University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Life scraps/a patchwork quilt: Vignettes from the lives of Brenda and Jim

Page, Brenda Kay

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/19950

Description

Title
Life scraps/a patchwork quilt: Vignettes from the lives of Brenda and Jim
Author(s)
Page, Brenda Kay
Issue Date
1995
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Chadsey-Rusch, Janis
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • Sociology, Theory and Methods
  • Women's Studies
  • Education, Special
  • Sociology, Individual and Family Studies
Language
eng
Abstract
  • This qualitative inquiry explores the process of the social construction of disability and the meanings assigned to the disability by a mother and/with a son with cerebral palsy. Using the interpretative biographical methodology, vignettes were written in a journal by the mother. Applying the interpretative interactionism perspective, this dissertation describes the meaning of the problematic everyday life with interacting humans. The experience of the individual is connected to public responses to personal troubles.
  • The vignettes answer the question of what it is like to be a parent of a young man leaving the public school system and entering the adult world. The quilt metaphor employed puts forth a new way to think about theory: When life gives you scraps, make quilts. This inquiry responds to the call to broaden the methodologies, the theories of human behavior, and the realm of experience into which research is conducted.
  • The evocative power of telling a true story of lived experience is not to prove a point, but to offer people the opportunity to think about things in unrestricted and unpredicted ways. A conversation begins about the complexity of being human, of being a mother and/with a son with cerebral palsy, and of being a diligent researcher.
Type of Resource
text
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/19950
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 1995 Page, Brenda Kay

Owning Collections

Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois PRIMARY
Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois
Dissertations and Theses - Education
Dissertations and Theses from the College of Education