Canadian Academic Research Articles

Academic Attainment and Canadian Intercollegiate Athletics: Temporal Shifts

In this study the academic attainment of male and female intercollegiate athletes at a mid-sized Canadian university was examined for varying time periods in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. The academic performance of the athletes is compared, in each case, to a sample of non-athletes matched on year of first enrollment, academic program at first enrollment, and gender. On various measures the findings indicate that the student athletes performed increasingly well in comparison to their non-athlete counterparts from time period to time period. This pattern was more marked for females than males. In the 2000s, female athletes graduated successfully more often than female non-athletes and were more often enrolled in Honors programs. Female athletes consistently outperformed male athletes in all three time periods. We conclude by discussing the structure and culture of intercollegiate sport in Canada in order to broach the question of why the intercollegiate sport experience at this Canadian university has not hindered academic success. Comparisons with findings from American studies are ventured to offer a preliminary cross-cultural analysis of American/Canadian differences in intercollegiate sport culture.

A Longitudinal Analysis of Information Literacy Instruction in Canadian Academic Libraries

This paper reports a longitudinal study of information literacy instruction (ILI) in Canadian academic libraries, focusing on how instruction is organized, delivered, and evaluated. Results of the third national survey (1995, 2000, and 2005) of ILI are detailed. This research is intended to increase understanding of and to improve ILI.Cet article présente une étude longitudinale sur la formation en recherche d’information (FRI) dans les bibliothèques universitaires canadiennes et est axé sur la manière dont la formation est organisée, offerte et évaluée. Les résultats du troisième sondage national (1995, 2000, 2005) de la FRI sont présentés en détail. Cette recherche est destinée à améliorer la compréhension de la FRI dans le but de son amélioration.

Changing Technologies in Canadian Academic Library User Education

The traditional academic library is changing rapidly. The widespread use of electronic technologies has had a tremendous impact upon information retrieval within the library. As well, there is increasing awareness of the need to develop information literacy skills in graduates. This research was undertaken to determine how library user education in Canadian academic libraries. . .

Current status and scope of international electives in neurology training programs: A survey of U.S. and Canadian Academic Program Directors

Current status and scope of international electives in neurology training programs: A survey of U.S. and Canadian Academic Program Directors

Education par excellence: Developing personal competencies and character through philanthropy-based education

• This is the first description of a philanthropy-based project in accounting education. • Students make real decisions about funding that impacts the local community. • The Philanthropy Project focuses on developing AICPA personal competencies. • Community engagement develops collaboration, critical thinking, and character. • Guidelines and templates are provided to support the implementation of the project. This teaching note presents an innovation in accounting education called the Philanthropy Project . 2 The Philanthropy Project won the 2011 Howard Theall Innovation in Accounting Education award from the Canadian Academic Accounting Association (CAAA). This project also received an honorable mention from the American Accounting Association for the 2009 Bea Sanders/AICPA Innovation in Accounting Education Award . 2 The Philanthropy Project emphasizes experiential learning and is designed to promote the learning of discipline-specific concepts while simultaneously addressing the social needs of the surrounding community. In the Philanthropy Project , students receive money to distribute to not-for-profit organizations (NFPs) based on a competitive proposal process they help to develop and administer. A distinguishing characteristic of this project is that it is not a simulation. Students make real decisions that have immediate consequences to certain groups of people in their own communities. They have to make difficult choices by allocating scarce resources to some agencies and saying “no” to other agencies, all with worthy causes. The philanthropy project was administered in two introductory financial accounting classes, one at University A (a regional public university) and one at University B (a comprehensive private university). At the conclusion of the project, students reported experiencing the benefits of collaboration, communication, conceptual learning, community engagement, and character development. In addition to learning typical for-profit accounting topics, students participating in the philanthropy project also learned about NFP financial statements and related economic measures. Given the specified not-for-profit context, this project could be relevant for governmental and not-for-profit accounting classes. A timeline of activities, grading rubric, and templates are provided to aid in the adoption of this project by other accounting educators.

Predicting and preventing postconcussive problems in paediatrics (5P) study: protocol for a prospective multicentre clinical prediction rule derivation study in children with concussion

IntroductionPersistent postconcussive symptoms (PCSs) is the persistence of somatic, cognitive, physical, psychological and/or behavioural changes lasting more than 1 month following concussion. Persistent concussion impacts the quality of life through...

Motivation and Test Anxiety in Test Performance Across Three Testing Contexts: The CAEL, CET, and GEPT

This study examined test‐takers' motivation, test anxiety, and test performance across a range of social and educational contexts in three high‐stakes language tests: the Canadian Academic English Language (CAEL) Assessment in Canada, the College English Test (CET) in the People's Republic of China, and the General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) in Taiwan. The researchers issued a questionnaire exploring motivation, test anxiety, and perceptions of test importance and purpose to test‐takers in each of the three contexts. A total of 1,281 valid questionnaire responses were obtained: 255 from CAEL, 493 from CET, and 533 from GEPT. Questionnaire responses were linked to each test‐taker's respective test performance. The results illustrate complex interrelationships of test‐takers' motivation and test anxiety in their test performance. Differences in motivation and test anxiety emerged with regard to social variables (i.e., test importance to stakeholders and test purposes). Further, motivation and test anxiety, along with personal variables (i.e., gender and age), were associated with test performance. Given that motivation and test anxiety have typically been examined separately and in relation to a single testing context, this study addresses an important research gap.

Management of chronic kidney disease and dialysis in homeless persons

End-stage renal disease and dialysis are complicated illnesses to manage in homeless persons, who often suffer medical comorbidities, psychiatric disease, cognitive impairment and addictions; descriptions of this population and management strategies are lacking. A retrospective review of dialysis patients who were homeless or unstably housed was undertaken at an urban academic Canadian center from 2001 to 2011. Electronic hospital records were analyzed for demographic, housing, medical, and psychiatric history, dialysis history, adherence to treatment, and outcomes. Two detailed cases of homeless patients with chronic kidney disease are presented. Eleven homeless dialysis patients with a mean age of 52.7±12.3 years, mostly men and mostly from minority groups were dialyzed for 41.1±29.2 months. Most resided permanently in shelters, eventually obtained fistula access, and were adherent to dialysis schedules. Patients were often nonadherent to pre-dialysis management, resulting in emergency starts. Many barriers to care for homeless persons with end-stage kidney disease and on dialysis are identified, and management strategies are highlighted. Adherence is optimized with shelter-based health care and intensive team-oriented case management.

By Librarians, For Librarians: Building a Strengths-Based Institute to Develop Librarians' Research Culture in Canadian Academic Libraries

In spite of the increase in formal and informal expectations for research by Canadian librarians, there have been few—if any—Canada-wide initiatives to help support librarians in meeting research expectations. Moreover, there have been few opportunities to address academic librarians' needs and Canadian librarian research culture in any systematic way, especially on a national scale. As a way of redressing these absences and filling this need, a four-day nation-wide institute was proposed and conducted in order to bring together Canadian librarians interested in developing their own research programs and working toward fostering a positive and productive research culture in Canadian academic libraries. This article describes the principles informing the institute's development and locates the institute's objectives within discussions of research culture, mentorship, and strengths-based approaches.

Abstract 132: The Canadian TIA Rule - A Decision Rule to Predict the Risk Of Stroke Within Seven Days In The Emergency Department

Background: Stroke prevention after TIA is dependent on rapid intervention in those at highest risk. Previous risk scores have not been prospectively developed and thus do not consider all relevant variables. The goal of this study was to derive a clinical score for TIA patients to identify those at high risk for stroke ≤ 7 days. Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study in 8 academic Canadian EDs. We enrolled consecutive adult ED patients diagnosed with a TIA. Standardized clinical variables were recorded by physicians on data forms prior to discharge/admission. Our primary outcome was stroke ≤ 7 days of TIA diagnosis. We derived a clinical score using logistic regression analysis. Results: We prospectively enrolled 3,903 patients including 85 patients with a subsequent stroke ≤ 7 days. From this cohort we derived the Canadian TIA Score . The Canadian TIA Score identifies patients at minimal risk of subsequent stroke ≤ 7 days (probability < 0.5%), low risk (0.5-2.5%), high risk (2.6-10.0%), and critical risk (>10.0%). This score contains 13 variables; 9 clincal: 1) initial TIA (in lifetime) 2) symptoms lasting ≥10 minutes, 3) already on an antiplatelet agent, 4) history of carotid stensosis, 5) history of gait disturbance, 6) unilateral weakness, 7) vertigo, 8) initial diastolic blood pressure ≥110 mmHg, 9) history or exam finding of dysarthria or aphasia; and four from investigations: 1) atrial fibrillation on electrocardiogram, 2) infarction on CT head, 3) platelets ≥400 x 10 9 /L, 4) glucose ≥15 mmol/L. Variables were assigned point values ranging from 4 to -3, and added, obtaining a score from -3 to 19. This model has good discrimination with a c-statistic of 0.77 (95%CI: 0.73-0.82). Importance: The Canadian TIA Score identifies the subsequent stroke risk at 7 days following a TIA. Following validation, the Canadian TIA Score will allow physicians to selectively expedite investigations/specialist assessment and allow for safe less urgent follow-up of patients at low risk. Appropriate intervention is contingent on appropriate risk assessment.

Going through the back door: Chronically ill academics’ experiences as ‘unexpected workers’

Framed around the notion that chronically ill academics are unexpected workers in an able-bodied work environment, we draw on 35 interviews with Canadian academics with multiple sclerosis (MS) to explore their experiences of seeking accommodation. This analysis draws on and extends Goffman's (1959, 1963) theoretical concepts of ‘frontstage’ and ‘backstage’ performances and ‘stigma’ to show that getting accommodation needs met is not a straightforward process for many academics with MS. We find that seeking accommodations is highly dependent on whether or not one has disclosed having MS to others, and what institutional supports exist to assist disabled faculty members. We draw on the metaphor of ‘going through the back door’ to make sense of this finding. This analysis advances understanding of how chronically ill employees within a particular organizational culture do (or do not) get their needs accommodated, thereby adding to knowledge on chronic illness and disability accommodation in the workplace. It also sheds new light onto how the backdoor metaphor can be applied to understanding lived experiences of disability and chronic illness.

Anatomy of a Journal: A Reflection on the Evolution of Academic Accounting in Canada 1984-2010

Journal-related studies have a long history in accounting. The focus of these studies spans a diverse set of topics ranging from journal quality, to publication by various groups, to study of types of research published, and to author affiliations. The purpose of our study is to examine one academic accounting journal to see how contributing author composition and editorial policies changed over time. Contemporary Accounting Research (CAR), the premier journal of the Canadian Academic Accounting Association (CAAA), is often ranked in the top 5 to 10 academic accounting journals. With a limited history beginning in 1984, CAR provides an opportunity to examine aspects of its published main articles (i.e., not discussions, book reviews, comments or editorials) and authors. Using the first 27 volumes, we examine author gender, home university at time of publication, number of authors per article, and diversity using surname origin of article authors. Using numbers, percentages and significance tests, we find female contributors, multiple co-authored articles, authors’ home universities outside North America and the appearance of diversity of contributors (measured by surname origin) all increase over the 27 volumes of CAR. Academics interested in the history of journals will find the results revealing since they speak to how authorship and participation by certain academic groups have changed over time.

Igniting Constructionist Imaginations: Social Constructionism’s Absence and Potential Contribution to Public Sociology

Why have social constructionists remained absent from debates over public sociology? I argue that constructionist scholarship would be particularly amenable to Michael Burawoy’s notion of ‘organic’ public sociology, given the ability of constructionist scholars to orient awareness contexts in order to help engender constructionist imaginations. This approach requires that constructionists take on a different view of the role of the analyst. I also discuss some of the problems Canadian academics have had engaging with the media in their efforts to engage in ‘traditional’ public sociology, as well as what a constructionist public sociology may look like practice. I conclude by addressing potential challenges to a constructionist public sociology within Canada, including reference to sociology’s disciplinary coherence and how we can approach—and what we mean by—‘publics’.

Canadian Academic Library Support for International Faculty: Library Experience and Information Needs of Chinese Visiting Scholars at the University of Western Ontario

International faculty constitute a relatively small proportion of the library user community in Canadian post-secondary institutions, but they are underserved when compared to other user groups on campus, particularly international students. The author obtained first hand information about Chinese visiting scholars at the University of Western Ontario, and in this paper she presents conclusions from her experience regarding the visiting scholars' use of libraries as well as some recommendations for serving international faculty. The author suggests that academic libraries carefully consider international faculty when planning relevant services for diverse user groups. Providing necessary and satisfying library services for this group of patrons is an excellent opportunity to better serve academic communities and to demonstrate that academic libraries are an important partner in supporting their university's international initiatives.

Reconfiguring the Academic Dance: A Critique of Faculty’s Responses to Administrative Practices in Canadian Universities

This article explores and critiques Canadian academics’ responses to new administrative practices in a variety of areas, including resource allocation, performance assessment and the regulation of academic work. The main argument is that, for the most part, faculty are responding to what administrative practices appear to be, rather than to what they do or accomplish institutionally. That is, academics are seeing and responding to these practices as isolated developments that interfere with or add to their work, rather than as reorganizers of social relations that fundamentally transform what academics do and are. As a result, their responses often serve to entrench and advance these practices’ harmful effects. This problem can be remedied by attending to how new administrative practices reconfigure institutional relations in ways that erode the academic mission, and by establishing new relations that better serve academics’—and the public’s—interests and needs. Drawing on the work of various academic and other activists, this article offers a broad range of possible strategies to achieve the latter goal. These include creating faculty-run “banks” to transform the allocation of institutional resources, producing new means and processes to assess—and support—academic performance, and establishing alternative policy-making bodies that operate outside of, and variously interrupt, traditional policy-making channels.

Priscilla L. Walton, Bruce Tucker, American Culture Transformed: Dialing 9/11

This slim book by two Canadian academics charts the cultural and intellectual transformations in the United States following 9/11, through a sampling of some of the significant heroes and icons created and embraced by the mainstream media during that period. While briefly examining the position of artists and thinkers, Priscilla Walton and Bruce Tucker are mostly interested in mass mediated events and mass cultural artifacts, and more precisely in the contradictory discourses generated around...

Beyond the “Gollygee” Stage; The Inspiration of Academics who Study Arctic Sovereignty

This research addresses a contention in some literature on sovereignty. Noted expert Franklyn Griffiths argues that a certain bias pervades more alarmist work on sovereignty. He argues that a southern, Victorian vision of inspires a significant group of academics.1 He calls this first and foremost perspective. Political scientist Andrea Charron picks up Griffiths' s view and argues, Many experts believe that claim of sovereignty over Archipelago is uniquely tied to country's sense of national pride and identity.2 She says that this view is not valid.3 It is clear that Griffiths and Charron, among others, do not believe many of Canada's top experts are objective in their analysis - a view I seek to evaluate in this article.In what follows, I seek to determine what inspires concern about Canada's legal sovereignty among Canadian academics. I address whether Arctic's place in Canadian culture provides inspiration in any way, or if there is a better explanation. I argue that none of legal sovereignty issues, Canadian culture, or even concern about climate change, completely inspire concerns about sovereignty; rather, concerns for Inuit livelihood fostered during visits to region inspire academics.In first section, I discuss background about sovereignty and review its divergent literature to situate my research question in debate. In second section, I answer my research question by probing inspirations and underlying biases of those academics who create literature on sovereignty. Toward this end, I interviewed 17 of Canada's top academics and five graduate students, a former minister of defence, and Honourable Bill Graham. Of 17 academics, I interviewed 10 who have created major academic works on sovereignty and security. I also interviewed seven non-security scholars who write about issues but not explicitly about sovereignty or security.In third section, I demonstrate that concerns for Inuit livelihood and engagement with region drive academic work on sovereignty. I analyze results of my interviews in context of work of geographer Cole Harris. I focus on academics because they strongly influence public discourse and government policy on Arctic.Before proceeding, three definitions are in order. First, where is Arctic? Some people uphold a strict distinction between the north and the while others use terms interchangeably. Since scholars in question do not provide a consistent definition of Arctic, I resist urge to do so. In interviews, my definition of the Arctic is definition used by my interviewee. Second, an academic in this paper is someone with a high level of education who publishes in scholarly publications consistently. Third, sovereignty in this paper specifically refers to challenges to Canada's legal control over Arctic.THE EXISTING LITERATURE ON ARCTIC SOVEREIGNTYCanadian sovereignty writers focus mainly on four security challenges to Canada's legal sovereignty in Arctic. As others detail,4 Canada faces at least four sovereignty challenges: delineation and delimitation of outer continental shelf; legal status of Northwest Passage; Canada's Beaufort Sea maritime boundaries, and; ownership of Hans Island.Although I group writers, this grouping does not suggest that writers agree about security implications of sovereignty challenges. There are three reasons for this. First, many writers agree is under threat, but disagree about nature of threat. Some argue that Canada must control Northwest Passage as internal waters because terrorists, illegal immigrants,5 and smugglers6 want to use passage to enter North America and threaten Canadian national and environmental security; meanwhile, some scholars7 argue that this idea is not valid. …

Tenure troubles and equity matters in Canadian academe

The focus of this article is the tenure review process in Canadian universities, a rigorous and high-stakes evaluation of junior academics that serves as a prime exemplar of ‘disciplining academics', our project's title. In-depth interviews in seven Ontario universities with 30 knowledgeable informants such as senior managers and faculty association personnel provide the data. Literature on tenure and the persistence of equity issues suggests that we might expect some concern on those grounds to be raised by participants, especially as the faculty complement slowly grows more ethnically diverse and more gender balanced. Although not usually raised without direct questions, some discourses around equity did appear in the interviews. We argue that apparently equal outcomes in the tenure review process may be obscuring differential experiences of evaluation that need further examination.

Writing History: A Professor’s Life (review)

Reviewed by: Writing History: A Professor’s Life Richard White Writing History: A Professor’s Life. Michael Bliss. Toronto: Dundurn, 2011. Pp. 432, $40.00 Jack Granatstein pronounces this book, in a short dust-jacket blurb, ‘the best memoir we have by a Canadian scholar,’ and that makes one ponder just how many others there are. Certainly in Canadian history the list is short, and this rarity alone makes the book a welcome contribution. But its value goes well beyond that. This is a well-crafted, candid, and highly engaging piece of work. And with Michael Bliss perhaps the only academic Canadian historian in recent years to be anything close to a public figure, not to mention something of an intellectual non-conformist, his view of his own life naturally has some relevance – and likely a market as well. ‘The highest praise for my books and articles was that they were sometimes hard to put down’ Bliss writes in his introduction” (12), and this book, it must be said, certainly is that. Like nearly all his work, it is a pleasure to read. The man has an exceptional knack for creating readable prose. And his skill serves a double purpose here, for not only does it move the author’s story along briskly and engagingly, it also places the author’s craft on vivid display. ‘I worked hard at trying to write well,’ Bliss asserts, and the book itself makes his point. Michael Bliss was born and raised in the small southwestern Ontario town of Kingsville in 1941, the child of a busy family doctor and his intelligent but rather disenchanted wife. Bliss’s childhood memories are of a not especially warm family life – ‘Flawed Family’ is the chapter title – but he was nurtured well enough; by late high school he was excelling at school and sports, and upon graduation in 1958 he won a scholarship to enter the University of Toronto’s Honours program in Math, Physics, and Chemistry. After some false starts he ended up in Philosophy and History, from which he graduated, by no means atop his class. He immediately secured a high-school teaching job, largely in order to marry his longstanding Kingsville-area girlfriend – having not yet been liberated from the convention that a young man must be [End Page 490] a provider before becoming a husband. These early chapters, of a world bridging the austerity of the interwar and the liberality and affluence of the postwar, are themselves a moving and revealing childhood memoir. A deepening interest in history led to a decision, after a few years of teaching, to return to University of Toronto for graduate studies, and he elected to specialize in Canadian history under the supervision of Ramsay Cook, a ‘short, fiery, but friendly red-headed historian from Manitoba’ (109). At this point young Mike Bliss begins to excel. He was given permission to complete his PhD examinations early, was invited to spend a year at Harvard as a teaching assistant to University of Toronto president Claude Bissell, who was about to serve as Harvard’s inaugural visiting professor of Canadian Studies, and with his thesis barely begun he heard via the grapevine of an offer, quite real as it turned out, to become the University of Toronto’s next professor of Canadian history (114, 119). So begins the professor’s life, the details of which comprise the final two-thirds of the book. It is a life bound to interest Canadian historians, for Bliss tells his story freely, revealing details probably unknown to anyone outside his personal circle. We learn of his editorial involvement in projects like the Social History of Canada series and Canada’s Illustrated Heritage, of how his own books – like A Canadian Millionaire, which won the Macdonald Prize, and The Discovery of Insulin, which he thinks should have – were conceived, researched, and written. He tells of his magazine journalism, his evolution into a media pundit, prompted largely by his passionate opposition to Meech Lake, of how and why he came to have certain views, and of his experiences crossing paths with various colleagues and public figures. Though he does not dwell on his own style and...

Counselling vs. clinical: A comparison of psychology doctoral programs in Canada.

Individuals trained in counselling psychology and clinical psychology dominate the landscape of applied, professional Canadian psychology, yet there is little consistency in understanding the similarities and differences between these two specializations. Although much research has been conducted on this topic in the United States, not all of these results generalize to Canada due to distinct characteristics in the development of the specializations within each country. The current study used a 32-page coding instrument that addressed over 300 variables to compare all CPA and/or ???-accredited PhD programs in counselling psychology (n = 4) and clinical psychology (n = 22) at the time of data collection, primarily using publically available information (e.g., Web sites, program handbooks, student manuals). Data analysis centred on parameter and inferential tests of difference and their magnitudes of effect. Results showed a large number of similarities but also many differences between the two specializations in Canada. Students seeking guidance on which of the two specializations better fits their academic/ professional goals can use this information to assist with career decision-making. Keywords: counselling psychology, clinical psychology Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) sections that include members heavily invested in direct service delivery to the public are amongst the largest sections: Clinical Psychology (n = 977), Criminal Justice (n = 401), Counselling Psychology (n = 358), Psychologists in Education (n = 323), and IndustrialOrganisational Psychology (n = 295; CPA, 2010). Upon making the reasonable assumption that a notable proportion of individuals who belong to the Criminal Justice Section are trained in either clinical or counselling psychology, it seems that those trained in counselling and clinical psychology dominate the landscape of Canadian applied professional psychology. Historically, applied professional psychology training in Canada did not emphasise professional specializations; instead, training was broad and generalist - typically including clinical, counselling, industrialorganizational, and school components (Conway, 1984). Today, however, applied professional psychology has branched into a number of distinct fields, although the ways in which clinical psychology and counselling psychology are similar and are different have not been consensually established. There seems be more widespread awareness about the characteristics of clinical psychology compared to counselling psychology, perhaps partly owing to the fact that the CPA endorsed an official definition of clinical psychology in 1993 (Vallis & Howes, 1996) but not of counselling psychology until 2010 (Bedi et al., 2011). This is despite the fact that the CPA section on clinical psychology was established in 1991 (J. Conway, CPA Archivist and Historian, personal communication, May 14, 201 1), five years after the formation of the counselling psychology section. Another reason the characteristics of clinical psychology are more widely recognized might be because literature on the history of psychology in Canada has, for obvious reasons, focused on general departments of psychology. The development of certain branches of psychology (e.g., counselling psychology, educational psychology, school psychology) that are typically located in different university faculties (and in specialized psychology or even nonpsychology departments) is less documented in academic Canadian psychology literature. As a result, there seems to be ample misunderstanding amongst the general public, students seeking graduate study, academics, and even psychology professionals in regards to the similarities and differences between counselling psychology and clinical psychology. Although researchers in the United States have paid considerable research attention to this issue (e.g., Brems & Johnson, 1997; Fitzgerald & Osipow, 1986; Neimeyer, Rice, & Keilin, 2009; Norcross, Sayette, Mayne, Karg, & Turkson, 1998), scholars in Canada have not, and there remains little published literature (and no comprehensive, empirical research) on the similarities and differences between these specialties in Canada (although please see Arthur, 1971). …