Autobiographical vignettes from beginning teachers. Values, purposes and traditions of thought that guide teaching experience

Author(s):

Amalia Susana Creus(presenting / submitting)Patricia Hermosilla(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

01. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 02 C, Evaluation and Teacher Stress

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-08

15:15-16:45

Room:

428.Oktatóterem [C]

Chair:

Hanna Korhonen

Contribution

The primary aim of this research is to comprehend the values, purposes and traditions that guide teaching practice of beginning teachers from Spain and Chile.

The primary objectives for this research are the following: 1) comprehend and contextualize the relationship between personal biography and the decision of becoming a teacher. 2) Analyze the meaning that teachers give to their teaching training, looking into the importance of initial training once students find themselves in their teaching practice. 3) Describe the relationship between theory and practice established by teachers, exploring didactic aspects and the relationship with curriculum. 4) Describe and contextualize beginning teacher knowledge from Spain and Chile.

It is not unusual to find an association between the quality of education and the quality of teachers because of the current educational policies in different countries. In this sense we can come to comprehend many of the efforts taken in order to improve teacher training. In societies where according to Sennet (2012) the present conditions are characterized as marked by individual competences, consumption ways and fragmentation of the social life; it is feasible to focus the attention towards how to improve the initial training of teachers. With this, it is expected, to allow the possibility for teachers to learn to teach (Ávalos, 2003; Cox. 2003;Castro, 2007; Ocde, 2004) considering the responsibility that comes from teaching beginning teachers.

According to Gimeno (1990) teaching may be considered as a game of “nested practices” where historical, cultural, social, institutional and labour dimensions take part. In other words, education is constituted within a complex space of practices where beliefs, values, expectations, experiences and notions about knowledge coexist. Therefore, teacher training should offer the possibility of developing an understanding of the context inherent to a teacher professional life.

From this perspective, it is relevant to wonder about the ideological conceptions and value from which they gain legitimacy when the quality of teachers is associated with the quality of education. What is the meaning of quality education and what does it entail in relation to teachers? ; Who defines these categories and what interests guide them? ; Which are the purposes set for these educational processes? Although these questions are not exhaustive, they constitute an opportunity to rethink whether the options that today pose the notion of quality are educationally desirable and significant to all actors in the process. According to Edwards (1991) quality is a value that requires defining itself in each situation. Since all meaning related to quality will depend on a given social perspective, the subject who enunciates it and from the place where is considered.

Wilfred Carr (1998:8-9) problematizes the matter, sustaining the notion that politicians, economists, entrepreneurs tend to interpret and evaluate the quality of teaching in relation to values alien to the educational process. From this point of view, education is, above all, the mean to accomplish extrinsic objectives such as national interest, society’s economic needs and demands from the labour market. From this way of thinking, “there is no interpretation of quality that recognizes the importance of educational values and teachers as professional educators committed to their profession through the betterment of quality of teaching in their practice”.

As a matter of agreement with Carr, on this study, lies the recognition of the possibility of talking about education quality so far as teachers improve the ability to carry to practice their educational values, reflecting “who they are” (Arnaus y Pérez de Lara, 1994), their purposes and to comprehend “which are the traditions of thought that configure their practice experience (Langford, 1998).

Method

It is relevant to point out that this study focuses its aim towards an epistemological hermeneutic perspective along with a methodology of a biographic narrative type, recognizing the biographic nature of teacher knowledge (Goodson, 2005). We emphasize that in our research methodology, the primary source of evidence comes from oral vignettes which are a very important component as a form of reflection about personal experiences in their temporary dimension. Through this dimension, experiences are narrated, actions are lived and remembered, and where the narrator –teacher- constructs a central character (Piña, 1989). This is centered in vignettes where teachers perform their own interpretive processes with which they later explore a teacher personal story as well as the social one. Because they are located within the context of culture, time and historic moment lived. (Bolivar, Domingo y Fernández, 2001). For this analysis, the central procedure is the semi-structured interview. This allows us to regain experiences of teacher knowledge, voice and knowledge of prime importance that allows us to look into the deepest personal and social reflection processes. These interviews are conducted as simple conversations with teachers. This approach, we believe, will facilitate the narrative process of their stories and enhance reflection towards those key themes addressed in this study. From this perspective, we interviewed a total of 6 teachers, three of them Chilean high school teachers and the other three, Spanish elementary teachers. Each and every one of them was interviewed twice, with a total of 12 interviews of 90 minutes each. All these interviews were transcribed and later analyzed in accordance with the specific objectives of this study. Since the aim is to perform a process of triangulation, two discussion groups were created in which we had 12 teachers participating; 8 of them beginning teachers from the Department of Pedagogical Studies at Universidad de Chile and 4 researchers. As relevant criteria for this study, a very careful selection of the dimensions to analyze was taken within a flexible methodology structure that considers emerging aspects arising from autobiographical interviews. On the other hand, there were identified as valid and reliable criteria, interviews based by the credibility and internal coherence of the stories; the involvement of participants, personal honesty and mutual interest between them and researchers. These in order to conduct joint interpretations, relevant to the systemic triangulation of the analysis carried out on participants, researchers, pedagogical theory and literary.

Expected Outcomes

The first results of the study are taken from interview analysis and construction of teacher’s live stories, allowing us to look into the following dimensions: Teacher’s voice: The representations that teachers construct in their professional trajectories are linked, between other aspects, with their biography, their initial training and educational practice. From these experiences, teachers will construct internal learning models that form part of schemes that organize and collaborate in assigning relevance to later experiences and configure their knowledge as teachers. The Teacher as a person: Polyphony of trajectories. In their vignettes, it is shown how their personal story in training and teaching practice favors their decision to be teachers and allows them to elaborate senses for their relationship with students. Initial training Vignette/tale: They value the trajectory lived in their training process, considering strengths and weaknesses. Constantly, giving new meaning to the value of the thing learnt in favor of their professional action. Educational knowledge and didactic practice: They tell the importance of knowing their students; who they are and their needs. They describe the way they elaborate from action their “know-how”; reflecting on action, especially, on dimensions such as the link between students, time and the relationship with teachers from other disciplines. Context and school culture: They identify the problematical dimensions and those that support teaching and learning processes. In this sense, acknowledging the existence of diversity within expectations inside the school space. This acknowledgement creates tension and makes more complex their values, beliefs and intentions as teachers.

References

Arendt, H. (2005). Entre el pasado y el futuro. Ocho ejercicios sobre la reflexión política. Barcelona: Península. Arnau, R. (1999). “La formación del profesorado: un encuentro comprometido con la complejidad educativa” en: PÉREZ GÓMEZ, Angel; BARQUÍN RUIZ, Javier y ANGULO RASCO, Félix [Eds.]. Desarrollo profesional del docente: política, investigación y práctica. Madrid: Akal Arnaus, R. y Pérez de Lara, N. (1994). Discursos crítics practiques etiques. Repensant la funció docent a la universitat. Revista Temps d’Educació, N°12, pp.277-293. Ávalos, B. (2003). La formación docente inicial en Chile. Oficina Regional de Educación de la UNESCO para América Latina y el Caribe. (Vol. 2009). Santiago de Chile: IESALC-UNESCO. Bolívar, A., Domingo J. y Fernández M. (2001). La investigación biográfico-narrativa en educación. Enfoque y metodología. Madrid: Muralla. Carr, W. (1998). ¿Qué se entiende por calidad de la enseñanza?. En Carr, W. (comp). Calidad de la enseñanza e investigación acción. Sevilla: Díada. Castro, A. (2007). Formación inicial y profesión docente. In J. J. Brunner & C. Peña (Eds.), La reforma al sistema escolar: Aportes para el debate (pp. 103-120). Santiago: Universidad Diego Portales. Cox, C. (2003). Las políticas educacionales de Chile en las últimas dos décadas del siglo XX. In C. Cox (Ed.) Políticas educacionales en el cambio de siglo. La reforma del sistema escolar de Chile. Santiago: Universitaria. Edwards, V. (1991). El concepto de calidad de la educación. Santiago: UNESCO/OREALC Goodson, I. [Ed.]. (2005). Historias de vida del profesorado. Barcelona: Octaedro. Gimeno, J. (1993). Conciencia y acción sobre la práctica como liberación profesional de los profesores. En Imbernón, F. (coord.). La formación permanente del profesorado en los países de la CEE. Barcelona: ICE Universitat de Barcelona. Horsori. Pp.53-92 OCDE. (2004). Evaluación de las políticas educacionales de chile en la década de los 1990. Santiago: Mineduc. Piña, C. (1989). Sobre la naturaleza del discurso autobiográfico. Argumentos, núm. 7, agosto. México: UAM-Xochimilco, pp. 131-160. Langford, G. (1998). La enseñanza y la idea de “actividad social”. En Calidad de la enseñanza e investigación acción. Carr, W. (comp). Sevilla: Díada. Sennett, R. (2012). Juntos. Barcelona: Anagrama.

Author Information

Amalia Susana Creus (presenting / submitting)

Open University of Catalonia

Badalona

Patricia Hermosilla (presenting)

UNIVERSIDAD DE CHILE

DEPARTAMENTO DE ESTUDIOS PEDAGÓGICOS

SANTIAGO

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