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The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Embracing Conflict and Contradiction as a Path to Awareness

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>The focus of this autoethnographic dissertation is the exploration of habitus and how it consciously and unconsciously influences our perceptions, emotions, values, and actions. I describe this dissertation as an autoethnography to highlight my subjective approach to research and to dispel any claims of objectivity. Through my experiences as a daughter, mother, administrator, and teacher-educator, I explore three internal conflicts, highlighted by intense emotional reactions, and deconstruct how my past and present contexts inform my values, beliefs, and actions. In each chapter, I describe several events that led to a greater understanding of my emotional responses and how I adapted my practices to better support my family, students, and staff. This work is informed by a bricolage of theoretical frameworks that help structure and illuminate the experiences discussed in each chapter. I include methods and methodologies that support my interpretation and reinterpretation of past and present experiences and utilize event-oriented inquiry to analyze specific moments by answering the following questions: <em>What happened? Why did it happen?</em> and, <em>What more is there?</em> Authentic Inquiry is presented as an overarching framework and guides the emergent and contingent nature of this work.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Doctor of Philosophy
Level thesis:degree_level
Doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Urban Education
Grantor
The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York
Year dc:date.available
2021

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Abreu, JoAnn Rintel
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Konstantinos Alexakos
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • David Bloomfield
  • Deborah Shanley

Subjects

dc:subject × 8

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4139
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-5198

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
City University of New York - Graduate Center
Base URL
academicworks.cuny.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Abreu, JoAnn Rintel. Embracing Conflict and Contradiction as a Path to Awareness. Doctoral thesis, The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York, 2021. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4139