Education Commons^™

How I Obtained My Phd Admission Letter: A Reflective Interaction-Based Autoethnography, Qing Xu, Kei Wei Chia

The Qualitative Report

This account utilises autoethnography to explore how the “one-child generation’s” cultural context influences behaviours and character traits, focusing on the first author’s experiences during a 5-month doctoral program application. It examines interactions with the employer, unacquainted individuals, intermediaries, and family, encapsulated in three Episodes, to analyse the personality traits of this generation. The findings reveal that, though deeply rooted in traditional culture, character traits such as risk aversion, caution, and family dependency are not immutable. It highlights the potential for personal transformation through inward growth, proactive external engagement, and the support of families who challenge traditional norms. In terms of …

An Autoethnography Journey: Social And Emotional Learning In A Post-Covid Classroom, April Edwards

Masters Theses

In this autoethnography journey, we explore the question, "What resources are available for teachers to use to guide SEL instruction, and how effective are those resources post-pandemic?" Post-COVID-19 pandemic, we noticed that our students needed more social interaction time in the classroom. Student behaviors increased alongside teacher frustration. Districts immediately began to see this struggle in the school systems and the growing concern from parents and teachers. Our children were not taught how to respectfully express their social and emotional needs due to the lack of opportunity to practice with others. During this study, we found that teachers …

Photovoice Gives Students A Voice, Lynne Meade

TFSC Publications and Presentations

Students often struggle with ways to turn their experiences into meaningful stories. Photovoice is a way to use photography for positive social change and to help people tell their stories. I used Photovoice to help students process the uncertainty of moving back home when the university switched to remote in Spring 2020. Since I teach public speaking, I used those stories to teach public speaking skills as well.
For example, one prompt I used was “an unexpected use of something.” I showed them a small hand weight that I used as a doorstop. I took creative pictures of the weight …

Learning To Disclose: A Journey Of Transracial Adoption Teaching Resource, Joni Schwartz

Open Educational Resources

This textbook guide for the book Learning to Disclose: A Journey of Transracial Adoption by Joni Schwartz & Rebecca Schwartz, November 2020 published by the Peter Lang Group. This teaching aid accompanies the text. This teaching aid was created by Alejandro Toro as part of an LIB 220, Spring 1 research course project. It is submitted with his written permission.

Unraveling A Lifetime Of Racism And Sexism: An Autoethnography Of The Educational Journey From Kindergarten To Doctoral Education For An African American Woman, Sandy Lee Barney-Inniss

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Audre Lorde’s (1984) essay titled “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” is suitable for describing the intent and rationale for this research. My purpose was to use my voice to interpret experiences that assisted in dismantling the master’s house (dominant group) by sharing insights and unraveling the layers (onion peels as a metaphor) of my experiences with race, gender, and age on my academic journey to complete my doctoral degree at a predominantly White university to report a truth that denies the context of power and race in our society.

Higher education continues to wrestle with addressing …

An Examined Life Of A Language Teacher Of Chinese: An Autoethnographic Investigation Into Agency, Ying Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

There is a paucity of research about and done by L2 Chinese educators regarding the theoretical construct of agency. It is also noted that the qualitative inquiry is marginalized in L2 Chinese research field, let alone the narrative study of the agency of experienced by L2 Chinese-teachers. In this dissertation research, I aim at filling in the gap by conducting a longitudinal autoethnography which captures over a decade (1997-2017) of my personal and professional development with an agency perspective. The highly personalized autoethnographic accounts open up my personal and professional life as an experienced, college-level, transnational, early 40’s female native …

Unspoken Barriers: An Autoethnographic Study Of Frustration, Resistance And Resilience, Rose M. Wake

The Qualitative Report

Immigration, cultural capital, cultural hybridity are the contributing players within my autoethnographic research as a second-generation daughter of southern Italian migrants from the post war era. This autobiography of my lived experience identifies contributing influences of arrested development within my educational and life trajectory and explores theoretical frameworks as key comparative indicators for my thwarted stages of psychosocial development. My identity and role as a female is further explored within the construct of a determined and culturally hybrid adolescence in an effort to answer research questions of identity and role confusion. My narratives situate my life as a daughter, student, …

Remedying Hermeneutic Injustice One Poem At A Time: A Review Of The Little Orange Book: Learning About Abuse From The Voice Of The Child, Alec J. Grant Phd

The Qualitative Report

This remarkable book tackles child sexual abuse and exploitation, arguing that blame and accountability belong to its perpetrators. It draws on thematic content analysis and autoethnographic principles and is methodologically novel in utilising the poetry of the first author, written in childhood, as primary data. An important international educational and practical resource, it should be on the shelves of university libraries, informing courses in social work, criminology, health and qualitative inquiry. It is also a much needed knowledge resource for abuse survivors and their advocates, remedying what the moral philosopher Miranda Fricker calls “hermeneutic injustice”: abused people lacking the knowledge …

Through Army-Colored Glasses: A Layered Account Of One Veteran’S Experiences In Higher Education, Phillip A. Olt

The Qualitative Report

There is a lack of research on military veterans in higher education that captures the issues from an insider’s perspective. To that end, I sought to reflect upon my own experiences with higher education as military veteran—from a budding recruit all the way through to now being an administrator and faculty member. I utilized a layered-account autoethnographic approach (Ronai, 1995) to interrogate my multiple perspectives that developed over time on veterans’ issues in higher education. I found that the GI Bill—the modern iteration of the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944—was a powerful motivator both in starting my military career and …

I, Too, Am A Woman: An Emancipatory Text On The Intersections Of Race, Gender, And Sexuality, Michelle M. Allen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This inquiry builds upon Black Feminism and Critical Race Feminist frameworks by exploring the juxtaposition between Black Women and Queer Black Women. It is also an exploration of the similarities between Queer Black Women and Black Women and how they interact with femininity and masculinity, patriarchy, and heteronormativity. Claiming digital space through podcasting, it honors the power of counter narratives by employing autoethnographical story telling. It examines the multivalent ways in which critical geographies, safe spaces, and homeplaces nurture or alienate Black Women on the basis of sexual orientation, gender performance, race, and social class. Employing tenets of Black Feminist …

Helpers And Heroes, Hurdles And Highs: A Humanistic Autoethnographical Reflection On Working Class Student Experiences, Willey A. B. Dow

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research sought to answer the question of what helps working class university students at risk of withdrawal graduate from their program. An autoethnographic method was employed to systematically analyze my story, one of being a working class person navigating the higher educational system, compare the results to existing psychological research, and generate new themes, and ideas in the hope of ameliorating the experience, and increasing the likelihood of success for others. Themes, conclusions and implications for students were presented.

Learning To Disclose: A Post Colonial Autoethnography Of Transracial Adoption, Joni Schwartz, Rebecca Schwartz

Publications and Research

This autoethnographic research project examines the transformational learning of a transracial adoptive adult mother and daughter through the lens of postcolonialism. As collaborative researchers, adult adoptee and adoptive mother, examine this lifelong learning experience through critical self-reflection, qualitative meta-analysis, and autoethnographic research methods within the overarching historical and sociopolitical context of Haiti. The findings address the lived complexities of increasingly hybrid families, particularly around the contentious boundaries of race, nationality, and colonial history, as they impact transformational learning. Color blindness and racial identity development for both mother and daughter within their relationship are explored. Implications for adult educators around the …

“It Was Like Really Uncomfortable But Kind Of Comfortable”: An Ethnographically-Informed Radio Play Of Adult Esl Classes With Educational Drama, Won Kim

Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice

This chapter explores possibilities and challenges of educational drama-based second language instruction for adult emergent bilingual learners. A part of the key findings from an ethnographic multiple case study of four adult ESL classes with educational drama in Canada will be represented, using playwriting as a means to uncover diverse nuanced insights and reflexive understandings of the phenomenon under investigation. The primary purpose of this ethnographically-informed radio play script is to serve as reflexive, dynamic, and artistic expressions that speak (about and to) students’ voices concerning their learning experiences in the course as heard/felt/perceived by the researcher as a participant …