Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2013 Reading and re-reading young adult memoirs : a narrative study with pre-service and in-service teachers Heather L. Johnston-Durham Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Johnston-Durham, Heather L., "Reading and re-reading young adult memoirs : a narrative study with pre-service and in-service teachers" (2013). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 492. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/492 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. READING AND RE-READING YOUNG ADULT MEMOIRS: A NARRATIVE STUDY WITH PRE-SERVICE AND IN-SERVICE TEACHERS A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Curriculum & Instruction by Heather L. Johnston-Durham B.S., Louisiana State University, 1999 M.A.L.A., Louisiana State University, 2005 December 2013 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am most grateful to my committee members, Dr. Jacqueline Bach, Dr. Steven Bickmore, Dr. Denise Egéa, and Dr. Irvin Peckham, for their guidance throughout my graduate program. I am particularly indebted to my advisor Dr. Jacqueline Bach for her encouragement, support throughout all stages, and for faithfully and thoroughly reading and providing feedback for every draft. I would also like to thank the participants of this dissertation study, Hannah, Lucy, Lauren, Taylor, and Chad, for faithfully attending the book group meetings, reading and re- reading three memoirs, and logging their responses over time. Without their attendance and participation, this study would not have been completed. Thirdly, I am also appreciative of various graduate school colleagues, Sybil Durand, Tammie Jenkins, Heather Stone, and Yvette Hyde, whose friendship, feedback, and encouragement have supported me throughout this process. Finally, I am most indebted to my family: my husband Scott and daughter Evelyn for their encouragement, and my parents, Mike and Bootsie for believing in me, cheering me on, and for providing childcare over the many months that I spent writing. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ ii LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... v ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 1 Background ................................................................................................................................. 1 Purpose Statement and Research Questions ............................................................................... 2 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................... 3 Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 6 Limitations of the Study ............................................................................................................. 7 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW ............. 11 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................. 11 Reflective Writing in Teacher Education Programs ................................................................. 20 Book Groups as Sites of Teacher Reflection ............................................................................ 37 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY .................................................................................... 41 Rationale ................................................................................................................................... 41 Narrative Method ...................................................................................................................... 45 Narrative Collection .................................................................................................................. 54 Narrative Analysis .................................................................................................................... 58 Ethical Considerations .............................................................................................................. 62 Limitations ................................................................................................................................ 68 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 69 CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS ................................................................................................... 71 Narratives of Vulnerability ....................................................................................................... 75 Narratives of Conflict ............................................................................................................... 91 Narratives of Insight ............................................................................................................... 110 Summary ................................................................................................................................. 120 CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS, IMPLICATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................................................ 122 Purpose and Goals of the Study .............................................................................................. 122 Summary of Findings .............................................................................................................. 123 Implications ............................................................................................................................ 125 Recommendations for Further Research ................................................................................. 129 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 132 APPENDIX A: PRE-STUDY PARTICIPANT SURVEY ....................................................... 139 iii APPENDIX B: YOUNG ADULT MEMOIRS, A LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED ............. 140 APPENDIX C: FULL LIST OF CODE FAMILIES, CODES, AND EXAMPLE QUOTATIONS ........................................................................................................................... 143 APPENDIX D: INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD EXEMPTION .................................... 165 VITA ........................................................................................................................................... 166 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Timeline of Data Collection .......................................................................................... 54 Table 2 Code Families and Associated Codes ............................................................................ 72 v ABSTRACT In this dissertation, I describe a narrative study in which five pre-service and in-service teachers read and re-read three young adult memoirs and discussed their responses in a series of book group meetings. The purpose was to examine how teachers discuss young adult memoirs, what they might learn about themselves in the process of reading and reflecting in book discussions and in a Commonplace Book they kept, and how they might use young adult memoirs in classrooms including, but not limited to English language arts (ELA) classrooms. Data was collected through transcribing a series of book group meetings, as well as collecting a set of books into which the participants logged their responses. Following the completion of the book group meetings, I conducted individual interviews with each participant. I found that the participants were willing to make personal and pedagogical connections to each text, but that including the texts in their curricula presented several obstacles. Nevertheless, I found that using a book group in teacher education research to be an efficient and effective way to answer multiple complex, qualitative research questions at one time in a semi-structured setting, low-risk setting vi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION “This book was amazing!! I‟ve never read anything like that before,” Chad1 gushed, holding up the familiar yellow paperback as though the rest of us had never seen it before, even though we had all just read the same book. “I can imagine high school would‟ve been different if I‟d gotten to read stuff like this. Real-life stuff,”