Browsing by Subject "Agency"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Identity reconciliation and religious agency in gay and lesbian Episcopal clergy
    (2018-01) Hemphill, Amy L.; Steensland, Brian
    The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in the United States won a significant civil rights battle when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in 2015, and a majority of Americans now support same-sex marriage and accept homosexuality (PewResearch 2016a). However, notable conflict between the LBGT community and individuals and organized religion remains, as evidenced by the United Methodist Church’s ruling in April 2017 that the recent consecration of a lesbian bishop violated church law. According to UMC doctrine, homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching” (Goodstein 2017). The choice to continue participating in religious organizations whose formal policies, structures, and doctrines challenge the overlapping identities of “Christian” and lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender is one that merits sociological inquiry. For some non-heterosexual Christians, a third identity enters the picture – that of ordained clergy. This third identity intensifies the salience of the first two; a Christian clergy person follows their religious beliefs and practices to a full-time vocation, and the increased scrutiny and expectations of clergy can shine an uncomfortable spotlight on issues of sexuality. To examine the “incompatibility” between homosexuality and Christianity, this study investigates the integration of homosexual and Christian identities at the micro level, among gay and lesbian Episcopal clergy. While such persons possess a gay or lesbian sexual identity, they also embody the institutional church as ordained clergy. Examining their processes of integrating homosexual and Christian identities provides a deeper understanding of the larger social conflict between homosexuality and Christianity; and because of their unique position vis a vis religion and sexuality, the experiences of gay and lesbian clergy can also reveal important information about the strategies and practices utilized by individuals as they attempt to transform religious institutions. This thesis asks how gay and lesbian Episcopal clergy reconcile and maintain their religious and sexual identities, and what strategies of religious agency they demonstrate as they work for a more just and inclusive church.
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    Indications of Single-Session Improvement in Writing Center Sessions
    (2020-05) Wilder, Aaron; Brooks-Gillies, Marilee; Fox, Steve; DiCamilla, Fred
    In the complementary fields of Composition and Writing Center Studies, the common goal is to guide writers toward improvement in literate practices. However, the meaning of the word “improvement” has undergone radical shifts across time within both fields. It has of late shifted away from a concrete, product-oriented definition toward a non-concrete, process and person-centered nebula. In short, the field of Writing Studies has become very sure what improvement is not, while less sure what it is. Despite this uncertainty, one area of recent agreement appears to be the importance of control that writers hold in navigating within and across literate contexts, often referred to by the slippery term, agency. This pilot study seeks to utilize the voices of researchers across a spectrum of fields to more precisely define agency. This definition will be consistent with current scholarship in both Composition and Writing Center Studies and informed by related fields such as linguistics, anthropology, sociology, and philosophy. It will then utilize that definition in constructing a RAD (replicable, aggregable and data-driven) qualitative analysis of post-session interviews between researcher and writer. This method will attempt to determine possibilities and guidelines for future research. Particularly, it will provide a framework for future researchers to measure improvement in writing through a more refined definition of social agency. Through that, it will seek to support previous study which suggests as little as a single session in the Writing Center can demonstrate improvement in students’ perceptions of their own writing.
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    Intervention in Online Writing Instruction: An Action-theoretical Perspective
    (Elsevier, 2016-06) Stella, Julie; Corry, Michael; Technology and Leadership Communication, School of Engineering and Technology
    This analysis argues for an interwoven perspective of motivation, engagement, agency, and action in Online Writing Instruction (OWI) compiled from shared elements of empirical research in online education, writing instruction, and especially student academic engagement in traditional classrooms, where the research domain is comparatively mature. Engagement is the common element shared by these domains. In online education research, engagement is sometimes understood through intentional student actions. In writing instruction, engagement is commonly understood through human agency. In academic settings, engagement can be seen as a foundational part of Self-Determination Theory, which is comprised of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional engagement (Deci and Ryan, 1985). Educators often find measures of engagement valuable because they are reliable predictors of student outcomes, and they suggest a reasonable point of intervention for struggling students. A measure of agentic engagement, which describes the extent to which a student exerts agency to personalize a learning experience, could add value to measures of engagement, especially in OWI where actions and agency are integral to student success. In addition, a focus on engagement and intervention/remediation may offer an opportunity for students to succeed in learning online, not just in OWI, which is a valued skill in the workplace.