Session Information
10 SES 07 C, Research on Professional Knowledge & Identity in Teacher Education
Paper Session
Contribution
More than a decade ago, in the research group Procie, from the University of Málaga, we asked ourselves how teachers' identities are constructed in their pre-service education and throughout their professional lives. Our intention is to contribute to the development of a democratic and transformative education from another way of educating teachers. The biographical-narrative projects carried out previously with teacher-education students gave us a approach to the sedimental knowledge on the teaching based on their experiences as school students. These experiences show, in a generalized way, a traditional school closed to life and the community, focused on control, segregation and competitiveness (Rivas, 2014, Rivas and Leite, 2014, Márquez, Prados and Padua, 2014). The biographical accounts not only revealed the type of school and the learning lived, but led us to think other ways of learning the teaching profession, by participation in practical communities in which they are built affective bonds (Wenger, 2001).
The communication that we present is part of the project "Ecologies of learning in multiple contexts: analysis of expanded education projects and conformation of citizenship" (EDU2014-51961-P, MEYC). Its objective is to analyze the learning of the teacher education students who participate as volunteers in schools with educational projects oriented to the social and educational transformation, such as the Learning Communities. Based on this proposal, we are reconsidering the teacher education on the basis of a horizontal relationship between the university and public schools. In this way, "Practical Communities of Professional Learning" are constituted according to three characteristics: 1) Students learn from their participation in these schools as part of the changes that take place; 2) Collaboration is promoted between university and school teachers for joint education; 3) There is a concern to improve school outcomes through inclusive processes in order to support public school projects that contribute to social transformation (AAVV, 2010).
Teacher education projects need to approach teaching cultures of democratic change, building collective, transformative and situated knowledge (Sagátegui, 2004). Likewise, we need to contribute to inclusive social and educational changes from universities (Santos, 2007, Novoa, 2015). This means provoking networks of action and thinking between University and schools. We speak of network because the interactions that take place in the learning processes, in real contexts, are multiple rhizomatic; that is, our learning is being reconstructed in a participatory process, like a nomadic knowledge (inside and outside the school context) and through dialogical learning (among Universities and school teachers, families, social agents, etc.). Dialogical learning breaks with individuality, competitiveness, unidirectionality and the concept of measurable academic intelligence. By opposite, it puts into practice a conception of learning based on interaction, horizontality, solidarity, equal dialogue, and equality based on differences. Without doubt, dialogical learning is based on "how we learn", integrating the life, body, emotions, movement and social context of children, as well as content (Elboj et alt, 2002).
Educating in "professional learning communities" devotes special attention to personal processes of communication, pedagogical relationship and reflection. The teacher education linked with teacher transformation projects increases the social responsibility of the universities, the commitment of the students and the formation of a citizenship in favour of social justice (Novoa, 2009, Rivas, 2014, Yuren, 2013, Márquez, Leite and Rivas, 2017; Leite, Márquez and Rivas, 2018).
In this project we have the objective to know how teacher education students learn from the interactions with the teaching staff of Learning Communities and the impact that these learning have on their education as teachers.
Method
We start from a narrative perspective with contributions from action research. Narratives and theoretical-practical reflection groups are its specific object of study, contextualized in the ways of acting and giving meaning to the world (Clandinin, Pushor and Orr, 2007, Denzin and Lincoln, 2015). Therefore, the main methodological strategies are the experience accounts, the personal journals and the reflection groups with the participation of all the groups involved: teachers of the schools, pre-service teachers, faculty of the university, families, and other educational agents involved. The project began in 2015, with the participation of students from different subjects of Degree in Primary Education and Pedagogy. Along four years we have been compiling accounts of the students' experience, conducting interviews and collective reflection groups. In this way, these practical communities of action and education have allowed the generation of participatory and collaborative processes for the analysis and collective evaluation of the experiences of all the subjects involved. We particularly cover the following types of inquiry at different times: - Accounts of personal experiences of learning about the experience of education in Learning Communities schools. These learning stories are constructed from the point of view of the narrator, expressing emotions, thoughts, interpretations of the actions in the educational context and in the personal sphere. - Collective creations of audio-visual narratives and performances as a way to share the lived experience and the generated knowledge. In this way, subjectivity, emotions, personal communication, etc., are valued. - Discussion seminars in which we analyze the epistemological positions of action and interpretation of reality. - Narrative interviews to teachers of schools, mothers, volunteers and other social agents involved. Interviews 10 - Students, mothers, teachers (2nd year 5; 3rd year 5; 4th year 3) Reflection groups 3 - Students, families (3rd year 4; 4th year 10) Experience Accounts 75 - Teacher education students (1st year = 10, 2nd year = 13, 3rd year = 12, 4th year = 40) Collective creations 20 - Teacher Education students
Expected Outcomes
The analysis of the stories of experiences and interviews highlights how teacher education students, volunteers in the Learning Communities schools, feel that they are learning and become aware of the school dynamics in all its dimensions. A fundamental axis of this learning is their participation in these schools. The formation, in this way, is connected with a community action in relation to the transformation of social contexts. They stop feeling as receptors and patient agents of learning, and become aware that learning is to participate and interact with all agents, contributing and exchanging knowledge with the community. "In our case, we have tried not only to stay superficially in the word participation, but we wanted to involve ourselves and not only receive but give to the school; in particular, the children of our classrooms. ... Also, I think that if you are part of a Learning Community, you should keep in mind the word participation from the reciprocal perspective because in them, we can all get feedback from the look that surrounds it" (voluntarily1) This experience breaks the individualistic logic of learning and enters the logic of collective-interaction and dialogical learning. It is important to highlight the democratic dimension of this formation proposal. The students live a horizontal experience with the teachers and the families of the school. They establish a relationship of trust, sharing spaces, activities, doubts, evaluations, ... .".. when I became aware of that learning was when I made the diary in my house and remembered everything that had happened to me throughout that morning, but above all I felt it when I started to see some of the experiences or concepts that I have contemplated throughout my life from another point of view". (Voluntary2).
References
AAVV. (2010) ¿En qué dirección(es) se orientará La investigación sobre cambio educativo en los próximos diez años?. La opinión de los especialistas. RMIE, Revista Mexicana de Investigación Educativa. VOL. 15, núm. 47, pp. 1093-1145. Clandinin, D. J., Pushor, D., & Orr, A. M. (2007). Navigating sites for narrative inquiry. Journal of Teacher Education, 58(1), págs. 21-35. Denzin I. y Licoln N. (coords) (XXX) IV Manual de Investigación narrativa. Métodos de recolección y análisis de datos. Barcelona. Gedisa. Elboj, C; Puigdellívol, I; Soler, M y Valls, R. (2002), Comunidades de aprendizaje. Transformar la educación. Barcelona: Graó. Leite, A. Márquez, M.J. y Rivas, J.I. (2018) Aprendizajes emergentes y compromiso social. Transformando la universidad desde las Comunidades de Aprendizaje. En Martínez, J.B. y Fernández E. (Comps) Ecologías del aprendizaje. Educación expandida en contextos múltiples. Madrid. Morata. Márquez, M. J., Prados, E. y Padua, D. (2014) Relatos escolares y construcción del currículum en la formación inicial del profesorado. Bioeducamos. Revista Tendencias Pedagógicas. Monográfico Las Historia de Vida, Nº 24, 113-132, julio, 2014. Márquez, M.J., Leite, A.E y Rivas, J.I. (2017) Voluntariado en comunidades de aprendizaje en entornos interculturales. Revista Devenir, 32, págs.. 151-173. Novoa, A. (2009) Para una formación de profesorae construida dentro de la población. Revista de Educación, 350. pp. 203-218. Novoa, A. y Amante, L. (2015) Em busca da Liberdade. A pedagogía universitária do nosso tempo. REDU. Revista de Docencia Universitaria, 13 (1), 21-34 Rivas-Flores, J. I. (2014). Narración frente al neoliberalismo en la formación docente. Visibilizar para transformar. Magis, Revista Internacional de investigación en Educación, 7(14), 99-112. Rivas Flores, J.I. & Leite Mendez A.E. (2014) Vida y Experiencia Escolar. Biografías Escolares. En Rivas, Leite y Megías (Coords.) Profesorado, Escuela y Diversidad. La realidad educativa desde una mirada narrativa. Málaga. Aljibe. Sagátegui, D. (2004). Una apuesta por la cultura: el aprendizaje situado. Sinéctica, Revista Electrónica de Educación, Febrero-Julio, 30-39. Santos, B. De S. (2007). La Universidad en el siglo XXI. Para una reforma democrática y emancipatoria de la Universidad. La Paz, Bolivia: Plural Editores. ASDI. CIDES-UMSA. Yurén, T. (2013). Ciudadanía y Educación. Ideales, dilemas y posibilidades de la formación ético-Política. México DF.: Juan Pablos editor. Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos. Wenger, E. (2001), Comunidades de Prácticas. Aprendizaje, Significado e Identidad. Barcelona. Paidós.
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