This narrative inquiry dissertation explores stories from three students over a two-year trajectory as they develop into language educators in diverse contexts. The study begins in a teacher education course focused on technology for language teaching in English as a second language (ESOL) and foreign language education (FLE) classrooms. As instructor, I implemented a digital storytelling (DS) project with the pedagogical goal of supporting the much-needed practice of reflexivity, and specifically, reflexivity of intercultural competence (IC) and culturally-responsive pedagogy (CRP). The DS, as an autoethnographic multimodal narrative activity, provided a creative outlet for undergraduate and master’s level students to explore their own cultural background or intercultural experiences. In this study, I re-story the experiences related to the DS project and follow my former students, now teachers, to explore how personal narratives promote or support reflexivity of critical multicultural concepts or practices. I combine and juxtapose multiple perspectives based on observations, data from the student-authored DS and reflections, and in-depth interviews. Using a critical-based autoethnographic approach, I add my own instructor-researcher narrative. The resulting descriptive and interpretive narrative inquiry accentuates complexities, invites conversation about the critical and reflexive potential of DS or personal narrative, and contributes pedagogical and methodological insights into teacher training via the “meaning-making” story process and the innate accessibility of learning through stories.

La famiglia nell'attualità è attraversata da cambiamenti che stanno trasformando le fondamenta della identità personale, gli assiomi della vita quotidiana. Il caso della famiglia che ha attraversato una rottura ed è contrassegnata da separazione e divorzio, solleva un gran numero di questioni umane e sociali e origina diverse transizioni, che sono state al centro dell'approfondimento oggetto di questa tesi dottorale, condotto su un campione di giovani adulti italiani. Essa mostra, nella fattispecie attraverso le peculiari caratteristiche della ricerca qualitativa, i tratti salienti di specifici metodi visuali, denominati "Family map" e "Life line". Essi hanno contribuito a definire la struttura, il posizionamento relazionale dei membri della famiglia, le stesse relazioni tra essi, nonchè di concettualizzare chi "appartiene" a una famiglia che ha attraversato un cambiamento, una transizione, che porta dunque con sè un corredo di eventi correlati. L'intervistato ha partecipato di volta in volta secondo una modalità (inter)attiva e ha descritto graficamente all'interno delle quattro specifiche sezioni ed i cerchi concentrici della mappa e poi lungo la linea, quali relazioni e fatti sono più o meno importanti. L'intervistatore ha potuto rivolgere domande volte ad acquisire informazioni su alcuni processi di cambiamento e la prospettiva peculiare di tale cambiamento, così come percepita da ciascun attore, ad esempio in riferimento ad eventi passati o presenti. Attraverso lo specifico snodarsi grafico dei supporti - allo sesso tempo fornendo un inquadramento consistente di dati- questo lavoro ha gettato luce su cosa le relazioni familiari, gli eventi e le rappresentazioni configurano nella percezione della persona coinvolta. La scommessa posta attraverso l'uso di questi metodi visuali è quella di continuare a concepire gli individui in termini di approccio relazionale, attraverso l'interdipendenza con il sè, l'altro da sè e il mondo, lungo tutto il corso della propria esistenza. Un grande contributo di questo strumento sui generis è che ha aperto le porte a numerose altre domande che stimolano la ricerca di risposte e la stessa futura ricerca riguardante i figli di separati. / Many changes are affecting the family today, transforming the foundations of self-identity, which are the core models for everyday personal life. The situation of family disruption, such as separation and divorce, raises either a number of human and social issues, and transitions which deserved to be better understood in this PhD thesis, being carried out on a sample of young Italian adults. It shows in the form of qualitative research the main features of specific visual methods, the Family map and Life line. They contributed to define the structure, the positions of family members, the relationships between them and conceptualize who belongs to a family that has changed, with crucial events related. The interviewee has been actively identifying and describing graphically (within the four sections and the concentric circles of the map and along the line) which relations and facts are more or less relevant. The interviewer could ask questions in order to get some processes of change and the actors’ own perception of such change, e.g. with reference to current state or past events. Along a specific visual development of the graphs -while providing a helpful framework- this research throwed some light on what family relationships, events and representations are on the perception of the person involved. The challenge posed for this visual methods is to continue to conceive of individuals in terms of relational approach, through the interdependence with self, others, and the world during the course of life. A great contribution of this tool sui generis is that it opened the door to numerous additional questions concerning children of divorce, that need answers and further research.

abstract: Community colleges, like all higher education institutions in the United States, have not been immune to the increased national focus on educational accountability and institutional effectiveness over the past three decades. Federal and non-governmental initiatives aimed at tracking and reporting on institutional outcomes have focused on utilitarian academic and economic measures of student success that homogenize the goals, aspirations, and challenges of the individuals who attend these unique open-access institutions. This dissertation, which is comprised of three submission-ready scholarly peer-reviewed articles, examined community college students’ conceptualizations and valuations of “student success.” The research project was designed as a multiple methods single-site case study, and the data sources consisted of a large-scale student e-survey, follow-up semi-structured interviews with a heterogeneous group of students, semi-structured interviews with faculty and administrators, and a review of institutional documents. The interviews also incorporated two experimental visual elicitation techniques and a participatory ranking exercise. Article One introduces and operationalizes the author’s primary conceptual perspective, the capabilities approach, to develop a more comprehensive framework for understanding and evaluating community college student outcomes. This article documents the methodological process used to generate a theoretical and an empirical list of community college capabilities, which serve as the basis of future capabilities-based research on community college student success. Article Two draws on the student interview and student visual elicitation data to explore the capability category of “refuge” – a new, unexpected, and student-valued purpose of the community college as a safe escape from the complexities and demands of personal, home, and work life. In light of recent efforts to promote more structured and prescriptive college experiences to improve graduation rates, Article Three explores students’ perceptions of their pathways through the community college using the participant-generated and researcher-generated visual elicitation data. Findings indicate that students value the structure and the flexibility community colleges offer, as well as their own ability to be agents and architects of their educational experience. Taken together, these articles suggest that student success is less linear and more rhizomatic in structure than it is currently portrayed in the literature. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2015

Purpose and objective: A good life includes opportunities to practice self-determination, to participate in and contribute to society, to have meaningful relationships, and opportunities for self-development as well as physical, emotional, and financial health and security (Verdugo et al., 2012). People labelled with an intellectual disability (PLWID) have had limited opportunities to experience these good things in life and to share their own perspectives about a good life. The purpose of this study was to learn from PLWID who face significant barriers to communication about what they most value as part of a good life. My research was situated within the sociohistorical context of the province of Ontario. My main research questions were: (1) What is a good life from the perspectives of PLWID who use various forms of augmentative and alternative forms of communication (AAC)? (2) What can we learn from past advocacy efforts? (3) What are the possibilities and limitations of participatory audio/visual methods for enabling PLWID to articulate their vision of a good life? Methods: To explore these research questions, I conducted three separate but related studies. The first study consists of six narratives of intellectual disability advocacy that has taken place in Ontario. A focus group session advised me regarding the choice of narratives to be included in the study. To conduct the second study, I adopted various research methods, including participatory audio/visual methods, inclusive research methods and narrative approaches. I facilitated a series of five workshops for five participants labelled as having an intellectual or developmental disability and facing significant barriers to communication and six supporters living in the Ottawa Region. Combining audio/visual and inclusive methods and drawing from augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), supported decision-making (SDM) and Supported Conversation for Adults with Aphasia (SCA™), participants received assistance to think about a good life. A total of 34 video vignettes communicate participants’ perspectives. Finally, to conduct the third study, I used audio/visual methods to document the participatory process of exploring a good life with participants and their supporters. Results: The results reveal that the desire for assistance to practice autonomy and the desire to contribute to shaping supports and services has been at the heart of intellectual disability advocacy efforts. Further, PLWID value participation and relationships as part of a good life. Participation in arts and sports is especially important as are relationships with family and friends. Results demonstrate that using participatory audio/visual methods combined with strategies drawn from SDM, AAC and SCA™ provide practical assistance to PLWID when thinking about and communicating their visions and ideas of the good. Conclusion and implications: The findings of this research indicate the need to continue exploring methodological approaches that facilitate the participation of PLWID and others who face barriers to communication and cognition in research and beyond. The three studies support a radically individual and relational conceptualization of autonomy and decision-making. As such, they suggest the need to rethink accepted ideas about self-determination, including reasoning and decision-making. Finally, the results support the need for individualized assistance that accommodates each person’s cognitive and communication abilities to enable meaningful participation. They also suggest the need for fundamental systemic changes that begin with practicing equality and forms of radically inclusive democracy in all our relations.

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The dissertation explores the roles of buildings in urban social life. Buildings, as both a methodological tool and a research site, are valuable for understanding society. As a method, buildings allow access to various urban contexts. As a research site, the material and the social are integrated, where buildings and society are shown in continual construction. The overarching case shows how a new building type is born in a society and what buildings do, as both materiality and meaning, to help bring about outcomes. The study follows a single building type through history and analytical levels in the city of Santiago, Chile where three empirical studies emerge. The first traces a process of late 19th century urbanization to show the entrance of new residential building types into a city and how the physical and social landscape is reshaped in the process, emphasizing how one urban form emerges and is defined. Intercontinental connections bring new architecture and new language, stabilizing the link between form and name in the city. The resulting spectrum of buildings within the type shows how the diversity of residents shapes material outcomes. As the new buildings become fixed in the urban landscape, so too do social categories. How buildings change definitions both between and within societies, as well as start to take on meanings, is explored. Once definitions and form are established, the following studies explore the roles of the buildings in contemporary urban life. Photos analysis is employed to examine uses of shared space (a patio) in a residential building where buildings are theorized as material structures that contribute to patterned activities. It addresses how the building creates opportunities for observed everyday uses of private collective space. Using published comparison cases demonstrates that practices appear to differ between buildings of the same type when income of residents differs. It is hypothesized that opportunity is created not by the existence of the space per se, but by its gated enclosure, which separates the public street from the private space. The building is understood as a bound that simultaneously fosters interaction and exclusion. In addition, activities in these spaces, over time, contribute to new cultural understandings of the building type, showing how use can generate meaning. The last empirical study examines the reuse of residential buildings for commercial purposes in one neighborhood. The goal is to illuminate roles buildings play in contemporary neighborhood transformations. Rather than understanding transformation through reuse itself, modes of material conversions are examined. The differences between older conversions and newer ones in the area highlight the role of visible characteristics in the newly reused buildings. The material maintenance of residential facades on new conversions locks in the visual of a residential neighborhood, where intended function is built into form, even under commercial reuse. This is valuable in line with a constructed narrative about the place that focuses on the past. The building type under investigation is further redefined as reused buildings take on visual and spatial similarities to housing models from a past era that were not involved in changes in the neighborhood, but appear as if they were. This study relies on participant observation and analysis of marketing materials, as well as other documentary sources.

(in English): A consumer freedom has gained importance hitherto assigned to labour and therefore has become a constituent of one's identity. The degree of such freedom is determined by the access to economical, spatial or symbolical resources. The symbolical resources are embodied in the feeling of inappropriateness which is built upon aesthetic correspondence that can be perceived as the correspondence between one's habitus and the aesthetic of the environment. In my thesis I elaborate on the meaning which is assigned to aesthetics when judging consumption spaces. I focus on consumption spaces situated in Prague's Nusle district which are soon to be gentrified. Therefore, the old consumption spaces might be pushed away in order to be replaced by the new ones, suitable for gentrifiers. I constrain consumption spaces to bars, restaurants and pubs, since they are particularly important in the Czech culture due to their function as a social bonding element and a resource of social capital. In my research I employ a visual methodological approach, particularly shooting script and grounded theory. Building upon that, I present the central category of "atmosphere" which comprises two components - social atmosphere, bundled with the liveliness of space and interpersonal ties, and aesthetic atmosphere,...

Between the researcher and the participant: Requirements on sociological research methods and techniques Abstract The dissertation thesis deals with the design of methods and techniques which mediate the commnunication between a researcher and a participant (in-depths, surveys, etc.). The aim of the paper is to comprehensively assess a research practice by a number of criteria and thought experiments. The paper discusses 24 requirements which could be set on the method. It is rooted in the revised moderated neopositivist paradigm specifically from Carnap's concept of observation and theoretical language. It is further enhanced with the concept of conceptual spaces and the social representations concept. The extended theoretical approach is called "achieving the explanation" and it emphasizes (1) the meaning of theoretical assumptions of the scientific model including methodological aspects. (2) The common knowledge is approached as a complex social representation not only an attitude. (3) It stresses the importance of so called fix points which enable the translation between common and scientific knowledge. The thesis is focused on the process of designing the research in all its stages, on the theoretical and conceptual principles and on specific aspects of cooperation with participants.

Con la posibilidad de un sismo de considerable intensidad, según el IGP y el CISMID, se hace necesario la presencia de investigaciones para prevenir y dar conocimiento de los riesgos que están expuestos la población. Es por ello, que la presente tesis propone una estimación del riesgo sísmico de las edificaciones del distrito de Chancay según metodologías visuales. El motivo de escoger a la ciudad de Chancay para este estudio es por su tipo de construcción que representa a la mayoría de las ciudades de la costa peruana. Estas construcciones realizadas principalmente por personas con conocimiento empírico “Maestros de Obra” y en la mayoría sin asesorías de un profesional de la construcción genera que estas edificaciones sean vulnerables. La vulnerabilidad asociada con el peligro sísmico representa un riesgo no solo estructural y de posibles pérdidas económicas, sino que en el peor de los casos pérdidas humanas. Por ello, es necesario informar a la población las posibles consecuencias que tendrían después de un evento sísmico de magnitud mayor a 8. Para el desarrollo de esta esta investigación se cuantifico el costo estructural de la ciudad tomando datos oficiales del gobierno y costos actuales de distintos proyectos que se desarrollaron en los índices 3.1 Material y 3.2 Recopilación, en el que se obtiene un valor aproximado de S/ 2.2 mil millones de soles. Para la evaluación se utilizó la metodología propuesta por el Fema en su manual de Hazus que se resumen en el Capítulo 2 Marco Teórico; así mismo, se debe indicar que esta metodología se realizó en Estados Unidos en el que propone 36 modelos estructurales en relación con el tipo de construcción con el que se puede obtener el porcentaje de daño de una estructura frente a un evento sísmico. Se debe considerar que los resultados son posibles aproximaciones ya que los coeficientes utilizados por la metodología presentan limitaciones que son mencionados según avance el desarrollo de la investigación. El motivo de utilizar metodologías visuales para determinar el riesgo es principalmente que la evaluación es una ciudad; el cual, cuenta con aproximadamente 15 mil estructuras que si es evaluada mediante métodos avanzados se tendría que acopiar información muy detallada que generan grandes costos, tiempo y por el gran número no sería del todo razonable. Finalmente se presentan los resultados y las conclusiones para un escenario sísmico de magnitud de 8.5 desarrollado en el Capítulo 5 Discusión de resultados para la ciudad de Chancay; en el cual se estima que la ciudad tiene un riesgo de 42.8% de daños que expresados en términos económicos es de S/. 954.3 millones de soles. / With the possibility of an earthquake of considerable intensity, according to the IGP and the CISMID, the presence of investigations is necessary to prevent and give knowledge of the risks that the population is exposed to. That is why this thesis proposes an estimate of the seismic risk of the buildings in the Chancay district according to visual methodologies. The reason for choosing the city of Chancay for this study is for its type of construction that represents most of the cities of the Peruvian coast. These constructions carried out mainly by people with empirical knowledge "Construction Masters" and in most cases without the advice of a construction professional, make these buildings vulnerable. Vulnerability associated with seismic hazard represents not only a structural risk and potential economic loss, but in the worst-case human loss. Therefore, it is necessary to inform the inhabitants of the possible consequences that they would have after a seismic event of magnitude greater than 8. For the development of this research, the structural cost of the city is quantified taking official data from the government such as the INEI and current costs of different projects that are developed in Chapter 3 Materials and Information Collection in which a value of S / 2.2 billion soles. For the evaluation, the methodology proposed by Fema in its Hazus manual was used, which are summarized in Chapter 2 Theoretical Framework; Likewise, it should be noted that this methodology was carried out in the United States in which it proposes 36 structural models in relation to the type of construction with which the percentage of damage to a structure in the face of a seismic event can be obtained. It should be considered that the results are possible approximations and that the coefficients used by the methodology present limitations that are mentioned according to the progress of the research development. The reason for using visual methodologies to determine risk is mainly that the evaluation is a city; which has approximately 15 thousand structures that, if evaluated by advanced methods, would have to collect very detailed information that generates great costs, time, and due to the large number, it would not be entirely reasonable. Finally, the results and the conclusions for a seismic scenario of magnitude of 8.5 developed in Chapter 5 Discussion of results for the city of Chancay are presented; in which it is estimated that the city has a risk of 42.8% of damages that expressed in economic terms is S/. 954.3 million soles. / Tesis

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