The purpose of this autoethnographic narrative inquiry was for the researcher to describe and explain how he discovered, constructed, and refined his sense of moral purpose as a principal during his seven-year tenure at Orange Pines Middle School. He inductively analyzed and reflected primarily on self-authored texts tied to critical professional ethical dilemmas so as to discover emergent themes, patterns, insights, and epiphanies in the development of his persona as a morally directed school leader. He then analyzed and reflected on how he applied those defined values in interactions with groups of teachers to design and implement elements of school reform. He re-created these critical events through descriptive vignettes in which he captured personal and social implications of the experiences using Clandinin and Connelly's model of three-dimensional narrative space. In this study the researcher probed especially problematic ethical dilemmas he experienced while working as principal. He viewed the events through the multidimensional ethical frameworks of care, critique and justice of Starratt; the ethic of community described by Furman; and the ethic of the profession, posited by Shapiro and Stefkovich. Included is a discussion of moral purpose by Fullan and Sergiovanni, ethics by Begley, Senge, and others, leadership theories, and perspectives regarding interpersonal conflicts between principals and their staff. The researcher found the ethics of care, justice, critique, community, and the profession provided a useful framework for his professional reflections. He was able to describe and capture the tensions within the dilemmas through the specific language utilized by Starratt, Furman, and Shapiro and Stefkovich to analyze and understand the issues packed within each dilemma. Through the application of these frameworks he determined that his moral purpose has been to approach the position of school leadership with a combination of compassion and justice, in order to establish a collaborative and synergistic school community that works for the greater good of students. The study calls for more autoethnographic research into the dilemmas administrators teachers face in their daily practice, arguing that the best way to improve public education in this era of intense scrutiny and accountability is through the qualitative analysis of individual cases. The author places his particular constructivist approach to autoethnographic narrative inquiry within the broader philosophical background of qualitative research. This study contributes to the literature by showing focused insights into how representative ethical conflicts and dilemmas school leaders face during their daily practice can shape and guide their moral pursuit of effective school reform. It also shows ways that theoretical knowledge can inform professional practice.

<p>The overall aim of this thesis was to deepen understanding of elder abuse (EA) by exploring and comparing perceptions held by experts, older persons, representatives of potential support organizations, and family members. Experts’ perspectives (I) were examined through risk indicators and screening questions (a) located in EA literature and (b) selected by an international Delphi panel. Risk indicators most commonly found in the literature or selected by the panel were compiled into consensus lists. There were differences between risk indicators and questions in the two lists. In papers II and III participants were interviewed in focus groups about their perceptions of EA. Older persons (II) considered EA to be due to changing society and family systems where children are not brought up to respect older persons. EA was mainly conceptualized as ageism, criminal actions, mistreatment in residential care, and societal abuse. The abuser was perceived as a stranger or a healthcare worker. Fear was discussed as a major consequence of EA; especially fear among women. Abused persons were described as carrying the responsibility to seek help. Witnesses were described as hesitant to get involved. Improvements in society such as educating children and healthcare workers were considered ways to cope with EA. Besides family and friends there were few spontaneous suggestions for where to seek help and support in society. These suggestions included healthcare, police, church, and volunteer organizations. Representatives of these suggested organizations were interviewed in focus groups about their perceptions of EA (III). Perceptions of both causes and conceptions of EA were very similar to perceptions of older persons (II). Four themes emerged in the data; good intentions in abusive situations, older generation’s responsibility for EA, failing to report abuse, and prevention of abuse. Participants (III) also expressed ageist attitudes themselves and findings included victim blaming and tolerance for EA. Participants perceived that anyone could be provoked to abuse, and that abusers can be considered victims in abusive situations. Confidentiality was discussed as a barrier to reporting and the need for educating children to show respect for older persons was identified. Interviews with an adult family member (IV) explored her experiences of witnessing abuse situations between her uncle and his wife. In her desire to protect and remain loyal to her family she felt powerless and tolerated abuse. She longed for support she could trust but was locked into passivity by her feelings of shame. Synthesis of findings (I – IV) revealed issues of isolation, autonomy, vulnerability, victim blaming, perceiving the abuser as a victim of circumstances, ageism, tolerating EA, shame, and power as essential elements in EA. Based on the findings, alternative descriptions of EA are offered as a challenge to existing EA definitions. Findings suggest that a key to unlocking EA is compassion, understood as the ability to see a situation as if we were in it ourselves, experiencing the potential for disrespect, shame and unworthiness inherent in abusive acts.</p>

The overall aim of this thesis was to deepen understanding of elder abuse (EA) by exploring and comparing perceptions held by experts, older persons, representatives of potential support organizations, and family members. Experts’ perspectives (I) were examined through risk indicators and screening questions (a) located in EA literature and (b) selected by an international Delphi panel. Risk indicators most commonly found in the literature or selected by the panel were compiled into consensus lists. There were differences between risk indicators and questions in the two lists. In papers II and III participants were interviewed in focus groups about their perceptions of EA. Older persons (II) considered EA to be due to changing society and family systems where children are not brought up to respect older persons. EA was mainly conceptualized as ageism, criminal actions, mistreatment in residential care, and societal abuse. The abuser was perceived as a stranger or a healthcare worker. Fear was discussed as a major consequence of EA; especially fear among women. Abused persons were described as carrying the responsibility to seek help. Witnesses were described as hesitant to get involved. Improvements in society such as educating children and healthcare workers were considered ways to cope with EA. Besides family and friends there were few spontaneous suggestions for where to seek help and support in society. These suggestions included healthcare, police, church, and volunteer organizations. Representatives of these suggested organizations were interviewed in focus groups about their perceptions of EA (III). Perceptions of both causes and conceptions of EA were very similar to perceptions of older persons (II). Four themes emerged in the data; good intentions in abusive situations, older generation’s responsibility for EA, failing to report abuse, and prevention of abuse. Participants (III) also expressed ageist attitudes themselves and findings included victim blaming and tolerance for EA. Participants perceived that anyone could be provoked to abuse, and that abusers can be considered victims in abusive situations. Confidentiality was discussed as a barrier to reporting and the need for educating children to show respect for older persons was identified. Interviews with an adult family member (IV) explored her experiences of witnessing abuse situations between her uncle and his wife. In her desire to protect and remain loyal to her family she felt powerless and tolerated abuse. She longed for support she could trust but was locked into passivity by her feelings of shame. Synthesis of findings (I – IV) revealed issues of isolation, autonomy, vulnerability, victim blaming, perceiving the abuser as a victim of circumstances, ageism, tolerating EA, shame, and power as essential elements in EA. Based on the findings, alternative descriptions of EA are offered as a challenge to existing EA definitions. Findings suggest that a key to unlocking EA is compassion, understood as the ability to see a situation as if we were in it ourselves, experiencing the potential for disrespect, shame and unworthiness inherent in abusive acts.

For 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.

Research in the fields of Applied Linguistics (AL) and Second Language Studies (SLS) has begun addressing the ways in which second and foreign language (L2) use is a "material" struggle to understand, acquire and author L2 words for one's own creative purposes - particularly in the face of ideologies about language learning and language use (Squires 2008; Suni 2014). This struggle has implications for the subjectivity, agency and ultimate acquisition and use of the target language by L2 users. This dissertation seeks to augment scholarship in this area by demonstrating how material struggle can surface in the process of data collection (a research interview). It presents an analysis of a recorded narrative of an English as a foreign language (EFL) user, who was a second year graduate student enrolled in a university in the southwest US. She was invited by the author -- a native speaker of English -- to tell an oral narrative story in English to a group with whom she met regularly. However, in positioning the EFL subject as "non-native" in the recruitment process, the author as a native speaker failed to anticipate the manner in which her request was interpellative (Althusser 1971[2001]), thus reproducing and subjecting the "non-native" to the ideology and discourses associated with that category and setting into motion a creative authoring of response to this interpellative call. In approaching the analysis from this perspective, this dissertation adopts an approach to oral narrative story analysis that is based on the Bakhtinian-inspired notion of dialogism (Bakhtin 1981, 1986). Dialogism underscores the resultant narrative as a collection of utterances poised to respond to the request to "tell a story," while simultaneously addressing the ideology and discourses associated with this request. Additionally, the analysis explores the dialogic nature of the narrative from the standpoint of "tellability" (Norrick 2005; Ochs and Capps 2001), thus highlighting aspects of the narrative that render this tale of friendship, an extramarital affair and a friend "in hatred" meaningful in the context of its telling. Guided by an interest in Bakhtinian dialogism and driven by a concern for narrative tellability, three differing, yet complimentary, analyses of the narrative are explored: 1) genre, register and vague ("vaguely gendered") language, 2) face work, framing and cooperation and 3) gossip, stance and the representation of speech and voice. These analyses likewise uncover three themes that underlie the narrative context of the tale. These themes are: the backgrounding of nativeness and foregrounding of gender, the simultaneous and ambiguous struggle for solidarity and power, and the display of personal style through moral stance in the presentation of a continuous self over time and place. The implication of this work for future research and assessment in AL and SLS is addressed.

Des recherches antérieures sur les émotions en contexte organisationnel, notamment autour des notions de travail émotionnel, de contrat psychologique et d'équité, ont souvent soulevé la question de la rationalité et du caractère approprié ou non des manifestations émotionnelles, ainsi que sur les mécanismes utilisés pour contrôler et modérer celles-ci. Cependant, peu de recherche empirique a été effectuée sur la façon dont les employés eux-mêmes font sens de leurs émotions au travail et le processus par lequel ils parviennent à rendre celle-ci compréhensibles et légitimes, à la fois pour eux-mêmes et pour autrui. Au cours des dernières années, un courant de recherche émergent tend toutefois à mettre de côté la perspective normative / rationaliste pour soulever ce type de questions. Ainsi, au lieu d'être considérées comme des expériences strictement subjectives, privées, voire inaccessibles, les émotions y sont envisagées à travers les discours et les mises en récits dont elles font l’objet. Les émotions apparaissent ainsi non seulement exprimées dans le langage et la communication, mais construites et négociées à travers eux. La recherche présente développe empiriquement cette perspective émergente, notamment en faisant appel aux théories du sensemaking et de la narration, à travers l’analyse détaillée des récits de quatre employés chargés du soutien à la vente pour un revendeur de produits informatiques. En demandant à mes sujets de parler de leurs expériences émotionnelles et en analysant leurs réponses selon une méthodologie d’analyse narrative, cette recherche explore ainsi la façon dont les employés parviennent à construire le sens et la légitimité de leurs expériences émotionnelles. Les résultats suggèrent entre autres que ces processus de construction de sens sont très étroitement liés aux enjeux d’identité et de rôle. / Past research into emotions in organizational contexts, notably the research into the theories of emotional labour, the psychological contract, and equity theory, has tended to focus on questions of the rationality and appropriateness of emotional manifestations, as well as mechanisms used to control and moderate emotions. However, little empirical research has been done into how employees themselves make sense of their emotions and the processes by which they legitimize and render these emotions understandable, both to themselves and to others. In recent years, an emerging research perspective has shifted away from the normative/rationalistic perspective to address these questions. Rather than being considered strictly subjective, private, and inaccessible experiences, emotions are now seen as accessible via discourse and narrative. And more that simply being expressed in language and communication, they are understood to be constructed and negotiated by them. This research develops this perspective by drawing on the theories of sensemaking and narrative theory; looking at the detailed narratives gathered from four non-sales employees at an IT reseller. By asking research participants to talk about emotional experiences and analyzing their narratives using a narrative theory methodology, this research hopes to shed some light on how employees make sense of and legitimize their emotional experiences. Among other things, the results suggest that the process of sensemaking is very closely linked with issues of identity.

This thesis examines the role of computer competence in elders’ well-being as they experience a reduced ability to communicate in very old age. My research question was “How do elders over 80 interact with computers? Employing narrative inquiry, I sought stories from 10 elders living in Victoria, B.C. Narrative style open-ended interviews were conducted one on one. Challenging stereotypes, these participants were computer literate people who happen to be very old. Depending on their relationships, learning from their children was a valuable resource. I found no evidence that they required any special senior friendly websites. These elders learned to use what interested them on the computer—no more. The computer is an extension of their ability to communicate their social messages as they age. The denouement of my narrative research is that computers give voice to elders; nevertheless, decision makers need to respect elders’ right to refuse computer uses.

Since TV became the most influential medium globally, the media content followed and as a result, a variety of programmes became international. When it came to entertainment, reality game show Survivor became a pioneer in crossing national borders when the programme’s format was licensed and sold worldwide. The ability of a single reality TV show format to appeal to different nations is remarkable and noteworthy, which consequently makes it an interesting field of research. Therefore, this essay focuses on analysing the narrative structures of the Survivor format productions in Sweden, the USA and Russia in pursuance of revealing representations and reproductions of the nations. It answers the questions about the narrative structures of the programmes, as well as about their common construction, and describes how the national identities are portrayed in a transnational reality game show format. In order to make the study extensive but at the same time significant, a structural narrative analysis with a comparative approach was chosen as a method. The selection was based on the importance of analysing the content of narratives in order to comprehend their illustrations of reality and, among other things, national identities. Mainly referring to a theory of nations as “imagined communities” and a theory about “banal nationalism”, the essay presents an analysis of the narrative structures. These structures, in their turn, expose the nation-specific elements that represent and reproduce the idea of nation. It is argued that national expressions are in general based on traditions and rituals of the nations. These representations are frequently unnoticed in everyday life; however they become noteworthy in the context of reality TV game shows such as Survivor.

Latino students are the only ethnic group more likely to enroll in community colleges than four-year institutions. However, they transfer to four-year institutions at much lower rates than their white counterparts. This gap in transfer rates for Hispanic students is of significant concern to higher education researchers and policy makers because of its broad impact on overall educational attainment for Hispanics. Research on Latino transfer rates has focused predominantly on quantitative data, which paints a clear picture of what is happening, but falls short in explaining why transfer rates continue to be low. Researchers have offered both structural (social reproduction theory and the community college "cooling out" theory) and agency explanations (transfer aspirations and self-efficacy) for low transfer rates. This dissertation expands our understanding of Latino student transfer through a qualitative, interview-based study, which gives voice to six Latino students at an urban community college in the Ohio Valley. Individual interviews were conducted with transfer-ready students and were then transcribed and analyzed through narrative analysis. Each of the students in this study planned to earn an associate‘s degree and then transfer to a four-year institution, but despite these goals they had done limited transfer planning. Although the community college provides access to these students, the students also struggle financially and wonder if they‘ll be able to afford the American Dream. Within the context of the community college and American culture, the students are navigating cultural values, gender roles, and expectations as they pursue their education. The students pursue their educational goals and persistence within the context of strong family connections. They are navigating an unfamiliar education system, often in a foreign language. As they experience education in another language, they are actively engaged in the production of their own cultural identities. Despite the obstacles these students face – particularly financially), the student narratives are grounded in a strong sense of personal agency and a belief that education will provide them with a better future.

Sexuellt våld är ett ämne som sällan lämnar någon oberörd. Hur vi talar om sexuellt våld förändras över tid. Denna kvalitativa intervjustudie vill genom dialogisk och tematisk narrativ analys lyfta rösterna från kvinnor som utsatts för sexuellt våld. Utifrån en teoriram bestående av socialkonstruktionistiska teorier och feministiska teorier analyseras kvinnornas berättelser om det våld de utsatts för och dess konsekvenser. Studien belyser hur kvinnorna genom berättelser konstruerar sin identitet, men också vilka konsekvenser de beskriver att våldet fått för hur de upplever sina livsvillkor. Att berätta om våldet och att hantera konsekvenserna av våldet beskrivs och skildras av intervjupersonerna som en fortgående process. De beskriver att de fortfarande, flera år efter våldet, påverkas av det våld de utsatts för, men att sätt som våldet påverkar dem på förändras med tiden. Kvinnorna beskriver även att vilka berättelser som blir möjliga att berätta varierar beroende på kontext. Genom att betona sammanvävningar av maktordningar som rör ålder och kön vill denna studie bidra till forskningen om sexuellt våld genom ett intersektionellt perspektiv på utsatthet. Resultatet av studien visar att även år 2015 är sexuellt våld ett tabubelagt ämne, och att intervjupersonerna konstruerar både kollektiv och individuell identitet på olika sätt i relation till våldet. / Sexual violence is a subject that rarely leave anyone unaffected. How we talk about sexual violence does however change over time. The purpose of this qualitative interview study is to address the question of sexual violence, and to this by giving voice to women that have been victims of sexual violence. By applying a dialogic and thematic narrative analysis, the aim of this thesis is to highlight the subject of sexual violence from the women’s own perspective. The interviewees narratives about how and if they talk about the violence with others, and how they perceive the consequences of the violence is analyzed within a framework of social constructionist and feminist theory. The study highlights how women through stories construct their identity, but also what consequences they describe that the violence has had on how they perceive their living conditions. To tell about the violence and to address the consequences of the violence is by the interviewees described as an ongoing process. They describe that, several years after the violence occurred, they are still affected by the sexual violence they have been subjected to. The way the violence affect them is however also depicted as changing over time. The women also disclose that they perceive their possibilities of sharing narratives of sexual violence with others as something that depends on context. By emphasizing how power structures regarding not only gender but also age this study also contribute to research on sexual violence by applying an intersectional perspective on vulnerability. The result of the study shows that even in the year of 2015, sexual violence is a taboo subject, and that the interviewees construct both collective and individual identity in different ways in relation to the violence.