The "talk" of returning women graduate students: An ethnographic study of reality construction

• Other Authors: McKenna, Alexis Yvonne.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Subjects: Speech Communication
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/lib/digcoll/etd/3162005

This study looked at women's internal experience of graduate school. In particular, it focused on the experience of women returning full-time to graduate school after an extended time-out for careers and/or family. The questions examined were: (1) how do returning women "name and frame" their experience? (2) what, if any, is the relationship between the way the women "name and frame" their experience and their response to it? and, (3) what role does the researcher-as-interviewer play in the construction of the data? === Data were collected through a series of three ethnographic interviews with 12 returning women, ranging in age from 28 to 50. Two of the twelve women were single, two were widowed, seven were divorced and one was divorced and remarried. Eight of the women had children. === Analysis of the data showed that returning women, as a group, "named and framed" their experience in terms of change. Some women wanted to change self-image or self-concept while others wanted to acquire a new set of skills or credentials. Individually, the women "named and framed" their experiences in terms of an internalized "meaning-making map" acquired in the family of origin but modified through adult experiences. This "map" told them who they were and what kind of a life they could have. It gave their "talk" and behavior a consistency that could be recognized; it could make life easier or harder. A woman who felt she must "prove" herself, for example, found graduate school more difficult than a woman who wanted to "work smart." === The researcher-as-interviewer influenced the construction of data through her presence as well as through the kinds of questions she asked. The women understood and gave meaning to their experiences through the process of explaining them to the interviewer. The insights gained through this process of "shared talk" influenced future action and decisions. === Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-03, Section: A, page: 0681. === Major Professor: Theodore Clevenger, Jr. === Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.