Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-1994

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Anthropology

Major Professor

Benita J. Howell

Committee Members

Faye Harrison, John Gaventa

Abstract

This study took place in a rural community in eastern Tennessee, Cedar Ridge, whose primary source of income and heritage, has traditionally been from the various textile mills in the community. Female members from a grassroots organization, Cedar Ridge Action For Today (CRAFT), originally wanted to create a museum in the community to document the general history of the community. Upon the suggestion of the director of a regional heritage tourism project in a neighboring town, CRAFT members decided to capitalize on the fact that the community's heritage was built upon the work of women in the textile industry and chose this subject as the theme for the local history project in Cedar Ridge. With financial support from a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) to the Tennessee Humanities Council (THC), the local history project expanded its goals to serve as an educational tool, to "bring the humanities to the public," focusing primarily on the adult out-of-school population.

This thesis analyzes to what extent three educational theories (Critical Educational Theory, Critical Feminist Educational Theory, and People's History) were employed along with the National Endowment For The Humanities Model in the local history project. Data for analysis included both qualitative and quantitative methods, with emphasis on the former. Quantitative data were collected through the use of two community evaluations. Evaluations sampled residents' feelings toward the local history project before its implementation in the community and residents' reactions after its completion. Evaluations also aimed at discovering how formal educational institutions "reproduced" the status quo and if, or how, the project "transformed" consciousness or "produced" critical consciousness of women's place in the community. Qualitative data were obtained from twenty-eight months of participant-observation and informal interviews with both male and female adult residents of Cedar Ridge and staff members of a regional heritage tourism project in a neighboring town. Residents include key participants in the local history project, textile operatives, and local elementary teachers. Informal interviews aimed at gaining background information on the community and discovering how formal educational institutions "reproduced" the status quo and the origins of the local history project in Cedar Ridge. In addition, informal and formal interviews were conducted over a period of three months after the opening of the museum. Interviews focused on obtaining information on attitudes towards the local history project upon its completion and the "production" of critical consciousness through the agent of workshops sponsored by the NEH, the publication of a guidebook, and the creation of a museum exhibit. Adult educational workshops supported by the NEH are a hybrid of both "formal" and "non-formal" education.

Both interviews and evaluations allowed for an analysis of prior goals, later perceptions of accomplishments, and influences of the local history project on residents. Responses to evaluations were computer-coded and statistically analyzed using Fisher's Exact Test with SAS. Comments from evaluations and interviews were analyzed using the qualitative approach of grounded theory with core categories emerging to demonstrate both gender and class difference. While the identification of women's role and contributions in the community existed among both male and female residents, female responses tended to reflect more on women's contributions and on the lack of female representation in conventional history. While critical consciousness was not evident among female textile workers, a few operatives demonstrated what Paulo Freire calls a "naive-transitive" state of consciousness. Female members from CRAFT demonstrated possible or emerging critical reflection of oppressive structures. However, because members were not yet reflecting on actively resisting the hegemonic forces in their community to bring about social change, critical consciousness did not emerge during the local history project. Class difference between female textile operatives and female CRAFT members, and requirements set forth by the NEH, influenced which educational theories were, or were not, employed in the local history project in Cedar Ridge. Although elements of People's History were evident in the project's design, the only model really operative in the local history project was the National Endowment For The Humanities Model.

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