Sociology and Legal Studies

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This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's Department of Sociology and Legal Studies.

Research outputs are organized by type (eg. Master Thesis, Article, Conference Paper).

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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7

Beyond Academia: Examining the Versatile Career Paths of PhDs
(University of Waterloo, 2020-05-14) Etmanski, Brittany; Aurini, Janice; Gallupe, Owen
This dissertation employs a mixed-methods approach to examine the career transitions of Canadian PhDs. Moving beyond dichotomous definitions of PhD outcomes (as “academic” or “non-academic”) this research aims to identify and explore the expansive career opportunities available to PhDs outside of academia. It draws upon the confidential version of Statistics Canada’s 2013 National Graduates Survey as accessed through the South Western Research Data Centre (SWORDC), and national-scale primary data collected between April 2018-April 2019. The results are informed by human capital, credentialist and field theories. The quantitative analysis of Chapter 2 examined the job quality and experiences associated with PhDs from numerous disciplines in three main employment sectors. Using Statistics Canada’s 2013 National Graduates Survey (NGS), the results showed that PhDs were most strongly represented in the private and academic sectors. Social science and law graduates were most likely to be employed within the public sector. In comparison, those from the physical and life sciences as well as hard sciences were most likely to be employed in the private sector. Relating to job quality, those employed in the public sector were most likely to be employed part time. Furthermore, PhDs employed in non-academic sectors were more likely to be overqualified. This finding suggests that PhDs may be less certain of how to market their skills to a non-academic audience, or it may point to a lack of non-academic opportunities for PhDs. The quantitative analysis of Chapter 3 considered how measures of technical competency (e.g., publications, funding, research assistantships, sessional positions) may affect candidates’ ability to secure initial employment within academia. Employing primary survey data gathered from social science PhDs across Canada, the results suggested that publications, as a measure of technical competence, are a strong predictor of reporting an initial career within academia. However, certain socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., gender, race, parental education) were better predictors of securing academic employment than measures related to respondents’ technical competency (e.g., research assistantships, sessional appointments). These results may indicate two things. First, the decreased likelihood of females and certain visible minorities may indicate weaker practices of affirmative action occurring within institutions. Second, that highly-educated parents may provide mentorship that is more aligned with their children’s goal of obtaining an academic appointment. Finally, the qualitative analysis of Chapter 4 draws on field theory to examine the strength of the connections forged between social science PhD programs and employment sectors beyond academia. To determine social science PhDs career preparedness, the research examined: (1) Whether career opportunities presented and promoted to social science PhDs have evolved alongside market demand; and (2) Whether institutional initiatives have promoted stronger academia-industry connections. Drawing on 28 interviews with PhDs from 5 social science disciplines, the results suggested that academic career norms are perpetuated at the department level. Though institutions—more generally—have broadened the career preparation offered to PhDs, ties to industry remain weak. To forge new norms strengthening academia-industry links, some participants reflected on the benefit associated with an internship opportunity during the PhD program. Future research would benefit from examining whether work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities for PhD students are associated with a greater level of work-readiness in employment sectors beyond academia.
Bridging the Soft-Skills Gap between Canadian Post-Secondary Education and Employment through Work-Integrated Learning: A Case Study on Arts Students
(University of Waterloo, 2023-06-20) Dreesha, Mrittika; Aurini, Janice; Gallupe, Owen; Chenier, Allison
Post-secondary institutions in Canada are currently under the microscope as the unemployment rate among new graduates continue to rise. Contemporary sociologists have suggested that work-integrated learning (WIL) can be a powerful tool to reverse the rising trends in unemployment rate by helping students develop soft-skills, gain relevant work experience, and apply classroom knowledge in real-world situations (Martin & Rouleau, 2020). Researchers have also highlighted that although WIL programs can be an effective pedagogical approach in all fields of study, there is a heightened importance for Arts students to participate in WIL (Li, 2016) as this specific group tends to encounter greater barriers in terms of finding employment (Yamamoto, 2014; Zeid et al., 2015). Despite the importance of WIL, there is a lack of Canadian qualitative research that documents the perspectives of Ontario Arts students regarding WIL programs. This is highly imperative as Arts degree-holders are often under-or-unemployed post-graduation (Zeid et al., 2015), particularly in Ontario which has one of the highest unemployment rates among graduates. To bridge this critical gap within the landscape of higher education literature on WIL, I have conducted a qualitative case study entailing 50 semi-structured interviews of Arts students from world’s largest co-op institution—the University of Waterloo, which serves as a strong exemplar of WIL as a successful education model on both national and global levels (University of Waterloo, 2023b). Using NVivo software data analysis techniques, I have answered four research questions which involved investigating the perceptions of WIL among Arts students, the key benefits and transferable soft-skills gained through WIL in Arts programs, the common challenges associated with WIL in Arts disciplines, and the WIL-related policies/practices that Arts students recommend to post-secondary institutions. Grounding this project on human capital theory, situated learning theory, and credentialism, the main findings reveal that when the value of WIL experience for Arts versus non-Arts programs are compared, students who are pursuing non-conventional Arts majors such as Accounting, Finance, and Economics consider the importance of WIL to be same or similar for all fields, whereas students from traditional Arts programs such as Sociology, Psychology, and History predict that WIL experience can be a higher economic investment and a larger evidence of competencies for Arts degree-holders as they are more likely to experience greater difficulties in the job market due to Arts professions being stigmatized. Furthermore, the non co-op students voiced their concerns regarding insufficient exposure and awareness of WIL in post-secondary institutions which resulted in their lack of participation, whereas the co-op students expressed that there are limited field-specific WIL placements and low departmental/faculty support which made their process of seeking and securing co-op positions challenging. Both groups of students perceive that there is a shortage of WIL opportunities within the Faculty of Arts, and thus, they emphasized on the increasing need to make WIL accessible for all Arts students which can contribute towards their human capital growth, graduate employability, and ultimately improve their school-to-work transition while bridging the soft-skills gap between post-secondary education and employment.
Experiential Learning and New Institutionalism in Ontario Higher Education: A Qualitative Analysis of the Experiential Learning Certificate at the University of Waterloo
(University of Waterloo, 2019-07-24) LaCroix, Emerson; Aurini, Janice
Recent events in the field of higher education have resulted in experiential learning becoming an institutional priority in many post-secondary institutions. In Ontario, the Premier’s Highly Skilled Workforce Expert Panel recommended expanding experiential learning opportunities for post-secondary students (2017). This is coupled with other sources, such as Canada’s Business Higher Education Roundtable, which suggested that all post-secondary students have at least one experiential learning opportunity by graduation (2018). Experiential learning builds on traditional instructional approaches and fosters engagement between students and course material in non-traditional settings. This thesis presents the findings of a case study, which investigated a particular institution’s response to pressures from the organizational field to expand experiential education. The Experiential Education Certificate allows students at the University of Waterloo to engage in a variety of course-based and extra-curricular experiential learning opportunities. This case study relied on qualitative interviews, and content analysis of both obtrusive and unobtrusive documents. Through the combination of semi-structured interviews with instructors, members from the Centre for Teaching Excellence, and members of the EDGE team, I found that this particular program represents a more ceremonial response to organizational pressures, and had not meaningfully penetrated the technical core of the institution. Moreover, faculty members discussed myriad challenges which impact their ability and willingness to implement experiential learning. This research is particularly timely, as institutions review their commitments to experiential learning in the context of a change in government, which may bring new institutional pressures.
An Organizational Perspective on Experiential Education in Ontario Higher Education
(University of Waterloo, 2024-06-14) LaCroix, Emerson; Aurini, Janice
Experiential education has long been appreciated for its pedagogical value. There is a considerable body of evidence suggesting that students reap particular benefits when ‘learning by doing’ and engaging in practical learning experiences. Though, change is underway. In Ontario, experiential education has been incorporated into strategic funding metrics by the Ministry of Colleges and Universities, and thus subsumed in the neoliberal tradition of quantification and measurement. Universities are now required to ensure all students have at least one experiential learning opportunity before graduation and are required to measure and report where these opportunities are in their programs. This transformation prompts many questions about how organizational change takes place, and how different constituencies within and across Ontario universities are reacting to these changes. Rather than taking a conventional pedagogical view, in this dissertation I analyze experiential education through an organizational lens. I ask questions about the ongoing organizational change, drawing on a variety of organizational theories to capture institutional, organizational, and actor-level perspectives. The first research chapter (Chapter 3) focuses on the field-level dynamics of experiential education in Ontario via the Strategic Mandate process. Using three cohorts of Strategic Mandate Agreements between 2014 and 2025, I uncover how experiential education has evolved over time at the discursive and policy level. The second and third research chapters draw on 132 survey responses from faculty across the province, and 47 interviews from faculty at six Ontario universities. In the second research chapter (Chapter 4), I examine how faculty have experienced the changes to experiential education. This chapter captures recoupling in action and considers how faculty have experienced a changing organizational conception of experiential education. The final research chapter (Chapter 5) draws on the same qualitative sample but takes a more micro-level view of faculty sensemaking, delineating the various lenses through which faculty have made — and continue to make — sense of experiential education. Together, these chapters contribute a gradual narrowing from meso-level dynamics down to micro-level sensemaking to understand how a particular organizational change occurs, instigates responses, and spurs actor-level sensemaking. By taking an organizational approach, I uncover a much more nuanced understanding of experiential education and its relative complexities. My thesis concludes with policy recommendations, and implications for future research.
Overcoming Inequality: How Schools Compensate for Socioeconomic Gaps in Children’s Learning
(University of Waterloo, 2019-04-18) Holland, Michael; Aurini, Janice
This dissertation views schools’ compensatory mechanisms from a mixed methods approach, consisting of both quantitative and qualitative data that were collected from a larger study on summer learning in Canada (see Davies & Aurini, 2012). Overall, these chapters contribute to Downey and Condron’s (2016) framework that schools partially compensate for class-based inequalities in education. However, lacking from this framework is how schools compensate for low SES children’s education, especially when educational resources are not available by their families. The goal of this dissertation, therefore, is to fill in these gaps with empirical and theoretical contributions as discussed in each of the three chapters.
The Post-Secondary Decision-Making Process for At-Risk Students in Ontario
(University of Waterloo, 2020-11-23) Missaghian, Rod; Aurini, Janice
An important body of research examines the role of student decision-making on stratification and post-secondary transitions. In an era of expanded options, students often have to draw on personal, family and institutional resources to make informed decisions that fit with their academic background and personal interests. For students from low income households and neighbourhoods, the difficulty of making sound decisions is compounded by their lack of access to high status ties and cultural capital which can help them capitalize on such interactions. This sandwich dissertation examines the role of social and cultural capital in the decision-making process for at-risk students, using alignment theory to help evaluate the types of decisions students make over time. Using a longitudinal qualitative framework, students are interviewed at three time points to explore how these various types of capital interact with their decision-making. The first chapter focuses on the role of social capital, particularly institutional agents in helping students align their decision-making, prior to the college and university application deadlines in Ontario. The second chapter focuses on interviews with students after they have made their decisions for the fall, examining how their individual habitus orientations interact with the institutional habitus of school personnel; changes to decisions from their first interviews are also explored. The last chapter explores the theoretical affinity between rational actor theory and habitus, using alignment as a bridging theory to assess student decision-making and transitions over a 15 month period. While institutional agents were found to help students make informed decisions at various time points, the quality and duration of those ties, as well students’ early aspiration formation and academic background, were all critical for early alignment and successful post-secondary transitions.
A Seasonal Research Design Examining Macro-Level Factors and Micro-Understandings of Parent Engagement and Children’s Literacy Achievement
(University of Waterloo, 2018-10-05) Hillier, Cathlene; Aurini, Janice
This dissertation takes a seasonal mixed methods approach to studying parent engagement and its influence on children’s literacy achievement. I draw on quantitative and qualitative data collected as a part of the Summer Learning Project in Ontario, Canada (see Davies & Aurini, 2010-2014). My research is informed by Bourdieu’s (1998; 1990 with Passeron) and Lareau’s (2000, 2011) theories of educational inequality to understand parents’ and schools’ responses to parent engagement in children’s education. In addition to making empirical and theoretical contributions to the sociology of education, I include recommendations for educational policy. My quantitative analysis in chapter two tests the hypothesis that family resources and practices positively affect literacy achievement using data for a non-random sample of 1, 671 students (grades 1-3) from 92 schools. Multilevel linear models are employed to compare the influence of family involvement at school and home on students’ achievement on two outcomes: 1) snapshot of children’s cumulative learning in the spring; and 2) measure of children’s growth (or loss) in literacy during the summer. Out of 15 parent engagement measures, I find that only three (parents’ aspirations, home resources and discussions of school with children) are positive predictors of children’s spring literacy outcomes and that none predict summer literacy growth/loss. In interactions of socioeconomic status (SES) with each parent engagement measure, only volunteering at school was significant for spring literacy outcomes, this form of involvement benefitted lower-SES families. Overall, family SES remains a powerful predictor of achievement for both spring literacy and summer growth. I conclude with a discussion of my findings within three mechanism of parent engagement: cultivation ethic (goal driven approach to child’s education through provision of resources, extracurricular activity, aspirations, and discussion school with children), realist reaction (reacting to a child’s achievement by hiring a tutor and/or increasing reading and homework time with child), and expressive logic (parent involvement that is done out of interest or enjoyment on the part of the parent, such as volunteering at the child’s school or participating on school council). My third chapter uses the three mechanisms (cultivation ethic, realist reaction, expressive logic) of parent engagement (from chapter two) to speculate why certain parent engagement measures have positive, negative, or no effect on students’ literacy achievement. In this paper, I use these three mechanisms as my conceptual framework along with categories from Ontario’s Ministry of Education parent engagement policy as a guideline for analysis. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews with 90 parents and 37 school staff (teachers, administrators, support staff), I consider parents’ and teachers’ alignment with each other and policy. I find that parents are more likely to discuss their engagement within categories in the cultivation ethic and realist reaction which are generally home-based activities. Conversely, teachers place more emphasis on school-based categories in the expressive logic. Further, within each mechanism there are nuances between working- and middle-class parents and how they perceive certain types of engagement such as homework help and reading with children (e.g., frustrating versus enjoyable). My findings illuminate the microprocesses of teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of parent engagement within the expectations outlined in the policy and how they differ in school-centric versus a home-centric focus. I conclude with considerations for policy and programming. The fourth chapter draws on 27 photo-interviews with children (aged 5-8; including three sets of siblings) paired with 24 semi-structured interviews with their parents. Interviews focus on parents’ and children’s understandings of future education, and how these understandings translate into actions within the home learning environment and engagement in schooling. Taking into consideration parents’ education and income, I examine the differences between parents who hope their child will obtain a high school education (HSE) and parents who seek post-secondary education (PSE). The interviews uncover the types of conversations about future education that do (or do not) occur at home. Children whose parents have HSE aspirations talk less about future education and are generally less involved in their children’s schooling. Parents who have PSE goals for their children are more likely to have conversations about future education with their children; these parents display a more interconnected approach with their child’s education at school and at home. They link schooling to future socioeconomic mobility, job security and satisfaction with their career and lives. I also find an internalization process occurring with children where higher parental aspirations positively influence children’s approach to schooling. Regardless of academic achievement, children are more likely to comply with literacy activities presented by parents or create learning opportunities for themselves when they see themselves as good readers and are less frustrated with reading. While more proactive, lower-SES families with PSE aspirations are anxious about their children’s future and are heavily dependent on resources, information, and social connections provided by schools and the community. I conclude with policy recommendations for reaching students and parents earlier with career and post-secondary education experiences and information.

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Browsing Sociology and Legal Studies by Author "Aurini, Janice"