Browsing by Author "Adorjan, Michael C."

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    Canadian Educators' Roles and Perceptions in Responding and Intervening in Online Harm: A Sociological Analysis
    (2022-12-08) Mukherjee, Mohana; Adorjan, Michael C.; Gibbs Van Brunschot, Erin; Dean Schwartz, Kelly
    Intense social media use today puts youth at risk for problems that contribute to addictive behaviours, social withdrawal and online harm like cyberbullying and sexting. While most cyberbullying incidents occur at home, the problems spill over to the classroom, making it an issue that educators cannot ignore. Currently, schools shoulder the responsibility to address online harm; however, ambiguity regarding how cyberbullying is conceptualized creates a challenge for school staff to keep pace with providing adequate protection for their students. Thus, to support schools in developing effective online harm interventions, this study aims to understand how Canadian K-12 school teachers perceive cyberbullying, its root causes and the perceived barriers that complicate school efforts to build a culture that prevents online harm. While several studies have examined students’ perceptions of cyberbullying, there is a critical gap in the research literature about how in-service and pre-service educators make sense of cyberbullying. A qualitative methods approach was employed, and in-depth interviews were conducted with 23 educators (eight pre-service teachers, seven early-career in-service teachers and eight late-career in-service teachers) to advance knowledge regarding current attitudes and beliefs about intervention, the content and benefits of teacher-training programs and technology policies in Canadian schools. Semi-structured interview protocols were used, and symbolic interactionism was employed to construe the meaning-making process of educators’ perceptions of cyberbullying. The interview data was reviewed and coded using NVivo qualitative data analysis software to identify the predominant themes. The findings of the thesis suggest that prospective and current teachers recognize that cyberbullying and sexting are escalating issues that present a problem in the school environment. The teachers use different strategies to manage cyberbullying, particularly in the context of the unique characteristics associated with cyberbullying and sexting. Finally, in terms of the perceptions related to training to mitigate problems like cyberbullying, pre-service educators’ responses suggest that not many have adequate classroom management training before beginning their teaching careers and feel unprepared for managing student behaviours, both offline and online, in their classrooms. The research presented in the thesis offers a unique contribution to the literature and extends the knowledge base on how cyberbullying is managed in the school environment.
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    Examining the World Health Organization's governance and response to noncommunicable diseases: A Foucauldian analysis
    (2020-04-29) Chaisson, Kristen G. E.; Ducey, Ariel M.; Langford, Tom; Béland, Daniel; Adorjan, Michael C.; Upshur, Ross E. G.
    The World Health Organization (WHO) is a key actor leading international cooperation to address global health problems. This dissertation focuses on how the WHO mobilizes discourse to construct and inform the international response to global health problems in its guideline and technical documents. The theoretical framework of governmentality is used as a lens to examine the WHO as a global institution that governs while unable to impose policies on sovereign Member States; thus, the WHO’s mobilizations of the discourse and evidence in its documents and document review procedures are critical for its governance. This project explores the extent to which the WHO is neoliberal and mobilizes biopolitical techniques of power. Through an in-depth, Foucauldian discourse analysis of 29 WHO guideline and technical documents from 1992-2016 and five WHO key informant interviews, this dissertation more specifically examines the WHO’s approach to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). The dissertation shows that the WHO depicts NCDs as undermining economic and social development throughout the world, threatening the achievement of internationally agreed-upon development goals, and increasing inequalities between countries and populations. In WHO documents, NCDs are attributed to a few behaviours considered modifiable, such as dietary choices and tobacco use, although many scholars argue that this focus is ineffective in decreasing NCDs. At times, the WHO attributes the economic burden of NCDs to irresponsible individual behaviours, suggesting a neoliberal governmentality. To measure this economic burden, the WHO employs a biopolitical technique in service of neoliberalism in the form of epidemiological statistics of premature deaths. The WHO experiences several tensions in this current, neoliberal political climate as it negotiates how to protect global health and attempts to govern the global population; these tensions involve the tobacco and food industries, evidence review, and political and financial support. Furthermore, in the creation of WHO documents, the WHO’s epistemology is evidence-informed decision-making which results in systematically favouring medical evidence and excluding social science literature. I question the extent to which WHO documents are useful due to their assumptions and limitations in construction – given the need for the WHO as a global partner, and the tensions experienced by the organization.
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    Friendship Qualities and Their Associations with Social, Emotional, and Behavioural Functioning in Military-Connected Youth
    (2018-09-21) Wheeler, Bailey Kathleen; Schwartz, Kelly Dean; McCrimmon, Adam W.; Adorjan, Michael C.
    The present study examined the best friendships and the social, emotional, and behavioural functioning of youth from Canadian military families. Further, it examined how the positive and negative qualities of these friendships were related to the behavioural and mental health outcomes measured. Online surveys were administered to 31 military-connected youth to assess internalizing, externalizing, overall problems, and the characteristics and qualities of their best friendships. The results revealed that the average scores for all outcomes were comparable to civilian peers. However, a large minority of participants had elevated internalizing scores. Further, it was found that the best friendships of these military-connected youth were characterized by more positive qualities than negative qualities. Finally, both positive and negative friendship qualities predicted externalizing scores, but they did not predict internalizing scores. Interpretations, implications and limitation of these findings are presented, as are suggestions for future research.
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    News Media and the Military: Portraying and Responding to Right-Wing Extremism in the Canadian Armed Forces
    (2024-01-02) Shanti, Davina; Gibbs Van Brunschot, Erin; Hiebert, Maureen Sharon; Adorjan, Michael C.
    In 2019 a Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) reservist was found to have been recruiting fellow reservists into a neo-Nazi paramilitary group known as The Base. The news of this event was reported in national headlines and an investigation into allegations of extremist recruitment was conducted by the CAF. While concerns of discrimination and racism within the military are not new, for instance, the scandal known as the Somalia Affair from the early 1990s involved allegations of racism within the military. The finding that the CAF was used to recruit members into right-wing extremist (RWE) groups was alarming. Traditional news media is vital to reporting and investigating stories, yet how stories are presented to the public can impact where people might stand on certain issues. News reports on RWE in the military could lead to diminished trust between the public and the CAF and could be damaging to the CAF’s reputation. This thesis explores how the Canadian news media portrays RWE in the CAF, whether the CAF acknowledges the presence of extremism in their organization, and how the CAF responds to this issue. Using a content analysis approach, news articles from The Globe and Mail and Departmental Plans from the Department of National Defence (DND) and the CAF are examined. The content of these sources is used to determine whether parallels can be drawn from news media reports on RWE in the military and reports generated by the CAF itself. The findings indicate that in the context of RWE, the CAF is generally portrayed negatively by the news media. More importantly, the findings suggest that the news media highlights the social and political context in Canada which might allow RWE beliefs to thrive. In contrast, reports from the CAF and DND prioritize presenting solutions to addressing RWE within the military by drawing focus on aspects of culture change. Ultimately, the CAF is not immune to the political and social influences that might divide Canadians. An environment that continues to provoke hate or violence motivated by hate places the CAF in a vulnerable position where it is not exempt from the influence of extremist beliefs.
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    Perspectives on Correctional Education: Engaging the Voices of Instructors and Incarcerated Students
    (2021-01-05) White Prosser, Christina; Dressler, Roswita; Adorjan, Michael C.; Kawalilak, Colleen A.; Brown, Barbara; Ricciardelli, Rose
    Correctional education plays a vital role in rehabilitating incarcerated individuals in the correctional system in Alberta, Canada. Which types of programs and correctional learning experiences impact and facilitate this rehabilitation is largely unknown. Through a case study, I gained the perspectives of both incarcerated learners and their instructors to develop a detailed understanding of learning experiences at one Alberta correctional centre. Participants were asked to reflect on their teaching and learning experiences within several correctional education programs. In order to understand which correctional education programs were distinguished as effective by study participants, the four dimensions of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains – factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and metacognitive knowledge – were used to frame the incarcerated students’ learning experiences in each program (Forehand, 2005). Participants’ views provided a deeper understanding of how factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge acquisition provide students with diverse skill sets, increased self-confidence, and the tools to plan for a future once released from the correctional system. The research also revealed the instructors’ intentions to create an ideal learning environment through their curriculum and instructional design, and their observations on the impact of the curriculum on knowledge acquisition and application. Participants shared how education can serve as a catalyst for behavioural change through complex and sometimes difficult learning experiences. Drawing from the theoretical frameworks of transformational learning and desistance theory, this study illuminates participant perspectives on how education impacts student self-concept, supports desistance from crime, and, by extension, contributes to the rehabilitative process and decreasing recidivism. This research endeavours to inform learners in correctional centres, instructors who teach correctional education courses, the correctional and educational systems that administer correctional education, and society as a whole.