This article presents findings from my PhD study entitled Midwifery knowledge and the medical student experience. The research study sought to explore the question: ‘What do medical students learn from midwives?’ In the first part of this dual-phase project I conducted a Delphi study with an international panel of midwives to examine the concept of ‘midwifery knowledge’ (MacVane 2013a). Data from the Delphi survey were used to inform the second phase, which employed a longitudinal case study approach to explore medical students’ experiences of working with midwives during a specialist obstetric rotation. Thirteen medical students, who were recruited from a fourth-year cohort, participated in interviews at the start, middle and end of their specialist obstetric rotation. The students spent the majority of the rotation at their local teaching hospital (LTH), but also spent an interim two-week period at a variety of district general hospitals (DGH).

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Video-conferencing (VC) is a well established educational tool. Using a grounded theory approach, this study explored the experience of medical students studying remotely by VC. A convenience sample of 11 students participated in semi-structured interviews. Constant comparative analysis identified three emerging themes which were refined and verified by a focus group. The key themes were: the effect of VC on the students’ classroom experience, the development of a strong social cohesion between the students, and the impact on student learning. The participants adapted well to VC lectures but expressed reluctance to ask or answer questions in class. Participants felt they became more self-directed and better collaborative learners. Moore’s theory of transactional distance provides a possible explanation for these observations. High transactional distance was evident with less instructor-student interaction, more student-student interaction, and greater student autonomy. Understanding the transactional dynamics in the VC classroom will inform future research and faculty development. / 2011 May

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This nested multi-site case study uses data from interviews with thirty underrepresented students to explore how these students experience elite universities. Although greater numbers of underrepresented students are enrolling in university than ever before, those from non-traditional backgrounds are largely excluded from elite universities. Elite universities in the United States, England, and Scotland are all striving for increasingly higher levels of excellence, status, and funding to raise and maintain their global positions as university rankings continue to affect student choice and perception of value. The expansion of higher education during the past several decades has fostered discussions pertaining to the social characteristics of the student body, and whether enough is being done to include individuals traditionally excluded from higher education. Simply developing widening participation initiatives, however, does not eliminate inequality in the university system. This thesis considers discussions relating to higher education expansion, development of widening participation policy, costs associated with higher education, and the social characteristics and constructions of the underrepresented student in the three nations. The four key findings resulting from the student interviews are organised into the three themes of economic, social, and cultural capital. The first finding was that the students who lacked accessible economic capital were unable to participate in social events. The inability to participate produced feelings of exclusion. The second key finding was that students who were most debt averse reported the least amount of debt. This debt aversion meant some students worked nearly full-time or strictly managed their income. The third key finding was that students who were able to minimise their social and cultural differences, such as changing their accent, were more likely to report feelings of belonging. The fourth key finding was that, although the widening participation policy agenda focuses predominately on economic disadvantage and access, very little attention is given to elite universities’ habitus, which perpetuate privilege and complicate feelings of belonging. One of the most pronounced areas for further research that has come out of this study is whether the fear of stigmatisation in identifying widening participation students outweighs the potential benefits in acknowledging and creating a community for those students. Ultimately, the hope of this study is that, by understanding the experiences of such students who gain access to an elite university, we can learn from their experiences and how, moving forward, not only help a greater number of underrepresented students to attend these elite universities, but also support those students throughout their university years.

In this dissertation, I use a hermeneutic framework drawing on critical and postcolonial theory and interpretive inquiry (narrative analysis) to explore the postsecondary curriculum for German as a foreign language and culture (GFL) in Canada, its history, and its current manifestation, in relation to the twenty-first-century Canadians who study it. I pursue the questions, What is the GFL curriculum? How did it come about? What is it like for students? and What would curriculum innovation look like if it were based on students interests? In part one, I discuss research paradigms, the influence of hermeneutics, the research process, the role of the researcher, and my research acts. In part two, I critique the history of GFL as taught at university in Canada. In part three, I examine the subject positions that have informed that history. I find that the Canadian postsecondary GFL curriculum reflects and benefits the symbolic sociocultural position of native-speaker literary professors and not the educational needs and interests of nonnative-speaker students. The Canadian postsecondary GFL curriculum has been articulated by a cross-cultural divide and withheld knowledge. Using postcolonial perspectives, I propose the diaspora and the less native speaker as potentially counter-hegemonic positions from which to conceptualize the teachers and learners of GFL and reconstruct the curriculum. I follow these initial theoretical analyses with four narrative analyses based on interviews with four Canadian undergraduate students of GFL that explored their experiences of instructional materials, teaching approaches, and curriculum design. The narratives include an episodic account, a mock epic, a psychological case with allegorical digressions, and an allegorical tale and tell of an unrequited love, a quest, shame, and an anti-quest in order to reveal how some are failed by existing curricula and yet make progress toward their linguistic and intercultural goals. In the final chapter, I present a fictional case study of a small German program where I have attempted to rethink curriculum and instruction based on the perspectives and student experiences explored in the previous chapters. I thus offer new vantage points from which to understand the GFL curriculum and enact more constructive teaching and learning.

Seven women that identify as Muslim, Pakistani and Canadian in varying capacities participated in this qualitative research to discuss how their cultural and/or religious norms shaped their educational and career aspirations and overall decision-making. Areas of discussion included identity formation, understandings of culture and religion, familial influences on educational and career pursuits and overall experiences and interactions with faculty, peers and student service providers. This research brings together Chickering and Reisser’s (1993) Theory of Identity Development and feminist critical understandings of intersectionality (Collins, 1990; Knudson, 2005) and Orientalism (Said, 1978) in order to theoretically frame the students’ experiences. The research constitutes a major contribution from the Canadian perspective in terms of theory development as well as practical implications for faculty and campus services to ensure that students experience a learning environment that is supportive and inclusive.

Seven women that identify as Muslim, Pakistani and Canadian in varying capacities participated in this qualitative research to discuss how their cultural and/or religious norms shaped their educational and career aspirations and overall decision-making. Areas of discussion included identity formation, understandings of culture and religion, familial influences on educational and career pursuits and overall experiences and interactions with faculty, peers and student service providers. This research brings together Chickering and Reisser’s (1993) Theory of Identity Development and feminist critical understandings of intersectionality (Collins, 1990; Knudson, 2005) and Orientalism (Said, 1978) in order to theoretically frame the students’ experiences. The research constitutes a major contribution from the Canadian perspective in terms of theory development as well as practical implications for faculty and campus services to ensure that students experience a learning environment that is supportive and inclusive.

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This study begins by discussing the commercialization of higher education. The commercialization of higher education is the transformation of public goods and services into products that are privately owned by individuals or corporations and sold for profit. Higher education is increasingly being treated by providers and consumers as a commercial product that can be bought and sold like any other commodity. The purpose of this study was to better understand how students perceive commercial behaviors in their institutions, the degree to which students perceive identified commercial behaviors as influencing their experience of teaching and learning, and how they experience the commercial conduct within commercialized educational environments. This study also aimed to explore how commercial behaviors influence students’ expectations for their higher education studies. Selecting the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and the Schulich School of Business at York University and their MBA students as the research population, this study revealed MBA students’ experiences and program expectations in a commercialized academic setting by employing a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods, coupled with the framework of Chickering and Gamson’s Seven Principles of Good Practice in Higher Education as well as Gould’s Corporate Ethos. Data was collected by means of an on-line survey questionnaire and in-person interviews. The two case study business schools shared similar major quantitative findings that indicated that the studied commercial practices carried slim influence on the studied students’ experiences of teaching and learning. In addition, the practices of marketing strategies and customer service were evidenced to have more than somewhat of an influence on intensifying participants’ expectations of program characteristics, obtaining better professional skills and getting better knowledge in areas of expertise. The qualitative findings illustrated that commercial practices exerted different levels of influence on MBA students’ experiences of teaching and learning as well as their expectations for their MBA. Qualitative findings in many cases also revealed that MBA students care more about future rewards and career advancement than learning.