In Ontario, career and guidance services are offered by teachers who have completed additional undergraduate studies. The training required to become a guidance counsellor appears to be insufficient to properly deliver the necessary guidance and counselling services. Many guidance counsellors are still operating as teachers within their new role as guidance counsellors. The aim of this qualitative research was to explore the professional identity of guidance counsellors’ working in Ontario, from their perspective. A semi-structured questionnaire was developed and twelve guidance counsellors were interviewed. Eight participants had completed the required undergraduate studies and four had completed a master’s degree in the field. The thematic analysis revealed four major themes that articulated and explained their professional identity: peer support, contextual factors, professional experience and formal training. The study’s limitations are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--York University, 2005. Graduate Programme in Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-110). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url%5Fver=Z39.88-2004&res%5Fdat=xri:pqdiss &rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR11921

In Ontario, career and guidance services are offered by teachers who have completed additional undergraduate studies. The training required to become a guidance counsellor appears to be insufficient to properly deliver the necessary guidance and counselling services. Many guidance counsellors are still operating as teachers within their new role as guidance counsellors. The aim of this qualitative research was to explore the professional identity of guidance counsellors’ working in Ontario, from their perspective. A semi-structured questionnaire was developed and twelve guidance counsellors were interviewed. Eight participants had completed the required undergraduate studies and four had completed a master’s degree in the field. The thematic analysis revealed four major themes that articulated and explained their professional identity: peer support, contextual factors, professional experience and formal training. The study’s limitations are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered.

In 1960 the Toronto Board of Education opened its first residential outdoor education centre, the Toronto Island Natural Science School, which signaled the beginning of an outdoor education movement in the city. By the mid-1980s the school boards and conservation authorities of Metropolitan Toronto had opened 12 residential outdoor education centres to serve Toronto public school students. This thesis seeks to explain why these programs were developed at this time and in this place. It finds that these programs fit into a broader ‘modernizing antimodernism’ paradigm which shaped many similar formal and informal educational programs in the twentieth century, and argues that democratic citizenship education was the major factor that was used to justify and shape them. This democratic citizenship education had three main components: education for democratic living, education for productive use of leisure time, and education for the environment, each of which is explored in depth.

In 1960 the Toronto Board of Education opened its first residential outdoor education centre, the Toronto Island Natural Science School, which signaled the beginning of an outdoor education movement in the city. By the mid-1980s the school boards and conservation authorities of Metropolitan Toronto had opened 12 residential outdoor education centres to serve Toronto public school students. This thesis seeks to explain why these programs were developed at this time and in this place. It finds that these programs fit into a broader ‘modernizing antimodernism’ paradigm which shaped many similar formal and informal educational programs in the twentieth century, and argues that democratic citizenship education was the major factor that was used to justify and shape them. This democratic citizenship education had three main components: education for democratic living, education for productive use of leisure time, and education for the environment, each of which is explored in depth.

This dissertation compares the work and life of secondary public-school teachers in Ontario with different labour contracts during a time of crisis. The COVID public health crisis along with neoliberalism, the defunding of public education, and a climate crisis have all influenced governmental policies and the labour process of public secondary teachers in Ontario. The influences that different contracts can have on the labour process of teachers, how they feel towards their union, and the impacts on their individual health and household wellbeing before and during the first year of the COVID pandemic is the focus of this dissertation. To help explore these contexts and the influences on the life and labour of public secondary teachers in Ontario with different contracts, I have used research from studies in Labour Process Theory, precarious work, and educational labour to inform my analysis. Along with those areas of discourse, I have also used insights from research into Critical Realism and Thematic Analysis to think through and discuss the differences between the teachers I interviewed and connect their experiences with work, their union, and their individual health and household well-being to larger systems, structures, and histories. The interviews conducted revealed three points of interest: that precarious labour contracts can function as a disciplinary device, that larger contexts outside the contract shaped how the contract was experienced, and that teachers’ unions can act as a source of solidarity and security during a crisis and when there are certain associations with its purpose. This exploratory research aims to open up future areas of research into educational labour and differences between the experiences of educators with different contracts. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This project explored the differences between public secondary teachers with different contracts in Ontario before and during the COVID pandemic. It involved an online survey to help recruit participants and interviews with 36 teachers who were recruited from the online survey. Of the 36 teachers, 13 had permanent contracts, 16 had long term occasional (LTO) contracts, and 7 had occasional teaching (OT) contracts. The interviews and analysis revealed three points of interest: that precarious labour contracts in a tiered relationship with secure contracts can function as a disciplinary device, that larger contexts outside the contract shaped how the contract was experienced, and that teachers’ unions can act as a source of solidarity and security during a crisis and when there are certain associations with its purpose. Teachers with different contracts had uniquely different experiences with their work, their union, and their individual health and household wellbeing before and during COVID.