Browsing by Author "Carlson Berg, Laurie"

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Open Access
Becoming Deaf in the Posthuman Era: Posthumanism, Arts-Based Research and Deaf Education
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2018-12) Weber, Joanne Catherine; Pirbhai-Illich, Fatima; Hart, Paul; Carlson Berg, Laurie; Hampton, Mary; Hickey-Moody, Anna
In this dissertation, I explore posthumanism as a possible paradigm shift for deaf education which is presently mired in binarized thinking concerning language choices. The ontologies, epistemologies, research methodologies and pedagogy associated with posthumanism propose a radical shift in thinking about what it means to educate deaf adolescents who struggle to acquire English as an additional language whom I teach in a small resource room program contained within a high school in a midwestern Canadian city. Posthumanist onto-epistemology proposes a shift from anthropocentrism to a posthumanism that emphasizes multiple and shifting relationships between animals, plants, humans, and the earth. Here, posthumanism proposes that human activity not be defined according to a binarized lens often used by many governing bodies, policy developers, medical specialists, and educators but include the material realities as expressed by animal, plant and mineral entities. Implications of the shift from anthropocentricism to posthumanism is explored within the context of deaf education where language choices (American Sign Language and spoken English) are presented as binary opposites to deaf children and youth, parents and educators. This text is rhizomatic in that it affords several points of entry at multiple levels, that is, the personal, the classroom where I teach deaf adolescents, the social and political arena, and the academy. This dissertation includes 1) a narrative inquiry into my becoming a posthumanist researcher where I grapple with my understanding of posthumanist onto-epistemology (Barad, 2007; Braidotti, 2005; Coole & Frost, 2010; Deleuze & Guattari, 1987; Haraway, 1991) and becoming a posthumanist teacherresearcher within the context of the classroom of deaf adolescents whom I teach, 2) application of posthumanist methodology in investigating the arts-based literacy interventions with deaf adolescents (Barrett & Bolt, 2013; Braidotti, 2013; Coole & Frost, 2010; Jackson & Mazzei, 2012; jagodzinski & Wallin, 2013; Koro-Ljungberg, 2016) and 3) the application of affective pedagogy shaped by posthumanist ontoepistemology (Hickey-Moody, 2009; 2013) to arts-based interventions with deaf adolescents. Findings from this rhizomatic exploration of posthumanism underscores recent anthropological discoveries of deaf anthropologists concerning deaf people and their learning, the relevance of translanguaging as an approach to language acquisition for deaf children and youth, and a paradigm shift toward the posthumanist deaf subject which affords a line of flight out of and away from the binarized choices concerning language acquisition in deaf children and youth.
Open Access
Informal Learning Through Participation in Fransaskois Community-Based Governance
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2013-02) De Pauw, Valerie Catherine; Miller, Marilyn; Fulton, Carol; Mulholland, Valerie; Carlson Berg, Laurie
This research is a study of deputies’ informal learning content and processes and how they see their learning applied to the benefit of the Fransaskois (French-speakers from Saskatchewan) community. Participants were volunteer deputies in the Assemblée Communautaire Fransaskoise (ACF), a francophone community-based governance organization in Saskatchewan. In the ACF, community members are elected to serve as “deputies”, representatives who make decisions regarding initiatives and allocation of funds. Interviews with eight deputies were conducted using semi-structured interviews and resulting data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Participation in the ACF resulted in informal learning on the job or ‘sur le tas’. Deputies learned to define their multiple roles and negotiate the system. In this way, they were able to become better decision-makers and increase the Fransaskois community’s political capital.
Open Access
LA DIMENSION LANGAGIÈRE DANS L’ENSEIGNEMENT ET L’APPRENTISSAGE DES MATHÉMATIQUES : UNE ÉTUDE EXPLORATOIRE
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2013-10) St. Cyr-Power, Claire; Carlson Berg, Laurie; Brogden, Lace; Rheault, Sylvain; Sadaoui-Mouhoub, Samira
Le but de cette étude est d’explorer les résultats de l’incorporation d’une variété de stratégies promouvant la communication orale et écrite dans l’enseignement et l’apprentissage des mathématiques. Les stratégies utilisées proviennent de l’outil PRIME Professional Resources and Instruction for Mathematics Educators (version française) et de la littérature portant sur la communication dans l’enseignement et l’apprentissage des mathématiques. L’étude, menée en situation langue minoritaire (SLM), est guidée par les trois questions suivantes : 1) Quels sont les effets d’un enseignement des mathématiques suivant les stratégies communicatives suggérées par l’outil PRIME, ainsi que celles d’autres experts, sur la communication orale et écrite des élèves? 2) Quels sont les effets de cet enseignement sur l’attitude, la confiance et la perception des élèves envers les mathématiques? 3) Quels sont les défis de la mise en pratique de ces stratégies? Cette étude de méthodologie mixte emploie à la fois l’étude de cas et la recherche-action. Elle cherche à explorer le développement d’habiletés et de concepts mathématiques à travers le développement d’habiletés de communication des démarches et du raisonnement mathématique chez un groupe de 11 élèves de la 7e année d’une école francophone en milieu minoritaire. Les données, recueillies pendant 13 semaines, proviennent des sources suivantes : d’entrevues individuelles, de questionnaires et d’évaluations diagnostiques complétées avant et après une période de temps d’enseignement, d’un journal de bord tenu par la chercheure tout au long de l’étude et du journal de bord de chacun des élèves participant à l’étude. Cette variété de données permet de bien documenter le processus suivi et les résultats obtenus. Les résultats de l’étude démontrent les bénéfices de l’utilisation de certaines stratégies promouvant la communication orale et écrite dans l’enseignement et l’apprentissage des mathématiques tout en mettant en lumière certains défis qui peuvent accompagner l’application de ces stratégies. Parmi les stratégies utilisées, on retrouve la discussion mathématique, la modélisation, l’emploi de modèles et d’exemples, une atmosphère sécurisante, le respect, le partage, le travail en petits groupes et les attentes clairement expliquées. On y retrouve également plusieurs recommandations pour faciliter la promotion d’une approche communicative dans l’enseignement et l’apprentissage des mathématiques en situation langue minoritaire (SLM) y compris l’intégration des matières. De la recherche supplémentaire, de plus longue durée, serait utile pour approfondir davantage les effets de l’utilisation de telles stratégies sur les habiletés communicatives et la compréhension des concepts mathématiques.
Open Access
Reflections on a Collaborative Project between Elementary Students from an International School and Students from a Host Country
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2013-10) Sawchuk, Stephanie Lynn; Fulton, Carol; Maeers, Mhairi B.; Lewis, Patrick; McNeil, Barbara; Carlson Berg, Laurie
This thesis is an autoethnographic self-study intended to create conversations amongst educators teaching in international schools overseas, and to possibly bring about change in the way we, as expatriate teachers, view service learning; in the way we attempt to incorporate the host culture, and in the way we promote intercultural literacy with young students. The participants in this study included 17 international school students, aged seven to nine, who collaborated with 25 local students of the same age, on five separate occasions to plan and implement environmental projects in the local community. While mainly project-based and experiential, responsible citizenship through environmental activism added the element of service learning. The service-learning component met the curricular standards of citizenship in social studies and the environment in science. Teaching the concept of responsible citizenship to young students who are not actually citizens of the country in which they are residing, is a complex task for an educator. Research on integrating the participation of students from the host culture with elementary students in an international school setting, is scant and therefore invites further research. This is the story of my journey as an expatriate living in a fascinating country, and my attempt to navigate through the implementation of this multi-faceted project. The study revealed the importance of authentic relationships and reflective practice as the most necessary components for this type of research project.
Open Access
Self-Storying to (De)Construct Compulsory Heterosexuality: A Feminist Poststructural Autoethnography of a Self-Wedding Ritual
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2016-11) Baldwin, Amanda Lyn; Carlson Berg, Laurie; Juschka, Darlene; Ji, Xia; Sterzuk, Andrea; Miller, Marilyn; Hampton, Mary; Dalley, Phyllis
Written from the perspective of a white-settler, obese, bisexual, middle class cisfemale graduate student in Canada, the wedding ritual and bride are explored as sites of ideal female/feminine formation of the subject. Compulsory heterosexuality is implicated. “Single” and “married,” like “woman,” are constituted in discourses. The author explores ways that she, as an unmarried and therefore “single” woman has been positioned as personally deficient as single-ness is produced as an illegitimate and undesirable position for female/feminine subjects to take up. This research uses an autoethnographic methodological frame augmented by feminist poststructural epistemology to open up, trouble, disrupt and interrupt the figuring of the bride in hopes of (re)signification and new practices of the female and feminine self for the writer. The writer privileges story in the forms of narrative, poetry, theatrical vignette and photography; theoretical literature provides context and a methodological framework and adds a supplemental layer of analysis. The story is told from various temporal positions including past, present, and future, blurring the idea of chronological age. Practices of self and the limits of agency and resistance to dominant discourses are explored. Many accounts of a feminist self-wedding are presented to illustrate the opportunities for resistance, disruption and deconstruction of sociohistoric subjects and discourse, in this case, the heterosexual bride.
Open Access
Shifting Our Focus: Teacher Transformation Through Anti-Oppressive Education
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2013-06) Brown, Christopher Duncan; Carlson Berg, Laurie; Miller, Marilyn; Montgomery, Kenneth; Schick, Carol; Hampton, Mary; Madibbo, Amal
Shifting Our Focus: Teacher Transformation through Anti-oppressive Education is a case study of how students experienced a justice-oriented graduate course for educators, and how their experiences had the potential to be transformative. Perspectives of fourteen participants were collected through focus groups, interviews, journals, and participant observation and were analyzed thematically using the constant comparative method. The conceptual framework for the study included both transformative learning theory and anti-oppressive education theory. Factors that foster transformative learning and three theoretical dimensions of anti-oppressive education that were deemed crucial to anti-oppressive education (Inclusive, Critical and Poststructural dimensions) guided the analysis within a transformative learning theoretical framework that examined whether participants’ perspectives had changed and whether they had committed themselves to engaged activism. The results of the case study indicated that, as well as providing opportunities for dialogue and critical reflection, the quality of instruction, authenticity of the instructor, course content and process all had a substantive impact on the transformative potential of anti-oppressive education. As well, the Inclusive, Critical, and Poststructural dimensions of anti-oppressive education served different functions within anti-oppressive education. The inclusive dimension provided a familiarity to participants but, by itself, did not lead to disorienting dilemmas that could be transformative. The critical dimension, with its emphasis on critique, led to subjective reframing that was emotional and transformative for participants new to anti-oppressive education, and led to objective reframing. The poststructural dimension supported the perspective transformation of participants by providing a new lens through which to see inequity and a way to see their own social construction in equity in a way that was supportive. During a post-interview three months after the course ended, only one participant acknowledged completing their activism project. However, all participants new to anti-oppressive education were thinking differently and were moving towards activism. Those more experienced in antioppressive education, potentially because they had a perspective transformation at an earlier time, were engaged in activism.
Open Access
Sustaining Clinical Competency in Wide Open Spaces: A Communities of Practice Case Study of Rural School Psychologists
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2020-03) Barker, Conor William Brooks; Carlson Berg, Laurie; Thibeault, Joel; de Lugt, Jenn; Thompson, Scott; Wright, Kristi; Martin, Stephanie Lin
The practice of a rural school psychologist is challenging and can be fraught with aspects of isolation, role confusion, and burn out (Hargrove, 1986). In many rural communities, the only qualified mental health professional may be a school psychologist. Thus, rural school psychologists require particular and generalist skill sets to meet the diverse needs of their community. This reality is in contrast to dominant discourses within the broader field of psychology, which promote limited scopes of practice within defined areas of clinical competency. A collective case study of rural school psychologists from across Saskatchewan using a Communities of Practice (Wenger, 1998) conceptual framework was undertaken to determine: (1) the domain of rural school psychology (i.e., the specialty competencies of rural school psychologists); (2) the community of rural school psychologists (i.e., how skill and knowledge is shared); and (3) the practice of rural school psychology (i.e., challenges and opportunities in practice). The study introduces Thematic Delphi Analysis as a novel methodology in community-based research. Eight (8) rural psychologists from Saskatchewan participated in semi-structured interviews and subsequently participated in the analysis through three rounds of Delphi review. The results of this preliminary study have identified the Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, and Behaviours (KSABs) required of rural school psychologists, the ways in which rural psychologists engage in multiple communities to maintain their competency, and their ability to use creative practice when faced with limits of their competency so that they can support students, schools, families, and communities. This study acknowledges the unique role that rural school psychologists play within the field of psychology, with the challenge of working at the limits of their competency within a space of knowledgeability. Within this space, rural school psychologists engage with creative practice procedurally and ethically, allowing for the development of innovative practices. These innovations may inform the broader field of psychology. Implications for this study promote the practice of rural school psychology and include rural psychologist perspectives in present discussions of competency.
Open Access
University of Regina Community Authors 2014-2015
(University of Regina Library, 2015) Aluma, Ponziano; Blake, Raymond; Bowman, Donna; Carlson Berg, Laurie; DeCoste, D. Marcel; van Eijk, Jan; Elliott, Patricia W.; Hepting, Daryl H.; Garneau, David; Yeh, Clement; Hilabold, Jean R. (pen name: Jean Roberta); Hill, Gerald; Jeffery, Bonnie; Johnston, Susan; Battis, Jes; Lankauskas, Gediminas; MacDonald, Alex; Marchildon, Gregory P.; Anderson, Carl; Kubik, Wendee; McFadzean, Cassidy; McNeil, Barbara; Nolan, Kathleen T.; Önder, Nilgün; Petty, Sheila; Polster, Claire; Pridmore, Helen; Purdham, Medrie; Trussler, Michael; Qu, Amy; Ramsay, Christine; Rogers, Randal; Ratt, Solomon; Rheault, Sylvain; Stevens, Andrew; Szabados, Bela