Distance Education As a Possibility For Emancipation

Author(s):

Leanete Thomas Dotta(submitting)Santos Carolina(presenting)Sousa Rita

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

16. ICT in Education and Training

Format:

Paper

Session Information

16 SES 03 B, Distance Education, Blended Learning, and Face-to-Face Learning

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-23

17:15-18:45

Room:

OB-E2.38 (ALE 4)

Chair:

Stefanie A. Hillen

Contribution

The increasing demands of the so-called knowledge societies (Hargreaves, 2003) impose continuous changes to education systems. In this scenario the democratization of higher education (HE) is affirmed as a way to personal development, for active citizenship and employability, which imply the ideia of emancipation.

The intensification and facilitation of information flows, and the new forms of interaction that result from the reduction of geographical distance, are characteristic of the present social organization, which, by their nature, have the potential to promote the process of democratization of knowledge. However, this reality can not be considered linear. It is, rather, an unequal reality, taking into account the economic, social, historical and cultural specificities of the different countries / regions.

Among the arguments justifying the use of Distance Education(DE) for expanding access to HE we highlight: the potential to reduce regional inequalities and educational differences (Li, Zhou & Fan, 2014); the expansion of skills and the opportunity to manage such training in the work and social environment; the ability to meet public with diferent characteristics that can take advantage of a flexible training according to their time and location possibilities (Yukselturk & Top, 2013); the possibility of advanced training of socially disadvantaged students (Campbell & Storo, 1996).

Despite the “long crisis of the grand modern narrative of emancipation” (Rebughini, 2015, p. 281) , related to cultural pluralism, historical and economic transformations and its consequences (individualization, globalization, neoliberalism), we were inspire by Freire's perspective. According this, emancipation implies having the right and obligation to choose, decides, judge, break, and fight, in short, to change themselves and the reality.

The development trajectory of DE and the incorporation of new technological tools and new pedagogical relations in theoretical and conceptual terms gave rise to a wide range of terms associated with the concept, creating some ambiguity (Abdous& Yoshimura, 2010). In this study, distance education is understood as a formalized instruction mode in which teachers and students are separated by distance and / or time, making use of different types of instruction materials (Moore, Dickson-Deane & Galyen, 2011).

In Brazil, the first DE norms, in 1996, began a process of expansion, especially in private institutions. If in 2003 there were 49,911 enrollments, in 2013 there were 1,153,572 enrollments. This expansion also shows the predominance of teacher education courses. This scenario mobilized the discussion and the critics about the relationship between expansion and quality and the complexities of pedagogical relationships involved in the initial teacher education in the DE (Scheibe, 2010).

Same arguments are based on the idea that the use of technologies potentiates the autonomy and empowerment of students, the decentralization of curricula, the establishment of learning communities and social networks, and the radical change in the relationships between students and teachers. Freire's critical pedagogy is also used as inspiration regarding located learning concepts and the role of students in defining their own problems. The possibility of breaking the sense of time and space imposed by the paradigms of modernity is also part of the meanings attributed to DE.

Based on the international scientific debate about DE and its implications to the democratization of access to higher education, in the Brazilian context, this work aims: to analyze and interpret narratively the students training trajectories in DE and to discuss emancipation processes. For this purpose there will be presented and analyzed some of the results of a broader narrative inquiry that aimed to discuss the development of the autonomy of students in initial training courses for teachers on DE.

Method

Narrative inquiry is, in addition to a methodology for data collection and analysis, a legitimate way to construct educational knowledge. It is a hermeneutic methodology that allows, at the same time, to give meaning and to understand the cognitive, affective and action dimensions (Bolívar, 2008). Bolivar, Domingo and Fernandez (2001) understand the biographical narrative research as an interpretive research which introduces some fissures in the usual qualitative research, such as understanding that the experience is not something to grasp, but created in the research process itself. Bolivar (2002) argues the need of the investigator to undertake a binocular vision. On one hand we need a picture of the inner narrator's reality, and on the other we need to enroll him in an external context that allows to identify meaning and sense to the reality experienced by the narrator. For Connelly and Clandinin (2006) the narrative should be taken as a three-dimensional living space: temporality - the events and life are always in transition; sociability - the narrative involves personal and social conditions; and place - in which the events take place, since the location has critical impact on experience. The three dimensions need to be taken inseparably. The discussion presented in this work is part of a larger study, which aims to discuss the development of the autonomy of students in initial teacher education in the Portuguese context (traditional education) and in the Brazilian context (distance education). This part of the work highlighted the indicative dimensions of emancipation processes through the stories of 18 students from distance education. The process of identification and contact with students was not easy. Firstly,we decided, to establish institutional contacts, that is, to request to the institutions the contact of same students, an initiative that proved to be unfruitful. Secondly, we asked acquaintances connected to higher education to indicate same students. Although this initiative had same positive results, it did not meet the goals of the work. Finally, we search for groups of DE students in social networks. This proof to be a successful decision since it allows us to collect reports through skype meetings or social media dialogues with students. A paradigmatic analysis (Polkinghorne, 1995) of oral and written reports was undertaken. In this perspective, we seek to produce taxonomies and categories out of the common elements across the database.

Expected Outcomes

In Brazil, harsh critics from some scholars understand the DE as a tool worsening inequalities, especially for its alleged low quality (Mendes, 2010). The expansion disconnected with the concern with quality is an issue that can not be ignored. However, the country continental dimensions and its regional features, and the great diversity of models practiced does not allow the DE to be taken as a homogeneous mass, according to the data in this study revealed. If the models and dynamics are much diverse at the same time some elements are transversal. For students participating in the study ED was a great opportunity, probably the only one that would allow their in HE access to ES and therefore their personal and professional development. It was not a goal to discuss the issues of quality in vocational training, however, in most participants the ability of a problem-solving dialogue was evident. If one of the criticisms of ED are the damages caused by the absence of the teacher student relationship and decrease the possibilities of dialogue, which is the essence of the emancipatory processes, it was found that despite the dialogue with others was not always predominant, and seen by the participants unanimously as a weakness of the dE, the possibility of dialogue with reality, with himself, with the text, the context has promoted effective changes in the life and reality of students interviewed. "After I started doing this course I have knowledge and this knowledge I now know that it is everywhere. Before I knew it, I could feel, but did not know how to develop. Through this study the distance I learned to see knowledge at all. I do not know how to say this nicely, but I feel a person with a different look at all. "(Report of a student)

References

Bolívar, A., Domingo, S. J., & Fernandez C. M. (2001). La investigacion biografi co-narrativa en educacion. Madrid: La Muralla. Bolívar, A. (2008). La investigación biográfico-narrativa: Fundamentos y metodologia. In M. T. Herrera, & A. E. Gutiérrez, (eds.), Métodos Cualitativos de Investigación para las Ciencias Sociales. México: ITESM. Bolívar, A. (2002). ¿De nobis ipsis silemus?. Epistemología de la investigación biográfico-narrativa. Revista Electrónica de Investigación Educativa (REDIE), 4(1). Recuperado em junho, 7, 2012 em http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=15504103. Campbell, P. B., & Storo, J. (1996). Reducing the Distance: Equity Issues in Distance Learning in Public Education. Journal Of Science Education And Technology, 5(4), 285-95. Connelly, F.M., & Clandinin, D.J. (2006). Narrative inquiry. In J.L. Green, G. Camilli & P. Elmore (Eds.), Handbook of complementary methods in education research (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Hargreaves, Andy (2003). O Ensino na Sociedade do Conhecimento: a educação na era da insegurança. Colecção Currículo, Políticas e Práticas. Porto: Porto Editora. Li, F., Zhou, M., & Fan, B. (2014). Can distance education increase educational equality? Evidence from the expansion of Chinese higher education. Studies In Higher Education, 39(10), 1811-1822. doi:10.1080/03075079.2013.806462 Moore, J. L., Dickson-Deane, C., & Galyen, K. (2011). e-Learning, online learning, and distance learning environments: Are they the same?. Internet & Higher Education, 14(2), 129-135. doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2010.10.001 Rebughini, P. (2015). Framing emancipations. Journal Of Classical Sociology, 15(3), 270-285. doi:10.1177/1468795X14558768Abdous, M., & Yoshimura, M. (2010). Learner outcomes and satisfaction: A comparison of live video-streamed instruction, satellite broadcast instruction, and face-to-face instruction. Computers & Education, 55(2), 733-741. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2010.03.006 SCHEIBE, L. ( 2010). Valorização e formação dos professores para a educação básica: questões desafiadoras para um novo Plano Nacional de Educação. Educação & Sociedade, v. 31, p. 981-1000. Disponível em: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0101-73302010000300017&nrm=iso. Acesso em: 24 out. 2013. Yukselturk, E., & Top, E. (2013). Exploring the link among entry characteristics, participation behaviors and course outcomes of online learners: An examination of learner profile using cluster analysis. British Journal Of Educational Technology, 44(5), 716-728. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2012.01339.x Polkinghorne, D. (1995). Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis. Qualitative Studies in Education, 8, 5–23. MENDES, V. (2011). A expansão do ensino a distância no Brasil: democratização do acesso? 2010. http://www.anpae.org.br/simposio2011/cdrom2011/PDFs/trabalhosCompletos/comunicacoesRelatos/0526.pdf.

Author Information

Leanete Thomas Dotta (submitting)

Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto

Porto

Santos Carolina (presenting)

Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto, Portugal

Sousa Rita