In the mid to late 1990s, many states developed eGovernment programs that included the use of consultation technologies. More recently, the social characteristics of the web have emerged as offering an alternative means for citizen participation, promising more openness and inclusion. In this dissertation I draw upon studies of the policy-making process and media design, to examine the implications of citizen-led production of infrastructures for public participation in policy-making through the social web and within the context of open government discourse. My research methods for this research project were ethnographically informed. I participated in the design and use of social web infrastructures for participation in policy-making as a contributor to open government communities in Ontario, Canada. I also analyzed Hansard records as well as the popular press, and interviewed 15 citizen designers who created social web based infrastructures for public participation in the policy-making of four bills in Ontario. In my research, I develop and use the term citizen designer drawing on the more common phrase of citizen journalist. Both terms suggest that citizens can engage in creative practices to encourage institutions such as government or the mass media to become more participatory. The citizen designers in my project were found to act as policy entrepreneurs, sometimes for particular bills, but more generally for the broader ideal of open government that includes citizen participation. The major finding of this work is that citizens are using an integrated mix of social web tools across multiple policy windows to promote openness and participation. This work contributes to the policy, information and the internet studies literatures on the roles and experiences of internet-savvy policy entrepreneurs who are situated in civil society networks, which are not always tied to formal organizations. This work also expands our understandings of citizenship to include the design and use of the social web in everyday political life.

Although school leaders receive coursework and some practicum experience, there are gaps in their preparation that can only be filled on the job. Because the decisions made by new educational leaders are of great consequence to themselves and their school communities, an important goal should be the sharing of knowledge and support amongst a community of peers. This work reviews the challenges facing new administrators, critically reviews the training of educational administrators in Ontario, and recommends an in-service community method to supplement the support received by new administrators in their first several years. This document begins with an examination of relevant research literature in leadership development, online communities, the nature of expertise, and technology-enhanced learning with technology. One outcome of this review is a set of “knowledge dimensions” that are important to the development of leadership expertise. The dissertation then examines a three year journey of an online community of educational administrators who share in their journey toward expertise. The e-mails from the community were analyzed according to their function within the community and their relevant domain content. Of particular interest was the question of how such e-mail exchanges allowed members to develop in all five dimensions of school leadership knowledge. A coding of e-mail threads revealed that all dimensions of leadership knowledge were represented in the content, and that the quality of e-mails improved in both content as well as knowledge building practices over the three years. The growth of the community as a whole and of individual members is examined through a set of individual case studies. Finally, the dissertation closes with a discussion of the future of this community, as well as the prospects that such an approach could be applied more widely in support of new school leaders.

Although school leaders receive coursework and some practicum experience, there are gaps in their preparation that can only be filled on the job. Because the decisions made by new educational leaders are of great consequence to themselves and their school communities, an important goal should be the sharing of knowledge and support amongst a community of peers. This work reviews the challenges facing new administrators, critically reviews the training of educational administrators in Ontario, and recommends an in-service community method to supplement the support received by new administrators in their first several years. This document begins with an examination of relevant research literature in leadership development, online communities, the nature of expertise, and technology-enhanced learning with technology. One outcome of this review is a set of “knowledge dimensions” that are important to the development of leadership expertise. The dissertation then examines a three year journey of an online community of educational administrators who share in their journey toward expertise. The e-mails from the community were analyzed according to their function within the community and their relevant domain content. Of particular interest was the question of how such e-mail exchanges allowed members to develop in all five dimensions of school leadership knowledge. A coding of e-mail threads revealed that all dimensions of leadership knowledge were represented in the content, and that the quality of e-mails improved in both content as well as knowledge building practices over the three years. The growth of the community as a whole and of individual members is examined through a set of individual case studies. Finally, the dissertation closes with a discussion of the future of this community, as well as the prospects that such an approach could be applied more widely in support of new school leaders.

This tri-theoretical study of globalization attempts to contribute to the limited scholarly research on global citizenship in education. Utilizing three important critical theories: neo-Marxism, gender and postcolonialist theory; this study analyzes in-depth the hidden process behind the formation of current global citizenship education. The findings reveal that it is possible to teach global citizenship education through critical civic education; however, a better understanding and application of critical theory and especially the critical sociology of space is required in current curriculums. In the absence of resources, motivation and infrastructure within school boards to implement a more state-guided critical citizenship education within their global citizenship education programs, assimilation of critical theory by teachers becomes absolutely necessary.

In the mid to late 1990s, many states developed eGovernment programs that included the use of consultation technologies. More recently, the social characteristics of the web have emerged as offering an alternative means for citizen participation, promising more openness and inclusion. In this dissertation I draw upon studies of the policy-making process and media design, to examine the implications of citizen-led production of infrastructures for public participation in policy-making through the social web and within the context of open government discourse. My research methods for this research project were ethnographically informed. I participated in the design and use of social web infrastructures for participation in policy-making as a contributor to open government communities in Ontario, Canada. I also analyzed Hansard records as well as the popular press, and interviewed 15 citizen designers who created social web based infrastructures for public participation in the policy-making of four bills in Ontario. In my research, I develop and use the term citizen designer drawing on the more common phrase of citizen journalist. Both terms suggest that citizens can engage in creative practices to encourage institutions such as government or the mass media to become more participatory. The citizen designers in my project were found to act as policy entrepreneurs, sometimes for particular bills, but more generally for the broader ideal of open government that includes citizen participation. The major finding of this work is that citizens are using an integrated mix of social web tools across multiple policy windows to promote openness and participation. This work contributes to the policy, information and the internet studies literatures on the roles and experiences of internet-savvy policy entrepreneurs who are situated in civil society networks, which are not always tied to formal organizations. This work also expands our understandings of citizenship to include the design and use of the social web in everyday political life.

This dissertation is a critical ethnography conducted in the Amazon jungle city of Iquitos, Peru--a city where sex work and sex tourism are becoming increasingly prevalent, and where AIDS cases in women are on the rise. In recent years, HIV positive and sex worker women activists in Iquitos have made significant strides to respond to the AIDS crisis through social movement organizing and educational outreach. This dissertation exposes the nuanced gender relations perspectives of HIV positive and sex worker women activists and underscores the importance of including these subjugated knowledges in solution-oriented discourses in HIV/AIDS education. I deployed a combination of gender relations and postcolonial feminist theories to pursue two lines of inquiry. First, I investigated HIV positive women and sex worker women activists' own understandings of gender relations and gender-related risk factors for HIV. Second, I explored the varied educational spaces that activist women produced to disseminate this knowledge to other affected populations and the wider public. Results show that women activists' collective organizing around their stigmatized identities positioned them to critically comment about how gender influences HIV risk for both women and men and also enabled them to encourage their stakeholders to re-think and re-learn gender in ways that would reduce their risk to HIV. As the title of this dissertation reads, women activists asserted that they are "part of the solution" to combat HIV/AIDS in Peru. My dissertation shows that "activist knowledge" is critical to re-conceptualize the ways that local expressions of masculinities, femininities and gender relations are taken up in HIV/AIDS education initiatives.

This dissertation is a critical ethnography conducted in the Amazon jungle city of Iquitos, Peru--a city where sex work and sex tourism are becoming increasingly prevalent, and where AIDS cases in women are on the rise. In recent years, HIV positive and sex worker women activists in Iquitos have made significant strides to respond to the AIDS crisis through social movement organizing and educational outreach. This dissertation exposes the nuanced gender relations perspectives of HIV positive and sex worker women activists and underscores the importance of including these subjugated knowledges in solution-oriented discourses in HIV/AIDS education. I deployed a combination of gender relations and postcolonial feminist theories to pursue two lines of inquiry. First, I investigated HIV positive women and sex worker women activists' own understandings of gender relations and gender-related risk factors for HIV. Second, I explored the varied educational spaces that activist women produced to disseminate this knowledge to other affected populations and the wider public. Results show that women activists' collective organizing around their stigmatized identities positioned them to critically comment about how gender influences HIV risk for both women and men and also enabled them to encourage their stakeholders to re-think and re-learn gender in ways that would reduce their risk to HIV. As the title of this dissertation reads, women activists asserted that they are "part of the solution" to combat HIV/AIDS in Peru. My dissertation shows that "activist knowledge" is critical to re-conceptualize the ways that local expressions of masculinities, femininities and gender relations are taken up in HIV/AIDS education initiatives.

This tri-theoretical study of globalization attempts to contribute to the limited scholarly research on global citizenship in education. Utilizing three important critical theories: neo-Marxism, gender and postcolonialist theory; this study analyzes in-depth the hidden process behind the formation of current global citizenship education. The findings reveal that it is possible to teach global citizenship education through critical civic education; however, a better understanding and application of critical theory and especially the critical sociology of space is required in current curriculums. In the absence of resources, motivation and infrastructure within school boards to implement a more state-guided critical citizenship education within their global citizenship education programs, assimilation of critical theory by teachers becomes absolutely necessary.

There is a public perception that Canada is an ideal place for cultivating global citizenship because of its culturally plural demographics and official policies of multiculturalism. Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is a growing field in Canadian education and is an explicit focus in the Alberta social studies curriculum. This thesis brings together four conversations within which multiculturalism and GCE are both related and conflated: (a) the public perceptions of Canada as a model of cultural diversity and global citizenship, (b) the scholarly discussions of GCE and multiculturalism, (c) the policy context where multiculturalism is set alongside GCE, and (d) the practical ways that the two are mutually related in curriculum and lesson documents. There are four interrelated sections to this thesis; each identifies the tensions inherent to multiculturalism, GCE, and the perceived relationship between these fields. First is a wider philosophical and theoretical framing of the topic. Second is the examination of educational research on the topic. Third is a critical discourse analysis of policy, curriculum, and lesson plan documents in the province of Alberta. Last is a synthesis of the findings from all three sections. The analysis finds that there are philosophical and ideological tensions inherent to both fields and to the relationships between them. This contributes to conceptual and ideological conflation and confusion. This finding raises some important concerns in terms of possibilities and constraints to thinking about cultural diversity and social inequities in new ways. It highlights how multicultural contexts of GCE can lead to the recreation of tensions, conflation, and ambiguity. However, the Alberta context demonstrates that a multicultural context can also open critical spaces and possibilities for GCE through engagements with tensions and complexities. Thus this thesis contributes theoretically, by presenting a framework and perspective for interrogating and critically inquiring into the relationship between the two fields. It also contributes to the policy and curriculum discussions in educational research and practice by highlighting the importance of foregrounding key tensions inherent to each field and by identifying the potential negative consequences of leaving these tensions implicit.

In trying to understand ecological identity within adult environmental education, I embarked on an arts-informed exploration of my life history. I realized that everything I know about the environment grew from what I experienced as a child. My childhood experiences are most vivid in my memories of the natural world. I wanted to know more about the relationship between childhood experiences and ecological identity. Based on a personal transformation, and journey toward restoring awareness of the senses and how we know as human beings, I chose my life as the focus of this research. Had my childhood experiences influenced how I relate to the environment? How had they done that? What was it about those childhood experiences? This thesis is the culmination of my inquiry. It is my story and an offering to travel with me to my childhood and make sense of your own experiences in the natural world.