This thesis considers the use of Young Adult Chicana Literature in the classroom to help young Chicanas work through their process of finding their identities. It begins by making the case that Chicana identities are complex because of their intersectional borderland positioning between Mexican and U.S. American cultures, which makes the identity formation process more difficult for them than others. By relating these complex issues facing young Chicanas to literature that is more relevant to them and their struggles, it is argued that teachers can help ease some of the tensions that exist within their students and help them work more easily through the identity issues they may be facing. This text engages in an analysis of two pieces of Young Adult Chicana Literature, Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street and Isabel Quintero’s Gabi, A Girl in Pieces, through the critical lens of autohistoria-teoría to argue that because the forms of these novels follow this pattern of theorizing through experience and reflection, they can be of critical assistance in helping young Chicanas work through their own experiences and issues. Finally, this thesis moves into my own autohistoria-teoría in which I reflect on my own experiences with the identity formation process and how recognition of myself in literature played a critical role in my own process, and how the overwhelming lack of this type of literature stunted my identity formation process.

Thesis (M.A. (History)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / This study explores the socio-cultural experiences of students at the University of the North (UNIN) in the period between 1970 and 1994. The sampling of the study was purposive and involved thirteen (13) participants who were students at UNIN in the 1970s, 80s and 1990-1994. Data was collected using an interview guide and was analysed using the Thematic Content Analysis as outlined by Braun and Clark (2011). To make sense of the study aim and objectives, this study adopted a qualitative approach wearing an Afrocentric pair of lenses. As shown by literature and the study’s findings, Historically Black Universities (HBUs) in South Africa were established by the apartheid government with the aim of serving Black students excluded from attending segregated White-only universities. Some of the study findings are that former UNIN students were subjected to a racialised institutional autonomy, racialised educational curriculum as well as an unfriendly academic setting for both African students and staff. The study therefore argues for inclusive and Africanised institutions of higher learning in Africa and perhaps elsewhere in the world. This study also recommends that institutional autonomy and educational curricula should be in line with an Africanised value system.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:32:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucila Mara Sbrana Sciotti.pdf: 5846179 bytes, checksum: 6a8021eb28591874a1f1f799b8169958 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-05-13 / This study presents an investigation that aims at understanding the nature of the reflective process lived by educational managers, on their role in the development of curricula for the future. The research is about promoting reflections on educational managers work field, considering the belief that these professionals have been claimed to think over their functions, understanding their interrelational and systemic relations, for surpassing dichotomizations and disaggregation. This study is based on a theoretic structure that considers Paulo Freire s Critical Pedagogy, Peter Senge s concepts of Organizational Learning and the reflections of Enrique Dussel, Ladislau Dowbor and Manuel Castells about the multidimensional realities of the world we live in. In order to create an investigation scenario, a virtual environment named by me as Collective Learning Walk was organized with a group of educational managers from Senac São Paulo. This option was conceived from the assumption that the most important walk to be considered is composed by the processes of reflection upon practice that demand an intentional organization which can be constituted as individual, collective and institutional learning processes. The interpretation of the written texts and the dynamics registered during the Collective Learning Walk indicated that the phenomenon of reflection of educational managers on their role in the development of curricula for the future can be perceived from three hermeneutical-phenomenological themes: Reflection, Mediation and Action. Considering these themes, a different route and three dimensions are proposed as contribution for the process of reflecting on the educational managers formation and on their day to day attributes / Este trabalho apresenta investigação que busca compreender como se evidencia o processo reflexivo do gestor educacional sobre o seu papel na construção de currículos para o futuro. Trata-se de promover a reflexão sobre os campos de atuação do gestor educacional, pois este tem sido chamado a revisar o conjunto de suas funções, para compreendê-las, de forma ampla, interrelacional e sistêmica, no caminho da superação de dicotomizações e desagregações. As principais referências teóricas deste estudo centram-se na Pedagogia Crítica de Paulo Freire, nos conceitos de Aprendizagem Organizacional de Peter Senge e nas reflexões de Enrique Dussel, Ladislau Dowbor e Manuel Castells sobre as realidades multidimensionais do mundo em que vivemos. Como campo de investigação, organizou-se com um grupo de gestores educacionais do Senac São Paulo, atividade em ambiente virtual, denominada Caminhada de Aprendizagem Coletiva . Essa escolha partiu da consideração de que o principal caminho a trilhar são os processos de reflexão da prática, que necessitam de organização intencional para se constituírem em processos de aprendizagem individual, coletiva e institucional. A interpretação dos registros e das dinâmicas, havidos na Caminhada de Aprendizagem Coletiva, indicou que o fenômeno de reflexão dos gestores educacionais sobre o seu papel na construção de currículos para o futuro tem sua natureza expressa em três temas hermenêutico-fenomenológicos: Reflexão, Mediação e Ação. A partir deles, são propostos um rumo e três dimensões, como contribuição para a reflexão sobre a formação de gestores educacionais e sobre o seu cotidiano de trabalho