ERIC Number: ED662681
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 345
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: 979-8-3840-4204-4
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Blossoming Together: Imagining Humanizing Relationships between Racially/Ethnically Minoritized Students and Postsecondary Institutions through Digital Storytelling
ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan
In this participatory action research study, I designed a digital storytelling program to facilitate conversations with racially minoritized students about their experiences with diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus--an elite, predominantly white, state flagship. I implemented this program with three groups of students (18 students total) over the course of nine meetings and a debriefing interview with each participant. At the crux of this study is a concept which I term "psychosocial blossoming." Psychosocial blossoming is a radical process toward wholeness, humanization, and liberation that emphasizes individual agency and empowerment while honoring relationships with others and environments. I used portraiture--which combines techniques from ethnography, phenomenology, and narrative inquiry while uniquely highlighting the aesthetic possibility for research. Through portraiture, I examined the context of this project, how it unfolded, and the experiences of both the students and researcher-facilitator with regard to their experiences with diversity, equity, and inclusion. The data undergirding my analysis included field observations and transcripts of recorded group discussions; digital stories and other artifacts created by students; and individual semi-structured debriefing interviews. To present findings, I created digital stories--3-5 minute audiovisual products featuring first-person narration and author-created visuals such as photographs and art--to serve as portraits. Thus, digital stories served as both the method for students' meaning-making (within the project) and the portraits of our interactions as a collective (about the project). I wanted to bring students together to advocate for change around diversity, equity, and inclusion, yet my students largely struggled to imagine their college as a site of possibility. Students did not care to invest in an institution they felt was uninvested in them. Nearly all described ways they viewed their relationship with the institution as transactional, extractive, and surface-level. Moreover, several critiqued diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives as predicated on the assumption that students "want" to be included in the larger campus culture. In contrast, the students described their experiences in the digital storytelling project as affirming, enlightening, and deeply moving. Their amazement and appreciation of the structured story-sharing activity became the foundation for our community action: creating spaces of trust, vulnerability, and connection across groups of interracial strangers. In terms of impact, the racially/ethnically minoritized students who participated in this project gained social connections with interracial peers and the broader campus community; a deeper or novel understanding of their lived experiences; and an increased capacity (both real and imagined) to create change for themselves and their communities. Through this research, organizations (such as colleges, schools, or the individuals within them) can utilize the concept of psychosocial blossoming to radically change the way they engage in diversity, equity, and justice work and build more inclusive communities. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
Descriptors: Minority Group Students, College Students, Story Telling, Educational Technology, Student Experience, Diversity, Equal Education, Inclusion, Predominantly White Institutions, Student Empowerment, Well Being, Student College Relationship, Educational Change
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Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A