Three Werklund School academics receive SSHRC partner development grants

Three research projects led by Werklund School of Education academics were recently awarded SSHRC Partnership Development Grants. 

Werklund School Associate Dean of Research Dr. Shelly Russell-Mayhew, Phd’03, is exploring teacher and student wellness, Assistant Professor Dr. Aliya Kuzhabekova, PhD, is researching academic misconduct in non-Western nations and Adjunct Associate Professor Dr. Jennifer Thannhauser, PhD’12, is examining post-secondary student resilience.

SSHRC Partnership funding is intended to support collaborations between post-secondary institutions and organizations from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors and to strengthen knowledge and understanding by leveraging perspectives from across multiple disciplines.

Teachers of Tomorrow: Mobilizing Partnerships for School Wellness Across the Education System

Shelly Russell-Mayhew believes teachers are an untapped population when it comes to health intervention and rarely receive the training required to support personal or student wellness. 

“Teacher and student well-being are interconnected and have mutually declined during the COVID-19 pandemic,” she says. “Teachers play a fundamental role in cultivating a wellness culture in schools and promoting the well-being of children and youth beyond intellectual and academic dimensions.” 

According to Russell-Mayhew, preliminary evidence shows that in addition to experiencing learning benefits, Canadian students attending health promoting schools are healthier physically and mentally. 

To address the training gap, the physical activity, sleep and stress data of project participants will be collected via personal wearable devices. The information will be used to assess current trends in school wellness and evaluate the impact of infusing wellness training into Bachelor of Education (BEd) programs. 

The study expands an existing partnership with Ever Active Schools and five BEd programs in Alberta to include school districts and researchers in the Faculty of Kinesiology. 

Russell-Mayhew believes that this community partnership will strengthen the role Alberta’s educational system plays in societal wellness and reduce the burden on the health-care system.

Exploration of Research Misconduct in a Non-Western Context: The Case of Kazakhstan 

Research misconduct is growing around the world, with scholars engaging in plagiarism, data fabrication and manipulation of research results, among other unethical behaviours. 

Despite this being a global problem, Aliya Kuzhabekova says most prior research on the issue has been conducted in the West. For this reason, she has formed an international partnership with experts from Canada, Switzerland and Kazakhstan to better understand the prevalence and drivers of this misconduct in non-Western contexts.

“Growth in research misconduct has serious repercussions,” says Kuzhabekova. “It erodes the quality of produced knowledge, stalls the development of human society and the improvement of human life, leads to inefficiencies in public spending and undermines public trust in higher education. Humanity needs reliable research results to treat diseases, to address social problems and to develop life-improving technologies.”

The partners will focus their first collaborative exploration on Kazakhstan, where available reports indicate research misconduct is endemic.

“Because research is a global enterprise, research misconduct of a scholar on one side of the world may affect the life of people on the other.”

Results of the study will be used to inform research on other countries and to develop practical recommendations for university administrators, policy-makers and international development experts.

Resilience in the Post-Secondary Context: An Exploration of Students' Experiences

Community Mental Health and Well-Being Strategy (UCalgary's renewed Campus Mental Health Strategy) Evaluation Lead Jennifer Thannhauser says students today are facing unprecedented adversities that negatively impact their quality of life and capacity to accomplish their academic goals, and that individuals from equity-deserving groups are challenged to an even greater extent. 

“As a result of discrimination and micro-aggressions, marginalized or under-represented students are particularly vulnerable to less-favourable outcomes, such as decreased grades, delayed graduation and decreased school satisfaction.” 

Post-secondary institutions are recognizing the necessity of resilience for helping students manage their well-being and succeed academically, but many interventions place responsibility solely on the student, thereby ignoring systemic inequities and oppression that impede student thriving.

To address this gap, Thannhauser is leading a partnership between the Universities of Calgary, Saskatchewan, Toronto, Dalhousie and the Best Practices Network in Canadian Higher Education to explore student resilience using a social ecological framework.

“A social ecological approach views resilience as the process whereby individuals navigate to and negotiate for the contextually and culturally appropriate resources needed for optimal functioning,” explains Thannhauser.

The group will partner with students and Indigenous campus community members to co-design research that results in tangible outcomes intended to foster meaningful post-secondary culture change.

“Thriving students become thriving citizens with capacity to contribute meaningfully to the communities within which they exist.”