Despite growing studies on Appreciative Inquiry (AI), rooted in positive psychology, its application in a research laboratory and its associated impact on students' mental health and well-being are underexplored. Thus, this study explores how a positive environment affects students' mental health and wellbeing. Interpretive descriptions guided the…

This report describes two integrated projects initiated by the 2020 3M National Teaching Fellowship Award (NTF) cohort on the concepts of educational leadership in Canadian universities and the role of authenticity among exemplary teachers. A thematic analysis of 3M NTF award-winning dossiers identified six prevalent traits characteristic of…

The outdoor domain has frequently been identified as one where women's skills and competences were undervalued compared with those of men. The aim of the study was to explore how men and women interact in the context of an educational wilderness expedition. The concepts of field, forms of capital and habitus of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu were…

There is growing support for the use of student-faculty partnerships within higher education. Successful partnerships capable of sustainable transformation require the presence of several underlying values held by both faculty and students. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in the perceptions of student-faculty partnership…

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of existing scholarship on the Indigenization of Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR). Providing a careful review of this literature contributes a missing map of this field of scholarship and shares key insights for scholars. This is a timely contribution. While the assessment of prior…

This qualitative phenomenological study describes the experiences of female students in a rural Alberta vocational training centre through semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate five key ways that instructors and institutions can approach instruction to maximize the opportunity for early and sustained student engagement: a sense of…

The field of recognition of prior learning (RPL) in Quebec continues to develop with the incorporation of distinct terminology and policies based on the reality of contemporary Quebec society. In an analysis of the thematic nature of the RPL literature, it became evident that certain recommendations and conclusions from past research continued to…

The 3M National Teaching Fellowship (3MNTF) is the highest award in teaching in Canada and was first awarded in 1986, yet to date there has been no research measuring its impact on individual winners and their institutions. As part of this project, two focus groups were conducted at the 3MNTF Retreat in Banff, with the 2012 cohort, 3M retreat…

Background: The effect of basic needs and motivational climate has been widely examined in recent years in the field of achievement motivation. Nevertheless, recent studies indicate the need to consider students' (with or without special needs) social goals (e.g. affiliation, recognition, status and responsibility goals) in order to achieve a…

The Institutional Teaching Culture Perception Survey (ITCPS) was used to investigate beliefs of tenured, tenure-track, and sessional faculty members (N=576) about the teaching culture within three large research-intensive universities in Canada. As predicted, we found significant differences between these three groups of faculty members'…

In a 2014 paper, Kenny, Watson, and Watton analyzed 13 Canadian universities offering graduate teaching certificate programs. This research used the Kenny et al. (2014) framework to provide an update, addressing the following research questions. First, has there since been an increase in the number of graduate teaching certificate programs at…

This paper focuses on the potential of competency assessment to support the long-term growth of the labour market by facilitating the appropriate employment of skilled immigrants. A competency-informed approach involves looking holistically at an individual's ability to apply knowledge and skills with appropriate judgment in a defined setting. The…

Few instructors in higher education have completed a formal teaching program and, therefore, rely on informal professional development opportunities to enhance their teaching practice. Micro-credentialing in the form of digital badges is one way in which instructors can document their non-credit learning and accomplishments. This mixed methods…

The aim of this paper is to challenge the discrepancy between candidate requirements in job postings for Indigenous scholars and their recognition in the tenure-track stream. For the purposes of this article, I conducted a scan of 11 academic positions for Indigenous scholars advertised in Canada from 2017 to 2019. One-hundred percent of the…

Studies show that the use of writing in the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) can discourage some adults, especially those without a diploma. For those who do proceed, how is the use of reading and writing experienced? Is it a lever or a barrier? This article presents results from a study conducted in Quebec based on semi-structured interviews…