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They're just kids: Residential educators' frustration and hope expressed as action

Klatt, Suzanne

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, Educational Leadership.
The purpose of this project was to put voice to residential educator experiences in order to understand their experiences. Residential educators were defined here as persons teaching in overnight settings where education was not the primary setting purpose; these settings were designed to house, treat, and punish youth. What was it like to teach in settings where education was not the primary purpose? What was it like to teach in setting where education was not privileged? What were the experiences of REs working a residential setting with youth identified as multi-risk? Were there common themes across these settings? I utilized a grounded approach and weaved ideas about care (Noddings, 1994, 2003, 2006), notions about the search for meaning as a universal experience (Frankl, 1984), and general feminist theories including a specific focus on Chela Sandoval’s Methodology of the Oppressed (2000) and differential movement within their stories. Results of the present study indicated that residential educators constructed their students as wholly abandoned educationally and otherwise. While they admittedly contributed to the societal abandonment process, educators concurrently conveyed a sense of responsibility to both their students and society. Their youth representations both aligned with and conflicted with cultural constructions of youth as problematic, needy, and troubled. New representations emerged as RE’s commented about their students as “just kids,”; they reflected on the inhumanity of residential settings. These and similar comments provided clues to educators’ experiences of care for their students and meaning in their work. It was across these spaces where educators located refuge from their workplace frustrations and discontent about widespread youth abandonment. Finally, each educator expressed a unique action style particular to his/her own perspectives and an (in)ability to manage the workplace and its particular multi-disciplinary perspectives and policies. Action styles included educator attempts to meet their “hoped for” and “if only” goals for their students. Betsy was organized and flexible, Jay made things fit, Natalie was persistent and kept tabs on it, Don viewed problems as opportunities, Annie advocated and encouraged digging out of the hole, and Deb looked at the big picture.
Sally Lloyd (Committee Chair)
162 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Klatt, S. (2013). They're just kids: Residential educators' frustration and hope expressed as action [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1367600530

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Klatt, Suzanne. They're just kids: Residential educators' frustration and hope expressed as action. 2013. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1367600530.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Klatt, Suzanne. "They're just kids: Residential educators' frustration and hope expressed as action." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1367600530

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)