We are excited to announce the 2023-2024 recipients of the Ontario Graduate Scholarships, the SSHRC CGS Master’s Scholarships, and the SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarships.
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS)
Becca Evans- Agency, Responsibility, and Civic Engagement: Experiences of Air Cadets of Diverse Identities | Supervisor: Theodore Christou
Becca’s research is centered on a belief that community organizations offer unique and enriching opportunities for civic learning. In her doctoral work, she examines experiences in the air cadet program – a community organization for young people – across participants of diverse identities, in terms of Indigeneity, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. Meeting with participants in locations where they participated in the program spread across the Greater Toronto Area, Becca gathers participants’ stories of their time in air cadets and invites them to consider their present day conceptions of citizenship. Through her research, Becca builds a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of how participants experienced the program in relation to developing agency and responsibility. She showcases the different ways participants engage in civic life, highlighting their perceptions of how their experiences in air cadets shaped their understanding and enactment of citizenship in adulthood.
Jia Guo - Is Life Shaped by Young Learners’ English Tests | Supervisor: Liying Cheng
The uses of English tests to assess young learners’ language (YLL) proficiency has gained increasing popularity over the past two decades. My study will examine TOEFL Primary test-takers’ experiences, the consequences of TOEFL Primary tests on test-takers and their parents, and how parents perceive and use the tests as efforts to capture the two key stakeholders' voices in a parallel manner.
Daniel Jones - Game Explorers: How English Language Learners Learn Language and Literacies in a Tabletop Game Club Using the Pedagogy of Multiliteracies | Supervisor: Pamela Beach
My research examines how English Language Learners can learn language and literacy skills while taking part in an extracurricular tabletop game club. Participants will play games, analyze language, and complete hands-on participatory projects. The pedagogy of multiliteracies will guide club activities.
Ingrid DeVries - Extended reality for assessment of health care professionals: Is there a future? | Supervisor: Saad Chahine
Society expects health care professionals to be trained, adequately assessed and ready for practice, but current assessment approaches do not reflect the complex workplace environment. Assessments lack realism and authenticity, focusing instead on factual knowledge and procedural skills assessed by multiple choice tests. Virtual environments provide an opportunity for professional teams to safely practice complex and demanding tasks. The purpose of this study is to examine the viability of virtual-reality-based assessment for health care professionals who work in complex environments, and to understand how these technologies can be used in summative and formative assessments.
Sunaira Tejpar - I Am Who I Am: Examining how Students Understand their Exceptionalities. | Supervisor: Ian Matheson
While there is a wealth of research that explores how students with exceptionalities perceive themselves in general (e.g., self-acceptance; Willoughby & Evans, 2019), little is known about the way students with high incidence hidden exceptionalities (HIHE) generate an understanding of their exceptionality upon identification, and the impact this has on their learning. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine how students with HIHE understand their exceptionalities within the context of Ontario. More specifically, the goal is to better understand the breadth and depth of students’ knowledge of their exceptionality and supports they are receiving in school, as well as how they are learning about it.
Taylor Wormington - Teacher perceptions, interactions, and lessons: Understanding the ways teachers support children with autism in play-based kindergarten classrooms | Supervisor: Kristy Timmons
Brief description: Research on play has influenced the development of the kindergarten curriculum in Ontario and reinforced the effectiveness of play as a developmentally appropriate influence on academic and social learning. While educators are encouraged to construct learning opportunities through play and child-led learning, empirical evidence demonstrates that structured learning and explicit teaching provide measurable success for students with autism. This research examines how teachers are supporting the social and academic needs of children with autism in a play-based environment, as well as how their personal pedagogies and perceptions influence the ways they plan and facilitate learning through play.
Haley Clark - Constructing Disability: Understanding the Internalization of Status for Students with Learning Disabilities | Supervisor: Jordan Shurr
Haley’s research hopes to apply the critical disability studies perspective to examine how students (grades 4-6) internalize their disability within the classroom, what barriers exist for students with disabilities in the classroom when it comes to disability identification, and the ways in which educators can alleviate social and academic barriers for students with disabilities.
Yue Gu - Teachers’ and Chinese International Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Assessment in Canadian Higher Education | Supervisor: Saad Chahine
This study examines teachers' and Chinese international students' perceptions of classroom assessment at a Canadian university, which is vital due to the stark differences between Western and Chinese pedagogies. Considering the significant economic contribution of Chinese students to Canada, optimizing their educational experiences could enhance this impact. The research aims to contribute to teaching and assessment methods, fostering active student participation in developing assessment tools and potentially improving their academic outcomes and economic contributions.
Andrea Hill - Unlocking potential: Incarcerated women’s perceptions of gender-responsive programming in an Ontario prison | Supervisor: Alana Butler
Trauma-informed pedagogy is shown to improve educational attainment and is increasingly applied in various educational domains. Incarcerated women are underrepresented in research, despite experiencing higher rates of trauma and victimization. Canadian federal corrections offer gender-responsive programming that aims to be holistic, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive in some women’s programs, although these programs are limited to those with the highest need and exclude educational settings. My study seeks to explore incarcerated women’s perceptions of the gender-responsive programming in an Ontario prison, particularly in addressing their strengths and barriers, with the aim of informing its broader implementation in correctional education.
Francois-Daniel Portelance - Pre-service and Current French Immersion Teachers’ Identities and the French as a Second Language Shortage | Supervisors: Amanda Cooper and Michelle Searle
Building upon his master’s thesis examining French Immersion (FI)I teachers’ identities and beliefs about FI programs in Ontario, this research will examine Canadian K-12 pre-service FI teacher candidates and active FI teachers’ beliefs about FI programming, as well as perceptions of their personal and professional identities contextualized in FI. Through the identity triangle framework (Dugas, 2021), pre-service and practicing FI teachers’ identities will be explored in three domains: psychological, relational, and behavioural. Three research questions guide the inquiry: (1) How do pre-service FI teacher candidates and FI teachers understand the “Francophone” identity?; (2) In what ways do pre-service FI teacher candidates and FI teachers characterize their personal and professional identities?; and (3) How can recruitment and retention efforts be adjusted to better support pre-service FI teacher candidates and FI teachers?
Lydia Scholle-Cotton - Exploring Academic Honesty: Unraveling Cheating and the Impact of Generative AI, and the Efficacy of Anti-Cheating Policies in Higher Education | Supervisor: Saad Chahine
My primary research focuses on investigating academic honesty issues, encompassing aspects like cheating, the influence of advanced technologies such as Generative AI, and the efficacy of anti-cheating policies within higher education settings. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, I aim to better understand the complex dynamics in this context. This research will build off of my previous research, which explored faculty attitudes towards academic dishonesty through qualitative methods; I emphasize the importance of uncovering the nuanced "hows" and "whys" that shape these behaviours and policies.
Doctoral SSHRC (CGS-D)
Mohamed Yusuf - The Role of Mentorship on the Self-Esteem and Retention of Black Men in Graduate Studies | Supervisor: Alana Butler
Building of my master's research, I have decided to continue my pursuit of social justice education-based research, focusing on the success of Black students. My proposed research frames the historical and social impact of surveillance and labelling of deviance towards Black men; exploring how these social dialogues have fed into the prison industrial complex and taken Black men out of the educational system, and their greater communities. By continuing my focus on academic mentorship, I intend to investigate what academic/social benefits Black Male graduate students receive and build from such an intimate form of guidance.
Allie Minuk - Exploring teacher planning as a precursor to implementing individual education plans for students with autism | Supervisor: Jordan Shurr
Despite increased attention to the importance of implementing an individual education plan (IEP) with fidelity, student attainment of IEP outcomes is subject to substantial variation. While there is a large body of literature focused on the relationship between teachers’ IEP implementation and educational outcomes for students with autism spectrum disorder specifically, few studies have focused on teacher planning as part of this process. The purpose of this research, therefore, is to examine special education teacher planning as a precursor to implementing an IEP for students with autism. Findings from this study can identify areas of need in both pre- and in-service teacher training such that all teachers are prepared to support students with autism in schools.
Master's CGS M Holders
Magy Aziz - Learning From the Hyphen: Cultural Identity Development in Coptic-Canadian Individuals Living in the Diaspora | Supervisor: Thashika Pillay
Short description: Hyphenated Canadian individuals are ethnically and/or racially diverse individuals who have spent the majority of their lives in Canada. For hyphenated Canadian adolescents, identity development has a hidden layer of complexity associated with it as adolescents navigate their bi-cultural identity. The main goal of this study is to raise awareness for the experiences faced specifically by Coptic individuals living in the diaspora and to uncover proper supports that can be put in place to better equip hyphenated Canadian adolescents with their identity development process in Ontario schools.
Micah Flavin - Hope Swamp: An emotional curriculum for climate crisis education | Supervisor: Heather McGregor
This research will develop curricular and pedagogical approaches to help address the overwhelm, anxiety, and uncertainty caused by the climate crisis. The approach, called Hope Swamp, is rooted in the following questions: how might the end of some worlds mark the beginning of new ones? Which structures, logics, and practices can be left behind? Which should be preserved? What futures can be imagined instead (Taschereau Mamers, 2021)? The research builds on these questions by tracing different genealogies of hope. Then, through attitudes of play, poetry, collaboration, and imagination-as-lifeline, it outlines a desire-based strategy to help students envision agentic narratives about their planetary futures.
Tanya Joseph - Exploring the Knowledge, Understanding, and Preparedness to Teach Students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) by Preservice Teachers in Ontario | Supervisor: Derek Berg
This research project highlights preservice teachers’ knowledge of FASD and its effect on teacher self-efficacy to support students with FASD. Differences between teaching divisions, curriculum subject areas, and experiences are drawn upon to identify discrepancies. Gaps in knowledge can shine light on areas where change is needed in preparation of preservice teachers to support students with FASD.
Cheryl Lee Yow - Understanding the implementation decisions and current process of opting into the CWELCC system in Ontario for ECEC operators | Supervisor: Kristy Timmons
In response to the growing issue of childcare affordability, the significant shortage of registered early childhood educators (RECEs), and the lack of early learning childcare (ELCC) centre availability, the federal government has designed and begun implementing the Canada-Wide Early Learning & Child Care (CWELCC) system. This research study will investigate the implementation decisions and current process of opting into the CWELCC system in Ontario, and explore the experiences of early childhood education and care (ECEC) operators through the lens of affordability, accessibility, inclusivity, flexibility, and quality.
Tristan Lewis - The Queer Curriculum: Fostering Queer and Trans Joy in K-12 Schools | Supervisor: Lee Airton
This major research project seeks to move from a reactive anti-bullying and anti-homophobia/transphobia stance to including queer and trans students in schools, and seeks to proactively create inclusive spaces beyond GSAs that allows for and encourages queer joy.