Gender and human security : the challenge facing Canada's human security policy /

During the 1980's and for much of the 1990's, many countries in the Asia Pacific were renowned for their economic development and prosperity. The Asian tigers were a source of great interest for many economists and international investors. The 1997 Asian financial crisis, however, dramatically altered the growth and the performance of these economies. The crisis sent several ofAsia's best performing economies on a downward spiral from which many have yet to fully recover. The crisis exposed the financial and the political weaknesses ofmany countries in the region. Moreover, the crisis severely affected the wellbeing and the security ofmany ofthe region's citizens. This text will examine the economic crisis in greater detail and explore current debates in the study of international relations theory. More specifically, this paper will examine recent challenges posed to traditional international relations theory and address alternative approaches to this field of study. This paper will examine Critical theory and its role in shifting the referent object of security from the state to the individual. In this context, this paper will also assess Critical theory's role in enabling such issues as gender and human security to find a place on the agendas of international relations scholars and foreign policy makers. The central focus ofthis study will be the financial crisis and its impact on human security in the Southeast Asia. Furthermore, this paper will assess the recovery efforts ofthe domestic governments, international organizations and various Canadian sponsored initiatives in the context ofhuman security.

Myths of Modern Education

My focus is on assessment criteria of language proficiency in community college education. To demand clear writing is an application of scientism; it seeks to keep separate the fact/value distinction of positivism. This dangerously undermines the democratizing possibilities of education, since clear writing, taken to its extreme, is ultimately anonymous and dehumanizing. The active student-as-citizen is, therefore, subsumed under the neoliberal dictate of the passive student-as-consumer. The process of language acquisition is reduced to a fictitious act of knowledge transmission and regurgitation, and, therefore, those subversive aspects of language learning, such as creativity and critical inquiry, are undermined. An initial overview of the tenets of modernity will provide a conceptual framework for this examination.

An exploration of transformation theory and the western tradition: a critical evaluation of a graduate studies class

This qualitative study is an exploration of transformation theory, the Western tradition, and a critical evaluation of a graduate studies class at a university. It is an exploration of assumptions that are embedded in experience, that influence the experience and provide meaning about the experience. An attempt has been made to identify assumptions that are embedded in Western experience and connect them with assumptions that shape the graduate class experience. The focus is on assumptions that facilitate and impede large group discussions. Jungian psychology of personality type and archetype and developmental psychology is used to analyze the group experience. The pragmatic problem solving model, developed by Knoop, is used to guide thinking about the Western tradition. It is used to guide the analysis, synthesis and writing of the experience of the graduate studies class members. A search through Western history, philosophy. and science revealed assumptions about the nature of truth, reality, and the self. Assumptions embedded in Western thinking about the subject-object relationship, unity and diversity are made explicit. An attempt is made to identify Western tradition assumptions underlying transformation theory. The critical evaluation of the graduate studies class experience focuses upon issues associated with group process, self-directed learning, the educator-learner transaction and the definition of adult education. The advantages of making implicit assumptions explicit is explored.

The shifting terrain of feminist theory and activism : university-based women's centres and third wave feminism

This thesis, based on the results of an organizational ethnography of a university-based feminist organization in Southern Ontario (the Centre), traces how third wave feminism is being constituted in the goals, initiatives, mandate, organizational structure, and overall culture of university-based feminist organizations. I argue that, from its inception, the meanings and goals of the Centre have been contested through internal critique, reflection, and discussion inspired by significant shifts in feminist theory that challenge the fundamental principles of second wave feminism. I identify a major shift in the development and direction of the Centre that occurs in two distinct phases. The first phase of the shift occurs with the emergence of an antioppression framework, which broadens the Centre's mandate beyond gender and sexism to consider multiple axes of identity and oppression that affect women's lives. The second phase of this shift is characterized by a focus on (trans) inclusion and accessibility and has involved changing the Centre's name so that it is no longer identified as a women's centre in order to reflect more accurately its focus on mUltiple axes of identity and oppression. Along with identifying two phases of a major shift in the direction of the Centre, I trace two discourses about its development. The dominant discourse of the Centre's development is one of progress and evolution. The dominant discourse characterizes the Centre as a dynamic feminist organization that consistently strives to be more inclusive and diverse. The reverse discourse undermines the dominant discourse by emphasizing that, despite the Centre's official attempts to be inclusive and to build diversity, little has actually changed, leaving women of colour marginalized in the Centre's dominant culture of whiteness. This research reveals that, while many of their strategies have unintended (negative) consequences, members of the Centre are working to build an inclusive politics of resistance that avoids the mistakes of earlier feminist movements and organizations. These members, along with other activists, actively constitute third wave feminism in a process that is challenging, contradictory, and often painful. A critical analysis of this process and the strategies it involves provides an opportunity for activists to reflect on their experiences and develop new strategies in an effort to further struggles for social justice and equity.

Exploring critical-care nurses' perceptions about critical thinking /

The influx of nurses to the critical-care environment is continuous. In many workplaces, the nurses who are new to critical care are also newly graduated nurses. These new critical-care nurses and their critical-care nursing colleagues, who may have worked in critical care for many years, need to demonstrate expert judgment in order to optimize the potential for positive patient outcomes. The purpose of this study was to explore critical-care nurses' perceptions about critical thinking and expert nursing judgment. Using grounded theory research design, I collected data from 1 1 critical-care nurses through focus groups, an interview, and postparticipation questionnaires. I have articulated a Critical-thinking Modelfor Expert Nursing Judgment. The educational model is directly relevant to practicing critical-care nurses and nursing leaders who guide critical-care nursing practice. The Critical-thinking Modelfor Expert Nursing Judgment contributes to educational theory by objectifying the substantive topic of critical thinking and expert judgment. The model has broad applicability within the domain of education and specific applicability within the domain of nursing education.

The association of faculty's teaching philosophy and teaching behaviour, and critical thinking and self- direction in learning

The intent in this study was to investigate in what ways teachers· beliefs about education and teaching are expressed in the specific teaching behaviours they employ, and whether teaching behaviours, as perceived by their students, are correlated with students· critical thinking and self-directed learning. To this end the relationships studied were: among faCUlty members· philosophy of teaching, locus of control orientation, psychological type, and observed teaching behaviour; and among students· psychological type, perceptions of teaching behaviour, self-directed learning readiness, and critical thinking. The overall purpose of the study was to investigate whether the implicit goals of higher education, critical thinking and self-direction, were actually accounted for in the university classroom. The research was set within the context of path-goal theory, adapted from the leadership literature. Within this framework, Mezirow·s work on transformative learning, including the influences of Habermas· writings, was integrated to develop a theoretical perspective upon which to base the research methodology. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were incorporated. Four faCUlty and a total of 142 students participated in the study. Philosophy of teaching was described through faCUlty interviews and completion of a repertory grid. Faculty completed a descriptive locus of control scale, and a psychological type test. Observations of their teaching behaviour were conducted. Students completed a Teaching Behaviour Assessment Scale, the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale, a psychological type test, and the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal. A small sample of students were interviewed. Follow-up discussions with faculty were used to validate the interview, observation, teaching behaviour, and repertory grid data. Results indicated that some discrepancies existed between faculty's espoused philosophy of teaching and their observed teaching behaviour. Instructors' teaching behaviour, however, was a function of their personal theory of practice. Relationships were found between perceived teaching behaviour and students· self-directed learning and critical thinking, but these varied across situations, as would be predicted from path-goal theory. Psychological type of students and instructor also accounted for some of the variability in the relationships studied. Student psychological type could be shown as a partial predictor of self-directed learning readiness. The results were discussed in terms of theory development and implications for further research and practice.

Native women, theory and research : contexts and contestations

In this thesis I outline a critical approach to interpreting the considerable academic literature on Aboriginal women in North America. I locate the scholarship concerning Native women within an understanding of three developments related to a philosophy of science: (I) paradigmatic shifts concerning the philosophy of science, (2) materialist-idealist debates and (3) transitions in feminist theory characterized by what is tenned the shift from second to third wave feminism. My exploration of emergent themes suggests that the elements indicated above provide overlapping frameworks within which most scholarship about Indigenous women is positioned. I illustrate my finding that employing critical discourse analysis and postcolonial feminism as both method and theory provides a useful approach in attending to intersecting experiences of 'race, class, and gender.' I view these intersecting experiences as central to the socio-political positioning of Indigenous women within contemporary feminist theorizing. I conclude my thesis by reflecting on the conceptual struggles I experienced in fonnulating and organizing the thesis and the significance of my underlying epistemological position and value-orientation as both a feminist and Native woman.

Hoosiers on the Hardwood: A Critical Examination of Indiana Basketball Culture and its Effect on Identity Formation

The purpose of this research was to examine the nexus at which Indiana basketball and the state’s ‘hoosier’ identity meet. More specifically, this thesis interrogates the romanticization of this sporting culture for its pedagogical role in the creation of twenty-first century ‘hoosier’ bodies. Adopting a theoretical orientation rooted in critical race theory, I argue that Indiana’s basketball culture represents a normalized / normalizing structure underneath which Otherness is reified to produce hypervisible “different” outsiders (‘non-hoosiers’), and invisible “disciplined” insiders (i.e. ‘hoosiers’). Utilizing data gleaned over a two-month period spent conducting fieldwork in the “hoosier state” (document analysis, unstructured interviewing, and participant observation), I specifically tailor my analysis to uncover people’s understanding, negotiation, and performance of this regional and national subject position. From this point of inquiry, authentic ‘hoosierness’ comes to be represented, known, practiced, and felt in relation to hierarchies of power that privilege white, hypermasculine, rural, and conservative bodies.

A Living Educational Theory of Knowledge Translation: Improving Practice, Influencing Learners, and Contributing to the Professional Knowledge Base

This paper captured our joint journey to create a living educational theory of knowledge translation (KT). The failure to translate research knowledge to practice is identified as a significant issue in the nursing profession. Our research story takes a critical view of KT related to the philosophical inconsistency between what is espoused in the knowledge related to the discipline of nursing and what is done in practice. Our inquiry revealed “us” as “living contradictions” as our practice was not aligned with our values. In this study, we specifically explored our unique personal KT process in order to understand the many challenges and barriers to KT we encountered in our professional practice as nurse educators. Our unique collaborative action research approach involved cycles of action, reflection, and revision which used our values as standards of judgment in an effort to practice authentically. Our data analysis revealed key elements of collaborative reflective dialogue that evoke multiple ways of knowing, inspire authenticity, and improve learning as the basis of improving practice related to KT. We validated our findings through personal and social validation procedures. Our contribution to a culture of inquiry allowed for co-construction of knowledge to reframe our understanding of KT as a holistic, active process which reflects the essence of who we are and what we do.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Critical Media Literacy and Disney Female Characters

The purpose of this research project was to use a qualitative approach to explore Critical Media Literacy (CML) with young girls by collaboratively analyzing Disney animated films. My goal was to provide a safe and encouraging space for children to share their perspectives and opinions of Disney animated female characters featured in The Little Mermaid (Ashman, Musker, & Clements, 1989), Cinderella (Disney, Geronimi, Jackson, & Luske, 1950), and The Princess and the Frog (Del Vecho, Clements, & Musker, 2009). I used CML as my theoretical framework as it provided an inquisitive approach to watching films, which, in turn, encouraged the participants to use critical thinking pertaining to the images of female characters in Disney. I also incorporated feminist theory as the majority of discussion revolved around the physical appearance of female characters as well as the participants’ understandings of femininity. I conducted two focus groups with 4 young girls, aged 7 to 11, to gain insight into their understanding of Disney female characters. An inquisitive and collaborative approach to watching films revealed three themes: (a) powerful women in Disney are mean and ugly; (b) heterosexual relationships are paramount; and (c) Disney Princesses are always pretty and nice. I concluded by recommending the importance of CML and collaborative film-watching with young children as the simplicity of asking questions encourages young people to become aware of, challenge, and think critically about the media they are consuming.