Browsing by Author "Catalpa, Jory"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Family Transitions: Ambiguous Loss And Self-Determination Among Transgender Youth(2016-05) Catalpa, JoryThis article examines 90 transgender-identified youth’s retrospective accounts about their parent-child relationships to uncover trans* youth’s experiences with family boundary ambiguity. Researchers recruited participants from community centers in ten regions, across three countries. Analyses were conducted qualitatively using ethnographic content analysis. Participants shared a number of stories about parent-child interactions surrounding gender nonconformity. Findings revealed participants’ perceptions of various forms of ambiguity were inherent in youth’s attempts to reconcile a drive for autonomy in developing an authentic trans* identity, and a drive for connectedness with their family of origin. Findings suggest the importance of generating scholarship that addresses the range of experiences trans* youth must navigate in the context of family, instead of dichotomizing experiences into a single experience of acceptance or rejection. Ambiguous loss theory, as a framework, captured complexity which helped to illuminate the reality of trans* youth’s lives-- the wins, losses, and ambivalence found therein.Item Queering Evaluation: An Autoethnographic and Phenomenological Analysis of a Peer-led Healthy Relationships Program Designed for Queer and Transgender Youth of Color(2020-07) Catalpa, JoryI use a queer theoretical, and multicultural feminist paradigm to queer evaluation methodology in the evaluation research conducted in this dissertation. Queering is an act of transforming, decentering, and disrupting social norms, reorienting focus towards subjectivities that mainstream society and research silences, erase, elides, and delegitimizes. My aim for this queering evaluation research is to offer Family Science and Evaluation Studies disciplines a conceptual and methodological framework for transformative assessment and scholarship. I accomplish my aim by highlighting two relationally- and experientially-based approaches to science, autoethnography, and phenomenology. Both studies elevate marginalized perspectives, decenter positivist paradigms, and disrupt evaluative and research norms. Through autoethnographic confessional tales in Study 1, I communicate my lived experiences and invite readers to sit with me in the backstage, where I focus the analysis on relational and structural underpinnings of program evaluation implementation. Throughout the work, I connect my standpoint to my research observations of Project CLEAR, the program I evaluated, as well as the organization that offered it. I position connections among self, self-as-researcher, and program participants within the context of healing from trauma and relational violence. Findings reveal tensions, failure, and growth within program stakeholder relationships. In Study 2, I interpreted and illuminated the life experiences of peer educators and the changes that occurred from their participation in Project CLEAR through a phenomenological lens. Peer educators are queer and transgender youth, and queer and transgender youth of color (QTYOC), aged 14-24. Findings highlight their experiences before, during, and their projected future orientation after Project CLEAR, revealing Project CLEAR’s efficacy to affect attitudinal, skill, knowledge, and behavioral changes. Finally, I discuss an emergent theory of change for Project CLEAR, suggest future directions for queering summative evaluation, and conclude with implications for healthy relationships programming and research with QTYOC.