In this descriptive phenomenological inquiry, I explored the experiences and meanings of five adult research participants who were raised in and later departed from evangelical fundamentalism in some measure. Life Review, a structured guided autobiographical group-based adult learning model designed to assist people in organizing life events, was utilized to explore the research participants' experiences and meanings of being raised in a religious fundamentalist orientation. As a result of participating in Life Review, the research participants generated thirty descriptive written narratives that served as the primary source of data for this inquiry. For the purpose of this inquiry, the research participants attended eight Life Review sessions. Sessions one and eight focused on group formation and closure, respectively. Sessions two through seven focused on assigned topics. In this regard, the research participants prepared six two-page single spaced narratives via a word processor describing their experiences and meanings specific to: 1) choosing to participate in this study, 2) major branching points in life, 3) family of origin, 4) parenting practices, 5) the effects of being raised in evangelical fundamentalism, and 6) the meaning of life. During Life Review sessions two through seven, the research participants read their respective narratives aloud to the other participants. A time limited reflective group discussion followed the reading of each narrative. A phenomenological data analysis model was applied to the research participant's narratives. The analysis of the data culminated in the emergence of themes that revealed the essence of the lived experience and meanings of being raised in and later departing from evangelical fundamentalism. The themes included the experience and meaning of: 1) unresolved pain, 2) unfulfilled longing, 3) coping strategies, 4) identity formation, 5) God and church, 6) being a Parent, 7) crippling fear, 8) engaging culture, 9) departing, and 10) finding home. These emergent themes described the essence of the research participants' life worlds specific to having been raised in and later departing from evangelical fundamentalism. The significance of the emergent findings and their relevance to evangelical fundamentalism, the psychology of religion, counseling psychology, and continued research were addressed, as were the limitations of the study.

Historically, English language arts educators have strongly disagreed about the role of grammar instruction in students’ literacy development (Weaver, 1996; Mulroy, 2003), and despite the importance of teachers’ beliefs and the continuing controversy over grammar instruction, few studies have explored teachers’ beliefs about the role of grammar instruction in English language arts education. The purpose of this qualitative, interpretive research was to investigate six middle school English language arts teachers’ beliefs and practices related to grammar and the teaching of grammar. Social constructivism (Fosnot & Perry, 2005) and phenomenology (Schutz, 1967; Seidman, 1998) served as theoretical frameworks for the study. Four questions guided the research: (1) What are teachers’ definitions of “grammar” as related to the teaching of English language arts? (2) What are teachers’ beliefs about “grammar” and the teaching of grammar in English language arts? (3) What are teachers’ reported sources of knowledge for grammar and the teaching of grammar in English language arts? (4) How does a professional development course on grammar instruction influence teachers’ beliefs? Data collection and analysis for this study occurred over a ten-month period. Data sources included an open-ended questionnaire; three in-depth, phenomenological interviews with each teacher (Seidman, 1998) before, during, and after the professional learning course; teacher artifacts and emails; field notes and transcriptions from videotaped course sessions; and a researcher’s log. Constant comparison (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) was used to analyze data, and richly descriptive participant portraits (Merriam & Assoc., 2002) report the findings. Trustworthiness and rigor have been established through adherence to guidelines for establishing credibility, confirmability, dependability, and transferability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The participants defined grammar in terms of rules, correctness, communication, and in relationships with various forms of literacy. They believed that students gain power through a mastery of Standard American English, grammar instruction is necessary to bolster students’ performance on standardized tests, and both traditional and innovative methods for teaching grammar are valuable. They found the collaborative professional learning course to be worthwhile and useful for developing innovative approaches to grammar instruction. Finally, they reported a need for more easily accessible Internet resources for teaching grammar.

Social isolation has been linked with negative health effects in senior women. The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of socially-isolated senior women. Local senior-serving organizations assisted with the recruitment of six socially-isolated senior women to participate in individual qualitative interviews. Three service providers were also interviewed. Seniors’ interviews were analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis and service provider interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three superordinate themes were derived from the senior interviews: social needs, self-perceptions of isolation and loneliness, and constraints to and facilitators of social engagement. Five superordinate themes were derived from the service provider interviews: definitions of social isolation, differences between social isolation and loneliness, gender differences in isolation and loneliness, identifying socially-isolated seniors, and essential components of initiatives aimed at reducing social isolation. The views of socially-isolated seniors are important to understand to develop programs and policies that promote healthy aging.

This thesis is an investigation of the lived experience of first generation female students in their first year of study at the University of Guelph in Guelph Ontario, Canada. The study highlights the importance of learning about the lived experience of first-generation female students, from their perspectives and in their own words. As previous research focuses most often on the demographics, academic performance, and persistence rates of first-generation students, this study is significant as it approaches the female first-generation student experience from a phenomenological standpoint. The women spoke at length about the effect their parents and siblings had on their academic lives. They talked of their experiences transitioning to university and the issues and challenges associated with their new environments. The participants in this study also shared what advice they would give to other first-generation students entering higher education.

This thesis is an investigation of memory. Reflective memory demands two things. First, that it might relate and logically position itself in relation to what is absent. Second, that it is to remain open to free repetition for so long as it goes unchallenged by forgetting or correction. Under these structural requests, the ground for an ontological comparison appears: are not these demands also the demands of language? According to Husserl’s Logical Investigations, a sign must, in its hunger for truth and fulfillment, be able both to constitute a relation with the signified, though absent, object and to repeat its sense and meaning over time. Analogously then, memory is like a language insofar as it speaks of the past in its absence and, at the same time, drives forward to its ‘death’, self-effacement, and dissolution; that is, forward into the resolution of truth.

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Employing a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, I explore the experiences of eight individuals engaged differently with nonprofit accountability. The principal-Agent perspective provides the framework. My investigation is prompted by my dissatisfaction with portrayals of governments’ relationships with financially dependent nonprofits as being dysfunctional, and necessarily oppositional, dyads. Simultaneous calls for more collaboration and ever-greater accountability risk dislocating excessively stretched joints. Preserving the uniqueness of each actor’s depiction and interpretation of accountability, I hope to shed light on what is really going on as accountability is negotiated, mediated and enacted by implicated individuals, and suggest how we might improve performances if we pay more attention to performers’ pragmatic interpretations of accountability scripts. Participants’ considered improvisations may enlighten accountability’s audiences and its directors and script-writers.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand and describe the lived experience of novice counsellors. Specifically, this study sought to determine what common experiences aid development and/or detract from a counsellor’s self-identity. It identifies how a counsellor is shaped by their experience and training. As well, it establishes the significance of understanding the impact of personal experiences on a counsellor’s professional development and isolates the needs of the developing counsellor as expressed by the participants themselves. Together, the lived experiences of all participants shared four common themes: anchoring, uncertainty, knowledge seeking and self-awareness. These four themes frame the over-arching phenomenon that describes the collective experience of the novice counsellor - transition. The significant feature or essence of transition is accepting and acknowledging on-going learning and change. The conclusions of this study promote discourse on the training experience of counsellors in the hope of modifying counsellor training programs.

Nature is often considered a site of pristine perfection existing outside of human interaction. It is this notion that has led humanity to draw away from the environment and has encouraged the continual degradation of the Earth today. This exploratory research investigates the world as a series of permeable and impermeable boundaries – a shifting interwoven-web of matter, where all things are drawn together. Nature is to be understood as the continual arena of interchange between all the things of the world. Humanity and all of its constructs are merely a subset embedded within the greater reality of the physical world. This practicum examines the phenomenological ways in which humanity is entwined within the natural world, with implications for how this concept may be applied to the field of landscape architecture. The result is an open-ended design for a park and interpretive center for Gillis Quarries, in Garson, Manitoba.