Education Commons^™

"Can You Just Move The Curtain?": Stories Of Women From The Educational Underclass At The College Door, Janet Kaplan-Bucciarelli

Educational Studies Dissertations

Although millions of adults with a high school diploma or GED need and want to further their education by attaining a postsecondary credential, the majority do not succeed. It is widely known that marginalized adult learners arrive at college academically underprepared and that they face numerous barriers to participation once they enroll. But very few studies look at adults’ life experiences, assets, and perspectives on college before they enroll—when they are still “at the college door.”

This qualitative study explores the stories of ten women (ages 29-56) in pre-college transition classes in the Northeast US, and how their familial, school, …

Text And Texture: An Arts-Based Exploration Of Transformation In Adult Learning: A Dissertation, Enid E. Larsen

Educational Studies Dissertations

This research explored the transformational and co-transformational potential of collage, assemblage and mixed media in an accelerated undergraduate adult course on imagination and creativity. The methods were qualitative and arts-based artist-teacher inquiry within a constructivist art class for ten, female adult learners. Informed by the researcher's living inquiry through visual auto-ethnography, a collagist methodology shaped the research, including syllabus construction, course delivery and data gathering. Process was an emergent and interpretative analytic tool, drawn from multiple perspectives of artwork and reflections by the students, and the multiple identities inherent to the artist-teacher researcher.