The following writing describes my MFA thesis audio-visual collage project, Attraction. Please, watch the experimental cinematic work before reading this document. The total runtime is 55 minutes.

The current study aimed to uncover processes and experiences that led individuals to critically engage in racial justice activism, specifically the Black Lives Matter movement. A constructivist grounded theory approach was utilized under critical-ideological and Black feminist paradigms in order to build a practical theory related to developing critical consciousness about oppression facing the Black community. Black activists in the movement between the ages of 23 and 60 (N=12) participated in intensive individual interviews. The result of the study is a co-constructed theory of racial justice activism development (the Critical Consciousness of Anti-Black Racism [CCABR] model) that can be used to increase psychopolitical wellness for Black people. In this model, developing CCABR started with witnessing ABR, required three interconnected methods of processing ABR to increase agency, and led to critical action against ABR. Results indicated that CCABR is a cyclical process through which each of the stages build upon and support one another. The CCABR model is discussed with respect to how it converges with, diverges from, and expands upon extant literature. Recommendations and implications associated with the CCABR model are delineated.

<p>The aim of this essay is to debate the narrow contextualization of the works of Swedish artist Maria Friberg, in which she is interpreted as a female, feminist artist engaged in masculinity studies. Art reviews and exhibition catalogues regarding a great part of Friberg’s work have formed the core body of information in this study, selecting the more recent works entitled Still lives (2003- ) as the main focus. These show a change in Friberg’s artistic expression.</p><p>Subjects concerning group belonging, identity and existential questions have always been present in Maria Friberg’s art, but they are more clearly expressed in her latest works. Art critics have acknowledged the change of motifs in Still lives as a negative development and have expressed disappointment in the absence of Friberg’s renown portrayals of men in business suits. This attire and the gendered motif man have ascribed Friberg to an agenda surrounding masculinity and feminism, leaving little room for other interpretations.</p><p>The subordinate aim of the study is to suggest alternative readings of Friberg’s art in general and of the Still lives-series in particular. The great majority of art critics are accentuating Friberg’s interest in men, overlooking reasons for her supposed fascination of them. This creates a need for further examination of the depths of Friberg’s photographs. Hence, the last chapter presents a theory of the artists’ use of men as carriers of non-gender related meanings in which the human being is a small part of the impressive machinery composed of nature, culture and the industrialised world which absolutely devours humans.</p>

The aim of this essay is to debate the narrow contextualization of the works of Swedish artist Maria Friberg, in which she is interpreted as a female, feminist artist engaged in masculinity studies. Art reviews and exhibition catalogues regarding a great part of Friberg’s work have formed the core body of information in this study, selecting the more recent works entitled Still lives (2003- ) as the main focus. These show a change in Friberg’s artistic expression. Subjects concerning group belonging, identity and existential questions have always been present in Maria Friberg’s art, but they are more clearly expressed in her latest works. Art critics have acknowledged the change of motifs in Still lives as a negative development and have expressed disappointment in the absence of Friberg’s renown portrayals of men in business suits. This attire and the gendered motif man have ascribed Friberg to an agenda surrounding masculinity and feminism, leaving little room for other interpretations. The subordinate aim of the study is to suggest alternative readings of Friberg’s art in general and of the Still lives-series in particular. The great majority of art critics are accentuating Friberg’s interest in men, overlooking reasons for her supposed fascination of them. This creates a need for further examination of the depths of Friberg’s photographs. Hence, the last chapter presents a theory of the artists’ use of men as carriers of non-gender related meanings in which the human being is a small part of the impressive machinery composed of nature, culture and the industrialised world which absolutely devours humans.

Abstract This research investigated the influence of the childhood literacy learning experiences of 6 beginning elementary teachers on their literacy teaching practice. This qualitative case study employed 5 interviews and classroom observations of each participant over the first 3 years of his or her teaching. Three main findings emerged from the research. First, participants’ early literacy experiences shaped their identity as students. The participants’ images of themselves as students, in turn, influenced their images of themselves as teachers. Second, the participants’ early literacy learning experiences influenced the types of literacy environments and literacy activities that they provided for their students. Participants employed teaching approaches that had worked for them, or that they believed would have worked for them as students. Third, participants’ early literacy experiences influenced how they understood their students’ learning. The participants who had struggled as students were more focused on detecting and addressing the needs of their students who struggled. Implications for school literacy teaching include understanding and valuing the literacy knowledge and skills that young children bring to school and systematically addressing the needs of students who struggle with school literacy. Implications for preservice teacher education in literacy include an increased focus on supporting student teachers to reflect on how their early literacy learning affects their attitudes and assumptions about learning and teaching, more instruction on how to address the needs of struggling literacy learners, and the provision of a coherent teacher education program that combines theory and practice more effectively. Implications for in-service teacher education in literacy include providing induction programs that are tailored to meet the needs of individual beginning teachers, an expanded range of professional development options, and ongoing opportunities to engage in effective reflective practice. Implications for further research include investigations of the influence of early literacy learning on student achievement and on literacy teacher educators’ practice.

Abstract This research investigated the influence of the childhood literacy learning experiences of 6 beginning elementary teachers on their literacy teaching practice. This qualitative case study employed 5 interviews and classroom observations of each participant over the first 3 years of his or her teaching. Three main findings emerged from the research. First, participants’ early literacy experiences shaped their identity as students. The participants’ images of themselves as students, in turn, influenced their images of themselves as teachers. Second, the participants’ early literacy learning experiences influenced the types of literacy environments and literacy activities that they provided for their students. Participants employed teaching approaches that had worked for them, or that they believed would have worked for them as students. Third, participants’ early literacy experiences influenced how they understood their students’ learning. The participants who had struggled as students were more focused on detecting and addressing the needs of their students who struggled. Implications for school literacy teaching include understanding and valuing the literacy knowledge and skills that young children bring to school and systematically addressing the needs of students who struggle with school literacy. Implications for preservice teacher education in literacy include an increased focus on supporting student teachers to reflect on how their early literacy learning affects their attitudes and assumptions about learning and teaching, more instruction on how to address the needs of struggling literacy learners, and the provision of a coherent teacher education program that combines theory and practice more effectively. Implications for in-service teacher education in literacy include providing induction programs that are tailored to meet the needs of individual beginning teachers, an expanded range of professional development options, and ongoing opportunities to engage in effective reflective practice. Implications for further research include investigations of the influence of early literacy learning on student achievement and on literacy teacher educators’ practice.

Previous research on grandparents as kinship care providers demonstrated that grandparents are confronted with both challenges and rewards. Using qualitative research methods, I examined the lives of 35 black aunts who served as kinship care providers for nieces and nephews. I found that grandparents and aunts experienced increased time demands, financial burdens, and family stress. However, this study demonstrated that aunts’ experiences differ from grandparents’, due to the younger age of aunts and the fact that aunts are of the same generation as the biological parents. Moreover, I found that aunting, or the care and nurture of children by aunts and great-aunts, is gendered and invisible work that, at the most basic level, salvages children’s lives. Salvaging children’s lives involved three non-linear stages: making the decision to become a kinship care provider, transitioning from aunting to parenting, and parenting nieces and nephews. I utilized a synthesis of symbolic interactionism and black feminist thought as a theoretical framework that examines how the meanings that black women attach to family influence their definitions of self and affect their decisions to act on behalf of family members. These findings extend the research on black women’s lives and on kinship care within black families. I used a narrative style that allows the respondents’ voices to be heard, as these are their stories. I offer suggestions for future research, as well as outline a number of policy and theoretical implications. This research is important because black children are disproportionately represented within the child welfare system. If interventions and policies are to influence other black women or black men to accept responsibility for many of the most at-risk children in their families and neighborhoods, research must explore and report the challenges, sacrifices, costs, and rewards of becoming kinship care providers within black families.

How do mathematics teachers present themselves? The construct of identity–the stories mathematics teachers tell about themselves and their practice–is an important and understudied construct in understanding mathematics teaching. This study investigates the use of photo-elicitation/photovoice interviews with six high school algebra teachers. Each teacher captured or chose photographs of their “world”, then presented them during a formal interview. The teachers framed their mathematics teacher identity through three connected story types: Public Stories, the stories a teacher presents about their practice within a professional register, Private Stories, the stories about personal connections to practice shared only in closed spaces, and Touchstone Stories, the important stories a teacher constantly references but rarely shares. I found these teachers’ stories contained little about mathematics content or actual classroom practice. Rather, they positioned the teachers as isolated in their profession; the themes were about pain, being “othered”, or feeling powerless. Framing the identities of these six mathematics teachers through visual stories presented them as real, struggling humans. I posit this process of eliciting mathematics teaching identity through visual narrative is important to the field of mathematics education for three reasons: framing their identities helps mathematics teachers understand the complex lives of their own students, these narratives showcase the uniqueness of each mathematics teacher as an individual, and this process of telling stories is an empowering form of reflection. / text

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A large part of Canadian literature being produced today is being done by immigrants and the children of immigrants. Struggling between the dominant culture and the history and traditions of their parents, whom they desire to honor, these writers adopt modes of representation ranging from the elegiac to the ironic. / Nino Ricci's first book Lives of the Saints begins from the perspective of Vittorio as an adult, but the narrative that the reader follows is developed from his perspective as a child focusing on his ethnic roots. The narrative structure is two-fold: it is a combination of the objectivity of a child's innocent observations with a child's sense of wonder and magic and a strong influence from the adult narrator's voice. / This thesis will examine the narrative approach, the rhetorical devices and the use of myth that Ricci harnesses in his novel in order to show how his work is marked with ambiguity and paradox which points to the psychological condition of immigrants in Canada. The discussion will also focus on some of the literary models that influenced Ricci's narrative, such as Alice Munro, Carlo Levi and Corrado Alvaro.