PRISM :: Browsing by Author "Groen, Janet Elizabeth"

Browsing by Author "Groen, Janet Elizabeth"

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Open Access
A feminist postmodern study of women in an online doctoral degree program: a heuristic inquiry
(2010) Wilton, Christina; Groen, Janet Elizabeth
Open Access
An Exploration of Passionate Vocational Learning in Adulthood
(2016) Ayres, Kurt Rand; Kawalilak, Colleen; Butterwick, Shauna Jane; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Patterson, Margaret Edna; Mendaglio, Salvatore
Fortunate adults are able to spend a great deal of their lives doing work they feel suited to perform; they are working in a vocation. As an adult educator, I am interested in understanding how adults find and form their vocations and, in particular, how adults become passionately engaged in vocational learning. This study provides an exploration of the life experiences of six adults, including myself, who are all self-professed passionate learners in their vocations. The research draws upon underlying theory from the psychology of human motivation, interest development, vocation, vocational identity and narrative identity, in addition to the theory of transformative learning. I use Narrative Inquiry as a research methodology to reveal the experience of the participants who have become passionate learners in their vocations. I develop vocational narratives for each participant to provide the life context for the participant’s vocational decision-making. I further isolate narrative threads from each vocational narrative, which are smaller narratives on vocational development and tend to reoccur throughout the lives of the individual. They provide insight into each person’s vocational decision-making. In response to the research questions, I organize the experience of each participant in six zones of activity, which enable the reader to visualize how, over time, each participant has developed and learned the skills, values, goals, and roles associated with their vocation. I named the six zones Vocational Interest, Disruptive Events, Choosing and Entering Vocation, Vocational Identity Development, Vocational Learning and Possible Stagnation. In the study, I show how vocational interest sometimes emerged from the early lives of the participants. I also provide insight into the way vocational interest developed, in some cases, into vocational identity; for example, when an individual interested in nursing became a nurse. I show how participants sometimes encountered disruptive events in their lives, which may well have triggered periods of both transformative learning and vocational change. I develop evidence that some participants may have experienced transformative learning as the process by which they created new vocational identities. Finally, I show how some participants developed multifaceted collections of vocational identities, as in nurse-educator-counsellor.
Open Access
Beyond Role Transition: Specialty Nurses’ Narratives of Learning to Teach
(2023-06-02) House-Kokan, Michelle Anne Marie; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Potvin, Bernard; Sealock, Kara
In Canada, specialty nurse educators are typically hired for their clinical expertise and are not required to have training in pedagogical methodology or have past experience as educators (Bagley et al., 2018; Hoffman, 2019; Shapiro, 2018). Currently, little is known about how expert specialty nurses learn to teach post-licensure specialty education. Today, there is a critical shortfall of Registered Nurses in Canada (Ariste et al., 2019; Canadian Nurses Association, 2023). At the same time, an increase in patient acuity and complexity has highlighted the need for specialized nursing care and thus specialized post-licensure education (British Columbia Government, 2020; Lavoie-Tremblay et al., 2019). Despite the rising demand for specialty nurses, there is a parallel critical shortage of nurse educators at all levels of nursing education, including at the post-licensure specialty level (British Columbia Institute of Technology, 2021; Boamah, 2021). A deeper understanding of how post-licensure specialty nurse educators learn to teach is crucial to preparing and supporting both new and current specialty nurse educators. This qualitative inquiry arises from my experience as a post-licensure specialty nurse educator and faculty development lead. With this inquiry, I expand the limited scholarship in this area. Employing a narrative inquiry methodology, and a conceptual framework derived from the nursing, teacher, and higher education literature and informed by adult learning theory, I explore and describe specialty nurse educators’ process of learning to teach, along with factors that help or hinder this process. Key findings from this study include the holistic nature of the journey of learning to teach specialty nursing, learning to teach through caring, and learning to teach as a relational process.
Open Access
Choice Factors Impacting Black Canadian Students’ Decisions to Attend University in Ontario
(2018-10-10) Chavannes, Vidal Alexander; Gereluk, Dianne; Simmons, Marlon; Steinberg, Shirley R.; Larsen, Marianne A.; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Spencer, Brenda
The purpose of this study was to explore, with a sample of fifteen (15) Black undergraduate students in Ontario, their considerations of the various factors that influenced their university choice process, including the decision to attend university, and to attend a particular institution. This research employed a qualitative case study methodology to understand the lived experiences of participants. Two data-collection methods were utilized, including a survey questionnaire and individual interviews. A review of the literature was conducted to devise a conceptual framework for the design and analysis of the study. The data from individual interviews, surveys and the researcher’s field notes, revealed participants' perceptions and experiences during the university application and enrolment processes, and was reviewed against the literature as well as emergent themes. Having analyzed the findings, it became clear that as Black communities in Canada have historically struggled for physical access to educational spaces, then control over the apparatus of education within those spaces, then for the development of independent Black alternatives; the lived experiences of the participants in this study, all Black undergraduate students, mirrors this trajectory. Participants, through their interview responses, told a story that would be familiar to students of educational histories pertaining to Black communities and those with the lived experience of interacting with educational spaces as Black people.
Open Access
Coaching the Coaches: Using Design-Based Research to Improve the Instructional Skills of Canadian Air Traffic Control On-the-Job Instructors Through Professional Learning
(2020-11-11) Dye, Christa; Lock, Jennifer V.; Friesen, Sharon; Groen, Janet Elizabeth
Coaching in air traffic control on-the-job training is challenging and instructor quality can affect outcomes. This qualitative study explored the phenomenon of how instructional coaching can be used as a means of professional learning to help air traffic control on-the-job instructors (OJIs) identify and implement improvements to their instructional practices. The study focused on using coaching to build the capacity of OJIs to provide trainees with effective formative feedback. A three-phase design-based research (DBR) methodology was used to (a) prepare, design, and evaluate a usable professional learning coaching protocol, and (b) contribute theoretical understanding through the development of design principles. Three main findings emerged from this study. First, through iterative testing of the designed coaching protocol, eight key components were identified, including: four process components (learning culture, coaching conversation, adaptable framework, logistical feasibility), and four content components (clarity of expectations, reinforce positives, targeted progression, actionable priorities). These key coaching protocol components formed the basis of a reflective process used to identify a set of theoretical design principles intended as a starting point for others undertaking design studies in similar contexts. Second, the training culture within the unit will either foster or inhibit the OJIs’ engagement with professional learning opportunities and willingness to adopt the coaching protocol. This highlights the necessity for effective leadership and change management in implementing new professional learning initiatives. Third, OJIs must receive adequate training to use the coaching protocol, following professional learning best practices, to effectively influence instructional capacity. The findings of this study have implications for policy and practice. First, a plan should be established to further develop a training culture that supports effective workplace learning for OJIs. Second, OJIs should be provided with initial training and ongoing support on effective use of the coaching protocol. Third, members of the training team should receive ample preparation as instructional coaches to effectively support ongoing OJI development and professional learning. The results of this study will be of interest to those involved in air traffic control training, both in Canada and internationally, as well as to those in other safety-critical industries relying on on-the-job training.
Open Access
Collective wisdom: a heuristic inquiry into the essence of being an adult student considered at-risk
(2010) Pardy, Linda M.; Groen, Janet Elizabeth
Open Access
Engagement in Learning: Supporting Female Students at a UAE University
(2020-06-29) Davison, Christina Jean; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Bhomik, Subrata Kumar; Sewell, H. Douglas; Tweedie, M. Gregory; Gaad, Eman
Student engagement is widely seen as positively influencing learning in higher education. The purpose of this study was to investigate female Emirati student perspectives regarding factors that affected their engagement or disengagement in learning during their undergraduate programs at a public federal university in the United Arab Emirates. The aim of the study was to suggest how to improve support and cultivate student engagement in learning in the specific cultural context. The study used a qualitative approach and critical incident technique within a constructivist-interpretive paradigm. Interviews were conducted with 21 female undergraduate students across all years and many programs in one university. Participants were asked to recount two critical incidents: a time they were particularly engaged in learning, and a time they were particularly disengaged. Data was analyzed in three phases, resulting in main themes connected to both personal and social factors, as well as substantial wish lists for future improvement. A cross-comparison of themes suggested antecedents and impacts of the critical incidents. A contextualized model is proposed with four environmental levers that participants perceived might affect their engagement. The levers are: (a) accessible language, (b) positive instructor-student relationships, (c) a balance of independence, and (d) personal development and relevance.
Open Access
Experiencing Transition and Mental Distress: Narratives of First-Year University Students
(2021-06-10) Pethrick, Helen; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Simmons, Marlon; Russell-Mayhew, Shelly
Student mental health and well-being has become an area of increased attention and relevance within Canadian higher education. More university students every year report mental health problems and universities have developed strategies to promote student mental health. Direct-entry first-year university students are in need of unique support for their mental well-being because they are in a critical developmental time in emerging adulthood. The purpose of this inquiry was to explore the narratives of students who experienced mental distress during their first year of university. This inquiry asked: How do direct-entry university students, who identify as having undergone mental distress in their first year, experience the transition from high school to university? I engaged in a qualitative narrative inquiry methodology. I conducted narrative interviews with eight current undergraduate students who had entered university directly from high school and had experienced mental distress during their first year of university. In my analysis, I elucidated individual and collective narratives from these students’ experiences. The participants’ experiences were divided in two subsets of narrative portraits: current first-year students and current upper-year students. The subsets were distinguished by the participants’ temporal positioning to their first-year university experience. Two collective narratives emerged: entangled transitions and waves of mental distress. Through this inquiry, the participants engaged in narrative learning to restory their experience of transition and mental distress. To support the transitional experiences of direct-entry students, universities should implement holistic approaches that frame first-year university students as whole people and emerging adult learners.
Open Access
Exploring How Men and Women Approach Patient Educational Resources: How this Impacts Patient Experience
(2020-10-13) Viceer, Nazia; Jacobsen, D. Michelle; Nelson, Gregg; Groen, Janet Elizabeth
Patient education (PE) resources are provided to patients with the aim of engaging them in their health outcomes. Medicine, and as a result patient education, has evolved over many decades but has been skewed to favor one gender. This emphasis on representation of one gender has upheld a hegemonic status quo, excluding almost half of the patient population. Thus, there is a need for a more inclusive approach to patient education. This research used a case study methodology to investigate patient education as part of the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol. ERAS is a set of clinical practice changes that have contributed to patients being discharged from hospital sooner with fewer re-admissions and complications after colorectal surgery when compared to traditional surgical practices. In process of the development of ERAS patient education for the surgery process, differences that men and women may experience have not been well considered in the development of the patient education. This research was conducted with patients who underwent a colorectal ERAS surgical procedure. This study considers patient and healthcare provider (HCP) perspectives in regard to engagement with PE to determine if there are biological sex and gender specific considerations or processes that may result in improved patient outcomes and/or satisfaction. Participants identified gaps in the PE pertaining to sex and gender as well as other areas of personalization such as nutritional and post-care instructions. Participants indicated that involving patients as partners in development of PE may be a way to address gaps and improve outcomes. Study findings may be used to help design patient educational tools that consider a sex and gender approach, in order to be more inclusive and prioritize the needs of the patient populations that HCP aim to engage with ERAS.
Open Access
Exploring the Intercultural and Holistic Transformative Learning Experiences of Professional Colombian Immigrants in Canada
(2023-06-13) Jardine, Lyliam Janeth; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Dressler, Roswita Aleida Helene; Sewell, H. Douglas
Colombians who acquire a university degree in Colombia may still face challenges finding employment. They may choose to immigrate to Canada because the opportunities that this country offers. However, these immigrants may have to apply various strategies to overcome obstacles in their path to success. So, when they immigrate permanently to their host country (Canada as their country of settlement), they may have to overcome barriers, such as discrimination (Quillian et al., 2019) while finding a place in their professional field and integrating into their host communities (community of settlement). As a result, immigrants may find that having a career and speaking the target language is not enough to communicate effectively and build meaningful connections in their host communities. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative study with narrative inquiry methodology was to explore the journeys of eight professional Colombian immigrants who felt successful in Canada and had two or more years of adaptation and integration to answer the following question: To what extent did professional Colombian immigrants experience holistic Transformative Learning (TL) and enhance Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) after living in Canada for two or more years, in their path to professional success? In this study, I explored how the eight participants were able to enhance their ICC through various strategies that fostered interpersonal connections. These connections allowed them to become more confident with their target language(s); they also became stronger, humbler, and more flexible, and open-minded. In turn, they enhanced their communication skills and their ICC in their host communities. Their positive attributes and interpersonal connections helped them reflect on changes in their identities and frames of reference experiencing holistic TL. The study findings have the potential to inform the professional field of adult learning on how to incorporate learning spaces that promote interpersonal connections and learning through relationships to foster ICC and holistic TL.
Open Access
Immigrants as Settlement Workers: An Inquiry into their Experiences of Work and Workplace Learning at Immigrant Service Agencies in Canada
(2020-04-22) Liu, Jingzhou; Guo, Shibao; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Simmons, Marlon
My research investigates the transition to work and workplace learning experiences of immigrant settlement workers (ISWs) at immigrant service agencies (ISAs) in Canada. Informed by intersectionality and institutional ethnography (IE), I investigate how ISWs’ labour market integration and learning at work are constructed in institutional relations, organizing and shaping the coordination of individuals’ standpoint at local sites. In examining ISWs’ transition to work, I first trace the trajectory of immigrants becoming ISWs and then analyze how race, gender, and class intersect and shape their experiences of seeking employment in institutional complexes between governmental organizations, employment institutions, and ISAs. In exploring ISWs’ workplace learning in ISAs, I analyze ISWs’ emerging learning opportunities in formal and non-formal settings and how their learning can be situated in cultural and relational contexts. More importantly, my research scrutinizes how textual ruling power is translocally developed and distributed to mould ISWs’ daily practices in the workplace. Eighteen ISWs were interviewed from three different ISAs in Western Canada. Based on findings from life history interviews and analysis of various governmental and organizational documents, my investigation reveals three major components of ISWs’ transition to work and workplace learning experiences. First, in deconstructing the institutional complexes, I found that credential assessment organizations deny and devalue immigrants’ qualifications and work skills as irrelevant, filterable, and neglectable. Moreover, labour market hiring acts as a second filtering mechanism that strains immigrant’s previous credentials and professional skills as different, deficient, or dubious. These institutional complexes are perpetuated by the intersectional identities of race, gender, and class and hooked into translocal social relations that coordinate and shape immigrant’s daily practices of labour market integration in the local setting. Second, in adopting the concept of workplace subjectivity, I identified three kinds of ISW subjectivity in the workplace. First, constructive subjectivity emphasizes how immigrants’ life histories and their prior learning and working are deemed to be social assets that enrich and enhance ISAs’ services to newcomers. Professional subjectivity integrates ISWs’ subjective knowledge from formal, non-formal, and informal learning into their personal histories with objective knowledge, constructing individualized knowledge acquisition and creation. And Cultural subjectivity is the negotiated sense of self that emerges through ISWs’ workplace interactions with colleagues and clients from different cultural backgrounds. My analysis of cultural subjectivity reveals the importance of power relations in the ISA workplace and the effect of those relations on ISWs in terms of their yielding aspects of their own self-culture in order to assume Canadian normative workplace values, on the one hand, and imposing cultural discrimination against certain social groups, on the other. Third, by unpacking the idea of outcomes measurement in the ISA workplace—with a focus on the key concepts of IE and Foucault’s governmentality—I find that outcomes measurement has become a technology of power, an essential workplace knowledge that produces ideal ISWs, who are self-caring, self-regulated, self-accountable, adaptable, and productive. This production process manifests textual ruling relations in workers’ pedagogical learning, textual-mediated learning, and relational learning, thus establishing in them certain ways of thinking, doing, and acting. Participating in, interacting with, and practicing the textual objectives of outcomes measurement legitimizes ISAs as an apparatus for the reinforcement of governmental ruling power, neglecting ISWs’ learning intentionality and autonomy in the workplace.
Open Access
The Impact of Expectations on Chinese Students’ Transition to a Canadian University
(2020-07-07) Yu, Eustacia Quan; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Boz, Umit; Roy, Sylvie; Sewell, Douglas; Shore, Sue
The purpose of this study is to research the impact of expectations held by Chinese students themselves and by third persons, such as their parents, instructors, and peers, on Chinese students’ holistic experiences during their transition into a Canadian university. This important transitional period provides participants with opportunities for more diverse experiences as they navigate the three-fold transition: moving from China to a linguistically and culturally different country like Canada, going through a major life change from high school to university, and from adolescence to adulthood, a dynamic period of both physical and psychological development. This study used narrative inquiry as the research methodology to highlight students’ own invoices through the exploration of two sides of the expectations and how these expectations in turn shape their holistic experiences in a Canadian university. The research utilized the theories of transition and intercultural adaptation as frameworks to examine how all the internal and external factors in both their home and host countries contribute to Chinese students’ transition. Key findings from this study revealed that, shaped by their own expectations and those held by third persons, these Chinese students encountered both challenges and opportunities for development in their transition to the Canadian university. Much as they share commonalities, these students are not a monolithic group; rather they each have their unique personality, expectations, and aspirations. Remaining open to new ideas, lifestyles, and ideologies while maintaining inherited values of effort and self-determination, these participants have taken up transcultural identities that offer them the affordance to explore and function comfortably in different worlds. This study also sheds light on how the entire higher education practice can work together to make joint efforts for international students’ success by involving them both socially and academically instead of viewing them through a deficit lens.
Open Access
Imprinted Beneath Our Skin: An Arts-based Murmuration Inquiry into the Somatic Lessons of the Hidden Curriculum
(2018-12-19) Duchscher, Towani Mahalia; Seidel, Jackie; Burwell, Catherine; Binder, Marni J.; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Field, James C.
This study is about students, curriculum, schooling and the hidden curriculum. Students carry powerful lessons away from school. They carry these lessons out into the world, shaping our shared world. To attend to the power of these lessons and the impact schooling has on students and society, I explored the somatic lessons that students learn from the hidden curriculum of schooling. I came to this research as an artist, researcher, and teacher. Using a murmuration of Arts-based inquiry methods, I opened a space for student somatic knowledge to emerge, using dance as interview, documentation as listening, and poetry as translation. I asked students to represent their understandings of schooling, teaching, and learning through movement. Together, the students and I reflected on their movement expressions through Reggio-Emilia inspired documentation. I then supported the students in creating found poetry from their documented notes and comments; translating their embodied knowledge into written language. I embodied the concepts that emerged by dancing them with a small group of adult dancers and reflected on the lessons I learned about school through poetry. The dance, photographs, videos, and poetry are gathered together in an arts murmuration that paints a picture of school and the lessons that students learn from the hidden curriculum. This arts-based inquiry murmuration hopes to create a pause, a disruption, in the rhythm of taken for granted school rituals. I hope to encourage educators to question and reflect on the decisions made on behalf of students and consider the lessons that schools teach. This research is an act of love–caring for and valuing the lessons that students embody. Through listening to the body, I attend to the impact of schooling on student minds, student bodies, and subsequently society. Keywords: hidden curriculum, somatic knowledge, arts-based inquiry, dance, poetry
Open Access
Integrating Sustainability into Business School Curriculum: Understanding the Impact
(2020-07-27) Fearon, Lois Patricia; Gereluk, Dianne T.; Lock, Jennifer V.; Groen, Janet Elizabeth
This multi-case study examined the impact of integrating sustainability in two different undergraduate business programs at Royal Roads University. The research considered how including sustainability in business school curriculum contributed to changes in students’ conceptualization of sustainability and their sustainability-related attitudes and behaviours. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Findings emerged that suggest a combination of approaches to integration are most effective in enhancing students’ sustainability orientations. Although sustainability was, for the most part, conceptualized in a multidimensional manner, an environmental bias was evident as was a tendency to frame the concept from within the business paradigm. Stronger, more robust conceptualizations were lacking. Recommendations include: (a) maximizing integration by embedding sustainability throughout the curriculum in both disciplinary and cross-disciplinary coursework; (b) moving beyond a disciplinary conceptualization and introducing students to deeper sustainability discourse and varied conceptualizations; (c) introducing powerful sustainability pedagogies that maximize experiential learning and cultivate deep connections to place and; (d) ensuring that the formal and the informal curriculum mutually reinforce a positive sustainability agenda by paying careful attention to context and institutional commitment.
Open Access
Internationalization in the Formal Curriculum as Interpreted and Experienced by International Graduate Students in Canada – An Interpretive Case Study
(2024-03-27) Liang, Siyin; Kawalilak, Colleen; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Danyluk, Patricia Jill; Winchester, W. Lan S.; Goddard, John Timothy
Many universities in Canada have dedicated themselves to internationalization as an educational approach to enhance students’ awareness of global complexities, engage with diversity, foster global citizenship, and encourage meaningful contributions to society. Despite the growing attention to modifying curricula to align with the internationalization agenda, the literature offering guidance on approaching this endeavour remains limited, particularly concerning insights from students and within the specific academic realm of education. In order to contribute to the ongoing discourse surrounding curriculum internationalization, deepen the comprehension of how recent international students interpret and experience this approach, and explore ways to enrich student learning experiences, I conducted an interpretive case study, the details of which are presented in this dissertation. Specifically, I delved into a case study centred on internationalization in the formal curriculum through the perspectives of international graduate students enrolled in a school of education at a comprehensive academic and research university in Canada. Using qualitative content analysis and reflexive thematic analysis, I analyzed data collected from public documents, semi-structured interviews with nine international graduate students, and my reflexive research journal. Guided by the framework of practice architecture theory, I identified and shared interpretations on four key themes: 1. Influential cultural-discursive arrangements in shaping interpretations; 2. Diversification of course content: The deliberate commencement; 3. Advancing inclusion in course design to mitigate inequalities; 4. Crucial social-political arrangements in facilitating intercultural learning. In dialogue with existing scholarship, my findings elaborate on the meanings and value of content integration in an ‘internationalized’ formal curriculum, as some international graduate students interpreted. The research findings also highlight the importance of being aware of the practice traditions on the site and incorporating inclusive course design to mitigate inequalities and the risk of system exclusion in an internationalized formal curriculum. Furthermore, the findings suggest that institutional discussions on diversity and inclusivity are notably influential in shaping how international graduate students interpret an internationalized curriculum. In addition, as my findings revealed, being aware of the hierarchical structure within a university and understanding the power dynamics between instructors and students can potentially lead international graduate students to perceive instructors as the primary initiators of the course internationalization process. Simultaneously, they tend to predominantly view their role as that of responsive participants. The study seeks to contribute to empirical and practical knowledge on international studies of internationalizing the formal curriculum in higher education. It shows the necessity for more recent, in-depth, and regional-specific studies regarding curriculum internationalization from students’ perspectives. It concludes by offering recommendations for higher education institutions to support curriculum internationalization.
Open Access
Nurses, Soft Skills and Power: Life Stories of Internationally Educated Nurses
(2020-05) Kim, Mary Marcia; Guo, Yan; Fleming, Douglas; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Lund, Darren E.; Roy, Sylvie
The numbers of internationally educated nurses (IEN) who have joined the Canadian health care workforce have steadily increased since the mid-twentieth century. Much of the literature has framed their nursing knowledge, communication skills, and soft skills from a deficit perspective. Little research has been conducted on IENs and soft skills in the Canadian nursing context and in IENs’ own voices. To address this gap in the literature, this study explored IENs’ interpretations of soft skills and how IENs conform to or resist soft skills in their nursing practice in Canada. The theoretical framework included Foucault’s governmentality, pastoral power, and technologies of the self. It also used transculturation. Data were collected from IENs in Calgary, Alberta, through life story and analyzed through thematic analysis. Findings show that IENs perceive nursing procedures (hard skills) as inseparable from soft skills and soft skills as coming in packages rather than as isolated skills. They view nursing as holistic and use their transcultural knowledge and multilingual abilities to meet the needs of patients from diverse backgrounds. Findings indicate that contrary to the existing soft skills literature, IENs have sophisticated communication and interaction skills, as well as transcultural knowledge. Moreover, findings show that IENs have used their transcultural knowledge and multilingual abilities to challenge the English-only discourse in health care settings. The life stories of the IENs in this study add new perspectives for understanding the relationship between nurses, soft skills, and power. This study suggests that there is a need to find a way to recognize, value, and utilize IENs’ skills and knowledge that does not depend on the biased gatekeeping mechanisms of soft skills for certification and evaluation of nursing skills.
Open Access
Professional Agency of Costa Rican University EFL Teachers on Regional Campuses: A Life History Narrative
(2020-04-28) Barrantes Elizondo, Lena; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Sewell, H. Douglas; Roy, Sylvie; Guo, Shibaod; Bhowmik, Subrata Kumar; Ewert, Doreen E.
This study explored how the rural working contexts of Costa Rican adult educators teaching in postsecondary education interact with their condition as non-native English-speaking instructors to inform their professional agency. In this study, professional agency refers to the engagement of adult educators in making choices, influencing others, and taking stances on their work and professional identities in negotiation with their individual characteristics and social context. Data for the study come from a narrative inquiry into the complexities involved in being a university teacher in a regional campus through life history interviews, a researcher’s reflexivity journal, and supplementary documentation. Nine English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university teachers constituted the participants in this study. The data from the study were analysed and organized by following the three-dimensional, temporal-relational perspective on teacher agency offered by the ecological approach. In that view, findings were organized in relation to the past, present and future. Findings suggest that elements of the past gave teachers a broad repertoire of responses to engage and act and mainly included participants’ rural and institutional belonging and how non-native English-learning experiences inform their teaching practices. The present dimension of participants reported beliefs and the affective factors behind non-nativeness, classroom agency and institution structure, the role of their relationships, and a strong sense of commitment. The projective dimension of professional agency in this study were frequently rooted in a weighty sense of accountability for students’ and the community’s economic, social, and academic development. The need for academic professional development and empowerment through community projects stood out in participants’ stories.
Open Access
Researching the Design of a Culturally Sensitive Library Science Course
(2020-02) Nelson, Dorothea; Field, James C.; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Simmons, Marlon
The overriding objective of this study was to conduct an exploratory participatory action research (Dudgeon, Scrine, Cox, & Walker, 2017; MacDonald, 2012; Reason & Bradbury, 2008) within a Third Space (Bhabha, 2009; Pitts & Brooks, 2017), to probe the viability of collaboratively developing the curriculum of a culturally sensitive library science course for un-credentialed library staff. This research is critical to the development of libraries and library staff in the English-speaking Eastern Caribbean, as most library staff in this sub-region have received no formal training, and many lack the qualifications required to pursue the undergraduate degree in library sciences. As a result, there is no opportunity for upward mobility in the workplace and no chance for increased remuneration. Data were collected using in-depth open-ended individual interviews, focus group discussions, personal reflective journals, and documents (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2013; Creswell, 2012; Hiemstra, 2001, p. 19; Moore, 2015; Morgan, 1996; Schwartz-Shea, 2014). Analysis of the data revealed participants’ perceptions of the impact of their participation in the research and the benefits of the research, their perceived barriers to training, their commitments and investments in the process, their perceptions of the criticality of training, the values that emerged during the research and that impacted the design, the considerations for the course being designed, the criticality of participatory action research methodology to support this type of research, and the importance of allowing space for stakeholders to engage dialogically in course design and for the meeting of the global and the local, those at the margins and the centre.
Open Access
The Role of Spiritual Practices in Midlife Career Transition, for Individuals who Consider Themselves Spiritual and/or Religious from the Western Judeo-Christian Tradition
(2020-07-07) Covey, Connie; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Bohac-Clarke, Veronika; Winchester, Ian
This study examined the adult learning journey during a midlife career transition and the role of spiritual practices in transforming professional self-concept and defining career purpose and meaning. The research helped to illuminate how adults apply spiritual practices to increase their understanding of themselves, the world around them, and giving back through their careers. Firstly, spiritual practices were useful for understanding the self by consciously reflecting on lived experiences and making meaning of those experiences within one’s inner world. Secondly, spiritual practices are useful for understanding the external world of relationships and informing interaction with society. Lastly, spiritual practices are useful for arriving at an understanding of giving back to society, all of which contribute to creating a meaningful and purposeful career.
Open Access
The Embodied Experience and Transformative Learning: Moving Towards a Healthy and Empowered Self
(2018-09) Iafrate, Marco; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Kawalilak, Colleen; Winchester, Ian A. N.
Using a qualitative single case study methodology, this study explored whether and how individuals find an empowered sense of themselves through their bodies and physical experiences. Five participants underwent 6 weeks of physical activity, with each week focusing on a different aspect of self-care. Research data were gathered through pre- and post-assessments, a 6-week questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews. Five themes emerged for the first sub-question (“What enhances or promotes embodied learning, which can then help one find an empowered sense of self?”): (a) curiosity and a willingness to learn, (b) reflection, (c) examination for personal improvement, (d) support, and (e) character strengths. Four qualities were found from the analysis of the second sub-question (“What role does the human body serve in transformational learning?”): (a) thoughtfulness, (b) personal acknowledgement, (c) health and wholeness, and (d) the affirmation of oneself. The participants’ experiences suggest that their engagement in the study had a positive impact on self-care, sense of self, and perspective change. The results provide insights for ongoing discussion into the role of embodied learning and its connection to overarching themes within transformative learning, which are disorienting dilemmas, reflection, and discourse. These findings contribute to the growing body of research in transformational learning by providing ideas for new conceptions for practice and by bringing attention back to the physical body as a source of learning and transformation.