Browsing by Author "Burns, Amy Marie"

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    An Examination of Policies and Practices within Western Canadian Research-Intensive Universities that Support Students with Family Responsibilities
    (2023-06) Usick, Brandy L.; Eaton, Sarah Elaine; Barker, Susan; Burns, Amy Marie; Kuzhabekova, Aliya; van Rhijn, Tricia
    Canadian universities have an obligation to provide accommodation based on family status; however, few have services and policies in place, and little direction is provided by provincial and federal human rights legislation. Although students with family responsibilities are an underserved population on university campuses, the global pandemic has helped thrust caregiving into the spotlight. The specific needs and experiences of post-secondary students with family responsibilities are a neglected area within the Canadian literature. Addressing the needs of this student group is an important leadership issue because it touches on many facets of institutional priorities, including student recruitment and retention; success strategies; equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization initiatives; and supports for specific populations. There are also implications for policies related to academic concessions or accommodations. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how research-intensive universities in western Canada are contemplating students with family responsibilities as a policy issue and as a priority population for services and programs. The research question was, how do research-intensive universities in western Canada support students with family responsibilities through their respective policies, services, and programs? Five secondary questions were related to (1) human rights legislation and accommodation; (2) formal policies, regulations, and governing documents; (3) student services and supports; (4) leaders’ perception of their institutions’ supports; and (5) promising practices. Supporting the research design was the extant literature and policy theory. Four themes were identified from the literature: access and success, students with family responsibilities, human rights, and leadership, all of which served as conceptual lenses. Four policy dimensions: normative, structural, constituentive, and technical (Cooper et al., 2004) served as the theoretical framework. Using a qualitative research design, I investigated how five universities support students with family responsibilities. Data sources included publicly available institutional documents (n=267) and interviews with leaders (n=5) within student affairs. The findings led to the proposal of the flower petal model of supporting students with family responsibilities, from which seven main findings contributed to 18 recommendations. Implications and promising practices in the areas of accommodation policies, student services, and programming are shared.
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    Can my Intelligence Grow? A Comparative Study of Mindset Theory and Achievement Goals in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
    (2023-08-30) Siemens, Theresa Elisabeth; Climie, Emma Alison; Burns, Amy Marie; Spring, Erin
    Mindset theory explores the impact of implicit intelligence beliefs on achievement motivation. According to this theory, students who adopt a growth mindset by recognizing the malleability of intelligence are more academically resilient and strive for mastery in their learning. In contrast, students with a fixed mindset perceive intelligence as unchangeable, leading them to prioritize performance goals and respond less adaptively to challenges. While previous studies have extensively explored mindsets in typically developing (TD) students, the present study extends these research efforts to children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A sample of 53 children with ADHD and 26 TD counterparts, along with their respective parents, were recruited for the study. Participants completed the Implicit Theory of Intelligence Scales (Castella & Byrne, 2015; Dweck, 1999) and the revised Achievement Goal Questionnaire (Elliot & McGregor, 2001). The research questions compared the mindsets and achievement goals of children with ADHD to their peers, as well as explored the relationship between mindsets and achievement goals predicted by mindset theory. The study also examined the relationship between parents' and children's mindsets. Results showed that about two-thirds of children, regardless of ADHD, had a growth mindset. However, the relationships between mindsets and achievement goals, as proposed by the theory, could not be replicated. Children with ADHD displayed a complex motivational profile, pursuing both mastery and performance goals in their learning. Furthermore, there was no significant association between parents’ mindsets and those of their children. These findings suggest that students with ADHD generally believe in their potential to grow and develop. The study discusses the implications of these findings for both home and school settings.
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    Creating a Culture of Inclusion in Pre-Kindergarten: An Integral Analysis of Beliefs, Understandings, and Pedagogical Practices of Early Childhood Educators
    (2017) Prytuluk, Natalie Anne; Bohac-Clarke, Veronika Elizabeth; Davis, Andrew Brent; Burns, Amy Marie
    In the province of Alberta, Canada, early childhood education is undergoing change to reconceptualize pre-kindergarten programming so that it is inclusive of all children in light of postmodern views and theoretical perspectives about inclusion and the impact of experiences, relationships, environment, and culture on learning. The purpose of this study was to understand how beliefs, understandings, and pedagogical practices of early childhood educators affect, and are affected by, their relationships with children, classroom team members, parents, and colleagues, as they create an inclusive culture in a pre-kindergarten classroom. Four research questions were addressed in the study: • What do early childhood educators believe and understand about creating a classroom culture that includes all children? • How are early childhood educators affected by, and how do they affect perspectives shared by children, classroom team members, colleagues, and parents in the creation of an inclusive classroom culture? • What pedagogical practices do early childhood educators use to include all children? • How are early childhood educators affected by system level structures and processes in the creation of an inclusive classroom culture? To explore the research problem from multiple perspectives, Integral theory (Wilber, 2006) was selected as the conceptual framework and Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP) was employed in the research design. Data about educational experiences, culture, behaviours and systems, were collected from five early childhood educators in pre-kindergarten classrooms in four urban schools, followed by a questionnaire of classroom practices, document analysis, and a focus group. Findings revealed that early childhood educators’ positive beliefs toward inclusion, a social constructivist theoretical perspective, building strong relationships with children, parents, team and colleagues, and eight characteristics describing the disposition of an early childhood educator were important to create an inclusive classroom culture. Six pedagogical practices that support inclusion are defined, and supports from schools and government necessary for creation of inclusive classroom cultures are identified. Implications for policies and regulations to support inclusion, pre-kindergarten programming and early childhood educators are discussed.
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    Exploring Science Teachers’ and Science Teacher Administrators’ Experiences of Instructional Leadership
    (2022-02) Dhawan, Rekha; Shanahan, Marie-Claire; Burns, Amy Marie; Brown, Barbara Anna
    Purpose: Examine how high school science teachers and principals experience instructional leadership; specifically, science educators’ understanding and lived experiences of the phenomenon of instructional leadership. Research Method: This study used a qualitative phenomenographic approach to gather the experiences of science teachers and principals in high schools located in Alberta, Canada. This approach explains and supports interviews as the data source and the number of participants (N = 9) of the study. Findings and Analysis: Data revealed three closely related categories from participants’ experiences: definitions of instructional leadership, thematic elements identified from data, and their reflections on the value of science teaching knowledge for instructional leadership. Findings identified the interdependence of the factors affecting instructional leadership, how instructional leadership is organized, and the factors’ relevance for developing science teaching knowledge. Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and pedagogical context knowledge (PXK) to support science teaching knowledge were found to be significant. Science teachers and principals accepted the importance of instructional leadership, but principals did not view it as their primary responsibility; they reported being preoccupied with other duties. Participants’ experiences portrayed some common themes to support science teaching knowledge and instructional leadership: collaboration, spontaneous interactions and feedback, peer instructional leadership, shared conversations about professional development needs, teachers’ input in making decisions about the needed development, science principals’ classroom knowledge, PCK and PXK to guide science teaching, trusting relationships, microworlds of science educators, professional socialization, and reflection-in-action of their practice. Conclusions: Instructional leaders’ iii content knowledge, PCK, and PXK are central components of science teaching knowledge for instructional leadership.
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    An Integral View of Mindfulness Practices and the Perception of Challenge Within a School Based Setting
    (2017-12-07) Daniel, Anne; Davis, Andrew Brent; Bohac-Clarke, Veronika Elizabeth; Burns, Amy Marie; Winchester, Ian; Fels, Lynn
    The purpose of this study was to examine how mindfulness-based strategies are taught within school-based settings and how they impact students’ perceptions of challenge. In the course of this research, I also found myself exploring the effects of two different attitudes toward mindfulness training: the first derives from Eastern sensibilities and traditions, while the other is more strongly rooted in Western ways of thinking. The former focuses on awareness of personal experience and function, the latter much more on situated being. Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP) was used to achieve an informed perspective from multiple viewpoints. This IMP study investigated how mindfulness practices were taught within four different classroom settings in a high school located within the a large school district in Western Canada. Informed by phenomenological methodology, interviews were conducted with both teachers and student participants to investigate their perception of challenge. Findings revealed three overarching themes connected to challenge: time, necessity and anxiety. Structural analysis of language frequency and comparisons revealed many similarities and differences within the language of teacher and student participants. Ethnographic observations were used to interpret the functions and meanings of different daily routines within both Eastern-influenced and Western-style mindfully-based classrooms. Hermeneutic interviews conducted with teacher and student participants further disclosed some similarities, such as a culture of attention, slower pace and challenge, differences in student retention, and application of mindfulness strategies. Systemic influences are discussed in connection to individual and cultural themes. Lastly, implications for implementation of mindfulness and the connection to student perception of challenge are explored.
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    Navigating Figured Worlds: Preservice Teachers’ Understandings of Disability and Inclusion Through Representations
    (2021-09) Ostrowdun, Christopher; Lock, Jennifer; Takeuchi, Miwa; Shanahan, Marie-Claire; Burns, Amy Marie; Carrington, Suzanne
    Preservice teachers’ understandings of inclusion and disability can significantly shape their practices; they need opportunities to consider their perspectives as part of their teacher training. Yet, teacher education programs seldom have explicit opportunities for such considerations. Using a design-based approach, I iteratively developed and implemented representation tasks within a Bachelor of Education course. I examined how representations in the form of drawings supported preservice teachers in developing their understanding of inclusion and disability. The data sources included individual and collaborative drawings, video recordings of participants creating drawings, and audio recorded interviews with participants after their field experiences. I conducted a visual discourse analysis of the representations and an interaction analysis of video recordings to examine how they understood figured worlds of inclusion and disability. Figured worlds encompass the socially negotiated actors, actions, and outcomes that are valued, and they characterize people’s orientations to daily life (Holland et al., 1998). The findings show how participants progressed through (1) developing an individual understanding, (2) a collaborative understanding, and (3) a situated understanding of inclusion and disability. Individually, the participants held multiple, sometimes simultaneous, conceptions of disability and inclusion. Further, social positions and hierarchies were often conveyed through the drawings. In participants’ collaborative drawings, forces such as instructor appeasement, time constraints, and individual priorities competed in influencing their representations. During field experiences, the participants navigated complexities of school cultures, other teachers, and students in considering ways to understand and implement inclusion. As well, the participants had to author themselves and their roles as emerging teachers within figured worlds of inclusion and disability. Implications from this research include a need to support preservice teachers in navigating multiple figured worlds, the adoption of a critical disability studies lens in teacher education, and how representations can be used as a pedagogical tool. Furthermore, the research supports using representations as a methodological tool to studying figured worlds, proposes a framework to understand interactions, and offers connections between the fields of the Learning Sciences and Disability Studies.