Women's Basketball Team (1981-82)

Back Row: Pat Woodburn (Coach), Rhonda Walcarius, Melanie Brown, Patty Stamps, Lyn Storm, Diane Hilko, Jackie Kuntze, Janice Jockel Front Row: Maureen Kelly, Lena Olszewski, Trudy Montel, Carolyn Foreman, Dawn Dixon, Peggy Stamps

Girls Volleyball Team

Pictured here from left to right: Back Row - Mike Rohatynski (Coach?), Ivi Ernesaks, Maureen Halpenny, Helen, Henderson, Pat Hueston (Coach). Front Row - Enid Salisbury, Jane Hemphell, Beth Gayman. Missing - Pat Johnson, Debbie MacMillan, and Jean Milburn.

For the love of a barking lady: an exploration of mental illness in the light of Max Scheler's "Invisible person"

N/A

Is there a difference in artistic ability between learning -disabled students and "regular-class" students?

Research and practice regarding LO students usually has focussed upon defining and supplementing deficiencies rather than seeking unique talents and capability patterns for learning and expression. This study examined nine dimensions that may constitute artistic or creative talent and compared LDs with "regular-class" students, pair-wise and as groups, for levels and distributions of the dimensions. For 14 LO and 9 "regular-class" elementary-school subjects, both genders, data were taken by direct observation, from a standardized test and assessments by two practicing artists. Assessments by artists were in concord. LOs improved more in "Composition". No other significant class, age or gender-related differences were found.

David Skene-Melvin papers, 1918, 1995, n.d.

David Skene-Melvin, literary historian and bibliographer, donated his extensive collection of books on Crime, Mystery and Detective fiction to the Popular Culture Program at Brock University in July 2001. The donation forms a significant part of the Skene-Melvin Collection of Crime, Mystery and Detective Fiction, James A. Gibson Library, Brock University.

Evaluating the Outcomes of a Peer-Mentoring Program for Transitioning Postsecondary Students

A peer-mentoring program was initiated in 2003 for students in an introductory biology course at a university in Ontario, Canada. Students could attend up to 5 peer-mentoring sessions during the 12-week fall semester. Quantitative-survey, participation, and academic data spanning 5 years were reviewed for the purpose of evaluating the program. An objectives-oriented approach was used to determine if the program was meeting its goals to improve students' introductory biology grades, facilitate transitioning experiences, and encourage students to pursue studies in biology. Data analysis revealed characteristics of participants and showed that students who participated in the program felt that it was a valuable experience. Students attending 3 or more sessions performed significantly better in their introductory biology courses than those attending fewer sessions. There were no indications that the peer-mentoring program had any impact on students' perceptions of transitioning to university or on their program selection preferences. Recommendations are made to improve the peer-mentoring program to better align its components and objectives.

Living in the Skin That I Am: An Organizational Autoethnography of an Adult Educator's Plight to Survive the Stigma of Invisible and Episodic Disability in an Academy of Administritiva

Through the reflective lens of an adult educator with invisible and episodic disabilities, this paper has been written as an organizational autoethnography. Through a process of autoethnographical sensemaking, it is intended to illuminate important gaps in organizational theory. Feminist/relational care ethics, critical reflection, and transformative learning serve as the educational theories that comprise its framework. In telling my story, embodied writing and performance narrative are used to convey the felt existence of a body exposed through words—where my “abled” and “disabled” professional teaching and learning identities may be studied against the backdrop of organizational policies and procedures. Words used to describe unfamiliar experiences and situations shape meaning for which new meaning may emerge. At the conclusion of this paper, an alternative frame of reference—a view from the margins—may be offered to articulate authenticity in the expectancy of workplace equity for adult educators with disabilities. Taken collectively on a larger level, it is hoped that this research may provide a source of inspiration for systemic organizational change in adult learning environments.

Conceptions of Quality and Approaches to Quality Assurance in Ontario’s Universities

Many international, political, and economic influences led to increased demands for development of new quality assurance systems for universities. Like many policies and processes that aim to assure quality, Ontario’s Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) did not define quality. This study sought to explore conceptions of quality and approaches to quality assurance used within Ontario’s universities. A document analysis of the QAF’s rationale and structure suggested that quality was conceived primarily as fitness for purpose, while suggested indicators represented an exceptional conception of quality. Ontario universities perpetuated such confusion by adopting the framework without customizing it to their institutional conceptions of quality. Drawing upon phenomenographic traditions, a qualitative investigation was conducted to better understand various conceptions of quality held by university administrators and to appreciate ways in which they implemented the QAF. Three main approaches to quality assurance were identified: (a) Defending Quality, characterized by conceptions of quality as exceptional, which focuses on administrative accountability and uses a hands-off strategy to defend traditional notions of quality inputs and resources; (b) Demonstrating Quality, characterized by conceptions of quality as fitness for purpose and value for money, which focuses on accountability to students and uses centralized engaged strategies to demonstrate how programs meet current priorities and intended outcomes; and (c) Enhancing Quality, characterized by conceptions of quality as transformation, which focuses on reflection and learning experience and uses engaged strategies to find new ways of improving learning and teaching. The development of a campus culture that values the institution’s function in student learning and quality teaching would benefit from Enhancing Quality approaches to quality assurance. This would require holistic consideration of the beliefs held by members of the institution, a clear articulation of the institution’s conceptions of quality, and a critical analysis of how these conceptions align with institutional practices and policies.