Embracing the Race: How Black Women Principals Construct Their Professional Identities in Ontario Schools

Although developments in provincial and school-level policies have increased the number of Black leaders in Canadian K-12 schools, research on Black women leaders continues to be disproportionality underrepresented in education leadership and administration (ELA) research. Of the studies conducted on Black principals, the intersection of their race-and-gendered identity markers are not adequately addressed nor presented in most literature (Armstrong & Mitchell, 2017; Lomotey, 2019; Mponguse, 2010; Nickens & Washington, 2017), particularly in spaces where the study of principals’ professional identities is linked to achieving school reform initiatives. While the extant literature on school improvement acknowledges principals as key sources of knowledge, there remains a space in ELA literature for a deeper interrogation of Black women principals’ professional identities in a Canadian context. In response to this gap in the literature, the present qualitative study uses a narrative life history (life history) approach to examine how seven Black women principals construct their professional identities in Ontario school districts. Focusing on the historical, political, and sociocultural tensions that encompass the race-and-gendered identity of the Black woman, this study draws on the tenets of intersectionality as a conceptual framework for situating the narratives shared by participants. Findings from semi-structured interviews reveal that Black women obtain leadership positions based on contingent situations and context-related circumstances, that is, through shoulder-tapping or employment equity initiatives—where being at the right place at the right time affords them entrance into leadership. When finally in these roles, Black women must then construct their professional identities in racially contentious environments characterized by a lack of organizational supports, absence of mentorship, and limited career advancement opportunities. All while simultaneously being held to higher standards of practice than their counterparts. This dissertation offers novel strategies for re-examining professional standards outlined in the Ontario Leadership Framework (OLF; The Institute for Education Leadership, 2013), the deployment of school board mentorship programs, and principal recruitment processes. Given that school improvement initiatives identify principals as key agents for change, this study provides significant insights and contributions for leadership theorization, school leader preparation program development, and practitioners’ understanding of principal practices in Ontario’s K-12 public schools

Academic Motivation Dimensions and Achievement in University Students

Although there have been ongoing developments in academic motivational theories, a need remains to examine these across contextual domains. This thesis considered the contextual domain by focusing on three academic evaluation tasks: math tests, presentations, and essays. Self-report items based mainly on expectancy value theory were developed across three hypothetical evaluation tasks and administered to a sample of 421 university students. Using a multi-trait (i.e., expectancy, value, and effort), multi-task evaluation design, performance expectancy was found to have smaller correlations across tasks than did effort. Patterns of students’ reactions to instances of poor academic performance on tests or exams, and their causal attributions of failure were also investigated using latent profile analysis. Three profiles were found for causal attributions: exclusively-effort, mixed-disengaged, and mixed-engaged. Responses to failure identified three profiles: highly impacted, moderately impacted, and resilient. Relationships between the motivational constructs and final course grades are also presented and discussed

Soybean AROGENATE DEHYDRATASES (GmADTs): involvement in the cytosolic isoflavonoid metabolon or trans-organelle continuity?

Soybean (Glycine max) produces a class of phenylalanine (Phe) derived specialized metabolites, isoflavonoids. Isoflavonoids are unique to legumes and are involved in defense responses in planta, and they are also necessary for nodule formation with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Since Phe is a precursor of isoflavonoids, it stands to reason that the synthesis of Phe is coordinated with isoflavonoid production. Two putative AROGENATE DEHYDRATASE (ADT) isoforms were previously co-purified with the soybean isoflavonoid metabolon anchor ISOFLAVONE SYNTHASE2 (GmIFS2), however the GmADT family had not been characterized. Here, we present the identification of the nine member GmADT family. We determined that the GmADTs share sequences required for enzymatic activity and allosteric regulation with other characterized plant ADTs. Furthermore, the GmADTs are differentially expressed, and multiple members have dual substrate specificity, also acting as PREPHENATE DEHYDRATASES. All GmADT isoforms were detected in the stromules of chloroplasts, and they all interact with GmIFS2 in the cytosol. In addition, GmADT12A interacts with multiple other isoflavonoid metabolon members. These data substantiate the involvement of GmADT isoforms in the isoflavonoid metabolon

Quantifying the Effects of Climate on the Radial Growth Rates of Urban Trees in Toronto

Despite the importance of trees to urban ecosystem services and citizens’ well-being, they are an understudied aspect of modern ecology. Although some studies have been conducted in other countries, no urban dendroclimatological work has been conducted in Canada. I investigated the impact of climate on urban tree growth, focusing on Toronto. I collected cores from five tree species: red oak, European linden, sugar maple, Norway maple, and Austrian pine, from street and park locations. I found a difference in environmental stress by location and by species, with street trees exhibiting negative correlations between summer temperature and growth. Norway maple and sugar maple were found to be particularly stressed by summer temperatures, with increases in negative growth-climate correlations in recent years, while red oak and linden were found to be less stressed by climate. An analysis of growth figures found high annual growth rates for both red oak and linden, and low annual growth for Norway maple and Austrian pine. This suggests that certain species may experience decreased growth rates in the coming decades due to climate change. The findings emphasize the need for attention to urban tree management in the face of changing climates, providing insights for urban forestry planning and conservation

The Association between Traumatic Life Events, Strengths, and Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents with Mental Health Issues

Children with mental health problems have a significantly worse quality of life (QoL) compared to typically developing children or those with chronic medical conditions (Sawyer et al., 2002). Unfortunately, the literature examining specific factors associated with QoL in this vulnerable population is quite scarce. Studies have begun to investigate the relationships between traumatic events, strengths, and QoL (Cohrdes & Mauz, 2020; Lamoureux-Lamarche & Vasiliadis, 2017; Weber et al., 2016). However, research has yet to examine the impact of both interpersonal (e.g., child maltreatment) and non-interpersonal (e.g., natural disasters) types of trauma on QoL in children and youth with mental health issues. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, no study has explored the potential role strengths may play in buffering against the negative impact trauma often has on QoL, within this particular population. Finally, the majority of research has been conducted on overall QoL, with very little attention being paid to QoL at the subdomain level. Therefore, this dissertation aimed to close some of these gaps in the current literature. The first study examined how traumatic life events are associated with QoL. Results showed a strong association between interpersonal trauma and lower QoL, as well as a dose-response relationship between number of interpersonal traumatic events and QoL; specifically, individuals who experienced a greater number of traumatic events reported lower QoL. Furthermore, there was a weak association between experiencing non-interpersonal trauma and QoL. Supplemental analyses revealed additional significant associations between interpersonal trauma and certain subdomains of QoL. The second study examined how strengths are associated with QoL, and explored whether strengths influence the relationship between trauma and QoL. Results showed that among the various internal and relational strengths included in the study, having a consistent positive outlook was the strongest predictor of overall QoL. Supplemental analyses revealed additional significant associations between particular strengths and subdomains of QoL. Furthermore, strengths reduced the impact of interpersonal traumatic events on QoL, at the overall and domain-specific level. Potential explanations for these associations are discussed, and clinical implications as well as future directions are suggested

Supporting the Diverse Academic Needs of Students in an Ontario Independent School

This dissertation-in-practice delves into student success coaching at Parkview (pseudonym), noting gaps in support for diverse academic needs within the school’s strategic plan for a learner-driven ecosystem. Overwhelmed student success coaches struggle to aid all students, creating the need for change. The problem of practice is the lack of a comprehensive strategy at Parkview to support all students’ academic needs in a personalized learning environment. As such, this study aims to redefine roles, prioritize student needs, support inclusive classrooms, and shift mindsets toward strengths-based approaches for equitable academic success. This dissertation-in-practice utilizes a teacher instructional leadership approach from an ecological systems perspective as the leadership perspective that helps to frame the leadership vision for change. Parkview’s organizational structure is illustrated from a hierarchical perspective outlining the move to its current distributed leadership structure. Using the Organizational Change Readiness Belief questionnaire and Quinn’s competing values model, Parkview is assessed as moderately ready to change. Three solutions are proposed: a multi-tiered system of support, professional development, and collaborative planning, with collaborative planning emerging as the preferred solution. To help in implementing collaborative planning between teachers and student success coaches, a change implementation plan is created using Kotter’s eight-step model. It is then outlined how this plan will be communicated, monitored, and evaluated to all necessary parties so that it can be altered and adjusted to ensure that change is successful

Learning the pronunciation of English words from textual input: Should we listen first?

This study investigated factors influencing incidental English word pronunciation acquisition by upper-intermediate L2 learners through exposure to spoken discourse. Due to inconsistent English spelling-sound correspondences, silent reading is likely to leave learners with inaccurate pronunciations. This study explored whether these inaccuracies could be easily corrected through listening. Two sequences were compared: silent reading followed by listening and listening followed by silent reading. In a counterbalanced within-participant design, 50 upper-intermediate ESL learners at a research-intensive University in Ontario engaged with a text containing 16 target words. The text was divided into to parts. Participants either read a part silently, then aloud, followed by listening, or they listened first, then read silently and aloud. The sequence was reversed for the other part of the text. Post-tests assessed pronunciation improvements and interviews explored individual differences. The results indicated that a single audio exposure was insufficient for accurate pronunciation acquisition. Both the trial-and-error and retrieval approaches yielded comparable final outcomes. However, the Input-Output-Input sequence (listening, reading, and listening again) showed potential as a more effective teaching strategy, combining the benefits of both approaches to enhance learning outcomes

Osculating Curves

Consider a complex analytic curve $X$ in $\mathbb{C}^2$, along with a specific point $p \in X$. The primary concern arises in approximating geometrically the curve $X$ precisely at the point $p$. Analogously, in introductory calculus, students learn to compute the tangent line to the graph of a function $y=f(x)$ at a given point $p=(x_*,f(x_*))$ by utilizing the derivative of $f$ at $x_*$. For analytical convenience, we assume a local representation of the curve $X$ using a power series expansion. This representation centers the point $p$ at the origin $(0,0) \in \mathbb{C}^2$. Thus, our mathematical input becomes a Taylor series: $$f(x) = \sum_{i=1}^\infty c_ix^i \ .$$ Alternatively, one may conceptualize our input as a ``germ\u27\u27 or a ``jet\u27\u27 of sufficiently high order. This assumption of a local representation is grounded in the application of the implicit function theorem. The theorem, coupled with the specific nature of the questions posed, allows us to work with a localized description of $X$ that relies on only finitely many coefficients $\{c_i\}_{i=1}^\infty$. An alternative perspective on defining a plane curve involves considering it as the set of points where an implicit polynomial function $F(x,y) \in \mathbb{C}[x,y]$ equals zero. This set of points is termed a ``variety,\u27\u27 denoted as $\mathcal V(F(x,y)) = \{(x,y) \in \mathbb{C}^2 \mid F(x,y)=0\}$. Given a degree $d$ and a sequence $\textbf{c}=(c_1,c_2,\ldots)$ defining the power series expansion, our objective is to ascertain the ``best approximation\u27\u27 of the curve $\Gamma$ through a curve expressed as $\mathcal V(F(x,y))$, where $F(x,y)$ has a degree no greater than $d$. This specific curve is referred to as the ``degree $d$ osculating curve\u27\u27 of the Taylor series, or equivalently, the ``degree $d$ osculating curve\u27\u27 of $X$ at the point $p$