ABSTRACT Qualitative research that explores and further examines the lived experiences of Native American women is an important, yet a frequently neglected, part of the history of the United States (US). This is an important avenue of investigation, as historians have traditionally marginalized many groups within U.S. society, including women and groups that can be viewed as part of the fabric of U.S. culture, yet exist as subcultures. Native Americans (indigenous peoples, Indians) should share a special place within U.S. society as First Americans; however, qualitative studies of Native American women, offered through a feminist lens as keepers of tradition and culture, are noticeably limited within studies of U.S. history. Case studies recorded in a narrative form give the researcher the opportunity to research, explore, examine, and engage appropriate participants. This method allows the researcher and the reader a view that may exist, but may be hidden from the mainstream. Storytelling through written narratives may create a story in relation to an individuals experiences and thoughts. The story may be an oral history if the focus of the research is to obtain an oral account of the individuals life. The purpose of this case study is to give three Native American women an opportunity to share their unique lived experiences and personal history. The researchers goal is to explore, interview, record, transcribe, analyze, and examine their lived experiences, expressed through the stories they tell.

The purposes of this study are to understand how community is built and residents are educated in the residence halls on college campuses as well as to design a method for social media to aid that process. To achieve this, documents were collected from 10 different institutions from across the country. The documents were analyzed to determine how community is built, residents are educated, and the use of social media in residence life. The results showed that none of the institutions were using social media in any form. It also showed that all of the institutions build community and educate residents through similar methods which led to the seven themes: 1. Community; 2. Intentional; 3. Academic Success; 4. Relationships; 5. Programing; 6. Resources; and 7. Inclusive. After understanding the methods used to build community and educate residents, a process to implement social media to aid in both areas was designed. The final piece is an example of specific features of social media to build community and educate residents within a residence hall on a college campus.

Learning occurs when content is accessed in a recursive process of awareness, exploration, reflection and resolution within ones social context. With the rapid adoption of mobile technologies, mobile learning (m-Learning) researchers should incorporate aspects of mobile human-computer interaction research into the instructional design process. Specifically, the most visible, current definitions of and current research in m-Learning provide overviews of the learning theory informing mobility and focus on device characteristics, but do not focus on how people interact with mobile devices in their every day lives. The purpose of this convergent study was to determine what effect does the incorporation of research in mobile user context have on student learning. Six mobile design principles were extracted from literature and applied to mobile apps. Using a true experimental design, the study had 60 participants randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions. Participants in the treatment group received a series of apps designed according to the mobile design principles. The control group received a placebo app that mimicked content from the learning management system for their course. The results of the analysis of covariance procedure indicated the treatment group scored a significantly higher mean score than that of the control group. Further analysis of event tracking data indicated a statistically significant correlation between content access events and posttest scores. Students in the treatment group used their apps for less time, but had more content access events and subsequently higher posttest scores. The data suggests that m-Learning is something more than just an extension of what already exist. It is not just a luggable form of Web based learning. Its more than a deep understanding of pedagogy or the delivery of course material to a mobile device. It requires the designer to understand instructional and software design, mobile human-computer usage patterns, and learning theory.

Portfolios have been used in the field of education as a form of assessment since the 1980s. As time has progressed, portfolios have transitioned from paper to electronic form. Research on electronic portfolios has focused on implementation issues and their impact on student learning. There has been limited effort, however, on their long-term impact. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the perceived impact of electronic portfolios on the beginning careers of classroom teachers. More specifically, this study sought to determine if use of electronic portfolios during pre-service education impacted the attitudes and performance of new teachers. The study used a survey design. A sample of graduates of teacher education programs in Louisiana was selected and asked to complete a survey that measured perceived technology knowledge, content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. Survey respondents (n=189) were sorted into groups based on whether or not they developed an electronic portfolio as part of their teacher preparation program. These groups were compared with respect of each of these three areas. The results indicated that those who had completed an electronic portfolio in their teacher education program had higher perceived levels of competence with regard to technology knowledge and content knowledge in mathematics. The following information can be used by universities to determine if electronic portfolios are a viable assessment tool for use by their teacher candidates.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the attitudes of current female doctoral candidates who express an interest in pursuing a career in the professoriate, as well as express a desire to have children. The participants will explain how they conceptualize the intersection of academia and motherhood, by detailing how they negotiate and navigate their current status in as a graduate student and their future career and family goals. A limited amount of literature has been published that specifically explores the intersection of academia and motherhood as conceptualized specifically by female graduate students. Therefore, the intent of the literature review in this project was to explore the relevant topics that would best provide the background on the impetus of the study. The review of literature concludes by introducing Feminist Critical Policy Analysis (FCPA) as the theoretical framework for this study followed by an explanation of the tenets of FPCA and the impetus for employing it as an analysis tool in this study. The six participants in the project expressed interest in pursuing a career in the professoriate as well as a desire to start a family, among other specific criterion detailed in chapter three. The participants represented three academic clusters: (1) science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), (2) humanities and social sciences (H&SS), and (3) professional and applied sciences (Professions). Data was collected by means of one-on-one individual unstructured interviews. The participants provided rich detail about how they navigate the notion of starting a family while beginning a tenure-track position. They also detailed their feelings on the policies and structures of the academy as it relates to supporting dual-career faculty. This study has a three-stage data reduction plan described by Madison (2005) for analyzing the data: identifying codes using a coding strategy, reducing codes into themes, and creating a point of view by incorporating the theoretical perspective. Concluding the project are suggestions for applying this research to the greater higher education community.

Rationale: Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) occurs when “multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds work together with patients, families, careers and communities to deliver the highest quality of care” (WHO, 2010, p. 13). Successful discharge planning for patients from hospitals is dependent upon IPC (Shepperd et al., 2004). The purpose of this study is to identify and examine barriers or facilitators to IPC as they pertain to discharge planning on a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Methods: Case study design using an online survey, participant observation and semi-structured interviews for data collection. Healthcare workers on a NICU at a large Canadian teaching hospital were surveyed to determine their views on the discharge planning process, leadership and IPC. Participant observations took place during the weekly IPC rounds to observe the healthcare workers when discussing discharge plans and to identify key informants for interviews. Based on these observations, 10 health care workers were selected to interview to gain a more in depth understanding of IPC in the discharge planning. Data collection occurred from December 2010 to February 2011. Results: Survey results (n=66) indicate that the majority of healthcare workers on the NICU support IPC. However, the interview data demonstrated that problems arose during an emergency discharge. An emergency discharge occurs when an existing patient on the NICU needs to be discharged to another unit in order to provide a bed for a new admission. The lack of effective communication, role clarity issues, and a need for mutual respect act as barriers to the full participation of all members of the interprofessional team in an emergency discharge. Conclusions: Defining the context is important; IPC works well in a non-emergency situation on the NICU. The level of involvement of the healthcare workers in IPC varies due to previous experience working on interprofessional teams (IPT). The medical lead is responsible for making the decision about a discharge. However, what has been identified as important is an IPC leader who is responsible for ensuring that all information from the IPT members is accessible to inform the medical lead. / UOIT

Public universities who participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision produce and air university TV spots during televised college football games. The purpose of this research was to analyze TV spots of public universities who participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and determine if university TV spots were successful based on the official theme from the university and how the viewing audience perceived the university TV spot. This research used a qualitative paradigm that involved two phases: Phase I was a content analysis followed by Phase II, which was one-on-one interviews. ESPNs College GameDay was used to collect a group of university TV spots. A purposeful sample was then used to select nine university TV spots that would be used in the research. The university TV spots were captured during the televised college football games. Nine participants were purposefully selected to participate in one-on-one interviews. Finally, each university represented in the sample was contacted to receive the official theme assigned by the university official. In this research, the researcher found that some university TV spots successfully communicated their official theme assigned by their university officials and some did not communicate their university TV spot successfully. This research has analyzed the success of university TV spots by determining the compatibility of the university official theme with the viewers perceived themes. With such a large viewing audience for approximately 30 seconds of airtime and university funding associated with producing or outsourcing university TV spots, the results of this research warrants the significance of understanding university TV spots as well as continued research on university TV spots.

Successful knowledge transfer is all about relationships. As anyone who has conducted research with non-academic partners knows, it takes a considerable amount of time and effort for these relationships to be fruitful. The great benefit of placing this work within the context of a community of practice is that it gives researchers and decision makers a structure within which to interact.<p> This study explored ways in which a community of practice framework can be used to develop and nurture relationships between researchers and decision makers. Further, it investigated how these communities of practice can be supported by online communications technologies. Its major contribution is the development, testing and refinement of a checklist of six ways that researchers can connect with decision makers in communities of practice, both in person and online. This checklist provides concrete, practical suggestions on how to develop an effective community of practice. Items in the checklist are based on both the academic literature on knowledge transfer and communities of practice, and the authors experience as part of an academic research unit focused on conducting collaborative research with community and government partners. Each item in the checklist was validated through interviews with members of two communities of practice. While the initial checklist had five items, a sixth was added following analysis of the interviews.<p> This checklist is generalizable, in that it can help guide any kind of community of practice, not just those in which members work on early childhood development issues, nor those communities in which researchers and decision makers interact. It is a valuable contribution to knowledge transfer methods at a time when both interest levels and efforts to improve knowledge implementation are widespread. The final checklist reads as follows:<p> A community of practice should:<p> 1. provide opportunities for regular interaction between community members;<p> 2. allow members to participate at varying levels that can change over time;<p> 3. provide both public and private spaces for interaction;<p> 4. document its goals, activities and outcomes, in order to develop a knowledge repository;<p> 5. identify and document the value of the community itself; and <p> 6. enlist the guidance of a technology champion in order to use online communications technologies effectively.

The French Counts of St. Hubert is a group of aristocrats who left France for homesteads in the Canadian North-West during the late nineteenth century. They settled near and within the town of Whitewood, Saskatchewan, most notably along the Pipestone Valley. The aristocrats attempted to carve out a living in the Prairie West while at the same time maintaining their connections with Europe. Their attempted numerous business ventures all ended in failure, including forays into sheep-herding, horse-raising, cheese production, coffee manufacturing, and sugar beet refining. The Counts also brought with them a large number of French immigrants to act as labourers and establish a Francophone settlement. St. Hubert would become a vibrant community throughout the first half of the twentieth century. The participation of the aristocrats, however, was short-lived. All returned to France by the early 1900s.<p> One of the homesteads associated with the French aristocrats is called Bellevue (Borden No. EbMo-5), a home erected by Comte de Rouffignac in 1888 and eventually transported to another location in 1926. The location of the original homestead was the subject of excavations by the author in the summer of 2006. Over 3000 artifacts were recovered from 17 square metres of excavation. While most of these artifacts are fragmentary in nature, a number of them have implications for understanding the social identity of the French aristocrats.<p> This thesis discusses the social identity of the French aristocrats as framed through the theoretical perspective of practice theory. This social identity is formulated through the expectations they carried into an unfamiliar social space that required experience and compromise to negotiate a position within the social field accepted by all parties. Ethnicity, class, ideology, and gender all played roles in the formulation of this identity. Artifacts from the Bellevue excavation are used to highlight the materiality of the French aristocratic social identity in the Prairie West.

Education reform policies have focused on high-stakes assessments primarily utilizing standardized tests for accountability purposes. As testing practices have evolved due to a variety of factors throughout the past century or so, they have become fully integrated into public schooling in the United States. These tests are having a marked impact on teachers and education, as teachers feel pressure to produce exceptional student results and modify their instructional practices, often teaching to the test and narrowing the curriculum in order to focus on the requirements of the mandates. This study examines a survey of public school teachers to ascertain their experiences and perspectives regarding the impact of these testing policies. The results show that teachers are feeling an immense amount of pressure, their instructional planning and classroom practices are impacted by the tests, and they do not find the tests particularly helpful. Differences between teachers gender, education, experience, subject focus, and work with gifted and talented students are also examined. As testing is likely to be a force in public education in America for the foreseeable future, the results of this study can be used to ascertain teacher concerns and develop supports for teachers to help address those concerns.