Seamfulness is a narrative-based and arts-informed inquiry into young women's "depression" as pedagogy. Unfolding in rural Nova Scotia, this research is rooted in my experience of depression as the most transformative event in my life story. While memoirists tell me I am not alone, there is currently a lack of research on personal understandings of depression, particularly for young adult women. Through storytelling sessions and self-publishing workshops, I explored four young Nova Scotian women's depression as a productive site for growth. Participants include four young women, including myself, who experienced depression in their early 20s, and have not had a major depressive episode for at least three years. Aged 29 to 40, we claim Métis, Scottish, Acadian, and British ancestries, and were raised and lived in rural Nova Scotian communities during this time. At the seams of adult education, disability studies, and art, I ask: How do young women narrate experiences of "depression" as education? How do handmade, self-published booklets (or “zines”) allow for exploring this topic as embodied, emotional and critical transformative learning? To address these questions, I employ arts-informed strategies and feminist, adult education, mental health, and disability studies literatures to investigate the critical and transformative learning accomplished by young women who experience depression. Through a feminist poststructuralist lens and using qualitative and arts-informed methods, I situate depression as valuable learning, labour, and gift on behalf of the societies and communities in which women live. I argue that just as zines are powerful forms for third space pedagogy, depression itself is a third space subjectivity that gives rise to the "disorienting dilemma" at the heart of transformative learning. I close with "Loose Ends," an exploration of depression as an unanswered question. This thesis engages visual and verbal strategies to disrupt epistemic and aesethetic conventions for academic texts. By foregrounding participant zines and stories, I privilege participant voices as the basis for framing their experience, rather than as material to reinforce or contest academic theories.

The number of women who are incarcerated has increased significantly in the past few decades. Originally designed to manage male offenders, jails and prisons are ill-equipped to address the unique needs of women inmates whose paths to incarceration often include histories of trauma, abuse, and addiction. This qualitative study investigated the lives of 13 women who while incarcerated at Dallas County Jail, participated in an educational program, Resolana. The purpose of this study was to understand the women’s lives prior to incarceration, as well as the impact of the program and changes they experienced, if any, as a result of what they were learning. Data were collected using semi-structured, life history interviews, and by engaging in field observations as a volunteer for each class for a period of one week. An in-depth analysis through a critical lens, using a holistic-content narrative analysis method, was done with one participant’s life history. The findings are presented as an ethnodrama illuminating the cultural, social, personal, and legal systems of oppression that she survived and that contributed to her path to incarceration. Analyzed through a lens of agency and resistance, the findings that emerged from an analysis of all the participant’s life histories reveal that the women’s criminalized actions were often survival responses. The women employed various strategies, both legal and illegal, in response to people or situations involving control, power or domination over their lives. An analysis of the women’s experiences with Resolana through a transformative learning theoretical framework indicates that the women experience transformation in various ways and to varying degrees. The learning environment served as a container in which transformative learning could be cultivated through opportunities for interpersonal and intrapersonal engagement. The results of this study reveal the need for more and targeted advocacy and education for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women. The results also indicate that the process and content of Resolana’s programming had a transformative impact on participants, and for some, the transformation was enduring. Finally, the results challenge definitions of criminal behavior in the context interlocking systems of oppression, and encourage thinking about alternatives to incarceration.

Thesis (Ed.D. )--Duquesne University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 148-162) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ball State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Apr. 27, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 382-392).

Dissertation (Ed.D.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2009. / Directed by Camille Cooper; submitted to the Dept. of Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed May 13, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 188-196).

Η εργασία αυτή προτείνει το συνδυασμό δυο θεωριών μάθησης, της μετασχηματίζουσας και της τοποθετημένης μάθησης στην κοινότητα πρακτικής των ιατρών. Οι νεοεισερχόμενοι ιατροί μεταβαίνουν από την περιφερειακή συμμετοχή στη πλήρη ένταξη ανάλογα με τον τρόπο που είναι σχεδιασμένη η εκπαίδευσή τους και το βαθμό στον οποίο συνειδητοποιούν και ελέγχουν τα επιμέρους έργα και τις δραστηριότητες που εκτελούν. Οι ειδικευόμενοι, αλλά και οι πιο έμπειροι ιατροί πρέπει να είναι σε θέση να συνειδητοποιούν το βαθμό και τις διαδικασίες σταδιακής ένταξής τους σε μια κοινότητα πρακτικής και αφετέρου με τον κριτικό στοχασμό να είναι σε θέση να αναλύσουν τις εμπειρίες από τη συμμετοχή τους στην κοινότητα πρακτικής, να είναι δηλαδή σε θέση να υιοθετήσουν πρακτικές με κριτική οπτική και όχι με απλή αφομοίωση. / This work proposes the combination of two theories of learning, transformative and situated learning in the community of practice of doctors. The newcomer doctors transfer from peripheral membership in full membership depending on their education and the degree to which they realise and check the individual work and the activities they execute. The specializer and the most experienced doctors should be able to realise the degree and the procedure of their progressive integration in community of practice. Through critical reflection they should also be able to analyze their experiences from attending the community of practice, that is to say to be able to adopt practices critically, not only through mere assimilation.

Σκοπός της εργασίας ήταν η διερεύνηση του Μετασχηματισμού οπτικής στην ελληνική τριτοβάθμια εκπαίδευση και ειδικότερα η περίπτωση των φοιτητών του Τμήματος Επιστημών της Εκπαίδευσης και της Αγωγής στην Προσχολική Ηλικία. Στην έρευνα συμμετείχαν 417 φοιτητές από τα δύο τελευταία έτη του προπτυχιακού και από το δεύτερο έτος του μεταπτυχιακού επιπέδου σπουδών. Ως εργαλεία έρευνας χρησιμοποιήθηκαν το ερωτηματολόγιο (το Learning Activities Survey) και η ημιδομημένη συνέντευξη. Τα αποτελέσματα έδειξαν ότι οι φοιτητές δεν έχουν μετασχηματισμό οπτικής αναφορικά με τις εκπαιδευτικές εμπειρίες που βίωσαν κατά την διάρκεια των σπουδών τους. Ωστόσο, υπήρχαν αλλαγές που αφορούν τον τρόπο σκέψης και συμπεριφοράς τους, αλλαγές στις αντιλήψεις για το επάγγελμα τους και σε κάποιες περιπτώσεις αλλαγές στις πεποιθήσεις ή προσδοκίες τους. / The aim of this study is to explore the perspective transformation in Greek higher education and in particular the case of students of Department of Educational Science and Early Childhood Education of University of Patras. The survey involved 417 students from the last two years of undergraduate and second year of postgraduate study. As research tools were used the questionnaire (Learning Activities Survey) and the semi-structured interview. The results showed that students do not have perspective transformation on the educational experiences they experienced during their studies. However, there were changes to the way of thinking and behavior, changes in perceptions of the profession and in some cases changes in their beliefs or expectations.

The subject of this thesis is the nature of Christian transformation as understood through the process of discipleship in the Wesleyan tradition and United Methodism in particular. A basic premise is that contemporary discipleship efforts are perceived as ineffective in spite of the numerous strategies that exist within the field of Christian education. The contention of this thesis is that the current situation is rooted in a failure to address the holistic and integrated nature of Christian transformation, which from a Wesleyan perspective is understood as the process of sanctification. This thesis explores a more holistic vision for discipleship, drawing upon methodology proposed by Richard Osmer to do theological reflection as it engages Wesleyan theology and transformative learning theory (TLT), a contemporary adult educational theory. The result is a contribution to the field of Christian education that has implications for disciple making ministries in the local congregation. Alasdair MacIntyre's theory of practice is developed as a means of accounting for the present incoherence within discipleship ministries, and to resource the development of a more holistic approach to the process of Wesleyan discipleship. As a result, discipleship is conceived of as a single complex practice comprised of four inseparably related and integrally connected dimensions: virtues, disciplines, ethos and telos. The theoretical framework also provides insight into contemporary discipleship efforts by systematically isolating each component and investigating the particular emphasis that is stressed, thus truncating the practice of discipleship. Putting this framework into conversation with TLT provides a way for theological reflection that can broker a cross-disciplinary dialogue between TLT and Wesleyan discipleship. The resulting discourse discerns which relevant aspects of TLT can be appropriated within a Wesleyan context and how TLT contributes to the field of Christian education. Contributions that Wesleyan discipleship can make to the field of TLT are also explored. The thesis develops an educational theory that views discipleship as a single coherent complex practice that is consistent with the process of sanctification in the Wesleyan tradition. Such a theory overcomes the current situation that results in isolating various discipleship efforts by prompting the field of Christian education to consider discipleship as sanctification that transforms persons and their contexts in holistic ways.

abstract: Facing a teacher shortage in math, science, and language arts secondary courses, a suburban, unified, K-12 district partnered with a university in the southwest to create a program for alternatively certified teachers. This specialized program permitted candidates to teach with an intern certificate while completing university coursework leading to certification. During this timeframe, the researcher-practitioner of this study created an alternative teacher induction program focused on cycles of action research. The model was created to capitalize on the content knowledge and work experience of alternatively certified teachers in order to inspire innovation by offering a district-based induction centering on cycles of action research. In the teachers' third year, each teacher conducted action research projects within the framework of Leader Scholar Communities which were facilitated by mentor teachers from the district with content expertise. This study examines the effects of such a model on teachers' identities and propensity toward transformative behaviors. A mixed methods approach was used to investigate the research questions and to help the researcher gain a broader perspective on the topic. Data were collected through a teacher efficacy survey, questionnaire, focus groups, semi-structured interviews, observations, and electronic data. The results from the study indicated that the participants in the study exhibited signs of professional teaching identity, especially in the constructs of on-going process, relationship between person and context, and teacher agency. Additionally, the participants referenced numerous perspective transformations as a result of participating in cycles of action research within the framework of a Community of Practice framework. Implications from this study include valuing alternatively certified teachers, creating outcome-based teacher induction programs, and replicating the T3IP model to include professional development opportunities beyond this unique context. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2011

Many countries across the globe are undergoing rapid economic and social change; and there are increasing efforts to reform, revamp and revitalise education – to equip students for the ever-changing future. Education is considered to be transformative; but the area of transformative learning has been mainly theorised in the field of adult education. Comparatively, teaching approaches designed to bring about such transformation or transformative teaching has been less explored or understood. Connecting various related literature, this study places deeper learning at the centre of transformation through learning. Aiming to fill a gap within the literature, this study explores transformation through learning in a comprehensive school setting at a K-5 School in the North East of the United States by asking the following questions, ‘What are the teachers’ and students’ lived experiences of transformation through music and arts infused creative learning as practiced at an Elementary School in Northeast of USA?’ and ‘What is the role of the arts and music in this process?’. Located within the interpretive paradigm, this ethnographic case study included 7 – 14-year-old students (Grade 2 – Grade 5) and staff, aimed at investigating the phenomenon of ‘transformation through learning’ through a range of sources within its natural environment. Various data collection methods were used, including semi-structured interviews, observations (field notes, video-recordings, still images), conceptual drawing and learning walks. These provided rich, in-depth data, permitting triangulation which strengthened the findings and allowed for an illuminating understanding of the topic. An iteratively developed framework representing elements or behaviours relating to transformation was utilised as a lens to identify relevant critical incidents during the data collection process. Employing thematic analysis on the data collected resulted in eight themes that represent the lived experiences of transformation through learning. These thematic findings highlight that relevance, mindsets and placing arts at centre of the school culture are key to providing transformative learning experiences. The study connects two arguments, that fostering deeper learning enables students to meet new expectations and demands of the changing future; and that it is vital to provide students with a well-rounded curriculum with rich arts education to prepare them for success in the future. Thus, the findings of this study develop the understanding of ‘transformation through learning’ and offer a model framework from the practice at this research site from which others could create their own.