This thesis concerns the challenges and limitations of developing a conception of a “reconciliatory pedagogy”. As a history methodology lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, I noticed that relationships among students were polarised. But during the course of an oral history and cooperative learning assignment with second year students, I observed a shift in relationships among some of the students. This started my journey towards conceptualising a “reconciliatory pedagogy”, which addresses the difficult issue of how we reweave relationships in the South African history lecture/classroom, given our torrid past. The methodology used in this thesis is narrative inquiry. I have used this approach to consider the meaning of reconciliation from different perspectives and contexts: the literature on reconciliation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa, and in practice with some history methodology students and history primary school teachers. John Paul Lederach’s (1997, 1999) images of reconciliation were key ideas literature that informed my conception of a reconciliatory pedagogy. He developed his dynamic ideas on reconciliation during his international attempts at peace-making, and I explored whether these ideas could be applied to the South African context of the history lecture/classroom. The TRC started the process of reconciliation in 1996, but everyday events continue to demonstrate the on-going lack of reconciliation in South Africa. A “reconciliatory pedagogy” aimed to take forward some aspects of the TRC, such as students/learners finding out more about the recent South African past via oral history interviews, and encouraging dialogue about this difficult past between the different generations. The use of cooperative learning strategies facilitated further dialogue about this past among the students/learners, where they shared “their” oral histories during a joint task, and in some cases engaged in Lederach’s (1999) “dance” of reconciliation. By interviewing history students/teachers, and through classroom observations, the successes and limitations of my conception of a “reconciliatory pedagogy” emerged. The results of the above process encouraged reflection about the education of history student teachers: it suggested the need for a more theory-based approach to their education via a critique of Lederach’s model of reconciliation and oral history in a “reconciliatory pedagogy”. A “reconciliatory pedagogy” does not claim to lead to big changes in attitudes or towards the teaching of history, but it assists in small shifts that may affect the broader project of reconciliation in South Africa.

What does it mean to be a school leader trying to improve chronic absenteeism at the high school level? Intervening with chronically absent high school students entails adapting existing practices designed for students in attendance, finding alternate ways to motivate students who simply are not there, and affording educational opportunity equitably to students whose voices and stories have largely been silenced, all against a landscape of increasingly rigorous and conflicting accountability pressure associated with chronic absenteeism, graduation rate, suspension rate and student achievement. While scholarship and dialogue pertaining to leadership responses to chronic absenteeism at the high school level generally support an emphasis on outreach and engagement with families, building relationships with students, affording students opportunities to recover credit, and connecting them to experiences that relate to the world of work after high school, scarce research focuses on the complex, dynamic role identities of the school leaders who innovate and implement these ad hoc responses, often without guidance from policy, and in turn, influence the experiences, outcomes and possibilities for chronically absent students. This current study investigated the ways that role identity components influenced the motivated actions of school and district leaders towards chronic absenteeism at the high school level. The study’s guiding questions were: (a) how do school leaders’ role identity components (i.e.., ontological and epistemological beliefs; purpose and goals; perceived action possibilities; self-perceptions and definitions) emerge and interact with each other to inform their actions regarding chronically absent high school students? (b) to what extent do the beliefs and perceptions of school leaders about supporting chronically absent students compare and contrast to the lived experiences of adults who were chronically absent students in high school? (c) to what extent do the beliefs and perceptions of school leaders about supporting chronically absent students compare and contrast to the lived experiences of parents and guardians of adults who were chronically absent students in high school? The guiding theoretical frame for this study is the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI; Kaplan & Garner, 2017). The DSMRI conceptualizes motivated action to be influenced by an actor’s dynamic and contextualized interpretation of his or her social cultural role, or role identity. According to the model, four multi-elemental components comprise an actor’s role identity: ontological and epistemological beliefs, purpose and goals, perceived action possibilities, and self-perceptions and definitions. These components are interdependent, irreducible, and reciprocally influencing each other, the behaviors and their meanings to the actor, and the future iterations of the actor’s role identity system. The study employed a narrative approach to investigate the school and district leaders’ motivated actions and the meanings they made of high school student absenteeism. Using Seidman’s (2013) protocol, I interviewed nine school leaders, five former students, and three parents who operated at a small, urban public school district in the Tri-State area about their past and present social-cultural roles concerning the meaning of they made of chronic absenteeism at the high school level. Additionally, I observed the nine school leaders and they provided artifacts and documents relating to chronic absenteeism. Transcribed interviews and the student focus group, as well as observations, documents and artifacts, were analyzed utilizing Saldana’s (2013) pragmatic eclecticism approach and Kaplan and Garner’s (2016) DSMRI Codebook and Analysis Guide. The results demonstrate how each school leader’s meaning of working with chronically absent students at the high school level, amidst an array of accountability pressures, has been incorporated into their dynamic role identity system within the sociocultural context, guiding their experiences, perceptions and actions. Despite their nuanced role identity systems - the participants come very different backgrounds with varied lived experiences and expertise in the domain, and reference different prior role identities and future role identities - the findings also highlighted common processes and content across Participant Roles (e.g., school leader, parent or student). This manifested distinctly in the themes reflecting school leaders’ actions changed in response to the system’s control parameter of accountability pressure, the ways school leaders communicated to parents and students about absenteeism, and the very different cultural meanings that students and parents gave to absenteeism and attendance than the cultural meanings and characteristics that school leaders largely experienced. These findings illuminate a complex, turbulent landscape comprised of school and district leaders, with myriad accountability systems to which they are beholden and their chronically absent students and families, all operating with multiple role identities that integrate with one another. The insights from this study can inform the work of educational leaders, educators and researchers who endeavor to intervene with the elusive problem of chronic absenteeism at the high school level. It may further guide educational leaders and policymakers who made decisions about the utility value of social-emotional learning that emphasizes exploration of identity for students, teachers, and leaders alike, as well as how outreach efforts are regarded and measured in school system outputs such as educator evaluation systems and professional development offerings. Importantly, this research aims to provide leaders with a tool for reflection on the importance of role identity as a lens to view their own professional practices and responses to challenging, complex problems in the domain such as chronic absenteeism. Moreover, when school systems were pressed to shut physically and adapt school services and instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the existing, multidimensional consideration of attending school manifested in new meanings and barriers for students, parents and school leaders grappling with the issue of chronic absenteeism in a changing context. Finally, this research aims to contribute, in a small way, to improve educational opportunity for all students, including those experiencing complex barriers to attending school. / Educational Administration

<p>Global citizenship is conceptualized within a neoliberal agenda and oppressive geopolitics of knowledge that furthers social inequities and unsustainability. Despite critiques and attempts to reframe global citizenship to achieve social justice and human rights aims, it is still masked in neoliberal and mono-epistemological terms as <em>global competence</em>. It is vital to explore possibilities of global citizenship <em>becoming</em> that can challenge neoliberal hegemony and the growing ethnocentric and ultra-nationalist thinking. This inquiry was conceptualized, within the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space, to explore the <em>being</em> and <em>becoming</em> of six South Asian female international students engaged in activism and the bearing it has on global citizenship. My co-researchers negotiated their dynamic identities and were influenced by multiple discourses as they shuttled between various places and spaces. In this inquiry, I examine autobiographical roots that illuminate my research puzzles and phenomena of interest and engage with South Asian female international students as they negotiate their personal, educational, and activist experiences. I analyze their lived experiences based on Ikeda’s perspective on global citizenship, informed by ideas of <em>sōka</em> or “value-creating” education and Buddhist-humanism. The research texts based on the livings and tellings of my participants are represented dialogically in culturally relevant ways, such as <em>chai pe charcha</em> or “conversations over tea.” From a narrative global citizenship perspective, these stories are examples of ‘creative coexistence’ and ‘value creation’ and offer a means to reimagine global citizenship from the standpoint of interconnectedness and interdependence.</p>

Au regard de la légalisation de l’aide médicale à mourir (AMM), cette étude avait comme but d’explorer le deuil des enfants adultes dont un parent est décédé à la suite de l’administration de l’AMM. Un devis de recherche qualitative interprétativiste inspiré de l’approche narrative a permis d’y répondre. Le cadre théorique de cette étude est le Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement (DPM) et son modèle révisé de Stroebe et Schut (1999, 2010, 2015). Un échantillonnage de convenance a permis de recruter six participants. La collecte de données a été réalisée par le biais d’entretiens individuels, d’un questionnaire sociodémographique et par la tenue d’un journal de bord. L’analyse des données a été réalisée selon la méthode de Josselson et Hammack (2021). Trois thèmes principaux sont soulevés dans les récits des participants : 1) la temporalité; 2) la quête de sens et 3) les facteurs influençant le deuil. Le premier réfère à la conscience du temps qu’amène le fait de fixer une date au décès. Le deuxième se décline en trois sous-thèmes : la souffrance, l’altération des rituels et le changement identitaire, qui pointent tous vers la recherche d’un sens à la mort. Le dernier se penche sur les éléments individuels, sociaux et institutionnels qui modifient l’expérience des participants. Ces résultats ont été intégrés au DPM et des recommandations pour la discipline infirmière, la pratique clinique, la gestion, la formation et la recherche sont émises. / Given the legalization of medical assistance in dying (MAID), the purpose of this study was to explore the grieving process of adult children whose parent died from MAID. An interpretivist qualitative research design inspired by the narrative inquiry approach was used. The theoretical framework for this study was the Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement (DPM) and its revised model by Stroebe and Schut (1999, 2010, 2015). Six participants were recruited using a convenience sampling strategy. Data collection was conducted through individual interviews, a sociodemographic questionnaire, and a logbook. Data analysis was conducted using the method of Josselson and Hammack (2021). Three main themes emerged in the participants' narratives: 1) temporality, 2) the search for meaning, and 3) factors influencing grief. The first refers to the awareness of time that comes with setting a time of death. The second is broken down into three sub- themes: suffering, alteration of rituals and change of identity, all of which point to the search for meaning in death of a parent. The last one looks at the individual, social and institutional elements that alter the experience of the participants. These findings have been incorporated into the DPM and recommendations for the nursing discipline, clinical practice, management, training, and research are made.

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The study explored how storytelling develops resilience in Black women, enabling them to thrive after overcoming adversity. Storytelling can be conducted in a variety of ways, such as through writing, interaction with others, and self-analysis, however, this study will focus on the value of informal oral storytelling through the interactions with others. Studies reveal that Black women are disproportionately impacted by inequities concerning equal rights, employment, equal pay, education, discrimination, affordable healthcare and housing, criminal justice, and voting rights. Despite these inequities, Black women are significant contributors to the workforce, economy, and society, demonstrating resilience. There is limited research that includes Black women’s voices in counter response to inequities and how storytelling increases their resilience, enabling them to thrive. The study reviewed literature of Black women’s history, Critical Race Theory, intersectionality, adult personal resilience, Resilience Theory, storytelling, and narrative inquiry. I interviewed Black women and, in that process, invited them to share stories and artifacts demonstrating their resilience. The study examined who shared stories with these Black women and who they shared their stories with. The study explored whether Black women increased their resilience to thrive through storytelling. The study applied the qualitative research approach using narrative inquiry and Resilience Theory as the theoretical framework. The study aimed to diminish the literature gap and provide a counter-narrative on how Black women increase their resilience to thrive through storytelling.

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Despite many theories on student success as well as many resources to help students make the transition from high school to college, many students do not persist in or graduate from college. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide insight into what takes place when students leave P-12 institutions and enter institutions of higher education by using focused narrative inquiry. This study took place at a large research university in the south. The study included 4 participants at various parts of their transition journey. Participants in the study responded to written prompts. Follow up interviews were conducted, and a narrative of each participant’s transition story was constructed. A plot analysis on each participant’s story suggests that students in transition are not only transitioning from P-12 institutions but also between resources intended to aid students in their transition. When employing resources intended to aid students in their transition to college, foregrounding the cultural transition elements should be considered.