| In this thesis I examine the construction and expression of identity in first-year university teaching and learning. My research is the story of a narrative inquiry study and its effect on my own and my participants' perspectives on the transition to first-year, university. I explore how participants tell about their experiences using geographical and literary metaphors of journeying and I argue that these narrative conventions construct a reality of growth and transformation for the participants.;The data collected through the narrative inquiry method are eight short narratives---six from first-year university students and two from first-year university instructors. I used open-ended, story-structured questions during initial interviews to encourage participants to use narratives in the description of their first-year university experiences. From the transcriptions of each initial interview, I extracted and ordered the words and images of each participant's first-year experiences into a two to four page narrative. In a second, follow-up interview, I completed a member-check with each participant to ensure that s/he was comfortable and confident that I had expressed the story as s/he had told it at the time of the interview. The second interview offered opportunities to discuss the process of telling a first-year university narrative and the impact of participating in an inquiry.;In order to frame the narrative analysis, I reviewed and situated my inquiry in the fields of narrative research, sociocultural theory, and narrative inquiry methodology. Throughout the thesis I used The Wizard of Oz (Baum, 1900) as a "productive point of reference" (Brockmcir & Harre, 2001, pp. 54--55) to explore the cultural and geographical metaphors found in the participants' narratives about transition to university.;The narrative analysis of the participants' first-year university stories and interviews indicates that teaching and learning during transition is often conceptualized and expressed as a journey or a quest. The autobiographical inquiry into the time of transition is explored as a curricular experience for the inquirers (Conk, 2003) and for the audience who reads or hears their stories. |
