The competition for scare resources in higher education has increased the pressure on administrators and educators to evaluate educational programs, and to demonstrate quality outcomes. Accreditation has been suggested as a useful tool for looking at accountability, but little research has been conducted to explore this issue, particularly in program accreditation. Little evidence exists to support the assumption that program accreditation adds value to the educational environment. This study explored the perceptions of program directors and administrators regarding the impact of accreditation on the quality of Canadian dental hygiene diploma programs. A 63% response rate was received from the 54 individuals surveyed, representing an 85% institutional response rate from the 27 accredited programs. Of these respondents, 21 individuals also participated in a semi-structured interview. Descriptive and inferential statistics including t-tests and ANOVAs were calculated for the usefulness of accreditation, the importance of accreditation requirements, and the value of accreditation phases. Accreditation as a stimulus for improvement was rated as extremely useful by 41% and very useful by 41%. As a tool for self-evaluation it was rated as extremely useful by 24% and very useful by 56%. While all the standards were rated as important, the following received the highest ratings: Clinical Outcomes Review Evaluation {extremely important 38%, and very important 35%), curriculum {extremely important 44% and very important 44%), preparation for clinical practice {extremely important 40% and very important 47%), and faculty and faculty development (extremely important 38% and very important 50%). While the site-visit and the report were valued, the self-study phase received the highest ratings in promoting program quality (great value 41% and much value 41%). The accreditation process appears to be the most important factor in understanding the relationship between accreditation and program quality. The process provides the catalyst for transforming accreditation standards into quality elements within programs. While accreditation influences program quality, educational institutions mainly seek accreditation to facilitate licensure and portability of graduates. If the link between licensure and accreditation decreases, the support of the educational institutions may wane. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

In the latter part of the 1980's, contracting by the Correctional Service of Canada with private and public institutions accelerated. This contracting included provision of educational programs. Therefore, as a result of a new emphasis upon Canadian literacy education during the same period, there arose a need to select numbers of contract personnel who would be effective in prison adult basic education teaching. Subsequently, eighteen teachers in the Ontario and Pacific Regions of the Correctional Service of Canada were subjects of a study that sought information about effectiveness criteria to assist in the selection of teachers for prison adult basic education teaching. The Evaluation of Teacher Behaviors rating instrument established an upper quartile that identified five prison adult basic education teachers perceived as most effective, and a lower quartile of five prison adult basic education teachers perceived as least effective. Teachers completed the Demographic Data Questionnaire, providing information about academic education, teaching experience, additional training and education, and certification. They then participated in a structured, oral interview, the Correctional Teacher Interview Survey, responding to questions about their teaching strategies and their personal beliefs regarding the effects of prison education. Three experienced correctional educators rated these responses according to criteria that suggested possession of qualities such as sense of mission, structure, and empathy. Three teachers from the high group also responded to the Supplementary Questionnaire, which asked for their perceptions of their own schooling, relevant life experiences, and attitudes to their students as individuals. Analysis of the results of the Evaluation of Teacher Behaviors indicated statistically significant differentiation between the two groups on each of eleven criteria, with greatest differentiation for the criteria original, overall effective, adaptable, and stimulating. Analysis of responses to the Demographic Data Questionnaire showed that in the high group there was a greater percentage of teachers who had recently been involved in supplementary training and continuing education experiences. The low group of teachers possessed more years of experience in public/parochial school teaching than did teachers in the high group. The three correctional educators who rated the subject teachers' responses to the Correctional Teachers Interview Survey found that the teachers in the high group scored better on the characteristics clarity, desire to help students grow, structure, and empathy than did teachers in the low group. Analysis revealed that both the students who rated the eighteen teachers on the Evaluation of Teacher Behaviors instrument and the three correctional educators who rated the responses of the same teachers to the Correctional Teacher Interview Survey had, according to these ratings, similarly placed eight of the ten subject teachers in their respective high and low groups. The Supplementary Questionnaire revealed that three teachers from the high group possessed similar experiences in their personal and professional backgrounds and currently employed similar teaching strategies. Findings from this study have suggested that teachers who are perceived effective may possess behavioral characteristics, life and work experiences, and similar teaching strategies that distinguish them from those who are perceived to be low in effectiveness. Appropriate application and interview techniques could be designed to elicit information about these distinguishing elements. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

No description available.

No description available.

Traditional histories of Canadian education pursue an east/west perspective, with progress accompanying settlement westward from Ontario. This history of Saskatchewan education posits, instead, a north-south perspective, embracing the US cultural routes for the province’s educational development from 1905 until 1937. I emphasize the transplantation of US Midwestern and Plains culture to the province of Saskatchewan through cultural transfer of agrarian movements, political forms of revolt, and through adopting shared meanings of democracy and the relationship of the West relative to the East. Physiographic similarities between Saskatchewan and the American Plains fostered similar moralistic political cultures and largely identical solutions to identical problems. This larger cultural transfer facilitated developments in Saskatchewan K-12 education that paralleled movements in the US milieu through appropriating into the province’s system of schooling American teachers into classrooms, American school textbooks, teacher training textbooks written in the US, and through the pursuit of American graduate training by Saskatchewan Normal School instructors. This resulted in the articulation in the US and Saskatchewan of a “rural school problem,” consolidation as its only solution, and the transplantation of a language of school reform identified by Herbert Kliebard as “social efficiency.” The invitation issued by the government of Saskatchewan in 1917 to an American expert on rural schooling, Harold Foght, to survey the province’s system of schooling and make recommendations for its reform, marked a high point in American influence in the province of Saskatchewan’s system of schooling. In higher education the province’s sole university, the University of Saskatchewan, mirrored even more closely American Midwestern and Plains models. Essentially, the U of S was a transplanted version of the University of Wisconsin. Under the guidance of the University’s first President, Walter C. Murray, the “Wisconsin idea” permeated the practice and meaning of his University. His persistent pursuit of Carnegie Foundation financial support throughout his tenure meant Murray had to pattern his university after its American antecedents. Though Murray largely failed to gain substantial financial support for the U of S, the result was a university identical to many American land grant and public universities.

Physical education is a profession where heterosexuality has historically been regarded as normal, if not compulsory. The location of female physical education (PE) teachers at the nexus of discourses about masculinist sport, women's physical education and pedagogies of the body has exerted unique historical pressures on their sexualities. In North America and Western Europe, female PE teachers have frequently been suspected of being lesbian. This suspicion has enveloped lesbian teachers in a shroud of oppressive silence, tolerated only as an 'open secret' (Cahn, 1994). This study examined the life histories of six women from three generations who had taught physical education in western Canada. Previous life history research has focused exclusively on lesbian PE teachers (Clarke, 1996; Sparkes, 1992, 1994a, 1994b; Squires & Sparkes, 1996; Sparkes & Templin, 1992) which risks reinforcing a hierarchical relationship between 'lesbian' and 'heterosexual'. Accordingly, three women who identified as 'lesbian' and three as 'married' or 'heterosexual' were involved in this study which incorporated poststructural, psychoanalytic and queer theories about sexual subjectivity into a feminist approach to life history. The notions of 'understanding' and 'overstanding' were used to analyze data which meant interpreting not only had been said during the interviews but also what was left unsaid. The women's life histories revealed how lesbian sexualities have been marginalized and silenced, especially within the physical education profession. A l l the women grew up in families where heterosexuality was normalized, and all except one experienced pressure to date boys during their high school education in Canada. As teachers, identifying as a 'feminist' had a greater affect on their personal politics and approaches to teaching than their sexual identities. The life histories also provided limited support to the notion that PE teacher's participation in various women's sports accentuated the suspicion of lesbianism. For two of the 'lesbian' women, team sports continued to provide valuable lesbian communities from the 1950s to the present day. In contrast, one 'lesbian' women established her lesbian social network through individual sports and urban feminist groups. The 'heterosexual' women had all participated in gender-neutral sports. Overall the sporting backgrounds of these teachers did little to dispel the long-standing association between women's sports and lesbianism which, in turn, has affected female PE teachers. Drawing on queer theory and the notion of 'overstanding' data, deconstructive interpretations suggested how heterosexuality had been normalized in several institutional discourses within women's physical education. These interpretations undermined the boundaries of 'the closet', sought out an absent lesbian gaze and suggested that homophobia has been, in part, rooted in the social unconscious of the physical education profession.

This descriptive study was done to provide information on the number of hours and clinical experience students received during nursing education which might equip them with skills required for mental retardation nursing. Registered Nurses Associations for each province assisted in the study by providing lists of nursing schools in their province. Of the 142 nursing schools having a graduating class in 1969, 140 were studied. The urgency of the problem was shown when it was noted that an estimated 3 percent of the population of Canada were mentally retarded. Several commissions have been done on this topic in the past decade in Canada. Some studies of this general nature have been done in the United States. Review of the literature indicated that no previous studies had been done on this topic in Canada. A questionnaire was constructed to obtain data relating to placement of mental retardation experience, hours of theory and clinical experience provided and the year of nursing education in which the experience occurred. Questionnaires were mailed to the schools, completed by them, and returned. It was found that diploma schools tended to provide between 0 to 8 hours of theory and clinical experience in mental retardation whereas university schools tended to offer up to 12 hours of experience. Most nursing education in mental retardation occurred in pediatrics or psychiatric programs or in combinations of these and other courses. Mental retardation nursing education tended to occur in the next to the last year of the program for all schools. Many schools, however, indicated that mental retardation experience was not included in the school curriculum at all. It appeared that very little theory and clinical experience in mental retardation was being given students enrolled in nursing schools in Canada. The relative lack of planned clinical experience with retarded individuals was surprising. Several problems and limitations were encountered in conducting the study, particularly concerning data collection and the tool used for data collection. The data had to be collected in two phases from two different sources, home schools and affiliate schools, to obtain accurate data. Studies could be done to focus attention on current problems in nursing the mentally retarded, related to the need for inclusion of theory and clinical experience in the curriculum of nursing schools. Studies could also be done to determine time allotment, placement and specific mental retardation content in current nursing programs. Qualitative studies could be done to show the possible effect of staff knowledge of mental retardation on the care provided to mentally retarded patients. This study was an attempt to show the need for review of nursing education programs in relation to the inclusion of mental retardation theory and clinical experience in the curriculum of nursing schools. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Nursing, School of / Graduate

In this study, the perceptions of parents of elementary school age children with disabilities, constructs of family-centered behavior (e.g., Petr, Allen, & Brown, 1995) and empowerment (e.g., Zimmerman, 1995, 2000) were examined. Parent perceptions of the importance and frequency of an empowerment process, family-centered teacher behavior, were explored. Previous work of family support researchers is extended by exploring the effects of parents' perceptions of family-centered teacher behavior on psychological empowerment, and by considering the relative importance of parent and child variables and family-centered teacher behavior, in predicting parent psychological empowerment, specific to the elementary school context. Parents (n = 256) of elementary school-age children (ages 5-14) with a wide range of disabilities/special needs completed a questionnaire assessing: their perceptions of the importance and frequency of family-centered teacher behavior, psychological empowerment, parent status variables (income and education level) and child disability characteristics. As hypothesized, respondents rated family-centered teacher behavior as very important, but they identified that they only "sometimes" experienced it in the elementary school setting. In addition, a significant discrepancy between parent ratings of importance and frequency was found, suggesting that parents overall are not satisfied with the levels of family-centered behavior they receive from teachers. Some relationships between parent and child characteristics and psychological empowerment were found. As hypothesized, the importance of parents' perceptions of family-centered teacher behavior in predicting psychological empowerment, specific to the school context, above and beyond parent and child characteristics, was supported. Child disability characteristics (severity of child behavior and diagnostic category) also contributed to the prediction of empowerment, but parent characteristics were not important or significant in the final increment of the regression model. Implications and the potential of this study to inform practice and policy and to contribute to new directions in research are discussed. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Physical education is a profession where heterosexuality has historically been regarded as normal, if not compulsory. The location of female physical education (PE) teachers at the nexus of discourses about masculinist sport, women's physical education and pedagogies of the body has exerted unique historical pressures on their sexualities. In North America and Western Europe, female PE teachers have frequently been suspected of being lesbian. This suspicion has enveloped lesbian teachers in a shroud of oppressive silence, tolerated only as an 'open secret' (Cahn, 1994). This study examined the life histories of six women from three generations who had taught physical education in western Canada. Previous life history research has focused exclusively on lesbian PE teachers (Clarke, 1996; Sparkes, 1992, 1994a, 1994b; Squires & Sparkes, 1996; Sparkes & Templin, 1992) which risks reinforcing a hierarchical relationship between 'lesbian' and 'heterosexual'. Accordingly, three women who identified as 'lesbian' and three as 'married' or 'heterosexual' were involved in this study which incorporated poststructural, psychoanalytic and queer theories about sexual subjectivity into a feminist approach to life history. The notions of 'understanding' and 'overstanding' were used to analyze data which meant interpreting not only had been said during the interviews but also what was left unsaid. The women's life histories revealed how lesbian sexualities have been marginalized and silenced, especially within the physical education profession. A l l the women grew up in families where heterosexuality was normalized, and all except one experienced pressure to date boys during their high school education in Canada. As teachers, identifying as a 'feminist' had a greater affect on their personal politics and approaches to teaching than their sexual identities. The life histories also provided limited support to the notion that PE teacher's participation in various women's sports accentuated the suspicion of lesbianism. For two of the 'lesbian' women, team sports continued to provide valuable lesbian communities from the 1950s to the present day. In contrast, one 'lesbian' women established her lesbian social network through individual sports and urban feminist groups. The 'heterosexual' women had all participated in gender-neutral sports. Overall the sporting backgrounds of these teachers did little to dispel the long-standing association between women's sports and lesbianism which, in turn, has affected female PE teachers. Drawing on queer theory and the notion of 'overstanding' data, deconstructive interpretations suggested how heterosexuality had been normalized in several institutional discourses within women's physical education. These interpretations undermined the boundaries of 'the closet', sought out an absent lesbian gaze and suggested that homophobia has been, in part, rooted in the social unconscious of the physical education profession. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

Perceptions and experiences of a women-specific curriculum (Women’s Studies course) taught in a Western Canadian high school constitute the focus of this study. The available sample of fifteen adolescent girls and three professional women were interviewed, individually and in small focus groups. Supplemental data were obtained through an online survey completed by seven additional previous student respondents. Research literature that shaped the study includes Women and Gender Studies, Education (Adolescent Development and Identity, Curriculum Studies, Anti-oppressive Education), and Feminist Sociology. Benefits and challenges of integrating women-specific curricula into high school are discussed with the recommendation that such courses are needed in senior secondary education in public schools. / viii, 201 leaves ; 29 cm