There are many Aboriginal (First Nation, Métis and Inuit) students attending Canadian universities who remain resilient despite the multiple challenges that arise during their first year of studies. This thesis focused on six undergraduate Aboriginal students attending the University of Saskatchewan who learned about resilience as it was demonstrated in Aboriginal novels, plays, poetry and short stories, taught in their university courses. Aboriginal literature with a fictional or non-fictional autobiographical voice demonstrated characters and people who prevailed over hardships without giving up. A combination of Indigenous methodology and grounded theory methods were used in this qualitative study, to analyze how Aboriginal students were learning from Aboriginal literature about their own resilience. Resilience in this study is defined by the Nehiyaw (Cree) concept of Miyo-Pimatisiwin (The Good Life), which refers to relying on traditional Aboriginal concepts, values and perspectives in striving for a good life and being attentive to wholistic growth and balance of the four areas of self: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual (Hart, 2002, p. 13). This study found that Aboriginal students’ resilience is influenced by Aboriginal literature taught in undergraduate courses in three valuable ways: coping with personal and academic challenges, engagement in university learning with a sub-theme of approaches of professors validating Aboriginal literature and experiences, and personal growth and transformation. The University of Saskatchewan has recently announced initiatives aimed at increasing Aboriginal student retention and success, and this study lends support to the development of measures to increase the University of Saskatchewan’s aspirations in this regard.

abstract: This dissertation presents a new tool for analysis of the way difficult experiences or phenomena influence the process for constructing self-identity in the performance of everyday life. This concept, refraction, emerged as part of a grounded theory methods analysis of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Itacaré, Bahia, Brazil from January to July 2014. The work here contributes to the field of performance studies as a possibility for examining how affective responses to difficult experiences contribute to a shift in perspective and subsequently shifts in the performance of self in everyday life. This research was conducted with critical and reflexive autoethnographic methods in order to hold the research accountable for the ways subject position influences the research. In this case the most salient theme that emerged from these autoethnographic methods was an unpacking of unacknowledged tourist privilege in this setting. The resulting work-in-progress performance will offer ways for spectators to question their own assumptions regarding tourist privilege in Brazil, and in so-called developing countries in similar tropical climates. An additional contribution to the field of performance-based research that resulted from this dissertation is the articulation of a dynamic locus of creativity wherein rigorous established qualitative research methods complement creative practices in conjunction with a spectrum of tacit knowledge and theoretical sensitivities. This juncture becomes the theoretical space where creativity in research can be articulated in ways that are legible to both artists and researchers. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Theatre 2015

Individualism, the assumption that persons are self-contained and primarily act for the sake of the self, is prevalent in American culture and has arguably perpetuated numerous psychological and societal ills. Relationality, the assumption that persons are always and inextricably constituted by relationships, has been posited as a philosophical and practical alternative to individualist culture. Several scholars, both inside and outside of psychology, have developed relational concepts and practices, including some who have elucidated a relational approach to psychotherapy (e.g., Slife and Wiggins, 2009). This study examines the implications and effects of this therapeutic approach, particularly exploring relationality's therapeutic success in countering the implications of individualism. Greenbrier Academy, an adolescent female boarding school located in West Virginia, has adopted relationality as its guiding therapeutic ethic. This study utilized hermeneutically modified grounded-theory methods to inquire into the lived experience of students at Greenbrier Academy. Eight students were interviewed and the researcher recorded observations of daily programing over a six-day period. Results indicated that Greenbrier's students' experienced marked changes in the quality and meaning of their interpersonal relationships. They increasingly cared for and served their relationships, engaged in more intimate relationships with others, approached (rather than retreated from) others' differences, viewed others more holistically, and accepted personal responsibility in relation to their context.

Low-income Caucasian married parents described lifespan processes and conditions that contributed to their individual assessments that their marriage was healthy. Spouses participated in an interview together, followed later by an individual interview with each. Interview scripts referenced the study‘s primary research questions which sought their reflections on (a) external conditions that they considered to be important to their development, and (b) personal thoughts, emotions and behaviors they deemed relevant to the success of their marriage. A third research question called for integration of participants‘ reflections into a cogent grounded theory regarding successful low-income marriages. Analysis incorporated grounded theory methods, and those procedures were assisted by computer software such as NVIVO 7.0 ® and Microsoft Excel ®. This work revealed a developmental systems theoretical framework that posits that individuals‘ developmental factors gave rise to certain personal actual qualities, and also had affect upon the qualities individuals desired and perceived in their partner. Qualities desired and perceived in their partner may have greater or lesser priority to a spouse depending upon the range of acceptable variance that the spouse assigns to any given quality. While several high-priority qualities emerged from the words of the twenty spouses who participated, four high-priority qualities emerged as fundamental to the success of the marriage: (a) being loving, (b) being committed, (c) being appreciative, and (d) being child-centered. Four abstract sets of developmental factors, assigned the term synergists, strongly promoted these qualities among study participants: (a) a sensitizing experience, (b) a partner-as-rescuer mindset (PARM) preceded by a person‘s adverse history, (c) influences from one or more parents, and (d) religious influences. These findings provide a foundation of information critical to those researchers and practitioners interested in the quest toward an increase in successful marriages among households whose income falls within 200% of the published guideline for poverty as determined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Transsexuality remains grounded in pathologizing discourses. Mental health professionals largely classify transgender experiences as disorders, and transgender people seeking to alter their bodies typically must obtain authenticating letters from therapists verifying such diagnoses. Physicians usually require these letters to perform transition-related services, and sometimes require additional legitimization. In these ways, psychomedical professionals impose gatekeeping measures that withhold and confer services to transsexuals who desire medical transition. Using qualitative interview data and grounded theory methods with 20 female-to-male transsexuals, this study demonstrates that transmen typically represent informed consumers whom carefully research psychomedical protocol and anticipate providers’ adherence to professional standards. When they encounter gatekeeping, this preparedness informs their dialectical struggles within the psychomedical institutions wherein transmen must negotiate bodies within the confines of pathology. Ultimately, this dialectical process is managed and maintained by the larger regime of truth—the gender binary system.

The primary objective of this research was to determine if a specific set of reflective practices enhance university undergraduate students’ abilities to: 1) reflect on their thinking processes to become more aware of their own intellectual habits and how they form; 2) inquire with open-minded curiosity, including suspension of assumptions long enough for them to be challenged; and 3) generate justifiable, contextual understandings and judgments, individually and in collaboration. “Reflective practices” refers to a specific set of reflective learning activities introduced to undergraduates in two courses: mindfulness practice extended into journal writing, listening, inquiry and dialogue. The purpose of the reflective practices in this research was to support independent, critical thinking: well-reasoned, evaluative judgments based on evidence, contextual understanding, and respect for others. Students were instructed in both individual, introspective activity as well as in paired and group interaction while preserving a degree of mindfulness. Indicators of the dispositions for critical thinking were developed using grounded theory methods to study students’ experiences, as well as those dispositions previously identified in the research literature. Qualitative results showed increased self-confidence, engagement with multiple points of view, and an unexpected sense of connectedness that was stronger between students who disagreed with each other than between students who found easy agreement in their interaction. Quantitative results showed statistically significant gains in the average number of indicators of critical thinking dispositions appearing in student journals comparing week 1 to week 11. There was also positive correlation between final essay exam scores graded for critical thinking skills and the total number of indicators found in students’ journals. / This thesis presents primary research on the impacts of mindfulness applied to introspective and interactive learning activities in undergraduate university courses.