Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Reflections on Place: Changes in Perspective after High School
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
As a piece of a larger collaborative ethnography that allows researchers to gain a clearer understanding and interpretation of those students whose voices and lived experiences are too often invisible, we are interested in understanding the change in attitudes and values of place in rural Appalachia six years after graduating high school. Similar to research using photovoice, photographs and artwork create the opportunity for personal narratives of past experiences, as well as conversations about past and present views of rural place. This paper describes our work with a group of five young women through three visual representation projects of themselves and their relationship with rural Appalachia. While discussing life after high school in a rural community, all five participants yearned to leave their rural county. Our first arts project of self-portraiture took place their senior year of high school, expressing their individuality and perseverance. After two years, we again came together to create self-representations of themselves two years after high school, mainly emphasizing their relationships with men. After three years, the young women had mixed representations about rural place, reflecting on the sense of community and problems related to drug use. After two years, we are interested in finding out their reflections on their prior artwork, as well as photographs of place. How have their values and attitudes of place change? How do they identify with rural place? What are the enabling and constraining factors of creating their home in rural Appalachia?
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
-
LeAnne Olson earned her doctoral degree in education from Marshall University and is currently working at Mountwest Community and Technical College. Her research interests are transitional experiences in college. (olson2@marshall.edu)
-
Heather Stark is a professor in the College of Fine Arts at Marshall University (stark@marshall.edu)
Reflections on Place: Changes in Perspective after High School
As a piece of a larger collaborative ethnography that allows researchers to gain a clearer understanding and interpretation of those students whose voices and lived experiences are too often invisible, we are interested in understanding the change in attitudes and values of place in rural Appalachia six years after graduating high school. Similar to research using photovoice, photographs and artwork create the opportunity for personal narratives of past experiences, as well as conversations about past and present views of rural place. This paper describes our work with a group of five young women through three visual representation projects of themselves and their relationship with rural Appalachia. While discussing life after high school in a rural community, all five participants yearned to leave their rural county. Our first arts project of self-portraiture took place their senior year of high school, expressing their individuality and perseverance. After two years, we again came together to create self-representations of themselves two years after high school, mainly emphasizing their relationships with men. After three years, the young women had mixed representations about rural place, reflecting on the sense of community and problems related to drug use. After two years, we are interested in finding out their reflections on their prior artwork, as well as photographs of place. How have their values and attitudes of place change? How do they identify with rural place? What are the enabling and constraining factors of creating their home in rural Appalachia?
