Term of Award
Fall 2008
Degree Name
Doctor of Education in Curriculum Studies (Ed.D.)
Document Type and Release Option
Dissertation (open access)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
Committee Chair
Delores Liston
Committee Member 1
Ming Fang He
Committee Member 2
Julie McGuire
Committee Member 3
Saundra Nettles
Abstract
This study explored the role of cultural aesthetic expressions (often also referred to in this study as cultural arts) play in perceptions of learning while individuals are in the ongoing process of being immersed in a non-native culture. This inquiry focused specifically on the narratives of seven expatriates undergoing the process of cultural immersion in Germany, Slovenia and the United States. Using narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; He, Phillion & Connelly, 2005), participants were engaged in discussion, observation and interview for the purpose of exploring and analyzing how they make meaning from previous knowledge and their developing encounters with aesthetic expressions, perceived of as culturally diverse from or similar to their own. The researcher's narrative is included as a voice in the study, contributing to establishing contextual elements as well as discussing perceptions of accessibility and awareness to the aesthetic expressions in these cultures. It also includes insights reflecting upon participant narratives, referencing additional research, and citing from formal interviews and informal consultations with host-country community members who practiced in the arts and education sectors of the respective cultures. The narratives included in this dissertation offer significant evidence to suggest that intercultural literacy is developed in part through aesthetic forms of cultural exchange for this set of participants. The results of this study contribute to the discourse regarding how learning is perceived through cultural aesthetic expressions during the cultural immersion process by revealing some of the complex aspects of the meaning making process and presenting examples from lived experience of how cross-cultural complexities are navigated by a diverse sample of individuals in relation to cultural aesthetic expressions.
Recommended Citation
Harper, Nicole Renai, "Cultural Aesthetic Experience: Perceptions of Learning Developed through Cultural Immersion" (2008). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 479.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/479
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
