. I felt like I would be able to rewrite a wrong and explore dietetic diversity at Mount Saint Vincent University. The Fall of 2017 was a massive transition to a new province and university, where I did not know anyone. Although I was welcomed, this doubtful feeling I had from my undergrad program still lingered concerning whether or not people would support my multifaceted and non-conventional approach to dietetics. It became clear that although anti-racism discussions were happening and I could be more open with faculty, the same issues were presented when I tried to befriend and get to know dietetic students, especially the white students. I look back and still laugh at how much I just went with the flow because everyone seemed progressive. The moment white classmates said they wanted to “wash the whiteness of their skin” and that “more diverse students accepted into internship will prevent them from getting in” were my ah-hah moments. This is also where I gravitated to a few racialized students in the program from the graduate and undergraduate levels to provide me with the company I needed to belong. These social obstacles deflected me from my dietitian goal, so the more I went anywhere and everywhere else but my thesis. There is a lot in between to celebrate that I don’t want to discredit, such as mentorship, counselling, interdisciplinary events, programs and funds that made me find joy when I needed it most. Those who helped me at my lowest know who they are as I became self-consumed in the pain of my participants through my thesis journey. Thank you for the laughs, caring messages and memorable advice that got me through the last five years. As I reflect on my master’s experience, there is a good reason why a racialized dietetic student just getting their Registered Dietitian designation will not jeopardize their career by speaking out against racism and injustice in the profession with a thesis. It has not been done since dietitians have researched in Canada, so why? I learned this the painful way, but I am still here as an almost dietitian, and, to be honest, I do not know if I want the title as I once did. My most significant achievement today is supporting a cause more prominent than the dietitian title, and that is finally finishing up this thesis for the dietetics community in Canada and beyond! The opportunity to make off the table comments surrounding the experiences of racialized dietitians as table topics is a pivotal moment in the dietetics field. We must address racism, discrimination and professional culture that continues to sideline individuals from entering and being welcomed into the profession. This is only the beginning and a journey we must take together in breaking down barriers with anti-oppression at the forefront. Reading the following hundred pages will inform you about what I learned so we can have nutrition orientations that bring us together in the profession with a sense of community rather than competition. It is time to put the talk into paper and paper into policy and action in 2023 and beyond!