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Iams Steve_PhD Dissertation_Final.pdf (1.28 MB)

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The Big and Small Stories of Faculty in the Changing Landscape of Higher Education

Iams, Steve
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1618581386020611

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, EDU Teaching and Learning.
This study examines the big and small stories of faculty at a small, internationally-focused graduate school in New England during a time of change in higher education. A macro-micro perspective enables both an aerial view of faculty experience over time and a view of how faculty work with students at the ground level. The landscape of higher education has been shifting, a story which has drawn the interest of researchers looking at change at the institutional level. In the literature, and in the media, stories are told in broad strokes: the rise of the neoliberal university, the wave of campus internationalization, and an increasing reliance on a contingent faculty workforce. However, in spite of faculty’s central position within these phenomena, stories of faculty experience during this era of change mostly remain untold. Narrative research has primarily focused on the professional development and situated learning of novice educators as they find their footing and balance a range of commitments. Considerably less attention has been given to veteran faculty whose stories are situated at the confluence of broader changes in higher education. This study addresses this gap and, in its synergy of big and small stories, contributes to the dynamic field of narrative research in educational contexts. Retrospective big stories told in life history interviews capture the life-span of faculty careers, from entering the field to experiencing challenges and change through working with diverse groups of students over several decades. Analysis of these stories produced two key metaphors which are the focus of Chapter 3. Through the use of bedrock stories, faculty preserve shared values and an institutional narrative in the face of change. In faultline stories, faculty make sense of unsettling or unresolved experiences. The findings suggest that these stories of critical events are important sources of institutional narratives and faculty learning. Compared to well-ordered big stories, small stories are atypical narrative fragments told in everyday conversation and classroom discussions. In Chapter 4 of the dissertation, I explore the versatility of small stories which are observed performing a variety of functions in classroom discussions, including a means for tellers to provide cohesion, index stance, and inject levity within interactive storytelling. In a focal excerpt from one classroom discussion, the retelling of a story about a student who came out to his peers enables graduate students to enter a storyworld and map out a moral geography of a sensitive topic through the co-construction of additional stories. Within this moral geographic space, participants utilize a variety of small stories in order to evaluate their beliefs as educators and to plan future action in scenarios in which these beliefs will be put into practice. Insights drawn from small stories have implications for faculty as they attempt to create a stable ground for difficult discussions to take place.
Leslie C. Moore (Advisor)
Alan Hirvela (Committee Member)
Peter Sayer (Committee Member)
240 p.
Education; English As A Second Language; Higher Education; Language; Teacher Education; Teaching
narrative; narrative inquiry; narrative research; big stories; small stories; higher education; moral geography; teacher education; internationalization; faculty; veteran faculty; contingency; education; narrative knowledging; linguistic rich points

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Iams, S. (2021). The Big and Small Stories of Faculty in the Changing Landscape of Higher Education [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1618581386020611

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Iams, Steve. The Big and Small Stories of Faculty in the Changing Landscape of Higher Education . 2021. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1618581386020611.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Iams, Steve. "The Big and Small Stories of Faculty in the Changing Landscape of Higher Education ." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1618581386020611

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1618581386020611
325
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.