Fun, Leadership, Balance: A Narrative Case Study of a University Tutor’s Perceptions of Teacher Leadership in an Age of Massification.

Author(s):

Claire Phipps(presenting / submitting)Andrea Gallant Julie Rowlands Josephine Lang

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES E 09, Leadership and Education

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-22

15:30-17:00

Room:

OB-H1.12

Chair:

Helene Ärlestig

Contribution

Topic Overview and Objectives: With the occurrence of massification within the academy little is known internationally how this might be impacting on university tutors’ identities, and consequently on the leadership of their teaching. The objective of the proposed paper is to share results that comprise initial data collected as part of a larger, internationally-focused PhD study that seeks to explore the professional identities of university tutors who teach students in their first year of tertiary study where student enrolments are typically high and the cohorts increasingly diverse. This research thus explores an aspect of the massification of higher education; a continuing trend observed in the higher education landscape across the world.

Research Questions: The following questions are those that guide the overall PhD project that the research presented is part of. This case study illustrates the first attempt to address these questions.

Key research question: How can the lived experiences of university tutors provide insight into their professional identities and practice in the context of teaching in large, first-year, undergraduate classes?

Sub-questions:

How do tutors (working within this context) describe their teacher leadership identity and articulate their personal pedagogies?
How do tutors from different institutions differ in their narratives of identity and attitudes to the leadership of teaching?
What elements of identity construction emerge as important for this group?
How do tutor narratives help to make sense of the challenges associated with teaching large, diverse cohorts of first-year students?
How do tutors experience ‘imposed pedagogy’?

Theoretical Framework: Narrative inquiry was selected as it reveals the objectives of human actors, aiding in the understanding of whole cultures, societies; puts a face to time, and permits reflection and transformation (Clandinin, 2006; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Polkinghorne, 1988; Richardson, 1990; Ricoeur, 1991). Narrative, or storytelling, records people’s experiences and thus sense-making, through the telling and re-telling of stories and has been used to depict human experience since early times in human history (Dyson & Ganishi, 1994; Olsen & Craig, 2009; Webster & Mertova, 2007). Narrative is also highly suitable for understanding human experience in relation to teaching and learning activities (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Webster & Mertova, 2007). It is complex and rich and cannot be captured experimentally using statistical derivations and numerical summaries given the depth and nature of interconnectedness between storytelling and human experience (Webster & Mertova, 2007).

Polkinghorne (1988) described how people tend to arrange their experiences into what he referred to as ‘meaningful episodes’, meaning that experience events are connected by stories. Experience, according to Clandinin and Connelly (2000) is temporal, but happens narratively. “Narrative inquiry is a form of narrative experience. Therefore educational experience should be studied narratively.” (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. 19). During the recording of experiences over time, in the form of stories of their responses to events, tutor participants are able to reflect upon and make meaning from these experiences. In doing so, they are perhaps offering the international community a unique view of the teacher-leader self and therefore permitting a greater understanding of their professional identities and practice.

Method

I selected narrative inquiry in order to privilege a tutor’s (known as "Alexandra") teaching experiences at an Australasian university, told in the form of small stories; written reflections on events encountered in her day to day practice. The human element is therefore used to capture the small stories, given we consider the person in their specific context and the meanings behind their actions (Olson & Craig, 2009). Bamberg & Georgakopoulou (2008) and Georgakopoulou (2006) pronounced “small stories” as sites of identity analysis to help to construct a sense of self, in contrast with “big story research” where representations of identities are analysed (Bamberg & Georgakopoulou, 2008, p. 382). They used the term “small stories” to describe the more underrepresented narrative activities such as day-to-day tellings (Bamberg & Georgakopoulou, 2008; Georgakopoulou, 2006). These authors also noted that small stories often go unnoticed and can be about events that occurred very recently, such as ‘this afternoon…’, or events that are still occurring. If experience happens narratively as described by Clandenin & Connelly (2000), then I hold that small stories, in comparison to meganarratives, those we face in response to day to day events, are valid and can illustrate ways in which teachers “…live in small moments of diversity unseen and unheard within prevailing meganarratives of accountability.” (Olsen & Craig, 2009, p.548). This research is therefore situated in the methodology of Clandinin & Connelly (2000) which places narrative inquiry on the foundation that human beings live storied lives, driven by their lived experiences and it serves therefore as both method and form of research. In this case study Alexandra kept a written journal where she identified key events that occurred in her day and wrote written reflections about them. Two narrative interviews were also conducted; one part-way through the semester as a form of ‘catch-up’, to establish narrative trustworthiness, and to delve deeper into the themes emerging from her writing. The final interview was conducted a month after cessation of journaling to allow further unpacking of key themes, for clarification, and to determine whether perceptions had changed with time. The approach to the interviews was participant-driven to permit narrative flow.

Expected Outcomes

Thematic analysis of a semester-long reflective journal and two narrative interviews revealed that Alexandra’s stories described a reflective journey, albeit brief, from grappling with doubts associated with the balance between being ‘the fun tutor’ and wondering whether she should be more of a disciplinarian, to intense feelings of personal leadership responsibility, especially for her more vulnerable students, and coming to terms with her own personality traits and how they affected her teaching. Participants, to date, have revealed that the process of journaling day-to-day events, and the requirement to reflect upon them, not only provided time to think about how one teaches but also provided a form of stress-relief in what is a very busy, intellectually and sometimes emotionally-intense academic life. These preliminary data form the beginnings of a typology of narratives organised thematically and illustrated using a collection of case studies. It is my intent that tutors' stories, and the stories that will be collected from other international tutor participants, will continue to facilitate the illumination of the professional identities of university tutors. They will do this by contributing to the knowledge of the casualised academic workforce, enhancing managers’ understanding of tutor employees, and as demonstrated by the cases, will afford valuable time to tutors for reflection, transformation and the sharing of their small stories.

References

Bamberg , M., & Georgakopoulou, A. (2008). Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis. Text & Talk, 28(3), 377-396. Clandinin, D. J. (2006). Handbook of Narrative Inquiry: Mapping a Methodology. SAGE Publications. Retrieved from http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=EgimAwAAQBAJ Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Dyson, A. H., & Genishi, C. (1994). The need for story: Cultural diversity in classroom and community. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. Retrieved from: http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED365991 Georgakopoulou, A. (2006). Small and large identities in narrative (inter)action. In A. De Fina, D. Schiffrin, & M. Bamberg (Eds.), Discourse and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Olsen, M. R. & Craig, C. J. (2009). "Small" stories and meganarratives: Accountability in balance. Teachers College Record, 111(2), 547–572 Polkinghorne, D. E. (1988). Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences. SUNY Press. Retrieved from http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=kWpGAAAAQBAJ Richardson, L. (1990). Narrative and Sociology. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 19(1), 116–135. http://doi.org/10.1177/089124190019001006 Ricoeur, P. (1991). Narrative Identity. Philosophy Today, 35(1), 73. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/docview/205350231/abstract?accountid=8440 Webster, L., & Mertova, P. (2007). Using narrative inquiry as a research method. Oxon: Routledge. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.nz/books?hl=en&lr=&id=caZ_AgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=explanation,+introduction,+narration,+inquiry,+summary&ots=-XWIqmzSit&sig=xDhu4kjuemZSJDN7tOayI8A6IrY#v=onepage&q&f=false

Author Information

Claire Phipps (presenting / submitting)

Deakin University

Arts & Education

Auckland

Andrea Gallant

Deakin University, Australia

Julie Rowlands

Deakin University

School of Education

Warrnambool

Josephine Lang