<p><h1>There is a growing number of students with disabilities accessing postsecondary education in Ontario. Among this student body, students with learning disabilities are the largest sub-group. These students transition into knowledge workplaces, which have significant cognitive performance standards. Although there is some emerging literature on the outcome of university graduates with learning disabilities, there is little known about their <em>experiences </em>during this transition process.</h1></p> <p>There are two central purposes of this doctoral thesis: a) to provide insight into the experiences of transition for university graduates with learning disabilities, and b) to critically reflect upon the practicalities and politics of implementing participatory action research. The papers gathered in this dissertation are based upon a participatory action research project with mentees, and interviews with both mentees and mentors from a learning disability mentorship program at an Ontario university. The first paper is a collaborative writing piece with co-researchers that applies an analogy of ‘taking center stage’ to reflect upon the process of participation for co-researchers. The second paper involves a critical reflection of the <em>imagined distance </em>that took place amongst the research team, and an exploration of participatory techniques to address this distance. The third paper examines qualitative interviews with mentors and mentees on three stages of the transition process: interview, general cognitive ability testing and probationary period.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This research is conducted within a postmodern and social construction discourse and in context of narrative and participatory pastoral care and therapy. It has been influenced by the voices of five contextual theologies: a participatory approach to practical theology, narrative, contextual, feminist and liberation theologies. The participatory action research seeks to highlight how narrative and participatory pastoral care and therapy with children at Mary Ward Children’s Home, Kwekwe, Zimbabwe creates an inclusive and caring community. It argues that though residential childcare facilities/children’s homes are considered the last resort in the childcare system, we are witnessing not their demise but their development due to the increased numbers of AIDS-orphans and other vulnerable children in our society. The research aims were:  To develop inclusive narrative and participatory pastoral care and therapy practices at the home.  To co-create narrative and participatory pastoral care and therapy practices that respect the knowledges of the children involved.  To develop an eco-spirituality as participatory pastoral care and therapy practice.  To explore and co-author creative practices of doing narrative and participatory pastoral care and therapy practices which will help the participants integrate into the Home and society. In conclusion, suggestions are made for a narrative and participatory pastoral care and therapy practice that is inclusive and caring. In terms of the experience of children living with disability and experiencing loss, as well as those children who have been abused, it is specifically described as therapeutic, empowering and life-giving. Therefore, home managers, caregivers and pastoral therapists are invited into an ethical and passionate practice of pastoral care and therapy that has the potential to transform the lives of children in a residential child care facility. / Thesis (D. Th. (Practical Theology))

Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Learners enter the classroom with different academic abilities, learning profiles and interests. Inclusive education is therefore seen as a possible answer to accommodate individual diversity in the classroom and to address the needs of every learner. During South Africa’s era of apartheid education, differences and disabilities were seen as learner-centred, and this led to labelling, marginalising and exclusion of specific learners. In the light of the aforementioned, the implementation of inclusion, which sees difference in learners (and between people in general) as a basic part of human life, is seen as challenging in South Africa. Differentiated instruction can be seen as a teaching strategy to promote inclusive education, as its focus is learner-centred and it is based on the philosophy that all learners can learn provided they are supported in the learning process. Although differentiated teaching is not unknown internationally and nationally and is most probably implemented in the classroom, the effective implementation thereof is not understood fully. This research study made use of the participatory action research design, and the main aim was therefore to effectively implement differentiated teaching in the Foundation Phase through collaborative teacher learning. A qualitative methodology was used, with six teachers as the participants in the natural setting of the school where they teach (in the Foundation Phase). The school is located in a less affluent urban community in the Western Cape province, one of the nine provinces in South Africa. During the first action research cycle it was found that not all aspects of differentiated teaching were internalised for effective implementation in the classroom. The evolving nature of the participatory action research design allowed an additional phase for problem definition and therefore the initiation of another action research cycle. The results will be shared with the participants as well as the relevant district’s office and the learning support educator, who will be employed during 2014, in an effort to ensure the sustainability of the process. Individual interviews were conducted with the participating teachers to formulate a problem definition for the next cycle in the participatory action research process. Although it was found after the first cycle that not all aspects of differentiated teaching were internalised for effective implementation, the teachers acknowledged the approach and initiated differences in their classroom. It is hoped that a longer intervention period may result in valuable outcomes. When the next cycle of the teacher learning process commences, whole-school development should be used as a starting point, where collaborative relationships exist in an inclusive school community and in which all role players are involved. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Leerders betree die klaskamer met verskillende akademiese vermoëns, leerprofiele en belangstellings. Inklusiewe onderwys word tans as ’n moontlike antwoord gesien om individuele diversiteit in die klaskamer tegemoet te kom en in elke leerder se behoeftes te voorsien. Tydens Suid-Afrika se era van apartheidsonderwys is verskille en ook gestremdhede as probleme ervaar wat in die leerder gesentreer is, en dit het tot die etikettering, marginalisering en uitsluiting van sodanige leerders gelei. In die lig van voorafgaande word die implementering van inklusiewe onderwys, wat die bestaan van verskille tussen leerders (en tussen mense in die algemeen) as ’n basiese deel van die menslike lewe aanvaar, in Suid-Afrika as uitdagend beleef. Gedifferensieerde onderrig kan as onderrigstrategie gebruik word om inklusiewe onderwys te bevorder, aangesien die fokus van inklusiewe onderwys leerdergesentreerd is en op die filosofie gegrond is dat alle leerders kan leer mits hulle in die leerproses ondersteun word. Alhoewel gedifferensieerde onderrig internasionaal en nasionaal nie onbekend is nie en waarskynlik wel in klaskamers geïmplementeer word, word die effektiewe toepassing daarvan nie altyd ten volle verstaan nie. In hierdie navorsingstudie is van deelnemende aksienavorsing as ontwerp gebruik gemaak met die hoofdoel om deur middel van kollaboratiewe onderwyserleer die effektiewe implementering van gedifferensieerde onderrig in die Grondslagfase te bevorder. Daar is van ’n kwalitatiewe metodologie gebruik gemaak, met ses onderwysers as die deelnemers en die skool waarin hulle onderrig (in die Grondslagfase) die natuurlike omgewing. Die skool is in ’n minder welvarende stedelike gemeenskap in die Wes-Kaap-provinsie, een van die nege provinsies in Suid-Afrika, geleë. Ná afloop van die eerste aksienavorsingsiklus is bevind dat nie alle aspekte van gedifferensieerde onderrig genoegsaam geïnternaliseer is om effektiewe toepassing in die klaskamer te verseker nie. Die ontwikkelende aard van deelnemende aksienavorsing as navorsingsontwerp het egter ruimte gelaat vir ’n addisionele fase van probleemafbakening om ’n verdere aksienavorsingsiklus in die navorsingskool te inisieer. Die resultate van hierdie fase sal met die deelnemers gedeel word en ook aan die betrokke distrikskantoor en die leerondersteuner, wat die posisie gedurende 2014 sal beklee, bekend gemaak word in ’n poging om die volhoubaarheid van die proses te verseker. Individuele onderhoude is met elke deelnemende onderwyser gevoer ten einde ’n probleemstelling vir die volgende siklus in die deelnemende aksienavorsingproses te formuleer. Alhoewel daar ná afloop van die eerste siklus bevind is dat nie alle aspekte van gedifferensieerde onderrig genoegsaam geïnternaliseer is om effektiewe toepassing te verseker nie, het die onderwysers wel van die benadering tot onderrig kennis geneem en reeds veranderinge in hul klaskamers begin inisieer. Die hoop bestaan dus dat ’n langer intervensieperiode waardevolle uitkomste kan meebring Wanneer hierdie studie se volgende siklus van die onderwyserleerproses in aanvang neem, moet geheelskoolontwikkeling, waar daar ’n kollaboratiewe verhouding in die skool as ’n inklusiewe gemeenskap bestaan en waarby alle rolspelers betrek word, as vertrekpunt dien.

This report addresses the problem: how to improve approaches to fish seed production in smallholder aquaculture systems of Northeast Thailand? The work was carried out as a component of the U.K. Government Department for International Development Aquaculture Research Programme funded project, R7052: Improving freshwater fish seed supply and performance in smallholder aquaculture systems in Asia. From 1997 to 2003 the project worked in collaboration with regional partners in Bangladesh, Laos P.D.R., Thailand and Vietnam on constraints to seed production and distribution. The research problem called for improvement, implying that change was required in the way that seed was produced. The hypothesis that active collaboration in research by seed producers and institutional partners, facilitated by project staff would enable all participants to extend their understanding of the situation, contribute to the knowledge base and that resulting accommodations would lead to a continuous process of planning, action and reflection toward changes required for improvement. Reflection on the project outputs indicated that quality of fish seed was variable but there was no agreement on the nature of the problem among stakeholders. The decision was made to shift the research focus away from looking for technical problems and to focus instead on examining ways that existing knowledge could be integrated in a learning process with key stakeholders. The research problem then became to find an appropriate, effective and efficient methodology to achieve this; participatory action research was chosen for evaluation. Participatory action research is a collaborative approach involving the researcher in a facilitative role working with stakeholder groups to enable systematic investigation of issues, planning and action to resolve the issues. Outcomes should be action and public knowledge that feed in to further reflection and action in an ongoing learning cycle. Implementation of the methodology was carried out over two stages; the first planned set of activities involved extension of the existing collaborative arrangement with the Thai Government Department of Fisheries (DoF) and the Asian Institute of Technology Aqua Outreach Programme (AOP) in order to prepare a field research team and plan for field activities. The second stage was participatory action research field work which involved invitations to collaborate being extended to four formal groups and one informal group of hatchery operators in two Provinces of Northeast Thailand. Research facilitated by the research team used a range of participatory methods for identification and prioritisation issues, analysis, action planning, monitoring and evaluation. Actions were supported by the project logistically and financially. The exploratory approach to project planning meant that monitoring processes was as important as monitoring specific indicators. The output of the first set of activities was a formal agreement to collaborate however the strength of the collaboration was indicated by the low level of commitment shown by the DoF and AOP representatives in planning and team building. The lack of commitment had important implications for impact and sustainability of the research. Greater attention to the partnership process was an important lesson. Four of the hatchery operators’ groups approached accepted the invitation to collaborate with the project. This collaboration resulted in a range of knowledge outcomes, the development of social relations horizontally within the hatchery groups and vertically to include individuals from service providing agencies in the local administration. Participatory evaluation by participants and the DoF partners was positive. Evaluation of the project indicated that the approach was; appropriate in terms of the needs of primary stakeholders, the requirements of the donor and the circumstances under which it was carried out; effective in achieving knowledge outcomes that contributed to gains in livelihood assets for participants but ineffective in influencing the policies, institutions and processes that would have ensured sustainable impact from the collaboration as a result of the shortcomings in the institutional partnership arrangements; efficient in terms of resource use to obtain outputs and also in emergence of lessons to inform future practice.

Les Peuples autochtones ont fait l’objet de nombreuses recherches dans le passé. Ils explorent aujourd’hui des nouvelles façons de reconquérir leur langue, leur culture, leur identité et sont en voie de se réapproprier les processus, concepts et outils de recherche. En vue de revisiter la recherche-action participative et de l’adapter au contexte autochtone, nous avons développé des collaborations de recherche avec 13 communautés du Nord Canada (Cri et Inuit) et du Nord Scandinavie (Saami) et organisé 20 ateliers utilisant les techniques de recherche collaborative et outils d’analyse développés par Chevalier et Buckles de l’université de Carleton. Cette approche et la boite à outil que nous avons produite se sont révélées utiles et opportunes. Nous avons pu traiter les préoccupations et les défis auxquels sont confrontés les communautés, développer des collaborations de recherche entre les Cris, les Inuit et les Saami, étudier les processus d’engagement social dans les projets touristiques et explorer de nouvelles méthodologies de recherche autochtone. Au même moment, pendant ces 3 années de bourse de recherche Marie Curie, nous avons exploré les possibilités de recherche collaborative en ligne via le Web 2.0 et les TIC. Nous avons mis en ligne les 200 initiatives de tourisme autochtone publiées dans le Guide « Destinations Indigènes » mise en relation leurs auteurs à travers un site de gestion de contenu SPIP (www.aboriginalecotourism.org) dans lequel nous avons intégré; des cartes Google™ qui permettent de géoréférencer lescommunautés; un questionnaire Internet qui traduit en données quantitatives les informations qualtitatives fournies par les initiatives; et un forum de discussion pour compléter les données produites. / Aboriginal communities have been over researched in the past. They are looking at new ways to regain and recapture their culture, language and identity and are in the procès of taking ownership of research processes, concepts and tools. In an attempt to revisit participatory-action research approach and adapt it to aboriginal contexts, we have developed research collaborations with 13 communities from Northern Canada (Cree and Inuit) and Northern Scandinavia (Saami) and organised 20 workshops using collaborative research techniques and tools developed by Chevalier and Buckles from Carleton University. This approach and the tool kit we produced prove to be useful and timely. We were able to address the concerms and challenges that the communities have to face, develop research collaborations between the Cree, the Inuit and the Saami, study community engagement processes in tourism projects and explore new aboriginal research metholodogies. At the same time and during this 3 year Marie Curie research fellowship, we have been exploring the possibilities of developing collaborative research on line via the web 2.0 and ITC. We uploaded 200 aboriginal tourism initiatives represented in the “Aboriginal Destinations” Guidebook, connected their authors in a Content Management System SPIP (www.aboriginal-ecotourism.org), incorporating a variety of integrated technologies: Google Maps™ to provide the geographic placement of the communities; a webbased survey to produce dynamic statistical data to translate the information provided in the narratives/articles into statistical data; discussion forums to add qualitative comments to the quantitative data.

This research investigated the feasibility and benefits of integrating geospatial technology with traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of an indigenous Louisiana coastal population in order to assess the impacts of current and historical ecosystem change to community viability. The primary goal was to provide resource managers with a comprehensive method of assessing localized ecological change in the Gulf Coast region that can benefit community sustainability. Using Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and other geospatial technologies integrated with a coastal community's TEK to achieve this goal, the objectives were (1) to determine a method for producing vulnerability/sustainability mapping products for an ecosystem-dependent livelihood base of a coastal population that results from physical information derived from RS imagery and supported, refined, and prioritized with TEK, and (2) to demonstrate how such an approach can engage affected community residents who are interested in understanding better marsh health and ways that marsh health can be recognized, and the causes of declining marsh determined and addressed. TEK relevant to the project objectives collected included: changes in the flora and fauna over time; changes in environmental conditions observed over time such as land loss; a history of man-made structures and impacts to the area; as well as priority areas of particular community significance or concern. Scientific field data collection measured marsh vegetation health characteristics. These data were analyzed for correlation with satellite image data acquired concurrently with field data collection. Resulting regression equations were applied to the image data to produce estimated marsh health maps. Historical image datasets of the study area were acquired to understand evolution of land change to current conditions and project future vulnerability. Image processing procedures were developed and applied to produce maps that detail land change in the study area at time intervals from 1968 to 2009. This information was combined with the TEK and scientific datasets in a GIS to produce mapping products that provide new information to the coastal restoration decision making process. This information includes: 1) what marsh areas are most vulnerable; and 2) what areas are most significant to the sustainability of the community.

MA, Forced Migration Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011. / Rationale: Urbanization is rapidly taking place in Africa: fifty percent of the continent‘s population is expected to be living in urban areas by 2030 (Kok and Collinson in Vearey 2010b). Both internal1 and cross-border migrants2 are moving into South Africa’s urban centers at a faster rate than her neighboring countries; approximately 60 percent of the population is estimated to be urban (ibid). The worldwide increase in urbanization requires that research recognize the trajectories of people moving into these urban spaces, as well as the experiences that people encounter as they navigate urban centers (Kihato, 2010, Landau 2006a, 2006b, Vearey 2010a, 2010b, Venables, 2010). Many migrants in inner-city Johannesburg engage in unconventional survival strategies, including sex work (e.g. Richter 2010). Although sex work is considered an informal livelihood strategy, it is currently illegal in South Africa (UNAIDS, 2009). Research on sex work in South Africa is limited; however, there is significant evidence that sex workers in inner-city Johannesburg experience unsafe, unhealthy- often times violent- working and living conditions (e.g. Nyangairi, 2010, Richeter, 2010). This research is primarily interested in exploring the ways in which “marginalized” urban migrant groups choose to represent themselves versus the incomplete (re) presentation that is often relegated to them. A focus on representation will provide an opportunity for policy makers, programmers and academics to gain insight and better comprehend the experiences of migrant urban populations. In this case, the researcher is looking specifically at migrant women who sell sex as an entry point into the larger issues of (re) presentation among individuals and communities who are often described as “vulnerable” and/or “marginal”. Aim: The aim of this research project is to explore how migrant women who sell sex in Hillbrow, Johannesburg (re) present themselves, and how (or not) urban space affects these self- (re) presentations. Methods: The epistemological framework for the methodologies used in this study was Participatory Action Research (PAR), and the primary data collection methodology used consisted of an eleven-day participatory photo project where the research participants were given digital cameras and asked to photograph the “story” that they would like to share. Upon completion of the participatory photo workshop, five research participants were randomly selected to participate in 2-3 sessions of in-depth, semi-structured narrative interviews where the researcher explored the choice of photos taken, as well as the reasons why the photos were selected to (re) present themselves. Conclusion: This study has shown that use of Participatory Action Research as an epistemological framework is both conducive and appropriate when researching ‘hard to reach’ groups of people residing in complex urban areas. Furthermore, this research signals the need for greater inclusion of participants in studies aimed at understanding individual/group experience, especially when working with marginalized communities. This study also reveals a host of future research opportunities for those interested in exploring: (1) identity in urban space/urban health, (2) livelihood experiences/strategies of people living in densely populated urban spaces, (3) issues of belonging and access to health care, (4) impacts of structural violence on the lives of migrant women sex workers, (6) ways that perceptions and representations are impacted in group settings, and (5) the use of ‘innovative methodologies’ as a viable tool in social science research.

This doctoral thesis is a practice-led and corporate-grounded enquiry into the role of design research methods in a global technology company. The work aims to understand and communicate through a series of case studies how locally conducted participatory action research can be integrated into the processes of an in-house design team at the global NCR Corporation. It questions the current approaches taken in the design and development of consumer transaction technologies in the context of a global organisation and new markets. The thesis starts by introducing the reader to the global corporation in which the study is focused and author employed, the NCR Corporation. The contextual grounding of the corporate environment, its heritage, history and continued evolution will illustrate the dynamic yet traditional role design has played within the corporation. As a senior member of the Consumer Experience Design (Cx Design) team in the corporation the author is well placed to evaluate the role of design and how it can evolve. The immediate contextualisation is then followed by a broad examination of the literature in the field of design in a corporate culture, research methods and socially-led innovation. This will define the boundaries of interest and influence in the thesis. A participatory action research approach was taken to address the research questions. Informed by a series of hyperlocal and global community engagements framed and directed from within the corporate culture, the author defines an understanding of the levels of community engagement through design research. The resulting outputs are then applied within the context of the NCR Corporation where the impact and influence on such engagements can be understood. The author concludes that his contribution to new knowledge, the development of a Participatory Action Based Strategic Design Process, can be applied within a global technology company. The process adapts McNiff’s and Whitehead’s (2011) seven phases of action research reporting and Ravi Chhatpar’s strategic decision-making process. The thesis demonstrates the value and influence of design research methods in the design of consumer transaction technologies. The thesis provides an understanding of how design research methods have been applied in a corporate environment, how the insights are applied, and demonstrates how the research has influenced the author’s practice and therefore the wider Cx Design group.

This dissertation project seeks to address the sociological processes, dynamics, and mechanisms inflecting how and why U.S. society reproduces a sexually dimorphic, binary gender structure. The project builds upon the work of sociologists of gender on the doing gender framework, intersectional feminist approaches to identity formation, and hegemonic masculinity and relational theories of gender. In a 2012 article in Social Science and Medicine presenting contemporary concepts in gender theory to the health-oriented readers of the journal, R. W. Connell argues that much public policy on gender and health relies on categorical understandings of gender that are now inadequate. Connell contends that poststructuralist theories highlighting the performativity of gender improve on the assumption of a categorical binary typical in public policy, but they ignore the insights of sociological theories emphasizing gender as a structure comprising emotional and material constraints of the complex inter-relations among social institutions in which performances of gender are embedded. According to Connell, it is the task of social scientists to uncover “the processes by which social worlds are brought into being through time – the ontoformativity, not just the performativity, of gender.” This project explores the ontoformativity of gender in consideration of Patricia Hill Collins’ concept of the four domains of power. According to Collins, matrices of domination are intersecting and interlocking axes of oppression including but not limited to race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, nation, age, ability, place, and religion that reproduce social inequalities through their interoperation in the cultural, interpersonal, structural, and disciplinary domains of power. West and Zimmerman contrast gender as an axis in the matrix of oppression with site-specific roles, arguing that gender is a master status that is omnirelevant to all situations such that a person is assessed in terms of their competences in performing activities as a man or a woman. The doing gender approach has been accused of theorizing gender as an immutably monolithic social inequality. This project seeks to explicate the dynamics of gender ideology by probing its weaknesses in the interpersonal and cultural domains of power. As Collins and coauthor Sirma Bilge posit, for people oppressed along axes of gender, race/ethnicity, class, age, place, ability, and other binaries that constrain their actions in the structural and disciplinary domains of power, “the music, dance, poetry, and art of the cultural domain of power and personal politics of the interpersonal domain grow in significance.” Each of the three components of the dissertation project addresses a facet of mechanisms and processes of the interpersonal and cultural domains of power in (re)producing the binary gender structure in U.S. society. Paper #1, titled, “Integrating Black Feminist Thought into Canonical Social Change Theory,” explicates how people in marginalized social locations mount definitional challenges to their received classifications in the cultural domain of power by rejecting the consciousness of the oppressor and wielding rearticulated collective identity-based standpoints as contextually attuned technologies of power to recast historical narratives. Paper #2, with teenaged co-researcher Emma Draper, titled “Ordering Gender: Interactional Accountability and the Social Accomplishment of Gender Among Adolescents in the U.S. South,” maps how youth theorize interactional accountability processes to binary gender expectations in the interlocking social institutions of medicine, the family, schools, and peer social networks. Paper #3 is a book proposal comprising an introductory chapter. The book will tell the story of how young feminist arts-activists challenge the binary gender structure through resistance in the cultural and interpersonal domains.

With homelessness continuing to rise over the past two decades, disenfranchised unhoused people have sparked a national movement to build for themselves democratically governed communities of affordable housing. Dignity Village, in Portland Oregon, is one of the longest running and most organized self-help housing communities in the nation. This paper presents a theoretical systems-based model of a developmental pathway out of homelessness in the U.S. that has as one of its key steps membership and participation in humane and dignified "self-help micro-housing"; communities such as Dignity Village. This research involved working collaboratively with Dignity Village on a participatory action research (PAR) project aimed at understanding and facilitating processes for mobilizing community and socio-political engagement. The research process involved a team of up to 24 co-researchers (nine attended meetings regularly) working once weekly over 15 months, with consultation from the broader Village community throughout. The research followed a systems approach to creating five action tools as multiple points of leverage to create long-term positive change within the community. One point of leverage utilized participatory video methodology to co-create a video action tool as an orientation video for newcomers, intended to build cooperative relationships and facilitate empowerment within the community. The impact of the research process was documented on multiple levels in the community using multiple data sources. Data were analyzed using an inductive approach to identify key themes and processes that influenced participation and empowerment in the community. The predominant themes suggested three paradoxical tensions that were creating barriers to change in the community. This PAR process attempted to create movement beyond these barriers. Findings suggested that four main changes occurred in the community during and after the research: a) an increase in collaborative participation, b) enhanced engagement and sense of community, c) an emergence of critical consciousness, and d) changes in the organizational leadership/power structure. These findings are critically examined and discussed with respect to the effectiveness of utilizing this PAR process to facilitate community empowerment. A portion of this dissertation (Results section) was created in video format to enhance report accessibility for community partners and other non-academic audiences.