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

This study explores teacher retention and teacher resilience in the United States through the stories of five teachers. The researcher presents the research in two manuscripts. Finding My Way through Teaching: A Critical Autoethnographic Play combines critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970) with autoethnography (Ellis, 2004) to examine the author's personal journey as a teacher in a private school, a public school, and a public school in Central America. The research is presented as a one-act play with scenes focusing on conversations with parents, principals, and students, along with scenes examining each situation that take the audience through the internal monologue of the researcher's decision making process to move schools, stay in a school, leave a school, and question their ability or willingness to return to K-12 schooling. Building Relationships: The Stories of Four Small Urban School Teachers shares the stories of four veteran elementary school teachers, teachers who have taught for more than five years, from Parker City Public Schools. This study uses a case study approach with recorded dialogic interviews as data (e.g., Kvale, 1996; Marshall and Rossman, 2011). The stories the teachers tell point to the importance of building and maintaining relationships with students, other teachers, and administration, as one of the key factors for overcoming the challenges of working in a small urban school division and one of the key factors for changing schools or remaining in a school throughout their careers. / Ph. D. / This study explores teacher retention and teacher resilience in the United States through the stories of five teachers. The researcher presents the research in two manuscripts: Finding My Way through Teaching: A Critical Autoethnographic Play and Building Relationships: The Stories of Four Small Urban School Teachers. In Finding My Way, the author uses critical autoethnography to examine their own journey as a teacher in a private school, a public school, and a public school in Central America. The findings are presented as a one-act play with scenes focusing on conversations with parents, principals, and students, along with scenes examining each situation , taking the audience through the internal monologue of the author’s decision making process to move schools, stay in a school, leave a school, and question their ability or willingness to return to K-12 schooling. In Building Relationships, the researcher shares the stories of four veteran elementary school teachers, teachers who have taught for more than five years, from Parker City Public Schools. This study uses a case study approach with recorded dialogic interviews as data. The stories the teachers tell point to the importance of building and maintaining relationships with students, other teachers, and administration, as one of the key factors for overcoming the challenges of working in a small urban school division and one of the key factors for changing schools or remaining in a school throughout their careers.