Research Projects
- Elements facilitating or discouraging the engagement of fathers in a post-separation context for fathers who do not have their children’s custody
- Improving Training for Professionals in the Fields of Health and Social Services within a Francophone Minority Context Across Canada: Issues and Perspectives
- Careers of professional socialization of graduate Moroccans in Québec
- Maghrebian migrations in Canada
- Student mobility and identity construction. Case studies in three Canadian universities near young people coming from a minority French-speaking community
- Special needs adoptive parenting: Canadian stakeholders’ views on parents’ involvement and support needs
- Children’s and Young People’s Experiences and Perspectives on Domestic Violence
- Mothering in the context of domestic violence in Canada and the UK: A focus on Aboriginal and Black and Minority Ethnic women
- Migrant Children’s Experiences of Violence and Coping Strategies
- The life course and forms of support of young people enrolled in high school technological education in Ontario and Québec
- Project of research-action 2011-2013. Deséquilibres: alternate elements
- Inform and advise in crisis situation. Evaluation of «info-Grippe» strategies during the H1N1 pandemic. A comparative research France-Québec
- Substance Use and Work: social representations and social norms
- Addictive and service pathways: The drug addicts at the crossroads of two systems of care
- The impact of the Ontario's Aménagement Linguistique Policy on the experience of the teams of success
- The francophone scope in the deinstitutionalization of mental health. Sociohistorical aspects, norms and practices 1920-1980
- Community development practice in French speaking Ontario: A comparative analysis with Québec
- Creation of a tool of autoevaluation of the partnership maintained by the community organizations with the public establishments
- Sociality and intimacy during adolescence. The "living together" experience of francophone youth from the Outaouais. Preliminary Step: Methodological approach
- Description in a minority context of the francophone family giving birth at the Montfort Hospital: survey on the factors determining health
Elements facilitating or discouraging the engagement of fathers in a post-separation context for fathers who do not have their children’s custody
Jean-Martin Deslauriers : This research is part of a broader research project involving (14 investigators) that focuses on different dimensions of the lives of fathers in a context of vulnerability. The current study focuses on the elements either facilitating or discouraging the engagement of fathers with their children in a post-separation context. More specifically, this project analyses the situation of fathers who have no or limited contacts with their children, but who express a desire to see them on a more regular basis. This project will enable us to develop a global perspective on father engagement in a post-separation context, and therefore propose solutions to promote the engagement of fathers who want to be more present in their children’s lives. Furthermore, by working in collaboration with practitioners, we will be able to gather the fathers’ perspectives and also think about different social measures that would strengthen father- children relationships. (FQRSH, 2011-2012).
Improving Training for Professionals in the Fields of Health and Social Services within a Francophone Minority Context Across Canada: Issues and Perspectives
Marie Drolet (principal investigator) and Sébastien Savard (co-investigator), are conducting a research program centered upon professional training in the fields of health and social work within the context of francophone minority communities. Their program is being funded through the University Of Ottawa component of the Consortium national de formation en santé (CNFS) in the form of a one-year grant, with an option for a second year of funding. The research benefits from an inter-disciplinary approach and includes, among others, the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Ottawa as well as Joscelyne Levesque and Jacynthe Mayer, collaborators from the School of Social Work. The program proposes three inter-linked projects. Specifically, Project 1 aims to better identify social and health-related needs and practices as they apply to vulnerable groups identified in the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality 2008-2013 (Government of Canada 2008), namely : children, adolescents and the seniors. Since the concept of “active offer” has evolved into a key issue in terms of access to French-language social and health services. Project 2 will concentrate on defining its dimensions. Project 3 will examine best practices in the area of professional training in health and social services geared towards francophone minority communities. In this respect, it will serve to support the conceptual training framework as outlined by R. Legendre (2005). (CNFS, University of Ottawa, 2011-2012-2013).
Careers of professional socialization of graduate Moroccans in Québec
Stéphanie Garneau : The purpose of this research project is to look further into the complexity of the dynamics intervening in the construction of careers of professional socialization of graduate Moroccans in a French-speaking establishment of higher education in Québec. It aims, on the one hand, to identify the resources and constraints generating the migration of Moroccan students to Québec’s universities. On the other hand, it seeks to understand individual and social parameters conducing the graduate Moroccans in Québec to choose to work in that province at the end of their education. (SSHCR, 2011-2012).
Maghrebian migrations in Canada
Stéphanie Garneau : The increase of Maghrebian migrations to Canada, or more specifically to Québec, must be highlighted with two global phenomenon : that of the internationalization of higher education and that of Québec’s policy “of selected immigration”, which favors the reception of French-speaking immigrants. This project aims to analyze the structural conditions which have an influence on the migratory patterns of Moroccans, Algerians and Tunisians to Canada from a double societal context, that of France - traditional destination of the population being studied - and that of Québec, a more recent destination gaining in popularity. (University of Ottawa, The Research Development Program, 2008-2011).
Student mobility and identity construction. Case studies in three Canadian universities near young people coming from a minority French-speaking community
Stéphanie Garneau (Co-investigator) : Among the student population, young people coming from Canadian French-speaking minority contexts are still today the category of students that encounters the greatest number of obstacles in its access to higher education: the university training programs offer in French is rather low; students must sometimes carry out an intra- or interprovincial migration to French-language institutions; education in French is lacking of legislative support, and so on. This research project aims at highlighting the strategies implemented by the students and their families to reach postsecondary education, the significances that they give to it, in particular regarding their linguistic and cultural identities, and the possible influence that their action has on the orientations of university and political managers. (SSHCR, 2007-2011).
Special needs adoptive parenting : Canadian stakeholders’ views on parents’ involvement and support needs
Alice Home : This RDP grant was requested in order to develop an innovative project that will take my research on mothering children with invisible disabilities in a new direction. This new research has two objectives : to understand the experiences and support needs of parents who have adopted children with special needs and to lay the groundwork for a larger program on this subject. Despite the increased number of special needs adoptions, there has been remarkably little social work literature or research on this subject, especially in Canada. There is a crucial need for Canadian research developed and carried out in collaboration with key stakeholders. Given the complexity of these issues, it is essential to carry out an exploratory study that will provide clear direction for the program. This RDP grant will provide short-term support for a qualitative study of parents’ experiences and support needs, incorporating perspectives of individual parents, adoptive parent associations and child welfare workers. This study seeks to tap diverse perspectives and types of expertise of these stakeholders in two sites populated by varied linguistic-cultural groups : Eastern Ontario and Vancouver Island. Twenty-seven semi-structured interviews will be carried out, taped and subjected to thematic content analysis, both to identify similarities and differences among stakeholders’ views and to identify directions for future research. The resulting data will be disseminated in Canadian and international venues, as well as providing the basis for an external grant application. (University of Ottawa, Research Development Program, 2010-2011).
Children’s and Young People’s Experiences and Perspectives on Domestic Violence
Simon Lapierre (principal investigator) and Marie Drolet (co-investigator) : Limited work has focused on children’s and young people’s experiences and perspectives on domestic violence, despite a willingness to move away from a conceptualization of children exposed to domestic violence as ‘passive’ victims. This study draws upon a participative and qualitative research methodology and explores the experiences and perspectives of children and young people who have been exposed to violence perpetrated towards their mother. During the first stage of the study, focus groups are conducted with children and young people, in order to initiate with them a critical discussion about different aspects of the research. At a subsequent stage, individual interviews will be conducted with 50 children and young people who have been exposed to domestic violence. This research project is realized in partnership with the Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale. (SSHRC, 2011-2014).
Mothering in the context of domestic violence in Canada and the UK: A focus on Aboriginal and Black and Minority Ethnic women
Simon Lapierre (co-investigator) : This study draws upon the findings of a study on mothering in the context of domestic violence and child abuse and neglect (Damant et al., CRSH, 2004-2007). The currant study also looks at the issue of mothering in the context of domestic violence, but focuses on the experiences of Aboriginal and Black and Minority Ethnic women in Canada and the United Kingdom. The findings will enable the research team to develop an intersectional feminist understanding of mothering in the context of domestic violence. (SSHRC, 2009-2012).
Migrant Children’s Experiences of Violence and Coping Strategies
Simon Lapierre (co-investigator) : This study aims at understanding how migrant children view and experience multiple forms of violence. Drawing upon a qualitative methodology, it explores children’s perspectives on violence, their emotions, the effects on their health and well-being, as well as their coping strategies. Individual interviews are conducted with 40 children between 10 and 12 years old. The study also draws upon the sociology of childhood, which poses childhood as socially constructed and children as social actors. (SSHRC, 2009-2012).
The life course and forms of support of young people enrolled in high school technological education in Ontario and Québec
Marc Molgat (Principal investigator) and Stéphanie Garneau (co-investigator) : Governments as well as actors in the education and labour market fields have been preoccupied by access to, success in and outcomes of high school technological education (TE). However, the negative image of TE persists and a large proportion of TE students simply do not complete their studies. The experiences of these young people, in terms of leaving school and entering the labour market, vary according to their socio-economic backgrounds, the schools they attend, and the regions they live in. This project thus examines the ways in which the life course of these young people plays out in relation to various forms of formal and informal support (governmental assistance, psychosocial intervention, help from family and friends), in 5 differentiated regions. The project should contribute to the development of school policies and programs that are better adapted to the challenges faced by young people enrolled in secondary level technological education programs. (SSHRC, 2011-2014).
Project of research-action 2011-2013. DesÉquilibres : alternate elements
Nicolas Moreau (principal investigator) and Marc Molgat (co-investigator) : After undertaking several projects in the field of sports, DesÉquilibres wants to define elements for a modelization about its «alter-action» program, based on sports as a physical and psychosocial development tool, which encourages youth to social engagement and action. There are two principal points in this research-action. The first one is to understand and conceptualize the savoir-faire of edutrainers and the second one looks at producing the pedagogical tools, which could then be distributed to targeted areas (community organizations, schools, etc.). (Ministère québécois du développement économique, de l'innovation et de l'exportation, 2011-2013).
Inform and advise in crisis situation. Evaluation of «info-Grippe» strategies during the H1N1 pandemic. A comparative research France-Québec
Nicolas Moreau (co-investigator) : The principal objective of this project is to analyze, in a comparative point of view between France and Québec, questions from the public about the H1N1 pandemic and the answers provided by info-grippe service, during the fall of 2009. Primarily, we want to understand the impact of link between, on the one hand, information strategies from Health Services and the Public Health and, on the other, those of the involving speeches, emotional reactions and the public behavior. Secondly, this research seeks to identify those communication strategies that reassure/inform the general public and those at risk. (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (France), 2010-2011).
Substance Use and Work: social representations and social norms
Lilian Negura : In recent years in Canada, we have seen an increase and a diversification of drug use, which coincides, with a process of radical transformation of work. This research project aims to understand the possible link between a more or less regular, or compulsive, use of drugs (alcohol, illegal drugs, medication) and the current changing context of work. Social representations of work (industry, production context, conditions of practice, work culture) and representations of the individual and collective use of alcohol or drugs converge, according to our hypothesis, toward a goal of integration into the new changing world of work (characterized by the affirmation of new norms of independence, flexibility, versatility, availability, performance, etc.). The consumption of alcohol or drugs would be a powerful way to facilitate the integration into the world of work and it should be documented by the variety of products and professional categories of users. This qualitative study is conducted on a non-probabilistic sample of 30 workers who had experienced drug abuse (alcohol, illegal drugs, medication) and who work for companies in Ontario and Quebec. (SSHRC, 2007-2011).
Addictive and service pathways: The drug addicts at the crossroads of two systems of care
Lilian Negura (co-investigator) : Integrating a broad coalition of researchers and field workers, this research project targets the lack of integration of services and the difficulty for addicts to find the right answer to their needs. The proposal aims to provide concrete ways to better coordinate services for drug addicts and make available to social workers from different levels a variety of valid tools to detect and effectively help these people. To this end, the research team use an innovative conceptual approach based on the psychology of work to examine the places of encounter, potential or real, between the key moments of the pathways of consumption and will also look at the available treatment services. (SSHRC, 2009-204).
The impact of the Ontario's Aménagement Linguistique Policy on the experience of the teams of success
Lilian Negura (co-investigator) : The study is based on two priorities of the Ontario Ministry of Education. These two priorities are the aménagement linguistique policy and the policy focused on student success. The aim of the research is to understand whether identity development is associated with the concept of academic achievement among workers who are members of teams of success. The conceptual framework of the research is the theory of social representations. Using a qualitative research approach, we propose to understand how the identity aspect of the social representation of work shapes the practices of the members of the teams of success. (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2006-2012).
The francophone scope in the deinstitutionalization of mental health. Sociohistorical aspects, norms and practices 1920-1980
Nérée St-Amand (co-investigator) : Deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill marked the end of 150 years long period of psychiatric treatment predominantly in mental hospitals (asylums). This dramatic change in the nature of patient provision was prompted by a growing dissatisfaction with the capacity of the mental hospital for effective treatment, by a revolution in psychopharmacology and by changing state priorities. The project Le champ francophone de la désinstitutionalisation en santé mentale: enjeux sociohistoriques, normes et pratiques, 1920-1980, proposes an exploration of the lengthy process of deinstitutionalization in three francophone locations: eastern Ontario, Québec and New Brunswick. Marie-Claude Thifault (PI) and her team (André Cellard, Henri Dorvil, Nérée St-Amand) will examine an understudied aspect of Canadian health care policy and they will also expand an understanding of the ways that francophone communities dealt with mental illness and psychiatric survivors.
In New Brunswick, two opposite trends influenced the process of deinstitutionalization: while the Southern part of the province, mostly Anglophone, had its asylum in the early 19th century and was facing many contradictions and limitations of the institution, the Northern part of the province, prominently Francophone, was struggling to have a treatment center for its people. It finally happened more than one hundred years later (Centre hospitalier Restigouche, in Campbellton). This historical context reveals the diverse influence and priorities of the two solitudes. (Canadian Institutes of Health Research, 2010-2014).
Community development practice in French speaking Ontario: A comparative analysis with Québec
Sébastien Savard : The objective of the research is to enhance the information concerning the particularities of the practice of the community intervention in French-speaking Ontario. What are the theoretical and methodological foundations on which they build their practice? How do they define their role and their mandate in the community? What are the values and the fundamental principles that they defend? What relations do they maintain with the other actors of their organization? What impact has on their practice the fact of intervening with a community of identity characterized by their membership in the linguistic minority of the French-speaking world? (Fond de démarrage de la Faculté des sciences sociales et ARUC en innovation sociale et développement des communauté, 2011-2012).
Creation of a tool of autoevaluation of the partnership maintained by the community organizations with the public establishments
Sébastien Savard: The purpose of this project is to elaborate a tool that support the administrators of community organizations who wish to have a critical regard on their relationship which they maintain with the public establishments of their territory. The tool will be built from the typology of Jennifer Coston (1998) adapted to the Quebecois context by Proulx, Bourque and Savard (2007). This adapted model evaluates the relations from the analysis of 4 dimensions: the openness for the institutional pluralism, symmetry of the relations of power, the intensity of the relations and the level of formalism of contacts between the organizational actors. The supplied answers allow to locate the relations of collaborations inside a typology constituted by 6 types of interactions (Competition, Subcontracting, third party, coexistence, Supplementary, co-construction). The tool is self-administered and allows the administrators to quickly get a portrait of the partnership with the public network. (Fond Québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC), 2009-2011).
Sociality and intimacy during adolescence. The «living together» experience of francophone youth from the Outaouais. Preliminary Step : Methodological approach
Marguerite Soulière : This project presents a view into the world of adolescence in order to understand from within the experience of being boys and girls, and to be in relationships. It is based on the research approach experiment which adapts to the subjects in the study (Nyesito, 2000). To begin with, the project consists of the selection of a sample group which represents the various aspects of adolescent life. Then, it builds the data collection tools, which allow for the expression mode of experiences (imagination, interaction, introspection, individual and collective reflection) (Bruner, 1986). Finally, it means to participate in an analysis process, based on «grounded theory methodology» (Guillemette et Luckeroff, 2009), by making an «aller-retour» between what results come from the data and the collection tools. So, major aims, aims and minor aims which have grown up from the field will correspond to adolescents’ experience and meaning. (University of Ottawa, Research Development Program, 2009-2012).
Description in a minority context of the francophone family giving birth at the Montfort Hospital: survey on the factors determining health
Marguerite Soulière (co-investigator) : This research project was developed in order to contribute to the objectives of Health Canada, in its work of creating a road map for Canada linguistic duality. Within its support of research, Health Canada wants to develop access to health services, to increase awareness of the availability of services in both official languages and encourage CLOSM to be responsible for their own health. Health Canada wants to develop projects based on at risk populations, particularly children and youth. Several studies have been done on general population and subgroups about challenges and difficulties in the scope of health for the francophone population in a minority context. Nevertheless, at this time, there is no study about the health in the francophone family in a minority context. Community Health depends on healthy families, which comes from healthy parents. Birth is a big event in a family’s life. Couples who become parents are very vulnerable and are exposed to several health problems. The objectives of the longitudinal descriptive research are: 1) determinate the profile of individuals/couples /families who give birth at Montfort Hospital, 2) identify health determinants, which affect the experiences about the transition of «parentalité» in a minority context and 3) identify services and their availability. This study is the first of our research program based on francophone «parentalité» in a minority context on Ontario. (CNFS, University of Ottawa, 2011-2012).