Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-170). Also available on the Internet.

Teaching and learning observations (henceforth ‘observations’) are commonly used in a broad range of educational environments to assess teaching quality and support professional development. Research centred on observations in England’s Further Education colleges (FE), suggests these strategies are often ineffective because of tensions between ‘authentic’ teaching and the inherent performativity required by some managerialist policies (Ball 2003). This psychosocial study draws on interpretive interactionism (Denzin 1989) to explore lived emotional experiences of FE staff involved in observations and perceptions of embodied ‘performativity’. My research involved in-depth semi-biographical interviews with FE staff (n=14) which explored emotional experiences of teaching and learning within the context of their roles as observer and/or observee. Using my personal reflections as an FE teacher, together with my creative writing skills, fictionalised accounts are presented to demonstrate anonymised consolidations of the participants’ narratives (Sparkes 2002). Using conceptual tools from Bourdieu (1991) and the lens of psychoanalysis (Mollon 2002) I draw on Richardson’s (1997) ‘writing as a method of inquiry’ and Ochberg’s (2002) non-linear approach to data analysis to explore shared and disparate themes within the accounts, reflections and fictionalised texts. Vocational and personal learning experiences are argued to form a fundamental aspect of the professional habitus of FE staff (James, Biesta 2007). Outcomes from my innovative approach, illuminates this interplay of factors, specifically within the affectivity in the performativity of observations. Hence these findings provide an original contribution to knowledge in this area, by demonstrating how the potential tension in observations is situated in the personal significance of perceptions of an ‘in/authentic self’, rather than the performativity per se. Fictionalisation could be a useful tool to further explore lived emotional experiences of teaching and learning. Indeed, raising awareness of the perceived performativity intrinsic within the affectivity of observations could hold benefits for teaching practice more widely.

In this paper, I explore the epistemological issues which arise in, and are fundamental to, examining how mature students in the UK experience their full-time Foundation Degree in Childhood (FDC) which is my research focus. The key issues centre on how gender, the student experience and emotions are conceptualised and theoretically described. I will argue that Bourdieu offers/provides a conceptual framework through which my research question can be illuminated, that may minimize the dichotomies of the dualistic argument of male/female, mind/body, rational/irrational. I will argue for a feminist/post-structuralist standpoint and show that it is consistent with embracing Narrative Inquiry (NI) and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). In practical terms, this involves using interviews and reflective tasks as research instruments. My proposed research question is ‘What is the role of gender in mature students’ emotional lives as a result of attending/finishing a higher education professional course?’ I will began with a brief contextualisation of why it is important to address the role of gender when researching mature student emotion (positive and negative) within the care industry and why it may be an issue for social justice. This is followed by a discussion of the work of Reay (2000; 2004) and Zembylas’s (2007) elaboration of Bourdieu’s ‘capitals’ framework. By researching how emotion is captured/capitalized and how this ‘emotional capital’ manifests in mature students’ professional and personal lives because of higher education, the meaning of emotion and the contextualisation of emotion within higher education will be addressed. The research methods will be justified in the second part of this essay.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Nina Bascia.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Melbourne, 1996. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-136).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2008. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Mar. 6, 2009). Thesis advisor: Vincent A. Anfara Jr. Document formatted into pages (xi, 162 p. : ill.). Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 110-122).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2003. / Title from title page screen, viewed Oct. 15, 2004. Dissertation Committee: Mohamed A. Nur-Awaleh (chair), W. Paul Vogt, Dianne Gardner-Gletty, George Padavil. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-161) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 181-198).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 181-198). Also available in print.