Despite significant gains in research and programming, domestic violence persists, with domestic homicides remaining a particular concern. Yet, very little has been written about the administrative and policy responses that exist to combat domestic homicide. In Canada, inquiries, inquests, Domestic Violence Death Review Committees, and other models are increasingly being recognized as important policy responses following an intimate partner death. To assess their potential for tertiary prevention, this thesis examines models of inquiry adopted in Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and British Columbia, using secondary data analysis of relevant literature and reports as well as qualitative interviews with 11 respondents with expertise in one or more of the models. After considering the strengths and limitations of each model of inquiry, the main conclusion drawn is that the models work in complementary fashion such that, in combination, they offer a path forward in combatting the serious problem of domestic homicide. / February 2017

This study aims to investigate if users find the informationthey are looking for on the IKEA web site. To examine this,both quantitative and qualitative methods are used. Themethods used in this study is heuristic evaluation, survey,contextual inquery and web analysis. The result shows thatusers has hard to find categories that are hidden in a dropdownmenu and find it hard to notice elements that areseparated from the content itself.

This thesis analyses the method, purpose, and results of Aristotle's treatment of a select number of Presocratic and Platonic theses about the soul within the context of De Anima 1. Contrary to a prevalent interpretation of De Anima 1 which sees Aristotle's treatment of his predecessors' psychological views as dialectical, I argue that Aristotle treats his predecessors as having offered potentially viable hypotheses about the nature of the soul, and that these hypotheses are treated as attempts to explain the soul's basic powers. I further show that, in order to test the explanatory limits of these theories, Aristotle uses a version of the scientific method of inquiry advertised in the Prior and Posterior Analytics, which consists in setting out the basic psychological phenomena which psychology should explain, and then testing the extent to which his predecessors' definitions of the soul are able to accomplish this task. This thesis argues that, by demonstrating where his predecessors' first principles fall short, Aristotle is able to make theoretical progress towards establishing his own 'hylomorphic' first principle of soul, that soul is the 'first fulfilment of a natural instrumental body', and towards the idea that soul operates in the body of living beings as a formal, final, and efficient cause.

The research reported in this dissertation investigates the impact that accountability systems have on the design and development of student centered learning environments. The nature of student-centered learning environments (SCLEs) in this study is framed theoretically by cultural historical activity theory (CHAT). The investigation itself occurred within a specific practice context: an urban charter school serving elementary-aged children. The efforts to design and develop SCLEs in the school focused on the use of improvement inquiry by groups of stakeholders organized into a developing human ecology in educational contexts called networked improvement communities. The research sought to determine (1) how accountability systems influenced instructional practices within the school and (2) how practicing teachers perceived the assessments embedded within the accountability systems. Data were collected via surveys, interviews, and a focus group. The data from the surveys and interviews informed the work for the focus group. The work from the focus group generated a stakeholder-generated “theory of practice improvement” in the form of an illustrative driver diagram. The driver diagram contributed an empirically generated proposal for how improved instructional practices might be pursued at the school. The investigation concluded with recommendations for implementing the plan within the school and recommendations to the broader field of education to engage more deeply in improvement inquiry. / School of Education; / Professional Doctorate in Educational Leadership (ProDEL) / EdD; / Dissertation;

Laboratory work as a teaching and learning method is given prominence in the Swedish physics curriculum for upper secondary school. It is emphasised that students should be given opportunities to develop the ability to search for answers to questions, plan, conduct, interpret and present results. Moreover, students should also be encouraged to use their physics knowledge to communicate, argument and present conclusions. This thesis is based on the belief that physics laboratory work creates a special discourse, where the student becomes the actor and the teacher becomes the organiser and observer. Such an environment enables students to naturally engage in physics discussions using their own terms. The aim is to explore students’ laboratory work at upper secondary school in-depth, with respect to its design and influence on students’ communication. Through analysis of students’ communication, the purpose is to better understand the physics laboratory work’s possibilities as a teaching and learning method. This will contribute to ongoing debate about the effectiveness of laboratory work. The results show that laboratory work consists of similar activities but differs in amount of time allocated to the different activities. Different types of talk are used for different purposes. An analytical framework has been created to enable deeper investigations of how and what students are talking about at both a linguistic and cognitive level. Moreover, the analysis shows the importance of students acquiring knowledge about physics and understanding the value of using an investigative approach as well as acquiring core content physics knowledge. / Laboratory work as a teaching and learning method is given prominence in the Swedish physics curriculum for upper secondary school. It is emphasised that students should be given opportunities to develop the ability to search for answers to questions, plan, conduct, interpret and present results. Moreover, students should also be encouraged to use their physics knowledge to communicate, argument and present conclusions. This thesis is based on the belief that physics laboratory work creates a special discourse, where the student becomes the actor and the teacher becomes the organiser and observer. Through analysis of students’ communication, the purpose is to better understand the physics laboratory work’s possibilities as a teaching and learning method. The results show that laboratory work consists of similar activities but differs in amount of time allocated to the different activities. Different types of talk are used for different purposes. An analytical framework has been created to enable deeper investigations of how and what students are talking about at both a linguistic and cognitive level. Moreover, the analysis shows the importance of students acquiring knowledge about physics and understanding the value of using an investigative approach as well as acquiring core content physics knowledge.

This post-qualitative inquiry project investigated subjectivity (sense of self) among graduates of creative writing Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs. The project asked how subjectivity is involved in the creative writing process and how that process fuels further writing after a creative piece (such as the MFA thesis) is completed. A post-qualitative, thinking-with-theory approach was used to explore the role of subjectivity among four anonymous graduates of creative writing MFA programs who provided writing samples describing their creative writing processes. Following the thinking-with-theory approach, the data were analyzed using Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of productive desire. Study findings are presented in two formats. First, a traditional, qualitative presentation of findings describes how unconscious desires develop a beneficial weakening of subjectivity that may encourage creative writers to continue writing after completion of the MFA degree. Next, further findings are presented via a nonlinear, rhizomatic data assemblage. The project concludes with recommendations for the use of Deleuzian productive desire as a pedagogical framework in graduate-level creative writing courses, as well as a call for the consideration of post-qualitative research methods in the field of education.

Canadian urban food security discourses have been explored by academics, local community organizations, practitioners (e.g., health and education) with the intention of understanding the histories and impacts of food insecurity and co-creating long-lasting solutions. In various urban centres, community initiatives and educational institutions have been collaborating on school gardening programs as a way to address food insecurity. Central to these conversations and projects have been how to make more inclusive spaces for people to share their own complex and diverse perspectives of food security—based on their local foodscapes (matrix of relationships between people, place, and food) and cultural worldviews. Pervasive power structures and narratives, however, have privileged certain voices over others and there are limited inquiries into cultural perceptions of food security. Children’s and youth’s own experiences and contributions to the discussion on foodscapes and food security have been marginalized, resulting in a knowledge gap of how young people situate and represent themselves. This research project works to amplify young people’s narratives surrounding their multifaceted relationships to foodscapes within three school gardens located in Treaty Six Territory (Saskatoon, SK). The aim is to make space for the fulsome perspectives and solutions that children and youth offer, as social change agents, towards food security discourses. Adopting a community-based approach, I collaborated with Agriculture in the Classroom Saskatchewan (AITC-SK), the Saskatoon Public School Division (SPSD), children, youth, and their guardians. Co-participants involved in the project included eleven children (between the ages of five and twelve) and seven adults who were connected to the three school gardens. Drawing upon theoretical frameworks rooted in narrative analysis, thematic analysis, and visual participatory action research (VPAR) methodologies, this project practiced meaning-making, which was both collaborative and interdisciplinary. The participating young people used digital cameras to take photographs during four garden workshops facilitated from July to September, 2013. In addition to the workshops, I conducted unstructured interviews with each adult co-participant that contributed to understandings on how children and youth interact with diverse foodways. Children and youth co-participants’ voices, shared in this study, add to current conversations on Saskatoon food security issues—namely the focus on cultural acceptability and accessibility to food. Their oral and visual narratives shed insight into how to re-imagine and expand dominant food security concepts—cultural acceptability and access—to foster inclusive foodscapes. Culturally acceptable foods for young co-participants, for example, was not limited to food products but to cultural relationships infusing foodscapes. Children and youth also blurred boundaries existing in Saskatoon community garden dichotomies of private and public, which had the potential to challenge hegemonic neoliberal views around access. School gardening and food ideologies— steeped in educators’ and program coordinators’ worldviews—were broadened by young people as they reflected upon their garden-based foodways. The inclusion of more children’s and youth’s perspectives on how food security is conceptualized, experienced, and addressed can be used to build greater resiliency in urban school gardening initiatives. By supporting genuine participation of young people in decision-making, alternative actions towards social change can be implemented. / Graduate / skukh075@uvic.ca

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of parent involvement on young African American Head start children's academic achievement and self-esteem. The experimental method of research employing the Pre-test/ Post-test Control Group Design was used. Forty-four Head Start students participated in this study: twenty-two were randomly assigned to the control group and twenty-two to the experimental group, respectively. Parents of children in the experimental group received parent involvement training, and parents of children in the control group did not. The Brigance Kindergarten and First Grade Screen and the Self-Esteem Index were administered to both groups in January 1995 prior to the treatment and in May 1995 at the conclusion of the treatment. Results of the two tailed t-test used to test the null hypotheses showed a statistically significant difference in the academic achievement levels of the groups, and it was concluded that children whose parents received parent involvement training achieved at higher academic levels than children whose parents did not. Both the experimental group and the control group showed a slight gain in self-esteem; however, differences in mean gains were not statistically significant. Major implications of the study are that African American Head Start parents are responsive to parent involvement training and that an outcome of their involvement is improved student overall academic achievement. On the basis of the study results, the following recommendations have been made: 1. The local school board should provide additional funding for parent involvement training in urban and inner-city schools. 2. Similar studies should be conducted to determine the effects of parent involvement training on academic achievement and self-esteem among upper level elementary students in urban schools. 3. Urban school administrators and teachers should participate in staff development programs designed to increase educators' knowledge of strategies which promote parent involvement.

Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie var att undersöka lärares syfte med laborativt arbete i årskurs 1-3 i NO-undervisningen samt vilka svårigheter som lärarna beskriver med det laborativa arbetssättet i NO-undervisningen. Studien har genomförts med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer av sex lärare som är verksamma i årskurserna 1-3. Alla tre årskurserna finns representerade i studien. De resultat som framkommit i studien är att lärare har flera olika syftet med det laborativa arbetet i NO-undervisningen. De syften som framkom var att öka förståelsen för naturvetenskapliga fenomen hos eleverna, öka elevernas motivation och intresse för naturvetenskap, erbjuda elever att uppleva naturvetenskap med händerna, erbjuda eleverna en möjlighet att träna på läroplanens mål, erbjuda eleverna en undervisning som utgår från varje elevs förutsättningar. Studiens frågeställningar berör även hur de intervjuade lärarna använder sig av laborativt arbete samt vilka svårigheter som lärarna uppger finnas med arbetssättet. Studien visar då att lärarna främst arbetar laborativt utomhus främst med biologi och att den svårigheten som flest lärare påpekade var avsaknaden av material. / <p>NO</p>

The purpose of this narrative inquiry study was to investigate the influence of curricular mandates on the teaching practices of high school mathematics teachers. Narrative inquiry, philosophically based on John Dewey’s theory of experience (Dewey, 1938), provides the intimate study of an individual's experience over time and in context(s) (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). This study focused on the experiences of three high school mathematics teachers’ stories of educational change with data collected through interviews and personal documents. Socio-cultural narrative analysis was used to interpret the participants’ stories of adaptation. The data, presented as an ethnodrama, is composed of scenes taken from the interviews and interweaves the participants’ stories of evolution as they tackled the struggles of change on multiple levels: curriculum, student assessment, and teacher evaluation. Results indicated teachers adopt both traditional and reform strategies when deciding on appropriate teaching practices. Collaboration and professional development were two important aspects used by the participants to enlarge their toolbox of teaching practices when forced to challenge their existing beliefs. This study contributes to the scarce research on the impact of curricular mandates on teaching practices. It also highlights the experiences of high school mathematics teachers as they embrace the paradigm shift associated with the mandates and implement changes to their practices to promote a more student-centered, collaborative environment.