Counseling, Higher Education & Special Education Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2757
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Item Impacts of Identity Change on Trans and Disabled College Students(2023) Klager, Adam; Espino, Michelle M; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)While many student development theories exist to understand how students grow in their understandings of their identities during their time in college, no theories exist to understand students who are experiencing a change in their social identities themselves. As previous research has indicated that identity change can be stressful and isolating, as well as an educational process, research is needed to understand how to best support students and understand the impacts of their identity changes. This study attempted to start filling this gap in the literature by using narrative inquiry and Abes et al.’s (2007) reconceptualization of the Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity to understand the identity changes of undergraduate transgender students and students who acquired physical disabilities. The study’s findings revealed the impact that identity change can have on students’ need for community, personal relationships, social interactions, and holistic growth. These findings offered new perspectives on the experiences of trans and disabled college students, demonstrating the need for future research on these populations’ identities, as well as on students’ experiences of identity change overall.Item “What Are We?” A Narrative Study of the “Trickiness” of Identity for Asian American College Students(2018) Kim, Yoolee Choe; Park, Julie J.; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Asian Americans are a significant and growing population in U.S. higher education, yet their positionality within the U.S. racial landscape has often been unclear. Acknowledged as neither Black nor White, Asian Americans have occupied an often marginalized yet nonetheless racialized position, which has disguised much of their lived experience as racial beings. This study sought to understand how Asian American college students see themselves as racial beings by exploring the role and salience of race and its intersections with other social identities. Using intersectionality as a theoretical framework, this narrative inquiry study was guided by the following research questions: (a) how do Asian American college students describe and make meaning of their racial identity; (b) in what ways, if any, do their other social identities, such as gender, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, religion, ability status, socioeconomic class, and immigrant generation status, interact with the way Asian American college students describe and make meaning of their racial identity; and (c) how do Asian American college students experience the intersections of their multiple social identities? Following in-depth interviews with four Asian American college students representing a range of identity backgrounds, individual narratives were written for each participant, telling the story of how they came to make meaning of their racial identity, other salient identities, and their intersections. A metanarrative was then generated based on the commonalities of participants’ stories. Through these narratives, the lived experiences of Asian Americans as racial beings were centered. For these four participants, identifying as Asian American was a conscious choice whose meaning was created through reflection on experiences with race, often in conjunction with intersecting identities. Systems of power, oppression, and privilege acted upon those intersections and indelibly shaped the way participants made meaning of their identities, as illuminated by intersectional analysis. The study’s findings indicate paths for future research on Asian American identity development, particularly using critical theoretical perspectives that foreground the influence of systems of power and oppression. The findings also suggest implications for supporting Asian American students and for developing and integrating intersectional approaches in order to create more socially just and inclusive institutions.