The Authentic Dissertation: Alternative Ways of Knowing, Research and Representation / Edition 1

by Donald Trent Jacobs

Overview

The Authentic Dissertation is a road map for students who want to make their dissertation more than a series of hoop-jumping machinations that cause them to lose the vitality and meaningfulness of their research.

Students and tutors are presented with practical guidance for the kind of alternative dissertations that many educators believe are needed to move Doctoral and Master’s level work beyond the limitations that currently stifle authentic contributions for a better world.

Drawing on his Cherokee/Creek ancestry and the Raramuri shamans of Mexico the author explores how research can regain its humanist core and find its true place in the natural order once more. Four Arrows provides a degree of "credibility" that will help graduate students legitimize their ideas in the eyes of more conservative university committees. This inspiring book will also help academics who sincerely want to see these alternative forms but are concerned about the rigor of "alternative" dissertation research and presentation.

The featured dissertation stories tap into more diverse perspectives, more authentic experience and reflection, and more creative abilities. They are, in essence, spiritual undertakings that

• Honour the centrality of the researcher’s voice, experience, creativity and authority
• Focus more on important questions than on research methodologies per se
• Reveal virtues (generosity, patience, courage, respect, humility, fortitude, etc.)
• Regard the people’s version of reality

The goal of this book is not to replace the historical values of academic research in the western tradition, but to challenge some of these values and offer alternative ideas that stem from different, sometimes opposing values.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415442220
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/25/2008
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Four Arrows (Don Trent Jacobs), past Dean of Education at Oglala Lakota College, is the author of sixteen books. He is currently a Professor at Fielding Graduate University, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction DAY ONE: Indigenous Ways of Knowing 1^st Presentation. Four Arrows’ Story, "Brilliant or Bullshit!" (with Manulani Aluli, Warren Linds and Gregory Cajete) 2^nd Presentation. Veronica Arbon’s Story, "A Facilitated Journey" 3^rd Presentation: Sandi Warren’s Story, "Tin Can Bear Fat" (with Trudy Sable and Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley) 4^th Presentation: Joyce Schneider’s Story, "Whispering the Circle Back"(with Suzanne Stewart and Carole LeClair) 5th Presentation: Barbara Mann’s Story: "Double Wampum" (with Bruce Johansen, Susan Deercloud and Robert B. Kaplan) DAY TWO: Creative Story Telling 1st Presentation: Pauline Sameshima’s Story, "Seeing Red" (with Patrick Slattery, Howard Gardner, Elliot Eisner, Rebecca Carmi and Gregory Cajete) 2nd Presentation: Rishma Dunlop’s Story, "Boundaries" 3rd Presentation: Douglas Gosse’s Story, "Breaking Silences" (with Tom Barone and Robert B. Kaplan) 4th Presentation, Deborah Ceglowski’s Story, "Stories as Relationship" DAY THREE: Poetic Inquiry and Visual Art 1st Presentation: Dalene Swanson’s Story, "Breaking Silences" (with Jamie Moran and Eileen Honan) 2nd Presentation: Patty Holmes’ Story, "A Journey to Praxis" 3rd Presentation: Robin Cox’s Story, "The Creative Potential of Not Knowing"(With Lorri Neilsen Glenn 4th Presentation: Margaret Macintyre Latta’s Story, "Aesthetic Spaces" 5th Presentation: Kathy Vaughan’s Story, "Inevitable" DAY FOUR: Documentary Film and Photography 1st Presentation: Jennifer Mervyn’s Story, "Metamorphosis" (with Beth Ferholt) 2nd Presentation: Anniina Souminen Guyas’s Story, "Writing with Photographs" 3rd Presentation: Denise A. Ségor’s Story, "Photo Voice" 4th Presentation: Christini Ri’s Story, "For Spiritual Reasons" DAY FIVE: Drama, Dialogue and Performance 1^st Presentation: R. Michael Fisher’s Story, "Fearless Leadership" (with Stephen John Quaye and Blaine Pope) 2^nd Presentation, Karen Lee, "Out of the Cage" (with Peter Gouzouasis) 3rd Presentation: Annie Smith’s Story, "Hybridity" 4th Presentation, Kevin Kirkland’s Story, "A Grim Fairy Tale" (With Katrina S. Rogers) 5th Presentation, Warren Linds’ Story, "Masks in Metaxis" 6^th Presentation, George H. Elder’s Story, "Passion and Sparks" (with Sandra K. Winn) DAY SIX: Autobiography/Auto-ethnography 1^st Presentation, Sigmund A. Boloz’s Story, "The Educator’s Voice Or "the Club?" 2nd Presentation: Sarah MacDougall’ Story, "Calling on Spirit" 3^rd Presentation: Carol Parker Terhune’s Story, "I’ve Got to be Me" 4^th Presentation: Jeanie Cockell’s Story, "Appreciative Inquiry" 5th Presentation: Adair Linn Nagata’s Story, "Being in Harmony" (with Valerie Bentz) DAY SEVEN: Participant’s Voices 1st Presentation: Doreen E. Martinez’s Story, "Knowingness, negotiation, and beauty: Recognizing and sharing Indigenous’ knowledge and voice." 2nd Presentation: Dixiane Hallaj’s Story, "Caught by Culture" 3^rd Presentation: Denise Purnell’s Story, "In My Own Backyard" (with Rodney Beaulieu, Bob Dick, Kath Fisher and Renata Phelps) 4th Presentation: Simon Pockley’s Story, "Flight of Ducks" (With Glen Gatin) Closing Remarks: (with Rita Irwin, Stephanie Springgay and Alex de Cosson and Tony van Renterghem) Appendix 1, Relevant Reading

Editorial Reviews

What could be timelier in a new century that is lurching from one
dramatic event to the next, than a text that encourages candidates to imagine an alternative approach to global problems? ... A timely text that has appeared at a stage in world history when‘business as usual’ would appear to be a very dangerous pathway’ Dr Christine Black, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, May 2009

From the Publisher