Browsing by Subject "narrative"
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Item A Narrative Approach to the Philosophical Interpretation of Dreams, Memories, and Reflections of the Unconscious Through the Use of Autoethnography/Biography(2012-07-16) Rivera Rosado, AntonioThe purpose of the present study aimed to develop a comprehensive model that measures the autoethnographic/biographic relevance of dreams, memories, and reflections as they relate to understanding the self and others. A dream, memory, and reflection (DMR) ten item questionnaire was constructed using aspects of Freudian, Jungian, and Lacanian Theory of Dream Interpretation. Fifteen dreams, five memories, and five reflections were collected from the participant at the waking episode or during a moment of deep thought. The DMR analysis was used as the prime matter for creating a narrative document that uses autoethnography and autobiography to deliver a philosophical story about the unconscious reality of the participant. The results of the dissertation study produced a ten section narrative document titled The Shadow of Joaquin that portrayed the benchmarks of the life of the participant that led him to the completion of a doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction. At the final section of the narrative document the postmodern philosophical theory of Labor Percolation is proposed by the researcher as a direct result of the DMR analysis.Item Navigating static: A layered autoethnographic account of family identity and televisionMerritt, Kelsey Lane; Bolen, Derek M; Madero, Flor L; Salisbury, Micheal W; Eoff, Shirley MIn this thesis, I write to explore lived realities of family life, identity development, and the influence of television. I inquire into the constructed television narratives and realities we consume in our daily life. I use reflexive, aesthetic, critical, personal narrative to document personal and political aspects of family and identity development experienced in the shadow of television realities. I offer my stories with hopes to create space for discourse on carefully constructed, easily consumed, television narratives shared and reintegrated into family and personal culture through relational watching. We are consciously and unconsciously embodying and recreating these television narratives in our daily lives. I write resistance and recognition of how doing autoethnography allows for reflexion and critical thought on the impact television narratives have accumulated over a lifetime.Item Navigating the tension between the master narrative of the academy and the counter-narrative of reform: personal case studies from within an engineering education coalition(Texas A&M University, 2006-08-16) Merton, PrudenceThis qualitative study inquired into the personal experience of three engineering professors and one associate dean who participated in an engineering education coalition??the Foundation Coalition??a National Science Foundation-funded project which attempted to reform undergraduate engineering curricula at six U.S. institutions of higher education. Through analysis of occupational life histories, and data from a larger study of curricular change processes, two dominant social narratives emerged. Cultural attributes of academia were conceptualized as a master narrative. The reform effort emerged as a counter-narrative by calling for a ??culture change?? in engineering education. I describe five areas where the counter-narrative challenged the master narrative: the rationale and need for educational change, the nature of faculty work, disciplinary relationships, relationships among faculty, and the incentive and reward system. The counter-narrative of reform promoted curricular and pedagogical change, more interdisciplinary and integrated foundations for engineering education, and encouraged partnerships and community over faculty isolation and autonomy. The counter-narrative challenged faculty complicity with the master narrative and offered alternative ways of viewing their role as faculty in higher education. The master and counter-narratives clashed over the nature of faculty work in research universities, fueling the ongoing debate about the relative value of research and teaching and the associated reward system. This study found that the four participants used different strategies to navigate the conflict between the two social narratives. One participant was informed by an ideal vision of engineering education, and never relinquished the quest for an opportunity to realize that vision. Another professor, energized by the collaborative environment created by the Coalition, continued to find creative avenues to partner with others to improve engineering education. A third participant worked, through compromise and accommodation, to craft an improved curriculum that worked within the local institutional culture. And finally, an associate dean, who rejected the duality of the master/counter-narrative worldview, reframed the reform effort by encouraging faculty working in educational change to view their work as scholarship. The findings from this study support faculty engagement in the scholarship of teaching and learning and encourage faculty developers to find ways of supporting faculty in that effort.Item Negotiating Worlds, Managing Subjectivities, and Redefining Selves: The Lived Experiences of African American Undergraduate Females at Predominately White Institutions(2011-02-22) Allen, Ayana Ma-ElA narrative analysis of the lived experiences of seven undergraduate African American females at Predominately White Institutions (PWIs) is presented in this study. The purpose of the study was to explore the ways the seven women constructed their identity and self-concept in the context of their PWI environment. Other key purposes of the study included strategies in which the women successfully negotiated their PWI environments and the influence of the intersection of race, gender, and class on the collegiate and life experiences of these African American undergraduate females. The framework which was conceptualized from previous literature portrayed the historical context of the African American woman?s struggle for educational access as both Black and female, her life on campus, tools for success, and the identity development of African American women. Critical Race and Black Feminist theoretical frameworks, were the foundation for the study. Through these theoretical lenses, the study looked closely at the academic, social, and cultural climate on PWI campuses and the impact of these factors on the identity development and self-concept of the women in this study. The research methodology of narrative analysis was used and resulted in the emergence of three key findings in this study. The findings indicate that African American undergraduate females at PWIs engage in negotiating worlds, managing subjectivities, and redefining selves as they make meaning and walk out their individual lived experiences as students on Predominately White campuses.Item Speaking the unspeakable: emotional expressions of identity within journals(Texas A&M University, 2004-11-15) Horrocks, AubrieCreating a sense of identity is constructed through communicative processes allowing us to participate in interpersonal relationships, and understand who we are. "Much of our emotional life is bound up with the way we narrate experiences..." (Kerby, 1991, p. 48). Because experiences are told from our own perspective, what we tell is significant. It reflects our feelings regarding a situation, and in the telling of the story, we reinterpret the way we understand our life and how we know ourselves. The purpose of this study is to examine the content and structure of the narratives contained within a diary, in order to learn how an individual interprets emotional experiences and constructs identities. It is a unique opportunity to explore how individuals can cope with ambiguity and uncertainty by constructing multiple identities to functionally enact within a variety of environments.Item The incorporation of World War II experiences in the life stories of alumni from the Vrije University in Amsterdam: an exploration at the crossroads between narrative, identity, and culture(2009-05-15) Visser, Roemer Maarten SanderFor this study, twelve life stories of alumni from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, who were enrolled during the Nazi Occupation between 1940 and 1945, were collected and analyzed. Besides exploring the extent to which the interviews were co-constructed jointly by the interviewer and interviewees, this study addresses three questions. First, it acknowledges methodological concerns associated with an overabundance of narrative data, and suggests a new method for arriving at a core narrative based on the distribution of time. This core narrative can then be analyzed further. Second, it is suggested that early memories serve as identity claims; because of their congruency with the remainder of the story, they appear to foreshadow what is to come. As a result, it is argued that childhood memories merit special attention in the analysis of narratives. Third, and finally, the constraints on narratives imposed by cultural conventions, or master narratives, are explored. Narrators use a variety of strategies in order to satisfy sometimes competing demands on their narratives. It is argued that culture makes its influence felt in ways that are not always obvious, particularly if the interviewee and interviewer share the same culture.Item When the Honeymoon Phase Ends: Narrative Perspectives on Reintegration Following Military DeploymentMiller, Brittney Jae; Bolen, Derek M; Klingemann, John E; Scott, Cody B; Schonberg, Jeffrey BBeing the partner of a military member comes with a unique set of challenges often not faced by civilian couples. Research within the interpersonal communication discipline is expanding to include military couples, particularly the effects of deployment on romantic military relationships. However, current research remains scant from a postmodern interpretive, narrative lens. This study seeks to illuminate a postmodern inquiry method for exploring romantic military relationships—seeking to move away from general, statistical knowledge of the military spouse community; increase understanding of the post-deployment process upon the conclusion of a deployment; and provide a potential resource for current and future military partners.