Vagabond: Returning To Autoethnography As A Doctoral Nomad

<p><em>Vagabond: Returning to Autoethnography as a Doctoral Nomad </em>is a journey into what is described as a purposeful and rhizomatic inquiry of spaces and places in knowing. It prompts questioning within the author such as, “What has this doctoral journey come to mean, and where do I go now as I step outside the roots which have planted in me this need to wander? How do I navigate this struggle?” The work is a coming-to-terms piece. It is a hopeful wandering and documented artifact capturing an organic process of unlearning, relearning, and examining locations of <em>being, </em>while recognizing the emergent need to embrace fracture, fiction, and multiple conflicting positions. By returning to ethnographies or artifacts constructed throughout the doctoral journey as a “doctoral neophyte,” the stage is set for an interpretative performance in poststructural fashion. Positioning and contrasting interviews, poems, and essays written during the coursework as a doctoral student begins to capture the intersecting positions of walking as a mother, teacher, and woman. These narratives are offered as data and then juxtaposed with cultural artifacts authored by some of the <em>Riot Grrrl</em> “zinesters” of the 1990s. Through the folding and positioning of such work, the readers are invited to participate in a poststructural journey as a nomadic inquirer, walking with the author in the hopes to <em>become-other</em>. In documenting this journey or doctoral-audit-trail of deconstruction, the middle ground is worked between the spaces of academic curriculum and lived experiences. This Deleuzian <em>line of flight</em> takes the reader through stories of vulnerability, challenges commonsense assumptions, defines metanarratives, and questions certainty. In regards to curriculum studies, this work is a coming to: a <em>becoming.</em> It celebrates and embraces curriculum as a life event that can be used as a tool for transformation.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D. Doctor of Education

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation - Public Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Curriculum, Advocacy, and Policy

Year dc:date.available

2016

Author dc:creator

• McElroy, Karyn

Contributors dc:contributor

• Antonina Lukenchuk
• Patrick Roberts
• Eleanor Binstock

• poststructuralism
• feminism
• bricoleur
• rhizome
• performance
• Curriculum and Social Inquiry
• Education

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/diss/184

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.nl.edu:diss-1190