This phenomenological study explores the digitally-mediated literacy practices of a group of students who have been unsuccessful with the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test. More specifically, this study documents the out-of-school online literacy practices that are attractive to students who have failed to achieve dominant school literacy and explores the conditions that drive them. These practices are recognized as socially situated. Interviews were conducted at a Toronto school with 3 grade twelve students enrolled in the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course, an alternative method to fulfil the provincially mandated literacy graduation requirement. Three findings emerged: a) participants’ desire for “real” texts, defined as those that reflect their understanding of the world and connect them to the lives of others, b) the high value placed on visual and verbal semiotic resources and c) participants felt empowered by their online literacy practices but regarded in-school literacy as a site of resistance.

This narrative research examines the ways in which craft is conceptualized from the perspective of five recent graduates from the Material Art and Design Fibre Program at a prominent Canadian art and design university. Recognizing the cultural currents that have excised acts of making, including Western de-industrialization and abundant access to offshore labour markets, this research looks at the role of maker within a new societal context. A nascent theoretical platform for craft, shaped by artists and academics, counters a dearth of voices that has characterized the field’s history. Here, craft is posited as a methodology, characterized by embodiment, subjectivity, resistance, and skill. The experience of emerging makers, and their reflection in relation to this theoretical framework, allows for a broader consideration of present-day craft practice, and a renewed consideration of material arts curricula.

Guided primarily by critical constructivism as the theoretical framework, this dissertation examines the extent to which civic education in Kenya creates dialogic spaces where issues of social difference, peace and democracy are addressed. The participants of the study included four history and government teachers; four Form 1 classes; principals of the two high schools and one curriculum developer. History and government was selected because one of the course’s objectives is to develop responsible and active citizens who would participate in fostering peace and democracy. In this study, peace is conceptualized as the absence of both direct and structural violence, and democracy is conceived, not merely as majority rule, but as exercising one’s opinions where citizens’ contributions influence decisions and have control over public policies that govern their lives. Using observations, interviews and document analysis, the study focuses on pedagogical practices, educators’ and students’ views about civic education in two public schools in Nairobi. The two sites were selected because the students came from diverse social and ethnic backgrounds and the schools offered co-education. Therefore, the schools’ student demographics provided the kind of social differences that are the focus of this study. In the analysis, attention was paid to the official curriculum and the way teachers enacted the curriculum to foster peace and social justice. Findings indicate that although the official curriculum stated the course should foster peace and social justice, the enacted curriculum gravitated towards transmission of facts. Consequently, the enacted curriculum did little to empower students to think critically; it hardly created opportunities to encourage discussion of societal issues that would promote peace and democracy. Several factors such as prescribed official curriculum, standardized examinations, lack of resources, students’ inadequate English skills, and inadequate teacher training influenced and shaped teachers’ pedagogical practices. Despite this, teachers struggled to exercise their agency by navigating through some of these challenges to achieve what they believed were the objectives of the course. These findings pointed to the need of establishing ways of addressing these challenges in order to make civic education more relevant and meaningful to students and to the Kenyan society.

Guided primarily by critical constructivism as the theoretical framework, this dissertation examines the extent to which civic education in Kenya creates dialogic spaces where issues of social difference, peace and democracy are addressed. The participants of the study included four history and government teachers; four Form 1 classes; principals of the two high schools and one curriculum developer. History and government was selected because one of the course’s objectives is to develop responsible and active citizens who would participate in fostering peace and democracy. In this study, peace is conceptualized as the absence of both direct and structural violence, and democracy is conceived, not merely as majority rule, but as exercising one’s opinions where citizens’ contributions influence decisions and have control over public policies that govern their lives. Using observations, interviews and document analysis, the study focuses on pedagogical practices, educators’ and students’ views about civic education in two public schools in Nairobi. The two sites were selected because the students came from diverse social and ethnic backgrounds and the schools offered co-education. Therefore, the schools’ student demographics provided the kind of social differences that are the focus of this study. In the analysis, attention was paid to the official curriculum and the way teachers enacted the curriculum to foster peace and social justice. Findings indicate that although the official curriculum stated the course should foster peace and social justice, the enacted curriculum gravitated towards transmission of facts. Consequently, the enacted curriculum did little to empower students to think critically; it hardly created opportunities to encourage discussion of societal issues that would promote peace and democracy. Several factors such as prescribed official curriculum, standardized examinations, lack of resources, students’ inadequate English skills, and inadequate teacher training influenced and shaped teachers’ pedagogical practices. Despite this, teachers struggled to exercise their agency by navigating through some of these challenges to achieve what they believed were the objectives of the course. These findings pointed to the need of establishing ways of addressing these challenges in order to make civic education more relevant and meaningful to students and to the Kenyan society.

One of the challenges that Caribbean immigrant parents and children face as they settle into their new environment is interacting with teachers using their variety of English. This study seeks to explore the experiences of Caribbean immigrant parents and their children in their interactions with teachers in Toronto and the perceptions that they have about these interactions. The author’s purpose is to bring voice to their language encounters. Qualitative analysis is utilized throughout the general discussion of the study. Using Colaizzi’s (1978) phenomenology approach, data was collected through semi-structured interviews from a sample of six immigrant parents and seven children within Toronto. The central themes that emerge from the data are organized under the four research questions. The results of the research may assist policy makers, educators, teachers, and support staff who plan and implement programs geared towards enhancing the interaction between themselves and Caribbean immigrant students and parents.

This narrative research examines the ways in which craft is conceptualized from the perspective of five recent graduates from the Material Art and Design Fibre Program at a prominent Canadian art and design university. Recognizing the cultural currents that have excised acts of making, including Western de-industrialization and abundant access to offshore labour markets, this research looks at the role of maker within a new societal context. A nascent theoretical platform for craft, shaped by artists and academics, counters a dearth of voices that has characterized the field’s history. Here, craft is posited as a methodology, characterized by embodiment, subjectivity, resistance, and skill. The experience of emerging makers, and their reflection in relation to this theoretical framework, allows for a broader consideration of present-day craft practice, and a renewed consideration of material arts curricula.

This phenomenological study explores the digitally-mediated literacy practices of a group of students who have been unsuccessful with the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test. More specifically, this study documents the out-of-school online literacy practices that are attractive to students who have failed to achieve dominant school literacy and explores the conditions that drive them. These practices are recognized as socially situated. Interviews were conducted at a Toronto school with 3 grade twelve students enrolled in the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course, an alternative method to fulfil the provincially mandated literacy graduation requirement. Three findings emerged: a) participants’ desire for “real” texts, defined as those that reflect their understanding of the world and connect them to the lives of others, b) the high value placed on visual and verbal semiotic resources and c) participants felt empowered by their online literacy practices but regarded in-school literacy as a site of resistance.

As a conceptual study, this thesis aims to establish a holistic pedagogy of art integration that would address nurturing the whole child as the goal of education. Over the last few decades, art integration has become an important academic issue in curriculum studies, particularly at the early and primary levels of childhood education. Many have entertained various modes of art integration to promote their personal or institutional philosophies and goals of schooling. As a result, we see some popular arts-integrated programs which can be characterized as ‘interdisciplinary,’ ‘cognitive,’ ‘social,’ or ‘cultural.’ Those programs and approaches suggest, in one way or another, that there are good reasons why we need to be more active in including the arts into curriculum. Our schools would be better off with a well-thought-out arts-integrated curriculum. In this movement, however, there is a critical problem: many have come to believe that the arts are useful in so far as they are good for brain development and academic improvement. This mechanistic or cause-effect view of the relevance of the arts to education has gained solid support and is becoming the major focus when teachers and schools try to integrate the arts into their curricula. Facing this situation, this study proposes a holistic pedagogy of art integration through 1) refining the holistic curriculum with the help of process thought, 2) conceptualizing natural spirituality and its relevance to the whole child, 3) establishing the holistic ways of doing the arts in curriculum, 4) building holistic models of art integration, and 5) discussing some working programs and designing one that best exemplifies the holistic models. The holistic pedagogy of art integration to be established in this study is, then, intended to be one that would remedy some critical issues like reductionism and dualism engrained in the conventional view of art integration that currently dominates our school culture. The holistic ways of the arts developed in this thesis are suggested as one of the more promising ways of transforming our schools into learning and caring communities where our children will have a better chance to thrive as ‘whole persons.’

Abstract: My inquiry, involving participant-observation and self-study, explores the stories of four older women through verbal and visual narratives. Showing how two specific types of visual narratives—sandpictures and collages—stimulate experiential story-telling and promote understanding about life experiences, I also illustrate how engagement with images extends learning and meaning-making. Effective in carrying life stories and integrating experience, the visual narratives also reveal archetypal imagery that is sustained and sustaining. Considering how visual narratives may be understood independently, I describe multiple strategies that worked for me for entering deeply into the images. I also elaborate on the relationship of visual narratives to accompanying verbal narratives, describing how tacit knowing may evolve. Through this process, I offer a framework for a curricular approach to visual narratives that involves feeling and seeing aesthetically and associatively and that provides a space for learners to express their individual stories and make meaning of significant life events. Salient narrative themes include confrontation with life-death issues, the experience of “creating a new life,” an avid early interest in books and learning, and a vital connection to the natural world. New professions after mid-life, creative expression, and volunteerism provide fulfillment and challenge as life changes promote attempts to marry relationships with self and others to work and service. My therapy practice room was the setting for five sessions, including an introduction, three experiential sandplay sessions, and a conclusion. Data derive from transcripts from free-flowing conversations, written narratives, photographs of sandpictures, and field notes written throughout the various phases of my doctoral process. This study of older women, with its emphasis on lifelong learning, visual narratives, and development of tacit knowing, will contribute to the field of narrative inquiry already strongly grounded in verbal narrative and teacher education/development. It may also promote in-depth investigations of male learners at a life stage of making meaning of, and integrating, their life experiences. New inquirers may note what I did and how it worked for me, and find their unique ways of extending the study of visual narratives while venturing into the broad field of diverse narrative forms.

As a conceptual study, this thesis aims to establish a holistic pedagogy of art integration that would address nurturing the whole child as the goal of education. Over the last few decades, art integration has become an important academic issue in curriculum studies, particularly at the early and primary levels of childhood education. Many have entertained various modes of art integration to promote their personal or institutional philosophies and goals of schooling. As a result, we see some popular arts-integrated programs which can be characterized as ‘interdisciplinary,’ ‘cognitive,’ ‘social,’ or ‘cultural.’ Those programs and approaches suggest, in one way or another, that there are good reasons why we need to be more active in including the arts into curriculum. Our schools would be better off with a well-thought-out arts-integrated curriculum. In this movement, however, there is a critical problem: many have come to believe that the arts are useful in so far as they are good for brain development and academic improvement. This mechanistic or cause-effect view of the relevance of the arts to education has gained solid support and is becoming the major focus when teachers and schools try to integrate the arts into their curricula. Facing this situation, this study proposes a holistic pedagogy of art integration through 1) refining the holistic curriculum with the help of process thought, 2) conceptualizing natural spirituality and its relevance to the whole child, 3) establishing the holistic ways of doing the arts in curriculum, 4) building holistic models of art integration, and 5) discussing some working programs and designing one that best exemplifies the holistic models. The holistic pedagogy of art integration to be established in this study is, then, intended to be one that would remedy some critical issues like reductionism and dualism engrained in the conventional view of art integration that currently dominates our school culture. The holistic ways of the arts developed in this thesis are suggested as one of the more promising ways of transforming our schools into learning and caring communities where our children will have a better chance to thrive as ‘whole persons.’