Internationally Educated Nurses (IENs) have been proposed as one solution to dealing with the nursing shortage in Canada. In addition to helping sustain the profession, IENs are reflective of the diverse patient populations in Canada. Investments will ensure healthy workplaces for and retention of IENs. There has been a growing interest about IENs’ experiences with migration and navigating through the regulatory process, but research on their post-transition experience is lacking. Workplace integration for IENs is not well understood and the role of the employer has received limited focus. Guided by critical social theory, an instrumental qualitative case study approach was used to examine a single organization, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, with a history of supporting IENs. A purposeful sample of twenty-eight participants included diverse IENs who were post-transition, and stakeholders from various vantage points. Four forms of data collection were used: semi-structured interviews; socio-demographic survey; review of documents and focus groups. Thematic analysis was carried out to form a within subcase analysis first, followed by an across subcase analysis. The major themes are: (a) when “integrated”, an IEN is (i) being a “Canadian nurse with international experience”; (ii) progressing on the leadership journey; and (iii) persevering in overcoming challenges; (b) organizational factors that influence workplace integration of IEN are (i) workforce diversity; (ii) leadership commitment to equity; (iii) policies promoting equity principles; (iv) engagement with the broader community; and (v) avoiding common pitfalls. This research offers a definition and conceptual framework where workplace integration of IENs is a “two-way” process within an inclusive and valuing context, producing changes both at the IEN as well as organizational levels.

L’impact du niveau d’études sur les performances cognitives est largement connu. Aussi, l’évaluation des sujets de bas ou très bas niveau d’études est un réel challenge pour les cliniciens. D’une part, les outils habituellement utilisés dans le bilan du sujet âgé ne sont pas adaptés aux individus analphabètes ou de bas niveau d’éducation, et, d’autre part, les normes nécessaires à l’interprétation des scores cognitifs ne prennent pas suffisamment en considération cette population de bas niveau scolaire. Ainsi, la question que pose ce travail de thèse est de savoir comment optimiser l’évaluation neuropsychologique de ces sujets de bas niveau scolaires. L’objectif poursuivi par la première étude de cette thèse est de déterminer s’il existe un effet propre du fait de savoir lire et écrire indépendamment de celui de la scolarisation. Pour répondre à cette question, nous avons pu accéder aux données recueillies dans la cohorte mexicaine de Coyoacán qui a la particularité d’avoir un échantillon important de sujets n’ayant jamais été scolarisés. Cette première étude a montré que des sujets n’ayant jamais accédé au système éducatif mais ayant des notions rudimentaires de lecture et d’écriture acquises de manière informelle, ont des performances plus élevées à tous les tests considérés, hormis pour le Set test d’Isaacs (IST), que des sujets ne sachant pas lire et écrire. Ainsi, ces résultats illustrent l’effet des capacités de lecture et d’écriture, un effet distinct de l’effet du niveau de scolarisation. Une seconde difficulté à laquelle doivent faire face les cliniciens est l’absence de normes adaptées aux sujets de bas niveau d’études. Ainsi, un travail autour de l’élaboration de normes adaptées aux sujets de bas niveau d’études a été réalisé dans la cohorte de Coyoacán et nous a permis d’élaborer des normes pour le Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), le Rappel libre/Rappel indicé 16 items (RL/RI-16) et l’IST, jusque-là inexistantes pour la population âgée mexicaine et qui a la particularité de présenter une forte proportion de sujets de bas niveau d’études. Un second travail de normalisation a été réalisé dans la cohorte AMI, une cohorte menée en milieu rural dans le département de la Gironde dans laquelle la proportion de sujets de bas niveaux est plus élevée qu’en population générale, pour un nouveau test de mémoire visuo-spatiale, le test des gobelets pour lequel nous avons également étudié sa validité dans la détection de la démence. Ces normes classiques, corrigées pour des variables démographiques sont essentielles à l’interprétation des scores cognitifs. Dans le même temps, dans le cas de la démence où l’âge et le niveau d’études sont deux facteurs de risque majeurs, cette pratique habituelle de corriger pour ces variables afin d’établir ou de prédire un diagnostic de démence peut être remise en question. Si des travaux antérieurs ont montré que l’utilisation de scores corrigés diminue la qualité de détection de la démence, la dernière étude de cette thèse a montré qu’il en est de même lorsqu’il s’agit de prédire la démence : les sujets qui deviennent déments à court terme sont mieux classés lorsque les scores ne sont pas corrigés que lorsqu’ils sont corrigés pour l’âge et le niveau d’études. Ainsi, loin de régler le vaste problème de l’évaluation du sujet de bas niveau d’études, cette thèse tente d’apporter des éléments pragmatiques au clinicien sous la forme de tests ou de normes adaptées, mais aussi des éléments de réflexion sur l’utilisation de ces scores. / The effect of education on cognitive performances and neuropsychological assessment outcomes has been well documented so far. Indeed, the assessment of cognitive performance of individuals with low and very low educational level remains a major clinical challenge for several reasons. Firstly, conventional cognitive assessment tools used with elderly patients are not suitable for illiterate or poorly instructed individuals. Secondly, traditional norms used to identify strengths and weaknesses of cognitive performance are not sensible enough to detect cognitive impairments among illiterate or scarcely instructed individuals. Therefore, how to improve the neuropsychological assessment of individuals with low formal educational level is the main research question of this doctoral thesis. To adequately answer to this prior question, four studies have been conducted. The aim of the first study presented in this thesis was to investigate the specific effect of literacy acquisition on cognitive performances independently of education. For this work, we used data collected from the Coyoacán study, a Mexican population-based cohort which presents an important sample of uneducated participants. The main finding of this study was that participants who never attended school but counting with informal literacy abilities, presented better performances for all cognitive tests, except for the Isaacs Set test (IST), compared to their uneducated illiterate counterparts. These findings illustrate the specific effect of literacy skills acquisition on cognitive performances independently of the influence of schooling. The lack of adapted comparative norms is the second major challenge of neuropsychological assessment of individuals with low-educational level. Consequently, our second study aimed at establishing comparative norms for the MMSE, the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test and the IST, three tests widely used for cognitive evaluation in elderly people. Of note, these norms were specifically established for the Mexican elderly population, which presents a high rate of illiteracy and low-educational level. Finally, a third study aiming at establishing comparative norms for a new visuo-spatial memory-test: the goblets test. For this study, we used data collected from the AMI cohort study which is conducted in rural areas in the South-West of France. Within this third study we also studied the validity of this test in detecting dementia illness. These comparative norms are necessary to interpret cognitive scores. However, as age and education are major risk factors for dementia, correcting for these demographic variables to improve the accuracy of detection or prediction of dementia may be questionable. Consistently with other studies showing that dementia detection accuracy is compromised when corrected scores are used; findings of our last study showed that regarding dementia prediction accuracy, participants developing dementia, in the short term, are better classified when using uncorrected scores for age and education than the corrected ones. To conclude, cognitive assessment of elderly individuals with low-educational level remains still a major clinical barrier to correctly diagnose dementia. However, besides providing clinicians with several pragmatic inputs such as cognitive tests and appropriated comparative norms, we believe that our findings will encourage clinical reflection regarding the use of these scores.

This study explores the factors that have an impact on the decisions of educated Indian mothers in South Africa who are not pursuing careers and answers the on-going questions about why Indian women pursue tertiary education but do not pursue careers. Secondly, this study also helps to understand the identity negotiation that these mothers go through – how they negotiate their various identities and the intersection of their gender and cultural identities that affect their decision not to pursue a career. The research aims to emphasise the extent and impact of the cultural roles that educated Indian mothers have to deal with. This study makes a theoretical contribution and conveys pioneering knowledge to assist top management to understand the skills shortage of this minority group and create an understanding of the reasons why Indian women decide not to pursue careers, and of their identity negotiation in the process. A qualitative research approach, using in-depth, semi-structured life story interviews, was used in the study to gain a deeper understanding of the reasons why educated Indian women are not pursuing careers. A non-probability sampling strategy (snowball and purposive sampling) was used, and therefore a total of 17 Muslim and Hindu participants were interviewed in the main study. Content analysis was used to analyse the data with the Atlas-Ti programme. The results exemplify that an individual‟s identity is formed by the cultural context and that Indian gender identities were instilled in these women from a young age. The women in the study highlighted that motherhood and family obligations take precedence over any other identity they possess. At first the women seemed despondent with the decision to leave their careers. However, as time went by they felt that cultural obligations were more important and accepted their cultural identity. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

This thesis examines the pop cultural representation of white-collar migrant women (WCMW) through the popular Chinese TV series Ode to Joy. Focusing on various aspects of their lives, this TV series raises many issues about the experiences of WCMW, including perceptions of them as “outsiders” in the megacity, gender inequality, and the tensions between female migrant identity and urban status. This study analyzes those issues by drawing on intersectional theories which examine structural inequalities from the perspective of the interactions of multiple axes of social categories. This thesis asks three major questions: In what way does Ode to Joy represent the experiences of WCMW?; To what extent do issues raised in Ode to Joy impact the wellbeing of WCMW in large cities?, and; What are the “joys” in Ode to Joy for WCMW? In addition to collecting data from the TV series, this study interviewed WCMW informants to provide first-hand accounts of their experiences in an urban culture. By critically analyzing the representation of WCMW characters’ experiences in Ode to Joy, this thesis provides insights on understanding the status of those women in a contemporary Chinese urban setting, thereby filling a gap in academic literature on the pop cultural representation of China’s white-collar migrant women in a Chinese megacity. / Graduate

This thesis explores the transition from being a social work student to being a professional social worker. This is realised through a two-pronged approach, first a comprehensive literature review and secondly through semi-structured interviews with five students who graduated from their bachelor’s degree in social work at a university in Southern Sweden, January 2020. As these students graduated just as the Covid-19 pandemic was beginning to disrupt the world this is an area which is further explored. The transition from social work student to professional social worker is further analysed using two theories, namely Resilience and Schlossberg’s Transition Theory. The findings from both the literature review and interviews highlight the importance of support, especially from colleagues. Overall, though, social workers can

Private tutoring is prevalent in Egypt and other developing countries. Nonetheless, the literature on tutoring is still small. The purpose of the first paper in this thesis is to gain an understanding of the determinants of tutoring in Egypt using micro-level data and to investigate whether gender bias exists in tutoring decisions. It is expected that since labor market outcomes are less favorable to girls and gender disparities are present in educational investments in general, parents would be less willing to invest in tutoring for girls. Surprisingly, however, no gender bias is detected with respect to tutoring. The absence of bias is a puzzling finding. Tutoring is used to enhance children's education performance and give them a competitive edge. Socioeconomic level was found to be an important predictor of tutoring investment in the first paper. This poses equity concerns. Therefore, it is important to examine whether tutoring pays off in terms of better educational outcomes. The literature on tutoring effects mostly does not take into account the potential endogeneity of tutoring. I estimate the effect of taking tutoring on the likelihood of joining the secondary level stream that leads to university in the second paper of the thesis. I use a proxy for the supply of tutors as an instrument for taking tutoring. Without instrumenting, tutoring has a statistically significant positive effect. After introducing the instrumental variable, this effect disappears. However, the estimate of the tutoring coefficient is imprecise and there is some evidence that the instrument variable does not have sufficient power to get a reliable estimate of the tutoring effect. The expectation of better marriage prospects for an educated woman may influence parental educational investment decisions and this can be the answer to the puzzle of apparently equal tutoring investment by gender as found in the first paper of the thesis. The third paper examines how female education improves marriage characteristics in Egypt. Findings show that highly educated women are more likely to marry a highly educated husband. They are also more likely to man-y a husband with a high pre-marital wealth level and to live independently upon marriage. Higher levels of female education are negatively associated with marrying a relative. Female education plays an insignificant role with respect to the share of marriage costs borne by a bride and her family. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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The number of people who flee their countries because of armed conflicts increased dramatically. Recently, Sweden received a higher number of refugees than before. The issue of integration of these new refugees into the host society is a challenging process and still open for debate. The field of cross-cultural studies has paid great attention to post-migration experiences. Therefore, the integration of refugees into a new society is a complex process. It’s not limited to the receiving countries’ policies, several aspects such as social and cultural characteristics of the refugees have to be taken into consideration.  In this regard, the research aims to explore the acculturation process from the perspective of highly educated Arabic-speaking refugees who recently settled in Sweden. The data has been collected using semi-structured interviews. The research used Berry’s acculturation model and the related theoretical frameworks to discuss the integration of highly educated Arabic-speaking refugees. The results revealed that the participants adopted the integration strategy, they appreciate their home culture while they are highly interested to interact with the host society. Labor market entry and Swedish language proficiency were the major challenges faced by the participants to integrate into the Swedish society. The findings of this research can be used by policymakers, the labor market, and social workers to understand the refugees’ attitudes when designing integration tools and interventions for highly educated refugees.

In 2008, Sweden changed its labor migration legislation and allowed for labor migrants from non EU/EEA countries to migrate to Sweden, which had been heavily restricted since the 1970s. This shift in labor migration policy is mirrored in Swedish integration policy where the focus in recent years has been on labor market integration. This thesis aims to investigate the sociocultural integration of migrants who are employed and, in the Swedish context, assumed to be integrated. In addition, sociocultural integration is related to employment and length of stay. Sociocultural integration is measured by three indicators: knowledge of Swedish language, having Swedish friends, and membership in organizations. The data was collected through sixteen semi-structured interviews of highly educated migrants with employment in Sweden and analyzed using four integration theories.The study reveals that employed migrants are only partially socioculturally integrated. Respondents presented low levels of Swedish-language knowledge, which can be explained by their short stay in the country as well having international workplaces where mostly English is spoken. However, these workplaces also offer respondents opportunities to meet natives and most respondents met their Swedish friends through work. There is a need for further studies of integration, in particular those that would explore multiple dimensions of integration and incorporate migrants who are already economically integrated.

This paper examines the relationship between memoir and truth, and the implications of that relationship for the rhetorical work that memoirs do. It uses the grounding example of Tara Westover's 2018 memoir Educated and looks at how the recreation of events within her life works both in conjunction with the way she portrays them in the text and juxtaposed against other competing narratives, such as her mother's 2020 memoir Educating. This essay continues the work done by literary theorists such as Phillipe LeJeune, applies the critical framework developed by Katherine Mack and Johnathan Alexander in their article "The Ethic of Memoir," and encourages the reader to consider the ways in which memoirs are rhetorically acting upon the culture at large through their narrative and emotional aspects. / Master of Arts / This paper looks at the relationship between memoir and truth in memoirs. Using rhetoric as its basis, it examines memoirs in their contexts using Tara Westover's 2020 memoir Educated as a case study. It looks at the way that memory is used to build narratives, and more specifically, the way that lived personal experiences are represented in the form of the memoir genre. In considering these ideas, this paper explores questions of objective "truth" and how lived experiences can be affected by internal emotional narrative, and by extension, how that emotional narrative is depicted in memoir.