Researching Educational Practices in Teacher Education. A Narrative Self-Study

Author(s):

Remei Arnaus Morral(presenting / submitting)Asunción López Carretero(presenting)José Contreras Domingo Emma Quiles Fernández Susana Orozco Martínez Clara Arbiol i Gonzalez

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 07 B, Teacher Education: Identities, Practices, Professionalism

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-03

17:15-18:45

Room:

B223 Sala de Aulas

Chair:

Chris Wilkins

Contribution

This paper was born out of the work of (self) exploration that we do as a research group of the Research Project Professional Knowledge in Primary Education Teachers and its Implications in Initial Teacher Training: Case Studies (EDU2011-29732-C02-01- Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness -Spain).

We focus on looking in depth at the first stage of the research process where we investigate our own day-to-day practice as educators with the aim of: a) Understanding what it is that sustains our practice of relationship with students in teacher education; b) Discovering the directions and meaning that we give to qualities; and the dimensions that emerge on putting them into play; c) Looking closer into the educational meaning of our practices, taking into account the role of being a teacher; d) Researching into and understanding the uncertainties and tensions that appear in our educative practices in the university context; e) Reflecting on how experience-led knowledge enriches the knowledge of teacher education.

As a starting point and with the aim of exploring and going deeper into our experience-led knowledge as educators, we have looked to and been inspired by various research traditions of practices in teacher education (Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices –S-STEP–; Narrative Research; Auto-ethnography), (Loughran, Russell; Clandinin, Connelly; Ellis). This exploration of perspectives has helped to widen our visions of the educational task and of the work of the teacher in the present day. Also, contrasting perspectives of biographical-narrative research has supported us in our practices of observation, of looking deeper and of narrative writing of the process itself shared in the research.

We are interested in the fact that the self-exploratory nature of our practices allows us to widen our view as we come to understand the links between our teaching practices and knowledge, in the context of teacher education, and the practices and knowledge that the work of being a teacher require.

It is no accident that we ask ourselves questions out of what we do, or what we discover that guides us, questioning ourselves about its meaning. We are looking for a thinking that does not disconnect from experience (Buttarelli & Giardini (2008). That is, a thinking that does not seek the invention or proposal of ideals, but that also is not reduced to accepting the given and the repetition of what is already done. What we are interested in about the work of educators is a way of thinking about its meaning that does not seek to make models, but rather connections “in tension” or not with reality.

Here we present an analysis of what we have observed whilst studying the keys that our educational practice are based on. We show both the qualities that seem important to us to nurture and cultivate as well as understanding those tensions that we experience and the uncertainties that they occasion us. Specifically, we have asked what it means to speak of a teacher education concerned with an attentive reading of reality, with sensitivity towards the needs and desires of people, and with a wider view of their lives. All of this together with the awareness of the fact that the teaching work is always work that takes place in the singular, in concrete relationships, but that is sensitive to the desire of a life in relationship, which knows how to keep its questions open to alterity (Pérez de Lara, 2006; Skliar & Larrosa, 2009; Piussi, 2006). With the desire for a world that is better to live in and more respectful and loving relationships, bringing into play difference, alterity, freedom and shared living (Van Manen, Piussi, Rivera).

Method

The path of (self)exploration of our practices expresses our research concern in our practice and in what sustains it. We have put in motion a process of inquiry that helps us to clarify what we do and that, on the other hand, helps us to go beyond what we experience and what happens to us. We have been inspired to do so by present-day perspectives that are based on researching professional lives themselves, the experiences and educational practices of women and men researchers. It is the case of auto-ethnography (Carolyn Ellis, Tony E Adams and Arthur P Bochner, 2001;) and other variants of what some authors are calling Auto-methodologies (Sandra Pensonau-Conway and Satoshi Toyosaki, 2011). We have also been inspired by some kinds of narrative research (Jean Clandinin and Michael Connelly, 2000; Jean Clandinin et al. 1993; Jorge Larrosa, Remei Arnaus, et al., 1995; Julian Kitchen, Darlene Ciuffetelli Parker and Debbie Pushor Eds, 2011). The valuable contributions of these research methodologies are that they are sensitive and appropriate in capturing the meaning of the experience that each researcher has. This allows us to look deeper into complex subjective dimensions and analyse and compare them within the research group. At the same time, we use the contributions of the Self-Study–S-STEP–, (John Loughran et al., 2004, Robert V. Bullough and Stefinee Pinnegar, 2001; Deborah L. Tidwell, Melissa L. Heston and Linda M. Fitzgerald, 2010; Mike Hayler, 2011). All of these contributions have permitted us to carry out explorations starting with our own experiences, in relation to the meaning of the teacher education, the qualities of its processes and its possibilities and limits. They are methodologies that are preferred by female researchers and also by some men who are sensitive to subjectivity and the recognition of alterity in research (Mary Field Belenky, et al. 1986), M-Milagros Rivera Gaarretas, 2012,. We base ourselves in this sense on valuable contributions from women’s studies that contemplate a free sense of being a woman or man in the university and in their research (Anna M. Piussi and Remei Arnaus, 2010). In this paper we will look closer at the methodology used and the meaning of the (self)stories, observations and conversations that make up part of the process of working in a group.

Expected Outcomes

The most relevant focus points that have arisen in our research process are: Keeping and protecting some educational qualities and not others has allowed us to experience an educational practice of relationship in the classroom that is consistent with the pedagogical meaning of its future practice as educators. Our observations of our teacher education practices have confirmed to us the importance of situating the educational relationship at the centre of our practice; some of its qualities are trust, attentive listening, waiting and the recognition of each one. Another shared central aspect is the place of experience and the knowledge that comes from it. Between experience and knowledge are interlinked feelings, thoughts, words, that put into play the originality and creativity of the teacher and the students. The knowledge that we put into play in the process go beyond some fragmentary disciplines that are disconnected from experience. We have enriched our own ways of creating and cultivating educational processes on sharing different ways of relating to the institutional context and of being teachers. We have also explored the tensions that originate in our practices as teacher educators at the University; knowing that the tensions and the work of making them fruitful is always to leave a question open; it is not resolved but neither does it paralyse us. It is work of the symbolic that opens the way to experience-led knowledge. In this passage is where the question is opened up as to the meaning of the educational. This is a question that guides the job of teaching and also that of educating teachers.

References

Belenky, Mary Field; Clinchy, Blythe McVicker; Godberger, Nancy Rule and Tarule, Jill Mattuck (1986) Women’s Ways of Knowning. Development of Self, Voice, and Mind. U.S.A: Basic Books. Bullough, Robert V. and Pinnegar, Stefinee (2001) “Guidelines for Quality and Autobiographical Forms of Self-Study Research” Educational Researcher, 30 (3), 13-21. Buttarelli, Annarosa & Giardini, Federica Ed. (2008). Il pensiero dell’Esperienza. Milano: Baldini Castoldi,Dalai editore. Clandinin, D. Jean, Davies, A., Hogan, P. y Kennard, B. (1993). Learning to teach: Teaching to learn. Stories of collaboration in teacher education. Nueva York: Teachers College Press. Clandinin, D. Jean y Connelly, F. Michael (2000) Narrative Inquiry. Experience and Story in Qualitative Research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Tidwell, Deborah L.; Heston, Melissa L. and Fitzgerald, Linda M. (2010) Research Methods for the Self-Study of Practice. U.S.A: Springer. Ellis, Carolyn; Adams, Tony E. & Bochner, Arthur P. (2010) “Autoethnography: An Overview” Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 12(1), Art. 10, http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1589. Ellsworth, Elizabeth (1997) Teaching positions. New York: Teachers College Press. Hayler, Mike, ( 2011) Autoethnography, Self-narrative and Teacher Education. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Larrosa, Jorge; Arnaus, Remei; Ferrer, Virginia; Pérez de Lara, Núria; Connelly, F Michael; Clandinnin, D. Jean and Greene Maxine (1995) Déjame que te cuente. Ensayos sobre narrativa y educación. Barcelona: Laertes. Kitchen, Julian; Ciuffetelli Parker,Darlene and Pushor, Debbie Eds, (2011) Narrative inquiries into curriculum Making in Teacher Education. U.K: Emerald Group Publishing Loughran, John J.; Hamilton, Mary Lynn, LaBoskey, Vicki Kubler, Russell, Tom L. (Eds. 2004) International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers Pensonau-Conway, Sandra L. y Toyosaki, Satoshi (2011) “Automethodology: tracing a Home for Praxis-Oriented Ethnography” International Journal of Qualitative Methods. 10(4), 378-398. Pérez de Lara, Nuria (2006) “Escuchar a la otra, al otro, a lo otro dentro de mí”. En Skliar Carlos & Larrosa, Jorge (2009) Experiencia y alteridad en Educación. Rosario, Argentina: Homo Sapiens PIussi, Anna M & Arnaus, Remei (2010) “Higher Education in Europe: a comparative female approach”, Researh in Comparative and International Education, Volume 5, Number 4. Rivera Garretas, M-Milagros (2012), El amor es el signo. Educar como educan las madres. Madrid: Sabina Editorial. Skliar Carlos & Larrosa, Jorge (2009) Experiencia y alteridad en Educación. Argentina: Homo Sapiens. Van Manen, Max (1998) El tacto en la enseñanza. El significado de la sensibilidad pedagógica. Barcelona: Paidós

Author Information

Remei Arnaus Morral (presenting / submitting)

University of Barcelona

Didàctica i Organització Educativa

Basrcelona

Asunción López Carretero (presenting)

UNIVERSIDAD DE BARCELONA

DIDÁCTICA Y ORGANIZACIÓN EDUCATIVA

BARCELONA

José Contreras Domingo

University of Barcelona

Didàctica i Organtizació Educativa

Barcelona

Emma Quiles Fernández

UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA

DIDÀCTICA I ORGANITZACIÓ EDUCATIVA

BARCELONA

Susana Orozco Martínez

Universitat de Barcelona

Didáctica y organización educativa

Barcelona

Clara Arbiol i Gonzalez

Universitat de València

Didactica y organizacion escolar

València

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.