The research findings presented in this portfolio share the situated experiences of five independent music teachers (IMTs) within a collaborative action research project contextualized within a critical analysis of the field of independent music teaching in Canada. IMTs work in isolation in their studios and except for occasional meetings organized by Registered Music Teachers' Associations (RMTA), they rarely meet professionally. The Independent Music Teachers' Research Group, (IMTRG) was formed from members of the Halifax Chapter of the Nova Scotia Registered Music Teachers' Association with the purpose of developing collaborative research, breaking professional isolation and enhancing the usual ways in which IMTs gain knowledge. The research program reported in this portfolio was undertaken by a founding member of the IMTRG with the aim of investigating how IMTs engaged in research and the changes this made not only to their own professional practice but to the field more broadly. / PhD Doctorate

This dissertation is both an analytical life history of Stó:lō Elder Archie Charles (1922-2010) as well as an academic reflection on the process of collaborating to record and write this told-to narrative. Grand Chief Archie Charles left a profound social, political and cultural legacy within the Stó:lō community. He is broadly acknowledged as one of the community’s most respected modern leaders. My examination of the way Archie strategically accepted and rejected elements of the teachings of his ancestors and the lessons learned from newcomers serves to enrich a growing body of post-colonial scholarship that challenges long-standing assumptions about what it means to be Aboriginal. The agency revealed through his life experience alerts us to the dynamic way in which Archie and certain others of his generation balanced innovation with tradition. This study of Archie’s life therefore, contributes to an emerging scholarship that challenges still lingering racist myths and faulty dualisms that position Native people as either “assimilated” or “resisting”. Through Archie’s story, I reveal the way in which he applied knowledge and skills he gained via the acculturation process (and his lifelong reflections on this process) to foster particular cultural continuities within areas of Stó:lō life. Archie successfully did this by enacting his own personal ethos of “protection through inclusion and education”. This research chronicles and interprets the genesis and evolution of his leadership strategy by tracing it back to his adaptive interpretations of his ancestral and familial teachings and highlighting key times in Archie’s life history when he worked to find a balance between innovation and tradition. Thus it foregrounds his formative experience with Xwelítem (newcomers) and Stó:lō society and cosmology, particularly his adoption, time spent attending Kamloops Indian Residential School, and involvement as a soldier and veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces. It highlights how he derived meaning out of these experiences, which in turn guided his actions in the public sphere and shaped his policies as a community leader –in particular as elected Chief of his community of Seabird Island British Columbia and as a Sia:teleq (a hereditary caretaker) of his family fishcamp in the Fraser Canyon. This research draws upon my own sustained dialogue with Archie Charles and his immediate family, secondary and primary sources, and previous oral history interviews conducted with Archie and his family members. It explicates Archie’s role as a man who was known more for his actions than his words and the ways in which silence may be interpreted and made meaningful in the told-to genre. In terms that reflect the subtleties of collaborative dynamics that play out in told-to narratives, it likewise examines his role as narrator and authority of his life experience and my role as chronicler, then interpreter. As such, it provides glimpses into specific time periods and aspects of Archie’s life, but does not seek to be fully chronologic and comprehensive. As a result, I seek to contribute to collaborative historiography by sharing the way in which my collaboration with Archie shifted from a dialogue, particularly following his death in 2010, to a “polylogue”: an engagement of multiple voices of family and extended community members to support this telling of his life narrative. Moving from hearing to a more engaged form of “listening” as we did – the kind which allows for silences to exist – reinforced for me that knowledge, expressed through words, gestures, actions as well as silences are not things we can go into a community or individual’s life and “get”. Rather, they are shared as gifts, and as such come with obligations of reciprocity. This dissertation aspires to reciprocate the sharing that Archie did with me by providing his community and my scholarly community with not only an account of his life, but with an assessment of what his life reveals about pertinent issues in Aboriginal and Native-Newcomer history – and through this process to hopefully contribute to the ongoing efforts at building reconciliation between settler and Indigenous societies.

The autoethnographic research project #selfie investigates the effects of the social media platform Instagram on the well-being of users aged 15–28 years. It focuses on the physical, psychological and psychosocial aspects of this user group’s behaviours, thoughts, and feelings. A review of current research shows that while Instagram usage can enhance short-term well-being by triggering positive emotional responses, the long-term consequences can include information overload and stress phenomena, which can lead to a decreased ability or even inability to focus on one specific thing or moment. The present thesis examines the effect of this decreased or lacking ability on individuals’ competence of reflective thinking and “mindfulness,” a competence which can be linked to living a lifestyle of sustainability. Without reflective thinking, individuals are unable to determine their own standpoint when it comes to issues related to sustainability. The review of current research is juxtaposed with excerpts from interviews and conversations with the investigated user group, as well as autoethnographic investigation and reflective illustrations based on the author’s own experience with Instagram. Through this, the actuality of prevailing opinions in current literature is discussed critically. This research suggests that design can and should bring issues such as extensive Instagram usage and its possible effects to public attention by offering an approach that can be as informative as appealing, making it attractive to commit to reflective thinking and encouraging the audience to broaden their horizon on the issue. The design proposal of this project consists of an illustrated graphic story which combines comics, illustration and text in the form of a zine which opens up a platform for dialogue on Instagram usage, therefore challenging readers to reflect on their own experiences and guiding them on their way to mindful social media use.

Este trabalho investiga o desenvolvimento profissional do(a) professor(a) de Geografia e a apropriação do conceito de lugar. Entende-se que lugar é o campo das relações de força, onde ocorre a história e que o meio onde os alunos vivem é, para eles, a referência na perspectiva da compreensão do mundo e da sua transformação. A pesquisa foi realizada em duas escolas públicas no município de Santana de Parnaíba que, nas últimas décadas, apresenta um intenso dinamismo relacionado ao processo migratório, sendo área de expansão urbana da Região Metropolitana de São Paulo. A escolha das escolas foi devido a localizarem-se em lugares com diferentes características socioculturais e apresentarem o Índice de Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica (IDEB) bem diverso. Teve base no método dialético segundo Henry Lefebvre (1969), em que o desafio é revelar o sentido das ações humanas, ao questionar todo pensamento, conhecimento, atitude e objetivo. Diante da complexa problemática da realidade em que se encontra a educação pública brasileira, devido, em geral, à péssima qualidade das escolas de Educação Básica, a pesquisa, inicialmente, se desenvolveu no Colégio Municipal Alfazema com a intenção de colaborar no desenvolvimento profissional dos professores. Realizou-se com os profissionais e não sobre eles, tomando-se o cuidado de não sobrepô-los e, assim, possibilitar a transformação da prática docente ao visar a um trabalho em equipe integrado com a comunidade escolar. Na continuidade, a pesquisa foi desenvolvida no Colégio Municipal Tulipa, para se compreender o reconhecimento do conceito de lugar no desenvolvimento profissional dos professores de Geografia. Considerou-se que, ao se estudarem os processos históricos, sociais, culturais e naturais do lugar, permite-se uma compreensão crítica do espaço geográfico, essencial para o conhecimento da realidade em que se localiza a escola e, assim, para a contextualização do conhecimento e o trabalho com a diversidade sociocultural dos alunos. / This study investigates the professional development of Geography teacher and the appropriation of the concept of place. It is understood that place is the field of relations of force, where history happens and the environment where the students live is, for them, the reference in the perspective of understanding the world and its transformation. The research was carried out in two public schools in the district of Santana de Parnaíba which, in the last decades, presented an intense dynamism related to the migratory process due to be an area of urban expansion of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo City. The choice of the schools was made according to the location, places with different sociocultural characteristics, that presents a very diverse Basic Educational Development Index (IDEB). It was based on the dialectical method according to Henry Lefebvre (1969), which says that the challenge is to reveal the meaning of human actions by questioning every thought, knowledge, attitude and aim. When faced the complex problem of brazilian´s public education, due in general to the poor quality of Basic Education Schools, the research initially was developed in the Alfazema Municipal School aiming to collaborate with the professional development of teachers. It was made with the professionals and not about them, taking care not to override them, so the transformation of the teaching practice became possible, integrating team work and school community. Following up, the research was also developed at Tulipa Municipal School, to understand the perception of the concept of place in the professional development of Geography teacher. It is understood that studying the historical, social, cultural and natural processes of place allows a critical understanding of geographic spot, and it is essential to understand the reality of school´s location, for the contextualization of knowledge and the work of sociocultural diversity of students.

Social networks have been evolving over the past few years, leading to a rapid increase in the number and complexity of relationships among their entities. In this research, we focus on a large scale dataset known as the Digital Bibliography and Library Project or DBLP, which contains information on all publications that have been published in computer and information science related journals and conference proceedings. We model the DBLP dataset as a social network of research collaborations. DBLP is a structured and dynamic dataset stored in the XML file format; it contains over 850,000 authors and 2 million publications, and the resulting collaboration social network is a scale-free network. We define DBLP collaboration social network as a graph that consists of researchers as nodes and links representing the collaboration or co-authorship relationships among the researchers. In this work, we implement a data analysis algorithm called Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) to represent the degree of collaboration among the DBLP authors as Euclidean distances in 2-dimensional space in order to analyze, mine and understand the relational information in this large scale network in a visual way. MDS is a useful technique for data visualization and graph drawing methods, but it has high computational complexity for large scale graphs such as the DBLP graph. Therefore, we propose different solutions to overcome this problem, and improve the MDS performance. In addition, as the quality of the MDS result is measured by a metric known as the stress value, we use the steepest descent method to minimize the stress in an iterative process called stress optimization in order to generate the best geometric layout of the graph nodes in 2-dimensional space. We also propose a solution to further enhance the graph visualization by partitioning the graph into sub-graphs and using repelling forces among nodes within the same sub-graph. Finally, we developed a new visualization tool that can handle the large scale of the DBLP graph, and provides the user a number of significant features that allow them to explore, navigate and sift for information through the graph, such as graph scaling and graphical search functionality. / UOIT

This thesis focuses on college-aged second-generation Americans whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from India. The purpose of the study is to examine the ethnic and cultural identities of second-generation Indian Americans in the Atlanta area. This exploratory study is meant to interrogate cognitive boundaries to suggest that identity is not a fixed state but a fluid process that is continually shaped both by the individual and by society. I have amassed data through both video-recorded ethnographic interviews and self-video ethnography yielding visual ethnographic material that supplements the written thesis. During the research period, I posted regularly at www.kellyshonorsthesis.wordpress.com, providing updates on my progress with the research project. Through creating a visual project that is public from the very beginning, I have aimed to achieve transparency as a researcher and to increase visibility for the field of anthropology. In addition, I demonstrate that research collaboration using self-video ethnography can be an effective ethnographic method to give voice to research participants and to reveal nuances not otherwise accessible.

This thesis focuses on college-aged second-generation Americans whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from India. The purpose of the study is to examine the ethnic and cultural identities of second-generation Indian Americans in the Atlanta area. This exploratory study is meant to interrogate cognitive boundaries to suggest that identity is not a fixed state but a fluid process that is continually shaped both by the individual and by society. I have amassed data through both video-recorded ethnographic interviews and self-video ethnography yielding visual ethnographic material that supplements the written thesis. During the research period, I posted regularly at www.kellyshonorsthesis.wordpress.com, providing updates on my progress with the research project. Through creating a visual project that is public from the very beginning, I have aimed to achieve transparency as a researcher and to increase visibility for the field of anthropology. In addition, I demonstrate that research collaboration using self-video ethnography can be an effective ethnographic method to give voice to research participants and to reveal nuances not otherwise accessible.

Objectives: We investigated pediatric rare disease researchers’ experiences and perspectives with research collaborations involving industry partners. Methods: This mixed methods study included a cross-sectional survey of academic/hospital-based Canadian pediatric rare disease researchers which informed semi-structured interviews with a subsample of survey participants. We analyzed survey data descriptively and interview data thematically, integrating findings narratively. Results: Of 126 survey respondents, 59 (47%) reported research collaborations with industry; we interviewed 10 of these researchers. Important benefits to collaborations with industry reported by survey participants and interviewees included access to funding and resources, while disadvantages stemmed from perceptions that partners had different motivations. Interviewees provided advice for future researchers including careful selection of an industry partner, relationship building, clear expectations, and utilizing supportive institutional structures. Conclusion: Our findings provide insights into the experiences of pediatric rare disease researchers and offer suggestions on how to conduct successful collaborative research with industry.

The purpose of this study was to describe the implementation of contextual learning practices in a biology class. Research contends that contextual learning classrooms are active learning environments where students are involved in "hands-on" team projects and the teacher assumes a facilitator role. In this student-centered classroom, students take ownership and responsibility for their own learning. This study examined these assertions and other factors that emerged as the study developed. The research methods used were qualitative. The subject for this study was a biology teacher with twenty-six years of experience who implemented contextual learning practices in two of her biology classes in the 1997-98 school year. As the teacher confronted contextual learning, we engaged in collaborative research that included fourteen interviews transcribed verbatim for analysis, classroom observations and the teacher's written reports. Throughout the study, factors developed that adversely affected contextual learning practices. These factors were discipline, curriculum, and administrative decisions over which the teacher had no control. These are examined along with their consequences for implementing a contextual classroom. Successful practices that worked in the teacher's classroom were also determined and included the teacher's "failure is not an option" policy, mandatory tutoring, behavior contracts, high expectations and teamed projects. Besides contextual learning, a key component of the study was the collaborative research process and its meaning to the subject, the researcher and future researchers who attempt this collaborative approach. The study's conclusion indicate that scheduling, multiple repeaters, discipline and the state Standards of Learning moved the teacher away from contextual learning practices to a more teacher-directed classroom. Two recommendations of this study are that further research is needed to study how the state Standards of Learning have affected instructional practices and the effect of administrative decisions that influence the level of teacher success in the classroom. / Ed. D.

A literatura na área de formação de professores tem salientado a importância da participação de professores em atividades colaborativas de pesquisa. Neste trabalho focalizamos um projeto desenvolvido no âmbito do programa Observatório da Educação (OBEDUC / CAPES), no qual participaram professores da rede pública da Educação Básica do Estado de Sergipe com a finalidade principal de desenvolver instrumentos para avaliação de alunos do ensino fundamental. Buscamos com o presente estudo compreender se o fato de professores continuarem seus estudos por meio da participação em pesquisas financiadas pelo OBEDUC contribui para o seu processo de formação para a docência, bem como para pesquisa. Utilizamos referenciais teóricos relativos à Formação de Professores quanto aos modelos formativos e ao campo de investigação sobre saberes docentes. Mais especificamente, buscamos respostas para a questão: Quais as contribuições que a participação no Projeto sobre avaliação/OBEDUC traz para o desenvolvimento de Conhecimentos, Habilidades e Atitudes dos professores? Desenvolvemos o trabalho segundo os parâmetros de metodologia qualitativa de pesquisa. Realizamos: estudo documental, observação participante das reuniões de desenvolvimento do projeto, e entrevistas semiestruturadas para delinear os perfis dos sujeitos, proceder ao levantamento de episódios, e definir categorias de análise. Com base nos resultados, evidenciamos que os professores explicitam indícios de um conjunto importante de contribuições, vindas de sua participação no projeto, quanto a saberes relativos à sua formação docente e a sua formação em pesquisa. Particularmente, identificamos menções sobre: Conhecer os conteúdos das ciências de referência e o processo de produção dos mesmos; conhecer teorias sobre ensino, aprendizagem e avaliação; saber preparar, aplicar e analisar atividades de ensino e de avaliação; saber pesquisar; e atitudes de criticidade, curiosidade, e interesse; e autonomia docente. Diante desses resultados, consideramos que a participação em programas dessa natureza traz um importante potencial na Formação Docente que expressará de diferentes formas as experiências vivenciadas no projeto. / The literature on teacher training area has highlighted the importance of involving teachers in collaborative research activities. In this research we focus on a project developed under the \"Observatório da Educação\" program (OBEDUC / CAPES), with the participation of public school teachers of Basic Education of the State of Sergipe with the primary purpose of developing tools for evaluating elementary students. This study sought to understand whether the fact that teachers continue their education through participation in funded research OBEDUC contributes to their formation process for teaching and for research. We use theoretical frameworks relating to Teacher Training as the training models and the field of research in teaching knowledge. More specifically, we seek answers to the question: What are the contributions that participation in the Project Review / OBEDUC brings to the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes of teachers? We develop work within the parameters of qualitative research methodology. We perform: desk study, participant observation of project development meetings, and semistructured interviews to outline the profiles of the subjects, to survey the episodes, and set categorization analysis. Based on the results, we noted that teachers explain an important set of contributions from their participation in the project as the knowledge related to their teacher training and their training in research. In particular, we identify mentions about: Know the contents of the reference science and the production process thereof; know the theories about teaching, learning and assessment; know how to prepare, apply and analyze teaching and evaluation activities; know how to research; and attitudes of criticism, curiosity, and interest; and teaching autonomy. Given these results, we believe that participation in such programs provides an important potential in teacher training that will express in different ways the experiences in the project.