Through The Artist’s Lens: A Phenomenological Study of the Lived Experience of Expressive Writing with Former Writer’s Workshop Students
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Authors
Dombrowski, Leslie Diane
Issue Date
2018-12-07
Type
Dissertation
Language
en_US
Keywords
Dissertations, Academic--United States , Creative writing (Secondary education) , Phenomenology , Focus groups , Interviews , High School
Alternative Title
Abstract
A high school creative writing class, such as Writer’s Workshop, uses expressive writing to support writers’ physical health and mental perspective while providing a creative outlet to experiment with ideas. Prior research about creative writing courses has been limited to after school and summer writing camps for middle and high school students with extensive research conducted at the college level. Therefore, this qualitative study focused upon 10 former Writer’s Workshop students’ (8 seniors, 2 juniors) lived experiences while taking the elective course.
The phenomenological study’s objective was to examine high school students’ experiences with Writer’s Workshop using Vagle’s (2016) five-component research design as the framework for organizing and analyzing data. Through the study, I discovered students’ perceptions of and experiences with Writer’s Workshop while working in a writing community, documented students’ experiences with writing about and sharing their personal stories, and determined how Writer’s Workshop helped students to develop their writing voices.
Data collection sources included focus groups, personal interviews, and students’ artifacts written during and after the course. I employed Seidman’s (2013) methods for conducting personal interviews, Krueger and Casey’s (2015) guidelines for managing focus groups, Vagle’s (2016) whole-part-whole method for analyzing the data, Maxwell’s (2013) research methods of designing the conceptual framework, memoing, and testing for validity threats, and Saldaña’s (2016) coding methods in analyzing the data for potential themes.
My findings revealed the following five tentative manifestations: vulnerability, connection, healing and therapy, developing a writing voice, and self-confidence. I provided evidence from the findings to support each tentative manifestation as well as correlated the study’s themes to the research questions. The limitations of the study, implications of its findings, a review of future questions, and a conclusion were also provided.
Description
Citation
Dombrowski, Leslie Diane. "Through The Artist’s Lens: A Phenomenological Study of the Lived Experience of Expressive Writing with Former Writer’s Workshop Students." PhD. Diss., Valdosta State University, 2018. https://hdl.handle.net/10428/3327.
Publisher
License
This dissertation is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, revised in 1976). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgment. Use of the materials for financial gain with the author's expressed written permissions is not allowed.