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Summary of Packard-CSU Ed.D. Dissertation Fellowship Report Title: Creative Confidence: Self-Efficacy and Creative Writing in an Out-of-School Time Program and Beyond Ed.D. Candidate: Allison Deegan, CSU Long Beach Research Question(s): 1. Does participation in an Out-of-School Time (OST) creative writing program impact participants’ creative writing self-efficacy? 2. Does participation in an OST creative writing program impact participants’ overall self-confidence? 3. Does participation in an OST creative writing program impact participants’ educational goals while enrolled and after their participation concludes? Conceptual Framework and/or Guiding Purpose of the Study: The conceptual framework of this study was based upon theories from several fields, including adolescent psychology, social theory, writing pedagogy, and the educational contributions of OST learning. This study investigated how adolescents develop self-efficacy in an OST creative writing program, and whether advances in creative writing play a role in educational and life outcomes. Specific constructs of the framework include freedom and self-efficacy. Freedom, the first pillar of this study’s conceptual framework, is based on Elbow’s (1973a, 1973b) theories on a writer’s need for freedom and the manner in which the writer’s voice is represented by their texts. Elbow’s approach is supplemented by the related work of Gilligan, Brown and Myhill, and founded on the landmark treatises of Freire (1970) and Dewey, among others. Self-Efficacy, the second pillar of this study’s conceptual framework, is built upon the work of Pajares and Johnson (1995), who studied the pathway to self-efficacy for young writers. Pajares and Johnson’s work is founded on Bandura’s (1977) groundbreaking theories of self-efficacy, and is supplemented by the work of Chandler. Figure 1 displays the conceptual framework for studying how a confident creative writer develops and how the writer forms goals and achieves educational outcomes, including high school graduation and entrance into college. 1 Summary of Packard-CSU Ed.D. Dissertation Fellowship Report Figure 1. Conceptual framework Freedom Elbow Dewey, Freire, Gilligan Brown, Myhill Self-Efficacy Pajares and Johnson Bandura, Chandler Goals/Outcomes This Study Quantitative Data—Goals Qualitative Data—Outcomes What to Write As a Creative Writer Confident Creative Writer? How to Write As a Writer Generally Confident Writer? Writing as Voice As a Student Confident Student/Graduate? Writing as Self As a Person College/Beyond? Relevant Theoretical and Empirical Literature: Key literature guided the development of the conceptual framework’s pillars of freedom and self-efficacy in examining creative writing. Sources included Elbow’s (1973a, 1973b) work on writing and freedom, especially his 1970 treatise, Writing Without Teachers, and Pajares and Johnson’s (1995) work on writing self-efficacy among adolescents, supported by Bandura’s (1977) classic work on general selfefficacy. In addition, a body of literature about the inception and implementation of the Listening Guide methodology by Gilligan, Spencer, Weinberg and Bertsch (2003) and sources on emerging research methods, notably Salmons’ (2009) work on online interviewing, contributed to this study. Methods of Data Collection and Analysis: This case study examined a theory about the connection between participants’ experiences in WriteGirl and effects on creative writing confidence and was centered on interviews with 18 WriteGirl alumni. All had participated in the program during high school and were college students or college graduates. Additional sources of evidence, such as documents, records, personal observations and discussions emanating from the WriteGirl program were reviewed as source material to complete the study. Participant solicitation, selection and consent, as well as data gathering, were conducted entirely online, in real-time online sessions in social networking sites and via email. This approach was selected in order to maximize participants’ sense of comfort. In addition, the researcher is deeply embedded in the culture of the WriteGirl program, and working online provided a measure of distance and objectivity while maintaining access to a broad range of rich and nuanced data. Interview transcript data were analyzed using an adaptation of the Listening Guide methodology (Gilligan et al., 2003), a voice-centered approach that places the interviewer in the center of a process that reveals participants’ multi-layered articulation about their experiences. Under the Listening Guide methodology, transcripts are reviewed four times under four different perspectives, and participants’ words are converted into informational identity forms called “I Poems”. The methodology was chosen in 2 Summary of Packard-CSU Ed.D. Dissertation Fellowship Report order to achieve several goals, including to capture a snapshot of WriteGirl alumni participants’ attitudes and perceptions of their experiences and outcomes and to compare them to one another in order to examine the experience of achieving creative confidence. In addition, the methodology provided participants with a forum to speak about this process and, as they are all accomplished writers, an opportunity to “write” their data in their own words. Study Findings: The findings of this study include representative and comparative poetry, created from interview transcripts using the Listening Guide methodology. These I Poems, which utilize first person statements to conjure hidden meanings, expressed recurring themes about how creativity is achieved, both as a process and a goal or status, and the strong connection between self-efficacy (and the support that builds it) and achieving creative confidence. Participants, categorized as hidden voices, high achievers and writing professionals (or pros) based on their statements, personalities and approach to writing (informed by the researcher’s insider status), discussed the process of creative writing and contrasted it with other genres of writing. In addition, the interview protocol guided them to ponder the connection, if any, between the development of confidence as creative writers and confidence in other areas of their lives (including confidence as academic writers). They shared a sense of freedom in creative work that is not duplicated in academic work, and faced similar challenges in leveraging their confidence in their creative writing toward achievements in academic writing. Across categories, virtually all participants expressed the challenges they faced in college to recreate the supportive writing environment they had enjoyed and benefitted from as part of the WriteGirl program and to maintain their writing self-efficacy. The study approached data synthesis by the use of exemplar analysis, both for content value and as catalysts for reaction by the researcher (part of the Listening Guide methodology is for the research to react to the transcripts and capture those reactions as data). Categories of aligned, organic and surprising synthesis emerged to describe the manner in which participants’ data speak to one another by evoking connected themes, called organic synthesis. Some synthesis was expected by the researcher, as a deeply embedded insider to the program, called aligned synthesis. Participants recounted that they had achieved confidence as writers, and faced with challenges beyond the supportive environment of the WriteGirl program, attempted to draw on that past experience as skilled writers to attain confidence as academic writers. Among the surprising synthesis was the notion that a lack of support, or even a hostile environment (such as a structure that demands more compliance than creativity) was seen by several participants as a provocation to inject even more freedom and creativity into their writing projects (viewing it as fighting over creative oppression). The resonant theme throughout the study was that the more freedom a creative writer has (or the more freedom one demands), the more creative they feel when they write, and the higher caliber of writing they produce. This sense of freedom was attributed directly to participation in the WriteGirl OST creative writing and mentoring program. Conclusions and Recommendations: Inclusion of creative writing. Both school-based and OST programs would benefit from the inclusion of creative writing curricula. Students who develop confidence in their creative writing abilities through a program that is founded on freedom and fortified by strategies for self-efficacy may in some cases transfer that confidence into other academic pursuits, both in high school and beyond. The inclusion of similar programs should be predicated on staff or faculty training so that a creative writing program is managed differently than a traditional writing classroom, freeing teachers from their traditional mandate of assigning “right or wrong” assessments to creative writing. Merely offering a writing program of any sort would be a good first step. Training of writing teachers. Writing teachers would be well served to have training about creativity and creative writing. In fact, taking them through the paces as creative writers (writing, brainstorming, 3 Summary of Packard-CSU Ed.D. Dissertation Fellowship Report workshopping, rewriting, performing/reading aloud, submitting for publication) may be the best training of all so that they understand the process of taking free thought and turning it into literature or published work. Following a combination of Elbow’s (1973a, 1973b) theories on freedom for writers, with Pajares and Johnson’s (1995) guidance on the components of writing self-efficacy, a powerful formula for all sorts of writing can be developed and followed by writing teachers. Becoming writers themselves in order to train and guide better writers seems like a natural process for them. Support for OST programs. This study demonstrates the benefit of participation in an OST creative writing program. Educational programs that seek to boost student achievement should consider a partnership with OST programs that can deliver creative writing content. The OST program in which this study was cited, WriteGirl, serves adolescent girls in the Los Angeles area and works with more than 60 schools to enroll mentees. Members participate for three or four years on average. Fielding this kind of program requires a significant infrastructure and funding to sustain it. Thus, policymakers would be wise to extend support for focused, time-intensive programs that can foster the development of creative confidence, especially through activities as valuable as writing. At present, it is challenging to fund this year-long program model. College transition support. Some of the findings from this study indicate the delicacy of the transition from high school to college, even for high-achieving students. More resources should be dedicated to this process. While the WriteGirl program includes an individualized college transition program where each mentee has access to significant resources, many OST programs do not include this facet. Further, the WriteGirl program has limited resources to work with alumni participants and to follow them and provide support after they enroll in college. Policymakers would be wise to include an assessment of creative skills in their college transition and support programs to provide the opportunity for students to develop confidence from these activities. Suggestions for Further Study: The findings of this study suggest many additional avenues to be researched. First, the program targets high school girls. It is not clear if the WriteGirl model would be as successful if high school boys participated. A few boys do participate at one WriteGirl site, but their participation is not the norm. Further, it is not clear if the WriteGirl program would produce similar outcomes if participants were in elementary and early middle school (WriteGirl participants enter as 8th graders). Another area for additional study would be to explore if some success would be achieved if this program targeted general or academic writing. Because WriteGirl is specifically a creative writing program built on the pillars of freedom and mentoring, it is unique. It would be interesting to see if the same kind of confidence could be gleaned from a program model that does not encourage and guide personal, creative writing. While a study of the WriteGirl program is well suited to qualitative analysis, there is also a place for quantitative analysis of the longitudinal data that has been gathered since the program’s inception This is in the form of pre-and post-participation data from every participant over the past nine years, inquiring about their writing confidence and educational goals. It would be interesting to conduct path analysis as a means to document the journey to confidence for participants of divergent demographic or experiential characteristics, such as different program dosages. One of the most frequent questions asked about the WriteGirl program pertains to the academic grades of program participants. WriteGirl does not request or review participants’ grades as part of their membership in the program, which is viewed as unusual for a program with a strong emphasis on graduation and college entrance. As a result, it may be valuable to conduct a study that aligns participant outcomes with more standard measures of academic success. 4 Summary of Packard-CSU Ed.D. Dissertation Fellowship Report Selected References: Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, 191-213. Elbow, P. (1973a). The pedagogy of the bamboozled. Soundings, 56(2), 247-258. Elbow, P. (1973b). Writing without teachers. New York: Oxford University Press. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum. Gilligan, C., Spencer, R., Weinberg, M. K., & Bertsch, T. (2003). On the listening guide: A voicecentered relational model. In P. M. Camic, J. E. Rhodes & L. Yardley (Eds.), Qualitative research in psychology: Expanding perspectives in methodology and design. (pp. 157-172). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Pajares, F., & Johnson, M. J. (1993, April). Confidence and competence in writing: The role of selfefficacy, outcome expectancy and apprehension. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Atlanta, GA. Pajares, F., & Johnson, M. J. (1995, April). The role of self-efficacy beliefs in the writing performance of entering high school students. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA. Salmons, J. (2009). Online interviews in real time. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 5