This article reports on a qualitative study that explored the learning outcomes from an innovative instructional method, visual narratives, used in a first-year seminar. Fifty-three students enrolled in a mandatory first semester student success course were instructed to use visual images to tell the story of the first-year experience. Data…

The study explored the conceptual views of "critical mass", alongside micro experiences, of women, at a practice level, on a doctoral preparation programme which was implemented within the South African Development Community (SADC) and Ethiopian contexts. At the strategising level of policies, insufficient attention has been paid to the…

This article explores the use of Biographical Narrative Interpretive Methods (BNIM) in research on motivations for trade union learning. Our use of BNIM--a new methodological approach for us--was intended to test our own research practice in an effort to get further inside the "felt world" and "lived life" of the union learner.…

There is consensus in the literature that teacher education programs exhibit the characteristics of complex systems. These characteristics of teacher education programs as complex systems challenges the conventional, teacher-directed/ textbook-based positivist approaches in teacher education literature which has tried to reduce the complexities…

The Real/Ideal Research Project is comprised of three components, ordered in purposeful succession, designed to emphasize the interconnectedness of emotion, reason, and action. In the first component, students compose a personal narrative focused on a specific inequity they (have) experience(d) or witnessed. Here, students are encouraged to…

This article considers what it means to teach and learn in places of poverty through the narratives of front-line workers--particularly students and teachers. What is the work of teaching and learning in places of poverty in current times? How has this changed? What can be learned from both the haunting and hopeful narratives of front-line…

This article explores the use of Story Maps in a cultural geography field course that uses a place-based approach to understand the Delta Blue's culture. In this study, Story Maps was used to capture and map student experiences as they engaged in a field study. Student experiences are captured by incorporating different data mediums such as…

Developing "global graduates" or "global citizens" is a goal often expressed in university mission statements. This study draws on Amadasi and Holliday's (2017) distinction of block narratives and thread narratives of culture and applies these to interviews with first year students. It shows that some ability to draw on thread…

Undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory educational technology course at a large US Midwestern public university completed a "greatest learning experience" narrative assignment, in which they were prompted to discuss and describe their best learning experience. In many of the narratives (n = 267), students discussed a…

This paper uses Nancy Fraser's concept of participatory parity to reflect on data gathered by and from third year students in a final year research module in the Women's and Gender Studies Department at the University of the Western Cape in 2015. During the course students developed a research proposal, collected and shared data with other…

Participation in study abroad programs has more than tripled over the last quarter century. As more college students opt to study cross culturally, understanding this impact on student development is relevant. Disorientation through culture shock is a recognized common experience in study abroad programs; however, limited research is available on…

Professional educators--in the classroom, library, counseling center, or anywhere in between--share one overarching goal: ensuring all students receive the rich, well-rounded education they need to be productive, engaged citizens. In this regular feature, the work of professional educators is explored--their accomplishments and their…

First-year college student retention is important to colleges and universities, as well as beyond academia. An analysis was conduced of emergent themes and subthemes from 144 nonreturning students' stories about school and about home throughout their first-year experience. These students wrote more negative stories about school-related events than…

Traditional research often excludes the voices of marginalized populations such as African Americans, who are usually written about instead of being allowed to tell their own stories (King, 2005). This research gives African Americans the opportunity to "tell their stories" of segregation and integration. Leaving the telling of our…

This study explores the lived experiences of 10 students entering college from rural Oregon communities. Using narrative inquiry, the author examines students' transition, common experiences, and enrollment barriers. Resulting themes include: (a) unexpected emotional and social transition, (b) motivations for enrolling, (c) lack of social and…