Combining Numbers and Biographical Narratives in a Research on Young People's Relationship with Savoir

Author(s):

Hernandez Fernando(presenting / submitting)Padilla-Petry Paulo(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

05. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

05 SES 05, School Success, Engagement and Dropout

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-19

11:00-12:30

Room:

ESI 2 - Aula 6

Chair:

Hernandez Fernando

Contribution

This paper is a final contribution from the study: “Young people’s relationship and experiences with savoir”, developed in Spain from 2009 to 2011 (Hernández, 2011a; 2011b). The main objective of this research is to explore counter-narratives that challenge the dominant discourse about school dropout and young people’s disinterest in school, which simplifies this occurrence as the result of either a personal lack of interest, a social class determination, or a deficiency of intellectual capacities.
The aim of this paper is to share the strategies developed for combining and analysing evidences coming from 18 young people's biographical narratives and some of the results of a questionnaire answered by 719 students in their last year of compulsory secondary education. The aim of linking these two studies is to understand how successful and unsuccessful students give meaning to their experiences of savoir during their time at secondary school.
Charlot (1992:80) has defined the savoir relationship as a meaningful relationship; as a valued connection between an individual or a group, and the process and products of savoir. Savoir is a relationship between a subject and the world, between the self and others (not only with the school’s curriculum, contents and rules). It is a relationship with a series of activities, and also, it is localized in time, as space for activities (Charlot, 1992:78). We understand savoir as the learning process deeply linked to the learner’s identity
With this line on the horizon we want to emphasize that the main objective of this research is to help establish links between subject and savoir, thereby contributing to thinking about another school in which there are no people who fail (Hernández, 2007).

Method

In 1982, Cook and Reichardt invited us to go beyond the qualitative and quantitative differentiation. The aim of our mixing methods operation is to give a broader picture of the phenomenon under scrutiny. First, we developed 19 in-depth stories with 10 secondary students considered successful and 9 considered unsuccessful, in relation to the school expectations. Each researcher produced one or two biographical narratives. Narrative methodology (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) guided the collaborative construction of biographical accounts through the use of creative interviews (Douglas, 1985). In parallel to this narrative research process we introduced an adapted ENCOMPASS questionnaire (Osborn, et al. 2003) and applied it to a sample of 719 secondary school students throughout Spain, to understand their relationships with school and ways of learning. Field notes were taken when handing out the questionnaires to collect feedback from students and teachers, and to represent the secondary schools' atmosphere. The analysis presented in this paper defines five topics related to students’ visions of: (a) positive and negative characteristics of secondary schools; (b) which are the better conditions for learning; (c) the characteristics of teachers who help their learning; (d) what makes a student fail and (e) what makes a successful student.

Expected Outcomes

This paper establishes links among these two studies, in order to (a) Learn from the dialogue between qualitative and quantitative data regarding the experiences of youth with secondary school: (b) understand students' perceptions about the role of secondary schools in their learning and personal development –i.e., their relation with savoir-; (c) develop alternative explanations to school success and failure and (d) promote an inclusive approach to schooling, where all students are able to learn about different forms of knowledge, from themselves and others. As a result of this analysis secondary schools students are considered biographical subjects "who interpret the world, resist domination, affirm positively their desires and interests, and seek to transform the world order to their own advantage" (Charlot, 2000:31). From this research we also infer the following statements: • Questioning the notion of social determinism as an explication for the relationship young people has with savoir. • Assuming that all human beings have an active role in what they do; people are not passive victims. • Rejecting standard modes of knowledge production. • Trying to develop negotiated methodologies and follow-through on what this implies. • Keeping in mind that the investigation intends to construct meaning, not find it.

References

Charlot, , B. (1997). Da relaçâo como saber. Porto Alegre, Brasil: Artes Médicas. Claindinin, D. J. & Connelly, J., M. (2000). Narrative inquiry. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Douglas, J. (1985). Creative interviewing. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Cook, T.D. & Reichardt, Ch. S. (1982). Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Evaluation Research. London: Sage. Hernández, F. (2007). Que todos os adolescentes encontrem seu lugar de aprender. En J. Murillo; M. Muñoz-Repiso (Coords.), A qualificação da escola. Um novo enfoque (pp. 199-210). Porto Alegre (Brasil): ArtMed. Hernández, F. (Ed.) (2011a). Investigar con los jóvenes: cuestiones temáticas, metodológicas, éticas y educativas. Barcelona: Dipòsit digital de la Universitat de Barcelona. http://hdl.handle.net/2445/17362 Hernández, F. (coord.) (2011b). ¿Qué nos cuentan los jóvenes? Narraciones biográficas sobre las relaciones de los jóvenes con el saber en la escuela secundaria. Barcelona: Universidad de Barcelona. Repositorio digital. http://hdl.handle.net/2445/18348 Heath, S.; Brooks, R.; Cleaver, E. & Ireland, E. (2009). Researching Young People’s Lives. Londres: Sage. Kincheloe, J.L. y Berry K.S. (2004). Rigour and Complexity in Educational Research. Conceptualizing the bricolage. Maindenhead, UK: Open University Press. . Osborn, M., Broadfoot, E. M., Ravn, G., Planel, C. & Triggs, P. (2003). A World of Difference? Comparing Learners across Europe. Maindenhead: Open University Press.

Author Information

Hernandez Fernando (presenting / submitting)

Fernando Hernández-Hernández

Cultural Pedagogies Unit

Barcelona

Padilla-Petry Paulo (presenting)

University of Barcelona. Spain

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