Working mothers are stressed, juggling various roles and responsibilities both at home and at work, which can result in life imbalance. Writing has the potential to help working mothers to more effectively manage the challenges that cause this imbalance. Previous research and studies have shown that engaging in personal narrative writing can have physical and psychological healing effects, enhance problem-solving, lead to self-discovery, and build social connections, all factors that could potentially provide support to working mothers. This qualitative study explored the specific effects that personal narrative writing could have on the lives of working mothers. Initial data collection included autobiographical samples from each participant, in which she described her current issues as a working mother, her coping methods, and her previous experiences with personal writing. Over the next five months, participants were asked to write at least two times per week, at least 20-30 minutes per session, or longer if she felt compelled or simply chose to do so. Participants were interviewed four times: once before they began the study writing, once during the five-month study period, and twice during the post-study periods, during which each participant was also invited to share some of her personal writing as data sources. Analysis of the collected data enabled five themes to emerge: 1) writing can relieve stress; 2) writing can impact problem-solving and memory; 3) writing can impact concepts of identity and self; 4) writers desire to control writing practices; and 5) a relationship exists among motivation, perceived value of writing, and stress relief. From these themes, five recommendations related to establishing balance within the composition classroom were made: 1) balance personal and social elements in composition research; 2) balance personal and social elements in composition instruction; 3) balance personal and social elements through online networks; 4) balance mind and body in composition instruction; 5) balance writing with elements of personal value. From this last recommendation, a Linked Value Balance Model was proposed, which can have applications both for working mothers and within the composition classroom. / Dr. Jeannine M. Fontaine Dr. Ben Rafoth Dr. Lynne Alvine

This study, informed by critical pedagogy literacy, inquires into the accomplishments of the policy of Doi moi Giao duc, or Educational Renovation, in Vietnam. The study, which occurred over two years, uses critical literary analysis and autoethnography as primary methodologies; it focuses is on the author's personal experience and the analysis of literature and public documents to inquire into educational polices and practices. How the key tenets of Renovation - democratization and modernization, socialization and equalization - have been translated into practice was the center of the investigation. This study indicates that there has been a wide difference between the Renovation manifesto and its practice. This in turn has been the genesis of a critical literacy or resistance against that disparity by many teachers and learners. The study also suggests that schools are not only sites of dominion but also of contestation and that the oppressed have the ability to be self-conscientized. The study sought to understand the inconsistency and the ambiguous attitude about a Freirean praxis, and interpret this as an inescapable product of cultural and political circumstances. In this way, the study emphasizes the power of Paulo Freire's theory of critical education and at the same time suggests the possibility of its being reinvented in this sociopolitical context.

This thesis will critically examine the importance, purpose, methods, and applications of art criticism. Initial background information on types of critical judgment will lay the foundation to understanding the different methods of art criticism. While the articles and journals read on criticism vary in style and method they all have the goal to become a basic framework for examining the form and content of works of art. My goal of this thesis will be to take researched methods of criticism and create my own methods of criticism to be used in the K-12 art education classroom. The body of my research will examine the following methods of criticism (1) Feldman Method, (2) Broudy Method, (3) Lankford Method, (4) Anderson Method, (5) Feminist Conversation Method, (6) Modernism, and (7) Postmodernism. My research will seek to understand the nature of and importance of art criticism and its educational applications for K-12 art classrooms. In conjunction with the examination of these methods and their corresponding stages, I will be able to synthesize three methods of criticism to be used in the classroom: formalist, expressivist, and instrumentalist.