University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 5-2012 The Construction and Performance of Adulthood in 18- to 25-year- old GED Students: A Narrative Exploration Clara Amelia Davis [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Davis, Clara Amelia, "The Construction and Performance of Adulthood in 18- to 25-year-old GED Students: A Narrative Exploration. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2012. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/1288 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Clara Amelia Davis entitled "The Construction and Performance of Adulthood in 18- to 25-year-old GED Students: A Narrative Exploration." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Educational Psychology and Research. Ralph G. Brockett, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Allison D. Anders, John M. Peters, Mary F. Ziegler Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) The Construction and Performance of Adulthood in 18- to 25-year-old GED Students: A Narrative Exploration A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Clara Amelia Davis May 2012 ii Copyright © 2012 by Clara Amelia Davis All rights reserved. iii This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, David and Harriet Davis letting me be me always encouraging me made this possible And written for Alan, Booman, Blacq’Barbii, Carly, Jack, JeVaunte, Juice, Kayla, Lisa, Marie, Matt, Susan and other GED students everywhere sharing your stories your courage never ending your words inspire me iv Acknowledgements I have many people to thank for helping make this dissertation possible. First, I am indebted to the students who shared their stories with me; without them, there would be no dissertation to write. I thank each of you for sharing your stories, drawing me in, and teaching me to listen. May all your dreams come true. Thank you to my dissertation committee members for mentoring and supporting me throughout my doctoral studies. I am grateful for the role each of have played in my development as an individual, scholar, and researcher. I am sincerely grateful to my advisor and committee chairperson, Dr. Ralph Brockett, for the support and guidance he provided throughout the course of my dissertation. I appreciate our candid conversations, sometimes over the phone at a late hour, and his willingness to meet with me at a moment’s notice. Thank you, Ralph, for being my cheerleader, for encouraging me at times when I wanted to give up, and for always saying the right thing at the right time to let me know I could see things through till the end. Dr. Mary Ziegler, your expertise in adult literacy pushed me to think about things in new ways. Thank you for reminding me to always keep the best interest of the participants at heart. Dr. John Peters, thank you for teaching me the importance of “asking back” and helping me to understand the power of being reflexive in my work. Dr. Allison Anders, thank you for your mentorship as I explored the world of qualitative research. I am so glad you pushed me to use the “voice” you knew I had and that you challenged me to think about new ways of approaching research so that I might best re-represent the voice of the participants and share their stories with others. v Soulful thanks to the organizations that allowed me to come into their spaces and interview students. Your support was invaluable and I could not have chosen better organizations with which to work. I deeply respect the work you are doing for adult literacy students within our community. Your commitments move me and inspire me to work harder. I am forever indebted to you for taking me in and helping to make this project possible. I am thankful for the many friends and colleagues who supported me throughout this endeavor. First, Dr. Carol Weaver, thank you for opening up the world of adult education to me in 2001, and thank you for your continued support and encouragement since then; my editor, Kristina McCue, thank you for your dedication, patience, and attention to detail from beginning to end; Jessica Lester and James DeVita, thank you for allowing me to bribe you with pizza and wine while I formulated my ideas for this dissertation early on; Tiffani Conner, thank you for the long talks over coffee, dinner, or drinks that helped me gain perspective and allowed me to spew everything I was keeping to myself; Carrie Bailey, thank you for taking me on as a writing partner, travelling with me, and always making me laugh; Katharine Sprecher, thank you for late night chats over comedy T.V., dinners on the town, and reminders that it would get done; Kathy Evans, thank you for your help when I was struggling to get started; Jennifer Pepperell, thank you for writing with me in a pinch, for listening and being honest when honesty was exactly what I needed; Joann Olson, thank you for being my conference buddy and sharing the job search process with me; Judy Dernbach, thank you for your friendship, frank conversations, and for helping me to be the best GED instructor I could be; John vi Harrison and Jonathan Taylor who blazed the trails before me, thank you for your timely advice on “how to get it done;” Dr. Tricia McClam and Dr. Lisa Yamagata-Lynch, thank you for your encouragement and advice along the way; Tracia Cloud, Elizabeth Price, Traci Beckendorf-Edou, Thelma Woodard, Katrina Hinson, Mary Alice Varga, Valerie Ambrose, Susannah Knust, Jennifer Wade, James-Etta Goodloe, and Jeff Beard, thank you for checking in, providing me with conversation that inspired new ideas, and for listening when I needed to share; to Dexter, thanks for helping me appreciate the simple pleasure of a walk, making me take time out to play every day, and for cuddling up during the times I felt alone and had trouble putting words on the page. Finally, I owe a very personal thank you to my parents. You have always pushed me to be the person I wanted to be and never considered pushing for anything else. You have encouraged me to learn and explore at every instance and have shared my burdens and my joys over the years. Mom, thank you for being my friend and my rock. Thank you for our daily phone calls, your timely pep talks, and the tears you shared with me through the celebrations and the challenges I came upon in this process. Though I did not always express it, just knowing you were there for me made all the difference in my ability to persevere. Dad, thank you for passing your work ethic along to me and reminding me, as you always have, that I could do anything I put my mind to. Thank you for being proud of me and accepting me for the woman I have become. Mom and Dad, you are, and have always been, my foundation. Without your support, this dissertation, along with so many of the other amazing experiences I have been fortunate enough to have in my life thus far, would not have been possible. vii Abstract This dissertation is a narrative study designed to address the changing meaning of adulthood for youths matriculating into adult basic education programs by drawing from the interdisciplinary perspectives of postmodernism, critical social theory, and narrative methodology. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of adult basic education students, ages 18 to 25, and their construction and performance of adulthood. Twelve GED students, ages 18 to 25, enrolled in local non-profit adult education programs, were interviewed individually regarding their experience of leaving high school, transitioning into an adult education program, and their construction and performance of adulthood. Data sources included interview data and field notes. Data analysis was carried out at multiple levels and included structured narrative analysis and thematic analysis of interview data. Layered re-representations were used to present data highlighting participants’ experiences of leaving high school and transitioning into adult education classes, their inaugural moments of adulthood, and their construction and performance of adulthood. Findings did not support popular theories of development that sanction young adulthood as a sequential period of developmental tasks or those theories based on age-graded normative development markers. Instead, the interview data revealed a disruption to the traditional development sequences that psychologize the meaning of adulthood but revealed the social and structural factors that determine the sequence of development, when transitions to adulthood occur, and how adulthood is constructed and performed. For high school leavers, structures such as education, teachers, and teacher-student relationships play an important part in youth transitions out viii of high school, into adult education, and into adulthood. The following conclusions were drawn from the findings: (a) adulthood is accelerated for some youths depending upon circumstances, structures, and agency, (b) construction and performance of adulthood are analogous, structurally produced and culturally framed, and (c) life experience and financial independence, rather than age, are deemed the most important factors in reaching adulthood.