Pomerantz, Kathryn Anne (2008) Including excluded adolescent boys: discursive constructions of identity. EdD thesis, University of Sheffield.
Abstract
The main aim of this thesis is to problematise discourse relating to adolescent boys in order to gain a better understanding of the persistent practice of exclusion and to seek to highlight examples of how discourse can position boys in ways that are more inclusive. In doing so this work is an attempt to theorise my practice as a researcherpractitioner educational psychologist, to be reflexive and to raise my consciousness of the means by which professionals, parents and I can both liberate and limit the ways in which the identity of excluded adolescent boys becomes discursively constructed. Taking a predominantly relativist and post structuralist position I propose a model based on Lacanian theory integrated with methods of analysing discourse, 'a critical discursive psychology' which frames and guides the research process throughout. As the thesis unfolds my initial intention to pursue the research topic from a linguisticdiscursive perspective becomes influenced by a psychoanalytical dimension as the limitations of a purely discursive approach become apparent. My attempt to take a psychoanalytical reading of the discourse data draws attention to unconscious processes that may influence the signifying of some adolescent boys as either pathological or deviant and enables me to speculate as to why such discourses persist whilst others are repressed. However, and most importantly to this study, by exposing through the discourse analysis how discourse constructs the identity of some adolescent boys at both a societal and individual level, I am able to reveal that discursive constructions of the identity of adolescent boys are also open to resistance and change. This in tum provides rich possibilities for future research and practice.
Metadata
Awarding institution: | University of Sheffield |
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Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of Education (Sheffield) |
Identification Number/EthosID: | uk.bl.ethos.489663 |
Depositing User: | EThOS Import Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 03 Jun 2013 09:50 |
Last Modified: | 08 Aug 2013 08:52 |
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