Abstract The expectation to teach content and skills within a structured educative setting creates a climate of tremendous challenge and opportunity for educators on a daily basis. Educators will seek out ways to integrate curriculum as a way of being efficient. Curriculum integration, while a commonly used educational term, remains a challenging concept to define and examine both in research and in classroom practice. Curricula integration is a microscopic lens whereby the educator approaches their practice. Curriculum integration can be an effective method of delivering curriculum. However, daily instruction that contains instructional methods that are embedded within multiple learning styles and modalities are paramount. More importantly, than the how a curriculum is integrated appears to be an educator’s methods of instruction, management and organization. My thesis develops what I have called “A Blended Curricula Deliverance Program” that helps deliver instruction in a holistic manner.

Abstract The expectation to teach content and skills within a structured educative setting creates a climate of tremendous challenge and opportunity for educators on a daily basis. Educators will seek out ways to integrate curriculum as a way of being efficient. Curriculum integration, while a commonly used educational term, remains a challenging concept to define and examine both in research and in classroom practice. Curricula integration is a microscopic lens whereby the educator approaches their practice. Curriculum integration can be an effective method of delivering curriculum. However, daily instruction that contains instructional methods that are embedded within multiple learning styles and modalities are paramount. More importantly, than the how a curriculum is integrated appears to be an educator’s methods of instruction, management and organization. My thesis develops what I have called “A Blended Curricula Deliverance Program” that helps deliver instruction in a holistic manner.

This research explores implications of service in learning for social change through an investigation of the Preparation for Social Action (PSA) Program in Uganda against the backdrop of the literature on service learning. Employing critical pedagogy as a theoretical framework, I approach questions regarding the conceptualization of self and society in service as a relational process, the conceptualization of service as praxis, and the conceptualization of social change within an orientation towards service. Through this analysis I present a case for conceptualizing service in learning within a dialogical framework oriented towards change.

This research explores implications of service in learning for social change through an investigation of the Preparation for Social Action (PSA) Program in Uganda against the backdrop of the literature on service learning. Employing critical pedagogy as a theoretical framework, I approach questions regarding the conceptualization of self and society in service as a relational process, the conceptualization of service as praxis, and the conceptualization of social change within an orientation towards service. Through this analysis I present a case for conceptualizing service in learning within a dialogical framework oriented towards change.

This thesis research is a narrative inquiry into the cross-generational schooling experiences of six former and current students during a period of momentous social, economic, cultural and political change in China’s modern history, 1949 to the present. It focuses on students’ experience in curricular situations and how they construct and reconstruct curricular meanings. Through this work, I intend to foster a deeper understanding of knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and values about schooling revealed from students’ school experiences. According to Dewey (1938), Schwab (1978), Connelly and Clandinin (1988), curriculum does not only refer to the content in textbooks, but includes people, things, and processes of a learning environment. I used Schwab’s (1978) four commonplaces of curriculum, student, subject matter, teacher and milieu, to explore students’ curricular experiences in relation to the general field of curriculum studies as framed by Dewey, Schwab, Connelly and Clandinin. “These [four] commonplaces combine in different ways, becoming more or less prominent, and more or less salient, in teaching and learning situations” (Conle, 2003, p. 6). Schwab’s (1978) four commonplaces of curriculum provided an avenue for exploring the curricular meanings my and my participants make of our schooling. My participants are my parents, my nephew, an old (male) friend from school, a young female and myself. Since we all share a Chinese upbringing, our school stories were told and explored within China’s social, economic and political contexts. Telling and retelling my and my participants’ schooling experiences and making meaning and significance from them help to convey what has been happening in our curricular situations. Our cross-generational student experiences bring a set of perspectives to explore what it means to be educated in China. By constructing and reconstructing the meaning of our schooling experiences, this study provides space for students’ school stories to be reflectively heard and examined (Olson & Craig, 2005; Richie & Wilson, 2000)in the recent change in China’s educational reforms that seek to promote quality education and engage students’ independent and critical thinking.

The purpose of this study is to understand the significance of contemplative practice in fostering teachers’ personal practical knowledge. Teachers’ practical knowledge has been valued to make teaching relevant to students’ real life contexts. However, practical knowledge has been considered difficult to teach because of the diversity and dynamism of reality. Based on the conceptualization that teachers’ contemplative practice could support their practical knowledge development, this qualitative study was carried out through a review of the literature and exploration of direct experiences of four teachers who have linked their contemplative practices to their teaching. The literature review informs us that in order to develop teachers’ practical knowledge, attention, a sense of the whole, and a sense of context are critical. In addition, those qualities can be fostered by non-dual knowing or intuitive knowing which can be developed by contemplation, that is, the act of looking at something by paying attention without thinking of anything else and without premises or judgments. The exploration of the participants’ direct experiences shows that their contemplative practices performed a significant role in fostering personal practical knowledge of self, students, environment, subject matter, curriculum, and instruction and in making their teaching relevant to the students’ real lives from a holistic perspective.

This qualitative research maps multiliteracies onto the pedagogy of teachers of kindergarten through grade 12. It examines how teachers ready their students to become multiliterate beings, that is, how teachers approach literacy in a manner that is reflective of the diversity of students in order to prepare them for their futures in a competitive digital world. Twenty teachers from Northwestern Ontario were selected using intensity sampling to participate in audio-taped interviews. The sample included three teachers from each of the elementary grades (kindergarten, primary, junior and intermediate) and eight teachers from the secondary panel (intermediate/senior). Teachers were nominated by school administrators and curriculum leaders based on a provided list of multiliteracies indicators. An interview guide was used to isolate elements of the content of multiliteracies (designing processes) and the form (situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing and transformed practice). One teacher from each of the four elementary grade divisions, as well as two teachers from the secondary level were observed and participated in follow-up interviews. Individual interviews were coded using a deductive frame as well as constant comparison. The observational field notes and follow-up interviews were used as triangulation to enrich the interview data. Excel and macros were used to organize the data. Findings document teachers’ conscious inclusions of content reflective of student subjectivities as well as the need for teachers to continue to challenge the role of literacy as more than compensatory education. Teachers’ pedagogies were rooted in engaging students and demonstrated a focus on the affective needs of students that reached beyond multiliteracies theory. Both critical literacies and information technology were integrated into pedagogy, although teachers reported feelings of low confidence and the desire for additional professional development opportunities. Other findings that emerged emphasized a range in orientations to student risk in literacy learning and strong alignments with provincial protocol. This study advances the research field by describing connections between multiliteracies as a theoretical frame and teachers’ perceptions of their literacy practices across grades K-12 and highlights ways in which multiliteracies can extend literacy pedagogy.

Becoming a Family Physician – Exploring the Experiences of Residents During the First Six Months of Postgraduate Training describes the early training experience of residents from their perspective as they begin a postgraduate program in Family Medicine. A case study approach using focus groups and individual interviews was used to gain insight into the resident-participant’s experiences of the first six months of training. Resident-participants were asked to describe their concerns, changes that occurred and the influences they attributed to those changes as a way to explore their early training experiences from their perspective. This study found resident-trainees do not begin a Family Medicine postgraduate training program knowing what it means to be a Family Physician, but must learn what it means to fulfill this role. From the participants’ perspective, this process involves adjusting to significant shifts in responsibility in the areas of Knowledge, Practice Management and Relationships that occur when they make the transition from being medical students in undergraduate training to doctors responsible for the outcome of care during postgraduate training. As the participants began postgraduate training they were eager to accept the responsibility of being the doctor, but were uncertain they had the necessary medical experience and expertise for someone calling themselves the doctor. The experience of practice, which included developing relationships with different patients over time (continuity of care) was particularly influential in helping the participants gain confidence in fulfilling the role of doctor and learning that the role of Family Physician is complex, multifaceted and not limited to their initial concept of doctoring. As the participants adjusted to their new responsibilities, they gained confidence in their new role as doctor, which subsequently led to a more comprehensive understanding of what it meant to be a Family Physician. This study was able to contribute to what little is know about the transition into a postgraduate Family Medicine program by illuminating from the resident-participant’s perspective how the transition is experienced. In doing so, medical educators have a better understanding of the early training experience of resident-trainees and how these experiences contribute to consolidating their new professional identity.

Curriculum integration, while a commonly used educational term, remains a challenging concept to define and examine both in research and in classroom practice. Numerous types and definitions of curriculum integration exist in educational research, while, in comparison, teachers tend to focus on curriculum integration simply as a mixing of subject areas. To better understand curriculum integration in practice, this thesis details a case study that examines both teacher and student perspectives regarding a grade nine integrated unit on energy. Set in a public secondary school in Ontario, Canada, I comprehensively describe and analyze teacher understandings of, and challenges with, the implementation of an integrated unit, while also examining student perspectives and academic learning. My participants consisted of two high school teachers, a geography teacher and a science teacher, and their twenty-three students. Using data gathered from interviews before, during, and after the implementation of a 16-lesson unit, as well as observations throughout, I completed a case description and thematic analysis. My results illustrate the importance of examining why teachers choose to implement an integrated unit and the planning and scheduling challenges that exist. In addition, while the students in this study were academically successful, clarification is needed regarding whether student success can be linked to the integration of these two subjects or the types of activities these two teachers utilized.

This thesis research is a narrative inquiry into the cross-generational schooling experiences of six former and current students during a period of momentous social, economic, cultural and political change in China’s modern history, 1949 to the present. It focuses on students’ experience in curricular situations and how they construct and reconstruct curricular meanings. Through this work, I intend to foster a deeper understanding of knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and values about schooling revealed from students’ school experiences. According to Dewey (1938), Schwab (1978), Connelly and Clandinin (1988), curriculum does not only refer to the content in textbooks, but includes people, things, and processes of a learning environment. I used Schwab’s (1978) four commonplaces of curriculum, student, subject matter, teacher and milieu, to explore students’ curricular experiences in relation to the general field of curriculum studies as framed by Dewey, Schwab, Connelly and Clandinin. “These [four] commonplaces combine in different ways, becoming more or less prominent, and more or less salient, in teaching and learning situations” (Conle, 2003, p. 6). Schwab’s (1978) four commonplaces of curriculum provided an avenue for exploring the curricular meanings my and my participants make of our schooling. My participants are my parents, my nephew, an old (male) friend from school, a young female and myself. Since we all share a Chinese upbringing, our school stories were told and explored within China’s social, economic and political contexts. Telling and retelling my and my participants’ schooling experiences and making meaning and significance from them help to convey what has been happening in our curricular situations. Our cross-generational student experiences bring a set of perspectives to explore what it means to be educated in China. By constructing and reconstructing the meaning of our schooling experiences, this study provides space for students’ school stories to be reflectively heard and examined (Olson & Craig, 2005; Richie & Wilson, 2000)in the recent change in China’s educational reforms that seek to promote quality education and engage students’ independent and critical thinking.