Care-give, Educate, Reflect…Repeat:
a STUDY Exploring the Rhetoric of Two-Year Institution Educator Caregivers
My name is Dr. O.W. Petcoff. I am an Assistant Professor Integrated Reading and Writing at Tarrant County College in Arlington, Texas. I am also the mother of an adult son with autism and wife of nearly 31 years to a disabled veteran who is on the autism spectrum and who recently suffered a myriad of debilitating life-altering health challenges.
I am conducting an IRB-approved study to explore how two-year institution educators who are or have been caregivers outside of work duties identify, describe, and navigate emotional work-based tasks across both roles. Your participation would help me greatly as I explore the outcomes of this study: Its findings may foreground scholarship that educates people about caregiver rhetoric and how two-year institution educator caregivers may apply caregiving skills in and across both the work and non-work environments.
The interview will take 45-90 minutes. Because of the intensely confidential nature of caregiving and of two-year institution educator work, this study will be conducted via confidential face-to-face interviews. You can skip any questions you are not comfortable with and stop at any point.
Participants will be two-year institution educators who self-identify as caregivers outside of their TCCD work duties. Specifically, they will be individuals who:
1. Presently or in the past identify as a caregiver: "A person who tends to the needs or concerns of a person with short- or long-term limitations due to illness, injury or disability" (John Hopkins Medicine) AND
2. Presently or in the past have done so while serving as a two-year institution educator (this includes faculty, administrators, staff, or anyone who serves in any full-time capacity or role). TCCD students are not eligible to participate.
There are no direct benefits for your participation. There are no foreseeable risks to your participation. To protect your confidentiality no unique identifiers will be collected.
I appreciate your time and effort for this research study.
If you would like to learn more about the study and sign up to participate, please access access the survey via this URL/link.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.
Omonpee W. Petcoff, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor of Integrated Reading and Writing
Tarrant County College Southeast Campus
Arlington, TX 76018
thecaregiverstudy2026