Featured Faculty & Staff Research

"Brave spaces in nursing ethics education: Courage through pedagogy." Journal of Nursing Ethics, 0(0). 2023. 

Natalie Ford, Masters of Nursing, Registered Nurse, CCNE; Larissa Gomes, Masters of Nursing, Registered Nurse, CCNE, Dr. Stephen Brown, Ph.D. 

Research description: Given the critical need to create morally supportive learning spaces which support civil discourse in nursing ethics education, the authors investigated the use of intentional pedagogy which fosters authentic engagement and courage in the classroom using a brave space framework. Using an exploratory cross-sectional design, data was collected from a nursing healthcare ethics and law course which was using a collaborative assessment called the engagement self-assessment (ESA). The research explored the influence of the ESA in the classroom and alignment with and creation of brave spaces within the learning environment.

Impact of research on learners at RDP: Results support the use of engagement assessment tools which promote agency, diversity in engagement, and independence for learners in our nursing program. Using a brave space framework can help transform the fear of vulnerability in learning spaces into authentic learning with one another.

Impact of research on broader community: The use of brave spaces in nursing ethics education is a novel approach not yet published in the nursing ethics literature. Results of the study offer new insights into the transformative impact of using brave spaces to support vulnerability in learners and the creation of inclusive and morally supportive learning spaces in higher education.

Future and current uses: Brave learning spaces are now embedded into the healthcare ethics and law course in our nursing program and is being piloted in our nursing simulation program. Expanded uses of brave learning spaces continues to be explored to support graduates who can exemplify bravery and accountability.  

"Life Skill Needs of Occupational Therapy Assistant Students: Perceptions of Instructors, Preceptors, Graduates and Current Students." Journal of Occupational Therapy Education, 6(3). 2022.

Candi Raudebaugh, DSc (RHL), MSc (OT)

In this article, Red Deer Polytechnic Occupational and Physical Therapy Assistant Program instructor Candi Raudebaugh, along with her co-authors Marcia Finlayson and Kathleen Norman from Queen’s University and Sally Stewart from the University of British Columbia Okanagan describe their study of the life skill needs of occupational therapy assistant (OTA) students. Students in the second year of a 2-year therapy assistant diploma program, graduates, instructors, and preceptors participated in interviews or focus groups to discuss OTA students’ life skill needs. Common themes were identified: contributors to student success; impact of students’ life skills on clinical encounters; and life skills training needs. Findings suggest that OTA students with lower confidence or abilities in life skills may also have lower confidence and success in clinical encounters. Life skills training tailored to OTA students may help students develop foundational skills to enhance their confidence and competence in relevant life skill areas. 

"The Impact of a Virtual Doctoral Student Networking Group during COVID-19." Journal of Further and Higher Education, 46(0), 667–679. 2021.

Candi Raudebaugh, DSc (RHL), MSc (OT)

In this article, Red Deer Polytechnic Occupational and Physical Therapy Assistant Program instructor Candi Raudebaugh, along with her co-authors Jodi Webber, Stacey Hatch, Julie Petrin, Rhona Anderson, Ansha Nega, Karen Shannon, and Marcia Finlayson explore the value of a virtual doctoral networking group created to foster academic connection and peer learning during the COVID-19 global pandemic. They demonstrate that the benefits of the cohort model of learning can occur across programs and independent of the stage of progression in the programs, in a virtual context. These benefits open opportunities to new ways of supporting doctoral students in a post-pandemic environment.

Victorian Samplings Podcast Episode 4: Singing From the Margins. Crafting Communities.

Heather Marcovitch, PhD

In this podcast, Red Deer Polytechnic English faculty member Dr. Heather Marcovitch is part of a panel discussion about the hymns Victorians sang and the role of vocal music in the lives of marginalized individuals and groups. Dr. Marcovitch’s talk focuses on the Ethical Culture Society of New York, a secular humanist society, and the way its founder, Felix Adler, wove Talmudic knowledge into a popular hymn for the Society. These podcasts are part of the Crafting Communities project, a scholarly website about Victorian material culture and crafting.

“Open Education Lightning Talk: Open Education Practices in Introductory Psychology Courses.” 2021 University of Alberta Open Education Symposium.

Elena Antoniadis, PhD

In this presentation, Red Deer Polytechnic Psychology faculty member Dr. Elena Antoniadis describes the planning and implementation phases for the integration of Open Education Resources in online introductory psychology courses. A description of the faculty-generated instructional content and resources aligning with specified learning outcomes are also covered. The overarching goal of the project is to broaden access to education by lowering the cost of learning to students, all the while delivering a high-quality educational experience. If this year-long pilot is successful, the use of Open Educational Resources will be introduced into other introductory psychology courses within the institution.

 “An Exploration of Concept-Based Curriculum: A Qualitative Study”

Principal Investigator: Juliet Onabadejo, PhD, RN; Co-Investigators: Katherine Schepp, MN, RN; Carnelle "Raigne" Symes MN, RN CCNE; Kala Streibel, MN, RN CCSNE

Red Deer Polytechnic Nursing faculty members Dr. Juliet Onabadejo, Katherine Schepp, Carnelle "Raigne" Symes and Kala Streibel are exploring the overall impact of a new concept-based curriculum at the program level. The Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) program has recently implemented a concept-based curriculum which is a response to the issues of content-laden curricula to encourage effective student outcomes. The experiences of faculty, staff, administrators, and students are being explored to understand the impact of the curriculum change. A qualitative research method will enable the researchers to gain an understanding of how the faculty, staff, and students construct meaning within their context. This study will assist with knowledge generation and quality assurance while promoting the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research within the Collaborative BScN Program.  

Funding enables an undergraduate nursing student to participate as a paid research assistant, giving her a direct nursing education research experience with an opportunity to further develop a range of twenty-first century skills that will enhance her workplace readiness.

Award recipient: Dr. Choon-Lee Chai, School of Arts and Education

Project Summary:   This research aims to study international students’ experiences of “place” at Red Deer Polytechnic (RDP). Arriving in a new place, international students often experience feelings of unfamiliarity, displacement, and alienation. To overcome this sense of dislocation, they engage in activities such as placemaking and spatial homemaking to forge a sense of continuity and belonging. Their interactions with campus spaces shape their sense of RDP as a place, which has a unique socio-cultural and geographical makeup that presents specific learning opportunities and challenges to international students. Little is understood about how feelings of place disruption or identity dislocation might impact student learning and their lives. This research will fill the knowledge gap through international students' narratives of comfortable and uncomfortable places at RDP. International students are part of the Red Deer community, and the research findings will forge a better understanding of their presence, contributions, and challenges they face, as RDP and Red Deer venture to make Central Alberta a welcoming and inclusive place of destination for international migrants.

Award recipient: Dr. Jamie Prowse-Turner, School of Arts and Education

Project Summary: The perinatal period is one anticipated with joy. However, for many mothers, the experience can result in physical and emotional trauma. Although birth trauma is considered a subjective experience, the general conceptualization of the experience is complex. This research will aim to address how childhood trauma may make women more vulnerable to experiencing birth trauma, specific factors and unique characteristics of mothers related to their experience, and the outcomes of the interaction of these variables following birth. This research will fill a gap in the field and provide insights that may influence practitioners, policy makers, and the general public by promoting maternal mental health and well-being and, ultimately, contributing to healthier families.

Award recipient: Dr. Jones Adjei School of Arts and Education

Project summary: Corporal punishment involves the use of physical force such as spanking, hitting, or slapping by adult caretakers to correct, discipline, or control a child’s inappropriate behaviour. Variously referred to as “spanking”, “popping”, or “smacking”, this form of punishment is generally intended to cause physical pain but often perceived to not intentionally cause physical injure the child (Criss et al. 2021).

In this project, Dr. Adjei, with Student Research Assistants, will examine Canadian attitudes towards corporal punishment and assess alternative forms of child discipline other than corporal punishment among Central Albertan parents with children aged between 3 and 12 years old. The results of this study will support the development strategies for effective child safety advocacy efforts in partnership with local community agencies.

Award recipients: Dr. Juliet Onabadejo, School of Health and Wellness and Dr. Folajinmi Oluwasina, Donald School of Business, Science and Computing, and Jones Adjei, School of Arts and Education

Project summary: The study aims to examine racial discrimination's effect on Black Canadians' mental health and determine the underlying processes and elements that contribute to this impact.  By analyzing the unique experiences of Black Canadians, the research team will add to current literature on racial discrimination and mental health, with the ultimate objective of guiding policy and practice to improve mental health outcomes for Black Canadians and other marginalized populations.

Award recipients: Natalie Ford, Masters of Nursing, Registered Nurse, CCNE; Larissa Gomes, Masters of Nursing, Registered Nurse, CCNE, Dr. Stephen Brown, Ph.D.

Project summary: Given the critical need to create morally supportive learning spaces which support civil discourse in nursing ethics education, the authors investigated the use of intentional pedagogy which fosters authentic engagement and courage in the classroom using a brave space framework. Using an exploratory cross-sectional design, data was collected from a nursing healthcare ethics and law course which was using a collaborative assessment called the engagement self-assessment (ESA). The research explored the influence of the ESA in the classroom and alignment with and creation of brave spaces within the learning environment.

Impact of research on learners at RDP: Results support the use of engagement assessment tools which promote agency, diversity in engagement, and independence for learners in our nursing program. Using a brave space framework can help transform the fear of vulnerability in learning spaces into authentic learning with one another.

Impact of research on broader community: The use of brave spaces in nursing ethics education is a novel approach not yet published in the nursing ethics literature. Results of the study offer new insights into the transformative impact of using brave spaces to support vulnerability in learners and the creation of inclusive and morally supportive learning spaces in higher education.

Future and current uses: Brave learning spaces are now embedded into the healthcare ethics and law course in our nursing program and is being piloted in our nursing simulation program. Expanded uses of brave learning spaces continues to be explored to support graduates who can exemplify bravery and accountability. 

Award recipient: Dr. Laura Davis, School of Arts and Culture

Project summary: The project was an exploratory one where Laura set out to find out new knowledge and information about the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. Specifically, Laura wanted to find out the extent to which she impacts conservation and environmental initiatives—through her donations and hands-on involvement. This is an important project because public figures like Margaret Atwood have celebrity leverage by which they can do good for society. Where public figures choose to donate and how they become involved can lead—Laura would argue—to actual impact in terms of conservation initiatives No one, thus far, has measured the extent to which public figures or celebrities impact conservation through their publicity and involvement. Doing so will enable other organizations to target celebrity donors, increase public visibility, and enhance awareness about conservation initiatives. 

Award recipient: Dr. Anah-Jayne Samuelson, School of Arts and Culture

Project summary: This project examines and suggests alternatives to Canada’s past and present child welfare policies that disproportionally impact Indigenous children. According to a 2021 Statistics Canada census, 53.8% of children in foster care are Indigenous, and yet Indigenous children account for only 7.7% of the total child population in Canada (“Indigenous Populations”). Robertson’s novel investigates the consequences of this on Indigenous children’s cultural and familial identities. In the novel, Robertson demonstrates the transformative potential of child welfare if it functions under the goals of Indigenous resurgence, is led by Indigenous Peoples, and is rooted in the Cree concept of Wahoktowin: systems of kinship that are defined not solely by blood relations, but by actions and the shared obligations and responsibilities we have towards one another.

Considering alternatives to federal child welfare policies is especially timely and important as Canada’s Bill C-92, an act that came into effect in 2021 and empowers Indigenous communities to develop and execute their own laws and policies regarding child welfare, is currently in front of the Supreme Court. The province of Quebec challenged the bill, claiming that the federal government has overstepped its jurisdiction in dictating how child welfare could be administered by provincial governments—or, more specifically, not be administered by provincial governments, and by Indigenous communities instead. How the court rules will have major impacts not only on child welfare, but on how Indigenous laws are respected in future cases—the stakes remain high; social dreaming like Robertson’s remain imperative if Canada is to truly meet the calls for decolonization and reconciliation.

Book: The Archaeology of Greater Nicoya: Two Decades of Research in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, University Press of Colorado, 2021.

Dr. Larry Steinbrenner is the principal editor of and primary contributor to The Archaeology of Greater Nicoya, the first major collection of research papers on the archaeology of Pacific Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica to be published in more than twenty years. Dr. Steinbrenner wrote the introduction to this volume and contributed three chapters on the indigenous populations of Greater Nicoya, the radiocarbon-based chronology of the area, and decorated ceramic types. 

Journal Article: “Male Embodiment of a Female Witch Body, a Hypothesis,” Magic, Ritual, & Witchcraft 16 (2021): 64-83.

In the article, Dr. Wigelsworth reconciles two seemingly incompatible issues in the scholarship of early-modern witchcraft: the undeniable fact that men could be accused of witchcraft and the common belief that sixteenth-century demonologists conceived only of female witches. Through an exploration of texts and ideas, he illustrates the utility of considering “witch” as a concept distinct from the person categorized as a witch.  He suggests that the traits which characterized someone as a witch formed a theoretical witch body around them, the gender of which was always female. He supports this claim by employing an analogy from conceptions of royal power. The royal body, the invisible embodiment of sovereign authority, was always male. Just as the unseen body politic could transform a woman into a male ruler capable of acting in the role of king, the unseen witch body (the invisible personification of the concept of witch) could figuratively transform a Christian man into a female servant of Satan, able to act in the role of witch in their communities. Dr. Wigelsworth then explores how the adoption of sin caused a person’s soul to break its connection to God and for that person (male or female) to then acquire traits, which created around them the conceptual female body of the witch. 

Book Chapter: “Social Work Ethics and Child Welfare,” in Kufeldt, K., Fallon, B., & McKenzie, B., (Eds.), Protecting Children: Theoretical and Practical Aspects, Canadian Scholars Press, 2021.

The chapter starts with a broad overview of social work ethics, and centres much of the rest of the chapter on current research on the challenges and supports available for ethical and competent child welfare practice in Canada. In a continuing quest to uphold the “nothing about us without us” approach to scholarship, Spencer includes the voices of children who have been in care in the form of the studies undertaken by the National Youth in Care Network.

Settlement Experiences and Needs of Recent Immigrants: Results from a Photovoice Study of Recent Immigrant Men in Central Alberta

Immigrant settlement success hinges on the effective rebuilding of social life in the receiving society. This research investigated the extent to which racialized immigrant men construct their sense of sociability living as newcomers in a small urban center in Alberta, Canada, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a photovoice participatory research approach, this research calls attention to how places of immigrant settlement and race are inextricably linked. From a policy perspective, this research makes recommendations that promote the idea that settlement sociability needs to go beyond physical proximity to social closeness, emphasizing co-ethnicity and cultural familiarity, especially in the initial settlement stages.

Journal article: Adomako, S., Frimpong, K., Amankwah-Amoah, J., Donbesuur, F.  & Opoku, R.A. (2021). “Strategic decision speed and international performance: The roles of competitive intensity, resource flexibility, and structural organicity.” Management International Review 61, 27–55. 

This paper is one of the foremost works that investigates the relationship between strategic decision speed and international performance and how this relationship may be moderated by varying degrees of external and internal factors. The study also uses unique data from a sub-Saharan African developing country context that do not receive significant attention in the international business literature. The findings from the paper show strategic decision speed is important to international performance, and this relationship is dependent on several boundary conditions – competitive intensity in the domestic market, flexibility with which firms can repurpose the use of their resources, and degree of autonomy in decision-making by firms. These findings are important and extend our understanding of how decision-making speed influences performance. 

Journal article: Famiyeh, S., Opoku, R. A., Kwarteng, A., & Asante-Darko, D. (2021). “Driving forces of sustainability in the mining industry: Evidence from a developing country.” Resources Policy, 70, March 21, 101910. 

This study contributes to the sustainable mining framework which has previously only focused on how non-fuel mineral mining firms can reduce environmental impacts while ignoring other dimensions such as social and economic. It further provides empirical support to the framework for responsible mining. This study is one of the few in this area that has attempted to understand the driving forces of sustainability in mining organizations and a first of its kind to be published from a developing country perspective.

Journal article: “Lay participation with medical expertise in online self-care practices: Social knowledge (co)production in the Running Mania injury forum.” Social Science and Medicine 227. 

Dr. Trish Campbell’s new article looks at self-care practices in which medical expertise is not passively consumed by the layperson, but shared and (re)produced in social groups. This research is particularly important with the advent of the internet, which provides instant access to mediated medical knowledge and a space for care communities to communicate about their experiences. The laypersons examined here are members of the Canadian online collective, Running Mania. Drawing from member interviews and website observations of the site's injury forum, the study examines collective injury management from two perspectives: the lay expert whose knowledge arises from experience and the expert patient whose knowledge parallels biomedical science. The findings indicate that these types of expertise often come together in actual self-care practices to create new knowledge as laypersons use whatever works in managing their health. This persistent, attentive tinkering with all kinds of expertise while listening to one’s body is theorized as a “logic of care”, a type of reasoning that doesn’t require differentiating between expert and lay knowledge. Further, this logic of care has the potential to bridge the expert/lay boundary and the potential conflicts arising between a patient’s and medical practitioner’s knowledge. In “good” care practices, multiple expertises are needed, both expert and lay, to hold the body together. 

Journal article: “Picturing Settlement Experiences: Immigrant Women’s Senses of Comfortable and Uncomfortable Places in a Small Urban Center in Canada.” Journal of International Migration & Integration (2021).  

Small cities tend to have modest immigrant settlement services and cultural amenities, engendering a distinct sense of place among immigrants and impacting their well-being differently from large cities. To study the impacts of place characteristics on settlement needs, Red Deer Polytechnic Sociology instructor Dr. Choon-Lee Chai’s photovoice research examines the sense of place among immigrant women through their attribution of meanings to places of comfort and discomfort as they settled in a small city in Canada. Findings indicated that these women appreciated the warmth and support extended to them by settlement services provider organizations, libraries, and faith-based organizations, attesting to the relational nature of the place. Nevertheless, immigrant women dreaded harsh winter conditions and felt unsafe in downtown areas. This study contributes to our understanding of the gendered and interwoven nature of the self, social, and physical spaces. The findings from this study call for settlement policies that attend to distinct characteristics of local places to better serve the settlement needs of immigrants.