Browsing by Subject "Identity"
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Item Aesthetic expressions: punk dress and the workplace.(2010-11) Sklar, MonicaWork and non-work dress for individuals who identify with the punk subculture involves thoughtful manipulation of appearance. This study asked: What are punk individuals’ experiences concerning the apparel-bodyconstruct for their workplace environments? These individuals negotiate between aesthetic expressions of their subcultural identity and the role they believe they are expected to play at work. An online survey with 208 individual participants identified interview candidates. Participant suitability was based on fulltime employment, selfidentification with punk, demographics, workplace dress codes, and evidence of appearance labor (Peluchette, Karl, & Rust 2006). Interviews were conducted with 20 men and women, aged 26 – 45, and located in three major cities in the Midwestern United States. Interviewee professions ranged from law to education to sales. Interview topics included: commitment to punk and their profession, concern for others’ impressions, and aesthetic details. Data were analyzed using DeLong’s (1998) framework “Form, Viewer, and Context.” Literature incorporated punk dress, workplace dress, aesthetics, identity expression, postmodernism and globalization. All interviewees try to look “appropriate” for the workplace, which can be an obstacle for those whose dress expresses an ideology. Interviewees expressed that feeling “appropriate” and feeling like “oneself” are sometimes competing concepts, resulting in appearance labor and necessitating accommodations. Interviewees reported a balancing act of blending in and standing out, taking into consideration viewer interpretations and subsequent positive and negative outcomes. Efforts to wear “appropriate” dress included modifying one’s punk appearance by conceding to dress codes and using perceived nonconfrontational aesthetic choices. Dress is manipulated per context and features selectively revealing or concealing of punk symbols, with punk cues subtly coded to appear conventional. Some individuals develop two wardrobes representing work and non-work while others prefer one versatile wardrobe. Interviewees strive to push with the boundaries of workplace appropriateness while reaching toward satisfying aesthetic self-expression. How interviewees manipulate form was influenced by demographics and feelings of commitment to one’s profession. Multiple interviewees expressed a willingness to forego punk dress if their career incorporated ideas from punk ideology. They reported higher emotional comfort related to job satisfaction and status within the punk community and in the workplace.Item Analyzing Sponsorship Outcomes across the Sports Industry(2017-11) Moore, ChristopherThe purpose of this study was to examine the impact of identity and goodwill on the effectiveness of sponsorship in terms of attitudes and purchase intentions (sponsorship outcomes) across three different sponsorship categories (a professional sport organization, a nonprofit organization and a cause-related organization). Data were collected using an online survey distributed across ten different classes at the University of Minnesota (N = 191). Participants were randomly assigned a survey about one of the three sponsorship categories and a hypothetical sponsorship. Participants were then asked questions about their organizational identity and goodwill towards the sponsee, followed by questions about their purchase intentions and attitudes towards the hypothetical sponsor. The results showed that identity and goodwill did in fact influence sponsorship outcomes. These variables were also influenced by the sponsorship categories. In addition, the findings suggest that sponsorship categories were statistically significant to purchase intentions. Furthermore, the findings suggest that goodwill mediates a relationship between sponsorship categories and purchase intentions. This study suggests that sport managers should leverage their organization’s identity and goodwill to attract more sponsors with a higher return on investment than other forms of marketing.Item Assembling the Orthodox Soul: Practices of Religious Self-Formation among Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy(2013-07) Winchester, Daniel AlanThis dissertation is the result of a multi-sited ethnographic study of contemporary conversions to Eastern Orthodox Christianity in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region of Minnesota. Theoretically, this case study of Orthodox conversions is utilized as a way to better approach and account for the phenomenon of religious self-formation, here defined as the process by which social actors, with the aid and encouragement of others, incorporate aspects of a religious tradition into their own subjective experiences and self-interpretations. Through talking, interacting, and practicing with Orthodox Christian converts, this study provides answers to how individuals come to inhabit and experience a religious system as a personal reality, making a particular construal of the religious world a formative part of how they experience themselves as persons. While the empirical details are necessarily confined to the ethnographic case at hand, central to this dissertation is a wider claim that coming to grips with the question of how religious cultural systems enter into the lived experiences of individuals requires a better understanding of the constitutive effects of religious practices on those who perform them. Moreover, through detailed analyses of three significant religious practices and their phenomenological effects on the converts who participated in them, I demonstrate how these constitutive relationships between particular religious practices and subjectivities unfolded over time and in context, extending cross-disciplinary literatures on religious narrative, embodiment, and materiality.Item Asserting Identity: An Examination of American Indian and Alaskan Native Professionals’ Experiences with Identity and Context(2019-12) Gagner, NoahThe enduring impacts of colonization on American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) people are evident in the significant physical and mental health disparities that they face. Efforts advanced by AI/AN professionals within these communities have led to improvements, but challenges remain in addressing said disparities in manners that are contextually- and culturally- situated. It is thereby important to understand the experiences, meaning making, and perceptions of AI/AN professionals who are engaging in this work. Guided by constructive grounded theory, the researcher interviewed 10 AI/AN professionals who are employed in urban agencies that promote the health and well-being Native people. Using this methodology, the ways in which culture, community, and career shape personal and professional identities vis-a-vis one’s career were explored. These findings show an emerging understanding of the importance of peers, education, and community in shaping – and providing context for – each individual’s self-determined identity, and how this reciprocally influences work in AI/AN communities. These findings support the need to address and evolve our grasp of culture and character within the context of one’s profession and the community she/he/they serve. By extending our current understanding of these intersections and by creating structures that support culture and identity, this research offers an emerging theory to improve future professionals’ preparation in their support of AI/AN communities.Item Battlecat Then, Battlecat Now: Temporal Shifts, Hyperlinking and Database Subjectivities(University of Minnesota, 2004) Jarrett, KylieItem Because I Write: A Teacher-Writer Teaches Writing(2018-11) Baker, JodiWriting enhances learning and is recognized as being essential; however, writing is neglected in research, teacher preparation and in classrooms. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the majority of students are not proficient at writing. Teachers are often uncomfortable teaching writing because of its complexity, because they lack support or expertise, or because they are not writers themselves. Teachers who identify as writers can bring their knowledge about writing into the classroom. The focus of this study was to deeply understand the pedagogy of a 6th grade teacher-writer. Through seven weeks of daily participation and observations during writing instruction, ethnographic methods were employed to explore how an elementary teacher-writer teaches writing, how an elementary teacher’s writing identity impacts writing instruction and influences student writers, and how identifying as a writer contributes to a teacher’s ability to navigate multiple writing discourses to make informed pedagogical decisions. Prominent themes revealed that the teacher-writer’s instruction honored students’ agency and empowerment, embraced vulnerability, and incorporated reflective practice. The teacher-writer negotiated standards, district curriculum, literacy experts’ theories, students’ needs, and her own writing experiences. Based on the teacher’s dynamic pedagogy, I define a new term, “writing capital,” as the knowledge, experiences, and embodiment teacher-writers draw upon to plan and teach writing. Students identified strongly as writers and named their teacher’s writing and writing identity as influential factors. This study contributes to growing interest in how teachers’ writing identities impact writing instruction and students’ writing identities. Results suggest that teacher preparation programs and professional development should incorporate opportunities for educators to explore and develop writing identities, and writing curriculum should include opportunities for teachers to share their writing and writing lives with students.Item Cooperating teachers' lived expectations in student teaching; a critical phenomenologicale exploration of identity infusing arts-based research(2014-09) Weiss, Tamara RaeThrough an examination of the identity of the cooperating teacher, this study interrogates the relationships that exist between the pedagogical and the practical in pre-service teacher education, specifically within the phenomenon of student teaching. An investigation of the lifeworld of the cooperating teacher, exclusively through her use of language, reveals the experience of living one's expectations for another (the student teacher). Through a close examination of the identity of the cooperating teacher as mentor, a complex and dynamic relationship between two people is revealed, comprised of a myriad of power implications. To understand what it means to be a cooperating teacher is to understand the meaning structures that have come to restrict, challenge, or question the nature of mentoring and, consequently, student teaching. This study takes investigative and analytical methodologies towards a more nuanced approach to performing research, specifically through Mark Vagle's post-intentional phenomenology, Gunther Kress's multimodal discourse analysis, Norman Fairclough's critical discourse analysis, and critical arts-based research in the style of Postcolonial activist artist, Jean Michel Basquiat. The result becomes multimodal critical discourse analysis- visual critical paintings that: 1) Challenge the dominant notion of research as that of written or spoken language and 2) Interrogate the power positions revealed in and through the language of the cooperating teacher participants.Item Engaging the dialectic: managerial resistance to change and innovation in corporate America.(2012-07) Chermack, KellyThis dissertation examines the implementation of FREE, an innovation-based, organization-wide workplace flexibility initiative. Through FREE, the company experienced a massive re-structuring to how, when, and where work was done. From its very inception in the company, the FREE concept critiqued and criticized current norms and assumptions about work in corporate America. During FREE training sessions, managers, in particular, began to oppose and resist the rollout. Evident from fieldwork and ethnographic observations of these training sessions, a dialectic model of change fostered a dialectic model of resistance. Resistance emerged at three levels of abstraction: macro, meso, and micro. Analyses indicate that through the operation of these dialectic processes, managers resisted the very idea of changing work on a grad scale, changes in actual work practices, and/or the change agents. In addition, this resistance prompted changes to the change implementation process and FREE, itself, began to change. This dissertation suggests that resistance to change is rooted in conceptualizations of identity and representations of the self in and out of the organization. This work also proposes that resistance to change bears a significant impact on the implementation of the change, so much so that the implementation adapted over time.Item Experiments on identity, theft and mitigation strategies.(2011-06) Pecenka, Clinton JosephThis dissertation uses a series of taking games to examine theft, identity and mitigation strategies.Item An exploration of conservation decision making by farmers of the Red River Basin, Minnesota: the role of values, identity, and perceived behavioral control(2014-12) Perry, Vanessa MarieThis study explores the relationship between values, identity, and perceived behavioral control and their influence on agricultural conservation decision making. Twenty-four qualitative interviews were conducted with farmers and agricultural landowners in two Minnesota sub-watersheds of the Red River Basin. Study findings reveal participants hold values and identities consistent with natural resource conservation. However, they also perceive an inability to act in accordance with their values and identities. This research builds on other farmer behavior studies by investigating perceived control as a moderator of conservation behavior. A better understanding of farmer decision making will enable land managers, resource professionals, and policy makers to enhance conservation initiatives and interventions by addressing constraints to conservation action. Programs and policies more closely aligned with farmer values and identities and providing a greater sense of control will be better received by farmers and agricultural producers.Item Finding Purpose: Identifying Factors that Motivate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender College Student Engagement at a Two-Year Institution(2016-08) Anderson, JeffreyIn recent decades, the lives of gay Americans have been pushed to the center stage of political and cultural debate. Bearing the brunt of much of this discourse are high school and college-aged LGBT youth. In spite of, and perhaps in response to, the attacks they often experience, LGBT college students are investing energy in campus activities such as queer student groups and organizations. This study sought to identify, through both qualitative and quantitative methods, the factors that motivate students at a two-year community college to become involved in a campus LGBT student organization. An anonymous survey was completed by 31 students with varying levels of involvement with the student organization. Five dominant themes, Community, Identity, Safety, Education, and Civic Engagement, were identified as motivators for ten students that participated in interviewed for the study. In addition, faculty and staff were interviewed with the goal of deciphering how closely administrative views of campus climate matched those of student study participants, with discussion framed by the five motivation themes. The results of this study provide a glimpse into the lives of queer students at a two-year institution, a population that is vastly under-represented in existing empirical literature. Queer development theories and literature that explores topics such as college student engagement, cultural diversity, and campus climate are applied to the study results. The findings’ implications for higher education professionals are presented, along with recommendations for researchers who seek a greater understanding of queer students at two-year institutions and what motivates them to be involved in campus activities that are tied to their orientation and identity.Item Hmong American College Women's Experiences of Parent-Child Relationships(2013-07) Peng, ShulingThis qualitative study examines the parent-child relationships of Hmong American college women. Fourteen women in their junior or senior year from five Midwestern colleges or universities participated in the study. Symbolic interaction theory was used as a guiding framework and a phenomenological method was employed to understand the Hmong American college women's lived experiences of independence from and closeness to their parents and the perception of their role and identity in their interactions with parents. Analyses of the interviews revealed seventeen domains in total under three primary themes, including (1) I am more independent, (2) I am closer to my parents, (3) I am struggling to find a balance. The emerging developmental task for these college-age Hmong American women is to successfully negotiate roles and identities while balancing both cultures. Implications of the study are also discussed.Item Hold the Line at 99: Reflections of Identity, Race, and Relationships in the Professional and Educational Experiences of Retired Teachers of Color(2018-05) Yeboah, MaryAbstract The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the reflections of identity, race, and relationships in the professional and educational experiences of retired African American teachers. The findings contribute knowledge to the field of education about how race mediates collegial relationships through identifying how racialized dynamics are remembered and understood by African American teachers within the context of their careers over time. The study amplifies the voices of Black educators in historically White-dominated professional and academic spaces. The stories and perspectives of retired African American public school teachers about their teaching careers can be a starting point for seeing, understanding, and appreciating the complexities and nuances of promoting racially just organizational dynamics in US public schools. Through this phenomenological study, I answered the following questions: 1. In what ways do retired African American public school teachers describe the historical and contemporary context of US race relations in schools and in society, and the implications for urban public schools, especially in relation to their own work? 2. In what ways do retired African American public school teachers conceptualize their personal identities and collegial relationships in the context of their workplaces over time? 3. In what ways did retired African American urban public school teachers evaluate how, when, and why race was talked about, if at all, either formally or informally in schools? I organized the findings of this study into three main themes that emerged during individual interviews with ten retired African American public school teachers in Chicago and the greater Chicago area. The themes include: 1) the perpetuation of the myth of racial progress: national-level racism; 2) the problem of racial segregation for schools and societies: school-level racism; and 3) the potential of relational networks for enhancing racial justice: prospects for change. The findings demonstrate that strengthening teacher relationships through facilitated cross-racial dialogue may be important for improving the professional experiences of African American teachers and ultimately for addressing systemic injustices as a way forward for accomplishing racial justice in schools and society. Key Words: cross-racial, social networks, identity, dialogue, professional developmentItem Identity Development of Somali College Student(2017-08) Adam, JamalWhile there has been a considerable research on college students’ experiences and identity development, there is a gap on literature on immigrant college students and their collegiate experiences. This scarcity of knowledge on immigrant students has deleterious effect on these students’ academic success and psychosocial wellbeing. This is particularly critical at a time when these students face multiple and intersecting marginalizations because of their racial, ethnic, religious identities. This dissertation examines the identity development of Somali college students and how its impacted by the overlapping contextual environments in which their lives are embedded. The dissertation project uses qualitative method. Using in-depth semi-structured interviews and grounded theory constructivist methodology, data collection and analyses were conducted in tandem. Findings suggest the presence of four salient dimensions of racial, ethnic, religious and gender identity as well as meanings associated with each dimension. Racial identity was associated with experiences of political subjectivities as Blacks struggling for equality in a racialized society whereas ethnic identity was associated solidarity and belonging informed by diasporic experiences of longing and memories of participants’ ancestral homeland, Somalia. Religious identity, owing to racialization of Islam in media and society, was associated with experiences that mirrored their racial identity while gender identity was associated sense of individual agency that challenged gender norms in Somali culture. These four dimensions of identity often intersected in ways that either amplified or erased an aspect of identity. In each of these dimensions, participants contrasted their experiences as second-generation immigrants with those of their first-generation parents.Item Identity In Mathematics Spaces For Middle And High School Students: A Case Study Approach To The Revealing Of Identities In Formal And Informal Mathematics Spaces(2020-05) Gullickson, ElenaIt is acceptable and commonplace in society to proclaim a discomfort and dislike for mathematics. However, mathematics continues to be a gatekeeper for participation in westernized academic spaces (Moses and Cobb, 2002). When looking at the normative structures that exist in schooling systems, much can be learned from the voices and behaviors of students. This research provides critical information for effectively inviting students to participate in mathematical settings such that they choose to reveal their authentic identities. As defined in this research, identity is socially constructed, fluid, and multi-dimensional (Barton, Tan, & Rivet, 2008; Bishop, 2012; Nasir, 2002). Using the theoretical frameworks of funds of identity (Esteban-Guitart & Moll, 2014), mathematics identity (Bishop, 2012; Gutiérrez, 2013; Martin, 2013) and power, agency, and resistance (Chambers et al., 2014, Emirbayer & Mische, 1998; Foucalt, 1982), this research interrogates the ways that middle and high school students reveal their identities in mathematics spaces. This research investigated the identity emergings of two eighth grade students and three eleventh grade students using case study methodology drawing from critical ethnographic practices. Data for this study came from observing students in both formal and informal mathematics settings and from semi-structured interviews. The findings from this study revealed six themes and four implications that contribute to the body of literature on student identity and reframe mathematical pedagogies and practices to be more appealing to all students.Item Identity in the Classroom: Teaching Voices from the Gaps(Voices from the Gaps, 2004) Schmid, ChristinaItem Identity profiles and psychological adjustment among adopted Korean American adolescents(2012-08) Reichwald, Reed TylerDrawing upon social identity and intersectionality theories and research, I conducted a person-centered, multi-informant study of 158 pairs of adopted Korean American adolescents (AKAA) and their adoptive parents. Using cluster analytic procedures, I examined AKAA' patterns of identification across multiple social domains (ethnic, racial, and adoptive identities). The obtained clusters were validated empirically by comparing groups along relevant variables (e.g., engagement in ethnic and racial socialization, dissatisfaction with racial appearance, birth family interest, perceived discrimination, colorblind attitudes, diversity in friendship networks) on which they would be expected to differ . Finally, I examined the association between these identity profiles and psychological adjustment, including behavioral development and other measures of well-being. Results revealed the emergence of six conceptually unique identity clusters that differed significantly on the various validity constructs measured. However, the identity profiles were largely undifferentiated with respect to behavioral development per parent and adolescent reports on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ, Goodman, 1997). Group differences were found on broad psychological outcomes including life satisfaction, perceived school belongingness and peer competence, and school interest and motivation. Results confirm the importance of considering the collective impact of multiple social identities on a variety of outcomes.Item Identity relativity: linking stereotype threat and social comparison as parallel processes.(2009-09) Russ, Suzanne L.Academic achievement gaps across racial, socioeconomic, and gender groups have persisted in the United States despite formidable recent attention on reducing the disparities. While a wide range of social, personal, and cultural factors contribute to the disparities, the simple knowledge that one belongs to a poorly-performing, stereotyped group can impair performance for even very successful members of stereotyped groups. This phenomenon is known as stereotype threat, and has been documented extensively over more than a decade of research. This study sought to elucidate the underpinnings of stereotype threat through the lens of identity relativity, suggesting that dissonance between and among identities contribute to performance deficits under different levels of identity activation. The hypothesis that stereotype threat is a type of social comparison operating under collective rather than individual identity activation was tested: an experiment was conducted in which test performance and three levels of self-esteem (implicit, explicit, and collective) served as dependent measures after activation of either an intergroup or interpersonal comparison. Subjects included community college students, about whom mild stereotypes are shown to exist. While some predictions were supported, the overall pattern of results did not support the hypotheses. Discussion builds that case that the hypotheses were valid but the methods used to investigate the phenomenon were flawed. Recommendations for redesigning the study are proposed. If the connection between stereotype threat and social comparison can be established, then research in both areas can be used to minimize detrimental comparisons and narrow the gap associated with pervasive negative stereotypes.Item If you're ESL, can you be anything else?: exploring the local production of ESL students(2013-06) Rambow, Adam C.In the field of education, there are numerous categories that identify students based on their abilities and aptitudes. Two such terms are "ESL" and "gifted." However useful these labels are for the purposes of identifying students' needs and creating instructional programs, the fact remains that they are also steeped in hegemonic discourses surrounding learner identity (Lightfoot, 2001; Schulz, 2005). Therefore, it is crucial to examine how these broad institutional categories are produced locally. Employing the theoretical frames of disciplinary technology (Foucault, 1977), cultural production (Levinson & Holland, 1996) and figured worlds (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner & Cain, 1998), this ethnographic study explores how teachers and students in a single middle-school classroom, through their daily practices, created a specific, local understanding of what it meant to be "ESL." Findings indicate that in this classroom, the teachers were aware of the social stigma their students faced by being labeled ESL. Part of their strategy to counteract this stigma involved using the language and artifacts of the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program (IBMYP) to position their students as gifted. The teachers encouraged their students to adopt habits associated with a gifted identity; however, many of these habits were related to maintaining order in the classroom and positioning the students as "docile bodies" (Foucault, 1977). The process was fraught with contradictions, but ultimately opened up the possibility for students to reposition themselves as both ESL and gifted. Little research exists on the way that the institutional category ESL is locally produced in classrooms. There is even less research on how the IBMYP program is implemented in schools with large contingents of linguistically diverse students. Given the disparate implications for academic success that accompany the labels "ESL" and "gifted," this study begins to bridge a gap in an important area.Item In the shadow of removal:historical memory, Indianness, and the Tellico Dam Project.(2011-05) Gilmer, Robert A.From 1963 to 1979 a series of controversies raged over the Tennessee Valley Authority's proposal to build the Tellico Dam on the Little Tennessee River in eastern Tennessee, a region haunted by the legacy of Cherokee Removal. Throughout this period conservation organizations, local landowners, and the Tennessee Valley Authority all sought the support of the three federally recognized Cherokee nations in their efforts. Not only was the valley home to the endangered snail darter, a small species of perch, but it was also considered sacred by many Cherokee Indians, as well as historically important. But many Cherokee political leaders were reluctant to side with the environmentalists. Some feared doing so would disrupt their otherwise cordial relationship with the TVA, others feared that they would become too identified with radicalism---be it American Indian radicalism or environmental radicalism, and others simply distrusted the motives of environmentalists and feared that they only wanted their support to use of the image of the "ecological Indian" to lend legitimacy to their environmental concerns, rather than protect the sites that were of importance to the Cherokee people. Additionally, changing conceptions of American Indians shaped how others, such as displaced farmers with Cherokee ancestry and commercial developers, utilized Indianness in relation to the project. This dissertation examines the struggles between non-Indians and Cherokees, and amongst Cherokees themselves, over how their identity as Indians would be defined and used within the context of the environmental and Red Power movements during the 1960s and 70s. Underlying these contests over Cherokee identity was the legacy of the 19th century removal of Cherokees from the region. Removal fractured the Cherokee Nation into three separate nations, each with its own history, identity, and strategies for sovereignty. Removal also had a diasporic effect on some Cherokees, pulling them out of the nation and into surrounding non-Indian communities, ultimately laying the groundwork for a late twentieth century resurgence of claims to Indian identity. And finally, the memory of removal also gave Cherokees and non-Indians a powerful tool for garnering public support for their cause. Drawing on methods from history and ethnography, my research explores the multiple meanings individuals and groups assigned to "Indianness" and how those ideas not only shaped their reaction to the proposed Tellico Project, but also how those ideas were shaped by changing discourses about the environment, environmentalists, and American Indians during that time period.
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