Browsing by Subject "Autoethnography"
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Item An autoethnography of working-class education(2013-04) Moyer, Krista E.This thesis tells the story of the author's elementary and secondary education in public school in southwestern Pennsylvania, through anecdotes and first-person narration. In analytical chapters, the author examines the events through the lens of critical literacy education theories, including those of Paolo Freire, Valerie Walkerdine, Timothy Lensmire, and others. With a particular emphasis on the ways in which social class influenced her education, she also examines the effect of the label "gifted" on her educational outcomes, including her participation in the Pennsylvania Governor's School program for intellectually gifted students. She concludes by considering the importance of education in the lives of working-class students who will not pursue intellectual career paths and offers advice to teachers for reaching these students.Item Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?: a journey toward a localized pedagogy for shared survival(2013-05) Hokanson, Aaron Rudolf MillerLike the children in the opening sequences of the original episodes of Sesame Street running into an empty lot and turning curbside trash into a trampoline, this is a document of a journey to discover a Sesame Street in localized contexts--the here and now, the everyday and mundane. Through the use of autoethnographic methods, I document a journey between the reality of my lived experiences, and the theorization of a pedagogical approach exemplified in those early episodes of Sesame Street. It is reflective work toward unsettling the spaces where and ways in which I have lived my life; work inspired by what Eve Tuck (2009b), a scholar and Native Alaskan, says is a necessary move from "damage-centered research" to "desire" centered research. This work is informed by decolonizing and indigenous literature (eg. Smith, 1999). In it I recognize I am complicit with, and a product of, historically racist colonial systems, that oppression is a result of the work of educators and researchers, as well as individuals and families--it is recognizable in the everyday experiences of non-marginalized communities as much as it can be seen in the damage done to marginalized communities. This is written with a deep faith in the possibilities people embody in all their difference, as well as sadness about the continuing action by individuals (myself and people I love included) that limit these possibilities. I believe that the strongest inclinations toward learning are present in everyday lives and relationships, that authentic learning emerges from a desire for people to be with other people. In this dissertation, I examine my complicity with oppressive action as I search for possibilities and narrate my attempts towards strategies of shared survival: reflection, relationships, shared experience, listening and love.Item Inside the Head of a Bad" Kid: An Autoethnographyof Adversity to Resilience"(2016-08) Laabs, BonnieAbstract This qualitative autoethnography explores how and why youth succeed and struggle in their personal and academic lives, through the lens of my own successes and struggles. Autoethnography as an analytical tool places value on the self-reflexive process of understanding. By working through my own childhood experiences and development as a person and a learner, I explore how my personal understanding of trauma impacts my methods for teaching the survival-based students who I now mentor as teacher. This study provides educators, therapists, and caregivers with a deeper understanding of trauma and resilience, from my personal experiences and professional analysis and application. Readers can implement insights from this study to guide young people towards an individual reflection of their experiences. This dissertation is a serious attempt to discover directions for success with trauma and behavior issues in schools. The different data sources and analysis techniques fit together to demonstrate how the experiences of childhood transition into the outcomes of adulthood. Most importantly, by shedding light on the intervention process, we can increase the odds for today’s struggling young people. This thesis travels chapter by chapter, alternating between memoir and analysis to ultimately conclude that lagging executive function skills can be strengthened through behavior intervention which will ultimately increase individual resilience.Item Life in Soma, Turkey, After the Mining Massacre of 2014: An Autoethonographic Account of Mental Health Relief Efforts to Affected Families(2017-12) Yumbul, CigdemOn May 13, 2014, an explosion occurred in the Eynez coal mine facility in Soma, Manisa, which killed 301 mine workers and injured 487 miners. An estimated 11,000 people, including the deceased miners’ families, friends, survivors and their families, search and rescue teams and first responders were assessed to be the potential risk groups, which may need psychosocial care. Union for Psychosocial Services in Disasters (APHB) launched Soma Solidarity Network Project (SOMADA) and established two centers in Soma and Dursunbey districts to deliver psychosocial support services to the affected communities. I lived and worked in Soma and Dursunbey for 11 months after the massacre as the project manager of SOMADA project. This autoethnographic dissertation is comprised of my observations of the impacted families and miners’ transformations following the massacre, and reflections on my experiences as a woman, mental health worker and researcher after 11 months of living and working in a trauma field. I used postmodern, feminist, critical and ecological lenses and analyzed personal journals, media statements, families’ speeches and social media to build a critical autoethnography while documenting my experiences. I presented a detailed documentation of mental health relief efforts post massacre and the operations carried at the centers as well as my reflections on the challenges and triumphs of the project. The observed psychosocial consequences of the massacre on the survivors, victims’ parents, children and wives highlighted the systemic causes and impacts of the massacre as well the possibility of post traumatic growth and resilience in the families if adequate psychological and social support and solidarity in the community are promoted.Item A Man's Search for Meaning in the Lives of Children with Intellectual Disability(2013-01-14) Martin, KevinThis thesis explores the concepts of resilience in families having children with intellectual disabilities. Key to this is the process of developing a reconstructed life narrative that includes a sense of purpose or meaning for the lives of the children with disabilities. The author explores his own reconstructed narrative for his two children who have intellectual disabilities and shows how that narrative has influenced decisions made regarding his children.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.