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Self-perceptions and social connections: Empowerment through digital storytelling in adult education
DISSERTATION

, University of California, Berkeley, United States

University of California, Berkeley . Awarded

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Abstract

As computers are increasingly used as tools for personal multimedia production the question arises, “What place might such digital creation have in education as notions of “authoring” expand?” This study pursues that question as it applies to adult education. The author investigates a particular approach to digital production that combines personal narrative and multimedia known as “Digital Storytelling.” The main questions guiding the study are “What do students in adult education see as the purposes and power of creating digital stories?” and “What can this tell us about the potential place of digital multimedia authorship in adult education programs?”

Focusing on the experiences of two adult students over the course of two Digital Storytelling workshops, this study uses a qualitative, interpretive approach in exploring answers to these questions. Data include students' writing from a concurrent journaling class, author's fieldnotes, formal and informal interviews, and the scripts and digital stories produced.

Adult students commonly return to school in response to desire for self-improvement or change in their lives, hoping that education will lead to transformation in circumstance and self-esteem despite past experiences of disempowerment in the classroom. The findings based on the data in this study illustrate the empowerment students experience both in the process of personal reflection/expression through digital multimedia, and in the imagined social uses and influence of their creations. As they constructed representations of past experiences through the use of voice, photos, video, music and special effects, the students repositioned themselves with respect to those experiences. They formed new self-perceptions, declared social connections, and laid new foundations for approaching the difficult issues and situations in their lives.

This study contributes to the field of adult education (particularly pedagogical approaches based on self-reflection, self-direction and transformation) by exploring how Digital Storytelling, a new type of authoring, begins to empower students as agents of change in their own lives.

Citation

Paull, C.N. Self-perceptions and social connections: Empowerment through digital storytelling in adult education. Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved August 6, 2024 from .

This record was imported from ProQuest on October 23, 2013. [Original Record]

Citation reproduced with permission of ProQuest LLC.

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