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Graduate students typically first experience research ethics when they submit their masters or doctoral research projects for ethics approval. Research ethics boards in Canada review and grant ethical approval for student research projects and often have to provide additional support to these novice researchers. Previous studies have explored curriculum content, teaching approaches, and the learning environment related to research ethics for graduate students. However, research does not exist that examines students' actual experience with the research ethics process. Qualitative description was used to explore the research ethics review experience of 11 masters and doctoral students in health discipline programs. Data analysis revealed four themes: curriculum, supervisor support, the ethics application process, and students' overall experience. The results of this research suggest ideas for enhancing curriculum, deepening students' relationships with supervisors, and developing the role of research ethics boards to support education for novice researchers. This study contributes

With the increase in mixed-racial parentage in North America comes increased scholarly activity intended to bring greater understanding to the biracial experience. Such efforts, while undoubtedly informative and helpful, fall short when set aside the actual narrative accounts of a biracial individual's life experience. In this paper I first explore the typical, negative, portrayal of the biracial experience found within social scientific literature, and then compare this with the narrative accounts of a biracial individual. Through this exercise it is shown that factors such as the specific racial parentage and socio-cultural context can have a positive effect on what usually is viewed as a problematic psychosocial experience.

Despite the significant number of transracial Aboriginal adoptions that have taken place in Canada, little research is available that addresses the psychological and psychosocial ramifications for the children involved. The scant literature that does exist raises concerns about the psychological impact of this type of adoption. The present research used narrative inquiry to bring greater understanding to the experiences of Aboriginal children raised in non Aboriginal families. The life stories of four Aboriginal adults who were adopted as children were gathered through audio - taped interviews. Seven “narrative threads” salient across the four participants’ life stories include: disconnection, passing, diversion, connection, surpassing, reconnection, and identity coherence.

Work-Related Parental Absence (WRPA) is common in contemporary family life. Industries such as aviation, fishing, logging, mining, and petroleum extraction all require the employee to work away from family from short to significant periods of time. In Canada’s petroleum industry, work schedules that involve parental absence are especially common. There has been ample research conducted on the impact of military deployment on families, some research on how mining families are impacted by WRPA, and a small amount of research on the effects of WRPA among offshore European petroleum workers and their families. However, there is no research currently available that investigates the impact of WRPA on Canadian oil and gas petroleum workers and their families. In this article, we share the results of a qualitative study that examined the experience of WRPA through interviewing 10 heterosexual couples. Use of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis identified a tripartite thematic structure consisting of positive, negative, and neutral aspects of the WRPA experience, which in turn were shaped by specific adaptive strategies undertaken by families. The results of this research provide important insights into a common, yet poorly understood, lifestyle within the Canadian employment landscape.