Pendleton Jimenez, Karleen

It is through spending time outside that we develop the ecological literacy and caring attachments to the land that will lead to greater concern and responsibility for the more-than-human world. But intermediate students in the formal education system are taught almost exclusively indoors, especially in winter. If Canadian teachers remain mostly inside when it is cold, they forego many opportunities to connect their students with the land upon which they live and learn. The purpose of this research is to understand the ways intermediate teachers in the formal education system interact with the outdoors in winter during the school day, how they feel about these interactions, and what influences their decisions when it comes to outdoor learning in winter. Understanding the lived experiences of teachers is essential, as it is they who decide whether instruct indoors or out. In the hierarchical education system, teachers' voices are not always considered in policy making. Photovoice is an ideal methodology for this study because it brings the lived experiences of a group who do not have the authority to make policy changes, to those who do. This photovoice study gave eight intermediate teachers the opportunity to document experiences in their own lives, raise their own consciousness about outdoor learning, and to share their voices with policymakers through their photographic art. This study draws four main conclusions: a) teachers need to develop stronger personal relationships with the outdoors in winter; b) schools need to reconsider the traditional recess model as it is often a time of stress for teachers and students; c) the curriculum needs to expect outdoor learning in all seasons; and d) teachers' voices need to be heard in relation to outdoor learning initiatives in schools. The findings are significant because they can influence policymakers to improve outdoor learning in schools which, in turn, will help teachers and students develop more comfortable and caring relationships with the outdoors in winter.

Keywords: winter, outdoor education, environmental education, outdoor learning, photovoice, intermediate teachers, intermediate students, formal education system

Author Keywords: environmental education, formal education system, outdoor education, outdoor learning, winter

Games immerse players. Through immersion, players can see themselves embodied in their avatars. There is space for meaningful experimentation of gender through these avatars as embodied players can blur the lines between their real-life and virtual selves. The player's avatar becomes that person — in terms of personality, feelings, and gender identity/expression. In virtual reality, the player becomes a virtual actor in the world of the game, allowing the player to explore their avatar directly. Through various games, books, and anime, I demonstrate how players can find embodiment and how games can achieve a rigid sense of embodiment. Using an intersectional lens of cultural and gender studies, this paper aims to provide a framework for embodied gender exploration that future games can build upon. This framework is enacted through a look at embodiment and how the player is able to find an authentic self in the virtual world.

Author Keywords: Avatars, Embodiment, Embodiment studies, Gender euphoria, Video games, Virtual Reality

The purpose of this research is to highlight the limitations and opportunities for playful expression of gender identity in character creation systems of virtual worlds, and how these might work to reinforce, or disrupt, the heteronormative imperative. The primary sites considered in this analysis are the video game World of Warcraft and the live action role-playing game Amtgard. I provide evidence that while the World of Warcraft's character creation system is sexist and works to reinforce heteronormative ideology, Amtgard's relatively ambiguous design provides opportunity for disruption of these norms. Participant research with Amtgard players demonstrates actual instances of Amtgard's more flexible character creation system being utilized in expression and exploration of gender identity which resists the heteronormative imperative. Based on this, I call on game developers to reject designs which necessitate selection of gender from within the traditional binary and embrace more ambiguous design in development of character creation systems.

Author Keywords: Avatars, Game Design, Games, Gender, Identity, Virtual Worlds

This thesis is written in three parts and supported throughout by feminist critical pedagogical analysis and a narrative methodological approach. In Part I I lay a theoretical groundwork that weaves the Freirean roots of critical pedagogy with its more contemporary theories in application to K-12 schooling, and with feminist thinking, most notably Sara Ahmed whose work has moved me both as a human and a teacher. In Part II, I take a deep dive into autoethnography (Bochner, (2017), Ellis, 1999). In Part III, I offer a memoir of my experience as a classroom teacher over a nearly 20 year period. The story of my work as an activist elementary school teacher oscillates between phases of hope and despair around the potential for forwarding a broad range of social and ecological justice ends through teaching and learning in the Ontario public school system. Finally, in Part IV, I return to conceptual analysis to reflect on the key themes of my memoir including teacher burnout, teacher efficacy, teacher resilience, and the ways in which these interact with teacher learning communities, school cultures and the relationships that underpin the work of teachers and educators.

Author Keywords: Activist, Autoethnography, Critical Pedagogy, Resilience, Social-Change, Teaching

This is a story within a story that spans over a hundred years and four generations. It takes the reader from war-torn Russia during a famine to the urban streets of Toronto and then to the Canadian North. The story is a memoirette, or a 'not quite long enough, but almost a memoir' of a mother's journey navigating life after her son discloses his addiction to Fentanyl. The mother finds little if any support from family, friends or conventional support programs and instead turns to her oma's harrowing stories of survival as a source of knowledge, strength and medicine. The analysis explores storytelling as a legitimate method of learning, pedagogy and research. It explores the concept of story as medicine through Etuaptmumk. A Two-Eyed Seeing framework created by Mi'kmaq elders in 2004 (Sylliboy, Latimer, Marshall & McLeod, 2009). The power of the narrative is discussed through 'Western' and 'Indigenous' lenses.

Author Keywords: addiction, Etuaptmumk, Fentanyl, story as medicine, story as pedagogy, Two-Eyed Seeing

Canadian authored diverse LGBTQ2S children's picture books can help counter socialized aspects of heteronormativity and other forms of oppression. This thesis outlines the challenging process for identifying and locating Canadian authored diverse LGBTQ2S children's picture books, with suggestions provided for mitigating this process. Twenty-two books (list and summaries included) are collected and then analysed through three different lenses: Sipe's Semiotically Framed Theory of Text-pictured Relationships; intersectionality; and Canadian Studies. Findings include: the significance of a micro press in offering representation for queer intersectionality, the shift from the portrayal of discrimination against queer parents to an attention to the policing of children's gender identity and expression, and the embrace of the child on their own terms. In addition, a Canadian queer children's book has been created by the researcher, developed through the process of writing of this thesis.

Author Keywords: Canadian authors, Canadian identity, children's picture books, countering heteronormativity, ethnic diversity, LGBTQ2S

This dissertation examines the rise of teachers' union militancy in Ontario through a case study of the Federation of Women Teachers' Associations of Ontario (FWTAO) and the Ontario Public School Teachers' Federation (OPSTF) between 1970 and their amalgamation into the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) in 1998. It uses the archival records of the two unions, relevant legislation, media records, personal collections, and interviews to explore how these two professional organizations became politicized, militant labour unions able to engage with the state and the trustees of boards of education.

The Introduction situates the public education project within nation building in a capitalist-democracy and outlines the theoretical influences informing the dissertation. Chapter 1 follows the two unions during the 1970s as they developed into labour unions. The 18 December 1973 one-day, province-wide, political strike achieved the right to strike and established a unique labour regime for teachers. Chapter 2 examines the advance of the unions during the 1980s as they developed labour militancy. At the same time, neo-liberalism was ascending and the post-war social accord was coming to an end resulting in attacks on unions and cuts to social programs. How gender affected the elementary teachers' unions between 1970 and 1990 is developed in Chapter 3. The FWTAO campaigned for women's equality on a platform of liberal feminism while the OPSTF followed a unionist path in an effort to convince women teachers to join them. Chapter 4 scrutinizes the effect of neo-liberal ideology on education during the 1990-1995 Bob Rae NDP government and the impact the Social Contract had on teachers. The development of teacher resistance to the neo-liberal state is explored in Chapter 5. Alliances with other labour organizations during the Days of Action campaign culminated in a two-week, province-wide strike in the fall of 1997 against the Mike Harris Conservative government. The Conclusion brings together the findings of the dissertation and suggests future research exploring teacher union strength in the Canadian context.

Author Keywords: Federation of Women Teachers' Associations of Ontario; FWTAO, neoliberalism, Ontario Public School Teachers' Federation; OPSTF, teachers' strikes, teachers' unions, women's union

This dissertation explores a 2017 elementary school Hoop Dance project that was organized by a white music teacher, and taught by an Indigenous artist in Peterborough, Ontario. It aims to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action, numbers 10 and 63, which ask the federal government to sufficiently fund legislation that incorporates the following principles: "… developing culturally appropriate curricula" (p. 2), and "building student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect" (p. 7). The dissertation asks the question: In what ways will a seven-week Indigenous Hoop Dance Unit, taught by an Indigenous performing artist and facilitated by a white school teacher, contribute to reconciliation in an elementary school classroom in Ontario? I am the teacher in this study and have worked at this elementary school for five years. Throughout the project, I acted as facilitator, participant, and researcher, while Indigenous dancer and instructor Beany John planned and delivered the Hoop Dance content.

Theoretically, the dissertation is organized around the Anishinabek seven grandmother/grandfather teachings, as taught by Ojibwe/Odawa educator and author Pamela Toulouse (2011). I believe that these seven traditional teachings are a meaningful basis upon which to build the project, not only because they inform Indigenous knowledge in the arts, but also because frequent reflection and referral to the teachings help remind me to remain connected to the "higher" purpose of the research throughout the project, which is to further the reconciliation process in Canada, and more broadly, to benefit society. Regarding methodology, I use arts based research (Leavy, 2015) and a constructivist grounded theory analysis, which embraces the subjectivity and positionality of the researcher (Creswell, 2012). The overall conclusion of the dissertation is that although the Hoop Dance project did not significantly address issues of Indigenous sovereignty in education nor our shared inherited legacy of colonial harm, it was a constructive step in the reconciliation project, largely due to the contributions of Beany John, whose teaching gently unsettled conventional educational practice at our school.

Author Keywords: Arts Education, Hoop Dance, Indigenous Education, Indigenous Peoples, Settler Colonialism, Truth and Reconciliation

Drawing on pedagogies of care, queer pedagogy and Foucault's concept of biopower, this critical narrative study of six women teachers at an Ontario school uses interview data to explore how teaching affects women's bodies. Findings include the dominance of men in schools; the high rate of violence against teachers committed by students; participants' unwillingness to show bodily discomfort to students; and the profound effect of motherhood on teaching practice. I call on educators and school administrators to embed care of students' and teachers' bodies into the practices of schooling. I also propose that instead of erasing teacher corporeality from classrooms, we allow students to care for teachers' bodies as part of a healthy, reciprocal caring relationship, developing students' and sustaining teachers' capacity to care. Given the underrepresentation of women's voices speaking about violence against teachers, this thesis is also a repository for women's narrated stories of assault in Ontario schools.

Author Keywords: biopedagogies, body, care, narrative inquiry, pedagogy, teacher

Enhancing interpretive trails with smartphone technology may enrich the visitor's educational experience by stimulating deeper engagement and enjoyment that will improve immediate knowledge and help promote the development of environmental literacy. This connection between technology and environmental education can only be considered successful if enhanced enrichment and educational value is found in the integration. Currently there is a substantial gap in research on the incorporation of technology into an interpretive trail experience. For this study, information on the local fauna and flora was produced and linked to Quick Response Codes (QR codes) installed along an outdoor trail. The QR codes were designed to be read using the participant's personal smartphone. Immediately after completing the trail participants could volunteer to describe their smartphone-led experience through a self-administered cross-sectional questionnaire offered in hard copy at the study site. A non-experimental quantitative research methodology was employed to evaluate the survey data and determine the educational and enjoyment value of the experience. This research is of potential benefit to educators of science, technology and the environment. The research may also assist parks and recreation facilities wishing to offset the costs of building and maintaining traditional interpretive trails by eliminating the need for the printing of booklets, maps and signage.

Author Keywords: education, environment, interpretive trails, science, smartphone technology