Rewriting Family Stories During Successful Transition From an Alternative School: One Student's Story of “Violent Female” to “Phenomenal Woman”

Abstract

The case described in this article reflects a young woman's story of her personal struggle to stay in school and to participate in her family. Experiences of the student, reflecting serious personal and family problems, were limiting her ability to attend school and creating educational barriers. As a result, she was assigned to the alternative school where she re-scripted her story to make sense and give meaning to the assignment and her own identity and worth. Through interviews, family meetings, personal writings, poetry, and literature, she created a portfolio of school work, letters, and poems that told her story, past and present. With the help of the school social worker using the process of questioning in the narrative approach, the student was able to rewrite her story of violence and abuse and transform it into school and personal success. A year later, she found herself reflected in the mirror of Maya Angelou's poem “Phenomenal Woman.”