Existing whistle-blower research has found that retaliation affects the whistle-blowing process. However, there is little literature focusing on the personal and emotional effects that retaliation can have on the whistle-blower’s life. Furthermore, while whistle-blowing has been studied in various organizational contexts, both public and private, virtually no research exists on whistle-blowing in the context of the public school system. This study examines the effects of the whistle-blowing process, specifically the effects of retaliation, on the life of the whistle-blower through a narrative identity construct in the context of the Texas Public School System. This study utilizes narrative analysis to understand the relationship between retaliation and the whistle-blowers’ narrative identity. the analysis reveals that whistle-blowers’ decisions to disclose instances of wrong-doing are motivated by their desired narrative identities. Furthermore, this study shows that retaliation has the greatest effect when it directly attacks the whistle-blowers’ identities.

This study explores an EFL practitioner’s teaching life story, with a focus on the development of personal and professional identities, and on the rationale for teaching principles and practices within a Japanese socio-educational context. The study is grounded firmly in the belief that “in understanding something so intensely personal as teaching, it is critical we know about the person the teacher is” (Goodson, 1992, p. 234). As a single participant study this thesis places particular emphasis on the importance of subjective and interpretive insights and understandings as opposed to the generalizability and objectivity of knowledge claims embodied in more traditional approaches to research in the field of TESOL. To elicit the participant’s teaching life story I used a taped monologue technique, whereby the speaker, without the presence of an interviewer, is in complete control of topic selection and has the freedom to determine the temporal and sequential course of their narrative. The resulting two-hour monologue is the primary data for the study, and working within a narrative research framework I analyzed the story for critical incidents and teaching perspectives that can be interpreted as having informed the participant’s practicing professional identity, which can be defined as a set of values, principles and practices which guide an individual’s present teaching philosophy and future directions. Through the lens of the Japanese socio-educational context I focus on the unifying themes of teacher development and education, critical cultural knowledge, humanism, and second language (L2) only classroom policy. Furthermore, I explore the narrative thread that runs through the participant’s story, connecting past and present experiences with future teaching life directions and goals as the narrator takes the opportunity to articulate the rationale behind her main principles and practices, and in so doing underscores her practicing professional identity in a way that demonstrates a strong sense of the narrator’s purpose, values, efficacy and self-worth. As such, this process engages the narrator not only in a meaningful and coherent narrative account of professional development, but also in the process itself of professional development as it demonstrates potentialities for self-revelation, affirmation, and even transformation. This thesis offers a distinctive contribution to the field of TESOL educational research in three particular ways. First, in exploring the sources of a teacher’s beliefs and practicing professional identity, it offers an exemplar of how to undertake interpretive research as reflective practice and professional development. Secondly, it widens our understanding of conducting single participant case studies in TESOL education. This thesis also points the way forward to possible research using an innovative taped monologue technique with other individual teacher case studies that can then contribute to building a body of knowledge in the field.

The purpose of this dissertation is to further clarify the role of mass media for evangelicals in negotiating religious identity. This project uses lived religion, cultural studies, and narrative identity as a framework. Over the course of seven months, I conducted participant observation in an American Baptist congregation, where I observed both their religious and media practices. Additionally, I conducted qualitative interviews with selected key congregants to get a fuller picture of both their media use and their narrative religious identity. I found that narratives about media and media use led participants to certain strategies of distancing and/or integrating media with their religious identity. Various narrative tools, such as maps, symbolic inventories, tropes, and spiritual anchors, were used by participants to juxtapose media with their religious practice. By using these tools, participants sought to gain more moral and religious certainty by using media as both a proxy for self and as a proxy for Others. As moral and religious uncertainty is a characteristic of modernity, I conclude that there may be ramifications for larger media use and moral thought. / Media & Communication

The aim of this study is to apply Genette's narratological theory and Ricoeur's views on narrative identity to selected short stories from J.W. Mashike's Pelo Segole. The study comprises four chapters. The problem statement, a1ms as well as method of research are outlined in chapter one. In chapter two, Genette's narratological theory as well as Ricoeur's vtews on narrative identity, which form the basis of this study, are highlighted and discussed. In chapter three, a narratological analysis of the stories 'Di wele Morerwana', 'Pelo Pholwana' and 'Ga di ke di Mutlhwa di le Pedi' focusing on aspects of duration, namely ellipsis, pause, scene and summary, is undertaken. An interpretation of the stories according to Ricoeur's views on narrative identity is also undertaken in this chapter. In chapter four, a summary of the mam findings of this study as well as a conclusion, will be included. / Thesis (M.A. (African Languages))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003

The aim of this study is to apply Genette's narratological theory and Ricoeur's views on narrative identity to selected short stories from J.W. Mashike's Pelo Segole. The study comprises four chapters. The problem statement, a1ms as well as method of research are outlined in chapter one. In chapter two, Genette's narratological theory as well as Ricoeur's vtews on narrative identity, which form the basis of this study, are highlighted and discussed. In chapter three, a narratological analysis of the stories 'Di wele Morerwana', 'Pelo Pholwana' and 'Ga di ke di Mutlhwa di le Pedi' focusing on aspects of duration, namely ellipsis, pause, scene and summary, is undertaken. An interpretation of the stories according to Ricoeur's views on narrative identity is also undertaken in this chapter. In chapter four, a summary of the mam findings of this study as well as a conclusion, will be included. / Thesis (M.A. (African Languages))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003

Clinical psychologists’ experiences of training are under-represented in the research area, particularly in the field of transformational and experiential learning and its influence on trainees during their training. Yet, it is a growing topic of interest for training providers and commissioners. Understanding whether the current method of training, using problem-based learning at the University of Hertfordshire (UH), is effective in preparing trainees to work in the NHS as clinical psychologists may have wider implications for clinical psychology training and practice. This thesis aimed at exploring clinical psychologists’ narratives of identity changes through problem-based learning (PBL). For this purpose, I chose to explore their reflective PBL written accounts using a narrative analysis to identify plots and sub-plots of identity changes within their PBL stories. I knowingly took a social constructionist stance to frame this project as it reflects my constructions of clinical psychology and the epistemological choice of the UH course. This means that this research situates itself within a particular context and does not claim any truth, but proposes a constructed view on identity changes during training and their implications for clinical practice. The analysis enabled me to identity three main plots: ‘identity changes through the PBL group’, ‘experimenting with alternative roles and identities’ and ‘Identity changes through PBL & training’. The first plot was characterised by anxiety, vulnerability, tensions between individualism and collectivism and the impact of differences. The second plot was characterised by trainee psychologists finding the balance between process, task and reflections, sharing and connecting with others, changing their relationship with theories; and working to empower themselves. The third plot highlighted the demands of PBL and training and PBL’s place in training. These factors seemed to have influenced and contributed to identity changes in clinical psychologists engaged in PBL during their training at UH. The discussion highlighted which aspects of PBL relate to identity changes and their implications for training and clinical practice. To conclude, I shared my growing interest for further exploration. I also highlighted the ever-evolving nature of PBL and the importance of exploring its use in training and its implications for the professional development of trainee clinical psychologists. Finally, the project ends with reflections about the research process and epistemological considerations.

John Dwyer (1856-1934) was a London docks foreman who emigrated to Australia in 1888. Leaving his London employment on his 'own accord', Dwyer embarked upon a quest for recognition - recognition of his rights as a worker and his identity as an individual. Dwyer and his family arrived in New South Wales to be greeted by the economic depression of the 1890s, and state and employer mobilisation against organised labour and working class radicals. Dwyer was soon reduced to scraping together a living as a boarding house manager in Sydney's poorest districts, as he helped organise the Active Service Brigade, which agitated on behalf of the unemployed. Dwyer's surviving papers - twenty-one boxes of correspondence, manuscripts, minutes, handbills, tracts and newspaper clippings, plus several other volumes - document the life of a working class political radical and autodidact who embraced temperance, and who was fascinated by new ideas in religion and science - Darwinism, Theosophy and occult spiritualism. This thesis places Dwyer in the context of the intense ideological ferment of new ideas in politics, theology and science that characterised the period 1890-1914. Ideas that aggressively challenged the old certainties, and which Dwyer embraced in his project to 'change the face of the world.' Changing the world contested with the need to endure its conditions. Theosophy and temperance appealed to Dwyer's notion of duty, and an instinct to rationalise the social and economic roles he seemed unable to escape. The fragmented nature of his papers, and stop-start bursts of public activism - in politics, theosophy and temperance - reflect the tension between an urge to fight, to understand, to create - struggling against the daily demands of making a living and feeding a family. The thesis explores Dwyer's relationship with fellow radicals and workers, the labour movement and members of Sydney's social and political elite - men and women who shared and contested with his vision. Dwyer's complex and at times apparently contradictory values can be found amongst radicals and labourites alike - for example, William Lane, W.G. Spence and Bernard O'Dowd. Nor was Dywer's interest in theosophy or the occult as unusual as it might seem to modern readers. Dwyer's papers provide important insights into dilemmas that have challenged historians: the problem of alienation, the role of the individual in the historical process, the nature of working class radicalism. Issues often analysed in theoretically abstract terms, or at a broad level of historical inquiry, across a national or class-wide scale. Broad analyses of social forces or ideologies tend to distort their historical impact and meaning, failing to capture the complex relationship of phenomena such as class or ideology with individual experience. Working from Dwyer's experience, this thesis argues that it is possible to build a complex picture of working class life in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia.

ABSTRACT In loosely structured narrative interviews, individuals discussed their personal religious life stories in the context of their lives, from childhood to the present. They ended up creating coherent narratives that encompassed much more than their religious traditions. The coherency of their stories was through the use of dispositions. Dispositions are the common themes, people, or other narrative schema which the narrator used consistently throughout the story, and are identified by narrative elements that repeat and anchor the narrative. Dispositions found in interviews for the Religious Life Stories Project by the GSU Religious Studies Department include familial, outlier, socioeconomic, contributive, influential, obedient, somatic, and traveler. Analysis of the dipositions in the context of these narratives illuminates the variety of ways traditional religion manifests in individuals’ lives. Furthermore, dispositions provide a theoretical basis for studying individual religion comparatively across doctrinal religious traditions.

This essay discusses the roles of the outsider and the 'other' in the novel Life & Times of Michael K, published in 1983, by J.M. Coetzee through a postcolonial reading with perspectives borrowed from narrative analysis. The protagonist Michael K is an 'other' in the eyes of the other characters in the novel and this perception is further enhanced by the narrative situation. In addition to being the 'other', and thereby deprived of power, Michael K transforms himself into an outsider. This essay claims that by being the outsider the protagonist Michael K becomes empowered.

This thesis analyses those differences In interpretation which occur when separate literary-theoretical approaches are applied to biblical texts. Hans Frei suggests that the biblical texts describe the world in a way which he calls "realistic narrative". Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutic recognises the disclosive power of the text and translates the subject matter of the text into a "way-of- being-in-the-world". Thus, the primary identity disclosed by the biblical narratives differs. For Frei, it is the identity of Jesus which is disclosed; for Ricoeur, it is "our common human Christian identity". These two thinkers have usually been compared theologically. However, I contend that the theological investigations of both Frei and Ricoeur have been influenced by the literary approaches which guide their theological work. I give an exposition of this relationship in chapter one. In chapter two, I sketch out the implications of this relationship, focusing on the issue of narrative identity. In the final chapter, critiques of both systems are investigated as I attempt to deal with the force of these objections. This dissertation investigates Frei's and Ricoeur's construals of narrative identity (as constructed through the reading of Biblical texts). My working hypothesis is that the construals of identity formulated by Frei and Ricoeur rely upon formalist, narrative "interpretations". My thesis contends that in their respective approaches to the notion of narrative identity, neither thinker has completely abandoned his early literary-theoretical roots in his theological proposals.