Browsing by Author "Spring, Erin"
Now showing 1 - 17 of 17
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Open Access Authenticating and Legitimizing Transgender Identities Online: A Discourse Analysis(2019-08-26) West, Alyssa Megan Marie; Strong, Tom; Wada, Kaori; Spring, Erin; Callaghan, Tonya D.The number of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) individuals who are presenting for counselling is increasing, and yet counsellors feel unprepared and lack confidence working with gender-variant people, which has resulted in negative therapeutic experiences. Consistent with social-justice practice, knowledge of how clients understand themselves is necessary to ensure the outcomes of counselling (Arthur & Collins, 2010a). A key resource TGNC individuals are using to engage in identity exploration are online communities. In this research I applied Potter and Wetherell’s (1987) approach to discourse analysis to explore the talk and text of three such online communities. I identified that the participants made sense of their identity using three discourses: (a) felt sense, (b) authenticity, and (c) legitimacy. I discuss these findings within the context of the current social climate and existing literature regarding TGNC individual’s identity development. I offer suggestions for infusing this insight into trans-affirmative counselling practice(s) and discuss implications for future research.Item Open Access 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, ErinMindset 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.Item Open Access Effect of Sleep Quality on Theory of Mind in Children with ADHD(2019-08-23) Ritchie, Tessa Margaret; Climie, Emma A.; Andrews, Jac J. W.; Spring, ErinThe current study explored the relationship between sleep quality and Theory of Mind (ToM) in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Children with ADHD often have reduced sleep quality and increased daytime sleepiness than their typically developing peers. ToM is a skill that entails gaining another person’s perspective through an understanding of their mental state. Current research has suggested that ToM may explain some of the social difficulties for children with ADHD. A sample of 46 children between the ages of 8 and 12 years were included, 21 of which had a diagnosis of ADHD. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (Child version) was used to assess ToM and the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire was used to examine quality of sleep. Children with ADHD had significantly greater sleep disturbances than the control group. Additionally, children with ADHD had greater daytime sleepiness, greater disturbances of sleep duration and greater sleep anxiety. Contrary to what was hypothesized, the current study did not find any difference between children with ADHD and control children on the ability to identify emotions through reading facial expressions. In addition, no relationship was found between sleep quality and ToM. The higher levels of sleep disturbances in children with ADHD, call for increased intervention to help improve sleep quality in children with ADHD, and develop targeted sleep interventions specific for children with ADHD.Item Open Access Emotional experiences of non-Indigenous educators teaching Indigenous curricula: Reconciliation through narrative inquiry(2023-08) Miles, Teresa Marie; McDermott, Mairi; Friesen, Sharon; Spring, Erin; Scott, David; Cardinal, TrudyNon-Indigenous educators are required to teach Indigenous curricula according to Alberta Education (2018b) Teaching Quality Standards (TQS). This requirement hopes to contribute to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015) (TRCC) calls to action regarding education in Canada. My research focuses on the calls to action which ask educators to teach Indigenous curricula with “intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect” (TRCC, 2015). By asking the research question, what are the emotional experiences of non-Indigenous educators in Alberta who are teaching Indigenous curriculum, my purpose was to examine the emotional experiences as we work individually and collectively towards reconciliation in education. In this emotional journey that you are joining me on, the reader will encounter writing surrounding the Papal apology, situating myself in the research, situating the research in governing literature, approach to research and design, findings and discussion of the data. This thesis includes my design of Research in a Medicine Wheel which provides a conceptual and theoretical framework. In addition, the reader will encounter a Findings in a Medicine Wheel Word Cloud, and sweetgrass braid drawings which I created to show how my research is woven with research partners and the seven sacred teachings. Through a Narrative Inquiry approach, the findings present the stories of my three research partners and myself. In conducting an emotive analysis of these stories as data gathering, I created categories which represent themes found in each of the research partner’s stories. Susie presents the role of empathy in teaching Indigenous curricula; Elsi presents a story of growth, authenticity, and humility; and Quinn presents the perspective of moving past shock: a journey towards understanding. Each of the research partner’s stories are followed by my reaction and reflection which created the opportunity for me to become the fourth researcher in this research. This emotional journey includes a research process which became one of creating new relationships, the renewal of existing friendships, and changing relationships,. The research and writing which follows are centered on concepts found in the ever-changing processes of reconciliation.Item Open Access Exploring a Literacy Partnership to Inform Educational Leadership: The Story of Calgary Reads(2019-07-22) Devitt, Laura; Brandon, Jim; Lenters, Kimberly A.; Seidel, Jackie; Spring, Erin; Anderson, JimAbstract. This study focuses on a significant challenge in an educational leader’s role; working to ensure success for all students. Consistent, strong leadership at both school and district levels can positively impact outcomes for students. While school leadership can create the conditions that encourage high-quality teaching and improved outcomes for students, education system leadership can create the conditions that allow school leaders to be successful. It is widely recognized that a child’s journey to becoming literate is closely linked to future learning. In such complex and demanding work, educational leaders often find themselves grappling for the best possible approaches and practices to improving literacy outcomes. In some instances, educational leaders seek opportunities to collaborate with community support. The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to investigate one such community program in an attempt to inform the literacy practices of school-based and system-based educational leaders. The community program examined in this study was Calgary Reads, a literacy-focused agency which collaborates with schools and school districts around literacy, including providing early literacy interventions in elementary school settings. Interviews with the organization’s executive director, one district leader, four school-based leaders, twelve classroom teachers and eight children, all who are supported by Calgary Reads, provided the study’s data. In total, 26 participant stories were gathered, presented, and thematically analyzed. The narrative analysis revealed the strongly expressed need for ongoing, meaningful professional learning opportunities in early literacy for leaders and teachers. From this overarching narrative theme, recommendations regarding system and school supports, leader and teacher professional learning needs and decision-making approaches regarding early literacy in schools and school systems are provided. Keywords: educational leadership, literacy, professional development, community.Item Open Access Gathering stories, gathering pedagogies: Animating Indigenous knowledges through story(University of Nebraska Press, 2021) Hanson, Aubrey Jean; King, Anna-Leah; Phipps, Heather; Spring, ErinIn lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: This paper brings together four Indigenous and non-Indigenous teacher educators to consider the pedagogical possibilities of Indigenous children's literature in our work with pre-service teachers.1 In this paper, we take up an invitation to consider Indigenous literary arts in relation to pedagogies, land, sovereignty, and Indigenous ways of knowing. Specifically, we do this by sharing pedagogical examples of the ways in which various picturebooks and oral stories work within our classrooms. Over the past year, we have had opportunities to collaborate and co-write in two cities. While we come from different backgrounds, communities, and positionalities, we were brought together by our shared investment in the power of picturebooks as rich pedagogical resources to spark conversations about many of the themes and topics we seek to share with our students—such as land and place, intergenerational kinship networks, community relations, language revitalization, cultural identity, and Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing. Each of us strongly believes that Indigenous children's literature, including picturebooks, offer an opportunity to reiterate to pre-service teachers that "Indigenous literatures matter because Indigenous peoples matter" (Justice, Why Indigenous Literatures Matter 211). For many of our students, picturebooks are a first foray into Indigenous Education. Our students come to our classrooms with varying understandings and lived experiences of colonialism and Indigenous knowledges. Regardless of our students' prior experiences, they are required to weave Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing into their professional practices. For example, Alberta has a new Teaching Quality Standard that was implemented in the fall of 2019. Teachers are now evaluated on their ability to "develop and apply foundational knowledge about [End Page 63] First Nations, Métis, and Inuit" (6). As we share within this paper, we have found picturebooks and oral stories to be a safe entrypoint into this material; they offer insight into particular communities, places, cultures, and identities in an accessible and celebratory way. These texts also have a depth and complexity to them that facilitate conversations about the sometimes-difficult learning we engage in. To make this argument within this paper, we move through four examples of picturebooks and stories within our own teaching practices. Picturebooks open up important opportunities and questions in our teaching. The visual and verbal texts of picturebooks carry multiple meanings that can be read in different ways. Likewise, we have found there to be interesting conversations to be had about the differences between a text that exists on the page and an oral story: does putting a (live) story (spirit) into a book, impaling it on the page, cut off its life force? What happens when an oral culture, which is tied to lifeways and traditions, is recorded in print?2 Is it ethical to share information, such as spiritual customs, in picturebook form? Questions such as these guide our practice with pre-service teachers. We know from Lumbee scholar Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy that "Oral stories remind us of our origins and serve as lessons for the younger members of our communities; they have a place in our communities and our lives" (439)—how meaningfully do these lessons transfer via the page? Many of our pre-service teachers are afraid of making mistakes, especially early in their journeys, but they need to learn to sit with this discomfort and to take pedagogical risks within the classroom. We believe that discomfort is when deep learning and epistemological and ontological shifts occur. Part of our role as educators is to point our students toward the wealth of resources and tools that are available to them, including Indigenous literatures, and to help them negotiate how to critically evaluate these sources for classroom purposes. While we always encourage our students to collaborate with colleagues, Indigenous community members, and knowledge-keepers, we are well aware that asking Indigenous people to carry the weight of teaching continues to rely on extractivist and exploitative ways of gaining knowledge. Indigenous picturebooks, such as the ones illustrated below, contain cultural knowledge that can help begin the conversation. Through texts, we can...Item Open Access Integrating Elements of Hip Hop and Digital Learning to Enhance Student Engagement in the English Language Subject: A Bahamian Context(2024-04-30) Cambridge, Janelle; Zaidi, Rahat; Spring, Erin; Winchester, IanEducational leaders are called to foster engaging classroom activities to address the learning needs of students across the Bahamas. However, the multiplicity of social, economic, and cultural challenges students face in the country is still a factor in the declining scores of the Bahamas Junior Certificate (BJC) English Language Exam, for instance. Thinking of the need to improve junior school-level language education, this scholarship draws on the need for educational practitioners to shift their attention to teaching practices and principles that incorporate learning methods that will enhance students’ engagement. Following a Hip-hop Based Education, the presented discussions touch base on innovative and creative ways to incorporate digital platforms to increase engagement levels of students, and consequently their improvement in the country’s national certificate exam. Literature suggests hip-hop has become a popular tool to improve student-teacher relationships, promote critical thinking and creativity, and enhance cultural awareness. Within the digital context, educational stakeholders have accessed broader implementation strategies that allow educators to work toward equipping students with contextualized skills, knowledge, and attitudes to thrive both inside the classrooms and in society. This qualitative case study further explores hip-hop use in the Bahamian context and how educators have been critically committed to helping change the current national certificate results among their students. Through the analysis of semi-structured interviews and a focus group discussion, the study's participating educators have shown that the English Language can create personal and professional growth opportunities for Bahamian students. Hence, their commitment to enhancing students’ classroom engagement is an alternative to critically contributing to students’ successes. Keywords: hip-hop, student engagement, academic performance, student performance, digital learningItem Open Access “I’m Doing Okay”: Strengths and Resilience of Children with and without ADHD(2022-08) Charabin, Emma; Climie, Emma; Makarenko, Erica; Spring, ErinResearch on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has typically focused on deficits or the areas in which those with ADHD perform poorly. Nevertheless, the body of research directed at understanding the strengths and resilience of this population is growing. Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) propositioned that psychology needs to move towards understanding more about positive characteristics and how people are successful. Research focusing on ADHD has indicated strengths for individuals with ADHD in the areas of creativity, energy, and adventurousness (Halthe & Langvik, 2017; Ten et al., 2020). As well, resilience research focusing on ADHD has also found many protective and promotive factors that are important for promoting good outcomes (Dvorsky & Langberg, 2016). Continuing in the pursuit of positive psychology, this study aims to investigate positive qualities by examining the strengths and resilience of children with and without ADHD. The final sample included 56 children between the ages of 10 and 17 years (ADHD: n = 38; without ADHD: n = 18). Children in both the ADHD and without ADHD groups tended to report average levels of strengths and resilience with the exception of school functioning. Significant differences were found between groups for school functioning only. As hypothesized, significant correlations between strengths and resilience for both groups were found, indicating there is a significant positive relationship between self-reported strengths and resilience. Only family involvement was not significantly correlated with resilience for the without ADHD group. Results from this study emphasize the importance of taking a strength-based perspective when working with children diagnosed with ADHD.Item Open Access K-12 Art Educators Learning from Indigenous Insight and Voices: A Collaborative Arts-Based Case Rooted with/in Moh’kins’tsis/Calgary, Alberta(2024-04-19) Munroe, Vanessa Jean; Scott, David Michael; Markides, Jennifer; Spring, Erin; Friesen, Sharon; Irwin, RitaFor over twenty years, Indigenous scholars, and their aspiring allies from around the world have been conducting educational research that has generated a wealth of evidence that “learning and teaching are an essential means of protecting and sustaining Indigenous forms of knowledge” (Smith, 2010a, p. 102). Together, their work has informed federal, provincial, and local policies and professional standards to action “Education for Reconciliation” (Government of Alberta, 2024, para. 2) in Canada. One area of focus has been fostering both teacher and “student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect” (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015, p.7). As a non-Indigenous art teacher, school-based leader, and scholar-practitioner, I am personally attuned to how these professional guiding documents have placed increasing pressure on educators across the territories of the Niitsítapi (the Blackfoot speaking people) and the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta to examine and evolve their practice to “develop and apply foundational knowledge about First Nations, Métis and Inuit for the benefit of all students” (Alberta Education, 2023c, p. 5). At this time, there exists an “axiological void” (Donald, 2014, p. 2) as to how K-12 art teachers in Moh’kins’tsis/Calgary, Alberta should proceed in this work. Art teachers want to break the cycle of colonial engagements with Indigenous art and culture; however, many are fearful of doing something “wrong” (Scott & Gani, 2018). My collaborative arts-based case study attended to this significant problem of practice to better understand how learning from Indigenous insight and voices can provoke K-12 art educators to take up Indigenous art rooted with/in this place in good and ethical ways in their classrooms.Item Open Access Literacy in-the-round: Examining the roles of dramatic embodiment and relationality in secondary English Language Arts classrooms(2024-08-09) Campbell, Harrison; Burwell, Catherine; Aukerman, Maren Songmy; Lenters, Kimberly Ann; Spring, Erin; Honeyford, Michelle A.The impetus for my doctoral research came from my desire to explore the possible applications of drama-based pedagogies within the English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum. To do this, I examined how drama-based work, inspired by posthumanist concepts, could be applied to create additional opportunities for embodiment and relationality within secondary ELA classrooms. Within this study, literacy was a central focus and was defined as practices related to multiple forms of meaning making that included embodiment and relationality. Case study methodology informed by posthumanist concepts drove the data collection and analysis. Data was collected in a Grade 12 ELA classroom through observations, conversations, classroom artifacts, and student performances, and analyzed through both coding and iterative cycles of writing. The data was then used to explore the roles of affect, embodiment, and relationality in secondary ELA classrooms and to see how drama-based work could encourage more multimodal explorations of text. This study found that drama-based work encouraged pedagogical reflection and inspired ways through which to approach literacy teaching. My research contributes a picture of how drama-based work in one secondary ELA classroom enhanced meaning making around texts by drawing on drama’s embodied and relational learning opportunities. It demonstrates how drama can be used to introduce new avenues to help students find “what is real by making believe” (Campbell, 2021).Item Embargo Lunatic Teacher: A Hermeneutic Exploration of Teaching and Suicide in Poetry and Prose(2023-12-06) Perry, Tyler Brendan; Spring, Erin; Sumara, Dennis; Dobson, KitThis hermeneutic exploration seeks to interpret and understand the author’s ongoing experience as a teacher, observer, and writer through the creation of lyrical poetry and prose. It is a journey through language into poetic understanding—away from the clarity of concrete knowledge and into the fog of questions and creative intuition that rise from the inherent ambiguity of creative language and metaphoric meaning. The primary poetic forms used in this text are glosa, sestina, free verse, and micro essay. The glosa and sestina poems directly and methodically engage with previously existing texts (poetry and prose) by following the patterns and rules of said forms. The free verse poems engage directly with these texts by weaving lines, phrases, and sentences among the freely written new lines in no predetermined pattern, and by rules set only during the play of writing. The micro essays serve as meta writings that further the conversation by pulling back and analysing the language processes used in all the other writings. They are the planks of reason used to build a footpath along which we might traverse the otherwise soggy substance of the poems. All of the writing is infused with the experiences of teaching and living of the author of this text. The reader is asked to read amphibiously, living equally in the liquid language of poetry and the somewhat solid ground of the prose. This thesis strives towards eccentric, expansive, and paradoxical understandings of teaching, learning, language, and lunacy.Item Open Access Online Teacher Education During COVID: Emerging Futures for Pre-service Teacher Education(2021-08) Morrison, Laura; Jacobsen, Michele; Lock, Jennifer; Spring, ErinThe purpose of this study was to explore and analyze promising online pedagogical practices that enhance engagement and learning in one course of an Ontario-based pre-service teacher (PST) education program. The study used a multiple methods Design Based Research (DBR) approach and was framed by the theoretical perspectives of social constructivism, Communities of Inquiry, TPACK (technological, pedagogical and content knowledge) and a flipped classroom model (FCM). Data was collected from the perspectives of three students and one instructor. Data analysis focused on themes related to student engagement and learning, including additional considerations for online PST education. Key findings included: (a) the importance of timely, positive and personal teacher feedback for student way-finding, motivation and rapport building; (b) the importance of professional learning networks (PLNs) for social and cognitive presence development; (c) the importance of a FCM and choice (in content and responses) for cognitive and social presence development; (d) the importance of authentic learning experiences for deeper learning and (e) additional considerations for PST online education. Future research possibilities include replication of the study’s research design in other contexts in order to build an understanding of the practices that transcend contextual boundaries with an eye toward theory-building.Item Open Access Reciprocal Literacies: A Post-Qualitative Case Study of Artists’ Ephemeral and Matterless Connections Amongst Place(2024-01-18) Boschee Ellefson, Jana Kirsten; Lenters, Kimberly; Chambers, Cynthia; Spring, ErinMeaningfully connecting with our social and natural environments becomes challenging in an increasingly digital and globalized world. Affective language and literacy practices carry potential for affirming and fostering generative entanglements amongst people and places; furthermore, such relationships are important to the well-being of the individual participants and the collective community of human and more-than-human. Beyond traditional, text-based literacies, ephemeral and matterless literacies offer modes of positive reciprocal interactions within assemblages. The literature review considers Indigenous and posthuman theories as they relate to literacy, place, and research approaches. The studied assemblages include the human and more-than-human participants of creative contexts in Southern Alberta, including a photographer, a musician/painter, an installation artist, and a performance artist. The methodological approach reflects ethico-onto-epistemological commitments to the openings and transformation Indigenous and posthumanist theories suggest. The multi-case study illuminates and sparks potentials existing in creative, cultural, and communal practices when constraints of educational institutions are removed and textless communication is emphasized. Attending to these literacies requires that literacy researchers and educators reconsider institutional concepts of literacy / literacy spaces focused on culturally biased, individual, text-based performance, and begin afresh. The study explores and describes the flows of intention and surrender that inspire and incite ephemeral and matterless communicative practices existing in adult lives and in doing so, imagines pedagogical possibilities to honour reciprocal relationship with places, in the dynamic and all-encompassing sense of the word.Item Open Access Social Integration Experiences of Young Newcomers in Canadian High Schools and the Importance of Friendship(2022-09) Ahmed, Solafa; Zhao, Xu; Spring, Erin; Zamudio, Gabriel; Zhao, XuAs the population of young newcomers (immigrants, refugees and international students) increases in Canada, there is a growing need to understand the social integration process of these students into Canadian schools. This thesis reports a qualitative analysis of how newcomer students in three Canadian schools perceived their experiences interacting with local students. I explored two research questions: (1) What do newcomers perceive as factors that hinder intercultural friendships with local students? (2) How should the notion of social integration be re-conceptualized based on newcomers’ experiences? The data analyzed was derived from a larger project by Zhao et al. (2017), which aimed to establish a conceptual framework for understanding intercultural friendship formation in Canadian high schools. I used the thematic analysis (TA) approach to analyze interviews and identify themes and subthemes to address the research questions. Participants of the interviews included in my analysis were 19 newcomer students from three high schools in Alberta. Despite newcomer students’ strong motivations to socially connect with local students, several barriers prevented this. In addition to a lack of English proficiency, newcomer students lacked the confidence to have conversations with local students and preferred to interact with other newcomers because of their shared status, identity, and experiences as newcomers. Participants believed local students were not interested in them and/or were intolerant of their English language struggles. This study provides new evidence of the psychological and social challenges that hinder the social integration of young newcomers in Canadian schools. I also critically examined the conceptualization of the term social integration and its current implications.Item Open Access Summer Camp for Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Naturalistic Context for Enhancing Social Competence(2020-08) Neprily, Kirsten; Climie, Emma A.; Makarenko, Erica; Spring, ErinMany adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) experience difficulties in social competence (Ros & Graziano, 2018). Social difficulties in adolescents with ADHD have been tied to poor long-term outcomes and are predictive of global impairment (Morris et al., 2020). Summer camp programs have been overlooked as an opportunity for social growth and development. Evidence suggests that specialized summer camp with social skills training may have positive outcomes on social competence development in adolescents with ADHD (Pelham et al., 2010; Sibley et al., 2011, 2012). The current study investigated changes in social competence of adolescents with ADHD within a specialized social skills summer camp for children and adolescents with ADHD. The present study included a sample of 60 adolescents with ADHD between the ages of 12 and 16 years old and 15 camp counsellors. The Social-Emotional Assets and Resiliency Scales- Adolescent (SEARS-A) and Parent (SEARS-P) report were used to measure social competence. Overall, the present study demonstrated that adolescents with ADHD have significantly lower social competence when compared to a normative sample of adolescents. The study also confirmed that adolescents with ADHD improve their social competence after attending a specialized summer camp as demonstrated by higher social competence scores at the end of camp. Finally, the current study found similar scores between counsellor ratings of adolescent’s social competence and adolescent ratings of social competence. In conclusion, specialized summer camp programs may be an innovative, cost effective, and generalizable method to support social competence growth in adolescents with ADHD.Item Open Access Walking Alongside: Poetic Inquiry into Allies of Indigenous Peoples in Canada(2019-09-18) Garbutt, Joan; Jubas, Kaela; Pratt, Yvonne Poitras; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Spring, Erin; Hogue, MichelleThis qualitative arts-based study made use of poetic inquiry to analyze and represent the stories of non-Indigenous people recognized as allies of Indigenous peoples in Canada. I adopted a theoretical foundation in critical realism, focusing on the role of agency in the emergent realities of the participants’ ally work (Archer, 2002). I grounded the study in literatures that drew from multiple Indigenous perspectives on teaching, learning and knowledge; social justice education and awareness; and postcolonial theory and decolonization. Thematically, the areas of ally experience that interested me most were their actions, emotions, and how they related to others in the spaces they occupied. Using the ally interview transcripts as raw data, I created found poems that reflected those themes. Constructing the poems while engaging in analysis led me to attempt to decolonize language and names. Hence, I made use of a disruptive strategy to bring attention to the extent to which language reflects colonization. In the final chapter of the dissertation, I outlined implications for adult education theory and practice as suggested by the study. In addition, I made suggestions for actions that allies-in-the-making may take up and directions for future study.Item Open Access You Eat What You Are: Sociocultural Factors That Influence and Inform Food Literacies(2023-01-10) Farrell, Pamela; Spring, Erin; Lenters, Kim; Zaidi, Rahat; Dressler, Roswita; Renwick, KerryNumerous and varied definitions and understandings of food literacy exist across health, nutrition, and education disciplines. Food literacy is a contested and subjective topic and has been used across health disciplines to combat dietary-related diseases to improve population health outcomes. Often, the common interpretation of food literacy results in a superficial and autonomous view of food literacy that is restricted to food-related knowledge and skills such as knowing how to cook or being able to read and understand a nutrition label, thereby neglecting the wider contextual influences on food literacy. Viewing food literacy from a literacy as a social practice lens allows us to view food literacies as something people do in social, cultural, and historical contexts. This study examined the sociocultural factors and social practices that influence food literacies using a qualitative case study methodology. Using a narrative writing activity, followed by semi-structured interviews, I explored the concept of food literacy from a literacy as a social practice perspective, focusing on the literacy aspect of food literacy. The findings of this study show how food literacy practices are influenced by a wide variety of sociocultural factors, including social relations, health, gender, economic status, and emotions. As a result, I propose the following definition of food literacy: Food literacy is what we do with food, and why we do it. Food literacy, just like conventional literacy, must be critical, allowing us to “read the world through food” (Sumner, 2015, p. 134). Food literacies are developed over time, are contextual, and are influenced by a variety of sociocultural factors. Further, this study found that participants’ sociocultural self-awareness is critical and well developed; it is a strength that needs to be drawn on when developing and delivering food literacy programming.