Contesting conventional order to promote equality, a life history study

grantor: University of TorontoThis life history research explores the stories of women educators who contest conventional order to promote equality. Seven research participants, representing a variety of professions, were selected for the inquiry because of their pioneering public work to decrease inequalities consequent to ageism, classism, racism, sexism and stigmatization of people with chronic illness. The research focus was to explore the women's unique, historically situated experiences of contesting conventional order to promote equality and to illuminate social processes and conditions related to the phenomenon. The theoretical basis of this life history research is located within the constructivist paradigm; symbolic interactionism and critical feminist theory provided grounding for the study of social life and human conduct. I shared formative life stories to situate my perspective as a researcher. Initially, the participants engaged in three loosely structured interviews. The research participants' stories were condensed and shaped into profiles using their own words and according to the research focus. I introduce the profiles according to theoretical and contextual applications that arose from the participants' voices and actions. The disjunctive moment--that space of deliberation, of simultaneously seeing the deficiencies of the status quo and of envisioning new possibilities for action-is described differently by every woman. I analyzed the profiles and supporting documentation to identify a theme for each woman that connected different aspects of her life history. The themes represent each woman's particular impetus for seeing injustice and constructing acts to increase equality for segments of the population. The interconnections between themes are described from a social activism perspective. Finally, the "inclusive eye" is an image used to synthesize the research findings. When research participants use an "inclusive eye" to see, their stories erode boundaries to advance the well-being of oppressed and non-oppressed people alike.Ed.D