Date of Award
Spring 8-25-2017
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
PHD - Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Education
First Advisor
Terence Keeney
Second Advisor
Frank Trocco
Third Advisor
Elizabeth Jones
Abstract
This qualitative inquiry uses the narrative methodology of portraiture to explore how the experiences of three successful Native educators and community leaders can contribute to the adult learning and development literature. In portraiture study the researcher uses diverse methods of gathering data, including interviews, observations of participants, and participant artifacts to co-construct a story of each participant’s life. Participants’ portraits were analyzed using well-established adult learning theories including Erickson’s developmental lifespan concept of generativity, Lave and Wenger’s concept of situated learning and communities of practice; Wlodkowski’s concepts of motivation and culture; Belenky and her colleagues’ conceptions of voice as development; and various concepts related to leadership. Newer, less well-established adult learning theories were also used in the analysis: those of indigenous meaning making, spirituality, and narrative learning or “storying.” Cultural sustainability, done in ways particular to each participant, is the overarching theme common to their portraits. The participants, two Tlingits from Southeast Alaska, and one originally from Taos, New Mexico but married to a Tlingit man and adapted into the tribe, work to sustain Tlingit culture through practices of Chilkat weaving, Tlingit language teaching, and performing Tlingit ceremony with younger generations. Their practices as educators and leaders are anchored in a value system that is grounded in relationships, and in an indigenous cosmology that understands interconnectedness of all life. This study may benefit others by making the connection between personal renewal and cultural restoration explicit, by showing how a grounding in culture can foster not only belonging and connectedness, but also personal identity; by showing how adversity and intergenerational grief can be overcome with social support and opportunities to cultivate social-emotional assets; and by providing a genuine encounter with authentic voices of the three participants.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Language
English
Number of Pages
199
Embargo Period
9-12-2017
Recommended Citation
McCarthy, Kathrin W., "Full Circle: A Portraiture Study of Three Successful Indigenous Educators and Community Leaders Who Experience Personal Renewal In their Practice of Cultural Restoration" (2017). Educational Studies Dissertations. 125.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/education_dissertations/125
Included in
Adult and Continuing Education and Teaching Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Indigenous Education Commons
Rights
The author owns the copyright to this work.
