Kristopher Wells - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Kristopher Wells

In different and unique ways several of the books reviewed in this issue take up hermeneutical ap... more In different and unique ways several of the books reviewed in this issue take up hermeneutical approaches to elucidate and foreground the roles that complex phenomena and nonlinear systems play in learning. As a herme-neutical inquiry, the authors and reviewers take up and challenge linear and causal explanations to examine how human interaction and behaviour, both inside and outside of the classroom, can be considered a complex adaptive system. Accordingly, the six reviews presented address a wide range of topics ranging from ecopedagogy, curricular dynamics, action theory, curricular instruction, educational change, and chaotic systems. Joan Chambers reviews Mitchell Thomashow's cacophony of metaphor, imagery, and emotion in Bringing the Biosphere Home: Learning to Perceive Global Environmental Change. As Chambers highlights, Thomashow's book is designed as a starting place for those educators wanting to explore a variety of approaches to learning about global environmenta...

Trauma Care, 2022

Background: This cross-sectional study explored variation of the prevalence of perceived stress, ... more Background: This cross-sectional study explored variation of the prevalence of perceived stress, depression and anxiety among different self-identified gender identity groups in the Canadian population during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Anxiety, depression, and stress were assessed using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) respectively. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance. Results: There were 8267 respondents to the online survey; 982 (12.0%) were male-identified, 7120 (86.9%) female-identified, and 92 (1.1%) identified as a diverse gender group. Prevalence rates for clinically meaningful anxiety (333 (41.7%), 2882 (47.6%), 47 (61.0%)), depression (330 (40.2%), 2736 (44.3%), 46 (59.7%)), and stress (702 (79.6%), 5711 (86.4%), 74 (90.2%)) were highest among respondents who self-identified as “other gender” followed by female-identified and then male-id...

In this essay I examine the formal and non-formal educational experiences of Queer young adults i... more In this essay I examine the formal and non-formal educational experiences of Queer young adults in Alberta schools, families, and communities. I discuss how I use found poetry as a pedagogical device to assist adult educators in constructing emancipatory learning communities, educational practices, and research methods that empower students to think and act within transformative possibilities for social change.

This empirical study utilizes multi-perspective theory, which includes queer, feminist, and trans... more This empirical study utilizes multi-perspective theory, which includes queer, feminist, and transgender theoretical perspectives to analyze the lived experiences of three male-to-female trans-identified teachers who transitioned genders, during three different decades (1980s, 1990s, 2000s), within their K-12 Canadian public schools. Through the creation of poststructural storylines, I investigate lived narratives of personal risk, professional resilience, and political resistance as these trans teachers call into question the universality of the categories of what it means to be a “man” or “woman,” and in doing so bring forth new analyses to explore questions of gender relations, power, and inequality within K-12 public schools. Ultimately, this research asks whose lives are deemed to be intelligible and livable and, in doing so, interrogates how dominant understandings of gender, pedagogy, and teacher identity are constructed and actively resisted in an effort to demonstrate that a...

This paper employs critical social learning perspectives to investigate the themes of emotional r... more This paper employs critical social learning perspectives to investigate the themes of emotional resilience, intellectual resistance, and lifelong learning evident in the experiences of three gay male young adults whom I situate as activist-educators. I discuss how these young adults integrate emotional labour and social learning into resistance work to create counterpublics, which lay challenge to exclusionary heteronormative educational spaces. Emotions as Impetus for Lifelong Learning for Social Justice This paper employs critical social learning perspectives to argue the need to investigate the role of emotions in individual and collective learning for lifelong learning focused on social justice. For example, Goodwin and Pfaff (2001) posit the need to develop an emotional sociology, which they suggest “recognizes the ubiquity of emotions, moods, and affect in social life and which treats emotions as potential causal mechanisms” (p. 283). In adult education there is a paucity of r...

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 2021

Purpose Client-based subjective ratings of treatment and outcomes are becoming increasingly impor... more Purpose Client-based subjective ratings of treatment and outcomes are becoming increasingly important as speech-language pathologists embrace client-centered care practices. Of particular interest is the value in understanding how these ratings are related to aspects of gender-affirming voice and communication training programs for transgender and gender-diverse individuals. The purpose of this observational study was to explore relationships between acoustic and gestural communication variables and communicator-rated subjective measures of femininity, communication satisfaction, and quality of life (QoL) among transfeminine communicators. Method Twelve acoustic and gestural variables were measured from high-fidelity audio and motion capture recordings of transgender women ( n = 20) retelling the story of a short cartoon. The participants also completed a set of subjective ratings using a series of Likert-type rating scales, a generic QoL questionnaire, and a population-specific voi...

Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 2020

Purpose The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to identify a set of communication-based predi... more Purpose The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to identify a set of communication-based predictors (including both acoustic and gestural variables) of masculinity–femininity ratings and (b) to explore differences in ratings between audio and audiovisual presentation modes for transgender and cisgender communicators. Method The voices and gestures of a group of cisgender men and women ( n = 10 of each) and transgender women ( n = 20) communicators were recorded while they recounted the story of a cartoon using acoustic and motion capture recording systems. A total of 17 acoustic and gestural variables were measured from these recordings. A group of observers ( n = 20) rated each communicator's masculinity–femininity based on 30- to 45-s samples of the cartoon description presented in three modes: audio, visual, and audio visual. Visual and audiovisual stimuli contained point light displays standardized for size. Ratings were made using a direct magnitude estimation scale with...

Torquere, 1969

Introduction: School's Out? P rotection against discrimination on the ground of sexual orientatio... more Introduction: School's Out? P rotection against discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation is included in both the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and human rights legislation in all provinces and territories except the Northwest Territories (EGALE 1). Despite this, "schools remain one of the last bastions of tolerated hatred toward glbt [gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender] people" (STA 2). Sexand-gender youth minorities still struggle to be seen and heard and to remain safe in Canadian schools. Their struggles for a voice and recognition, which contest the limits placed on their school experiences, define the contemporary queer phenomenon in Canadian public education. However, while queer students are finding the courage to come out in greater numbers than ever before, most still run the gauntlet of a repressive contingent of socially conservative school-district personnel, homophobic administrators and teachers, rightist clergy, and unreceptive parents. They experience a barrage of mental, emotional, and physical violence as they confront a "Grades not AIDS" conservative mindset (Ritter 3). Queer students have to be brave as they face social stigmatization, public animosity, and their fears of being alone without the support of family, friends, school,

Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education, 2004

What is Complexity? At the first Conference on Complexity Science and Educational Research 2 Elle... more What is Complexity? At the first Conference on Complexity Science and Educational Research 2 Ellen Goldberg of the Santa Fe Institute, noted in her keynote that: … there is no established definition of complexity or complexity science. If you were to ask ten different people wandering the halls of the Santa Fe Institute, you'd get ten different-and likely ten very distinct-responses.

Journal of Voice, 2018

PURPOSE This study aimed to identify the most salient set of acoustic predictors of (1) gender at... more PURPOSE This study aimed to identify the most salient set of acoustic predictors of (1) gender attribution; (2) perceived masculinity-femininity; and (3) perceived vocal naturalness amongst a group of transgender and cisgender speakers to inform voice and communication feminization training programs. This study used a unique set of acoustic variables and included a third, androgynous, choice for gender attribution ratings. METHOD Data were collected across two phases and involved two separate groups of participants: communicators and raters. In the first phase, audio recordings were captured of communicators (n = 40) during cartoon retell, sustained vowel, and carrier phrase tasks. Acoustic measures were obtained from these recordings. In the second phase, raters (n = 20) provided ratings of gender attribution, perceived masculinity-femininity, and vocal naturalness based on a sample of the cartoon description recording. RESULTS Results of a multinomial logistic regression analysis identified mean fundamental frequency (fo) as the sole acoustic measure that changed the odds of being attributed as a woman or ambiguous in gender rather than as a man. Multiple linear regression analyses identified mean fo, average formant frequency of /i/, and mean sound pressure level as predictors of masculinity-femininity ratings and mean fo, average formant frequency, and rate of speech as predictors of vocal naturalness ratings. CONCLUSION The results of this study support the continued targeting of fo and vocal tract resonance in voice and communication feminization/masculinization training programs and provide preliminary evidence for more emphasis being placed on vocal intensity and rate of speech. Modification of these voice parameters may help clients to achieve a natural-sounding voice that satisfactorily represents their affirmed gender.

Journal of Homosexuality, 2017

ABSTRACT This empirical research study examines the experiences of three male-to-female transgend... more ABSTRACT This empirical research study examines the experiences of three male-to-female transgender teachers who transitioned genders, in three different decades (1980s, 1990s, 2000s) while actively teaching within Canadian K–12 public schools. I utilize poststructural storylines to explore how these transgender teachers navigated the personal, pedagogical, and political and the survival and transition strategies they developed to become intelligible within their schools. Their storylines illustrate how they developed counternarratives to challenge traditional discourses of trans invisibility, silence, shame, and fear.

The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, Dec 22, 2009

This article provides an overview of the critical risk factors that negatively impact the health,... more This article provides an overview of the critical risk factors that negatively impact the health, safety, personal wellness, and educational achievement of sexual minority youth. Contemporary and landmark studies of the key stressors faced by sexual minority are reviewed with an emphasis on Canadian data. Sexual minority youth often encounter multiple risk factors, have fewer protective factors (such as a sense of connectedness to school and family), and experience more bullying, harassment, alienation, suicide ideation, and substance abuse than do their heterosexual peers. Over a decade of research evidence clearly indicates that educational institutions have a legal, ethical, and professional responsibility to respond appropriately to the urgent health, safety, and educational needs of sexual minority youth (Grace & Wells, 2005, 2009; Wells, 2008). A failure to respond by important adults in the lives of such youth, places vulnerable youth at significant risk and denies them access to important protective factors in their lives. Acknowledgments: This article was prepared with financial assistance from a multi-year grant provided to the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services by the Edmonton Community Foundation, City of Edmonton, and United Way. This grant is designed to support community outreach and advocacy work to support sexual minority youth in the Edmonton region. Information in this research brief was shared with the Alberta Government's Department of Education to assist in its work to support the creation of safe, caring, and inclusive educational environments for all students in the province of Alberta. The Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services (iSMSS) is an interdisciplinary "hub" for scholarly work in sexual minority studies. Housed in the Faculty of Education, University of Alberta, the Institute's mission is to help enhance possibilities for ground-breaking research, policy development, education, community outreach, and service provision focused on sexual minorities and their issues and concerns. www.iSMSS.ualberta.ca

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 2016

Purpose The purpose of this study was to describe the pretreatment acoustic characteristics of in... more Purpose The purpose of this study was to describe the pretreatment acoustic characteristics of individuals with male-to-female gender identity (IMtFGI) and investigate the ability of the acoustic measures to predict ratings of gender, femininity, and vocal naturalness. Method This retrospective descriptive study included 2 groups of participants. Speakers were IMtFGI who had not previously received communication feminization treatment ( N = 25). Listeners were members of the lay community ( N = 30). Acoustic data were retrospectively obtained from pretreatment recordings, and pretreatment recordings also served as stimuli for 3 perceptual rating tasks (completed by listeners). Results Acoustic data generally were within normal limits for male speakers. All but 2 speakers were perceived to be male, limiting information about the relationship between acoustic measures and gender perception. Fundamental frequency (reading) significantly predicted femininity ratings ( p = .000). A total...