This research was undertaken to clarify the nature of barriers to persistence in natural resource sciences distance education at the tertiary level in order that participation through to completion may be improved. Its aim was to provide insights and theoretical concepts useful in clarifying distance education access as a whole, while also providing understandings helpful in improving education and communication initiatives concerning sustainable development and the environment. Ethnography was used to illuminate the declarative and tacit understandings of withdrawal and persisting students. Ethnographic interpretations of student understandings were complemented by demographic and other data collected through questionnaires and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a psychological survey instrument. Statistical analysis of quantitative data yielded predictive relationships that accounted for 24-39% of the variability in student withdrawal/persistence. However, many variables defy meaningful measurement and quantitative analysis. Overall results suggest that student withdrawal is related to a set of complex multivariables that act additively and interactively in numerous context-dependent ways to result in a dropout decision that is almost idiosyncratic in nature. Nonetheless, important common barriers to persistence are evident. Both withdrawal and persisting students experienced situational, institutional, dispositional and epistemological problems that acted as barriers. A number are relatively unique to second chance learners, who are effectively disadvantaged. Many of the problems students experienced reflect the social contradiction between their roles as students and their roles as mature adults. The newly elucidated cluster of potential barriers to student persistence termed epistemological problems are the result of incongruency between the student's cognitive and affective perceptions of knowledge, and the nature of the knowledge presented in the courses. Although the courses mainly present hard, applied knowledge with a generally positivistic, empirical viewpoint, they also demand high levels of integration and inference. as well as abstract and relativistic thinking. A number of students found the courses' diverse epistemological stances problematic: some thought the content too scientific and technical; a few found it too abstract and ambiguous. Some were challenged by demanding prerequisite knowledge requirements. Still others found it difficult, in the absence of face-to-face interaction with instructors and peers, to make the epistemological shift from learning by rote to higher level thinking. It was concluded that more facilitative instructional design and student support are needed. Distance education persistence could be enhanced by providing students with all the resources and support they need in order to exercise personal control over their learning. A dialogic construct reflecting empathetic response to the views, values, frames of reference and varying dependency states of individual adult learners is suggested. Elucidation of the epistemological problems also provides understandings useful in general improvement of natural resource management education and communication initiatives. Because the highly structured, technical and specific nature of the disciplinary content and the dense formal jargon of the disciplinary discourse in themselves impede effective communication, it appears that natural resource scientists could more effectively share their knowledge if they simplified it, assumed no prior understandings, and helped people learn by informally and subjectively putting it in a more holistic context for them, including making inferences to application and implication. / Science, Faculty of / Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for / Graduate

This is a study of the social adaptation of native Indian people in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia and the methodological implications for future research in this area. It was accomplished by reviewing the roots of the problem in history, exploring the reserve system, defining the problem as it now exists in Vancouver and outlining some programmes designed to facilitate this adaptation (in particular the Vancouver Indian Centre). In addition, it is an interview survey of the opinions of Indians and experts in Indian Affairs with respect to their perception of Indian problems and their suggestions for solution. The significance of this study is twofold. First of all, it illustrates that agencies which sponsor research may have a tendency to see its value only in pragmatic returns rather than in the contributions such research may make to generally improved understanding as a basis for sound planning. Secondly, it adds to our fund of knowledge of the urban Indian population and indicates possible future areas of research. The method consisted of highly unstructured interviews with the persons noted above. Whereas the content of the interviews with experts related primarily to the need for research, the areas of possible research, and the suggested solutions, those with Indian people focussed on specific topics such as reserves, types of schools, use of the native language, integration and amalgamation. It was suggested by officials and persons who have a great deal of contact with Indians that these were topics to which the Indian was particularly sensitive and that they were therefore not appropriate content for exploration after limited contact with subjects. We concluded that this is not necessarily true. These limited contacts with Indians who have come to the city also indicated that Indians are forsaking the reserves to seek opportunity and improved status in the urban community. In the process they are making valiant efforts to adjust to the white culture. This presupposes native strengths which should be recognized as a positive basis upon which to build welfare services. Because of the exploratory nature of this study, many of these strengths will have to be more positively identified, verified and correlated by future research. The main conclusion is that action-research in several specific areas would meet the needs and expectations of the Indians, the experts in Indian Affairs and the urban-White population. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Learning Activities in Later Life Learning is a lifelong affair. Learning is critical across the entire life course for adults facing the potentials and problems of an extended life; learning is crucial for a society adjusting to the economic and social pressures of a rapidly aging population. How can adult educators respond to these challenges and become effective catalysts for learning activities in later life? One important, preliminary step involves understanding participation in learning activities from the older adult point of view. To date, however, adult educators only have a partial view of participation in learning activities in later life, a view clouded by narrow definitions of education and learning, and limited by concepts of traditional educational programs. The purpose of this current study was to explore participation of adults over the age of 55 in a broad range of learning activities and to examine the relationship between their participation and selected personal and sociodemographic measures influencing participation. A questionnaire consisting of a checklist of 71 learning activities and sociodemographic questions was distributed to 1228 adults over the age of 55. Responses from 332 respondents were analyzed using SPSS/PC+ (Ver. 3.0). On average, older adults reported taking part in 35 learning activities over the past year. Respondents reported participating in these learning activities for an average of 14 hours per week. Respondents who reported greater participation were more likely to be female, younger, more educated, and in better health. Those reporting greater participation also reported more reasons for participation, more sponsoring agencies for their learning activities, and were more likely to belong to community and professional organizations. Older adults reported certain changes in their learning activity choices since age forty. Active people remained active in later life although they restructured their learning activity choices. They restructured their learning activity patterns by increases in attending senior centres; watching Public Broadcasting System (PBS), Knowledge Network and other educational television; reflecting on life events; and, learning about health and nutrition. The most important learning activities reported by respondents reflected the significance of nonformal and informal activities: reading books or plays; watching Public Broadcasting System (PBS), Knowledge Network and educational television; reading newspapers and magazines; travelling; talking with family and friends; and, attending senior centres. The principal sponsoring agencies for learning activities in later life were senior centres, media, and oneself. The primary reasons for participation were growth and socially-oriented: keeping one's mind alive, gaining knowledge or skill, and meeting or being with friends. The leading barrier to participation, being too busy, suggested an active lifestyle for many later life learners. Other barriers were transportation, money, location of the activity, and health status. A factor analysis of participation in 71 learning activities produced 13 factors which accounted for 48% of the variance in participation. Major factor groups clustered around themes of Volunteer Involvement, Recreation, Home Life, Self Development, Spiritual Enrichment, Wellness, Language Arts, Crafts, Leisure, Expressive, Outdoors/Nature, Hobbies and Reflection/Reading. Current definitions of learning activities for older adults are too narrow. The findings from this study demonstrated the diversity and breadth of learning activities engaged in by older people. Participation in these learning activities is not necessarily bounded by rigid age barriers, educational background or income. This study challenges the relevance of narrow views of participation based upon traditional, institutionally-based programs and identifies a complex web of predominantly nonformal, informal, and self-directed learning activities in later life. Collaborative efforts among older adults, community leaders and adult educators will promote interdependent, positive lifestyles in later life and encourage the development of more accessible educational resources for older learners. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

Many professionally trained immigrant applicants receive high marks in the selection process for their perceived value to the host Canadian society and economy. Upon arrival, however, many new immigrants find that employers and industry-regulated accreditation boards do not recognize their foreign degrees and work experience. In this thesis, I interview 25 underemployed or unemployed foreign-trained engineers in Vancouver to investigate the diversity of their experiences in the labour market. I focus on how they perceive the obstacles they are facing and how they are responding to these barriers in seeking employment. This thesis is situated in a growing body of literature that considers labour markets as complex, place-contingent, socially and institutionally embedded constructs. Using a "socio-institutionalist" approach, which refutes conventional neoclassical economics' theories of labour markets as free, self-equilibrating, and uninterrupted markets, enables me to compose, then put to work, a multilogical theoretical model that examines the ways in which various institutions control, shape, and govern access to professional engineering jobs in Vancouver. In particular, I draw upon theories of regulatory, social and cultural institutions in the labour market. I find that regulatory institutions, such as the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia (APEGBC), create licensing obstacles that are indeed profound for new immigrants. In addition, many recent immigrants are excluded from local social networks that diffuse information about professional job availabilities; assistance is provided through inclusive immigrant and ethnic networks, but this rarely leads to professional employment. Lastly, many newcomers perceive their cultural institutional affiliation to be wanting, and so pursue Canadian academic credentials in an attempt to gain entrance into the market. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Very little is known about the acculturation of African refugees in Canada. This study examined the experiences and determinants of the psychosocial adjustment of Sudanese men (n=185) who are resettling in the lower mainland of British Columbia. Findings indicate that the men use two main coping resources to ease adjustment: social support and religiosity/spirituality. The former is predictive of improved social adjustment and the latter greatly ameliorates psychological adjustment. Additionally, the role strain experienced from supporting family members in Africa financially while resettling is examined. This study shows that greater role strain does not exacerbate the adjustment difficulties of Sudanese men, but socio demographic variables such as length of residence and language proficiency do affect adjustment. Men who have resided in Canada for longer showed improved social adjustment and those who were more proficient in English had adjusted better psychologically. This study further discusses the economic insecurity of Sudanese refugees, their family composition, the importance of a cohesive ethnic community in adjusting to life in Canada and various other aspects of the experience of this group of newcomers. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Levels of living in B.C. Indian Reserve communities are substantially below those in the rest of the province. Improvement of this situation requires that maximum effect be derived from the available resources, but small size, scattered locations and diversity of social and economic circumstances inhibit local provision of a high standard of planning and other developmental advisory services. Decentralized delivery of community advisory services is recommended to make specialists available to groups of communities with broadly similar functional needs. The analysis leading to this conclusion begins by outlining the sequence of historical events which have left Indian communities in a disadvantaged position. A two part model of community development is stated. The first part relates community development to placement (location) in an urban/ remote continuum and suggests that external economic conditions greatly limit the range of development options. The second relates development options to factors within the community. The model is tested using data from a sample of communities. The results confirm the existence of significant differences in socio-economic conditions among broad groups of communities, and identify proximity to urban centres as an important factor. Economic development financing is analysed to test the second part of the model. This shows that, in the past success has been related to small scale and local initiative, findings which are attributed to congruence of project requirements with local human resources. Examination of Indian Affairs Branch organization in the light of these findings supports the current policy to decentralize the comprehensive planning function, but two major changes are recommended. The first is to provide a separate service to meet the needs of urban Indian reserve communities in all parts of the province. Secondly, the process of planning by communities should be emphasized over planning for them. It is suggested that the same recommendations are also valid for other advisory services of the Indian Affairs Branch in B.C. A discussion of shortcomings in socio-economic data from Indian communities is appended. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Vancouver Island's old growth temperate rainforest has been the focal point in the conflict between environmentalists and forestry workers. While a substantial body of sociological literature exists on participants in the environmental movement (EM), there is a dearth of literature on participants in anti-environmentalist countermovements. Share Our Resources of Port Alberni (Share) is a countermovement organization that emerged to act as a voice for forestry workers and resource dependent communities and to counter the 'misinformation' being spread by environmentalists. The conflict over forestry and conservation is fuelled as environmentalists become the "other" against which Share members mobilize and construct their collective identity - an collective identity characterized by a core of pro-industry, pro-community and anti-environmental sentiments. This thesis addresses two research questions: First, what are the underlying differences between members of the two movements with respect to their socio-demographics, values, networks, and collective identities? Second, if certain factors are important in explaining identification with the EM, then what factors are important in explaining identification with Share. Using bivariate correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis, three sources of data are analyzed: self-administered questionnaires sent to both Share (N=129) and EM members (N=381); and a telephone survey of the general public of Port Alberni (N=100). My results show that Share respondents are predominantly older, working class men employed in the forest industry without a great deal of formal education. Share members more highly value anthropocentrism and are more politically conservative. Identification with the forest industry is the strongest and most significant predictor of identification with Share. The most theoretically interesting and surprising finding is that out-group ties or ties to environmentalists, is a positive and statistically significant predictor of identification with Share.

Successful students who are immigrant language minority students (ILMS) and who were once identified as ESL learners tend to standout in the Greater Vancouver area since academic achievement tends to be the exception rather than the rule for these students. Only a small proportion appears to graduate from high school and/or pursue studies at a post-secondary level (Gunderson, 2000). If one believes that, in general, all children have what it takes to discover and learn about the world that surrounds them, and how to become an active participant in it, then one has to wonder why so many are failing. Moreover, one can ask what the few who are making it are actually doing that allows them to "beat the odds". This study attempted to explore this question through a series of qualitative iridepth interviews with fifteen 'ex-ESL students' from the Greater Vancouver area. The interviews focused on their perceptions of the factors having influenced their successful academic achievement and integration process as defined by their ability to enter a Canadian university. The importance of the special challenges that the education of ILMS presents for all involved is stressed, followed by a discussion of how these challenges were perceived, faced and overcome by the ILMS in this study. Special emphasis is put on the importance of sociocultural aspects such as the establishment of a strong sense of selfworth, strong relationships with family and friends, the preservation of home language(s) and culture(s) and prior school experiences as keys to social and academic achievement. This thesis also identifies interesting paradoxes in the way the informants perceived their educational experiences. Informants commented, for example, on the safe, yet segregating ESL classrooms and the importance of both individual and collective effort. In summarizing and discussing the comments and advice given by ILMS it is hoped that more people may gain a greater understanding of what ILMS have to face and what it takes to help make success the rule rather than the exception.

This dissertation is an ethnography of the cultural politics of Indian/white relations in a small, interior British Columbia resource city at the height of land claims conflict and tensions. Drawing on the theoretical approaches of Nicholas Thomas (1994) and Raymond Williams (1977, 1980), I show how the power that reinforces the subordination of aboriginal peoples in Canada is exercised by 'ordinary' rural Euro-Canadians whose cultural attitudes and activities are forces in an ongoing, contemporary system of colonial domination. In approaching these issues through in-depth ethnographic research with both the Native and Euro- Canadian populations and in exploring the dynamics of cultural domination and resistance at the level of a local, rural community, this dissertation stands as a unique contribution to the ethnographic study of colonialism and Native/non- Native relations in Canada. The dominant Euro-Canadian culture of the region is defined by a complex of understandings about history, society and identity that is thematically integrated through the idea of the frontier. At its heart, the frontier complex consists of an historical epistemology - a Canadian version of the American frontier myth (Slotkin 1992) - that celebrates the processes through which European explorers 'discovered' and 'conquered' North America and its aboriginal inhabitants, . Central to this complex is the Indian/white dichotomy, a founding archetype in Euro-Canadians' symbolic ordering of regional social relations and in their private and public constructions of collective identity. Also central is the Euro-Canadians' self-image of benevolent paternalism, an identity that appears repeatedly in discourses of national history and Native/non-Native relations. Facets of the frontier complex are expressed in diverse settings: casual conversations among Euro-Canadians, popular histories, museum displays, political discourse, public debates about aboriginal land claims, and the town's annual summer festival. In each setting, these practices contribute to the perpetuation of relations of inequality between Euro-Canadians and area Shuswap, Tsilhqot'in and Carrier peoples, and in each setting area Natives are engaging in diverse forms of resistance. The plurality of these strategies of resistance, rooted in different cultural identities, biographical experiences and political philosophies, reflects the creativity in which new forms of resistance are forged and tested in public contexts of Native/Euro-Canadian interaction.

Successful students who are immigrant language minority students (ILMS) and who were once identified as ESL learners tend to standout in the Greater Vancouver area since academic achievement tends to be the exception rather than the rule for these students. Only a small proportion appears to graduate from high school and/or pursue studies at a post-secondary level (Gunderson, 2000). If one believes that, in general, all children have what it takes to discover and learn about the world that surrounds them, and how to become an active participant in it, then one has to wonder why so many are failing. Moreover, one can ask what the few who are making it are actually doing that allows them to "beat the odds". This study attempted to explore this question through a series of qualitative iridepth interviews with fifteen 'ex-ESL students' from the Greater Vancouver area. The interviews focused on their perceptions of the factors having influenced their successful academic achievement and integration process as defined by their ability to enter a Canadian university. The importance of the special challenges that the education of ILMS presents for all involved is stressed, followed by a discussion of how these challenges were perceived, faced and overcome by the ILMS in this study. Special emphasis is put on the importance of sociocultural aspects such as the establishment of a strong sense of selfworth, strong relationships with family and friends, the preservation of home language(s) and culture(s) and prior school experiences as keys to social and academic achievement. This thesis also identifies interesting paradoxes in the way the informants perceived their educational experiences. Informants commented, for example, on the safe, yet segregating ESL classrooms and the importance of both individual and collective effort. In summarizing and discussing the comments and advice given by ILMS it is hoped that more people may gain a greater understanding of what ILMS have to face and what it takes to help make success the rule rather than the exception. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate