Date of Award
1-1-2008
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
English
First Advisor
Dively, Ronda
Abstract
This study examines questions about the relationships that seem to exist between the goal of supporting personal agency in student writers and a specific meditation practice as implemented in the second semester of freshman composition. With both whole-class and individualized data sources, the study seeks to address changes in students' attitudes toward the meditative practice as well as their own senses of personal agency. In addition the study seeks to identify to what extent and in what ways do students articulate relationships between their use of meditative techniques in class and their own perceptions of their personal agency in writing. The individualized case studies examine students' reflective writings completed during one semester of data collection, in addition to their verbalized reflections discussed during an oral interview conducted at the end of that semester.
Access
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