Browsing by Subject "Transformative learning"
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Item ?Doin? Whatever I Had to Do to Survive?: A Study of Resistance, Agency, and Transformation in the Lives of Incarcerated Women(2013-04-23) Sandoval, Carolyn LThe number of women who are incarcerated has increased significantly in the past few decades. Originally designed to manage male offenders, jails and prisons are ill-equipped to address the unique needs of women inmates whose paths to incarceration often include histories of trauma, abuse, and addiction. This qualitative study investigated the lives of 13 women who while incarcerated at Dallas County Jail, participated in an educational program, Resolana. The purpose of this study was to understand the women?s lives prior to incarceration, as well as the impact of the program and changes they experienced, if any, as a result of what they were learning. Data were collected using semi-structured, life history interviews, and by engaging in field observations as a volunteer for each class for a period of one week. An in-depth analysis through a critical lens, using a holistic-content narrative analysis method, was done with one participant?s life history. The findings are presented as an ethnodrama illuminating the cultural, social, personal, and legal systems of oppression that she survived and that contributed to her path to incarceration. Analyzed through a lens of agency and resistance, the findings that emerged from an analysis of all the participant?s life histories reveal that the women?s criminalized actions were often survival responses. The women employed various strategies, both legal and illegal, in response to people or situations involving control, power or domination over their lives. An analysis of the women?s experiences with Resolana through a transformative learning theoretical framework indicates that the women experience transformation in various ways and to varying degrees. The learning environment served as a container in which transformative learning could be cultivated through opportunities for interpersonal and intrapersonal engagement. The results of this study reveal the need for more and targeted advocacy and education for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women. The results also indicate that the process and content of Resolana?s programming had a transformative impact on participants, and for some, the transformation was enduring. Finally, the results challenge definitions of criminal behavior in the context interlocking systems of oppression, and encourage thinking about alternatives to incarceration.Item Perspectives through play : playbuilding as participatory action research in arts-based professional development(2013-05) Martin, Noah James; Dawson, KathrynThis thesis document presents a case study of a professional development playbuilding process at a public elementary school located in Austin, Texas. The study argues that playbuilding is a form of participatory action arts-based research particularly when positioned within the professional development setting. This qualitative study uses a narrative thematic analysis of the playbuilding process and workshop performance to examine how reflective and reflexive practice is situated within playbuilding as professional development. The document concludes with a discussion of the limitations and transformative potential of playbuilding and argues for the creation of critical pedagogical professional learning communities for teachers in school settings.Item Political transformations: hearing Latina mothers' voices in the educational policymaking process(2004) Sobel, Andrew Dana; Scribner, Jay D.The purpose of this study is to develop a better understanding of the process of transformation of marginalized and disempowered parents into citizens active in the formulation of educational policy. These transformations are located at the intersection of Transformative Learning, an adult learning theory that uses critical reflection of beliefs and assumptions to produce a perceptual shift, and community organizing for urban school reform. This dissertation set out to document the transformation into civically active citizens of one of the most politically vulnerable groups in the United States: the working-class, working-poor, Latina woman. Understanding how some women from this group gain political power and influence educational policy is a counter-hegemonic project. The Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), a national group devoted to organizing for power, provides a learning environment and culture that foster such a transformation. The following questions guided this investigation: What changes in civic identity do parents undergo as they transform into citizens active in the formulation of educational policies at the district, city, and state levels? What strategies do parents use to become politically active in the context of educational policy formation at the district, city, and state levels? How do parents transform innate skills and knowledge into competencies necessary for political action? What experiences and attitudes turn a nonpolitical parent into a politically active citizen? The research methodology and design were qualitative in nature, utilizing an ethnographic approach to query the understandings of transformation for ten Latina mothers, four of which are presented in this study. Interviews with and observations of these women served as primary data collection methods. The emerging account of transformation is documented in four narrative portraits. Findings suggest a model consisting of five general concepts that describe the transformation that these women experienced, including: 1) the historical, sociocultural, and personal contexts; 2) a prior state of depoliticization; 3) two foundational processes which include the constant presence of disequilibria and the ongoing exploration of options for new roles, relationships, and actions; 4) four mediated experiences which include naïve participation, being recognized, understanding relationships, and becoming “un-grand- inquisited”; and 5) a final state of a transformed civic identity.Item The phenomenon of combinning service learning and study abroad: A qualitative inquiry(2012-05) Klein, Charles H.; Lawver, David; Meyers, Courtney; Ulmer, Jonathan; Laverie, DebbieService-learning is a form of experiential learning that incorporates rigorous academic curricula, valuable community serve, and critical reflection in order to enhance the learning process and promote civic engagement among college students. Study abroad is also a form of experiential learning that, through immersion in a foreign country, can help students to grow personally and academically as well as develop greater cultural awareness in preparation for becoming global citizens. Incorporating service-learning with study abroad results in a phenomenon that enhances and intensifies the experience for students, especially in increasingly popular short-term study abroad programs. This qualitative inquiry looks at six landscape architecture summer study abroad programs to Yucatán, Mexico from 2005 through 2010. The course topic was Community-Based Ecotourism and included design studios where students worked with rural Maya communities who wanted to develop low impact tourism projects. Qualitative data analysis included two sets of data; the students’ journals with their responses to Pre- and Post-Flection essay prompts, and transcripts of interviews with individuals seven years after their participation in the first program in 2005. Results indicate that students’ journaling after the trip shifted toward the higher level of Krathwohl’s affective domain. Indications are that the service-learning component played an important role in the shift. There were also indications that students valued community engagement as an important aspect of the programItem A transformative classroom experience : exploring campus mental health through theatre for dialogue(2015-05) Snyder, Spring Dawnaleaf; Dawson, Kathryn; Hoare, Lynn; Redd, KathrynThis MFA thesis document investigates the experience of participants in a Theatre For Dialogue: Exploring Perceptions of Mental Health course. During the fall of 2014, a small group of undergraduate and graduate students used the Voices Against Violence Theatre For Dialogue methodology to explore issues of student mental health at The University of Texas at Austin. Working from a feminist pedagogical framework, this qualitative study uses narrative thematic analysis to examine how key aspects of the semester-long course supported transformative learning and a shift in identity for each of the course participants. This document concludes with a discussion of limitations and recommendations for employing the Theatre For Dialogue methodology in university and community-based settings.