My study examined whether and how the relationship between parent and teacher corresponds to the socioeconomic status (SES) of the family or to the achievement level of their child in reading and writing. Relationship was defined in terms of communication, perceptions of mutual support and reported levels of satisfaction. The constructs were assessed through questionnaires and interviews with seven parent-teacher dyads. Each dyad represented a unique profile of student achievement (high or low), SES of the family (high or low), and parental involvement (high or minimal). Successful relationships were characterized as having clear communication, perceptions of helpful mutual support, and high levels of success. No clear patterns in the success of the relationships emerged from examination of the SES or achievement of the children; however, successful relationships were aligned with the teachers' ratings of parental involvement. Teachers included newsletters and log book messages in their methods of communicating with parents, while parents considered only two-way interactions as communicating with their child's teacher. Teachers in higher SES schools reported giving suggestions to parents to assist their children but the parents did not report hearing the suggestions; however, teachers in lower SES schools did not report giving suggestions to parents but parents reported hearing the suggestions. Home literacy activities varied across families in high versus low SES schools. Parents in higher SES schools reported a broader range of activities in their home that supported their children's literacy acquisition than their lower SES counterparts. Activities reported by low SES families were more task oriented while activities reported by higher SES families were more entertainment oriented and corresponded better with school activities.

This study explored the dynamics, challenges, and complexities encountered in forming, managing, and evaluating the interorganizational relationships of a nonprofit organization and its partners in the public, nonprofit, and commercial sectors. Using a partnership process model developed from various theoretical frameworks (Kouwenhoven, 1993; Oliver, 1990; Provan & Milward, 2001; Wood & Gray, 1991), this study examined three phases of partnership relationships (i.e., formation, management, and evaluation) to gain a better understanding of the interactions among partnering organizations in Canadian sport. Qualitative research methods were employed to investigate partnerships of one National Sport Centre (NSC). Data were collected from three sources: 28 interviews, 110 organizational documents, and attendance at three organizational meetings. Interviews, relevant document passages, and field notes were transcribed and analyzed using Atlas.ti, a qualitative analysis software program. Results indicated that environmental and organizational conditions facilitated the formation of partnerships. Interdependence among organizations, presence of a broker, presence of a network, and convergence of objectives were evident. Specific reasons for partnership formation included efficiency, stability, necessity, legitimacy, reciprocity, and asymmetry. Partnership management structures and processes were central to interactions between organizations. Partners struggled to find a balance between pressures to compete and pressures to collaborate. Power imbalances, political dynamics, and control issues primarily related to resource concerns existed, and in some cases weakened the bonds among partners. Some partnerships were formalized, while others were loosely structured and primarily based on mutual trust, previous history, and personal interest. Ambiguities regarding roles and responsibilities, and 'representativeness' influenced how partners interacted and contributed to challenges in managing partnerships. Allocating resources was a prime concern for the organizations. Several levels of analysis for outcome evaluation existed. At the community level, the performance of NSC athletes at international competitions' was a key measure of success. At the network level, effective coordination of programs and services contributing to improved performances of athletes was perceived as an important measure of effectiveness. Finally at the organizational level, factors including ability to attract and retain partners, ability to remain economically viable through resource acquisition, and achieving legitimacy were all viewed as criteria to evaluate partnership effectiveness.

This study is aimed at elucidating the meaning of therapeutic change within the context of a person's life story. The author believes that delineation of therapeutic change within this context may help to overcome the incongruence among counselling theory, research, practice, and the experience of counselling clients. After reviewing the traditional literature on therapy outcome and change, the new options coming from narrative approaches were considered. The qualitative method of a multiple-case study was chosen as the most appropriate for the posed question. Three participants in this project completed either individual (1 woman) or group (1 woman and 1 man) therapy, and believed that they achieved a substantial therapeutic change; all of them had written their autobiography in the beginning of their therapy. In each case study, the autobiography was interpreted, the interpretation refined in the Life story interview, and validated in another interview with the participant. Then the Current life interview and the Interview with a significant other were conducted, and the Portrait of change was construed; again, the product was reviewed and validated with the participant. All interpretations, and the videotapes of interviews were reviewed by two independent judges. The three Portraits of change were mutually compared, and the working delineation of the therapeutic change within the context of a person's life story was abstracted from this comparison. In all 3 cases, the change seemed to be connected with a substantial reinterpretation of the individual's life story. This reinterpretation seemed to be based on the change of the individual's fundamental beliefs about self and others in-the-world, on greater and more flexible acceptance of self and others in their relational complexity, and on positioning one's Self as an agentic hero in his or her own life story. These changes were also reflected in the genre, the formal structure, and the explanatory reasoning of the new stories the participants told about their current lives, and lived by. The limitations of this study, and the implications of the findings for counselling theory, practice, and future research are discussed.

Professors need alternative programs to support their online teaching. This dissertation reports an initial study in a long-term research agenda for developing a faculty online teaching solution. The primary purpose of the study is to explore faculty perceptions of a case library to help decision makers and researchers determine whether they would pursue the use of such a tool to support faculty online teaching. The secondary purpose of the study is to generate design knowledge to inform future development of and research on this or similar case libraries. The methodology of this study includes three components: development research, rapid prototyping, and qualitative methods. Development research and rapid prototyping provided a three-stage framework for this study: conceptualization, development, and research. I synthesized the literature to create conceptual models of an Online Teaching Case Library (OTCL) at the conceptualization stage, built a prototype to implement the models at the development stage, and conducted research to evaluate the prototype at the research stage. Qualitative methods guided data gathering and analysis. I recruited seven faculty participants based on a purposeful sampling technique. To gather the data, I followed a three-step data collection process: initial interviews, contextual interviews, and final interviews. This process allowed me to observe and interview faculty participants while they were exploring the prototype. I analyzed the data by following an 11-step procedure synthesized from the works of Miles and Huberman (1994) as well as LeCompte and Schensul (1999a). This study found that on one hand, faculty members might use an OTCL, because they perceived that this tool could support their apprenticeship approach to learning to teach. On the other hand, however, their perceived decision to use an OTCL would also be influenced by the perceptions of the usefulness and usability of the tool. The study identified the initial evidence supporting an OTCL as an online teaching resource and the challenges involved in developing and implementing such a solution. It provides a base for decision makers to determine whether they would adopt this tool. It also offers some design guidance for those who do want to pursue this solution to faculty development.

The purpose of this research was to understand the lived experience of a person with a substance addiction that uses or has used alternative therapies for treatment. A single-case study approach was used to understand the lived experiences of Jason, a male in his mid-forties who is healing from a substance addiction. Through in-person interviewing and reading personal manuscripts written by the participant, data were collected. The data were analysed and interpreted using phenomenological and integral hermeneutics. Through the interpretations, it was clear that a major contributing factor to Jason’s drug use was the negative experiences he was carrying from his past. Once he was able to let go of the negativity and let his higher power guide him, his healing journey took a positive turn. Today, Jason lives in the moment and does not need drugs to heal the hurt he is feeling inside. He uses his ultimate alternative method, derived from within himself, to guide his journey in recovery. / viii, 155 leaves ; 29 cm

The following is a qualitative portrait of a creative teacher and her teaching process. It has been written as chronological narrative using an evolving systems approach as a methodology for an instrumental case-study design. The creative teacher is a 47-year-old female with over 20 years experience with elementary, secondary, college, and university students. Five interviews were conducted with the teacher before, during, and following the course. Data sets include classroom observations revealed in field notes, documents such as course materials and audiotaped interviews. Two interviews were conducted with six students at the beginning and end of the course. One interview was conducted with the teacher's husband at the end of the course. The research context was an undergraduate university classroom of 146 preservice teachers studying how to plan curriculum and instruction for diverse learners. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. The overarching themes represented constructs involving intense and thorough course preparation, teacher-student connections, and reflective teaching. Overlapping subthemes guiding the process of creative teaching emerged including constraints placed on preparation and reflective teaching, an awareness of self and students within the process of preparation and connection, feedback from colleagues and students guiding the connection and reflective teaching, and the values and goals formed from personal history and philosophy of life shaping all three major themes. The teacher's personality acted as a conduit for expressing her creativity in the classroom. Her creative process was directed by her personality to choose the materials and methods of developing curriculum and instruction, and to guide her in her reflective teaching. This revelatory case example of creative teaching possesses characteristics resembling studies of creative giants, however presents a model of the process of creative teaching that can be ins

Purpose: Hearing loss is a common problem worldwide, and there is an ever- increasing need for more audiologists to be trained. Unfortunately, audiology students cannot always get the clinical experience they need during training. Virtual reality involving computer-based simulation of real-life training experiences is one way of compensating for this. While there are several virtual audiometers available for student use, few of these include the vital case history component. This study sought to develop an interactive virtual patient that includes this component, and to objectively measure the effect of training with this software on student performance. Method: Development of the Patient Simulator Program (PSP) took place in two phases – Phase One involved development of audiometric information and a brief case history summary for 25 patient cases, and Phase Two involved development of comprehensive case histories for these and identification of triggering phrases and keywords for eliciting each piece of information from the virtual patient. Twelve first year audiology students were recruited from the University of Canterbury and divided into matched groups based on their pre-test scores. An alternating treatment design across groups was used to evaluate participants on their verbal and written accuracy, experience, confidence, and efficiency scores on case history tasks. Results: A significant difference was found in verbal accuracy scores between groups at the mid-way assessment point (following simulator training), but not for written accuracy. Differences between groups were not significant at all assessment points for efficiency and experience measures. Confidence gains were greater for the second group to train with the simulator than the first, while performance gains were greater for the first group. Conclusion: These findings support the evidence that simulation training can enhance student’s skills, and provide the first objective evidence for the benefits of training for case history tasks with an interactive virtual patient. While the effect size was small, these findings are a promising springboard for future research into this area. While the PSP is not adequate to replace real clinical encounters, it has potential as an adjunct to the current training program.

Ischemia caused by the disruption of blood flow results in kidney damage and dysfunction. This study investigated the effects of 30, 60 or 120 minutes of renal ischemia on the levels of glutathione (GSH), the major antioxidant inside cells. Kidneys from anesthetized female Lewis rats (9 months old) were clamped to induce ischemia and then homogenized and separated into cytosolic and mitochondria fractions by differential centrifugation. The levels of GSH and oxidized glutathione (GSSG) in the fractions were measured spectrophotometrically or by capillary electrophoresis. A significant reduction in GSH levels in the cytosol and mitochondria was seen only after the kidney underwent 60 minutes of ischemia. The significant decrease in GSH was accompanied by an increase in the GSSG/GSH ratio and an alteration in the glutathione redox ratio (i.e., GSH/total glutathione). This study demonstrates that an ischemic time of 60 minutes or longer is necessary to cause depletion of GSH levels in the rat kidney. / Department of Physiology and Health Science

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

Dichotomies are a way we simplify interconnected hierarchical complexities of race, class, ethnicity, gender and power plays in our society. The division between male and female has been the primary dichotomy I have focused on in this discussion. My argument is that dichotomies create a cyclical loop which reinforces social injustice between genders in societies cross culturally and across time. This cycle of gender division includes cultural, built and activity patterns. There is no single point of origin of these patterns, but rather a constant loop of reinforcement from one pattern to the other. What I am trying to do here is not judge or criticize these societies and their values; rather I am evaluating them comparatively with other societies based on the status of women. I have found these cultural, built and activity patterns by documenting examples that exist cross culturally and across time. In order to do this I had to set up some criteria for selecting my case studies. I have divided the examples into four categories: 1. Egalitarian subsistence societies having equal status for women with respect to men and other women in similar cultures. 2. Hierarchical societies having lower status of women with respect to men and other women in a similar culture. 3. 19th and 20th century case studies in urban societies having lower status of women with respect to men. 4. 19th and 20th century case studies in reforms and utopian proposals that aimed at making egalitarian societies with equal status among men and women. I found that the public/private cultural pattern was the most recurring pattern. It is present in egalitarian, hierarchical and 19th and 20th century Victorian society. This pattern exists cross-culturally and across time. In the egalitarian subsistence societies, dichotomies are not understood as a set of oppositions such as superior and inferior. Their belief in harmony and balance in nature emphasized equality, unlike the hierarchical societies. In hierarchical subsistence societies, dichotomies divided people by assigning them public or private roles. In 19th and 20th century Victorian society an ideal gentleman was supposed to have serious, dignified, chivalrous qualities and an ideal lady was supposed to be moral, beautiful, cheerful and elegant. This shows that the cultural patterns were enforced upon individuals and they had to act accordingly in the society. I also looked at the utopian solutions of making childcare, laundry, and food preparation community activities. These radical solutions were focused on improving the cultural, built and activity patterns simultaneously. I have evaluated these case studies comparatively based on the status of women. While it’s difficult to state a solution to accommodate the layers of gender segregation that exist within cultural, built and activity patterns, I don’t think proposing an overtly radical solution is the right direction either. I would strongly recommend more awareness of feminist education in architecture and engineering schools. There should be more incentives and scholarships for women in traditionally male dominated professions like architecture and engineering. Learning about these patterns of gender segregation in different societies is also a way to begin this cultural progress. / Historical case studies of gender segregated patterns in egalitarian subsistence societies -- Case studies of gender segregated patterns in hierarchichal subsistence societies -- 19th and 20th century case studies for gender segregated patterns in urban societies -- 19th and 20th century case studies in reforms and utopian proposals. / Department of Architecture