A Comprehensive Career Needs Survey was designed to assess the career needs of junior high and senior high school students. The survey consisted of questions regarding students, teachers, parents, counselors and administrators evaluation of career education and support needs in Southern Alberta. Due to the recent research that suggests that adolescent perceptions of their needs, often differ from teacher or parent perceptions, it was important to examine how adolescents perceive "career" and "occupation" and how this perception evolves overtime and through developmental stages. Quantitative results show that the themes of "occupation" and "career" do not differ significantly across grade level, nor are there any prevalent themes within grade levels. However, the results of the qualitative research suggest that the way in which individuals think about these themes does evolve throughout developmental stages. Based on this research, it is suggested the Career Education begin earlier, be more integrated and comprehensive. In addition, increased adolescent involvement in future needs assessments is also recommended. Implications for teachers and counselors will be discussed. / ix, 108 leaves ; 28 cm.

Rapidly changing social and economic conditions can impart significant challenges to high school career decisions. Recent career education initiatives have been structured to support this school-to-work and school-to-post-secondary education transition. The student needs assessment focus of study allows a unique insight into the availability, delivery, and effectiveness of high school career programs. This research provides data from a nineteen-item Comprehensive Career Needs Survey, administered to 888, Southern Alberta grade 12 students. The results profile the student responses to questions on career plans after high school the meaning of occupation and career, career choice, reasons for career choice the importance of career planning, factors of encouragement and discouragement in career plans, and what would be most helpful in career plans. Questions on career hlep included the availability, use, and helpfulness of high school services, curriculum and resources, the peple helpful to career, the confidence in career plans after high school and the preferred work location. The results of this study suggest grade 12 students value career plans and the resources both people and informational, to support transitions. These students voice the need to have passion for career, and report a wide range of occupational choices. The large majority who plan post-secondary education or training expressed the need for diverse but specific career development services to support success in career. High school career development resources are available but the efficacy data suggest their under utilization or reports of not being fully helpful to career plans. An important finding is that career resources are used in the school setting but not the community. The results of this study have implications for the delivery of high school career programs and the development of the public policy on career services. / x, 149 leaves ; 29 cm.

This thesis is an inquiry that examines how those who are marked different in school are also marked "wrong" and marginalized and how that marking often leads to bullying. It examines the significance that those markings have on those who are marked, on those who mark and on those who are witnesses. This is an analysis of bullying and a critique of an institution's response to bullying and its deleterious effects. The writing offers a connection between the particular and the universal. It tells of my personal experience while I was a teacher at a small town high school before, during and immediately after a violent incident that resulted in a death, against a backdrop feminist, critical, poststructural and postmodern theory, and academic dialogue that has helped me come to some understanding of the dominant discourses at play within this story. The writing is not merely the mode of telling the writing is the way to understanding, which must always precede the telling. Finally this thesis is a search for a healing home in which home-ness means a place open to being, rather than a place that defines the "right" way of being. / xii, 134 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.

A needs assessment was conducted to identify top priorities for the development of a Comprehensive Guidance Program (CGP). The assessment was given to junior high students (grades 7-9) and their parents. This thesis is a comparison of students' and parents' perceptions of the needs of students in junior high school setting. The findings indicate the parents and students shared similar views on themes of support for career and future plans, concern for more information on health issues, and concerns of what servics the school should provide. However students' and parents' individual needs were not similar. A Spearman Rho test showed a very low overall correlation between the ranking of needs of the two groups. The findings led to the recommendation that thematic similarities should guide the development of programs and that community support should be sought to address individual priorities identified by each group. A major benefit of the study was the development of a process for the engagement of the community in school development. Further investigation may be needed to help understand the differences in the parents' and students' perceptions. / viii, 120 leaves ; 29 cm.

The purpose of this study was to explore and gain a greater understanding of senior university students' perceptions of their readiness to enter the work force following program completion, as well as their perceptions of the availability and helpfulness of career-related resources and services. Due to the exploratory nature of this research, no a priori hypothese were generated. A sample of 324 undergraduate students attending the University of Lethbridge in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada was surveyed using the Comprehensive Career Needs Survey Post-Secondary Form, a revision of the Comprehensive Career Needs Survey developed by Magnusson and Bernes (2001). The resulting data analysis provided an overview of student perceptions of readiness to enter the work force, their thoughts about the availability and usefulness of career-related services and resources, as well as their actual use of those services and resources. This research supports previous findings regarding the benefit of experiential learning as part of the university experience and contributes information regarding the resources that students feel would be most helpful as they make the transition from school to work. / xi, 135 leaves ; 29 cm.

Textbooks newly approved for use in secondary schools in Alberta reflect the belief that not only does literature have the power to change and shape our thinking, but also that the non-White voices of our culture need to be heard if Canada is to become a country which truly welcomes and values cultural diversity. The realization that many high school students in the Crowsnest Pass area of Southern Alberta hold negative stereotypes about Canadian Aboriginal people prompted this study which measured how effective studying literature written mainly by Canadian Aboriginal people is as a means of anti-racist education. Forty-three students in grade 10, 11, and 12, 22 females and 21 males, participated in the study. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. Quantitative data, collected from responses on a gender-specific, six-item social scenarios scale, measured the extent to which students were prejudiced against Aboriginal people as pre- and post-tests. Written responses, field notes, journal entries, and interviews provided qualitative data. Though the quantitative evidence is not statistically significant, students in grades 10 and 12 showed decreased post-test scores, while those in grade 11 increased. Within each grade, individual students showed significant attitude changes. In all grades, female students had significantly lower scores than males, both pre- and post-test, evidence that there are perhaps different stages of moral development in females, as suggested by Belenky, clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarula (1986) and Gilligan (1982), than the male stages identified by Kohlberg (1969, 1981). Qualitative data revealed an increased understanding of Aboriginal issues and student attempts to view the world from a non-White perspective. Central to the study are my efforts to come to terms with my own Whiteness as well as help students understand their own positions of White privilege. This process was an emotional and disturbing experience for us all, yet one that brought growth and engendered important learning. I remain firmly committed to the need to adopt a strong anti-racist stance (rather than a multicultural one) and address racism directly in the classroom. Though difficult, it is perhaps the most important work that I, or any other teacher, may do. / xviii, 163 leaves ; 28 cm.

In a small town in a Canadian prairie province where spots, particularly football and basketball, are the chief activities, many young men in school define their self-worth based on their thletic ability. To determine the impact that sports had on the young men in this particular town, 20 boys between the ages of 15 and 19 were selected for interviews. Due to the importance placed upon sports in the school and the small size of the school, all 20 of the boys had some association with football and basketball. They either played on one of the sports teams but spent much of the time sitting on the bench, or they desired to play but failed to qualify for team play. Only one of the boys had never tried to play on one of the teams. The boys were interviewed about how they fit into the circle of sports and how their participation or non-participation has influenced them. It was determined that sports did influence their self-esteem. Many of the boys, both those who were part of the team and those who had been cut from the team, felt left out and began to dought their abilities and their worth. The study confirms much of the current literature. Recommendations include making coaches and administration aware that boys were being negatively influenced by a successful sports program, as well as calling for further research to determine the extent and depth of the negative influence of sports on boys who are not the stars of the team. / viii, 83 leaves ; 28 cm.

This study is an exploratory case study on one middle school's attempt at the alleviation of a number of problem areas through the implementation of the closed campus approach to scheduling. This work outlines a 2 year qualitative and quantitative case study that allowed the researcher a genuine opportunity to examine a radical departure from the normal mode of educational delivery provided to this age group. It was felt that a case study of the well-grounded theory of the closed campus model of scheduling would be beneficial to others interested in possible vehicles for school improvement. A discussion of the condition of the sample school the year prior to the implementation of the closed campus is included as well as an account of both the logistical and physical steps taken by the sample school in implementing the closed campus. The study suggest that the closed campus approach did appear to improve a variety of student and staff factors shown by research to be related to a safe and orderly learning environment and important learning outcomes, as compared to conditions observed during the previous year under the traditional, open campus approach. These variables included incidents of late arrival by students, student suspensions, student behaviour problems, physical altercations, verbal abuse of staff by students, verbal abuse of students by students, subject related behavioural concerns, student absenteeism and staff absenteeism. Although the quantitative comparisons included in this study show directional trends, they do not reflect a casual relationship. It is hoped that readers of this study will be able to generalize its findings to other situations they may find appropriate. / xii, 140 leaves ; 28 cm.

A large body of research literature connects the concept of community with schools and other educational organizations. This study: 1. Drew from that educational literature: (a) a typology of the different senses in which the term community is conceptualized; (b) guiding principles for building community. 2. Interviewed thirteen educators from Calgary (Alberta, Canada) Public Board of Education to ascertain: (a) how these educators conceptualize the concept of community; (b) their views on how the concept of community could be operationalized in schools. 3. Analyzed how (1) and (2) do and do not complement each other. 4. Drew conclusions and made recommendations for future study, policy and action which will allow the idea of community in schools to become more attainable. The concept of community, as applied to schools, identifies two types of realtionships: territorial and relational. However, an optimal sense of community will not be experienced until people within territorial stuctures begin to interact with and relate to one another. Such an enlarged notion of community would speak to the caring and trust that exists between people; individuals' faith in process; and a sense of ownership in, commitment to, and shared responsibility for, what occurs between people within lateral structures. Another element would be the valuing of all people; valuing their place in the community, their growth as learners, and the qualities they bring and contributions they make to the community. Finally,larger connections would be made which extend beyond the smaller territorial structures, into the larger school community and beyond into larger communities outside the school. This study may also serve as an heuristic springboard for future research in at least five major areas: 1. How value systems are developed by educators and educational leaders. 2. How educators and eduactional leaders come to value shared leadership and shared responsibility in lateral structures. 3. The potential for one type of community serving as a foundation for others. 4. How currently vague and abstract concepts of community may be expressed in language that is clear, precise and practical. 5. Longitudinal studies of educators and educational leaders addressing the assumptions of what learning communities and communities of leaders are and should be. / xi, 137 leaves ; 28 cm.

This study will reveal leadership practices that formal leaders and their followers identify as contributing to sustainable change in schools through the analysis of trends in quantitative data and synthesis of related qualitative data. Explored within the framework of the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI), this study is a timely contribution to the provincial context of public education. From provincial politics to grass roots strategies in schools, this research complements the current literature base with an informed Albertan perspective on effective leadership for continous school improvement. The interviews in this study demonstrate leadership practices that are prevalent in schools with improvement projects through Cycle 1 of AISI and into Cycle 2. These practices correlate, in varying degrees, with a model of transformational leadership. As Cycle 2 enters its third and final year, AISI has served as a catalyst for leadership strategies creating a culture of continuous improvement. Momentum is building as teachers become accustomed to using a data to show how student learning is improving. Alberta Initiative for School Improvement has undeniably impacted the responsibilities and experiences of teachers in schools and has moved educational leadership along the spectrum from traditional to transformational. considerable work has been done to engage staff in decision-making and setting priorities for improvement, resulting in the mobilization of school communities looking for ways to ensure high quality learning opportunities for all. / ix, 78 leaves ; 29 cm.