Stories Of School And The Storied Lives Of Latina/O Elementary Principals: A Narrative Inquiry

Date

2016-05

Authors

Rocha, Patricia A.

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Abstract

This qualitative study explored the storied lives of three Latina/o elementary Principals. The research partners included two individuals and the author of this dissertation. The study employed a narrative inquiry approach and is rooted in an epistemological notion of narrative inquiry and Chicana/o Ways of Knowing. The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to understand not only stories of schools, but the social, cultural, and familial stories that shape and inform Latina/o school principals’ leadership, as well. A further purpose was to understand how their social, cultural, familial, and institutional stories conflicted with the research partners’ story of school and how they negotiated conflicts. Through a narrative inquiry approach, field texts of their narratives were collected using a variety of strategies. Field texts were composed from extensive conversations between the researcher and the two partners. The research partners were invited to tell and retell stories of their own experience of schools both as students and as elementary school principals. Field texts were then analyzed by applying a framework of analysis that included: (a) the notions of three dimensional space (e.g. time, space, and sociality); (b) chronology, epiphanies, and pivotal moments; and (c) tenets of Chicana/o Ways of Knowing. From the analysis, poetic transcriptions were created to represent the stories related by the research partners. Their shared stories highlight a politic of pasión that informed their leadership. Implications for further research are presented within in the framework of the ecologies of knowing.

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Keywords

Latina/o elementary principals, Narrative inquiry, School leadership, Storied lives, Stories of school, Chicana Ways of Knowing, Politic of pasión, Chicana feminism, Authentic dissertation, Poetic transcription

Citation

Rocha, P. A. (2016). <i>Stories of school and the storied lives of Latina/o elementary principals: A narrative inquiry</i> (Unpublished dissertation). Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.

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