In Images of Leadership (1991), Bolman and Deal identified four “frames” that school administrators use when making decisions: structural, symbolic, human resource and political. They discovered that the latter two frames, which focus on relationships, partnerships, and communication, were most frequently identified as predicting a school administrator’s success “as both leader and manager”(12). Strikingly, Bolman and Deal found that little emphasis and professional time are afforded to help school administrators learn about these critical frames. While there is ample logistical advice about language use, there is scant research that examines it from a theatrical perspective. The purpose of this autoethnographic study was to examine my literate life as a school administrator through the use of multimodal interaction analysis (Norris, 2004) and dramaturgical metaphors (Goffman, 1959). The study attempted to address the following research questions: (1.) How does my role as a school administrator dramaturgically define the roles I inhabit as I engage in everyday literacy practices in school? and (2.) How do I use language –both verbal and nonverbal language --to negotiate those roles with my various audiences, specifically with teachers and staff, other leaders, students and parents? The participant was myself –in my former role as an assistant principal at a suburban elementary school. Data collection and analysis began in May 2012 and concluded at the end of August 2012. Data for the study was collected through a journal based on questions using dramaturgical terms and a collection of the author’s/participant’s videotaped “performances” with various audiences. The dramaturgical journal was analyzed through Critical Discourse Analysis and deductive coding, while the videotapes were analyzed using Multimodal Interaction Analysis. Poetry was also used throughout the study to include the author’s voice, to recontextualize the experience, and to challenge the traditional prose form. The study revealed the intersection of language and leadership in the life of a school administrator. It also showed how multimodal interaction analysis and dramaturgical metaphors can help educational leaders understand their own literate lives through new lenses and how they can grow from that understanding.

A reliance on a teacher-centered model of instruction presented the foundation for my research. I chose to investigate constructivist theory and to implement constructivist teaching practices within my art education classroom to determine if constructivist teaching practices would facilitate a shift to a more student-centered learning environment, and to determine if constructivist strategies positively impact student learning. I collected my raw data using autoethnographic recording, documenting my results over a two month period in January and February of 2007 from my experiences as an art educator at a public, Metro-Atlanta elementary school. A positive impact on student learning was observed and the constructivist teaching strategies did produce student-centered learning environments. Based on my experiences constructivist teaching strategies may be beneficial to the creation of student-centered learning environments and assist in broadening student inquiry and investment with lessons.

The immigration debate is not new to the United States; however, today’s heated discussions include strong anti-Mexican sentiments (Bean & Stone, 2012; Hughey, 2012). As Americans attempt to secure borders in an effort to insure safety and economic security, current legislation includes elements of racial profiling against Mexicans that could extend to those who possess varying levels of Mexican blood since physical characteristics tend to guide racial labeling (Aoki & Johnson, 2009; Bernal, 2002; Fernandez, 2002; Quiñones et al, 2011). As an individual of Mexican and White bloodlines, racial categorization has resulted in internal struggles and social dilemmas for me. The purpose of this dissertation was to gain understanding of my personal multiracial identity development within various social contexts; this study fulfills the requests of theorists seeking to understand multiracial identity development through self-analysis over a lifetime (Binning et al, 2009; Charmaraman & Grossman, 2010; Cheng & Lee, 2009; Miville et al, 2005). This qualitative dissertation used critical autoethnography as its methodology and theories of multiracial identity (Poston, 1990; Root, 1996; Rockquemore, Brunsma, & Delgado, 2009) and LatCrit (Aoki & Johnson, 2008; Solórzano & Bernal, 2001; Tate, 1997; Valdes, 1997; Villalpando, 2004; Yosso, 2005) while considering the impact of Whiteness Studies (Jay, 2005; Jeffries, 2012; Yeung, Spanierman & Landrum-Brown, 2013), and the cultural process of naming (Boris, 2005). The research questions guiding this dissertation were: How have I internalized and interpreted encounters related to racial identification, and what does being multiracial mean to me? The presentation of findings included narrative analysis of visual and audio data sets located on a personal website that accompanies this study; online presentation of this study provides an opportunity to explore multiracial identity development in a space that has potential for impacting change due to popularity and accessibility (Bamford, 2005; Lang, 2002; Lange, 2008). Findings revealed complexities and fluidity in multiracial identity development as well as problems of self-identifying as monoracial. The significance of this study is that it will contribute to ongoing discussions of multiracial identity development as well as add to the growing body of literature related to LatCrit Theory, Whiteness Studies, and autoethnographic studies.

Through six months of ethnographic and autoethnographic fieldwork, which included participant observation and ten individual semi-structured interviews, I sought to determine how dominant discourses in dance, especially those pertaining to professionalism, ability, validity, and legitimacy, are circulated in and through training, and how we as dancers responded to these discourses. Following the stand alone thesis format, this thesis is comprised of two publishable papers. The first is an ethnography of one integrated dance company’s members’ experience with negotiating space for alternative forms of dance in contemporary dance. The second is an autoethnographic piece of writing where I show the challenges of resisting dominant discourses of validity and legitimacy in both qualitative research as well as contemporary dance. Together, these papers form a thesis that strengthens our scholarly understanding of the discourses and associated tensions at work in participating in and writing about integrated dance.

As a feminist poststructural autoethnography of deafness in social work workplaces, this thesis sets out to map d/Deafness as a cracked subjectivity. Using the work of Rosi Braidotti and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, I draw out configurations of d/Deafness as lack or cultural minority and split them apart. By positioning d/Deafness on a plane of immanence and employing specificity, I explore d/Deafness as a subjectivity constituted through space, place, time and encounters with other bodies. I argue that the constitution of material and cultural experiences of d/Deafness as specific allows for the articulation of spaces in between Deafness and hearing, disability and ability as spaces in and of themselves in order to think the new as well as to crack up fixed binaries informing traditional notions of what specific bodies can do. / Graduate

John and Edward Grimes (artist name "Jedward") have been active for four and a half years and have a heterogeneous following of fans. This thesis aims to investigate how and why people become Jedward fans, how they view the fandom and what experiences they have of being round the twins. After respondents, independently of one another, began disclosing how the twins and fandom had fundamentally changed their lives, this area of investigation was also pursued. The conclusion is that while there are some negative aspects of fandom, for those taking part in the study, being a fan of Jedward has led to what I've chosen to term "Fandom-Induced Self-Efficacy".

The thesis explores how internalised racism and a sense of professional identity of a therapist of colour affect each other when starting counselling practice with white clients. The fundamental concepts of the research are race, internalised racism, racial identity, professional identity and the dynamic of racial identity and professional identity in therapy. Autoethnography is the methodological approach that is used to comprehend experiences of internalised racism and professional identity. The autoethnographic approach is used in multiple ways through a layered account that moves back and forth in time, and inward and outward between self and culture, demonstrating how early encounters with racism during childhood in Thailand interact with the experience of starting therapeutic practice with white clients in Scotland. The goal is to facilitate readers’ understanding of, and empathy with, the experiences of a therapist of colour who has internalised racism. Frantz Fanon’s (1952/1991) work on internalised racism and the psychodynamic concepts of transference, countertransference and projection are the main conceptual resources employed to analyse the experiences narrated. The thesis demonstrates that internalised racism influences a therapist of colour to perform whiteness, collude with white clients in denial of racial difference, avoid challenging racial issues in sessions, require white clients’ reassurance to prove the therapist’s competence, and try to disprove white clients’ prejudgements about the therapist due to the therapist’s race.

Open mic poetry events are representative examples of a widespread and socially significant performance phenomenon--the relational and dialogic art and activism of the sustained encounter as a demonstration of the possibility for new social relations. Open mic performances center the pleasure of creating and sharing art and relationships in a manner that works against the value systems of capitalistic exchange and enterprise. I conduct an autoethnographic study of the Transpoetic Playground--a reoccurring open mic poetry event in Carbondale, Illinois. This study mixes performative writing, poetry, and personal narrative with the ethnographic methods of participation observation and interviewing in order to tell a story of an amateur performance poetry community and what it can teach about how to resist the constraints of contemporary socio-communicative relations.

The Revolutionary Breath is praxis of conscious breathing and values awareness. I explore the transformative potential of this praxis through a method I call axio-somatic ethnography, which is an expansion of traditional autoethnography that de-centers identity and valorizes body-sensing as the foundation for authentic storytelling. The Revolutionary Breath is juxtaposed to the State Sponsored Breath, a constellation of physical and cultural habits and values. The Revolutionary Breath, itself, is composed of three Allowings, or conscious sensing practices, all framed within a commitment to the depth and ease of one’s breath. Throughout the dissertation, I use axio-somatic ethnography to present my own experiences of putting this praxis into use.

Using autoethnography, performance praxis, and narrative theory, this thesis seeks to examine the discourses of the Recovery Industry in relationship to Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACoA). The Recovery Industry creates normalized identity scripts that may be problematic for some people who fall under this diagnosis/category. By using subversive performance praxis, the author hopes to rupture these dominant narratives in hope of creating new possibilities for identity narratives.