BACKGROUND/RATIONALE: Persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (pIDD) face barriers to quality health care, including psychiatric care, that result in worse health outcomes. While the mental healthcare community is increasing attention towards the psychiatric needs of pIDD, there continues to be a deficit of knowledge regarding psychiatric conditions, including suicidality. Engaging in community-based participatory research (PAR) with pIDD is the ethical way to address these deficits. An academic researcher (AR) must first educate herself on lessons from disability rights activism and disability bioethics. OBJECTIVE: Apply the intertwining history and principles of disability rights movements and disability bioethics to lessons learned from previous PAR with pIDD in order to propose a PAR project that aims to alleviate knowledge deficits regarding suicidality in pIDD. METHODS/APPROACH: Historical research will focus on landmark texts in disability rights movements and disability bioethics. Lessons learned from previous PAR is mostly obtained from reflexive accounts on behalf of the AR and outside of psychiatry. Analyzing these sources will result in a proposal of six principles that can guide the AR when ethically engaging in PAR with pIDD. RESULTS: The AR must understand the history of society valuing non-disabled lives over disabled lives, inclusive of pIDD, and the social model of disability as it relates to the human variation model. When engaging with pIDD, the AR can question the traditional definition of vulnerable populations, challenge the group to progress beyond informed consent, continually support a capacity-building approach to research and power-sharing skills, and embrace empowerment to enact political change. DISCUSSION: ARs, pIDD, and pIDD advocates must not accept the dearth of knowledge regarding psychiatric conditions, including life-threatening suicidality, in pIDD. The medical community should prioritize PAR with persons with pIDD to elucidate psychiatric conditions in pIDD that result in more efficacious and compassionate treatment. This proposal outlines major principles through which the AR can move forward ethically by engaging in PAR with pIDD. / Urban Bioethics

Covid-19 shed a light on how disparities, influenced by institutional racism and social determinants of health, led to negative healthcare outcomes. This inspired community organizations such as the Black Doctor’s COVID-19 Consortium to take matters into their own hands and play their part in meeting the needs of the community. With evident gaps in healthcare for marginalized communities, I believe that community-based health interventions are an ethical approach to ensure care for marginalized communities. To ensure that a proper intervention is being crafted for these communities, it is important to define what community-based means. This paper explores four models for categorizing community-based: community as setting, target, resource, and agent. While traditional research focuses on the voice of the academic, using Community Based Participatory Research amplifies and recenters the voice of the community, while providing a means to increase their capacity, fostering agency, and promoting solidarity. This paper explores local community-based health interventions in North Philadelphia and emphasizes partnering with the community to determine their needs before creating an intervention. Using community-based interventions to increase access to healthcare for marginalized communities in tandem with existing models of healthcare, follows a utilitarian approach to ensure that the greatest number of individuals can benefit. Community-based health interventions are the most ethical approach to bringing healthcare to marginalized communities. / Urban Bioethics / Accompanied by 1 PDF file: Francois_temple_0225M_171/Step 2 Recall.pdf

This dissertation considers the political behaviour of youth in Whitefish River First Nation. This small Ojibway community located near Sudbury, Ontario is used as a case study to inquire into the political experiences, attitudes and behaviour of youth. Rooted in Community-Based Research and Indigenous Research Principles, conversations were carried out in a circle-method referred to as Discussion Circles to assess the political behaviour of youth between the ages of 16 and 25. While this study is heavily qualitative-focused, it includes some quantitative components. These include a youth political participation questionnaire and electoral participation data for Whitefish River First nation in federal, provincial and band elections. Results demonstrate that the youth have a unique experience of politics defined by their identities, community and relationships. Their political behaviour is complex and nuanced. While they may not participate in conventional political activities, they are heavily involved in activities that are rooted in their culture and traditions. The community overall is democratically healthy and tends to participate widely in federal and provincial elections. Youth are for the most part satisfied with their lives in the community, but there are significant challenges due to the consequences of colonialism. Many of these implications affect their political behaviour. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Solving complex sustainability problems requires diverse perspectives from different academic disciplines and non-academic actors. However, no generally accepted guidelines exist on how to apply transdisciplinarity or other collaborative approaches in a research process. Therefore, applied research approaches reflect the perspectives and expectations of researchers in terms of collaboration. This thesis aims to analyse how natural scientists view and involve indigenous people and local communities in a collaborative research process. To fulfil this aim, an international natural resource-related project in the Brazilian Amazon was examined as a case study and semi-structured interviews were conducted with natural scientists. The empirical data shows that local communities are directly involved in the project, incorporating their knowledge and opinions. Although the researchers think the collaborative approach is valuable, the majority believe that local community participation and decision-making power should be enhanced. The challenges faced by scientists are the communication of science and the difficulties related to power asymmetries or social, such as cultural differences. Simultaneously, cultural and social exchange can serve as inspiration for new perspectives for scientists if they are open-minded and flexible. The most highlighted benefit is the local knowledge of the communities. Scientists maintain that they cannot conduct research without local communities’ knowledge of the environment and the forest. Therefore, communities should also benefit from the academic knowledge of the scientists and the co-produced knowledge generated through the collaboration. Furthermore, the role and help of community members in research should be acknowledged, enhancing their involvement and authority in decision-making within research.

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<p dir="ltr">In 2011, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) published a report titled “Vision & Change: A Call to Action” that called for reform in undergraduate biology education. The report proposed core competencies that educators should target so students are graduating ready to tackle 21st-century challenges. Of these core competencies is the ability to reason quantitatively, which includes graphing. However, undergraduate biology students struggle with applying essential graph knowledge. The following dissertation project addresses these challenges by exploring two graphing tasks: constructing versus evaluating graphs. We primarily focused on introductory biology students' reasoning practices in applying graph knowledge between these two tasks. As such, we used a digital performance-based assessment tool, <i>GraphSmarts</i>, to analyze students' graphing choices and their justifications in an ecology-based scenario. Chapter 2 discusses the findings of these analyses (n=301), which revealed a disconnect in graph knowledge application between students' graph construction and evaluation skills. While students tend to create basic bar graphs when constructing graphs, they prefer more sophisticated representations, such as bar graphs with averages and error bars, during evaluation tasks—suggesting that the framing of a task influences students' application of graph knowledge between their recognition of effective data representation and their ability to produce such graphs independently. While insightful, we needed to explore ‘why’ this variation exists. Chapter 3 explores the root of this variation through student interviews (n=12). Students would complete the two tasks, followed by questions that help clarify their thought processes. Through the lens of the Conceptual Dynamics framework and the Dynamic Mental Construct model, the study identified two critical cognitive patterns, ‘mode-switching’ and ‘mode-stability.’ Results reaffirm the context-dependent nature of students' graphing knowledge and the influence of task framing on their reasoning processes, as seen in Chapter 2. Results from this project can inform recommendations that biology educators can consider, including 1) having students conduct multiple types of graphing tasks beyond construction, 2) teaching statistical features more explicitly by integrating them into course content, and 3) encouraging students to reflect on their graphing practices. That would be expected to address these instructional needs and foster characteristics of quantitative reasoning and graphing that transfer out of biology. Future directions on this work include exploring other standard graphing tools (Excel, R studio) on graph knowledge, examining the transferability of graphing skills across biological sub-disciplines, and developing targeted interventions for gaps in students' graphing competencies across various graphing tasks. Overall, the work contributes toward developing evidence-based instructional strategies that will be supportive in cultivating competent, robust quantitative reasoning and graphing skills among undergraduate biology students.</p>

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an increasingly popular form of public health research. However, little is known about the application of CBPR and the levels of involvement for partners in specific phases of the partnership. This phenomenological study addressed the application of CBPR from the perspectives of 7 academic researchers and 6 community members experienced in CBPR. Arnstein's ladder of citizenship participation and the community coalition action theory provided the framework for the study. Semi-structured interviews addressed participants' levels of involvement in the CBPR process, as well as challenges, concerns, successes, and recommendations for improvement. Interview transcripts were analyzed by identifying recurrent themes relevant to the experience of being a CBPR partner. These themes were then used to develop descriptions of their experience. Results indicated that participants knew the term CBPR and had experienced it, but not all participants understood the depth of CBPR and how much bargaining power they could have for their community. Sustainability of partnerships and programs was a major concern. Ethical problems were also raised regarding the long-term commitment to projects and the need for CBPR partnership evaluation. Results may be used to strengthen awareness of the principles of CBPR to advance culturally tailored public health interventions.

Young adults with autism transitioning from school to adulthood are commonly described as exhibiting poor outcomes. Although there has been research efforts measuring quality of life and life satisfaction in individuals with autism, these conceptualizations of well-being are still predominantly deficit-focused and based on normalizing ideals of the dominant culture. Only by incorporating individuals with autism’s perspectives and involving their meaningful participation in research can we better understand and promote well-being among individuals with autism. The present study aims to explore young adults with autism’s ideas about well-being. I conducted a Photovoice project using a participatory action research approach with 14 young adults with autism in a post-school transition program and their three instructors. Results revealed a broad sense of young adults with autism expressing their differences while having a strong desire to be connected with others. Specifically, three themes depicted young adults’ ideas of well-being in terms of (1) showing their self-expression, understanding, and strengths as well as exhibiting personal growth and learning, (2) having close relationships with their family, friends, and animals, and (3) developing different ways of engagement and connections with the community and environment. The research process itself also supported their experiencing of self-expression and forming connections with other people, which were integral to their well-being. The young adults intended to use the project results to present their personhood in a positive manner and to promote better understanding of autism in society. I drew from critical disability studies to discuss the findings in relation to the academic literature and inform advocacy work at a broader sociocultural level. This study has implications for researchers to conduct research that is ethically appropriate and sensitive to the needs of the autism community. Practitioners working with transition-age youth with autism can also draw upon from this study to reflect on their relationships and engagement with these youth to better support their well-being.