Data analysis: making the ordinary extraordinary

The analysis builds on my previous work regarding quality in teaching language and literacy in which I argued that teachers experienced tensions between quality-as-abstract textualisation and quality-as-an-embodiment. This was connected to how practitioners are required to textualise their experiences in contrast to the embodied actuality of their experiences.  In this analysis I explore further the notion of ‘embodiment’: the ways in which practitioners assemble the disparate narratives that define their pedagogy.

While paper sets up a polarity it doesn’t rest on one. There are clearly overlaps and affordances between socio-cultural and cognitive theories of ALLN.  Bracewell and Witte (2008) point out that writing is social and material as well as cultural. Literacy as embodied how incoherencies are woven into a narrative: teacher / writer / professional / student -

Data analysis explores moments when participants touch upon these different ideas. The whole discussion is about writing – offers support in the writing of the assignment, participant is a writer (aspires to get scripts published), and the assignment itself is about teaching writing.  My focus is on literacy as the subject they teach but explores their ideas about literacy from multiple perspectives including how they experience their own engagements with text.

Analysis

University Diploma is part of general policy driven initiative to improve quality of literacy teaching predicated on basis that way to do that is define a body of knowledge to be taught and then training teachers in how to deliver it. Define what they need to know and qualification to assure their competence. There is a strong possibility that teachers may come to the course with little general interest in broader ideas about language literacy or pedagogy – but with a narrow instrumental interest in ‘tips & techniques’ that improve their teaching.

Dis/connections between context, motivation & engagement 

Joseph: teaching but not a teacher.

Has been teaching for 10 years, but talks in terms of being at a crossroads in life and asking himself ‘what do I actually want to do?’ Makes references to his age, to time running out and ‘his clock ticking’ – hinting at something of a desperation to achieve goals that are not fulfilled by teaching literacy. The qualification has an exchange value – he teaches in prison and sees the qualification as a way out of this context. The quiet desperation is evident throughout as he clearly feels this environment constrains his pedagogy. He talks about feeling burnt out, and is of the opinion that 10 years in this context is too much. Whatever the bonhomie between himself and students, there is always a threatening undercurrent.   Other teachers in prison have insisted on ensuring they see students as students and that whatever else defines the context is not their concern. But the context is physically inescapable, from the process required to observe a class, to moving around, to managing a classroom situation.

Pearl: trying to live by ideas about good interaction, feedback and talk

Had worked for years in a school – admin – upon retirement teacher and wanted to change career and teach adult literacy.  She is doing the course out of interest and works in an open access workshop in her local AEI.  She teaches on a 1-to-1 basis. Over a period of time she has worked with a single student who she has a good knowledge of. The knowledge has not been gathered as a direct result of a broadened assessment – but has been gleaned indirectly through general talk about other aspects of the students work. Not treated as being central to how literacy is taught. Throughout the tutorial she makes regular references to the reading and mentions specific theories and ideas about literacy.

She attempts throughout the directly relate these ideas to what she does. The attempts are open to discussion: what she means by context, collaboration and success are clearly ideas in the shaping. The qualification required by her student lurks and defines her pedagogy but not in a way that she experiences as constraining. This tutorial represents a shift in which we have agreed that it is possible her student may ultimately be more able to pass the test or at least improve her literacy if there is less insistent and exclusive focus on trying out multiple papers all the time.

Once conceptions of literacy are embodied they become part of a complex nexus of other considerations that cannot be teased out as a singular variable.  What and how we teach is not solely determined by technical considerations of what curricular documents say, what and how we construct our subject or what the environment determines but a shifting combination of these.

Teaching, testing and targeting:

i)                     ‘It’s not an excuse, it’s a business.’

A point sometimes made about teachers who have been practicing since the inception of SfL is that – as they have not experienced any other framework, they may not always have access to frames of reference that would enable critique. This may resonate but as the opening quote suggests this is not the case with Joseph. More concerning is that at times he embodies what might be more fairly understood as an environmental limitation.

It’s very target driven, when you are in a target driven environment professional judgement goes out the window, it suffers, because, that’s the main critique of my teaching, it’s not an excuse, it’s a business. They want more for less. It’s stressful; they are asking you for what you can’t deliver. It’s terribly stressful. I’ve had 10 years of it and I’m burnt out from it.  10 years.  It’s too long for this environment.  It’s too long. You should probably have a shelf life of 5 years.

Joseph, Prison Literacy Teacher

ii)                   She doesn’t have literacy in her life at all

Pearl grapples with ideas about literacy and is aware of the importance for her students to experience resonance between in-college and out-of-college literacies.  But here she seems to suggest that what she does in college with her as a teacher – even when she ‘provides’ her with a context drawn from real life, is ‘literacy’ but the ‘unschooled’ tasks she performs at home is not.

Respondent:   [...] She didn't do any literacy work at all.  She didn’t have literacy in her life at all.  As far as things like letter writing or reading she didn't do any.  [...] 

Interviewer:  What about things like managing her house or managing her family, or paying bills, or does she work at all?

Respondent:  Oh she works, she’s a cook and a cleaner.  [...] I know that she functions in her job and in her daily life with these things perfectly well. 

Interviewer:    So with the literacy aspects of those things?

Respondent:  Yes, she does.  She has to write orders at work, she has to leave notes for people, she has to account for things that she’s done at work and as I say, make orders. 

BRACEWELL, R.J & WITTE, S.P 2008. Implications of Practice, Activity and Semiotic Theory for Cognitive Constructs of Writing Chapter 15 in ALBRIGHT, J. & LUKE, A. Pierre Bourdieu and literacy education, Routledge, Taylor & Francis: London.

GRENFELL, M., BLOOME, D., HARDY, C., PAHL, K., ROWSELL, J. & STREET, B. V. 2011. Language, Ethnography, and Education: Bridging New Literacy Studies and Bourdieu, Oxon, Routhledge.

Trainee Skills for Life teachers at the research, policy, practice nexus

Fig 1 Pedagogic subject: constructed by confluence of policy, new learning (diploma), values and beliefs, practice

It doesn’t always fit in. It’s great theory; it’s good. You know, we’ve talked about how to contextualise it and the wheel, all of that.  It was very refreshing. But my [manager], all she’s interested in is, ‘Oh! He failed. Can we get him back in?’ Not, ‘Can we develop this individual?’ ‘Can we get him back in? What do you think he failed on?’ And that’s the environment we’re in. And with the contracts coming up for renewal.                                     

Joseph, Literacy Teacher, Prison

This paper emerges from an ongoing ethnographic study into the ways in which trainee PCET teachers undertaking a specialist University Diploma in Skills for Life (ESOL and Literacy) construct literacy as a pedagogic subject. Joseph, one the eleven trainees to take part in the study, articulates with striking familiarity the contradictions and tensions practitioners often experience when defining their pedagogy. Echoing the conceptual framework from within which this paper is written, Joseph positions himself uncomfortably between the ‘economy of performance’ and the ‘ecology of practice’ (Stronach, 2002)p109. Stronach et al present and then resist the presentation of this tension as a polarity between what policy requires practitioners to do and what in their own judgement they feel the situation requires.  Their use of the metaphor of the tightrope walker captures the danger and dexterity of Skills for Life professionalism but invites further complication with multiple conceptualisations of literacy which is further filtered through the intuitive values, beliefs and commitments that practitioners bring to their role.

Joseph, in the quote above based on a recording and transcription of a tutorial, references each of these tensions and filtrations.  He is refreshed by his learning, and seems to reframe a recently undertaken exercise in assessing literacy using a clock with his own holistic wheel metaphor. He then positions himself as being at odds with is manager – who responds to a student failing a literacy test – in target defined terms.  Her interest, unlike his own, is a distilled interest in identifying the specific core-curricular referenced points required by the student to pass the test. His broader developmental needs are not mentioned. The quote ends with a fragmented sentence. The contract Joseph refers to are those that enable his organisation to deliver literacy in Yorkshire and Humberside prisons. It requires little elaboration. The renewal of the contract is based entirely on performance and the passing of tests.

STRONACH, I. 2002. Towards an uncertain politics of professionalism: teacher and nurse identities in flux. Journal of Education Policy, 17, 109.

Literacy as: skills, practices or pedagogic subject

Start with an illustrative quote that sets the framework and focus for the piece. That allows you a way into talking about the themes you want to explore.

It doesn’t always fit in. It’s great theory and it’s good. You know, we’ve talked about how to contextualise it and the wheel, all of that.  It was very refreshing. But my mentor, all she’s interested in is, oh, he failed, can we get him back in. Not, ‘Can we develop this individual?’ Can we get him back in? What do you think he failed on? And that’s the environment we’re in. And with the contracts coming up for renewal.

This quote is one of several quotes drawn from interviews, tutorials, reflective statements and classroom discussions that exemplify what Stronach (Stronach, 2002) refers to as the tightrope professionals walk between the economy of performance and the ecology of practice. It is interesting because this is an in service trainee teacher who has worked in literacy teaching for about 10 years.

He is used to the SfL regime with its steers and levers.  He’s clearly engaged and stimulated by the course and the new ideas about literacy he in encountering, but experiences a clear dis/connect between these ideas and approaches and a regime that does not share the aspirations that seems to underpin what he is coming to understand as a trainee.

He ask the question – can we develop him as a trainee. This is not a phrase I have used in sessions or one that I am aware of in the literature.  He also refers to the ‘clock’ exercise as a wheel. The metaphor appears to be one that values a holistic view of literacy learning. That treats literacy as an aspect of the student; there is a hint that teaching is about addressing developmental needs along many planes – not just the skills deficit that emerge from having failed a L1 or L2 test.

He is clear that this is target drive and inked to funding and this creates a specific environment. Note that here it is not the harshness of a penal regime that creates an ‘environment’ but the actions of his mentor.

Yes.  And I refer to the social aspects of literacy [...] say that I subscribe to her, her little resume of what adult literacy teaching and writing should be, and she talks about providing a context.  She talks about interaction between the teacher and the learner, and she talks about feedback and she talks about the value of talk, and I must say that I’ve tried to live by those in this exercise. 

This quite is quite different. This tutor is pre-retirement and at the end of a career in school based education has shifted to teaching literacy in adult education. She works in a one-to-one open access workshop. Here she is talking about completing the work required for an assignment. The sense of what she says in is=n stark contrast in as much as she does not articulate any sense of disconnection between what is theoretically sound and what the environment affords. I note with interest that she says ‘what adult literacy should be’. Ads oppose to a more forceful – what it is.  This student is none-the-less immersed in the ideas and experiences no tension in implementing them at all.

ii             Theoretical Framework

Broadly competing theorisations of literacy at the heart of the discussion and the significance these have for the teaching of the diploma course.  Acknowledge that this distinction is inevitably too stark that it does not capture the multiple constructions. More importantly – it is how teachers think and feel about this that forms the basis of this study. These are research or policy based ideas.

a) that trainee teachers will have their own constructions of literacy as a pedagogic subject. I am reminded here of Ellis, that they have not a Venn construct of literacy / pedagogy with a bit in the middle where they overlap as ‘literacy pedagogy’. But actually they have a single construct called literacy that defines the material they draw upon in their teaching

b) that my sense is that they see these constructions as having entirely different domains. These may be commons sense distinctions. That theory and practice are separate. But – there is literacy out of school and literacy in school rather than literacy - articulated in different ways and treated in distinct ways in these domains and the schooled treatment of home literacies creates a difficulty for learners.

Kell and Wilson have suggested that literacy as skills and literacy as social practice do exist in relation to each other. Scottish adult literacy, the wheel; metaphors of literacy.

iii             More direct exposition of these explored: lit review        a) b) & c)

iv            Methods – research participants and sites; data sources & procedures 

(interview protocol); researchers positions; data analysis

v             Research findings:  A)            i.              ii.             B)            i.              ii.             C) etc

vi            Discussion and implications                a) b) & c)

STRONACH, I. 2002. Towards an uncertain politics of professionalism: teacher and nurse identities in flux. Journal of Education Policy, 17, 109.

webs of association, tangled metaphors, and forgotten referents

‘Meanings tend to be caught up in complex webs of association, tangled metaphors, and forgotten referents.’ Davis & Sumara 2006: 38

The study focuses on a small number of students and this analysis if based on an account of a tutorial with one student. A retired manager – she has decided to develop a career in teaching literacy on a part-time basis. She teaches on a Tuesday evening in a literacy workshop for her local college. This analysis is based on a tutorial in which I am offering advice for her final assignment.

Hawa has been working with a student over the period of a Module and is now writing up her assignment on the work she has done with her learner. She agreed a programme of work with her learner over a summer period that the learners agreed to but did not in the end undertake. Hawa has scored high grades with her assignments and has read about literacy as social practices and as she describes it

Yes.  And I refer to the social aspects of literacy [...] say that I subscribe to her, her little resume of what adult literacy teaching and writing should be, and she talks about providing me with a context.  She talks about interaction between the teacher and the learner, and she talks about feedback and she talks about the value of talk, and I must say that I’ve tried to live by those in this exercise. 

At times in her interview – social practices seems to be synonymous with literacy outside of college. This is where literacy as social practice happens. At other times – as in the quote above – the notion of literacy as social practice seems to be equated to the social relationship that exists between the teacher and student and the need to provide context for writing.  Here context is constructed as a broader frame that provides meaningful impetus for writing.

The relationship between student and teacher is significant her. One of the curiosities Hawa had about her student, was the work agreed but undone during the summer that was in stark contrast to the volume of work this student had undertaken since starting back at college for the autumn term. In part thi non-wrk is equated to lack of confidence, but this is also related to lack of contact with Hawa her teacher. Hawa mentions that she thought of giving the student her private mobile telephone number so that she could offer support during the summer.

If literacy outside college is associated with literacy as a social practice, it is also taken as a strategy. The literacy outside college provides a source of ideas, experiences, resonances that can be drawn upon to inform teaching.  Hawa recounts her student as a cook and a cleaner. She remarks with some surprise and disbelief and how well her student was able to write recipes given to her for homework. Her success with this piece of work was so surprising that Hawa made her do the same work again in class to check that she had not copied it.

In this sense drawing on out-of-college literacy as a strategy leads to great success in teaching and learning. But success is also an ambiguous concept. While an inability to remember previously learned concepts, skills, task is seen as characteristic of this student – she is able to remember this very stylised literacy associated with recipe writing with minimal input from her tutor.  The temporary nature of her accomplishment – may then be related to what she is being asked to remember rather than her capacity to remember as such.

So I’ve given an introduction of how I know her from last term.  I’ve talked about the difficulties and the sticking points that she had.  And then I’ve given a little reflecting on her difficulties and the things that we had tried, and even though she experienced success she wasn’t remembering it.  I go on to say that I’m going to make this work much more personalised and also the more realistic and interesting relevant writing tasks, writing opportunities.

Her out-of-college literacy is seen as a source of materials to inform Hawa’s  pedagogy and make the learning more successful. I the discussion Hawa slips easily from talking about her approach to the assignment and her students approach to written tasks. This is because the student is the subject of the assignment. So – sometimes – she goes meta and talks about her own understandings and approaches as she reflects on her students work and her own approach to analysing what she should be doing next and how successful her activities are.

Her recipe for success: personalised - realistic – interesting: when the task encountered in the literacy class have these qualities – learning is successful.  But there is a fault line here. T connects to the qualification attached to the course and the connection between the national test and functional skills. Hawa seems concerned that with the functional skills test being introduced that her learner will struggle even more, as she is already struggling with the national test at level 2. We did not explore this at all, but the leaner at this stage has been on her course for only 1 year – 2 hours per week – after having passed the level 1. There is a sense that success or otherwise is determined by the students capacity rather then the structural conditions that surround her learning.

Success is also noted for this learner as she writes a letter to a friend.

She also talks in some interesting ways about her own writing – “I’ve given” and “I’ve put some references and theories in”. 

This is based on an initial analysis of a single tutorial.  

What Davis & Sumara (2006) suggest is that qualitative data need not strive for the big hardness of quantitative method. Complexity does not decrease with size but the minutiae of social life is as complex as the entire populations.   The world has as many avenues for exploration whether looked at through a microscope or telescope. 

Complex phenomenon are more fractal-like than Euclidean. They are incompressible, recursively elaborated and often surprising: a challenge to the pervasive assumption of linearity. 

A fractal is scale independent and self-similar as well as 'relentlessly non-linear.'