The purpose of this thesis is to conduct an autoethnographic analysis on my literate activities as a blogger to better understand the content creation and monetization practices of modern bloggers. In Chapter 1, I introduce readers to my blog and discuss some current lines of scholarship on blogging. In Chapter 2, I discuss my research methods and justify my use of autoethnography for my study. In Chapters 3 and 4, I explain my content creation and monetization processes in detail. In Chapter 5, I draw conclusions from my analysis and provide a few further directions for research. My suggestions for future research include to analyze other bloggers' work, use different research methods in addition to autoethnography, and look at different types of blogs instead of just sites in the lifestyle category. One of my key takeaways from my research is that blogging is an interdisciplinary activity that requires skills in not just writing, but design, technology, and marketing.

There is a call for occupational therapists to extend their practice from correctional institutions to community settings with people who have been incarcerated; an emerging area of occupational therapy (OT) practice. However, with no published studies from the perspective of therapists in emerging settings, understanding the nature of emerging OT practice with people who have been incarcerated becomes problematic. Limited information about community integration makes it difficult to fill practice gaps and adhere to principles of evidence-based practice (EBP). Simultaneously, men with a criminal record experience stigma and exclusion from participation in everyday life extending well-beyond the completion of their sentence. Often denied a voice by people who control the media, correctional policies or political discussion about crime in the community, overcoming stereotypes of deviant, violent or aggressive criminals is difficult. The results of a participatory action research (PAR) project completed by men with a criminal record and a critical, first-person account about emerging OT practice from the perspective of a registered occupational therapist are presented. Through Photovoice, co-researchers collected and analyzed photographs during group sessions that were audio recorded, transcribed, analyzed and summarized by the primary author. Summaries contributed to critical dialogue with the co-researchers throughout the collection, analysis and, writing stages. ‘The cards you are dealt’ emerged as a metaphor depicting everyday life as a strategic game played with cards specific to a person’s social location. Co-researchers shared their individual and collective narratives through various knowledge dissemination methods. Documenting narratives from the perspective of men with a criminal record counteracts status quo understandings of community re-entry, creating space for marginalized populations to share stories that might otherwise be lost. Autoethnography, a post-modern, interpretive approach to research explores the meaning of emerging OT practice with criminalized men. Data were collected through reflective journaling and clinical process notes that upon review, guided systematic reflections required to write and re-write an analytical narrative of key experiences. Role-emerging placements were found to influence the chosen emerging setting. Preliminary insights about the role of evidence-based practice and advocacy work in supporting emerging OT practice is presented. Where occupation-focused research and regulatory body support remains limited, autoethnography contributes to professional development and the identification of knowledge gaps. Together, this thesis contributes to knowledge about: (1) emerging OT practice with men transitioning to the community post-incarceration; (2) daily life/community integration from the perspective of criminalized men in the community; (3) tensions in emerging OT practice; and (4) insights about the nature of anti-oppressive OT practice. / Thesis / Master of Science Rehabilitation Science (MSc) / This master’s thesis focuses on role-emerging occupational therapy (OT) practice with men with a criminal record. As a registered occupational therapist working with co-researchers with lived experience of incarceration, we completed a research project using photography to create and share narratives about community reintegration. The men generated a research question, collected data (photographs), completed data analysis as a group, disseminated knowledge and contributed to the publishing process as co-authors. A shared metaphor increased understanding about socio-political factors that impact community integration for men with a criminal record. Because emerging settings have been primarily explored as an educational tool for OT students, the role of evidence-based practice, advocacy and the potential of emerging OT practice with criminalized men adds a critical narrative from the perspective of a registered occupational therapist. Autoethnography is used as a method of research and professional development. Therefore, this thesis adds to the limited information about emerging OT practice with men transitioning to the community post-incarceration, tensions in emerging practice, community integration from the perspective of men with lived experience of incarceration and provides preliminary insights into the concepts of anti-oppressive OT practice.

Using autoethnography (Ellis, 2004), this study explores a female immigrant student's lived experiences in education in China, and in the United States. The theoretical framework of this study is critical autoethnography. In the study, I present my lived experiences in poems, narratives, and stories as the storied scholarship (Boylorn and Orbe, 2014). Through the study, I make sense of how a female non-traditional immigrant student navigated schooling in the complex social, cultural environment in the United States, and schooling experiences of my youth in China. I utilize the study to examine the deeper meaning of my story as an inquiry (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005; Richardson and St. Pierre, 2005). In doing so, to not only make sense of the complex lifelong experiences (Berger, 2004) of an immigrant student, but also to make connections with many other female immigrant students, and to bring new light to the understanding of their struggles, difficulties, and challenges. I use various literary styles and the metaphor of finding the voice in my writing to illustrate the process (Forber-Pratt, 2015; Luke, 2009). / Doctor of Philosophy

Multicultural teacher education promotes "culturally responsive practice" as a means of meeting the needs of diverse children. This qualitative study investigates four student teachers' field experiences so as to better understand future teachers' translation of "culturally responsive practice" during field work. Data sources include individual and group interview-conversations across a semester and the researcher's own stories from her experiences as a participant-observer in the school. Results are reported as four case studies with cross-case analysis. The researcher makes recommendations for teacher education based on findings from the four cases and group similarities. Results suggest that teacher education should place an emphasis on the complexity of culture, gaining knowledge about specific cultural factors, knowledge of history and present-day conditions, individual talk, and "culturally responsive relationships." / Ph. D.

This project seeks to understand the construction of a personal narrative concerning a primary parental figure using the process of collaborative autoethnography. In order to properly encapsulate the author’s lived experience, primary influential factors were considered imperative in allowing for a fuller representation. Thus, the author’s story joins those of her siblings to highlight the paradoxical process inherent in unearthing one’s singular perception. This project primarily aims to explore the complexity of autoethnography while simultaneously interrogating the cultural discourse surrounding motherhood and academic writing. By having a close and personal understanding of the subject matter as well as the research participants, the author was provided a unique glimpse into the ways family stories are both co-constructed and individually recounted

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As a committed social justice educator, I share in this dissertation a theoretically informed instructional autoethnography of my time teaching and researching as a Language Arts and Speech teacher across two different public high schools and two different school years. My story of learning to embody the values and practices of progressive teaching arises from the central research questions: "How can I, a self-identified progressive Language Arts educator committed to social justice, learn to implement critical, democratic, responsive, and holistic pedagogy as a public high school teacher in this particular region at this time in U.S. public education? And, within these particular schooling cultures, what aspects of these schooling environments support or inhibit my ability to perform as a progressive educator?" Responding to critiques of public schooling policy and practices, my work is grounded in theoretical commitments of progressive education articulated by the critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire and those North American educators who have brought his libratory praxis forward into what I call connected, social justice pedagogy.

Identical twins John and Edward Grimes (artist name "Jedward") have been active for six years and have a heterogeneous following of fans. This thesis aims to investigate how and in which situations fans think about Jedward as part of their everyday life. Each of the three informants, plus the author, kept diaries recording the above for the course of one week. The diaries were subsequently coded into the groups Traditional Fandom, Social Media, Music, Places, Family & Friends, Interests & Hobbies, Studies, Film & TV and Food & Drink respectively. Auto-ethnographic method was implemented and combined with work within the spheres of fandom and music. At a later date informants were asked if there are any products or causes that they associate with John and Edward; in lieu of comprehensive answers, the author compiled such a list. For the fours fans taking part, John and Edward are experienced as being close to them in many different situations during their day-to-day lives, in much the same way as a close friend or loved one. The conclusion is that through aiming to portray my own interpretation of fandom, it has been possible to see just how creative and imaginative fans are, an enlightening reflection contrary to those which in many cases have been none too positive.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Blake M. Belanger / Urban play is a type of play: it is an emotionally engaging act where players take part in fun within definable spatial parameters (Huizinga, 1944; Caillois, 1961). Urban play is unusual, though, because it occurs at the human scale, and uses the city fabric as the setting. As atypical reappropriations of space, urban play activities like parkour, flash mobs, and geocaching layer diverse experiences at specific city sites. This layering may ultimately develop place phenomena such as insideness. It is also possible that pre-existing concepts of place may influence where people choose to play. The subject of this investigation was to understand the relationship between urban play and place for players. Understanding this relationship can inform landscape architects and urban designers about urban play and how to design for playability. I used informed grounded theory (Thornberg, 2012) and autoethnography (Ellis, Adams, & Bochner, 2012) to structure a mixed-methods study of urban play and place. I myself engaged in play and wrote field notes to gather data and inform my other data collection and analysis. I played with many other players, and conducted on-site, walk-along interviews with six of them. Recordings of the verbal exchanges, maps of the paths of the interviews, and photographs of landscape conditions identified as salient to play or place were collected during the interviews. This variety of data was understood through several memoing strategies, including note-taking, mapping, and sketching. Memoing and reflective “memoing-on-memos” abstracted the data enough for me to construct overarching themes, or findings (Thornberg, 2012; Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Data collection and analysis were situated within an extensive literature review. Four primary findings resulted from my investigation. First, that the physical landscape influences play. Second, that play influences the social landscape. Third, that play develops sense of neighborhood. And fourth, that play relates to the physical and social landscapes at multiple scales. My findings can help designers understand what playability is and design for urban play.

This critical autoethnographic exploration evolved following an initial curiosity concerning diversity of practice amongst (other) Lecturers when constructing feedback for mature undergraduate Registered Nurses. As an early exploration revealed that I was viewing my professional experiences as a learner and practitioner through a previously unacknowledged working class lens, I began to foreground personal experiences from which a more relational understanding of the intersecting nature of personal, professional and broader influences on practice has emerged. A reclaimed marginalised perspective provided an ethical direction for the research and for the development of a more nuanced understanding of feedback practice. Within this thesis, autobiographical writing, stories from practice and theory share a symbiotic and reciprocal relationship illustrating the intersectionality of multiple influences on practice. This layered and intertwined approach to data generation and interpretation allowed me to critically engage with my social and practice worlds incorporating the tensions and dilemmas of what it means to practice as a teacher and to be human within the academy. The theory of restorative learning (Lange, 2004, 2007) underpins the structure of the thesis, foregrounding the emerging influence of a restored marginalised perspective. The concepts of habitus, field, capital and symbolic violence (Bourdieu, 1973) have been used to think through how these restored perspectives and personal experiences intersect with professional and broader influences in practice. Through autoethnographic exploration insights emerged; the influence of a wounded learner habitus on feedback practice, a renegotiation of a privileged position in the feedback relationship and the development of trickster properties as a device to open up dialogue and reflexive spaces within my own culture in order to develop feedback practice beyond the self. In practice we are rarely encouraged to confront why we think the way we do about ourselves as teachers, particularly in relation to the social, cultural and political world around us. This thesis contributes to the ongoing scholarly conversation concerning influences on professional practice from a practitioner perspective and the role of a layered approach to autoethnography in making these perspectives accessible.