The transition from an industrial to a global knowledge-based economy has put universities in the spotlight of public policies as the new drivers of innovation and sustained economic growth. Consequently, societal expectations towards the academic community have changed and so has, under the influence of neo-liberal ideas, the public governance of higher education. This is particularly true in federalist systems, such as Germany, Australia and the European Union, where the roles of each government level in governing the higher education sector had to be renegotiated and clarified. In Canada, however, despite repeated recommendations by policymakers, scholars and international organisations, the respective responsibilities have not yet been clarified and, to date, there are still no mechanisms to coordinate the post-secondary education policies of the federal and provincial governments. This paper inquires into the reasons for this exception. In the academic literature, this has generally been explained in terms of Canada’s uniqueness with respect to its federalist system and the decentralized higher education sector. We attempt to go beyond this traditional federalism, state-centered approach, which is predominant in the Canadian higher education literature. Instead, based on interviews and official documents and inspired by the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), we shall be looking at the belief systems of the major actors in the policy process and the degree of coordination among them. Our analysis comes to the conclusion that, on the one hand, proponents of a pan-Canadian approach are divided over their fundamental beliefs regarding the compatibility of inclusiveness and excellence. Some argue that the federal government must legislate common standards to ensure equal opportunities for all Canadians. Others propose a New Governance-inspired approach to create a differentiated and competitive university sector that meets the demands of the global knowledge-based economy more efficiently. On the other hand, even though the provinces differ in their beliefs regarding the equal opportunity versus economic efficiency debate, they share the same strong belief with respect to the role of the federal government. According to this view, post-secondary education is exclusively a provincial responsibility and the role of the federal government is solely to help them ‘fix the problems’. Moreover, contrary to the proponents of more intergovernmental collaboration, the provinces have successfully strengthened the coordination among themselves to block further perceived federal intrusions into provincial jurisdiction. We come to the conclusion that the absence of intergovernmental mechanisms to govern post-secondary education is a consequence of the diverging belief systems and the establishment of formal coordination structures among the provinces to block – as they perceive - further federal intrusions. Also, there is less of a sense of urgency to act compared to, say, health care. Finally, remembering the near-separation of Quebec in 1995, there is very little appetite to reopen the constitutional debates. Therefore, based on our analysis, we argue that contrary to suggestions by some higher education scholars, the establishment of intergovernmental coordinating mechanisms appears unlikely in the near future.

The transition from an industrial to a global knowledge-based economy has put universities in the spotlight of public policies as the new drivers of innovation and sustained economic growth. Consequently, societal expectations towards the academic community have changed and so has, under the influence of neo-liberal ideas, the public governance of higher education. This is particularly true in federalist systems, such as Germany, Australia and the European Union, where the roles of each government level in governing the higher education sector had to be renegotiated and clarified. In Canada, however, despite repeated recommendations by policymakers, scholars and international organisations, the respective responsibilities have not yet been clarified and, to date, there are still no mechanisms to coordinate the post-secondary education policies of the federal and provincial governments. This paper inquires into the reasons for this exception. In the academic literature, this has generally been explained in terms of Canada’s uniqueness with respect to its federalist system and the decentralized higher education sector. We attempt to go beyond this traditional federalism, state-centered approach, which is predominant in the Canadian higher education literature. Instead, based on interviews and official documents and inspired by the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), we shall be looking at the belief systems of the major actors in the policy process and the degree of coordination among them. Our analysis comes to the conclusion that, on the one hand, proponents of a pan-Canadian approach are divided over their fundamental beliefs regarding the compatibility of inclusiveness and excellence. Some argue that the federal government must legislate common standards to ensure equal opportunities for all Canadians. Others propose a New Governance-inspired approach to create a differentiated and competitive university sector that meets the demands of the global knowledge-based economy more efficiently. On the other hand, even though the provinces differ in their beliefs regarding the equal opportunity versus economic efficiency debate, they share the same strong belief with respect to the role of the federal government. According to this view, post-secondary education is exclusively a provincial responsibility and the role of the federal government is solely to help them ‘fix the problems’. Moreover, contrary to the proponents of more intergovernmental collaboration, the provinces have successfully strengthened the coordination among themselves to block further perceived federal intrusions into provincial jurisdiction. We come to the conclusion that the absence of intergovernmental mechanisms to govern post-secondary education is a consequence of the diverging belief systems and the establishment of formal coordination structures among the provinces to block – as they perceive - further federal intrusions. Also, there is less of a sense of urgency to act compared to, say, health care. Finally, remembering the near-separation of Quebec in 1995, there is very little appetite to reopen the constitutional debates. Therefore, based on our analysis, we argue that contrary to suggestions by some higher education scholars, the establishment of intergovernmental coordinating mechanisms appears unlikely in the near future.

This thesis is an exploratory study focusing on the tension between managerialism and collegiality experience by mid-level academic administrators in Canadian higher education. The study is a constructivist analysis of the every day, lived experiences of the participants working in a single, large university. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 academic administrators that report directly to a Vice-President Academic. The analysis of these detailed interviews suggests that collegiality appears to be alive and well at the university included in this study. Administrators described consultative, collegial processes with shared decision making. However, the activity of developing and managing budgets was described by participants as the responsibility of the dean and these processes were neither collegial nor consultative. There is a need for further research on the experience and work of academic administrators in Canadian higher education.

This thesis is an exploratory study focusing on the tension between managerialism and collegiality experience by mid-level academic administrators in Canadian higher education. The study is a constructivist analysis of the every day, lived experiences of the participants working in a single, large university. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 academic administrators that report directly to a Vice-President Academic. The analysis of these detailed interviews suggests that collegiality appears to be alive and well at the university included in this study. Administrators described consultative, collegial processes with shared decision making. However, the activity of developing and managing budgets was described by participants as the responsibility of the dean and these processes were neither collegial nor consultative. There is a need for further research on the experience and work of academic administrators in Canadian higher education.

The transition from an industrial to a global knowledge-based economy has put universities in the spotlight of public policies as the new drivers of innovation and sustained economic growth. Consequently, societal expectations towards the academic community have changed and so has, under the influence of neo-liberal ideas, the public governance of higher education. This is particularly true in federalist systems, such as Germany, Australia and the European Union, where the roles of each government level in governing the higher education sector had to be renegotiated and clarified. In Canada, however, despite repeated recommendations by policymakers, scholars and international organisations, the respective responsibilities have not yet been clarified and, to date, there are still no mechanisms to coordinate the post-secondary education policies of the federal and provincial governments. This paper inquires into the reasons for this exception. In the academic literature, this has generally been explained in terms of Canada’s uniqueness with respect to its federalist system and the decentralized higher education sector. We attempt to go beyond this traditional federalism, state-centered approach, which is predominant in the Canadian higher education literature. Instead, based on interviews and official documents and inspired by the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), we shall be looking at the belief systems of the major actors in the policy process and the degree of coordination among them. Our analysis comes to the conclusion that, on the one hand, proponents of a pan-Canadian approach are divided over their fundamental beliefs regarding the compatibility of inclusiveness and excellence. Some argue that the federal government must legislate common standards to ensure equal opportunities for all Canadians. Others propose a New Governance-inspired approach to create a differentiated and competitive university sector that meets the demands of the global knowledge-based economy more efficiently. On the other hand, even though the provinces differ in their beliefs regarding the equal opportunity versus economic efficiency debate, they share the same strong belief with respect to the role of the federal government. According to this view, post-secondary education is exclusively a provincial responsibility and the role of the federal government is solely to help them ‘fix the problems’. Moreover, contrary to the proponents of more intergovernmental collaboration, the provinces have successfully strengthened the coordination among themselves to block further perceived federal intrusions into provincial jurisdiction. We come to the conclusion that the absence of intergovernmental mechanisms to govern post-secondary education is a consequence of the diverging belief systems and the establishment of formal coordination structures among the provinces to block – as they perceive - further federal intrusions. Also, there is less of a sense of urgency to act compared to, say, health care. Finally, remembering the near-separation of Quebec in 1995, there is very little appetite to reopen the constitutional debates. Therefore, based on our analysis, we argue that contrary to suggestions by some higher education scholars, the establishment of intergovernmental coordinating mechanisms appears unlikely in the near future.

The transition from an industrial to a global knowledge-based economy has put universities in the spotlight of public policies as the new drivers of innovation and sustained economic growth. Consequently, societal expectations towards the academic community have changed and so has, under the influence of neo-liberal ideas, the public governance of higher education. This is particularly true in federalist systems, such as Germany, Australia and the European Union, where the roles of each government level in governing the higher education sector had to be renegotiated and clarified. In Canada, however, despite repeated recommendations by policymakers, scholars and international organisations, the respective responsibilities have not yet been clarified and, to date, there are still no mechanisms to coordinate the post-secondary education policies of the federal and provincial governments. This paper inquires into the reasons for this exception. In the academic literature, this has generally been explained in terms of Canada’s uniqueness with respect to its federalist system and the decentralized higher education sector. We attempt to go beyond this traditional federalism, state-centered approach, which is predominant in the Canadian higher education literature. Instead, based on interviews and official documents and inspired by the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), we shall be looking at the belief systems of the major actors in the policy process and the degree of coordination among them. Our analysis comes to the conclusion that, on the one hand, proponents of a pan-Canadian approach are divided over their fundamental beliefs regarding the compatibility of inclusiveness and excellence. Some argue that the federal government must legislate common standards to ensure equal opportunities for all Canadians. Others propose a New Governance-inspired approach to create a differentiated and competitive university sector that meets the demands of the global knowledge-based economy more efficiently. On the other hand, even though the provinces differ in their beliefs regarding the equal opportunity versus economic efficiency debate, they share the same strong belief with respect to the role of the federal government. According to this view, post-secondary education is exclusively a provincial responsibility and the role of the federal government is solely to help them ‘fix the problems’. Moreover, contrary to the proponents of more intergovernmental collaboration, the provinces have successfully strengthened the coordination among themselves to block further perceived federal intrusions into provincial jurisdiction. We come to the conclusion that the absence of intergovernmental mechanisms to govern post-secondary education is a consequence of the diverging belief systems and the establishment of formal coordination structures among the provinces to block – as they perceive - further federal intrusions. Also, there is less of a sense of urgency to act compared to, say, health care. Finally, remembering the near-separation of Quebec in 1995, there is very little appetite to reopen the constitutional debates. Therefore, based on our analysis, we argue that contrary to suggestions by some higher education scholars, the establishment of intergovernmental coordinating mechanisms appears unlikely in the near future.

Abstract This research project explores how notions of Canadian exceptionalism are being challenged and/or reproduced in responses of students of seven Canadian universities to a survey related to internationalization of higher education. The study analyses data from surveys (n=1451) completed by undergraduate students in different disciplines collected between 2013 and 2015. This data is part of a larger database of surveys that was developed within the Ethical Internationalization in Higher Education (EIHE) research project (2012–2016). This research adopts a mixed-methods approach to the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. A post-representational approach to the methodology of social cartography is used to map two facets of the data. These facets are the general discursive field in which various exceptionalist tendencies are being contested and/or reproduced, and the multiple dimensions of articulations of exceptionalist tendencies. Canadian exceptionalism is in this research understood as a complex set of self-constitutive discursive practices, policies, self-perceptions and assumptions that simultaneously affirm and construct an imaginary of Canadian society and Canadian nationals as morally, ethically and culturally superior by exalting both the nationals’ and the nation-state’s inherent character as already good global citizens. Exceptionalism is used as an umbrella term that joins together several problematic aspects of unexamined ennobled narratives about the nation and national subjects. In this research the concept of exceptionalism is developed by drawing on multiple critiques of different aspects of liberal subjectivities. The findings suggest that exceptionalist tendencies and articulations can be observed in the responses of both international and Canadian students. They also suggest that while critical thinking and engagement with diversity are valued highly by almost all students, the responses in the survey exhibit a high level of ambivalence in terms of how (and to what extent) critical thinking is deployed, while diversity is often constructed in commodified ways that seem to indicate a desire for consumption of the Other’s difference for personal and/or national benefit. / Tiivistelmä Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan kanadalaista poikkeuksellisuutta koskevien käsitysten haastamista ja/tai toisintamista seitsemän kanadalaisen yliopiston opiskelijoiden vastauksissa kyselyyn, joka liittyi korkeakoulutuksen kansainvälistymiseen. Aineisto (n=1451) on kerätty eri alojen kandidaattivaiheen opiskelijoilta vuosina 2013–2015 ja se on osa laajempaa Ethical Internationalization in Higher Education (EIHE) -projektissa (2012–2016) syntynyttä kyselytietokantaa. Tutkimuksessa hyödynnetään monimenetelmällistä lähestymistapaa laadullisen ja määrällisen aineiston analyysiin. Aineistoa kartoitetaan kahdesta näkökulmasta jälkiedustuksellisen sosiaalisen kartografian avulla. Nämä näkökulmat ovat 1) yleinen diskursiivinen kenttä, jossa erilaisia poikkeuksellisuuden tendenssejä haastetaan ja/tai toisinnetaan ja 2) poikkeuksellisuuden tendenssien artikulaatiot ja niiden moninaiset ulottuvuudet. Kanadalainen poikkeuksellisuus ymmärretään tässä tutkimuksessa monimutkaiseksi rakennelmaksi itseään toteuttavia diskursiivisia käytäntöjä, toimintatapoja sekä ihmisten käsityksiä ja oletuksia itsestään, jotka samanaikaisesti vahvistavat ja rakentavat kuvitelmaa kanadalaisesta yhteiskunnasta ja Kanadan kansalaisista moraalisesti, eettisesti ja kulttuurisesti ylempiarvoisina ihmisinä ylistämällä kansalaisten ja kansallisvaltion luonnetta luonnostaan hyvinä maailmankansalaisina. Poikkeuksellisuutta käytetään ylemmän tason terminä, joka nostaa esiin useita ongelmallisia näkökulmia tutkimattomiin kansakuntaa ja kansalaisia koskeviin ylevyyden narratiiveihin. Poikkeuksellisuuden konseptia rakennetaan tässä tutkimuksessa viimeaikaisen liberaalin subjektiivisuuden eri näkökulmia koskevan kritiikin pohjalta. Tulokset viittaavat siihen, että poikkeuksellisuuden tendenssejä ja artikulaatioita esiintyy sekä ulkomaisten että kanadalaisten opiskelijoiden vastauksissa. Vaikka tulosten perusteella lähes kaikki opiskelijat arvostavat vastauksissaan kriittistä ajattelua ja moninaisuuden kohtaamista, vastauksista välittyy hyvin ristiriitainen näkemys siitä, miten (ja missä määrin) kriittistä ajattelua lopulta hyödynnetään. Tällöin diversiteetti jäsentyy usein kulutushyödykkeen tavoin osoittaen ilmeistä halua käyttää toisen erilaisuutta oman ja/tai kansallisen edun hyväksi.

Female baby boomer students (born 1946-1964) need to augment their skills in mobile collaborative learning because current knowledge of technologies is essential for making informed decisions. The purpose of this study was to determine the need to promote technologies based on the experiences of female baby boomer students. Andragogy and constructivism provided the conceptual framework for this research. The research questions were devised to investigate female boomer students' collaborative experiences using smart devices and barriers to their adoption of technology. This phenomenological study included 8 participants from a Canadian university recruited through purposeful sampling. Per the Modified Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen method, data were simultaneously collected via interviews, analyzed by coding, and organized into themes until saturation. Age was the main deterrent for technology adoption, and obstacles included embracing a new process, feeling that information was secure, and resolving technical difficulties. Results indicated that female baby boomer students were not ready to lead in the use of mobile collaborative learning and could not maintain rapid technological changes. Mature students may need training in cloud computing; a 1-semester blended course was proposed to enable these students to learn mobile technologies and collaborative skills. This study identifies the technology learning needs of baby boomer students, which will help those looking for ways to teach students in this age range. When leaders in their field of study know how to use current technologies, they will be more productive in their communities.

No description available.

Abstract The purpose of this research is to examine the experiences of first-generation, highly educated Iranian women who came to Canada to pursue further education in a ‘just’, ‘safe’, and ‘peaceful’ place. The research has revealed that these women who were fleeing from an ‘oppressive’ and ‘unjust’ Iranian regime face new challenges and different forms of oppression in Canada. This dissertation examines some of the challenges that these women face at their place of work and/or at graduate school. The research findings are based on narratives of eleven Iranian women who participated in in-depth interviews in the summer of 2008. These women, whose ages range from 26 to 55 and are of diverse marital status, all hold an academic degree from Iran. They were also all enrolled in different graduate schools and diverse disciplines in Ontario universities at the time of the interviews. The research findings indicate that their presence in Canada became more controversial after the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade centers in New York. Historically, the social images imposed on Middle Eastern women derive from the Orientalism that arose following the colonization of the Middle East by Western imperialists. The perpetuation of such images after the 9/11 attack has created a harsh environment for the participants in this research. After 9/11 most immigrants from the Middle East were assumed to be Muslim and Arab, which many North Americans came to equate with being a terrorist. In order to analyze the participants’ voices and experiences, I have adopted a multi-critical theoretical perspective that includes Orientalism, anti-colonialism and integrative anti-racist feminist perspectives, so as to be equipped with the tools necessary to investigate and expose the roots of racism, oppression and discrimination of these marginalized voices. The findings of this research fall under six interrelated themes: adaptation, stereotyping, discrimination, being silenced, strategy of resistance, and belonging to Canadian society/ graduate school. One of the important results of this research is that, regardless of the suffering and pain that the participants feel in Canadian graduate school and society, they prefer to stay in Canada because of the socio-political climate in Iran.