This Major Research Paper (MRP) adopted the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach to examine the evolution and current state of inclusive education in Ghana and Canada (Ontario), with an emphasis on challenges and lessons learned. The movement towards inclusive education began in Ghana in 1936, with separate schools for disabled children. However, challenges remain, such as geographic disparities, prohibitive costs, and a lack of teacher understanding. Inclusive education has evolved over the last 50 years in Canada, thanks to legislative advancements such as the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms and provincial acts. Key findings show that Ontario is significantly ahead of the curve when it comes to implementing inclusive education, thanks to diverse provincial approaches and effective strategies. Despite challenges in both countries, Canada's lack of a unified national policy contrasts with Ghana's policy, which is riddled with problems, limiting its effectiveness. Discrimination against disabled children is less prevalent in Ontario than in Ghana, where negative attitudes prevent inclusion. Financial constraints are a common barrier, with Ontario’s lessons pointing to a comprehensive framework that combines Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction to address financial concerns while also improving inclusive practices. Challenges for teachers and principals in both systems highlight the importance of teacher preparation and school leadership in implementing successful inclusive education policies. Lessons from Ontario focus on strategies for incorporating inclusive education principles into teacher training programs and increasing principal accountability, emphasizing the importance of professional development and leadership in fostering inclusive practices. Drawing lessons from Ontario, the findings highlight the need for a comprehensive national policy in Ghana that addresses financial constraints while promoting teacher and principal preparation to improve inclusive education outcomes.

This project asks; to what extent has the Bolivian approach to Indigenous self-government demonstrated an effective policy framework that could be applicable in the Canadian context? This is accomplished through an application of a comprehensive theoretical framework to the analysis of the Canadian and Bolivian approaches to Indigenous self-determination. Several important themes are analyzed including the two Constitutions, political discourse, the historicization of colonialism, the importance of land, and the significance of the Leftist movement. This analysis leads to the realization that Bolivia has proven that the plurinational state is a feasible solution to the colonial homogenous conception of sovereignty. The lessons learned from the Bolivian states approach to Indigenous self-determination can inform decolonial options for the Canadian state.

At the present moment, Canada is at a crossroads. Canada claims to be promoting the restoration of non-Indigenous Canadian/Indigenous relations in an effort to heal from the trauma of its settler colonial past (while limiting recognition of the present consequences of this history). This project, guided by a decolonizing framework, conducts a content analysis of four Canadian history textbooks published for Ontario high schools from 2000-2014 and the associated Canadian history curriculum guidelines for grades nine/ten and eleven/twelve students from 2000-2018. I ask if these history textbooks supported by the Ontario Ministry of Education facilitate students to be interested in reconciliation efforts, particularly looking the attitudes towards Indigenous peoples and the ways various settler colonial events are explained. This research has shown that the Canadian history textbooks used in conjunction with these curricula act as both an encouragement and discouragement to reconciliation through both the content that is taught (or not) and the language used surroundings the subjects covered. As these textbooks and curricula evolve and reflect more of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action, particularly Calls 62-65, there appears to be greater opportunities for students to discuss Indigenous issues, their roles in these issues, and ultimately, their roles and responsibilities in reconciliation.

Over the past three to four decades in Ontario, neoliberalization and new public management have restructured the non-profit social services (NPSS) sector by reducing core funding and introducing a competitive proposal system with increased managerial accountability. These changes have generated immense workplace pressures for frontline staff. Frontline staff in the NPSS have seen an increase in standardization accompanied by the degradation of their skills. Through in-depth interviews with five frontline staff at two similar non-profit agencies serving people experiencing poverty in the Niagara Region, this paper explores the question: How do frontline staff in the non-profit social services sector describe their working conditions? And how resonant are the narratives of compassion fatigue and burnout. In contrast to the narrative of "compassion fatigue" that often describes the experiences of professional frontline workers, I found that burnout among frontline poverty-reduction staff stems primarily from encountering structural barriers, such as a lack of affordable housing, that limit what they can do to help their service users. Furthermore, I found a general lack of organizational supports for frontline staff as workers, including supports to prevent or lessen burnout. This research brings to light new perspectives regarding poverty-reduction work and ultimately points to needed supports for frontline staff that may improve their work lives, well-being and poverty-reduction effectiveness.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorder (5th Ed. or DSM-5) represents a foundational text within the psychiatric and mental health field, a document that is historically and socially positioned within the field as the global standard for diagnostic health information. Significant criticism, though, has been levelled against the DSM-5, highlighting concerns around its underlying ethnocentric positioning as well as scientific concerns around the reliability and validity of different diagnoses. This study explores the current state of the DSM-5. It seeks to understand how its development has shaped and promoted a variety of discourses within the mental health field, as well as looking at the impact these discourses have had on the dignity and day-to-day functioning of millions of patients, both younger and elder, for whom it has been conceived to offer therapeutic interventions. Drawing on Social Constructionist and Foucauldian frameworks to conduct this discursive analysis of the DSM-5, I identify the dominant discourses of the DSM-5, as well as the discursive rules which have been reinforced by the American Psychiatric Association to promote these practices. The dominant discourses identified include expertise, medicalizing normality, conceptualizations of culture, and control.