Browsing by Author "Paul, Robyn Mae"

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    Assess the Equity Impacts of Different Transportation Modes using Access to Health Facilities for Asthma Patients as an Indicator
    (2024-12-20) Minuyee, Mahnoush; Demissie, Merkebe Getachew; Behjat, Laleh; Blue, Gwendolyn; Paul, Robyn Mae
    Asthma, a chronic respiratory condition affecting 10\% of Canada’s population in 2021, underscores the critical need for equitable and timely access to health facilities, particularly during emergencies. Transportation systems are vital for enabling access to these services; however, socioeconomic disparities and transportation limitations often restrict access for vulnerable populations. This thesis examines how transportation modes influence equitable access to health facilities for pediatric asthma patients, using Calgary as a case study. It explores a framework to improve transportation equity across traffic analysis zones to better serve disadvantaged groups. Two methods were employed to measure accessibility: the reachability-based method and the two-step floating catchment area method. Accessibility indexes were calculated for Calgary’s traffic analysis zones across three transportation modes—personal vehicles, public transit, and taxis—considering five-time slots during the day for emergency and non-emergency scenarios. Different travel thresholds and budgets were analyzed to identify inequities across zones. Equity was evaluated using horizontal and vertical equity techniques. Horizontal equity was assessed through the Gini coefficient, while vertical equity considered socioeconomic factors, pediatric asthma patients, and accessibility indexes to prioritize zones needing improved access to health facilities. The findings show that personal vehicles provide the highest access to health facilities across most time slots and travel budgets, making them the primary mode for accessing health facilities, especially in emergencies. Taxis are unaffordable at low budgets, while public transit often fails to offer sufficient accessibility during emergencies, particularly at night when available health facilities are limited. In non-emergency scenarios, taxis offer comparable accessibility at higher budgets. Vertical equity analysis highlighted zones with significant socioeconomic vulnerability and high asthma rates but low access as priorities for action. This research emphasizes the importance of incorporating equity into transportation planning to enhance public health outcomes. Policymakers should adopt a framework to prioritize underserved zones with greater accessibility needs while addressing both horizontal and vertical inequities. Future studies should address limitations by including weekend data and health facility capacity to provide a more comprehensive analysis of accessibility needs and their equity impacts.
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    Critical Pedagogical Interventions in Engineering: Deconstructing Hierarchical Dualisms to Expand the Narratives of Engineering Education
    (2024-01-12) Paul, Robyn Mae; Brennan, Robert; Behjat, Laleh; Eggermont, Marjan; Black, Kerry; Sun, Qiao; Sengupta, Pratim; Lord, Susan
    Engineering in the western world is often framed as neutral or apolitical, meaning engineering education trains engineers to take little responsibility for perpetuating society’s biases through our technologies (such as racism, colonialism, and environmental degradation). In this thesis, I argue that as problem solvers and critical thinkers involved in the world’s biggest challenges, it is our ethical responsibility to unmask the hidden belief systems and dominant narratives that currently drive the engineering sector. Within our society, dualisms are embedded across our value systems, such as the dualisms of woman-man, emotion-reason, nature-culture, and social-technical. These dualisms exist as opposites, exclusive, and in a value-hierarchy (i.e. man-reason-culture-technical are typically viewed in exclusive opposition and valued higher than woman-emotion-nature-social). This thesis uses the hierarchical dualisms pedagogical framework to bring light to the normative cultures of engineering education and aims to support engineering education communities in increasing their critical consciousness and becoming aware of dominant value systems. Thus, my primary research question is: How do we design practices that unmask the hierarchical dualisms to build expanded narratives of engineering and engineering education? I answer this question by (1) outlining a framework of hierarchical dualisms and dominant narratives including illustrative case studies; (2) summarizing two pedagogical innovations I designed and implemented to unmask different hierarchical dualisms; and (3) analyzing my own writing for dominant narratives through a discourse analysis. Throughout, this thesis takes a non-traditional research approach to align my methodology with the epistemological assumptions of the research paradigm. I leverage dialogicity, relationality, and storytelling methodologies to describe my journey of doing paradigm shifting work in the field of engineering education. Overall, this thesis found that through increasing critical consciousness, broadening our systems thinking, engaging in interdisciplinary dialogue, being willing to transcend engineering boundaries, and imagining radical futures we can create momentum for emergent change that will foster liberatory education. As educators, students’ four years of undergraduate engineering in academia are our great opportunity to radically transform engineering students’ way of thinking about technology and design, and give them the skills and tools to radically transform the purpose of engineering.
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    Incorporating Universal Design for Learning in Disciplinary Contexts in Higher Education
    (University of Calgary, 2021) Abegglen, Sandra; Aparicio-Ting, Fabiola; Arcellana-Panlilio, Mayi; Behjat, Laleh; Brown, Barbara; Clancy, Tracy; DesJardine, Patricia; Din, Cari; Ferreira, Carla; Hughson, E. Anne; Kassan, Anusha; Klinke, Chelsea; Kurz, Ebba; Neuhaus, Fabian; Pletnyova, Ganna (Anna); Paul, Robyn Mae; Peschl, Houston; Peschl, Rosalynn; Squance, Rod; Dyjur, Patti
    Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a set of principles that can be used to guide course design and delivery with the goal of enhancing the learning for the greatest number of students. Incorporating UDL in higher education is complex, varied and nuanced work that instructors are doing to meet the learning needs of students in their classes. In this guide we illuminate different ways in which UDL principles have been implemented across disciplines and in different ways to enhance student learning. Each chapter offers a case of how UDL has been incorporated into learning experiences in higher education. Our goal is to provide discipline-based examples of courses that illustrate how UDL can be incorporated into a higher education context. Along the way, we hope you will be inspired by the work of others. We wish you great success in your journey to teach courses that are increasingly accessible and inclusive!
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    Towards an Understanding of the Influence of Student Leadership Development on Early-Career Engineers
    (2018-04-23) Paul, Robyn Mae; Cowe Falls, Lynne G.; Hayley, Jocelyn; Brennan, Robert William
    New engineering graduates must be equipped with diverse skillsets beyond their technical foundations to help solve the challenges of the twenty-first century. Among these skills includes an increasing recognition of the importance of engineering leadership. As a developing field of research, there is limited clarity on what is engineering leadership and the influence of leadership development on early-career engineers. The Schulich School of Engineering launched the Maier Student Leadership Program in 2006 to help engineers reach their full career potential. This thesis presents the reflections on this program and moves towards an understanding of its influence on early-career engineers. The most influential factors were found to be: humility, empathy, and curiosity. These three constructs, which were fostered through the Maier Program, provide alumni with valuable skillsets in the first 5-10 years of their career. Additionally, this thesis presents a proposed definition of engineering leadership to provide clarity on the concept.