Framed in Baumeister and Leary’s (1995) theory of belongingness, this study uncovers ways in which a sense of belonging can affect our lives and specifically our performance in musical groups. The theory of belongingness explains that it is a fundamental human need to feel belongingness by forming positive and meaningful relationships with others, and also describes how to achieve and maintain this belongingness. Baumeister and Leary (1995) state that in order for belongingness to be a fundamental human motivation, many criteria must be present among individuals who share social bonds, and satisfying this need requires both frequent interaction and caring context. While there is little research on sense of belonging among musical groups, the experiences that are typical in such groups lend themselves well to the concepts outlined by the authors, making them ideal settings in which to study their theory. In light of Baumeister and Leary’s research, questions addressed in this study were: 1. How do study participants describe belonging to an orchestra? 2. With whom do participants share frequent interaction, where do these interactions occur, and how are sub-groups of the larger ensemble formed? 3. How do participants describe caring context within an orchestra, and how are social bonds formed in light of this caring context? 4. How does sense of belonging affect the participants while playing and building bonds in an orchestra and its sub-groups? Using narrative methods as described by Clandinin and Connelly (2000), this study highlights the engagement of three participants (Robert, Ana, and myself) as we drew out hidden meanings of belongingness in our lives, focusing on participation in an orchestra. My own experience of joining an orchestra provided unique insight and allowed me to be an active participant in constructing narratives along with Robert and Ana. By interacting in the field with the other participants and experiencing what they experienced, I was able to better relate to the feelings of belongingness they described. Field data were collected in the form of recorded audio, observations, personal journal entries, and email correspondence. These data were transcribed and then became interim research texts that the participants and I co-composed together. Data were analyzed and interim and final research texts were written with Clandinin and Connelly’s three-dimensional inquiry space in mind.

A plethora of literature on cooperating teachers exists, but it is written from university researchers’ perspectives, leaving cooperating teachers’ voices silenced. Most researchers discuss what cooperating teachers do rather than who cooperating teachers say they are, particularly when they speak of themselves as teacher educators. The focus of this study was specifically on music cooperating teachers, and its purpose was to investigate their identities as narrative constructions. I employed Connelly and Clandinin’s (1999) stories to live by, Bruner’s (1987; 1991; 2002) self-making, and Ricoeur’s ipse-identity and idem-identity to suggest that identity stories were multiple, mobile, and contingent. Still, human beings sought continuity in their identity stories over time, and such stories were shaped in social and institutional contexts. Using touchstones of narrative inquiry (see Clandinin & Caine, 2013), I held six planned conversations with two other music cooperating teachers, which first generated field texts, and then, led to many follow-up conversations. The participants and I engaged in an eight-month process of co-constructing interim research texts. Clandinin acknowledged that, because identity stories were works in progress, standard research texts often were ineffective vehicles used to convey narrative identity. Therefore, I implemented a novella, an emotional story relying on character development, to present the final research text, and I entitled it “Between the Hedges.” Within my interpretations and reflections on “Between the Hedges,” I discussed how, when considering ourselves as music teacher educators, we told public and private stories of family and school, further situated as children, students, and parents. Parents and music teachers were highly influential figures, and not always in positive ways. Although the situated identity stories were multiple, each cooperating teacher wove a thread of sameness between his or her stories as they were retold and relived. I concluded that the sameness in each story was key to understanding rationales for cooperating teachers’ practices of mentoring student teachers.

abstract: This dissertation is a visual and narrative-based autoethnography that narrates the lived educational experiences of the author from preschool through doctoral studies. The text portrays a story that explores issues of power, identity, and pedagogy in education. Told in narrative form, this project utilizes visual data, thematic coding, layering, and writing as a method of inquiry to investigate and more fully understand injustices found in the American education system. Findings show how the author’s identities of student, teacher, and researcher influence and impact one another, and lead to the development of a future vision of self. By examining the author’s roles as a student, teacher, and researcher this study centers on conflicts and inconsistencies that arise at the intersections of self, community, institutions, and society. Included in the narrative’s analysis are issues related to positionality, visions of success, empowerment, resistance, neoliberalism, colonialism, psychological distance, and ideological purpose in teaching. The narrative concludes with the development of a personal vision of purposeful, empowering, liberating, and transformative pedagogy. This study contributes its voice to conversations about inequity and inequality in education by asking the reader to examine conflicts, ask new questions, and critically engage with the dialogic text. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2016

Historically, various minority groups have faced multiple forms of prejudice and discrimination. The sources of such attitudes are mainly ignorance about these groups. One such group is Muslims living in western countries. The fear and dread of Muslims and Islam has deep historical roots; however, these attitudes escalated after the September 11 tragedy. After September 11, Muslims became the headlines of news and Americans were exposed to distorted images of Muslims in the media. This misrepresentation of Muslims in the media led to yet another form of xenophobia, which resulted in ‘othering’ Muslims. In schools and universities, the story was not different. In the following study, I discuss the ‘othering’ of 6 international hijabi Muslim women studying at a Midwestern University in light of the Islamophobic tendencies developed after September 11. I create narratives of these experiences to understand how hijabi Muslim women make sense of their experiences in relation to the larger sociopolitical discourse. These narratives contribute to the larger effort of creating an equitable educational experience for students from all backgrounds.

This research report builds on the work already completed in the field of women in school leadership. Although a number of studies have examined female principals at work in primary schools in rural areas, there has not been a strong focus on female principals at work in secondary schools, in urban areas. The underrepresentation of women in school leadership is not unique to South Africa. It is a global phenomenon, which can be traced back to the patriarchal values, which exist in most societies. The purpose of my research report is to investigate how the capabilities approach can inform our understanding of women progressing into leadership positions at secondary schools in South Africa. A qualitative method was used based on an interpretivist research paradigm. The research design was a narrative inquiry. A purposive sampling method was used and data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews. The drive and determination to “make a difference” and “be a role model” enabled all five participants to convert their capability set into functionings thus “shattering the glass ceiling”. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted

The purpose of this research was to understand educator experiences associated with a lateral career move. Qualitative narrative interviews were conducted with six educators, including four administrators and two teachers, who met specific research participation criteria. Thematic analysis and axial coding were performed on the collected data. A framework based on self-determination theory was used to further interpret the research findings. Research findings included participant accounts related to organizational perceptions, emotional effects, and perceptions of superordinate behaviors, before and after making a lateral move. Participants reported experiences associated with negative wellbeing and thwarting the basic psychological needs satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness prior to making a lateral move. Participants reported experiences associated with positive wellbeing and supporting the satisfaction of basic psychological needs after making a lateral move. The tenets of self-determination theory were supported. Recommendations for professional practice and future research are included.

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of Hong Kong students regarding their experiential encounters and interactions in the natural environment on Vancouver Island and attempt to discover what impact these experiences had on their process of adapting to a new culture. Three participants took part in an unstructured interview session where they shared their personal outdoor stories spanning their life in Hong Kong and in Canada. This was joined with a photo elicitation task to help recall and gain further in-depth insights into their outdoor narratives. The transcripts that resulted, where analysed using inquiry justifications, personal, practical and social (Lindsay & Schwind, 2016). The resulting themes were cultural adaption through socialization, exploration and stability, experiences in nature and access to nature. This study contributes the unique voice of students from Hong Kong and their experiences with nature in Canada and how it has affected their cultural adaption. / Graduate

This study examined the learning experiences of 6 young adolescent students in Grades 6 to 8 in India during COVID-19 lockdowns. The lockdowns resulted in teaching through virtual learning instead of the traditional face-to-face learning in a formal classroom during 2020-22. Since students are important stakeholders in their education process, hearing their voices and understanding their perspectives in this learning process was important as they had been directly affected by this sudden change in the teaching-learning medium. To understand the personal and cultural conditions of the young learners the study drew on socio-cultural theory (Rogoff, 2003, Vygotsky,1978) and the dialogical perspective of Bakhtin (1984). In-depth narrative interviews with 6 adolescents were conducted and were analyzed using the framework proposed by Clandinin and Connelly (2000). A narrative interpretation focused on both the individual experiences and the common themes that emerged from six in-depth narratives. The analyses revealed the learners' resilience and their ability to adapt to change by developing constructive coping strategies. They also revealed the learners' recognition of the value of in-person social connection and the role that in-person classes, which foster collaboration, have for meaningful learning to take place. Finally, all the young learners expressed joy in being invited to share their learning experiences.

Motherhood has been set up as an institution of control over women by the patriarchy. Dominant ideas of motherhood and what constitutes being a good mother are steeped in patriarchal ideals and conceptual thoughts. What is absent from ideas of motherhood is the female lived experiences of mothering. Mothering, by contrast, is the conceptual understanding of what it means to be a mother from a women-centered perspective. Under the dominant discourse of motherhood, mothers are self-sacrificing, generous, calm, patient, and loving. Those mothers who do not meet these standards are constructed as "bad mothers," reinforcing a binary understanding of mothers. This paper challenges the good/bad mother binary by drawing on the lived experience of one mother who uses substances to demonstrate the judgmental road mothers are forced to walk. This thesis takes a feminist-based approach to explore Ruth's story: a mother who engages in substance use. This research is produced through a feminist ontology to add to a body of scholarship that works to create a counter-discourse for mothers from mothers against dominating patriarchal norms of motherhood. A Narrative case study methodology is applied to Ruth's story to extrapolate the complex realities Ruth faces as she attempts to make sense of her mothering identity within the patriarchal definition of the "good mother." While engaging in substance use, Ruth's mothering story produced four themes that facilitate understanding mothering from a holistic, women-centric lens. First, this research emphasizes the barriers Ruth experiences in building, understanding and maintaining her sense of self. Second, Ruth's story illuminates the impact of the dominant "good" motherhood discourse on how women like Ruth conceptualize themselves as a mother. Third, Ruth's story enables the exploration of the intersectional identities of mothering and substance use in a way that creates space for both identities to work together rather than in opposition. Lastly, reflecting on the surveillance Ruth has endured in relation to her family and interactions with child welfare, her story reveals how discourses of risk are connected to and associated with substance use. Through the exploration of Ruth's mothering experiences, a narrative is produced to challenge and disrupt the oppressive institution of motherhood. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

<p>Rural communities across the United States are experiencing a rapid increase in the number of immigrant students. While the number of culturally and linguistically diverse students continues to grow within midwestern states, the demographics of teachers remain white, female, and monolingual. Often teachers have little to no training working with students and their families whose backgrounds differ from their own. Thus, there is a greater urgency for teachers to develop culturally competent teaching practices that address the needs of all students. The purpose of this year-long, school-based narrative inquiry was to examine the beliefs, attitudes, and practices of rural educators as they described their work with Latinx immigrant, elementary students, negotiated the “space” between a professional and personal identity and demonstrated an ethic of care. This inquiry is arranged into “livings, tellings, retellings, and relivings” (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. 70) and serves to shed light on the entwined lived experiences of myself, my participants, and the community in which we reside. Swanson’s Middle Range Theory of Care (1991, 1993) served as the conceptual framework that illuminated how my participants discussed working with and caring for their Latinx immigrant students. Findings from this study support teacher education by providing practical recommendations for promoting culturally responsive practices, grounded in care, for preservice (PST) and in-service teachers. </p>