There is a long-held assumption that Outdoor Adventure Education (OAE) can develop character. However, little research has explored this belief. While many practitioners, and some scholars, remain committed to character development through OAE, the literature also reveals a growing body of discomfort and suspicion surrounding this assumption. This dissent centres on the vague nature of the term “character,” and the moral philosophical complexities surrounding the concept of character itself. Until “character” is more clearly explicated, any resolution to the current confusion is unlikely. This thesis employs Aristotle’s virtue theory, as espoused in his Nicomachean Ethics, to articulate an understanding of character. Although several scholars have used virtue ethics, commonly referred to as character ethics, to support their claims of character development through OAE, these treatments have been preliminary, warranting this more detailed account. When viewed from this virtue ethical perspective, the question, “Can character be developed through OAE?,” becomes problematic. For Aristotle cautions that different subjects of inquiry yield differing levels of accuracy, and with regard to ethical investigations, such as those into character, one must be content to “indicate the truth roughly and in outline” (I 3§4). Further complicating the matter, Aristotle asserts that virtue, a disposition, and the building block of character is gradually and arduously inculcated over long periods of time (I 7§16). While virtue theory implies that radical character transformation is, in any context, unlikely over brief stints of time, this does not mean that OAE programmes are of little moral worth. To the contrary, a detailed examination into a virtue ethical understanding of character suggests that certain elements of OAE programmes may xii have strong moral relevance. This relevance is found in Aristotle’s three conditions that cultivate the development of virtue, conditions readily found within many OAE courses: moral reflection; moral practice; and sharing in the moral lives of others. Drawing on my own interest and experience within OAE, an expedition seemed an ideal setting to explore the presence and content of Aristotle’s three conditions. In hope of discovering this moral narrative, a qualitative case study was conducted on a two-week wilderness expedition in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. The expedition was a first-year transition experience for students attending a Christian liberal college in the United States. Utilising interviews as a primary method, and observations and texts as secondary methods, the research explored the participants’ expedition experience from a virtue ethical perspective. A thematic analysis revealed that participants reported reflecting on their moral lives in both formal (e.g. group reviews, solo, journals) and informal (e.g. while hiking and performing camp chores) settings. Similarly, whether through the mental and physical endurance required in off-trail navigation, or the care expressed through the acts of service and gracious tolerance necessitated by the social demands of expeditionary life, the participants viewed their wilderness travel as a constant opportunity for moral practice. Lastly, the participants identified the community formed on their expedition to be integral to their increased moral self-perception. Although a virtue ethical perspective precludes claiming anything definitive regarding the participants’ character development, at the least, the expedition can be said to have contributed to their moral journey in ways that are directly relevant to their character.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: F.M. Connelly.

<p> This study examined the experiences of bilingual parents who have a child with a disability, during two points in the special education process, eligibility and IEP. This study was designed to interpret parents&rsquo; experiences using Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) and Social Dominance Theory (Sidanius &amp; Pratto, 1999) in order to draw conclusions as to if parents provide informed consent. </p><p> The population included nine parents of students with disabilities. The parents all identified as Hispanic, native Spanish speakers, and as a primary caretaker of the child with a disability. Basic qualitative research (Merriam, 2009) was conducted, and study data was collected by a semi-structured interview protocol. The interviews were conducted by the researcher, or a qualified Spanish speaker if needed. Data was transcribed, and analyzed using qualitative analysis to determine emerging themes. </p><p> The study&rsquo;s results provided evidence on parents&rsquo; perceptions on the special education process impact their provision to provide informed consent. Parents perceived they were involved in the special education process, they used relationships with others to find support in the special education process, and they perceived barriers to participating in the special education process. Analysis of these findings on parental perceptions during the IEP process reveal that bilingual parents are not providing informed consent. Recommendations that can be implemented at a teacher, school, or policy level are made.</p>

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 271-277).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Ashland Theological Seminary, 1990. / Abstract. Includes Moral training course 1 manual. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-116 of text).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2008. / Abstract. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 271-277).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 101-111).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-111). Also available in print.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 271-277).

This study investigates the reading and studying of Arabic literature in U.S. collegiate education as a site for engagement with alterity. The purpose is to explore how students in foreign language (FL) literature courses encounter alterity, how they construct the other and reconstruct themselves as they read modern Arabic literary texts, and how the political, historical, geographical, and cultural contexts in which students read shape their reading. Using ethnographic methods, I examine an Arabic literature U.S. collegiate class that I created and taught. Data sources include audio recordings of class discussions, audio recording of out-of-class discussion groups with students, researcher’s memos after classes and out-of-class discussion sessions, in-depth interviews of students, qualitative analysis of students’ written work. Witnessing the growing movement of literacy-based approaches to foreign language education, I use theories of alterity as a framework to illuminate understanding of literacy in foreign language contexts and possibly engender an other-oriented literacy. Notions of alterity that constitutes my theoretical framework are synthesized through analyses of Levinas’s ethics of alterity and post-colonial conceptualization of alterity, supporting my investigation of the consumption of Arabic literature in the Western Academy (Huggan, 2002). The post-colonial lens enables me to interpret the construction of the self and the other through the act of reading within its specific historical, cultural and political contexts (Drabinski, 2011). Building on the works of scholars using Levinas’s ethics to theorize an ethical reading (Attridge, 2004a; Cohen, 2004; Davis, 2010; Tarc, 2015), my theoretical framework envisions an ethical textual engagement with the literary work. Participants of the study encountered different aspects of alterity when reading and studying Arabic literary works, and each aspect posed a different challenge to them. Through the encounter with the alterity of the literary works, the Arabic language and their peers, participants were challenged to rethink their habitual modes of thinking, (Attridge, 2004a), to be open to different interpretation and be uncertain about their own, to embrace their differences (Biesta, 2004), to rely on and be responsible for each other, and learn from each other (Todd, 2003) and to produce knowledge in conversation with an other (Katz, 2013). In their reading, participants encountered cultural distance with the literary works (Attridge, 2011) both close and far and made efforts to account for it. The study demonstrates how alterity as a framework in FL literature class can create opportunities for students to ethically respond to literary works and to each other and engage in learning as a transformative experience of encountering otherness.