<p>  </p> <p>Students from rural communities undertake postsecondary education at rates lower than their counterparts from urban and suburban communities, and mathematics is a known gatekeeper along the pipeline toward a college degree. This study investigated the mathematics identity formation of students from a rural school who were college-bound to determine what existing strengths a rural school could build from in providing students with experiences in school mathematics that align with a college-bound path. Data collected included individual interviews with college-bound students, their AP Calculus teacher, and their guidance counselor, group interviews with the students, and classroom observations conducted in the participants’ AP Calculus class. The findings are presented as three narratives, each corresponding to one of the participants in the study, that detail the processes by which they developed their mathematics identities and their paths toward college, as well as the convergences and divergences between the two. Common themes in the participants’ narratives include family, the agricultural and industrial base of the local rural community, grades, the social status attained by achievement in school mathematics, and the benefits of high-quality mathematics instruction. These findings indicate that mathematics served a largely instrumental purpose for the participants, but that this does not prevent them from appreciating and learning from a teacher who frequently used pedagogical techniques associated with reform mathematics. This further implies that students in rural schools would benefit from increased access to mathematics instruction informed by best practices, as well as a lowered focus on grades in school mathematics. </p>

This study focused on nine disabled college students' interpersonal interactions with their campus community. Study participants discussed the meaning they took from their interpersonal interactions. Critical disability studies theory and Disability Justice Principles provided a conceptual framework for this study's design. Using narrative inquiry methodology, this study explored the following research questions: (1) How do disabled college students describe their interpersonal interactions with those in their campus community (e.g., staff, faculty members, peers)? (2) What meaning do disabled college students ascribe to their interactions with those in their campus community? (3) How do disabled college students describe their participation in, if any, student organizations at their institutions? Inductive analysis from 18 semi-structured interviews revealed five themes: lower(ed) expectations for support and connection, experiencing oppression, coping with oppression, experiencing interdependent friendships, and in-group friendships. Findings affirm the insufficiency of compliance with disability laws, disabled college students' resiliency in response to ableism, and the need for administrators to foster belonging for disabled college students. Study implications emphasize the urgent need for higher education administrators to foster a sense of belonging among disabled college students with multiple marginalized identities as well as disrupt systems of oppression within higher education institutions. / Doctor of Philosophy / Enrollment of disabled students in higher education continues to rise, but postsecondary administrators still overlook the need for full inclusion of this population in all aspects of college life. Disabled college students have a legal right under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to request accommodations and talk with campus disability service providers about their accommodation needs. It is important for college administrators to foster the social inclusion of disabled students at their institutions. The purpose of this study was to learn about the interpersonal experiences of disabled college students with those in their campus communities. I used a narrative methodology to consider the following research questions: (1) How do disabled college students describe their interpersonal interactions with those in their campus community (e.g., staff, faculty members, peers)? (2) What meaning do disabled college students ascribe to their interactions with those in their campus community? (3) How do disabled college students describe their participation in, if any, student organizations at their institutions? After interviewing study participants, I learned they lowered their expectations for support and connection and experienced oppression. In response, participants found ways to cope with oppression, especially by forming mutual friendships with campus peers. These coping strategies confirmed the urgent need for higher education administrators to foster a sense of belonging among the disabled students on their college campuses.

Current research literature reveals that there are numerous benefits such as personal growth, academic success and exposure to multiple perspectives surrounding arts-based learning (Brice Heath, 2001; Cole, 2011; Cote, 2010). According to McMahon, Klopper, & Power (2015) it is important for students to "see themselves as decision makers and understand that they can influence their own learning experiences" (p. 19). Additionally, these same researchers emphasize that teachers need to "focus on the learning experience of the students and understand that the greater value of engaging in the arts resides in the students' art making process" (p. 19). Current research has concentrated predominantly on studies of student experiences at the time that they are enrolled in arts-based programs. My study is unique as I engaged participants retrospectively on their former experiences of learning in an arts-based program. More specifically, my research question asked "what are the effects of attending an arts-based secondary school program on the subsequent lives of six former students, including myself, who graduated two decades ago?" To answer this question, I used narrative inquiry and arts-based methods supported by a social constructivist theoretical framework. More specifically, I analyzed my research through the use of an online whiteboard entitled Miro, and then expressed my findings in the form of a "factional" story (Kallio, 2015) co-narrated by myself and my participants. This 'factional' story is told through fictional characters based on my research analysis, and also includes fictional elements. Though participant stories varied, key themes emerged as they grew as people through the experience, carrying with them lingering memories that continue to influence their lives today.

Abstract Values are foundational guidelines that underpin nurses’ actions. They serve as fundamental points of reference for nurses; and, as such, determine their moral nursing practice. Understanding how nurses’ experience of living their values amidst organizational change sheds light on how this social condition influences the narrative composition of nurses’ lives and their practice. This Narrative Inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) illuminates the temporal connections of life events; how social conditions mutually shape personal conditions; and how actions that occur within a place give meaning to the experience. Six nurses from a large academic health centre in Southern Ontario were recruited and interviewed over eight months. During initial analysis, letters were constructed for each co-participant to reveal the experience of living values amidst organizational change. Subsequently, a composite narrative in the form of a letter was composed, revealing four plotlines: responsive relationship, moral distress, reflection and reconstruction, and knowledge and identity. These plotlines intersect to describe the extent to which nurses meet their moral obligations within relational practice. This inquiry brings to the foreground four narrative terms, including stories to commit by, that contribute to a new way of thinking about familiar issues. It illuminates the personal and the active movement of reflection that reside in a person and the choice(s) she/he makes to re-craft a life. Considerations for practice, education, policy, and research highlight the importance of a deeper level of reflective practice, the connection between personal and ethical knowledge, and the need for becoming aware of one’s moral horizon. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to examine how cooperating teachers’ narrative authority was revealed or strengthened within an intentionally formed knowledge community established to create a safe space for cooperating teachers to story and restory their experiences as music teacher educators. The conceptions of knowledge communities and narrative authority, grounded in Dewey’s theory of experience and narrative knowing, followed the research line of Connelly and Clandinin (1990). Concepts of interest emerging from this framework were cooperating teachers’ personal practical knowledge, continuity of experience between their stories, interaction with others in specific contexts, features of the professional knowledge landscape of music teacher education, and tensions arising from cooperating teachers’ positions on the landscape relative to the conduit. Of particular interest was how the strengthening of narrative authority within the knowledge community would allow cooperating teachers to question taken-for-granted notions of teacher education. The knowledge community, which included three participants and myself, met twice during the course of the study, but maintained continuous communication through conversations and emails. Observations were conducted during the student teaching practicum. Field notes were also an important part of the data collected. Data analysis and representation were situated within the three-dimensional inquiry space described by Clandinin and Connelly (2000) and drew on a variety of methods. Issues of researcher subjectivity and ethics were addressed through enacting the principles of resonant work in narrative inquiry in music education (Stauffer & Barrett, 2009). Four story categories emerged from the data: stories of established practice, stories of influential relationships, stories of tension, and stories of possibility. Laying alongside the stories of each participant created a thematic dialogue that gives readers a seat at the table to experience their stories and a jumping off point to add their own. There is potential for this type of knowledge community to strengthen practice by creating a space for sharing previously untold stories of practice. The process of looking back at past practices, reflecting on current practices, and reimagining future practices within the knowledge community strengthened narrative authority in a way that opened the possibility to trouble certainty.

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This dissertation looks at the role narratives play in addressing organizational challenges by facilitating a collective assignment of meaning to those challenges that allows for problem solving, or at least a way to cope with the challenges. Specifically, the research examines how informal knowledge is embedded in organizations in the form of narratives, and how narratives are used to transfer knowledge across the organization. The dissertation develops the concept of narrative, and the qualities of the narratives used in this dissertation, focused on events, focused on people, focused on values, and it develops an understanding of knowledge transfer as the collective assignment of meaning to challenges that are constantly emerging. In this case study, three means, or tools emerge as facilitating the assignment of meaning. These tools are superstars, indexing, and knowledge objects. This research will enrich the public administration and nonprofit literature by utilizing narrative inquiry to examine the transfer of knowledge in a nonprofit social service organization that serves a vital public purpose under contracts with various levels of government. / Ph. D.

This thesis is a narrative inquiry into the experiences of two childrens lives in school. I lived alongside the two children in their grade five classroom for eight months of their school year inquiring into the ways that their school experiences and their relationships with the teacher, classmates, and subject matter influenced the way they composed their stories to live by. In this thesis I share a personal reflection on the way my story to live by has been shaped by my experiences, specifically as a student, a teacher, and a researcher. I use field notes and taped conversations with each of the two boys to retell the stories they shared with me and apply them to literature and theory. I use Deweys Criteria of Experience within a narrative framework to help understand and retell the stories of the two boys as well as Clandinin, Pushor, and Murray Orrs commonplaces of narrative inquiry: place, temporality, and sociality. I explore Aokis planned and lived curriculum and Noddings ethic of care and fidelity in teaching as they applied to the inquiry.

This thesis is a narrative inquiry into the experiences of two childrens lives in school. I lived alongside the two children in their grade five classroom for eight months of their school year inquiring into the ways that their school experiences and their relationships with the teacher, classmates, and subject matter influenced the way they composed their stories to live by. In this thesis I share a personal reflection on the way my story to live by has been shaped by my experiences, specifically as a student, a teacher, and a researcher. I use field notes and taped conversations with each of the two boys to retell the stories they shared with me and apply them to literature and theory. I use Deweys Criteria of Experience within a narrative framework to help understand and retell the stories of the two boys as well as Clandinin, Pushor, and Murray Orrs commonplaces of narrative inquiry: place, temporality, and sociality. I explore Aokis planned and lived curriculum and Noddings ethic of care and fidelity in teaching as they applied to the inquiry.