Master of Education
http://hdl.handle.net/10464/2243
2024-03-18T13:38:05ZDecolonizing Graduate Education: Considerations for Integration and Internationalization of a Master of Education Program
http://hdl.handle.net/10464/16400
Decolonizing Graduate Education: Considerations for Integration and Internationalization of a Master of Education Program
Wainaina, Esther
Abstract
The internationalization of graduate education at Western higher education institutions (WHEIs) is seldom offered in programs that segregate international students from domestic students. The Master of Education Internationally educated Students Program (MEd ISP) at Brock University in Ontario, Canada had offered a segregated graduate program prior to the university’s decision to terminate the program and integrate all future international and domestic students in its Master of Education (MEd) program. While current knowledge of internationalization approaches at WHEIs reveals disparities between official discourses for internationalization and international students’ experiences at WHEIs, this study identified a gap in the knowledge of WHEIs’ strategies for transitioning internationalization from segregated to integrated graduate programs. Adopting a decolonial theoretical framework, the study explored dominant, neoliberal, and colonizing approaches to internationalization in the MEd ISP and sought to advocate for decolonizing considerations for future internationalization of the MEd program at Brock University. The study engaged 5 international students and 1 domestic student in a decolonizing phenomenology that utilized qualitative interviews to explore participants’ firsthand accounts of the strengths and weaknesses of the MEd ISP as well as their perceptions of colonizing and decolonizing attributes of internationalization at Brock University. Interestingly, the study found that the most relevant attributes of colonizing educational approaches were perceptions of the superiority of Western knowledge and not the segregationist approach to internationalization as had been anticipated. Rather than offering formulations for decolonizing the internationalization of graduate programs, the study recommends a process of pertinent questioning that problematizes naturalized Western knowledge through epistemic and ontological pluralization. Further, the study offers initial questions that can be advanced through an iterative interaction of neoliberal, critical, and decolonizing considerations for internationalization of graduate programs at WHEIs. The narrowed scope of the study’s pool of participants contributed a significant limitation to the generalizability of the study. Future studies on internationalization approaches at WHEIs may be inspired to build on the study’s findings to include insights from graduate program administrators and instructors.
Nurturing Empathy through Critical Media Literacy and Design Thinking: Partnering Pedagogy to Build Community
http://hdl.handle.net/10464/16399
Nurturing Empathy through Critical Media Literacy and Design Thinking: Partnering Pedagogy to Build Community
McKinney-Lepp, Melissa
What counts in critical literacy education today and for learners’ futures? The neoliberal agenda in Canada prioritizes standardization, efficiency, and results- based performance. The social isolation and unrest of the global pandemic are reflected in media headlines and images. This thesis considers narrow views of success in light of critical educational practices that nurture competencies such as critical empathy, collaboration, and communication. This arts-informed multimodal research contemplates how educators can begin addressing what pedagogies work and are important for learners right now.
This action research and thesis is framed by design thinking (Ask, Imagine, Design, Build, Evaluate, Refine and Share). Research examined experiences created in a primary classroom where pedagogies were designed to nurture critical empathy (CE) by utilizing design thinking (DT) and critical media literacy (CML). Students worked for a six-month period on an inquiry into family cultures and traditions, which included photographing an important family object, editing, and manipulating these photos (their own and their peers’) and sharing them with audiences. The photographic processes and pedagogies build on Wendy Ewald’s Literacy through Photography work.
Data included photographs, journaling, and audio and video recordings were analyzed using my adaptation of Suchar’s (1997) framework. Findings indicated that CE could be nurtured through intentional experiences utilizing DT and CML, reaching both participants and a wider audience who interacted with student work. Specifically, CE was nurtured when students worked towards common goals through opportunities that built upon collaboration, communication, and problem solving over time. CE was nurtured when students had opportunities to become experts, take risks, practice being leaders, and make decisions in a safe and supportive environment. Lastly, CE was nurtured when students had opportunities to build relationships with their peers and consider multiple points of view. Limitations included separating teacher-learner from teacher-researcher roles, and restrictions put into place due to the global pandemic.
This research examines and illustrates an alternative to performance-based “best practice” teaching. Utilizing critical literacy, multimodal, photographic pedagogies employed through design thinking, an environment was created where each student could be successful, and competencies were valued over standardized results.
Enhancing Online Faculty Development Programs During COVID-19 and Beyond: A Multiple Case Study of Faculty Members Teaching Online
http://hdl.handle.net/10464/15759
Enhancing Online Faculty Development Programs During COVID-19 and Beyond: A Multiple Case Study of Faculty Members Teaching Online
Saddik, Wessam
This study explored how the development needs of faculty members teaching online can inform professional development (PD) programs in higher education (HE), especially after a year and a half of transition to fully online courses due to the pandemic. The research was conducted in a midsize university in Ontario and utilized a multiple case study approach that examined the cases of four faculty members through an emergent process of in-depth interviews. The main criterion used to select participants was an experience with online teaching of at least 1 year. Data were collected from interview responses as well as from documents representing research studies the faculty members wrote about their teaching experience. Multiple cases were constructed using an inductive coding analysis process, and a cross-case analysis was conducted to identify themes common across the cases. Inductive coding was used to analyze the data. Findings revealed that faculty PD programs should be diversified when it comes to program format, duration, regularity, and topics. Programs differentiated in these ways are essential to accommodate diverse PD needs as well as the different stages of online faculty members’ development of expertise. One-time PD events may not offer the best opportunity to develop faculty members. Informal learning opportunities such as learning communities, research publishing, and mentoring are the most preferred and should be prioritized. HE institutions play an important role in enhancing PD programs either directly through improving program design or indirectly through modifying institutional policies and budgets.
An Auto-Ethnodramatic Study of the Lived Experiences of Becoming a Mother Via Anonymous Egg Donation
http://hdl.handle.net/10464/15134
An Auto-Ethnodramatic Study of the Lived Experiences of Becoming a Mother Via Anonymous Egg Donation
Hossack, Allison Jane
Abstract
This auto-ethnodramatic study investigated the experiences of becoming a mother via anonymous egg donation. Few studies have explored the experience of women who become pregnant with donor eggs; women who both embody and disrupt the dominant narrative of motherhood by not being genetically related to the children they nurture. The study presents vignettes informed by performance practices and auto-ethnography that interrogate my struggles as the recipient of donor eggs, including: travelling for fertility treatment in the United States where egg donors are paid, in comparison to Canada where remuneration beyond basic expenses is a criminal offense; relinquishing my privacy regarding my infertility and use of donor eggs; worrying about the physical/mental health of young egg donors; navigating the rights of donor-conceived children to know their genetic progenitors versus the donor’s right to anonymity; and facing the difficult decision regarding what to do with leftover embryos. I drew upon my experience interpreting and performing scripted dialogue as a professional actor, reflexive journaling, personal artifacts and memories, online discussion forums, and the extant literature. Live performance and discussion of personal stories create educational spaces for medical and nursing students and their professors, parents in donor conception support groups, and the general public, troubling social stigmas surrounding women’s reproductive bodies, infertility, and assisted reproduction. Respectful, empathetic dialogue can encourage participants to push against the rigid structures of the heteronormative family and discover their own stories of self, family, and belonging. These stories can be used to advocate for more dignified and compassionate practices within the fertility industry for donors, parents, and most especially the children we are so eager to love.