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While much research has been conducted on the experiences of individuals with inflammatory bowel diseases, there remains a dearth of research conducted on those affected by polyposis conditions. As a result, little is known about the lived experiences of those with polyposis conditions, especially in the cases of parents of pediatric patients with these conditions. This study qualitatively explored the lived experiences of parents of children with polyposis conditions, specifically Juvenile Polyposis Syndrome and Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome. Hermeneutic phenomenology was used to explore the lived experiences of seven parents of children diagnosed with polyposis conditions through semi-structured interviews. Collected data was analysed using Lindseth and Norberg (2004)’s Phenomenological Hermeneutical Method for Researching Lived Experience. In total, four major themes comprising of twelve sub-themes were revealed. Parents discussed feeling grateful for the use of family-centred approaches by their children’s physicians as well as access to medical care for their children, which encouraged them to demonstrate a proactive approach towards their children’s health maintenance. Furthermore, they explained that while seeking information concerning their children’s conditions was anxiety-inducing, discussing their experiences with others with situations similar to theirs was validating and informative. The participants described the importance of advocating for their children within and outside of the medical system, and the responsibility they feel in teaching their children to undertake the advocating process for themselves. Lastly, the parents reflected on the impact their children’s diagnoses have had on their relationships with themselves, their families and their support networks. Overall, the findings from this study are in-line with findings from prior research, except in the case of the ‘Teaching the children to speak for themselves’ theme which proves to be a novel contribution to the literature. The shared key aspects of the phenomenon indicate that focus should be placed on the utilization of family-centred care by physicians, the development of support groups for parents, and on educating physicians on how to best facilitate parents as they model advocating behaviours to pediatric patients. This study provides insight into the lived experiences of parents of children with polyposis syndromes, informing the medical community of how the needs of this group can be better met. Furthermore, the qualitative nature of this research will provide the polyposis, chronic illness and rare illness literatures with information it has been lacking, using a valuable methodological perspective.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore teachers? experiences working with children impacted by adverse childhood experiences. As a dissertation in practice, this qualitative study was intended to examine the lived experiences of educators in regard to how trauma presents itself in the classroom setting and to explore their perceptions on the greater impact of trauma towards curricular outcomes, the classroom environment, and implications with regard to their role as educators. Data were collected from 12 interviews with six female middle school educators, employed within a school district that serves a medium sized community and the surrounding rural communities. Colaizzi?s (1978) phenomenological data analysis strategy was used for data analysis and coding. Four major themes emerged in the findings to describe teachers? experiences working in their classroom settings with students with trauma histories: the overall impact of trauma, trauma impacts on educators, trauma impacts on classroom practices, and needs identified by educators. An Executive Summary and Recommendations are included as an actionable response to the complex problem of practice that underpinned this dissertation in practice.

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The night shift environment in an inpatient hospice facility is unique in care and relegates challenging situations for the nursing staff. Using the Parse methodology, the purpose of this project was to explore the challenges faced by inpatient hospice facility night shift nursing staff in providing a continuum of care for dying patients and their families. Nine night shift hospice nurses participated in 45-60 minute interviews. The interviews were conducted in a hospice quiet room or a designated place of comfort for the participant, which allowed for dialogical engagement. The interviews were unstructured with open-ended questions about lived experiences. The interpretive phenomenological approach was used to understand positive outcomes and management involvement and developing positive morale. Descriptive coding was used to collect and analyze data. According to study findings, hospice night shift nursing staff were exposed to the stressors of dying patients, their families, a dissatisfied work environment, and their personal life. The core concepts addressed by the participants were feeling isolated and disrespected, staff development, and using coping strategies. Strong relationships through coping mechanisms were developed on the night shift, but the unmet issues of the staff were poorly regarded. The study perpetuates the need for further research in understanding the experiences of hospice night shift nursing staff and the changes needed to eliminate imminent night shift turnover.

The night shift environment in an inpatient hospice facility is unique in care and relegates challenging situations for the nursing staff. Using the Parse methodology, the purpose of this project was to explore the challenges faced by inpatient hospice facility night shift nursing staff in providing a continuum of care for dying patients and their families. Nine night shift hospice nurses participated in 45-60 minute interviews. The interviews were conducted in a hospice quiet room or a designated place of comfort for the participant, which allowed for dialogical engagement. The interviews were unstructured with open-ended questions about lived experiences. The interpretive phenomenological approach was used to understand positive outcomes and management involvement and developing positive morale. Descriptive coding was used to collect and analyze data. According to study findings, hospice night shift nursing staff were exposed to the stressors of dying patients, their families, a dissatisfied work environment, and their personal life. The core concepts addressed by the participants were feeling isolated and disrespected, staff development, and using coping strategies. Strong relationships through coping mechanisms were developed on the night shift, but the unmet issues of the staff were poorly regarded. The study perpetuates the need for further research in understanding the experiences of hospice night shift nursing staff and the changes needed to eliminate imminent night shift turnover.

Informal caregiving for aging Canadians plays a vital role in the health care system, and scholars have noted the urgency and primacy of studying this important contribution provided by a relatively invisible cadre of volunteers, family members and friends. Despite the recent attention caregiving has received in the scholarly literature, it is dominated by quantitative research. The purpose of this qualitative inquiry was to explore the lived experiences of female caregivers in terms of their perspectives on caregiving and their own personal health and wellness. A sample of seven female caregivers was obtained using a combination of both purposive and snowball sampling. Through semi-structured interviews participants were asked to describe their experiences as a caregiver. A primary theme “one day at a time” emerged from the data. Within this overarching narrative were three sub-themes: “Intensive care”, “Transitions”, and “Support” found to characterize their caregiving realities including both positive and negative aspects. Capturing a rich understanding of the lived experience of female caregivers, intentionally including and honouring their voices, can inform the design and implementation of health promoting policies, programs, and interventions, as well as identify avenues and approaches to future research. / Graduate

This thesis is a social and material history of the British naval ship during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and analyses the nexus of masculine interactions with spaces and objects aboard. Previous naval historiography has tended to polarise the experience of seamen and officers as defined either by benevolent paternalism or revolutionary conflict, and has tended to avoid engagement with the analytical frameworks of gender, material culture and spatiality. Indeed, despite it acting as a temporary home for upwards of 500,000 men during the long eighteenth century, the naval ship during this period has often been understood as purely a platform for a series of hierarchical relationships, rather than a lived space, the everyday experience of which informed the masculine identities of all who lived aboard. Through an examination of records of courts martial, letters, logs, journals, memoirs, objects and ship plans, this thesis attempts to understand the ways in which a socially disparate group of men defined themselves in relation to each other, as well as the built environment and shifting material worlds they occupied. Regardless of their status within the naval hierarchy, the denizens of naval ships occupied a temporary home which was continually being made and remade. The material and social interactions which attended these processes can, this thesis argues, tell us much about masculine experience and expectation, both for the naval ship, and the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries more widely.

Applying a queer Muslim feminists lens, this thesis interrogates ways in which a heterosexual world-view appropriates the domain of sexuality within two specific Muslim contexts. The study focuses on, is informed and enriched by the experiences of Queer Muslim women who navigate within the contextual spaces they inhabit, multiple sites which ultimately propel them to question and contest the heterosexual norms that they are expected to repeatedly perform in the name of religion. Through their questioning, they name the various challenges they experience and the strategies they employ in navigating realms of family, state and society, as well their relationship with the Divine. This study, both foregrounds and contributes to understanding Muslim queer women's subjectivity in the production of religious meaning. More succinctly, this thesis contributes to appreciating how Queer Muslim women understand their existence in the face of religious and societal criticism, and how their experiences can serve as the threshold from which to formulate ethically and theologically enriched considerations deeply rooted in the Qur'ān. By looking at two specific contexts, namely Malaysia and Lebanon, this thesis carefully uncovers multiple sites of oppression, layer by layer. The purpose is to lay bear the political personality of states, which often employ religion to coerce those it deems different and thus a threat, in this case to standards of sexual morality. In direct tension with the two nation-states in question, are alternative fringe actors who occupy contested middle spaces. It is from these crucial middles spaces i.e. spaces of potential friction and tension that subliminal spaces for dialogue and discussion then arise. Finally, remaining within an Islamic frame of reference, this thesis takes a nuanced route via Queer Theology, to argue that alternative queer sexual subcultures need not be a source of fear, or threat, or condemnation, but can quite possibly and realistically live alongside a diverse range of sexual subjectivities, ethically and conscientiously, no more, no less than anyone who defines or sees themselves as Muslim.

This dissertation includes background on influences of mathematics, mathematics education, and who is viewed as a mathematician leading into three articles exploring students' and teachers' perceptions of mathematics through their lived experiences in both mathematics classrooms and their communities. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis for the methodology, all three articles analyze mathematics autobiographies and semi-structured interviews with five student participants enrolled in the same Algebra I course; Paper 3 also includes the Algebra I teacher. Paper 1 focuses on how students describe their lived experiences in mathematics classrooms. Three themes emerged from the participant data: 1) lack of autonomy and access, 2) feelings hinge on performance in mathematics, and 3) the need for support in mathematics. Each participant shared different experiences, but these experiences can help inform educators how to improve students' experiences in the classroom. Paper 2 sought to understand how middle grade students make sense of what it means to do mathematics in their community. The three themes include: 1) navigating the usefulness of mathematics outside of school, 2) who directs mathematics outside of school, and 3) the need for mathematics in future plans. Connections students made between mathematics and the lives outside of school varied suggesting how broad their definition of mathematics is may vary. Paper 3 focuses on a current mathematics teacher lived experiences to answer, how do teachers' perceptions and lived experiences of mathematics relate to their teaching practices as a mathematics teacher? The three themes that emerged from data in paper three include: 1) performance and requirements of mathematics, 2) applying mathematical ideas, and 3) humanity of learning mathematics.