Multi in So Many Ways: A Narrative Inquiry into a Culturally and Historically Sustaining Creole Studies Program

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dc.contributor.authorEspree, Mildred
dc.date.accessioned2025-08-19T00:04:50Z
dc.date.available2025-08-19T00:04:50Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.description.abstractThrough phenomenological analysis and qualitative grounded theory, this dissertation provided a higher education case study through which to understand how Creole people have survived through transmission of culture and values learned at the crossroads of American history -- a time when two different cultures, one European-American and the other African and enslaved collided in the New World (Espree, Jazz Zeitgeist: The Coming of Age of a New American Sound and Story in the Early Twentieth Century, 2000, p. 3). Creoles, both marginalized and vilified for having ideas dissimilar to both black and white Americans, are by definition historically multiracial/multicultural. Often forced to assimilate by context and circumstance, they still retain a significant portion of cultural identity and survival skills based on family history and associations forged over time. Focused on the case of a Creole Studies higher education program in Louisiana, this dissertation documented the unique perspectives of program stakeholders and key archival program records to reveal folk and traditional beliefs, values, faith and language, particularly as these are related to higher education achievement. Using narratives of older Creole women and men who are stakeholders in the Creole Studies program in Louisiana, and the program stakeholders, the critical task was to document folk and traditional beliefs, values, faith and language in the context of emerging 21st values and survival skills, particularly as these were relevant to higher achievement and education. This research includes document analysis. 8 Narratives and interviews were the primary methodologies used in this research. What has been documented are the unique perspectives of Creoles in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Additionally, this dissertation has been aligned so that the research purpose, problem and questions are designed to be exploratory, questions that evoke memories, sentiment and honest reflection about the program’s viability in addition to its contributions. Also included is an emergent theory in Historically and Culturally Sustaining Higher Education Programming (HCSHEP).
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11803/4584
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisher.institutionNational University (NU)
dc.subjectLife-long Learning
dc.subjectculture
dc.subjectHumanities
dc.subjectCreoles in American History
dc.subjectMultiracialism in Black and White
dc.subjectLouisiana Culture
dc.subjectEducational Leadership & Learning Lifelong
dc.subjectSchool of Arts, Letters, & Sciences
dc.subjectEnglish (Academic Writing and Composition)
dc.titleMulti in So Many Ways: A Narrative Inquiry into a Culturally and Historically Sustaining Creole Studies Program
dc.typeAction Research
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