Search

The objective of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of 'crisis' in higher education through the analysis of a unique series of events involving a decisive change in the relationship between a university and the state. A descriptive case study approach is used to investigate the crisis in governance at Athabasca University, an open university located in Alberta, Canada. Factors leading to the crisis included the university leadership's decision to move forward with plans to become a near-virtual organization, concerns by local town that a loss of university employees in the region would be an economic catastrophe, and political opportunism on the part of the elected provincial leaders who decided to address the problems raised by the town and shift the mandate of the university. Drawing on institutional theory and the concept of institutional logics, the paper analyses the episodic nature of the crisis and explores both the nature of the conflict and its resolution.

The objective of this article is to determine if the work of full-time professors in Canada varies depending on the type of universities in which they are employed. A nonparametric comparison of multivariate samples based on data from the Academic Profession in the Knowledge Society (APIKS) survey was used to examine faculty perceptions of their academic work. The results show statistically significant, albeit minimal, differences between primarily undergraduate, comprehensive, and research-intensive institutions. This article confirms that, to a small extent, institutional diversity in Canada is mirrored in academic work, and argues that both vertical and horizontal forms of diversity may exist simultaneously depending on the relative value granted to specific academic activities.

The gender gap in academic research production has been demonstrated through various methods and geographical contexts. Previous research has yielded conflicting results concerning the effect of gender as a stand-alone variable on research production and primarily focused on other individual and organizational variables to explain this gap. We seek to clarify the influence of gender-related variables on academic research production, operationalized as journal article equivalents published three years prior to the survey. Using a stratified sample of 2,968 full-time Canadian university professors (49% men, 49% women; 30 to 89 years of age, M = 56, SD = 10.17) from the Academic Profession in the Knowledge Society survey, we analyzed the effect of 15 gender-related predictors on research production and measured the variance of research production explained by the combination of these predictors. Through multiple linear regressions, our findings indicate that gender as an isolated variable is a weak yet significant predictor ([beta] = 0.04; p < 0.05) of research production, and that a large proportion of variance (R[superscript 2] = 0.33) is explained by a combination of gender-related variables, such as collaborations, workload division and academic rank. Contrary to what has often been assumed, the gender gap in academic research production is not adequately understood through the effect of gender as a stand-alone variable and gains clarity when we use the 'multilevel approach to gender inequalities' conceptual framework, which enlightens the understanding of this phenomenon as a part of the intersection and reinforcement of individual, interactional, organizational, systemic, and cultural institutional factors.

Environmental interpretation can improve sustainability by mitigating the negative impacts of nature-based recreation. However, we do not fully understand the psychological factors that influence interpretation's efficacy in changing human behaviours. Specifically, the role of emotions has been understudied within environmental psychology and nature-based recreation. This study, therefore, provides further insight into the psychological processes driving proenvironmental behavioural intentions among overnight visitors attending personal interpretation programs in provincial parks in Alberta, Canada. In 2018 and 2019, we surveyed 763 attendees of personal interpretation events. We used latent variable structural regression modeling to test the hypothesized relationships between ecological worldview, attitudes, emotions, and proenvironmental behaviours. As predicted, there were positive relationships between worldviews, affective and cognitive attitudes, and emotions; these variables and knowledge gain were positively associated with pro-environmental behaviours. Findings suggest that interpretation should focus programming on the affective elements of communication, target personal meaning such as responsibility to act, and continue to transmit knowledge.

This paper presents the Canadian findings from the 2018 APIKS study focusing on the teaching-research nexus. The online, bilingual survey was administered to full-time professors at 64 provincially-funded universities in Canada between October 2017 and June 2018 (n=2968). Findings suggest the majority of full-time, tenure-steam professors prefer both teaching and research and are engaged in both throughout the academic year. These findings are considered in light of broader changes in Canadian higher education including enrolment expansion, the increasing valorization of research, the development of new categories of academic labour, and the growth in precarious contract employment.

This article is concerned with the differences in REB policy and application processes across Canada as they impact multi-jurisdictional, higher education research projects that collect data at universities themselves. Despite the guiding principles of the Tri-Council Policy Statement 2 (TCPS2) there is significant variation among the practices of Research Ethics Boards (REBs) at Canada's universities, particularly when they respond to requests from researchers outside their own institution. The data for this paper were gathered through a review of research ethics applications at 69 universities across Canada. The findings suggest REBs use a range of different application systems and require different revisions and types of oversight for researchers who are not employed at their institution. This paper recommends further harmonization between REBs across the country and national-level dialogue on TCPS2 interpretations.

In order to fulfill their missions, research universities must maintain conditions and capacity for knowledge production and dissemination, while responding to the expectations of governments, other stakeholders, and/or markets. That universities succeed in this quest is vital, not only for their own future as organizations but also for the benefit of current and future generations of students, stakeholders, and society at large. We sought to contribute to the understanding of how higher education institutions and systems rise to the challenge of achieving and sustaining relative institutional autonomy by conducting a comparative case study of the governance of six major universities in five provinces in Canada. This article presents our findings with respect to provincial oversight of the case universities. We found that the case universities appeared to be coming from and to remain at different points on a state supervision/autonomy continuum, but all appeared to be experiencing greater provincial supervision.

Under Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, children of parents whose first language is French are provided separate schools and promise the same educational opportunity for these schools as the English Language schools. Because the Francophone schools have been establish long after the common schools for all students in the Providence have been, the Counceil Scholaire Francophone (CSF), which is the governing body of the Francophone schools has had a struggle finding adequate school buildings. Many of the Francophone students are in either rental school facilities or school buildings that have been abandoned by the English Language schools because they were obsolete. The parents complain that because the students are in rental facilities, long range planning is not possible. Other complaints were that the schools were old and did not look attractive and were not large enough to fully implement the curriculum. These problems and concerns lead to the filing of a complaint that the students of French Language parents were being discriminated against by the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education employed an expert witness to examine the complaints of the parents to see if there was a valid claim that the complaints were related to educational outcomes of students. The expert witness found that none of the parental complaints were related to research indicating the complaints would influence student educational outcomes. The initial legal complaint was adjudicated in favor of the Francophone parents and was then appealed to the British Columbia Supreme Court by the Ministry of Education. The appeal has not been settled as yet, but there are serious questions raised by the suite regarding the equity of the Ministry of Education actions.

This article investigates whether the level of academics' societal engagement (ASE) is higher or lower at universities with leading research university (LRU) status compared with institutions at lower status levels within vertically stratified systems. In a theory-based purposeful sampling, we studied the correlation of LRU-status and ASE in Canada and Germany (intra-academic competition-based status model) and Kazakhstan and Russia (state-assigned status model). In Canada and Germany, universities have self-organized LRU-status groupings, such as the U15. In Kazakhstan and Russia, the National Universities' LRU-status was assigned by the state. In Russia and Germany, Excellence Initiatives blur status-assignation models. Survey data is provided by the cross-country study "Academic Profession in Knowledge Society (APIKS)". We find that techno-commercial ASE is only positively correlated with LRU-status in countries with state-assigned status groupings. Dissemination ASE is not correlated to LRU-status. Negative correlations between dissemination ASE and LRU-status are found in Canada. The results show that societal recognition (captured by industry, ministry, etc. grants) and LRU-status run in parallel in Russia and in Kazakhstan. In comparison with Russia, societal recognition is a distinct mechanism in Germany, which is not triggered by LRU-status. In Canada, ASE is mainly correlated with individual (status) determinants.

This paper proposes a rationale that supports a renewal of our predominantly 19th century curriculum for Grades 7-12, identified as Mathematics 1.0. It was originally established in the mid 1800s to prepare learners mostly from upper-class families to succeed in a post-industrial society. Today's digital revolution has changed society remarkably, and the variety of learners has certainly broadened, but Mathematics 1.0 fundamentally remains the same Plato-based (Platonist) curriculum due to its social-political power, which is documented in the article. The major changes to society's culture and the composition of learners have caused faults in Mathematics 1.0 (e.g., a relevance deficit). For the majority of learners, school mathematics has mostly become an obsolete, inequitable, and harmful rite-of-passage into adulthood, to varying degrees. A renewed curriculum, Mathematics 2.0, is rationalized and specific suggestions are offered. The minority of learners who successfully pursue mathematics to varying degrees would experience small changes in their new Mathematics 1.2.

Park managers use personal interpretation to achieve a variety of outcomes for park visitors and the natural environment. This project examines whether these outcomes are achieved, the factors influencing how the outcomes are achieved, and the overlap among these factors across the outcomes. Based on interviews with visitors in three Alberta provincial parks, respondents indicated clear positive changes in enjoyment and perceived learning, but provided less evidence towards changes in attitudes and behavioral intentions. Many factors overlapped across the outcomes. These results will help interpretation practitioners plan, deliver, and evaluate programs for achieving desired outcomes in an efficient manner.

Based on the classic distinction between semantic and episodic memory, people answer general-knowledge questions by querying their semantic memory. And yet, an appeal of trivia games is the variety of memory experiences they arouse--including the recollection of episodic details. We report the first in-depth exploration of the memory states that arise for recalled answers to general-knowledge questions. In 2 experiments, participants classified their answers as "learning memory" or "related memory" forms of recollection, as "feels familiar" or "just know" forms of nonrecollection, or as a "guess." A recollection state was reported for nearly half of the correct answers. Learning memory, related memory, and just know states showed similarly high accuracy and confidence--whereas the feels familiar state was much lower. The differences between familiarity and knowing highlight the importance of distinguishing these oft-conflated states. Our study establishes that episodic memory often contributes to retrieval of general-knowledge, and that the memory states arising during retrieval can be diagnostic of accuracy.

In order to meet the demands in a cost-effective manner of an emerging knowledge society that is global in scope, structural higher education policy changes have been introduced in many countries with a focus on systemic and programmatic diversity. There has been an ongoing debate about institutional diversity in Ontario higher education, especially within the university sector, for at least five decades. This paper will provide insight into issues of quality, accessibility, and funding through the lens of the current policy debate about institutional diversity by using document and policy analysis, and by drawing on a number of semi-structured interviews with senior university and system-level administrators.

Following the design of a similar study in 2000, the authors conducted a study of university senates (academic councils) to assess the current state of academic governance in Canada's universities. An earlier paper presented and analyzed the data that were gathered about senate size, composition, structure, legislative authority, and work, and about structural and governance changes to senates in the intervening decade. The current paper focuses on themes arising from responses to the 2012 survey's open-ended questions, highlighting key findings. Significant findings relate to a sizeable discrepancy between senate members' perceptions of the importance of effective academic oversight and their success at achieving this. Suggested reforms include: reviewing and improving senate performance; fostering a culture of trust and respect among and within governing bodies; clarifying spheres of authority and accountability; and promoting the importance of collegial governance and oversight within the institution.

Previous scholarly attention to the experiences of faculty members has emphasized the contexts of US institutions, with minimal attention to the experiences of faculty members at Canadian universities. This paper presents the findings of the Canadian component of an international survey that was administered in 19 different jurisdictions to understand the perceptions of faculty members about the nature and scope of changes to academic work. As such, the paper explores the perceptions on research and teaching of full-time faculty members affiliated with Canadian universities. Overall, faculty members revealed that Canadian universities have strong, engaging, and vibrant research and teaching environments, yet there are also areas for improvement. Specifically, findings showed that faculty members perceived considerable autonomy with respect to research activities, despite the increasing need to secure external funding for research. Also, faculty expressed substantial commitment to teaching undergraduate students but a lack of clarity about some issues related to graduate teaching. The survey results provide an important baseline for future studies of Canadian universities and the working conditions of the professoriate in a time of rapid institutional and professional change.

Over the last 15 years, the government of Ontario, Canada began seeking ways to deliver and expand higher education in a more cost effective and sustainable manner through the introduction of two major policy goals: greater institutional differentiation and the expansion of student pathways. This paper will attempt to determine the compatibility of these two policy goals through a review of the relevant literature to determine if the policies are aligned from an efficiency and effectiveness, and public policy perspective. It will also identify a number of policy levers used in Ontario that may affect the extent of diversity and student pathways through document analysis, to assess their compatibility by making a limited use of the field of organisational theory as a lens to place the policies into context. It will also examine the extent to which various institutional types in Ontario have been engaged in student mobility and will compare and contrast the various strategies used to satisfy these public policy goals through textual analysis to highlight current successful institutional strategies that can be used by other jurisdictions. It will conclude with some key observations that the authors feel are necessary for either policy goal to succeed.

Purpose and Methods: To compare the effects of a set of 12--30 min, maximal effort, constant load cycle bouts (HICT) to 12 short work: shorter rest (10 s: 5 s) interval sessions (INT) of similar duration and effort, performed on alternate days over 4 weeks, on performance and V?O[subscript 2] l.min[superscript -1]. INT sessions consisted of repeated cycles of 10 s work followed by 5 s of recovery for 30 min. Fourteen male athletes (83 kg ± 6, 24year ± 2) were randomly assigned to HICT (n=7) or INT (n=7) training. Pre- and post-power output (PO), V?O[subscript 2] and V?O[subscript 2peak], during 60s, 3 min, and ramp (RAMP) tests were collected. Results: Between group comparisons showed increased mean PO, pre- to post-INT training (p=0.026) over the last min of the 3-min test whereas PO post-HICT training declined. INT showed greater training effects on the 60 s test than HCIT (INT 506 ± 45 to 535 ± 55 W; p=0.002, Cd=0.57; HCIT 513 ± 78 to 548 ± 83 W; p=0.02, Cd=27). RAMP peak PO and V?O[subscript 2peak] increased within both groups (INT 341 ± 63 to 370 ± 48 W, p=0.002, Cd=0.52; HICT 332 ± 45 to 353 ± 44 W, p=0.006, Cd=0.53; 3.73 ± 0.68 to 4.06 ± 0.63 L·min[superscript -1], p=0.001, Cd=0.50; 3.75 ± 0.62 to 4.09 ± 0.52 L·min[superscript -1], p=0.002, Cd=0.59). Conclusion(s): These results show that utilizing this novel short work: shorter rest (10 s: 5 s) interval training paradigm will elicit better performances in moderate duration performances compared to continuous training of the same duration, effort, and frequency.

North American universities are encouraged to increase opportunities for undergraduate research experiences (UREs). To this end, many universities offer directed studies courses (DSCs) which are 1-2 semester long courses involving one-on-one instruction, with a focus on student-led independent research. Building on the understanding of dynamics generally related to UREs, this paper seeks to compare the motivations, benefits, and barriers specifically related to DSCs from student, instructor, and administrator perspectives. Based on a set of qualitative focus group discussions at a small undergraduate liberal arts institution, we present the similarities and differences in these perspectives and recommend a set of best practices for DSCs. All three groups reported motivations for engaging in a DSC that addressed working with a particular student or instructor, assistance with graduate school preparation, and meeting program requirements. In terms of perceived benefits of DSCs, both students and instructors indicated the mentoring relationship and practical outcomes arising from DSCs. Students recognized the benefits of developing research skills, but stressed the motivation and benefit of independent learning more than was found in other studies. Instructors focused on benefits of research engagement and relationship building. The major challenges to participating in DSCs were workload and time (all groups), unprepared students and lack of guidelines (instructors and administrators), and the oral presentation requirement and lack of information about DSCs (students). Based on these results, we suggest increased clarity in DSC expectations, consistent standards of quality, and promoting research processes common to the DSC's home discipline.

Context: The globalization of athletic training and therapy is advancing and professionals have more opportunities to transition to international working environments. Objective: To compare the American, Canadian, and Irish athletic training and therapy education, accreditation, and certification processes. Background: The Mutual Recognition Arrangement recognized the equivalency of athletic training and therapy in the United States, Canada, and Ireland, and thereby provides an avenue for nationally credentialed professionals to obtain equivalent credentials in one of the aforementioned countries. Synthesis: As a comparison, this article demonstrated that there was a commonality among countries, but also highlighted the unique jurisdictional differences that our members should be aware of should they want to transition to partner countries. Results: We performed a comparative analysis of the education, accreditation, and certification processes among the United States, Canada, and Ireland. Specific differences were noted among supervision methods, clinical education methods, and certification exams. All of these are grounded in the Mutual Recognition Agreement. Recommendation(s): We recommend that the Mutual Recognition Agreement be held as a basis for future partnerships with other countries. Conclusion(s): This article provided an overview and highlighted the similarities among academic education, domains, and content areas covered under the Mutual Recognition Agreement among athletic training and therapy programs in the United States, Canada, and Ireland. The education programs, accreditation procedures, and certification systems, although differing in structure, were consistent in delivering content that aligns with the Mutual Recognition Agreement.

Background: Understanding strategies for enhancing learning is central to developing effective teaching practices. Students' perceptions of these practices are critical for deepening this understanding. Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate students' perceptions of a group journal activity (GJA) on learning enhancement and to present a model that illustrates the reflective-learning process of the GJA. Methodology/Approach: Three questionnaires (pre, post, and 2 months after) were distributed to 22 expedition participants in 2013 and 2015. Responses were analyzed to identify the learning benefits of the GJA, and grounded theory was used to develop the process model. Findings/Conclusions: A positive relationship exists between students' participating in the GJA and self-reported perception of learning. Students report the GJA as having similar benefits as traditional personal journal-writing with the added benefits of promoting learning from others' perspectives, enhancing understanding of others, promoting reflective communication skills, and providing a tangible record of experience which enables continued reflection and learning. A process model illustrates the recursive cycle of writing, sharing, and discovery that the GJA enables. Implications: This research presents the GJA as an uncommon form of journaling in outdoor education and demonstrates the GJA's potential for enhancing learning. The model outlines the effective use of the GJA.

Ontario higher education system has moved far and fast in the past decade. The early 1990s saw "modest modifications and structural stability." Since 1995, under a neo-liberal government in Ontario, major policy initiatives, with objectives not unlike those already at large in western Europe and most of the United States, have quickly followed one another. The author proposes an explanation of the timing and dynamics of the Ontario reforms, describing the driving forces behind reform.

This study examines the academic senate within the context of university governance in Canada. Data were obtained from a survey of university senate secretaries on senate structure, composition, and operation, and from a survey of senate members on their perceptions of the senate, their role as senate members, and the nature of their work. The study raises concerns over the effectiveness of the senate and suggests a need to review the senate and its role in contemporary university governance within the context of the current Canadian higher education environment. (Contains 2 tables and 4 endnotes.)

A multi-institutional study of five Canadian universities was undertaken to examine the impact of living in residence on students' first-year grade point averages (GPAs), retention to the second year, and graduation. While previous studies have linked living in residence to improved academic outcomes, most of the research has been based on American institutions, and many featured small sample sizes. Research within a Canadian context has been limited, signaling a need for meaningful data on the value that the residence experience provides. In this first-of-its-kind study, we explored the quantitative relationship between living in residence and the achievement of outcomes associated with postsecondary success, analyzing data from more than 146,000 university student records across five Canadian institutions. Linear and logistic regression analyses were used to model the impact of demographic variables such as age, gender, program of study, and fee status on academic outcomes. Results showed that living in residence in the first year of university had positive effects on retention to the second year and persistence to graduation, with benefits particularly pronounced for international students. The effect of living in residence on students' GPAs was found to be inconclusive, with a very small positive effect for international students. [Discussion questions developed by Denise Davidson, Courtney Enderline, Paige Friesema, and Amanda McIntyre.]

In current literature on Canadian higher education, the nature of the perceived crisis varies, but the conclusion remains that the system is close to disaster. Those who write about Canadian higher education should be required to justify their conclusions, and those who read them should not blindly accept them. (MSE)

Journal writing is a common practice in outdoor education (OE) and there is a long-standing claim that OE programs enhance sense of community (SOC). However, there remains a call for additional evidence to support the relationship between participation in outdoor programs and SOC. This study examines students' perceptions of the role of a group journal activity (GJA)--an uncommon form of journaling--on the development of SOC during a wilderness educational expedition (WEE) and proposes group journal writing as an additional model of journaling on WEEs. To measure SOC, we used Chavis, Lee, and Acosta's (2008) Sense of Community Index version 2. Although the total SOC scale did not increase significantly, the two subscales, membership and shared emotional connection, increased as a result of participation in the WEE and remained stable over time. In addition, students perceived the GJA as contributing to the enhancement of SOC.

Culturally responsive or place-based school mathematics that focuses on Indigenous students has an established presence in the research literature. This culture-based innovation represents a historical shift from conventional approaches to mathematics education. Moreover, it has demonstratively advanced the academic achievement for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. Its success has exposed deep fault lines in conventional school mathematics. Many mathematics educators unknowingly embrace problematic, taken-for-granted notions about their school subject that inhibit student engagement and contribute to Indigenous students' low graduation rates. However, innovative researchers and teachers have adapted or developed culture-based teaching materials and strategies that significantly reduce the problems inherent in conventional school mathematics. As a result, these innovators' actions challenge standard curricula and instruction. These changes coincide with another profound transformation taking place in countries with Indigenous citizens. In response to having kidnapped Indigenous children and held them in residential schools in an attempt to rid them of their Indigenous self-identities, Canada's federal government apologized in 2008 and established a process of reconciliation (Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2016) for all Canadians. Accordingly, this article has two main goals: to (a) "illustrate" how critical analysis can help educators decide which taken-for-granted notions about school mathematics should continue to be embraced and which ones should be updated because they interfere with the engagement and achievement of most Indigenous students and a majority of non-Indigenous students and (b) identify concrete ways in which mathematics educators, researchers, and curriculum writers can help enhance school mathematics by drawing upon how mathematics is used in both mainstream and Indigenous cultures and in a way that simultaneously promotes both academic achievement and reconciliation. These goals lead to the following questions answered in this article: (1) What conventional taken-for-granted notions impede student achievement? (2) Which of these conventional notions continue to be held by many innovators who have enhanced school mathematics culturally? (3) Which innovative taken-for-granted notions improve student academic achievement? (4) Exactly how do researchers or teachers "see" school mathematics content "embedded" in an Indigenous artisan handwork or activity? (5) Which notions found in conventional school mathematics continue to serve students' interests? (6) How can mathematics curricula mitigate systemic racism and support reconciliation? (7) What specific actions can mathematics teachers, researchers, teacher educators, and curriculum writers take to regenerate what is essentially a Victorian-era, 19th-century elitist curriculum (for Grades 5 and higher) to a 21st-century curriculum in harmony with today's realities? The article advances a pluralist mathematics perspective that makes explicit the cultural nature of school mathematics within an Indigenous cross-cultural framework of respect and collaboration. Mathematics' cultural nature becomes both a context of instruction and content expressed in a curriculum.

To protect vulnerable populations during heat waves, public health agencies recommend maintaining indoor air temperature below ∼24–28 °C. While we recently demonstrated that maintaining indoor temperatures ≤26 °C mitigates the development of hyperthermia and cardiovascular strain in older adults, the cellular consequences of prolonged indoor heat stress are poorly understood. We therefore evaluated the cellular stress response in 16 adults (six females) aged 66–78 years during 8 h rest in ambient conditions simulating homes maintained at 22 °C (control) and 26 °C (indoor temperature upper limit proposed by health agencies), as well as non-air-conditioned domiciles during hot weather and heat waves (31 and 36 °C, respectively; all 45% relative humidity). Western blot analysis was used to assess changes in proteins associated with the cellular stress response (autophagy, apoptosis, acute inflammation, and heat shock proteins) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells harvested prior to and following exposure. Following 8 h exposure, no cellular stress response-related proteins differed significantly between the 26 and 22 °C conditions (all, P ≥ 0.056). By contrast, autophagy-related proteins were elevated following exposure to 31 °C (p62: 1.5-fold; P = 0.003) and 36 °C (LC3-II, LC3-II/I, p62; all ≥2.0-fold; P ≤ 0.002) compared to 22 °C. These responses were accompanied by elevations in apoptotic signaling in the 31 and 36 °C conditions (cleaved-caspase-3: 1.8-fold and 3.7-fold, respectively; P ≤ 0.002). Furthermore, HSP90 was significantly reduced in the 36 °C compared to 22 °C condition (0.7-fold; P = 0.014). Our findings show that older adults experience considerable cellular stress during prolonged exposure to elevated ambient temperatures and support recommendations to maintain indoor temperatures ≤26 °C to prevent physiological strain in heat-vulnerable persons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With climate change fueling more frequent and intense periods of hot weather, heat stress management programs are becoming increasingly important for protecting the health and safety of workers in the Canadian mining industry. While the inclusion of heat-mitigation measures such as those provided by the American College of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) Threshold Limit Values (TLVs) are commonly employed by industry, there is a need to develop more comprehensive industry-specific measures for heat stress prevention and management. To better understand current heat management practices and identify opportunities for improvement, an exploratory survey of 51 employees responsible for health and safety at underground mining (n = 35), and surface operations (n = 16) (e.g., open-pit mining, milling, smelting, and exploration site) was conducted in Canada. The respondents answered 50 questions related to workplace heat stress management, including descriptors of the workplace environment, perceived heat stress hazard, administration of heat stress management programming, heat stress emergency procedures, environmental monitoring strategies, and knowledge of mining-specific regulations related to heat stress. Twenty-four managers (47%) reported that heat-related illnesses led to restricted duty or lost time claims at their site, with a median of 5 [IQR: 2–10, max: 30] reportable heat-related illnesses occurring per site annually. Many also felt that heat-related illnesses are under-reported by their workforce (n = 36, 71%). Most sites reported established heat stress management programs to prevent heat illness (n = 43, 84%), typically based on the TLVs (n = 38, 75%). Although some organizations do conduct pre-task evaluations for heat stress (n = 30, 59%), more than half do not conduct post-job evaluations (n = 28, 55%) or pre-employment screening for heat stress vulnerability (n = 3, 6%). While our findings indicate that the health and safety managers recognize the hazard posed by heat and have stated practices to help address the hazard, we also observed inconsistencies in heat stress management programming across the sample. Developing and adopting a standard heat stress management and reporting system would be an important step toward protecting workers from existing and emerging threats from extreme heat and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: During the summer of 2021, a deadly, unprecedented multiday Heat Dome engulfed western Canada. As a result of this extreme heat event (EHE), emergency dispatchers received an unparalleled increase in incoming 911 calls for ambulance, police, and fire (as first responders) services to attend to hundreds of heat‐vulnerable community members succumbing to the heat. With 103 all‐time heat records broken during this EHE and indoor temperatures of nearly 40°C, the first responders attending these calls faced extensive job demands and highly challenging operating conditions. Initial investigations have explored the health system‐level impacts; however, little has been done to explore the impact on the first responders themselves. Therefore, this study aimed to improve our understanding of EHEs' impacts on the operational capabilities and health of first responders, specifically police, fire, ambulance, and dispatch services. Methods: A systematized review and content analysis of media articles published on the 2021 Heat Dome in Canada was conducted (n = 2909), and four media‐based composite narratives were developed highlighting police, fire, ambulance, and dispatch services. The Job Demands‐Resources (JD‐R) model was applied as a theoretical framework for occupational burnout. Results: The media‐based composite narratives highlighted that first responders faced record‐breaking call volumes, increased mental‐health‐related claims, and exhaustive heat‐related physiological stress. Using the JD‐R model as a theoretical framework for occupational burnout, we identified three measures of stressful job demand: work overload (e.g., the surge in call volume, firefighters responding to medical emergencies), emotional demands (e.g., severe medical emergencies, sudden deaths, unresponsive patients, distraught family members), and physical demands (e.g., resuscitation in personal protective equipment, heat‐related illness). Conclusion: The experiences described underscore the importance of supporting first responders during work in extreme heat conditions. These findings have important implications for addressing rising rates of burnout during and following public health crises, such as EHEs, a problem that is increasingly being recognized as a threat to the Canadian public healthcare system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates historical and current developments regarding governmental policies aimed at enhancing spatial equity (access) or decentralisation of higher education provision in three countries--Australia, Canada and Norway. We then shed light on the links or interrelations between policy objectives and initiatives and institutional diversity and regional development more broadly. We found evidence of convergence trends in Norway and Canada resulting in the rise of hybrid organisational forms, as well as the critical importance of policy frameworks in either maintaining or eroding the traditional binary divide. The cross-country data suggest a rather mixed or nuanced picture when it comes to regional development. Finally, the paper identifies a number of key challenges facing the systems, suggests possible ways of tackling them and sheds light on avenues for future research.

Context: A published commentary from 2 of the current authors acted as a catalyst for raising some key issues that have arisen in athletic therapy education in Canada over the years. Objective: The purpose of this article is to report on the process followed to establish a number of consensus statements related to postsecondary athletic therapy education in Canada. The consensus statements should act as a future plan for entry-level athletic therapy education. Design: Content validation for consensus statements. Setting: Video-conference meetings at 7 Canadian postsecondary colleges/universities. Patients or Other Participants: Canadian Athletic Therapists' Association (CATA) program directors and CATA leaders from education, certification, and program accreditation committees. Main Outcome Measure(s): A Delphi method and modified Ebel procedure were used to gather opinions from participants about athletic therapy education. Results: We created 10 consensus statements, with a series of caveats that are presented in this article. All components received at least 80% consensus from the expert validation group. Conclusions: The final Education Task Force Report was created and content was validated by a group of experts in the topics associated with every consensus statement. The final report was presented to the CATA Board of Directors for adoption and implementation.

Academic governance is an important dimension of institutional self-governance. This paper reports on the findings of a new study of university senates (academic councils) in Canadian universities in order to analyze changes in structure and in senate members' perceptions of the structure and role of senates over the last decade. Following the basic design of a similar study in 2000, this study reveals that there have been modest changes to the structure and organizational arrangements of many Canadian university senates over the last 10 years, including the rationalization and reform of the committee structures at many institutions. Findings of the study suggest the importance of senate orientation programming, the need for better oversight and assessment of academic quality, some confusion or ambiguity about the respective roles of board, senate and the administration, and continuing controversy about the proper role of the senate in strategic planning, financial, research, and fund-raising issues and activities.

BACKGROUND: Health agencies recommend that homes of heat-vulnerable occupants (e.g., older adults) be maintained below 24–28°C to prevent heat-related mortality and morbidity. However, there is limited experimental evidence to support these recommendations. OBJECTIVE: To aid in the development of evidence-based guidance on safe indoor temperatures for temperate continental climates, we evaluated surrogate physiological outcomes linked with heat-related mortality and morbidity in older adults during simulated indoor overheating METHODS: Sixteen older adults [six women; median age: 72 y, interquartile range (IQR): 70-73 y; body mass index: 24.6 (IQR: 22.1-27.0 kg/m²] from the Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, region (warm summer continental climate) completed four randomized, 8-h exposures to conditions experienced indoors during hot weather in continental climates (e.g., Ontario, Canada; 64 participant exposures). Ambient conditions simulated an air-conditioned environment (22°C; control), proposed indoor temperature upper limits (26°C), and temperatures experienced in homes without air-conditioning (31°C and 36°C). Core temperature (rectal) was monitored as the primary outcome; based on previous recommendations, between-condition differences >0.3C were considered clinically meaningful. RESULTS: Compared with 22°C, core temperature was elevated to a meaningful extent in 31°C [+0.7C; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.5, 0.8] and 36°C (+0.9C; 95% CI: 0.8, 1.1), but not 26°C (+0.2C, 95% CI: 0.0, 0.3). Increasing ambient temperatures were also associated with elevated heart rate and reduced arterial blood pressure and heart rate variability at rest, as well as progressive impairments in cardiac and blood pressure responses to standing from supine. DISCUSSION: Core temperature and cardiovascular strain were not appreciably altered following 8-h exposure to 26°C but increased progressively in conditions above this threshold. These data support proposals for the establishment of a 26°C indoor temperature upper limit for protecting vulnerable occupants residing in temperate continental climates from indoor overheating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the importance of higher education in social and economic development, governments need to build a strong higher education data and policy research infrastructure to support informed decision-making, provide policy advice, and offer a critical assessment of key trends and issues. The author discusses the decline of higher education policy research capacity in Canada and reviews the importance of strong national data systems in addressing issues of access and student mobility, and in understanding the implications of the increasing fragmentation of academic work. An international comparative study of national arrangements could illuminate useful strategies and approaches for strengthening this important policy research infrastructure.

This study examined participants' perceptions of learning, critical elements, and lasting impacts of their wilderness expeditions. Fifty-seven students, who completed a for-credit wilderness canoe expedition between 1993 and 2007 at the Augustana Campus, University of Alberta, participated in the investigation. Perceived learning most commonly related to nature and place appreciation, outdoor skills, group living, and self-awareness. Critical elements for learning were the experiential approach, group living, and nature and place immersion. In terms of lasting impacts of the expedition, perceived learning had changed since the expedition for 88% of students, especially in the areas of self-awareness, group living, and greater appreciation of the experience, due to reflection and the passage of time. Furthermore, the expedition had a lasting impact on students' personal and professional lives, especially related to life experience, nature appreciation, confidence, and skill development. The findings support the notion that wilderness educational expeditions can provide significant and long-lasting learning (uniquely in the area of nature and place appreciation). Finally, because of the nature of educational expeditions, they lend themselves to the implementation of sound experiential pedagogical practices that promote active, engaged, and relevant learning.

This article has two major objectives: to describe the structure of the student movement in Canada and the formal role of students in higher education governance, and to describe and analyze the "Maple Spring," the dramatic mobilization of students in opposition to proposed tuition fee increases in Quebec that eventually led to a provincial election and the fall of the government. Based on an analysis of documents, news reports, and a small number of interviews with student leaders, the article will analyze what became the largest student protest movement in Canadian history.

Historically, society has associated a visit from a child protection worker with the removal of children. In Canada in the 1960s, Aboriginal children were removed from their communities in alarming numbers and were referred to as the "sixties scoop." This may in part explain the difficulty in recruiting Aboriginal social workers into child welfare practice. This reality prompted the development of a post--bachelor degree certificate aimed at increasing the number of Aboriginal child welfare social workers in northern British Columbia. The results discussed in this article stem from three certificate cohorts and highlight the development of new partnerships and students' experiences. Two years following the completion of the third cohort, nearly 80% of the students recruited were still employed in the North.

Context and Background: Athletic therapy postsecondary education and certification requirements in Canada have reached considerable milestones throughout their history. The most important of these accomplishments was administration of the first Canadian Athletic Therapists' Association (CATA) certification examination in 1975. At that time, there were three basic exam eligibility requirements: (1) core curricular courses; (2) 1,800 practical hours; and (3) a valid first aid certificate. The only significant change to these certification requirements occurred in 1976, when the 1,800-hour internship requirement was reduced to 1,200 hours. However, a documented rationale for this change could not be determined. The noteworthy milestone occurred when the CATA approved a policy stating that, as of September 1999, all future athletic therapy candidates would have to be enrolled in a Canadian accredited program at a postsecondary institution. Although this policy significantly advanced the CATA's postsecondary academic/curricular requirements, the 1,200-hour internship requirement has remained unchanged for almost four decades. Objective: The purpose of this commentary is to stimulate discussion about the linkage between the practical-hour requirements and teaching, evaluating, and achieving clinical competence. Recommendations: Recommendations for change are based on lessons learned by other organizations for medical educators and allied health care professions, such as the National Athletic Trainers' Association. One suggestion for change is to hold students accountable for achieving a predetermined level of clinical competence before they move through or graduate from a program. In order to accomplish this goal, students must be assessed with valid and reliable evaluation tools. Conclusion: Therefore, it is important to establish a group of stakeholders who can identify issues and articulate a plan to guide the future of postsecondary athletic therapy education in Canada.

Academic work has become increasingly fragmented. The horizontal fragmentation of the profession into disciplinary tribes has been accompanied by the increasing participation of student affairs and educational development professionals located outside the academic units but are actively engaged in academic work, such as supporting teaching and student learning. An increasing vertical fragmentation of academic work has recently occurred within academic units with the increasing employment of contract university teachers and research assistants. In Canada, horizontal and vertical fragmentations have occurred while universities and strong faculty unions have protected the "traditional" tenure-stream professoriate. Drawing on recent research, the author argues that these Canadian full-time faculties have high levels of job satisfaction and are well-remunerated, productive scholars. Maintaining the status and the supportive working conditions of the full-time, tenure-stream professoriate has largely been accomplished through labor cost efficiencies created by the increasing use of part-time, contractual university teachers, now frequently represented by labor unions that are distinct from their full-time peers. This article discusses the challenges for academic governance and leadership associated with this increasing fragmentation of academic work in the context of the "global" university.

The production effect refers to a memory advantage for items studied aloud over items studied silently. Ozubko and MacLeod (2010) used a list-discrimination task to support a distinctiveness account of the production effect over a strength account. We report new findings in this task--including negative production effects--that better fit with an attributional account of this task. According to the attributional account, list judgments are influenced by recognition memory, knowledge of the composition of the 2 lists, and a bias to attribute non-recognized items to the 1st list. Using a recognition task to eliminate these attributional influences revealed production effects consistent with either a distinctiveness or strength account. In our discussion, we consider whether the absence of production effects on implicit-memory tests and in between-group designs provides unequivocal support for a distinctiveness account over a strength account. (Contains 3 tables and 1 footnote.)

This paper analyses junior academic staff's (assistant professors) perceptions of academic work in a highly decentralised Canadian "system". Drawing on recent work by the authors on Canadian university tenure processes and remuneration, the paper compares the perceptions of assistant professor respondents with senior (associate full professor) peers to the Canadian component of the Changing Academic Professions (CAP) survey. The analysis suggests that junior academic staff perceive the academic workplace as reasonably positive and supportive. In addition to relatively high levels of satisfaction, institutional support and remuneration, the findings suggest that there are minimal substantive differences in levels of work and work patterns between junior and more senior academic staff, a finding at odds with the general literature and common sentiment, which suggests junior staff work longer hours. The differences that do emerge appear to be more modest and nuanced than is popularly characterised.

This paper provides a reflective analysis of the evolution of higher education as a field of scholarship in Canada. The first professors of higher education in Canada were appointed in the mid-1960s and, by the early-1970s, a small higher-education research community had emerged, with the creation of a national association and a scholarly journal. Several universities developed graduate programs specializing in higher education but there was little growth in these programs in the 1970s and 1980s and there were relatively few full-time faculty associated with these programs. There has been a growth in higher education programs, faculty and activity since 2000, though the field has become increasingly fragmented with the growth of professionalization and global higher education research networks. Following a review of three major higher education research initiatives, the author concludes that a greater emphasis needs to be placed on research infrastructure, especially mechanisms for storing and sharing research reports and materials emerging from increasingly diverse research communities. (Contains 1 note.)