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Untitled - Hipatia Press
Instructions for authors, subscriptions and further details: http://qre.hipatiapress.com Editorial. From the Dream to Qualitative Research in Education, to the Journal Qualitative Research in Education José J. Barba1 1) E.U. de Magisterio de Segovia, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain. Date of publication: June 30th, 2012 To cite this article: Barba, J.J. (2012). Editorial. From the Dream to Qualitative Research in Education, to the Journal Qualitative Research in Education. Qualitative Research in Education, 1(1), 12. doi: 10.4471/qre.2012.00 To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.4471/qre.2012.00 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System and to Creative Commons NonCommercial and NonDerivative License. Qualitative Research in Education Vol. 1 No. 1 June 2012 pp. 1-3 Editorial. From the Dream of Qualitative Research in Education, to the Journal Qualitative Research in Education José J. Barba Universidad de Valladolid W e, as a group of researchers, have been missing a journal on qualitative research in Education for a long time. Currently there are numerous educational journals, and some of them on qualitative research in social studies. Nevertheless, there has been a lack of journals linking these two fields, especially nowadays considering the increase in social studies. Hence, we believe that a regular journal must be promoted as a reference point in the field of Education, a journal which could set trends in qualitative research in Education. The lack has been caused by the complexity of qualitative research itself because of its multimethodology, as it was stated by Denzin & Lincoln (2005) and Flick (2002). This journal enables a wide range of publishing possibilities. 2012 Hipatia Press ISSN 2014-2862 DOI: 10.4471/qre.2012.00 2 J. J. Barba - Editorial We dreamed with a journal of high quality research, with an international benchmark. Then, we began to share our dream with a journal of high quality research, with an international benchmark. Then, we began to share our dream with Hipatia Press, and we glimpsed a publication on qualitative research in Education on the horizon. Launching our journal with the support of the publisher of some of the most prestigious authors and writers on Education was the best way to realized that the dream was coming true. Since we have been uttering Qualitative Research in Education profusely, it became the name of the journal, the name of our dream. It was meaningful showing our intentions: Education is our field and qualitative research, our theme. Consequently, it can be concluded that we aim at publishing disciplinary or interdisciplinary studies related to qualitative research in Education applied to Pedagogy, Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, History, Philosophy, Linguistics, Geography, Mathematics, Physical Education, Music, Politics... The best thing about dreams is that they give meaning to life since they are reasons for getting up in the morning with a hopeful feeling for the whole day. Dreams are always pushing us to think that something better can happen. They are a window to optimism. Dreams are always walking hand in hand with hopes that can be defined as a state of burning and contagious passion. Thus, hope spread our dream all around the world finding dreamers to whom we must thank their authorship, reviews, collaboration with the board of publishers... This is an illustrative example considering that nowadays our researchers among the scientific community come from the five continents and from ten different nations. Writing these lines is a very special event, given that the first issue is just about to be published. It makes us feel satisfied to see this dream come true. Furthermore..., it is the best way to let people know about it and join us. From this moment onwards, it will be quarterly published. The first issue, published in volumes throughout 2012, aims at establishing the journal's line of work based in two principles: internationalization and quality. Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) In this context, dreaming does not mean daring to desire something impossible, but casting light on it, mapping it out, guessing what the future holds. (Freire, 2006, p. 297) References Denzin, N.K. & Linchon, Y.S. (2005). The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In N.K. Denzin, & Y.S. Lincoln. The Sage handbook ofQualitative Research. Third edition. (pp. 1-32). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Flick, U. (2002). An Introduction to Qualitative Research. Second edition . London: Sage. Freire, P. (2006). Pedagogía de la tolerancia [Pedagogy oftolerance]. México: Fondo de Cultura Economica. 3 Instructions for authors, subscriptions and further details: http://qre.hipatiapress.com Seeking Emancipation from Gender Regulation: Reflections on Home Space for a Black Woman Academic/ Single Mother Lisa WilliamWhite1 1) Department of Bilingual and Multicultural Education, California State University Sacramento (CSUS), United States of America. Date of publication: June 30th, 2012 To cite this article: WilliamWhite, L. (2012). Seeking Emancipation from Gender Regulation: Reflections on Home Space for a Black Woman Academic/ Single Mother. Qualitative Research in Education, 1(1), 435. doi: 10.4471/qre.2012.01 To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.4471/qre.2012.01 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System and to Creative Commons NonCommercial and NonDerivative License. Qualitative Research in Education Vol. 1 N. 1 June 2012 pp. 4-35 Seeking Emancipation from Gender Regulation: Reflections on Home Space for a Black Woman Academic/ Single Mother Lisa WilliamWhite California State University Sacramento Abstract Using the work of Judith Butler on gender regulation, Black Feminist Thought (BFT), and autobiographic storytelling, this piece illustrates how essentialist notions of gender, and discourses related to gender create conflict in shaping identity construction for a Black woman academic and single mother (BWA/SM) in the United States. This piece reveals complex gendered and racialized tropes related to notions of motherhood and womanhood, particularly within the author’s own family. Included here is how the author attempts to transcend these complexities in her quest for selfdefinition and selfactualization, unbridled by gender norms. Yet, race, gender and parental status are significant intersecting categories in identity construction, and inherent in the constructions are hegemonic discourses with which the author continues to grapple. Consequently, the struggle to transcend these forces is further complicated by the limited representation of Black women in the US academy, and by the types of academic work where they find themselves typically situated. Keywords: autobiography, black woman academic, single mother, academy, gendereder. 2012 Hipatia Press ISSN 20146418 DOI: 10.4471/qre.2012.01 Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 5 A civil society simply cannot afford to force people into false dichotomies and ask that they make choices that require them to abjure one if they want the other, or suffer dire consequences if they pursue both. Instead, the focus ought to be on how to design support mechanisms and realistic expectations to enable people to have a fulfilling career as well as a family life without paying the price in degrees of sanity or physical health. (Philipsen, 2008, p.3334). I am not one of those single faculty women described by Philipsen (2008) who was forced to choose between having a career and having children; or one of those who had to worry about the biological clock versus tenure clock demands. Neither am I one of those married faculty women who had to stop the tenure clock to have babies; nor am I one of those who chose single parenthood when offered an academic appointment because her spouse was unable to find work in the same field (Creamer, 2006; Philipsen, 2008), and I am certainly not one of those women whose martial relationship was strained due to competing academic career paths with one’s spouse (Creamer, 2006). My trajectory toward pursuing and sustaining a career in the professoriate as a Black woman academic and single mother (BWA/SM) evolved from a complex tapestry of familial, cultural, societal and professional experiences shaped by the intersections of race and gender in the United States. When I first began to write this manuscript in 2007, many woman hours were spent trying to articulate my journey as a Black woman and as a Black mother in pursuit of an academic career. Constructing my autobiography proved cathartic, yet daunting was the effort to simultaneously: (a) align my academic voice and personal life with the existing scholarship on Black women in the academy; (b) situate my experience within the scholarship on faculty career women; (c) respond to the feedback and meet the timeline revisions of this then working draft for publication; and (d) prepare financially and emotionally to leave my children in the care of my sister, in the effort to present this 6 L. William-White - Seeking Emancipation from Gender manuscript (a working paper at the time) at a national conference in the US. Ultimately, I was unsuccessful in meeting all those endeavors – my meager salary as an Assistant Professor and the physical and emotional demands between meeting work obligations and parenting responsibilities made it all near to impossible. So utterly frustrated and overwhelmed I became that I threw this manuscript in a box and there it would stay. Until now. Homespace, where family life is organized and situated, is a powerful institution guided by regulatory norms and discourses that shape identity. Discourses are tied up with power; they have influence on actions, social structures and political and judicial decisions. Discourses are also a product that constructs practices that are present in our society, having an effect on how people act, and what kinds of behaviors are conceived and produced (Alsop & Fitzsimons, 2002, p. 88). Thus today I reread my narrative and think about the structures and discourses that have shaped my family life and career choice and how these structures shape family life and work. You see, the career path I have chosen is meritbased (Knights & Richards, 2003), competitive and demanding. Structurally, the Academy is a space shaped by traditional, Eurocentric, and masculine notions visàvis white male faculty with stayathome spouses who support their work (Mason, 2006). Female professors, on the other hand, typically remain single or married and childless. Research demonstrates the gendered realities of women, particularly how academic life and motherhood are both demanding institutions that require women to be constantly available (Leonard & Malina, 1994; Bracken, Allen & Dean, 2006; Philipsen, 2008), which leads to incredible pressure on women to make one’s career the main focus of attention, even with children (MunnGiddings, 1998; Bracken, et. al, 2006; Philipsen, 2008). Then there are the utterly depressing accounts of academic women who often fail to move up the faculty ranks due to family issues – high rates of separation and divorce, lack of partnerships, and children's needs (Probert, 2005; Philipsen 2008), and outside responsibilities (Bailyn, 2003; Sherman, Beaty, Crum & Peters, 2010). Thus, it is no wonder that many women experience higher levels of stress than men in their academic jobs (Doyle & Hind, 1998).This Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 7 balancing act mirrors the experiences of married professional women in other occupations who also experience role or identity conflict (Bell, 1990; Denton, 1990; Davidson, 1997). A scarcity of narratives reveal the challenges of single Black woman with children. There’s Hale’s (2001) account about trying to support her child’s academic needs, which included her fears about how motherhood threatens to undermine one’s status with colleagues (Philipsen, 2008); and in the same edited volume there is the account of “happily divorced” Black woman who expressed relief about not having to juggle the varied roles any longer (p. 101) At the core of these stories is the challenge of role conflict, which is also documented by Gregory (2001) and Covington Clarkson (2001). To further illustrate the strife, there is a particularly telling exchange that occurs in the work of Covington Clarkson’s (2001). She shares how after explaining to her three small children that she “would be going to school to become a doctor,” her threeyearold asked if she would “still be their mother?” (p. 163). There is poignancy in the simplicity of this child’s question! Yet outside of these stories, a huge chasm exists in finding scholarship which elucidates the intersection between the faculty career and family life for Black women, and even more challenging for BWA/SM. Where is this research? Where are those voices? Moreover, Black woman in general, and Black single mothers particularly, have had few spaces to discuss their racialized and gendered experiences. Yet, understanding our experiences is imperative for affirming an increasingly diverse and vibrant teaching and research faculty who can provide students’ multiperspectival exposure to diverse epistemologies, views of the world, lifestyle choices, communities and leadership styles (Nkomo, 1988) that comprise our academic institutions and society; stories that would further knowledge development in interdisciplinary fields such as the social sciences and education. This is important to not only move Black women’s experiences from the margins of society, but also to engage in storytelling that promotes awareness of race (Nkomo, 1992) and gender as important points for analysis. Such analysis enables us to gain awareness about faculty work lives and loads, while examining notions of what is normal (Bracken et al, 2006), and who is normal. Most importantly, the quality of academic 8 L. William-White - Seeking Emancipation from Gender work life is more than a personal issue, but an institutional one which has implications for scholarly productivity and personal fulfillment (Bracken et al., 2006). Black Life as a Transformative Research Agenda Black Feminist Thought (BFT) and autobiography (Denzin, 1989) enables me to illuminate how family discourses about gender is embodied within binaries and hierarchies, where notions of motherhood are internally and externally regulated by material and symbolic notions of gender. Because of this, I advocate for women to share private and sometimes painful experiences to create a collective description of the world in which we participate. And autobiography, as a methodology, promotes this opportunity, as it is a genre that connects the personal to the cultural, and places the author within a social context. This reflexivity frees me to look deeply at selfother interactions (Ellis & Bochner, 2000), drawing upon highly personalized accounts from my life to develop some cultural understanding. In fact, O’Connor, Lewis &Mueller (2005) reminds me that Black women are not necessarily expected to silence our experiences, thoughts and desires in relations with others; while Hooks (1984) argues for us to construct models of feminist theorizing and scholarship that deepens our understanding of our experiences; asserting that “as subjects, [we] have the right to define [our] own reality, establish [our] own identities, name [our] history” (1989, p. 42). Thus, my gift of doubleconsciousness (DuBois, 1968) as a Black woman in a society shaped by racialized oppression, along with my critical consciousness as a woman shaped by “double oppression” (Hooks 1989) allows me to evoke my truth in a tradition shaped by scholars like Lorde (1984); Collins, (2000); and Cole & GuySheftall (2003). Moreover, my positionality was borne from the knowledge that articulating the personal is not just political; it is a revolutionary act when undertaken with honesty and a willingness to interrogate ideas. And life stories are not extant, compartmentalized vignettes only to be shared in the private sphere or relegated as something only worthy of attention in the discourse of popular literature. Rather, truth telling Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 9 produces research as a historical, political and moral imperative (King, 2005; Lee, 2005). Stories also connect personal experience with the wider subcultural setting in which one is localized, repositioning and elevating subaltern epistemologies, as evidenced in Gilkes (1988); Denzin & Lincoln (2000); Sparkes (2000); Holt (2003); Brown & WilliamWhite (2010); and WilliamWhite (2010). Appropriating Judith Butler’s ‘Gender Regulation’: Discourses on Black Womanhood and Motherhood. I draw from Judith Butler’s (2004) essay, “Gender Regulation” to analyze the discourses surrounding Black womanhood and motherhood. Gender regulation functions as a set of social norms and symbolic positions that enables me to examine and deconstruct the notion of gender as a fiction embodied through performance. Butler (2004) maintains that people are regulated by notions of what it means to be of a particular gender, and gender is actualized through performance – behaviors and actions that demonstrate one’s authorship of a gender identity. As an illustration, the US slave system and Jim Crow segregation gave birth to gender norms that constructed Black women’s identity. First, they belonged to historically subjugated groups; they were chattel. Their bodies were property they existed within an economic system where they were denied their basic human rights, not even the right to make reproductive and childbearing choices. Yet, they were also often positioned at the forefront of the Black family and community. For example, efforts to elevate the status of emancipated slaves focused on Black women’s social influence, which included indoctrination into Eurocentric social values and traditions of Christian character, submission, and socialresponsibility for the uplift of their communities (Shaw, 1996; Collins, 2001). Black women’s gender identity is cemented in a racialized script of gender regulation which embodies performative acts —the preexisting sociopolitical significance of subservience, service or servitude. For example, Shaw (1996) documents how during Jim Crow1 , Black women performed public roles as domestic workers (Dill, 1988) and performed responsibilities “bequeathed to them as woman,” that were 10 L. William-White - Seeking Emancipation from Gender centered on the needs of the race (Shaw, 1996, p. 4). In the church, their efforts was shaped by gendered roles of service (Gilkes, 1988). Hooks (1990) suggests that Black women “nurtur[ed] the souls” of the community (p. 41), but were also subjected to a sexist definition of service as a women’s “natural” role. Hooks writes: …Their lives were hard. They were black women who for the most part worked outside the home serving white folks, cleaning their houses, washing their clothes, tending their children – black women who worked in the fields or in the streets, whatever they could do to make ends meet, whatever was necessary. Then they returned to their homes to make life happen there. This tension between service outside one’s home, family and kin network, service provided to white folks which took time and energy, and the effort of black women to conserve enough of themselves to provide service (care and nurturance) within their own families and communities is one of the many factors that has historically distinguished the lot of black women in patriarchal White supremacist society from that of black men (Hooks, 1990, pp. 383 384). Hooks (1990) states that Black women’s primary “responsibility… [was] to construct domestic households as spaces of care and nurturance in the face of the brutal harsh reality of racist oppression, or sexist domination” (p. 42). Gender regulation imposes a “grid of legibility on our lives and sets the “parameters” of performance within our social interactions (Butler, 2004, p. 42). Gender is an incessant activity performed with or for another, even if the other is only imaginary (Butler, 2004, p. 1). Thus, that Black women historically have labored within and outside the home to support families is welldocumented, but the regulatory fiction that defines Black female identity helped to construct a gendered discourse about who Black women are expected to be at all times, and how she should purport herself. As such, the grid propagates the notion of Black woman in a perpetual struggle for survival and her identity is inseparable from the need and desire to protect and support the family” (Gregory, 2001, p. 124). There is certainly no refutation here that Black Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 11 families have depended on the labor of Black women to maintain the nuclear family (which continues to be regulated by white racial dominance in social, economic and political realms in the US). Thus, this dependence enables Black families to persevere and display resilience as these families reject a strict adherence to sexrole designation, which differs significantly to the gender regulation and role construction of white womanhood. Yet, Black female identity also resides within a unique grid which provides a site for discursive examination. For instance, since the preponderance of Black woman’s work historically was resigned to domestic service and childrearing, this helped to anchor Black female identity in a disquieting, American nostalgia, shrouded in the material production of gender through the body. Whether rearing her own or the children of others, uncontested “service” is an accepted attribute of Black womanhood and this essentialist trope endures. Black women’s lives from slavery to freedom helped to forge a “trajectory of Black women’s bodies as sites of laboring,” (Johnson, 2003, p. 104; Jones, 1985). Hurston (1969) too speaks of the Black woman as the mule of the world, further exemplifying the appropriation of her Black body as a moniker of a gendered and racialized being; norms that are historically, socially and culturally grounded. Further, standards of what is normal provide a script or rubric to evaluate the performance of gender identity. We see this through such ideas as women are not supposed to “act” or “perform” like men in showing strength, assertiveness or ability in their dimensions of self. However, this expectation has created a longterm struggle for Black women: …submissiveness…was never in the cards for us…Whether in the cotton fields of the South or the factories of the North, Black women worked side by side with men to contribute to the welfare of the family. This did not mean that men were demeaned and unloved, but it did mean that women had a voice about the destiny of their families. That independence and resiliency were admired because they aided in the collective survival when society made it difficult for Black men to find work. But when we began to internalize EuroAmerican values, then Black women were no longer “real” women... (Naylor, 1988, p. 28) 12 L. William-White - Seeking Emancipation from Gender Collins (2004) further substantiates how discourses operate in producing Black women: all women engage in an ideology that deems middleclass, heterosexual White femininity as normative. In this context, Black femininity as a subordinated gender identity becomes constructed not just in relation to White women, but also in relation to multiple others, namely, all men…These benchmarks construct a discourse of a hegemonic (White) femininity that becomes a normative yardstick for all femininities in which Black women typically are relegated to the bottom of the gender hierarchy (p. 193). Norms provide a script that adheres to the regulatory powers of gender, and any deviation from the script is measured against those regulations in an effort to normalize what acceptable behavior should be. Butler (2004) suggests that gender norms are “invoked and cited by bodily practices that also have the capacity to alter norms” (p. 52). To illustrate this point, Collins (2004) maintains that Black women are often labeled aggressive and nonfeminine, departing from notions ascribed to white women. Another controlling image is the Black women as “super” human or heroic (Wallace, 1978; Collins, 2004), an idea of Black female emasculation propagated in 1930s. There is also the Sapphirecharacter who is “overbearing, bossy, sharptongued, loud mouthed, and controlling” (Cole et. al., 2003, p. xxxv); and images of the matriarchal, “ballbusting” Black women who competes with Black men are replete in popular discourse. This latter depiction helps to fuel the polarizing discourses that often exist between Black women and Black men due to the “castration” notion, and the perceived dominance that has been stripped from Black men and attributed to Black women (Collins, 1999). These discourses have an enduring history. Certain positions have universal laws that are subject to unalterable rules. The identity of mother is a worthwhile category to examine as it is assigned and ascribed to the female gender, and holds a symbolic position regulated from inception. Thus, the symbolic position of being a mother holds an esteemed and “quasitimeless character” (Butler, 2004, p. 45), one understood as a sphere with normalized behaviors and Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 13 engagement that is subject to surveillance (p. 56). Motherhood, as a symbolic category, is socially and culturally regulated through the discourses attached to ideals which personify mothering. To illustrate the point, the word mother connotes specific gendered attributes, while the concept to father tends to be more elusive. To mother a child “implies a continuing presence in a child’s life” (Rich, 1976, p. 12); thus, the centrality of the mother and her performance of mothering by providing nurturance, love, comfort, and demonstrations of sacrifice is a normative conception of the material effects of the act or performance of mothering. Thus, motherhood as a role “has a history, it has an ideology” essential to the patriarchal system, and this identity is deeply internalized in women (Rich, 1976, p. 34). It is a manifestation of women’s highest calling, a longheld marker of gender symbolism for White America,” (Rich, 1976, p. 158). Yet, this concept provides an interesting trajectory to examine discursive meanings attached to Black motherhood. Johnson (2003) states that “mother” is a trope that registers in various discursive terrains and is deployed for various aims (p. 104). Thus, social, cultural and historical standards about Black mothers also foster and perpetuate racialized discourses that challenge mainstream notions of mothering. Chambers (2003) states that stereotypes in the media perpetuate the myth that Black females are unable to be good mothers to their own children (p. 62). Black mothers are subjected to critique and ridicule. For instance, Collins (2004) posits that the controlling image of the Black mother is a stigmatized being who rejects feminine ideals and purports herself in negative ways: the bitch who is aggressive, loud, rude, and pushy; the mule who embodies passiveaggressive tendencies; the historic mammy as the ideal Black mother who provides loyal service to white people and who cares for white children as her own; the childlike, subservient mother; the promiscuous mother; and the sassy mother (Johnson, 2003). Recent films such as Precious2 and The Blind Side3 perpetuate the trope of Black mother dysfunction, as both films show the despicable role of mothers who fail to love and adequately care for their children.To further illustrate this point, it is inconceivable that a mother could sexually and physically abuse her daughter; or for a grandmother 14 L. William-White - Seeking Emancipation from Gender silently stand by and watch her own daughter psychologically and physically abuse her own children? It is completely unfathomable that a mother would be so disconnected from humanity, and so ignorant of the social and moral imperative to nurture the selfworth of her own children. Yet, the material performance of Black mothering in these examples are portrayals of mothers in the previously mentioned films recently awarded Academy award accolades in 2009! This is poignant because the Black mother is often portrayed as emotionallydetached, or portrayed as the toostrong matriarch who raises “weak sons and unnaturally superior daughters,” (Johnson, 2003), a notion further supported by the Black folk expression: “Black mothers love their sons and raise their daughters.” The message here is clear. Her greatest commitment to mothering is for White people, their families, and interests; her care and concerns for her own family are secondary. Then when engaged in the care of her children, the Black mother loves her son to his detriment, and her daughter is reared with a level of unhealthy detachment that produces another generation of mythic, superhuman or psychologically damaged females. Moreover, Black mothers had historically been denied the accolades of parenting, as mothering is what they were expected to do “without applause or special appreciation,” (Chambers, 2003, p. 62). Is this the symbolic position of motherhood that Butler (2004) suggests that are unalterable? Do these discourses support the quasi timeless and good-feeling norms associated with motherhood? Certainly not; thus the Black woman becomes something other than this esteemed mother. The Black family pattern too has been presented as a matriarchal that is unstable and the source of social problems faced by Blacks, (Pickney, 2000, p. 111). For example, although 47% of Black families are headed by Black couples, mothers have the burden of being held responsible for the negative behavior of their children (Hecht, Jackson, & Ribeau, 2003, p. 205). Other issues and social ills attributed to Black mothers are high divorce rates and lower marriage rates; higher percentages of children living in “femaleheaded households; and higher percentages of children living in poverty,” (Hecht et. al., 2003, p. 24). Surely, Butler’s work does not consider racialized material notions of motherhood. In sum, Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 15 the construction of Black women and Black mothers reveal how our identities are shaped by pejorative and archetypical notions not reflected in the multifaceted manifestations of our lives. Autobiographic Episodes The process of becoming begins by confronting certain ‘contradictions’ in one’s life experience, contradictions that alert one’s consciousness to the fact that something in social reality is out of phase. The emerging feminist becomes aware that what passes for justice in American democracy is actually a subtle and complex political system that robs her of her autonomy. She discovers that the role she is assigned by her social sphere, woman, diminishes her life chances for fulfillment and happiness. (Cahill & Hansen, 2003, p. 10) Episode #1: Parenting and the Pursuit of Degrees Motherhood, for me, preceded womanhood. Pregnant as a high school senior, followed by engagement and marriage, I embraced the role of mother and what I perceived this role to mean before exploring what life could be for me as a woman. My first daughter was born when I was less than a month into my nineteenth year. Early in my first year of mothering, my father (a Baptist minister) and a child of the 1940s and 1950s , sent me a Christianbased text titled Woman, Wife, Mother (Harrison, 1991) that spoke of this trinity – the three divine identities of a female “in Christ” and what her role is to be in life. I read this text – not carefully or thoroughly, I must admit. But I did enjoy our conversations with my dad about his ideas about life and scripture; yet occasionally comments would seep into conversation about my pursuits as an undergraduate in college. As a child of divorce, and having not been raised with my father, I looked forward to sharing my life with him as it was developing in my early adulthood. Two years after my parents’ divorce, my mother moved my sisters and me a distant 3000 miles from our father. I was nineyearsold; then from age twelve to eighteen, I visited with my father for only three 16 L. William-White - Seeking Emancipation from Gender extended visits, during vacations. So, it was at that stage of my life, as a wife and mother (at nineteen), that I simultaneously began to create an adultrelationship with my father, and was learning what it meant to be a mother. With daddy, I shared aspects of my new life and my experiences, particularly the daytoday world of having a new baby, being married, and pursuing my first year of college. All these things were new and exciting; “the possibilities [were] endless” for what I could become (Brown & White, 2010, p. 151). My enthusiasm about all that I was experiencing, doing and learning registered through the phone, I am certain. And Daddy would listen intently, pause and make comments. But the dialogue would often culminate with statements such as: 1.“Who watches the baby when you are gone? or 2.“What does your husband think about you being away from the home and at school?” or 3.“How is the baby doing with not having you at home?” I found myself on several occasions trying to defend myself by explaining to Daddy that I was only away three afternoons a week (less than five hours each time); that I would often also take the baby with me to school, or that my husband would also watch the baby during the time that I was gone. Of course, the same arrangement was in place when my husband went to school. Though I recognized that the very notion of me stating that I am “watching the baby” for my husband was, in itself, a radical departure from acceptable gender conventions. My dad’s questions, and tone, revealed to me how he embraced the “cult of true womanhood” (Zinn, 1997, p. 88), which I felt, undermined my desire for personal fulfillment within academic pursuits, and his words demonstrated to me that he did not fully approve. Though a learned man who held strong values about educational attainment and mobility within our family and cultural community, his ideas about my pursuits were tempered by the greater value placed on the symbolic and social significance of motherhood, and the enormity of that role. Thus, I learned that, for Daddy, my primary identity was mother; self actualization through education or desire for a career in the Academy Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 17 had little to do with his notion of my highest calling. From him, I became aware of my gendered reality. Equally interesting were my experiences with my mother. While growing up, Mommy stressed an emphasis on exhibitions of intelligence, creativity, academic ability, rejecting the “cult of domesticity” (Zinn, 1997, p. 87). She took care of the house, and small chores were assigned to my two sisters and me. Our education was most important however. As such, Mommy was adamantly against my having a baby when I announced my pregnancy and engagement at eighteenyearsold. She was then made a grandmother at fortyone and was also attempting to understand and reconcile her own life circumstances and choices as a divorcee, and the subsequent financial and emotional impact of divorce on her, my sisters, and me. Thus, my ‘immature’ decision to have a child, I think, was emblematic of potential unrealized goals as opposed to being a result of my choices. Mommy married at seventeenyearsold. She, like her mother, became a mother at nineteen and began raising a family, she never completed her college education, so utterly convinced that my life was ‘over,’ she took all liberties to remind me of my inability to understand the implications of my decision. Thus, on that fateful day when I announced that I was expecting, she spared no words in articulating how motherhood would limit me. Perhaps these comments stemmed from her story of not being supported by my father to finish earning her college degree because they had children; or from her experiences with independently raising three daughters. Yet, no opportunity was missed by Mommy to ask if I “actually [go] to class” or if I was “still in school,” when we would talk on the phone after I moved away to the college community where I resided. Asking how I was doing academically was rarely offered, or was asked as an afterthought. I sensed, through the tension, her words, and her silence, that she was waiting to hear some information that would confirm her belief that I would not succeed as a young mother in pursuit of an academic career. Consequently, at the end of each semester as a demonstration of my resilience and efficacy, I would mail my semester grades to Mommy to show her that I could “have it all” (Philipsen 2008, p. 97). I could be a wife, a mother, and successfully meet the demands of the Academy. I wanted her to know that I did not have to choose and 18 L. William-White - Seeking Emancipation from Gender that motherhood was only a portion of whom or what I desired to be. I could be: “Mother and…” not only a mother. Motherhood is onepart of female process; it is “not an identity for all time” (Rich, 1976, p. 37), and mothers are also people who need “selves of [their] own,” (p. 37). Due to this, it was from there I went firmly on the path toward fulfilling my personal trine – my energies were put into trying to be a good mom, a supportive wife, and a budding academic. I guess one could say that I was coming to terms with being young, Black and female (Williams, 2001). Episode #2: Journey through Matrimony My spouse and I constructed notions of what our lives would be as a young couple. Though the material roles of being married and of being new parents were neither articulated nor defined, they were embraced and performed by default after we married. We left home for college and to begin our lives and family – he and I against the world. He, being raised in a family of twelve children and by a widowedmatriarch, was socialized to be domesticated. I was reared by a mother who elevated embodiments of the mind through educational pursuits and independence (O’Connor et. al, 2005). As such, the arrangement of duties in my marriage mirrored the fluidity of genderrole assignments in Black families (Collins, 2000; 2004; Jewell, 1993). I would function as the nurturer for the family and would assume the role as manager of the household finances and decision making, a role I proudly thought was quite progressive and nontraditional. He would function as the manager of the household needs and would tend to those things that were historically associated with women’s work. We were flipping4 the gender script and capitalizing on the areas that we were most comfortable with. And, I was also hellbent on striving to maintain some genderbalance as it related to our new daughter’s care as well. We were both fulltime students, so when we brought our daughter home from the hospital at fourdaysold, the shared feeding and diapering schedule was already created. My husband was assigned early a.m. feedings so I could get more rest, particularly when I had early classes on campus. All in the name of gender equity, I thought! He agreed; and Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 19 I was pleased. The shared infant care arrangement did not mirror anything that I had seen growing up. It definitely was not my mother’s experience, and I was happy that I possessed the ability and will to articulate the need for the balance in our roles. Yet, my husband, being the youngest son of nine boys, and the eleventh of twelve children was often chided about who “wore the pants” which included discourses about me not knowing my place. It was even articulated in my presence that Black women were too demanding and too difficult to have relationships with. These taunts made by my brotherinlaws during family gettogethers were attempts to bait me into polarizing discourses about Black female identity. My brotherinlaws are Baby Boomers – the same generation as my parents. We would then have heated dialogues in the living room; my spouse, complicit in his smiling silence, while my motherinlaw, a child of the 1920s, would participate as a laughing spectator. The fraternity culture that I married into, which posed as a matriarchal institution, was constituted around sexist, misogynistic cultural ideas and social practices which were problematic for me as a woman. In addition, these discourses, in my opinion, interfered with what my spouse and I were attempting to do as a couple with the shared goal of completing college while raising our family. The irony in all of this is that several of the male family members had pursued some college themselves and several held at least Associate Degrees; a few had or were planning to send their own female children to college, hence educational attainment held value to them. Yet, my positionality was often critiqued. No conversation could ensure that didn’t involve some reference to me and schoo l. I was even dubbed “school girl” by my motherinlaw’s sister, and told one evening at a family gettogether that my attempts were unrealistic, particularly that I should “get a job” and forget about going to school since I had a baby. Who would have fed her this information to enable such an unwelcomed conversation and perspective, I wondered? And after incidents such as these with my inlaws, I would go home upset, resenting the whole time spent with my spouse’s family and resenting my spouse’s inaction in these discourses. In spite of all this, however, my husband and our gender role assignments remained status 20 L. William-White - Seeking Emancipation from Gender quo, proceeding without challenge or disruption throughout our undergraduate years in college; though the same could not be said, however, when we relocated our growing family closer to our inlaws when I began to attend graduate school. I understand on an intimate level when Fordham (1993) suggests that community norms are a major socializing agent in developing and regulating ideas about appropriate femininities, particularly in the regulation of body image, linguistic patterns, and styles of interacting. Female gender sanctions, through a form of sexistritualizedhazing, were normative experiences around my inlaws, and any marital discord between my spouse and I became fodder for provocative kitchen tabletalk. My husband would share with me the stories of how the family would engage in raucous laughter about my facile Standard American English usage and my lexical choices. Mimicry of me through exaggerated diction and ‘proper’ mannerisms by my motherinlaw would bring the whole house to tears of laughter. My academic identity, professional mobility, and the prominent position I held in marital financial decisionmaking was increasingly scrutinized. Never mind, that I worked fulltime, went to school full time on the weekends, having chosen a graduate program that catered toward working professionals; and I arranged all care needs for our daughter.. Rather, I was the brunt of jokes and critique instigated by my spouse, and, at times, directed towards my spouse based on my identity which was constituted around goalsetting, educational pursuits and professional attainment. Additionally, I believe that my identity became a familial signifier – a trope for the sexist, mythical belief of Lisa, as another Black woman, who subjugates and marginalizes the Black man. As I sit and reflect, many of my marital discussions were wrought with landmines centered on my displeasure with my spouse’s passivity on varied issues (lack of leadership and vision, employment challenges, financial decisionmaking, family planning choices), and his family. This, in turn, would result in substantial disagreements. My expectation for my spouse was to “man up”5 . Yet, my perceived “nagging” and “trying to be [his] mother” aided his male privilege and authority to retreat for frequent and extended days to his mother’s house for what he referred to as “peace” and “comfort” – a place where he still had an open bed. Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 21 At the same time, I was gaining a greater sense of purpose and self affirmation through my academic pursuits – my escape. In addition, my employability and student status helped to mediate economic challenges at from – my spouses’ low wages; lack equity in the work place, and, at times, poor decision making related to employment choices There were even times when I would use my graduate student status to secure student loans to supplement our financial and family needs when times were particularly taxing. Though my spouse and I both worked full time, I provided a significant portion of our household income; paid all of our medical insurance coverage costs not covered by my employer, and was paying day care costs (by this time, we had our second child). My husband was working long hours in a menial foodservice job, which did not offer a medical insurance plan. In all, I often felt pressured to make things easier at home for my spouse, yet I also felt overworked, ignored, disrespected, and underappreciated at home. Increased professional accolades provided opportunities for me, though actualized goals were not celebrated in our household as I completed my Master’s Degree. In fact, there were instances where my spouse commented that I “act like [I] have an “S” on [my] chest.”6 Or he reminded me that I “needed a man around” more than [I thought]” when I minimized his antagonistic references about his perceptions of my identity. I learned that African American women will continually be viewed as a threat to patriarchy due to the social and economic system that limits opportunities for Black males (Jewell, 1993). Ultimately, the tension and financial stress began to mount, and helped to shape the eventual emotional and financial withdrawal of my spouse from our family; my attitude and outlook began to shift as well. There were days when I wished that I had married someone who exhibited a healthy attitude about his own identity, where my strivings were not seen as a threat, but viewed as efforts to benefit the collective. I also wished, at times, that I had married someone who could provide for me, where I would be afforded more options and opportunity to immerse in my personal and/or professional life. For example, if staying I desired to stay at home with the children. I often romanticized what life could be like if my spouse shared similar professional motivations and similar efficacy to actualize dreams for selfimprovement. But most 22 L. William-White - Seeking Emancipation from Gender significantly, I yearned to not argue about family disagreements, about debts, about how his frivolous spending when eating out with his brothers impacted the financial ledger; and about not spending any time with the children and me. And, I grew to resent him! I resented my positioning and longed to not carry the burden that came with always having to be responsible for all family decisions. I wanted to be a “Mother and…” this meant being a mother, a wife, a lover, and an equal partner. Yet, his indifference was palpable. And his lack of motivation to work with me correlated with my beliefs in his perceived feelings of low selfworth, combined with the challenges he was experiencing with his personal identity, and professional life. At the end of the day, I lacked the wherewithal and desire to participate in a union that did not support the family – our family. We were eight months pregnant with our third child when my husband and I separated. My spouse moved back home with his mother, and I moved back to the college community where we resided as undergraduates. My emotional load was lightened, I thought at the time, and I moved forward, dividing my energies between meeting the needs of the children, working, before I relocated my children to another community to attend doctoral study. In the end, I would spend many years of my married life living separately from my spouse and as the primary, care and financial provider for our three children, until I filed for divorce. Episode #3: “Mothering” Eight years ago, I sat solo for the third week in a failed coparent counseling attempt with a Marriage, Family Child Counselor (MFCC) which was focused on how to effectively “parent” and share my children’s time with their father. It was in the process of this chat about my family structure, about the developmental needs of my girls (then 9, 11, and 15), and the roles that my exhusband and I played in their lives, that my worldview was challenged. The MFCC announced that since my exspouse refused to participate, our meetings were: “no longer an effort to address coparenting needs, or parenting at all. We are going to focus on you.” This concept was unfamiliar; strange. Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 23 So when my counselor and I dialogued during that third meeting, she wanted to set some small goals for our time in counseling. Focus on me? Our time in counseling? This all sounded peculiar to my ear. But, I knew that I wanted to spend more time being me. The MFCC raised a curious eyebrow and then identified a theme that would become the focus of many emotional meetings. I had to sort through and respond to a litany of questions, one being what I wanted to accomplish; who am I today; and, what did I mean by stating that I wanted to spend more time being me? I told her that “I am a mother of three girls and a single parent. I am a Mother, and… ”(my voice began to break as tears filled my eyes)… (I continue) “…a college professor in a State university. I try to be a good friend; I am a woman of faith, and I am striving each day to be better and to do the right thing by those I love…” But what did I really mean by telling her that I want to be me? She challenged me hard on clarifying this statement. I continue: “My identity has become almost entirely constructed on the role of mothering, something that I had struggled with all my adult life…” Mothering is the cornerstone the historic agentry of Black women in our homes and communities. The act of mothering is an embodiment of the social practice in women’s lives, and ironically, it is also a major part of my academic work — part of the career expectation which sees us as natural caregivers (Ramsay & Letherby, 2006). I knew that over the years, I have honed my mothering skills through various hats as a mother, as a college counselor, as a high school teacher, as a mentor, and as a university teachereducator. Mothering, supporting and nurturing others was something that I knew well. I knew that I had been able to accomplish goals and create a life for my children, in the material sense, which I did not experience as a child. Most importantly my children have given my life meaning and substance fulfilling me as mother, though there was an absence of fulfilling endeavors, at times, outside of mothering. “There are two Lisas – the home and work me (one in the same; the one engaged in her mothering projects) and the vacation me the Lisa who wishes to hop a plane and get away from it all to remember that I am a woman separate from having to serve others’ needs.” 24 L. William-White - Seeking Emancipation from Gender When pressed I found it quite difficult to articulate to another – a stranger—a white professional woman with no children, that being a Black woman academic and more so, a single mother is a selfless existence; and, that balancing a career, being the breadwinner and mothering is at times heavyladen. The duties are weighted down by multiple negotiations of time, energy, and personal sacrifice; and one’s choices or behaviors may not always meet approval or acceptance. I used the term rea l mother because mothers are not made because women give birth. Constructions of motherhood are externally imposed, internally assimilated or rejected, and attempting to comport one’s behavior to the regulatory norms is a conscious effort and choice. Some women either forge ahead or embrace the identity; some do not. Yet, all that I am and all that I have accomplished in life is because of my children, the necessity and desire to provide a life for us, and the personal along with my desire be a “Mother and…”, not a mother only. The journey has been a labor of love and sacrifice that has kept me and sustained me. Yet, it has also been the source of many tears, frustration, and hardship. So it is true that I romanticize about what life can be like when the nest is empty; and, I pray for the day when all the children have left home and their lives demonstrate that my mothering and sacrifices were worth something that enabled them to grow to be moral and decent women women less bridled by intersecting racialized and gendered norms. The MFCC pressed further still, and asked me to go home and think about all the issues that I struggled to articulate with words. Later that night, with pen in hand, I found my thoughts erupting on my journal page in a heavy rush: I find myself attempting daily to do the work of more than one person out of necessity, and the intense desire to have a rich and intellectually stimulating career. This currently translates into me teaching fulltime in a graduate program at night, making my life quite involved. For instance, I sit on department and university committees; I am involved in community service in local K16 schools, where I advocate for educational reform for lowincome, Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) culturally and linguistically diverse children; I attend conferences and I try to cultivate my research and scholarly agenda in a manner that aligns with community and personal interests, while meeting the scholarly demands of the university. Yet, scholarship and curriculum content are areas where Black women find themselves marginalized due to the institutional pressures for them to de emphasize racial and/or gendered aspects of their research, so this process challenging from my paradigmatic standpoint which is grounded in critical studies and community work, efforts documented by other Black scholars7. Often, Black woman academics often have to negotiate how to transcend their own marginalization by reaching out to others for scholarshipbuilding opportunities or mentoringI am the only Black woman in my department, so I function as an advisor to a significant number of Black and nonBlack first generation college students who seek support in helping them to navigate the academy. The university demands, in the form of student advising, mentoring, and committee work, further compete with scholarship development, duties which are not heavily weighted in the tenure and promotion process. These duties stand in direct opposition to the value the academy privileges and rewards in terms of research active, meritocracybased activities that reflect masculine values and notions of success. Moreover, I give advice on theses; I proofread abstracts for conference proposal submissions and answer students’ questions about the content of other professors’ course content. I respond to incessant emails; I hold writing workshops outside of work to support those historically underrepresented students who have yet to achieve a convergence between academic language and their voices; and I do a lot of listening and encouraging. I am also a member of a grossly underpaid faction in my university. Consequently, I teach at another campus during the day to supplement my fulltime earnings. Should I have chosen a career in business and industry to better support my family and 25 26 L. William-White - Seeking Emancipation from Gender community needs, issues reported in other studies?8 Moreover, though the professoriate looks like I may have “arrived”, Black women are highly concentrated in the lowest academic ranks as nontenured faculty; have slower promotion rates, and earn less pay than their male and White female counterparts9. So I gear up each day for my second job, where I attempt to address the needs of scores of other students. And when “work” is done (I laugh as I write that), I try to make it to my daughters’ basketball games, track meets, dance recitals or school productions – at times two on the same night, at different schools. I periodically skip work to make it to “BacktoSchool” nights or “Open House” presentations. And I come home late after a long day at work and proofread my children’s papers or correct their homework. I leave postit notes about necessary changes on term papers. I email my kids teachers to have them more clearly explain obscure homework assignments (after all, I am a teachereducator). I also drop off forgotten lunches to the school front offices. I chauffeur and carpool for events. I cook dinner most mornings before work and leave directions for reheating. I would stand over my children on weekends to make sure they get their chores done. And I still managed to bake or buy cupcakes on birthdays for the girls to share with classmates; buy birthday cards and presents for buddies’ weekend parties. I pull out tools to fix flat bicycle tires and curl tresses for school pictures and dances. I even make midnight runs to the nearest 24hour “wehaveitall store” to pickup forgotten supplies for school projects. I do it all! And to be honest, sometimes I do not do it all very well. Sometimes I do it begrudgingly. And sometimes, now and then, it all gets a little overwhelming. I feel like I exist only to serve others. I read over my list with an incredible sense of sadness overtakes me. Didn’t I choose a professional career in the academy to bring me personal fulfillment beyond the home sphere and mothering? Didn’t I pursue the professoriate to not succumb to the regulatory fiction of Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 27 gender – ofBlack women’s work involving gendered roles ofmothering, service and servitude? Conclusion As a BWA/SM in the academy, my pursuits present conflicting desires about what I want for myself, for my career, and for my children, creating role strain related to my effectiveness in those various roles. This strain is often exacerbated by the individualistic demands of the academy, the duties connected to working with students and within my cultural community, and being the sole provider for a family. However, the constant between these varied roles, however, is the gendered task of mothering. The performance of mothering and its rituals combined with the daily performance and negotiations of multiple, conflicting realities create a push and pull. And I do not move through the day with the mythic, unscathed resolve articulated in the discourse about Black womanhood or motherhood. At times, I am sensitive about the continuous barrage of evershifting discourses that accompany the multiple spaces I inhabit. I am a mother and; but, my life is also more than mothering. Moreover, the performance of mothering is, at times, a thankless job. Ironically, this very statement threatens the politics embedded in gender and the symbolic position attached to Black women who are mothers. So, it becomes politically, culturally, and morally incorrect to make my previous statement without the subordinate statement of “motherhood being something that I am also thankful for.” One’s sense of survival depends on escaping norms by which recognition is given, while recognizing the tension in becoming estranged from those same norms. Consequently, though I may desire to transcend the grid of legibility that defines gender norms, I have to validate the existence of that same grid that regulates and governs behavior. Thus, the act of rejecting externally imposed regulations can either threaten my identity, or it can be a liberatory act in demonstrating the various shades of what it means to “be”. Thus, the paradox lies in the negotiation between these dichotomies. Moreover, an additional contradiction for me is that to voice frustration and discontent with the regulatory fiction of Black womanhood and motherhood is to also run 28 L. William-White - Seeking Emancipation from Gender the risk of drawing criticism about my ability to adequately meet my many obligations, as opposed to viewing my experience as a critique of hegemonic discourse and ideological systems that regulate me, and others like me. Gender is held captive to representational identities and norms that are contradictory and problematic. Therefore, we must examine the “life” of gender, one’s own perceptions and expectations, as well as that of others. What it means to be a mother is a social construction; attributes of motherhood and acceptable performances of mothering are not innate, but are reflective of regulatory norms and symbolic roles created from social and cultural norms. No one can fulfill these confining ideals, and people must not look at these fictions as ideals. Rather, my story is an act of will to subvert gender normative and racialized standards to affirm myself, particularly as it relates to what I want to be recognized for, achieve and fulfill. This supports Butler’s (2004) idea that a person seeks to be recognized for oneself, separate and distinct from binaries constituted by norms. Coda As I reflect on my experiences in 2012, I now understand why this manuscript could not be completed many years earlier. Not only was my energy not there, but the attempt was premature. I lacked clarity about my own lived experiences, and about my writing purpose for a story yet undone. I now write this fina l note three days after Mother’s Day. Less than 24 hours ago, I was presented with the 2012 Distinguished Alumna Award based on my academic record and commitment to education in my community. An incredible honor it is to receive from the Dean of my doctoral alma mater. When I first matriculated there, I was filled with such uncertainty about what I was attempting to do. I find myself over swept with unexpected emotion as the Alumni Chairperson reads my personal biography. Here’s why: Two days earlier, I watched my oldest daughter walk across the stage at her undergraduate commence ceremony (from my undergraduate alma mater). She, at age 23, will matriculate this fall into graduate school on Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 29 the West coast. My middle daughter graduated from high school a year earlier and is currently attending a toptier research university in the midwest. And, less than 24 hours ago, I watched my youngest child graduate from high school. She will matriculate to a major research institution in the central Pacific to study this fall. And yes, it is all surrea l, but no fairytale is illuminated here! However, as I reflect, I am filled with joy and resolve. 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Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 35 Notes 1Legal segregation of Blacks from White society following the emancipation of enslaved Blacks. 2See http://kempefoundation.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/preciouswinstwoacademy awards/ 3See http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/82/nominees.html 4Reversing preconceived gender roles. 5Demonstrate leadership. 6A reference to the superhero called Superwoman whose abilities had no limits. 7Gilkes, C. T. (1983). Going up for the oppressed: The career mobility of black women community workers. Journal of Social Issues, 39, 115139. 8See Gregory, 1999; Teevan, Pepper, & Pellizzari, (1992). 9See Gregory (1995). Lisa William-White is Associate Professor of Education in the Department of Bilingual and Multicultural Education at California State University Sacramento (CSUS). United States. Contact Address: California State University Sacramento, Dept Bilingual & Multicultural Educ, Sacramento, CA 95819 USAC. United States of America. Email: [email protected] Instructions for authors, subscriptions and further details: http://qre.hipatiapress.com Contribuyendo a la Transformación Social a través de la Metodología Comunicativa de Investigación Aitor Gómez1, Gregor Siles2, & María Tejedor3 1) Departamento de Pedagogía, Universitar Rovira i Virgili, Spain. 2) Departamento de Teoría e Historia, Universitat de Barcelona. Spain. 3) E. U. de Educación de Palencia. Universidad de Valladolid. Spain. Date of publication: June 30th, 2012 To cite this article: Gómez, A., Siles, G., & Tejedor, M. (2012). Contribuyendo a la transformación social a través de la Metodología comunicativa de investigación. Qualitative Research in Education, 1(1), 36 57. doi: 10.4471/qre.2012.02 To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.4471/qre.2012.02 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System and to Creative Commons NonCommercial and NonDerivative License. Qualitative Research in Education Vol. 1 No. 1 June 2012 pp. 36-57 Contributing to Social Transformation Through Communicative Research Methodology Aitor Gómez Universitat Rovira i Virgili Gregor Siles Universitat de Barcelona María Tejedor Universidad de Valladolid Abstract Traditionally, researches on groups that suffer inequalities have not taken into account their voices in the research process. For this reason, they arrive to conclusions that have led to the reproduction of social exclusion in which they are living. The communicative research methodology encourages the participation of these social groups in all the research stages. This participation in the research process is built through an egalitarian and intersubjective dialogue. The accumulated scientific knowledge provided by researchers meets in this dialogue with the contributions from the life world of social actors, leading to transform situations of social inequality that people belonging to these groups are suffering. In this article we will also show how communicative research methodology is obtaining greater political and social impact from the research results. Keywords: communicative research methodology, communicative techniques and communicative analysis, social and political impact, social transformation 2012 Hipatia Press ISSN 2014-6418 DOI: 10.4471/qre.2012.02 Qualitative Research in Education Vol. 1 No. 1 June 2012 pp. 36-57 Contribuyendo a la Transformación Social a través de la Metodología Comunicativa de Investigación Aitor Gómez Universitat Rovira y Virgili Gregor Siles Universitat de Barcelona María Tejedor Universidad de Valladolid Abstract Tradicionalmente, las investigaciones realizadas sobre colectivos que sufren desigualdades no han tenido en cuenta sus voces en los procesos de investigación. Al no contar con ello han llegado a conclusiones que han provocado la reproducción de la situación de exclusión social en la cual se encuentran éstos. La metodología comunicativa de investigación potencia la participación de estos colectivos en todas las fases de investigación. Esa participación se establece en un plano de igualdad, a través de un diálogo igualitario e intersubjetivo, donde los conocimientos científicos acumulados aportados por el personal investigador y las aportaciones realizadas desde el mundo de la vida por parte de las personas investigadas, llevan a transformar situaciones de desigualdad social que sufren esos colectivos. En este artículo vamos a plasmar como la metodología comunicativa de investigación está contribuyendo a la superación de situaciones de exclusión que sufren diversidad de colectivos y está consiguiendo un importante impacto a nivel político y social. Keywords: metodología comunicativa de investigación, técnicas de recogida y análisis comunicativas, impacto político y social, transformación social 2012 Hipatia Press ISSN 2014-6418 DOI: 10.4471/qre.2012.02 38 L A. Gómez, G. Siles, & M. Tejedor - Metodología Comunicativa a búsqueda de estrategias orientadas a la cohesión social es una de las prioridades tanto de la agenda política española, como del resto de Europa. Uno de los retos a los que nos enfrentamos, especialmente en un contexto marco de crisis económica, es la lucha contra las situaciones de desigualdad. La crisis afecta especialmente a los colectivos más desfavorecidos que son los que más tardan en recuperarse de sus embates. La experiencia histórica muestra que las crisis económicas han afectado especialmente a las personas inmigrantes que han cambiado su residencia definitiva por el país de recepción o las personas pertenecientes a minorías étnicas. La falta de expectativas, la necesidad de cubrir las necesidades mínimas, etc., crean una situación potencial de conflicto. La metodología comunicativa de investigación desarrollada por CREA (Centro Especial de Investigación en Teorías y Prácticas Superadoras de Desigualdades) y aplicada en diversos proyectos de investigación y desarrollo internacionales y nacionales, ha permitido obtener resultados de impacto político y social que han generado la superación de situaciones de desigualdad social. Para lograr ese impacto es clave la inclusión de las voces de las personas pertenecientes a grupos vulnerables, como por ejemplo las personas inmigrantes, en todo el proceso investigador, tal y como propone la metodología comunicativa (Gómez, Latorre, Sánchez, Flecha, 2006). Algunas de las principales autoridades en materia de metodología cualitativa orientada a la transformación social como Denzin o Lincoln revisan en sus respectivas obras diversos métodos que conducen hacia el cambio, contribuyendo a avanzar hacia la justicia social de nuestras sociedades. Denzin y Lincoln se centran el estudio de casos, etnografía y observación participante, fenomenología, etnometodología y práctica interpretativa, Teoría Fundamentada, método biográfico, método histórico, investigación acción y métodos clínicos (Denzin & Lincoln, 1998, 2008). Según estos autores, en los últimos años se ha producido un debate internacional que ha conducido a la transformación de lo que Schwandt (1997) denominaba “Epistemologías Fundacionales” hacia lo que Denzin & Lincoln (1998) denominan enfoques “constructivista, Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 39 hermenéutico, feminista, postestructural, pragmático, raza crítica [critical race], y teoría queer de la indagación social”. Estos autores destacan la necesidad de una ciencia social crítica e interpretativa que incluya las voces de aquellas personas a las que se dirige la propia investigación (Denzin & Lincoln, 1998, p.569). Las personas que realizan investigación social necesitan convertirse en bricoleurs, artistas que unen piezas de diversas procedencias, para lograr comprender la complejidad de la realidad social. Tal y como afirman “esa persona es un artista, un “manitas”, un trabajador habilidoso, montador de montajes y collages. El interpretativo bricoleur puede entrevistar, observar, estudiar material cultural, pensar en y más allá de los métodos visuales (...) construir narrativas que expliquen historias explicativas; usar paquetes informáticos de tratamiento de datos cualitativos; hacer investigaciones basadas en textos; construir testimonios usando grupos de discusión; incluso participando en formulaciones etnográficas y políticas” (Denzin & Lincoln, 1998, p.570). La metodología comunicativa de investigación revisa las aportaciones de esta literatura previa y las re-define en el contexto de una investigación de carácter dialógico, orientada a la superación de las barreras metodológicas clásicas que dificultan la realización de un trabajo riguroso basado en la excelencia científica. El rigor científico se alcanza abriendo el proceso de interpretación a todos los actores sociales y fruto del diálogo igualitario e intersubjetivo que se establece con ellos se alcanza una interpretación de la realidad enriquecida, que hace avanzar el conocimiento científico. A través de los siguientes apartados vamos a plasmar como la metodología comunicativa de investigación está contribuyendo no solo a que avance el conocimiento científico sino también a transformar una realidad social marcada por la exclusión y desigualdad social de grupos vulnerables como el pueblo gitano. De la investigación exclusora a la investigación transformadora En la actualidad, muchas de las investigaciones sobre grupos culturales o colectivos migrantes no cuentan con las opiniones de las personas 40 A. Gómez, G. Siles, & M. Tejedor - Metodología Comunicativa pertenecientes a estos grupos sobre el propio proceso investigador y sobre los resultados obtenidos. Este hecho genera un cuestionamiento del impacto que estas investigaciones tienen sobre la mejora real de la realidad de estos grupos vulnerables. Las investigaciones tradicionales responden a un posicionamiento delante de la realidad social que sitúa por encima a la persona investigadora, siendo las personas tradicionalmente no participantes un mero objeto al que se sustraen datos. Los objetivos, enfoques, hipótesis y metodologías utilizadas respondían a esta situación y por ello colectivos como el gitano y otras minorías étnicas se han posicionado en contra de ellas. En algunos casos, las investigaciones han fomentado los estereotipos ya existentes sobre estos grupos y en otras ocasiones, a pesar de no albergar malas intenciones y proponer medidas de mejora de estos colectivos, lo han hecho sin contar con ellos y ellas en el diseño, planificación e implementación (Sordé, 2006). Debido a que los grupos vulnerables han sido tradicionalmente tratados como “objetos de investigación” por parte del equipo investigador, es necesario introducir nuevas metodologías que superen esta visión tradicional de la investigación. La propia comunidad gitana, por ejemplo, rechaza las investigaciones que tratan de sacarles datos para después extraer sus propias conclusiones sin contar para nada con ellas y ellos. Desde la universidad se han llevado a cabo análisis sobre la comunidad gitana donde solo se buscaba el beneficio del personal investigador, sin tener la menor intención de mejorar la situación en la cual se encuentra el pueblo gitano. Habitualmente, los y las investigadoras recogen datos a través de los cuales llevan a cabo sus propias interpretaciones y no vuelven a contrastar con las personas “investigadas” los resultados. La participación de los actores sociales se produce de manera puntual y utilitarista (Macías y Redondo, 2012). Pero el problema no solo radica en la utilización de las personas para su propio beneficio personal, sino que algunas de estas personas se convierten además en expertos y expertas (gitanólogos y gitanólogas), siendo sus aportaciones seguidas y tenidas en cuenta. Sin contar con la voz de las personas implicadas es habitual encontrar investigaciones que fomenten los estereotipos y prejuicios contra la comunidad gitana, Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 41 ayudando a la reproducción de la situación de exclusión en la que se encuentra el pueblo gitano. ¿Debemos tolerar, e incluso proteger, una cultura de ladrones y pordioseros? Pero ¿qué otra cosa pueden hacer? (Cavalli-Sforza & Cavalli-Sforza, 1994, p.266). Estas afirmaciones incrementan el racismo existente en nuestra sociedad y dificultan enormemente la superación de la desigualdad y exclusión social existente. La investigación comunicativa es transformadora porque orienta el análisis hacia la superación de esas desigualdades y la exclusión social que sufren colectivos como el gitano. Para ello, parte del diálogo intersubjetivo entre el personal investigador y el “investigado” y rompe con las jerarquías metodológicas tradicionales que poseen enfoques etnocentristas y relativas (Gómez y Vargas, 2003). La orientación comunicativa surge en un momento de cambio, de apertura de las Ciencias Sociales hacia sectores de población habitualmente excluidos. Coincide ello con el paso de la sociedad industrial a la sociedad de la información, incrementándose la democratización de viejas estructuras y donde la producción del conocimiento científico se abre también al diálogo con personas tradicionalmente no participantes. Beck (1998) ya analizaba en el contexto de la sociedad del riesgo como la actividad científica se somete cada vez más a debate público. Este marco de actuación abre nuevas posibilidades de participación. Personas tradicionalmente excluidas ven como sus voces empiezan a ser tenidas en cuenta en los procesos de investigación y sus argumentos tienen peso en la interpretación de la realidad. No se logra la neutralidad axiológica que propone Weber con la distancia, sino a través del diálogo que tienen en cuenta todos los argumentos y conocimientos disponibles, gran parte de los cuales están en los sujetos estudiados (Touraine, Wieviorka y Flecha, 2004, p.37). 42 A. Gómez, G. Siles, & M. Tejedor - Metodología Comunicativa Gómez y Vargas (2003) destacan como uno de los elementos fundamentales dentro de la metodología comunicativa de investigación es la construcción conjunta del conocimiento, siendo clave la implicación de las personas investigadas en todas las fases de la investigación. Se trata de investigar con y para los grupos vulnerables y no utilizarles en el proceso a conveniencia (Flecha & Gómez, 2004). Bases teóricas de la metodología comunicativa de investigación Las bases teóricas de la metodología comunicativa de investigación parten de contribuciones teóricas de diferentes autores de las ciencias sociales. La teoría de la acción comunicativa de Habermas (1987) plantea la inexistencia de una jerarquía entre las interpretaciones del investigador/a y los sujetos, así como la necesidad de basar la acción comunicativa en la validez de los argumentos y no en la posición social, académica o de poder de los hablantes. Habermas podríamos considerarlo un autor propio del paradigma sociocrítico (donde ubicamos la investigación acción) hasta la publicación de la teoría de la acción comunicativa en los 80. El giro hacia el diálogo en su argumentación nos acerca este autor al paradigma comunicativo. Las aportaciones de la Fenomenología de Schutz (1967) permitieron reconocer la relevancia de las interpretaciones de los sujetos, y el papel que tienen las tipificaciones que hacen las personas en la construcción de tipos ideales. El interaccionismo simbólico de Mead (1990) afirma que las interpretaciones de las personas no son individuales y cambian con las interacciones. Garfinkel (1967) con su etnometodología analiza dichas interacciones. Su obra supuso una contribución a la metodología cualitativa porque mostró la necesidad de encontrar alguna forma de analizar y entender los procesos sociales. De ahí que se resalta la herramienta de la interpretación, y las diferentes consideraciones que es necesario tener en cuenta y que afectan a dicha interpretación (sesgos culturales, de etnia, sociales, etc.). Ejemplifica esas diversas consideraciones a la hora de interpretar mediante una hipotética situación en la cual una persona ve como están intentando entrar en un piso forzando la cerradura, pero resulta ser un cerrajero que está arreglando la cerradura. La manera más directa y eficaz que disponemos Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 43 para no caer en interpretaciones erróneas es preguntar a las personas implicadas. Si preguntamos a esa persona que está delante de la puerta salimos de dudas y no caemos en una mala interpretación de la realidad. A su vez, Garfinkel apuntaba también que las personas no eran idiotas culturales, que tenían la capacidad de interpretar de manera crítica la realidad. Este factor es clave en el desarrollo de la metodología comunicativa de investigación, ya que la construcción de la realidad se lleva a cabo de manera dialógica, donde no existe una jerarquía interpretativa y todo depende de los argumentos aportados al diálogo por parte de todas las personas implicadas. Durante muchos años el dejar la interpretación en manos de las personas participantes o que estas tuvieran un papel destacado en la misma ha generado enfrentamientos dentro de la comunidad científica entre diversos investigadores, los unos defendiendo la necesidad de una mirada objetiva y neutral a los datos, los otros negando la posibilidad de la neutralidad de las ciencias sociales. La metodología comunicativa de investigación contribuye a la superación de dualismos teóricos en ciencias sociales, tales como estructura / individuo, sujeto / objeto, relativismo / universalismo, asumiendo diferentes postulados que se plasman a continuación: Universalidad del lenguaje y de la acción El lenguaje y la acción son capacidades universales comunes a todas las personas, por el hecho de ser seres humanos. Todas las personas tenemos la capacidad de lenguaje y de realizar acciones (Habermas, 1987; Luria 1987; Cole y Scribner, 1977). Por tanto, desde el punto de vista de esta metodología, tenemos que abogar por métodos que recojan y hagan valer la voz de todas las personas implicadas en la realidad que estamos estudiando. Las personas como agentes sociales transformadores Todas las personas somos capaces de interpretar el mundo que nos rodea y de actuar sobre él. En este sentido, las personas no somos “objetos” sometidos a las estructuras que generan dinámicas que nos arrastran. La 44 A. Gómez, G. Siles, & M. Tejedor - Metodología Comunicativa metodología comunicativa de investigación se orienta hacia la transformación social y para lograrla parte de la base que toda persona tiene la capacidad de transformar la realidad que le rodea y de esta forma se abre la posibilidad de superar situaciones de exclusión y desigualdad social. Racionalidad comunicativa Las personas que trabajamos bajo el paraguas de la metodología comunicativa de investigación asumimos que la racionalidad comunicativa, tal y como la define Habermas (1987), es la base universal de las competencias de lenguaje y acción que todas las personas tenemos. La racionalidad comunicativa implica que las personas actuamos no sólo por intereses propios, sino que también lo hacemos para llegar a acuerdos. Sentido común Dado que en ciencias sociales estudiamos fenómenos y procesos en los que hay personas implicadas, debemos tener en cuenta que cada cual interpreta la realidad en base a su sentido común, es decir, a aquellas creencias y saberes que ha interiorizado a lo largo de su vida, y que utiliza para interpretar las cosas que le rodean (Schütz, 1993). El bagaje científico que aportan los investigadores se enriquece gracias al sentido común que los agentes sociales utilizan en sus argumentaciones. Sin jerarquía interpretativa Las personas que trabajamos con el enfoque comunicativo asumimos que la interpretación que hacen las personas involucradas en los estudios que realizamos tiene tanta validez como las interpretaciones de los investigadores/as. Dado que las personas involucradas en el fenómeno o en el proceso que estamos investigando son las que tienen conocimiento y experiencia sobre tal realidad, y dado que asumimos que todas las personas tienen la capacidad de lenguaje y acción, y somos capaces de conocer nuestro mundo, las personas que trabajamos bajo Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 45 este enfoque asumimos que no tiene que haber una jerarquía interpretativa. Igual nivel epistemológico Como consecuencia directa del postulado anterior, asumimos que no existe un desnivel epistemológico entre las personas investigadores y las personas investigadas. Todas las personas involucradas en la investigación tienen la misma capacidad de conocer el fenómeno o proceso investigado. En este sentido, Beck, Giddens & Lash (1994) apuntaron la desmonopolización del conocimiento experto como un fenómeno que se estaba produciendo en nuestras sociedades. No desaparece la figura de la persona experta, pero si aparece un mayor protagonismo de los actores sociales, lo cuales quieren aportar su visión sobre la realidad y ello contribuye a que se desmonopolice ese conocimiento. A través de la creación de espacios de diálogo donde todas las personas involucradas en la investigación tengan las mismas oportunidades de aportar sus conocimientos respectivos, se puede lograr eliminar en gran parte este desnivel epistemológico. El personal investigador aporta el conocimiento de la comunidad científica, mientras que las personas involucradas en la investigación aportan sus saberes y su conocimiento de la realidad que está siendo investigada por todos/as. Conocimiento dialógico Las personas que nos situamos en la perspectiva comunicativa asumimos que el conocimiento es un proceso dialógico. No es ni un proceso objetivo de búsqueda del conocimiento (perspectiva objetivista), ni el resultado de las interpretaciones subjetivas de los investigadores (perspectiva subjetivista). El conocimiento es el resultado de un proceso en el que participamos todos y todas. Mediante el diálogo compartimos interpretaciones, puntos de vista, argumentos, que dan lugar a nuestra concepción de la realidad. Se trata de un proceso intersubjetivo de creación de conocimiento (Habermas, 1987). 46 A. Gómez, G. Siles, & M. Tejedor - Metodología Comunicativa La aplicación de estos postulados, conjuntamente con la organización comunicativa de la investigación, la utilización de técnicas comunicativas de recogida de datos y el análisis comunicativo de los mismos, asegura la obtención de unos resultados orientados hacia la transformación social y genera, como veremos en el último apartado, un impacto social y político que de otra manera sería muy difícil de alcanzar. Organización comunicativa de la investigación y técnicas de recogida y análisis de datos comunicativas La metodología comunicativa de investigación, al orientarse hacia la transformación social, utiliza indistintamente técnicas de recogidas de datos cualitativas y cuantitativas. La guerra de paradigmas (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005) ya no tiene sentido, la utilización exclusivamente de técnicas cualitativas haciendo eco de la inutilidad de las cuantitativas y a la inversa carece de sentido. Cada vez son más los y las investigadoras que pasan a utilizar una combinación de ambos tipos de técnicas de recogida de datos (Tashakkori & Creswell, 2007; Hesse-Biber, 2010; Mertens, 2011). Las diversas investigaciones desarrolladas por CREA desde inicios de los años 90 ya denotaban esa orientación. Lo importante era y es contribuir al avance de las ciencias sociales contando con la colaboración directa de las personas “investigadas” en todas las fases de la investigación y lograr con ello una transformación social. El carácter de las técnicas pasa a ser “secundario” y toma mayor importancia el cómo se organiza la investigación para lograr un impacto político y social que contribuya a la superación de desigualdades. Después de más de 20 años utilizando metodología comunicativa de investigación, se han ido perfeccionando las técnicas de recogida de datos, así como el análisis de la información y la organización del propio proceso investigador. Todas las técnicas que se utilizan se llevan a cabo con orientación comunicativa y además de ello existen técnicas que son propiamente comunicativas. Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 47 Organización comunicativa La organización comunicativa asegura que los resultados que surgen de la investigación partan de una interpretación dual de la realidad. El conocimiento científico propio del mundo del sistema se pone a disposición de las personas “investigadas”. Investigar con una orientación comunicativa implica tener presente que las personas “investigadas” deben ser partícipes de la investigación en todo momento. Por ello, es necesario poner en funcionamiento una organización comunicativa que lo facilite. La participación los sujetos, a diferencia de cómo habitualmente se lleva a cabo desde la investigación acción, se desarrolla aunando mundo del sistema y mundo de la vida. Tanto en las técnicas de recogida de datos comunicativas como en la plasmación de los resultados finales del proyecto se combina el conocimiento académico acumulado (mundo del sistema) y las interpretaciones que realizan las personas sobre el mismo (mundo de la vida). En proyectos de investigación y desarrollo como WORKALÓ (CREA, 2001-2004) e INCLUD-ED (CREA, 2006-2011) se crearon mecanismos que aseguraban esa participación, como fueron el consejo asesor, los grupos multiculturales de trabajo o la generación de espacios de diálogo igualitario que facilitaban la obtención de resultados encaminados a las transformación social. El consejo asesor es un organismo que se encuentra formado por representantes del equipo de investigación y por personas pertenecientes a los colectivos que son “estudiados”. El principal objetivo de este consejo es validar los resultados que se van obteniendo en el transcurso de la investigación y guiar en todo el proceso investigador. Para que ello sea posible, se selecciona a personas de esos colectivos que realmente se encuentran en condiciones reales de desigualdad y exclusión. No se trata de fomentar la participación del presidente de una asociación gitana o magrebí, sino de que participen personas gitanas o magrebíes que se encuentran en esa casuística. Las interacciones que se producen entre el personal investigador y esas personas generan resultados fidedignos, interpretaciones de la realidad basadas en la ciencia y el sentido común. Permite, por ejemplo, 48 A. Gómez, G. Siles, & M. Tejedor - Metodología Comunicativa validar informes relativos a la revisión de la literatura científica que, en ocasiones, al existir teorías e investigaciones exclusoras que se revisan para ser incluidas en esos informes, pueden llegar a distorsionar la correcta interpretación de la realidad de esos colectivos. Ellos y ellas mismas leen y analizan el contenido de esos informes y valoran si reflejan correctamente su situación. En el proyecto AMAL: inmigración y mercado laboral (CREA, 20022005) se creó un equipo multicultural de investigación en el cual participaron miembros de los colectivos analizados, factor que facilitó la labor de investigación de manera ostensible. En el diseño de las técnicas de recogida de datos tanto cualitativas como cuantitativas fue fundamental contar con la voz de estas personas, ya que se aseguró la idoneidad de todas las técnicas. A su vez, también participaron en la administración del cuestionario, siendo clave su presencia, ya que muchas de las personas que respondieron al mismo no disponían de papeles y su situación precaria dificultaba poder acceder a ellas. Técnicas de recogida y análisis de datos comunicativas La metodología comunicativa utiliza tres técnicas que son propiamente comunicativas: el relato de vida comunicativo, el grupo de discusión comunicativo y la observación comunicativa. Dentro del proyecto INCLUD-ED (CREA, 2006-2011) se han utilizado las tres técnicas de recogida de datos, junto con la utilización también de cuestionarios y entrevistas supervisadas mediante organización comunicativa. Las técnicas de recogida de datos comunicativas se han concretado partiendo de la base teórica que sustenta la metodología comunicativa de investigación. Teniendo presente sus postulados, las tres técnicas obtienen la interpretación de la realidad mediante la combinación del bagaje teórico sobre la problemática estudiada y las opiniones de las personas entrevistadas. El personal investigador que lleva a cabo un relato o un grupo de discusión comunicativo aporta al diálogo con las personas “investigadas” los datos que posee sobre el problema de investigación, es decir, pone a disposición de las personas participantes el conocimiento previo acumulado. De esta forma, cualquiera de las personas que participa en el grupo de discusión o la persona a la cual se Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 49 le hace el relato, puede ligar estos datos con su experiencia práctica, con su día a día. La interpretación de la realidad es dialógica y no dialéctica, como sucede en el caso de la investigación acción, investigación acción participativa o evaluativa (Gómez, Racionero y Sordé, 2010). Para que la interpretación de la realidad sea adecuada es necesario asegurar el rol que cada persona tiene en la recogida de datos. Que se potencien espacios de diálogo igualitario no significa que los actores implicados estén todos al mismo nivel o que se diluyan sus objetivos. El personal investigador mantiene su rol de persona conocedora de la problemática y apunta los principales datos con los que cuenta. A su vez, los actores sociales aportan toda su experiencia sobre la cuestión, sus sensaciones o creencias. Cada cual tiene su rol y debe mantenerse si se quiere obtener una interpretación adecuada de la realidad (Gómez, Latorre, Sánchez y Flecha, 2006). Otra característica que tienen en común estas tres técnicas es el retorno de la información a las personas participantes en la realización de lo comúnmente llamado “segunda vuelta”. Después de transcribir y llevar a cabo una primera interpretación de la información se vuelve a quedar con las personas mediante las cuales se ha obtenido esa primera visión y se contrasta de nuevo. Nuevamente, la consecución de la interpretación final se lleva a cabo de manera dialógica, aunando teoría y práctica de manera simultánea y no de manera dialéctica. Las técnicas comunicativas requieren volver con las personas investigadas para continuar el diálogo con el objetivo de conseguir mejores interpretaciones compartidas de la realidad y rechazar explicaciones parciales e inexactas de la realidad y las soluciones del pueblo gitano. La idea no es buscar la aprobación sino construir conocimiento conjuntamente (Gómez & Vargas, 2003, p. 377). El análisis de datos comunicativo se realiza partiendo siempre de dos dimensiones de análisis, la exclusora y la transformadora. La dimensión exclusora contiene todas aquellas opiniones, sensaciones, creencias,… que nos aportan los sujetos sociales que nos llevan a identificar los elementos que reproducen o incluso incrementan la situación de exclusión en la cual se encuentran los grupos vulnerables. Por su parte, 50 A. Gómez, G. Siles, & M. Tejedor - Metodología Comunicativa la dimensión transformadora incluye toda aquella información que nos permite identificar maneras, caminos para superar esas situaciones de exclusión. De esta forma, el análisis se encamina no solo hacia la interpretación de la realidad sino a su propia transformación. Las dos dimensiones guían el análisis del contenido, que siempre variará en función de la temática de estudio. En este caso, al igual que en otros enfoques, se establecen cuáles serán las categorías que nos permitirán llevar a cabo el análisis de la información. A continuación plasmamos un cuadro de análisis de datos comunicativo que fue utilizado en el proyecto INCLUD-ED para ejemplificar su funcionamiento. Tabla 1 Cuadro de análisis comunicativo Características e influencia de la participación en diferentes aspectos y contextos educativos Aprendizaje Socialización Organizaciones Participación Interacción , valores y y gestión y procesos de con coexistencia difusión organizaciones locales y la Dimensión exclusora Dimensión transformadora Mujer (a); joven (b); inmigrantes (c); minorías culturales (d); personas con discapacidades (e) 1 5 7 3 9 2 4 6 8 10 Como se observa, las dimensiones atraviesan las categorías. Cada una de esas categorías, en este caso relacionadas con procesos de participación en contextos educativos, puede contener información exclusora o transformadora, dependiendo del contenido que la persona “investigada” haya proporcionado. A su vez, se añadieron las variables relativas a mujeres, jóvenes, inmigrantes, minorías culturales y personas Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 51 con discapacidad porque eran muy significativas para el análisis de la información final (se trataba de variables transversales, que debían tenerse presentes a lo largo de todo el proyecto). De esta forma, se puede presentar la información partiendo de las barreras que reproducen la exclusión (dimensión exclusora) para luego plantear como superarlas (dimensión transformadora) para cada una de las categorías de análisis. Esta forma de analizar y presentar la información facilita la consecución de un mayor impacto político y social de los resultados. Impacto político y social La utilización de metodología comunicativa de investigación ha demostrado tener una gran utilidad en términos de impacto político y social. En proyectos como WORKALÓ (CREA, 2001-2004) e INCLUD-ED (CREA, 2006-2011) se ha conseguido que el Parlamento Europeo apruebe por unanimidad algunas resoluciones que favorecen a los grupos vulnerables con los cuales se ha estado investigando desde una perspectiva comunicativa. El proyecto WORKALÓ se organizó de manera comunicativa. Se creó un consejo asesor a través del cual se iban validando los resultados y dando nuevas orientaciones para el desarrollo del mismo. Se utilizaron técnicas de recogida de datos comunicativas, a las cuales el personal investigador incorporó los principales aportes de la teoría que había sido trabajada previamente. A través de un diálogo igualitario e intersubjetivo con las personas “investigadas” se alcanzaron unos resultados que combinaban el bagaje científico acumulado sobre la materia y la visión de las personas gitanas, siendo validados además por el consejo asesor. Los resultados fueron presentados en el Parlamento Europeo en el año 2004, siguiendo la misma orientación comunicativa que había guiado la investigación. Así pues, se dieron cita en el Parlamento europarlamentarios de diversos grupos políticos, personal investigador y personas gitanas sin estudios académicos que habían participado durante la investigación (desde su inicio hasta el final). Se estableció un espacio de diálogo igualitario donde confluyeron las argumentaciones 52 A. Gómez, G. Siles, & M. Tejedor - Metodología Comunicativa de unos y otros. Una parlamentaria europea que acudió al acto presentó meses después una moción al Parlamento Europeo sobre el reconocimiento del pueblo gitano que fue aprobada por unanimidad en abril del año 2005 (European Parliament, 2005). A su vez, un europarlamentario español, hizo lo propio llevando una propuesta de reconocimiento de la comunidad gitana en España al Parlamento Español, donde fue aprobada nuevamente por unanimidad en septiembre de 2005 (Congreso de los Diputados, 2005). Este impacto político incide también posteriormente en el ámbito social. Fruto de ese trabajo se creó en España el Consejo Estatal del Pueblo Gitano, donde participan las organizaciones gitanas más importantes en España. Se trata de la primera vez que el Gobierno Español potencia un órgano consultivo que desarrolla políticas para la comunidad gitana, siendo el propio pueblo gitano el que decide a través de las personas que representan a las asociaciones. En el proyecto INCLUD-ED se desarrolló un estudio de caso longitudinal entre 2006 y 2011 en dos centros educativos que funcionan como Comunidades de Aprendizaje. Estos centros se caracterizan por estar abiertos a la participación de la comunidad en todos los espacios y buscan los mejores resultados educativos para todo el alumnado, trabajando desde los principios del aprendizaje dialógico y de manera totalmente inclusiva. Cada año se fueron recogiendo datos, tanto cualitativos como cuantitativos con una orientación comunicativa. De manera previa, se llevó a cabo un estado de la cuestión que abordó diversas problemáticas educativas y sus posibles soluciones. Bajo una perspectiva comunicativa se explota la literatura de manera que se tienen en cuenta tanto las teorías que reproducen las desigualdades como las que las superan, remarcando finalmente las teorías que explican el cambio y la transformación social (las que contribuyen a la mejora de las personas que pertenecen a grupos vulnerables). La información teórica más relevante fue contrastada con la opinión de las personas a través de grupos de discusión comunicativos, relatos de vida comunicativos y entrevistas en profundidad. A su vez, esta información se contrastó con la que proporcionaban los cuestionarios que fueron pasados a familiares, alumnado y voluntariado y con las Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 53 pruebas de competencias efectuadas al alumnado. Al verter la teoría de manera dialógica en el transcurso de todo el trabajo de campo y poder contrastar los datos cuantitativos con los cualitativos se obtuvieron unos resultados que cuestionaban algunas afirmaciones llevadas a cabo desde algunas teorías e investigaciones que fomentan la exclusión social en la que se encuentra la comunidad gitana y árabe-musulmana en España. Una idea comúnmente extendida en nuestro país es la relación existente entre los resultados académicos que obtiene el alumnado en un centro y la concentración de población inmigrante en el mismo. Habitualmente se afirma que a mayor número de alumnado inmigrante en un centro peores resultados se obtienen (hacen bajar el nivel). En una de las comunidades de aprendizaje donde se llevó a cabo el estudio de caso se compararon los resultados obtenidos por el alumnado en el año 2006 con los obtenidos posteriormente y de manera paralela se comparó como había ido evolucionando el porcentaje de alumnado inmigrante que había en el centro. Los resultados denotan una clara mejora de los resultados académicos del alumnado y como el porcentaje de alumnado inmigrante no dejó de incrementarse (Flecha, García, Gómez, y Latorre, 2009). De esta forma, se desmienten argumentaciones basadas en rumorología y no en hechos y datos científicos. La explicación de los buenos resultados radica, tal y como se extrae del trabajo de campo, de las actuaciones educativas de éxito llevadas a cabo en el centro, que permiten acelerar el aprendizaje de los niños y niñas. Dichas actuaciones fueron concretadas a través de la investigación comunicativa llevada a cabo en INCLUD-ED y sus principales características y valor radican en la transferibilidad y universalidad. Pueden ser aplicadas en otros contextos educativos internacionales y también en otros ámbitos. Estos resultados, entre otros, fueron presentados en el Parlamento Europeo el 6 de diciembre de 2011. Nuevamente, tanto el funcionamiento como la presentación de resultados se llevaron a cabo bajo una perspectiva comunicativa. En el Parlamento se dieron cita europarlamentarios, personal investigador y personas pertenecientes a los grupos vulnerables. Las presentaciones más impactantes fueron las 54 A. Gómez, G. Siles, & M. Tejedor - Metodología Comunicativa de un padre gitano, una niña de diez años y la de una mujer gitana, es decir, las representantes de las personas “investigadas”. La niña de diez años explicó cómo trabajan en grupos interactivos y en las tertulias literarias dialógicas en su Comunidad de Aprendizaje. Estas son dos de las actuaciones de éxito detectadas a través del trabajo de INCLUD-ED que permiten mejorar los resultados académicos de los y las niñas. Al término de su presentación, uno de los europarlamentarios con los que compartía la mesa, dijo que había sido la mejor intervención que había visto en el Parlamento desde que él es miembro, denotando el enorme potencial que tenía la niña, fruto precisamente de la aplicación de esas actuaciones educativas de éxito. El padre gitano explicó el cambio que significó en su vida colaborar como voluntario en la Comunidad de Aprendizaje de Albacete. De estar en la cárcel ha pasado a trabajar para una cooperativa ubicada en el barrio. La profesora de su hijo, al ver que éste prácticamente no seguía las clases debido a que su padre estaba en la cárcel, fue a hablar con los responsables de la prisión para que le dejaran salir y colaborar en la escuela. A partir de ese momento, se implica en diversas actividades del centro y se va formando y este hecho repercute positivamente en los resultados académicos de sus hijos. Al generarse un espacio de diálogo igualitario en el Parlamento, donde todas estas personas podían exponer sus argumentos, se generó un avance en el conocimiento científico que de otra manera no hubiera sido posible. Son las propias personas implicadas las que cuentan sus experiencias de lucha y transformación, experiencias que se basan en un trabajo científico previo que sienta las bases de la futura transformación de estas personas y de su entorno. Así pues, la investigación comunicativa permite obtener resultados con un enorme impacto social y político y romper con estereotipos racistas, cuestionando las teorías exclusoras de los que se hacen llamar expertos en cultura gitana y otras culturas minoritarias. La transformación social es posible si aunamos ciencia e ilusión. Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 55 Referencias Beck, U., Giddens, A., & Lash, S. (1994). Reflexive Modernization. Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Cambridge: Polity Press. Beck, U. (1998). World Risk Society. Cambridge: Polity Press. Cavalli-Sforza, L., & Cavalli-Sforza, F. (1994). ¿Quiénes somos? Historia de la diversidad humana. Barcelona: Editorial Crítica. Cole, M., & Scribner, S. (1977). Cultura y pensamiento. Relación de los procesos cognitivos con la cultura. México: Limusa. Congreso de los Diputados. (2005). Proposición no de ley relativa al reconocimiento de los derechos del pueblo gitano. Diario de sesiones del Congreso de los Diputado s. Legislatura VIII, 27 de septiembre de 2005, nº114, 5761–5768. Retrived from: http://www.congreso.es/public_oficiales/L8/CONG/DS/PL/PL_1 14.PDF CREA. (2006-2011). INCLUD-ED. Strategies for inclusion and social cohesion from education in Europe. Integrated Project, Priority 7 of the Sixth Framework Programme. CREA. (2002-2005). AMAL: Inmigración y mercado laboral. Plan Nacional I+D+I. Programa de socioeconomía. Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología. Secretaría de Estado de Política Científica y Tecnología. CREA. (2001-2004). WORKALÓ. The creation ofNew occupational patterns for cultural minorities. The Gypsy case. RTD. FP5. DG XII. Improving the Socio-economic Knowledge Base. Denzin, N., & Lincoln, I. (2008). Strategies ofQualitative Inquiry. Third edition . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Denzin, N., & Lincoln, I. (2005). The Sage handbook ofQualitative Research. Third edition . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Denzin, N., & Lincoln, I. (1998). Landscape ofqualitative research. Theories and issues. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. European Parliament. (2005). Resolution on the situation of the Romà in the European Union, P6_TA-PROV (2005) 0151. Retrived from: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type= TA&reference=P6-TA-2005-0151&language=EN 56 A. Gómez, G. Siles, & M. Tejedor - Metodología Comunicativa Flecha, R. & Gómez, J. (2004). Participatory Paradigms: Researching ‘with’ rather than ‘on’. In B. Crossan, J. Gallacher & M. Osborne (eds.) Researching Widening Access: Issues and approaches in an international context. (pp. 129-140). London: Routledge. Flecha, A., García, R., Gómez, A., y Latorre, A. (2009). Participación en las escuelas de éxito: una investigación comunicativa del proyecto Includ-ed. C&E: Cultura y Educación, 21 (2), 183-196. Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies in Ethnomethodology. New York: Prentice-Hall. Gómez, A., Racionero, S., & Sordé, T. (2010). Ten years of critical communicative methodology. International Review ofQualitative Research, 3 (1), 17-44. Gómez, J., Latorre, A., Sánchez, M., & Flecha, R. (2006). Metodología comunicativa crítica. Barcelona: Hipatia. Gómez, J., & Vargas, J. (2003). Why romà do not like mainstream schools: Voices of a people without territory. Harvard Educational Review, 73 (4), 559-590. Habermas, J. (1987). Teoría de la acción comunicativa I: Racionalidad de la acción y racionalización social; II: Crítica de la razón fundamentalista. Madrid: Taurus. Hesse-Biber, S. N. (2010). Mixed methods research: Merging theory with method. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Luria, A.R. (1987). Desarrollo histórico de los procesos cognitivos. Madrid: Akal. Macías, F., Redondo, G. (2012). Pueblo gitano, género y educación: investigar para excluir o investigar para transformar. International Journal ofSociology ofEducation, 1 (1), 71-92. doi:10.4471/rise.2012.04 Mead, G.H. (1934/1990). Espíritu, persona y sociedad. México: Paidós. Mertens, D. M. (2011). Mixed methods as tools for social change. Journal ofMixed Methods Research, 5, 195-197. Schütz, A. (1967). The Phenomenology ofthe Social World. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. Schütz, A. (1993). La construcción significativa del mundo social. Barcelona: Paidós. Schwandt, T.A. (1997). Qualitative inquiry: A distionary ofterms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 57 Sordé, T. (2006). Les reivinidicacions de educatives de la dona gitana. Cabrera de Mar: Edicions Galerada/Institut Català de les Dones. Tashakkori, A. & Creswell, J. W. (2007). The New Era of Mixed Methods. Journal ofMixed Methods Research, 1 (1), 3-7. Touraine, A., Wieviorka, M., Flecha, R. (2004). Conocimiento e identidad. Barcelona: El Roure. Notas 1 Ver: http://creaub. info Aitor Gómez is Assistant Professor at Departament of Pedagogy, Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Gregor Siles is Ph D. Candidate at Departament ofTheory and History of Education, Universitat de Barcelona. María Tejedor is Assistant Professor at Teachers College-Palencia. Universidad de Valladolid Contact Address: Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación y Prsicología, Campus Sescelades - Ctra. de Valls, s/n 43007 Tarragona, Spain. Email: [email protected] Instructions for authors, subscriptions and further details: http://qre.hipatiapress.com Reflexionando en torno a la investigación educativa. Una mirada crítica desde la auto etnografía de un docente Enrique Rivera García1 1) Departamento de Expresión Musical, Plástica y Corporal, Universidad de Granada, Spain. Date of publication: June 30th, 2012 To cite this article: Rivera García, E. (2012). Reflexionando en torno a la investigación educativa. Una mirada crítica desde la auto etnografía de un docente. Qualitative Research in Education, 1(1), 5879. doi: 10.4471/qre.2012.03 To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.4471/qre.2012.03 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System and to Creative Commons NonCommercial and NonDerivative License. Qualitative Research in Education Vol. 1 N. 1 June 2012 pp. 58-79 Reflecting on Educational Research. A Critical Sight from the Autoethnography of a Teacher Enrique Rivera García Universidad de Granada Abstract Reflect on lived experience is an excellent strategy to build knowledge. The text presented intended to be above all a provocation, a thing aimed to encourage the professors from the Faculties of Education, especially young people, to stop themselves, if only for a few minutes in order to reflect on the meaning of educational research. Do not look at it in other way. Here are the experiences of a teacher after thirty years of work at school, high school and college. Reflecting on the autoethnography as educational researcher, I wanted to approach my mistakes, successes and implicit theories. From here, I only have questions that, asked to the community, I want these questions to open a debate about what kind of research needs school and how, from the collaboration, we can all contribute to its improvement. Keywords: education, research, interdisciplinary, autoethnography 2012 Hipatia Press ISSN 2014-6418 DOI: 10.4471/qre.2012.03 Qualitative Research in Education Vol. 1 N. 1 June 2012 pp. 58-79 Reflexionando en Torno a la Investigación Educativa. Una Mirada Crítica desde la Auto Etnografía de un Docente Enrique Rivera García Universidad de Granada Resumen Reflexionar desde la experiencia vivida es una excelente estrategia para construir conocimiento. El texto que se presenta pretende ser ante todo una provocación, un resorte que impulse a los docentes universitarios de las facultades de Ciencias de la Educación, especialmente a los jóvenes, a detenerse, aunque sólo sea por unos minutos, a reflexionar sobre el sentido de la investigación educativa. No lo miren con otros ojos. Son las vivencias de un docente después de treinta años de trabajo en el colegio, el instituto y la universidad. Reflexionando desde la auto etnografía como investigador educativo, he querido acercarme a mis errores, aciertos y teorías implícitas. Desde aquí, sólo me han quedado interrogantes que, planteados a la comunidad, quiero que sirvan para abrir un debate sobre qué investigación necesita la escuela y cómo, desde la colaboración, podemos contribuir a su mejora. Palabras claves: educación, investigación, interdisciplinar, auto etnografía 2012 Hipatia Press ISSN 2014-6418 DOI: 10.4471/qre.2012.03 60 E. Rivera - Reflexionando en Torno a la Investigación Educativa A Al iniciar este artículo pensé que la mejor forma de expresar cómo entiendo la investigación en el ámbito educativo podría ser narrando mi pequeña y modesta historia de vida como investigador a través de una auto etnografía (Berger y Ellis, 2002; Ellis y Bochner, 2000; Feliu, 2007; Sparkes, 2002). ¡Vaya palabra más importante: INVESTIGADOR! Sí, con mayúsculas, porque cuando decimos que una persona, además de mortal, investiga, rápidamente se nos vienen a la cabeza personas muy ilustres. Si tienen alguna duda sobre lo que estoy diciendo, bastaría salir a la calle y preguntar a la gente para que te digan tres nombres de personas a los que etiquetaría como investigadores. Se imaginan las respuestas. Seguro que están pensando lo mismo que yo. Bien, pues ahora comprenderán que, cuando me puse a determinar el punto de arranque de mi historia de vida investigadora, lo primero que se me ocurrió fue comenzar a rememorar mis inicios como alumno de doctorado allá por los primeros años de los 90; pero al pronto me paré y me pregunté: ¿entonces, en mis anteriores doce años de dedicación a la docencia no he sido investigador? Ante esta pregunta se encendió una pequeña luz en mi cerebro y recordé una de las frases mágicas de los tiempos de la reforma educativa: el docente tiene que ser investigador de su práctica (Stenhouse, 1984; Schwab, 1969). Propuesta que posteriormente se está recogiendo en el ámbito de la Educación Superior, especialmente desde la inmersión obligada en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) y todas las secuelas que está provocando a efectos de metodología docente (Castillo, 2006). Los años de la ilusión Pero volvamos al relato. En aquellos años, finales de los 80, a un simple profesor de Educación Física se le estaba diciendo que no solo tenía que poner los ladrillos del conocimiento generado por mentes privilegiadas, además, tenía que “investigar”. Observar lo que pasaba en el aula, describirlo, analizarlo, compararlo y, a partir de las conclusiones, ser capaz de elaborar una propuesta que mejorara lo que aquellas mentes privilegiadas habían diseñado después de largas horas de estudio e Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 61 investigación. Al mismo tiempo, me sentí abrumado y halagado por la confianza que se había depositado en mi persona. ¿Dónde estaba el problema? Evidentemente en que el cambio propuesto no suponía una reducción del horario lectivo del docente. Se pretendía lograr el tres por uno (docente, gestor e investigador), pero manteniendo las mismas condiciones laborales. ¿De dónde saldrían los tiempos para la formación?, ¿supondría este esfuerzo una subida salarial?, ¿bajaría la dedicación lectiva?, ¿qué tiempos se reconocerían para la investigación? Estas y otras preguntas sin resolver que se hace el docente, son las que provocan el fracaso del nuevo modelo. La verdad es que no sé si por juventud, deseos de aprender, inexperiencia o porque aún los dardos venenosos en mi incipiente mimetización con el contexto profesional no habían surtido el efecto deseado (Santos Guerra, 2007), el caso es que me animé a ser investigador en mi aula. En mis años de práctica profesional como profesor de Educación Física, en lo que hoy podríamos considerar la etapa de Secundaria y Bachillerato, tuve una obsesión. Mis alumnos y alumnas tenían que lograr al final del proceso de cuatro años, no sólo alcanzar un mínimo de adherencia a la práctica de actividad física, sino que además de “saber hacer”, tenían que ser conscientes de ¿qué estaban haciendo? y ¿por qué y para qué lo hacían? Arnold (1991). Desde esta inquietud fui pionero en la incorporación del aprendizaje de conceptos, hechos y principios en mis clases, propuesta que, iniciada en 1983, culmina en 1991 con el “Proyecto Cronos” (Barrera et at, 1991; Rivera et al., 1991 y Trigueros y Rivera, 1991). Mi labor de investigador de mi propia práctica me lleva progresivamente a ir desplazando la responsabilidad en el aprendizaje del docente al estudiante, que pasa de ser agente pasivo y receptáculo de un aprendizaje bancario, a convertirse en una persona activa que diseña, aplica y evalúa sus propias propuestas en el aula, (Bautier, Charlot, Rochex, 2000; Freire, 1999; Jonnaert, 2001 y Jonnaert, Vander Borght, 1999). ¿Le suenan a algo las cuatro últimas líneas? Coincidirán conmigo que perfectamente podrían pertenecer a cualquier publicación sobre metodología docente universitaria en el EEES. Pero prosigamos con el relato. Estaba orgulloso de mis descubrimientos y especialmente de la actitud de mis estudiantes hacia 62 E. Rivera - Reflexionando en Torno a la Investigación Educativa la asignatura. Por fin, después de largos años en los que éramos conocidos más por el apodo: “la maría”, que por el nombre, la tendencia estaba cambiando. Además, veía que mi propuesta tenía alcance fuera de mis aulas y comenzaba a ser utilizada por otros colegas. No sólo había logrado, después de una década de paciente investigación basada en el ensayo-error, cambiar mi práctica; es que además había “impactado”, de forma modesta, pero impactado. ¡Qué palabra más bonita!, especialmente para los investigadores universitarios. Pero tiempo tendremos de hablar del impacto, que pienso merece un capítulo aparte en mi relato. Había logrado cumplir las exigencias de Stenhouse (1984) y de la Administración, y convertirme en un auténtico y genuino “docente Logse”. Era investigador de mi propia práctica. La verdad, es que en los años noventa aún no sabía quién era esa persona tan importante para la investigación educativa, pero daba igual, para eso estaban nuestros “referentes autóctonos” de la pedagogía y el currículum, para traernos el néctar del conocimiento producido en las más prestigiosas universidades del mundo. Impactando contra el muro del statu quo La alegría suele durar poco en la casa del pobre. Animado por mi nuevo status de investigador pensé que mi formación no podía limitarse a haber logrado una licenciatura, aprobar una oposición y a hacer un puñado de cursos de actualización; me veía con fuerzas para emprender algo importante, para dar un salto de calidad. Esta nueva energía que me invadía la terminé canalizando en la realización de los cursos de doctorado. Empresa que no me resultó fácil, ya que los de mi propia sangre, los que sentía como propios me rechazaron y tuve que buscar refugio, bendito refugio, en un programa de Didáctica General. El porqué del rechazo merecería ser contado, pero esto lo dejaremos para otro momento, ya que la endogamia universitaria no es el tema que nos ocupa. Al comenzar los estudios de doctorado, la sensación de ser un docente investigador, en este caso de mi propia práctica, comenzó a disolverse a la misma velocidad que iba recibiendo los cursos del programa de doctorado. En ellos me dejaron muy claro que Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 63 INVESTIGAR era otra cosa. Que todo debía estar “sistematizado” y debía ajustarse a una norma previamente escrita: EL MÉTODO CIENTÍFICO, en el que estaba perfectamente detallado los pasos que se debían dar para que una investigación tuviera validez (tanto interna como externa). Yo me comencé a preguntar, ¿entonces, todo mi trabajo de los últimos doce años qué es? La respuesta fue inmediata, eso es “innovación”, que es parecido pero no comparable a la INVESTIGACIÓN. En definitiva, que de un plumazo me bajaron de primera a segunda división, pero eso sí, con grandes probabilidades de ascenso si era dócil y me adaptaba lo antes posible al método científico. Al finalizar los cursos de doctorado, la victoria del positivismo fue rotunda. Se impuso la verdad absoluta, frente a la relativa; la observación sistemática frente a la percepción; el contexto controlado y generalizable frente a la diversidad (Sandín, 2003; Tójar, 2006; Vasilachis, 1992). A pesar de todo, mi espíritu inconformista y mi situación laboral en la universidad (funcionario de Secundaria en comisión de servicio) me permitieron un alto grado de libertad para elegir. Mi apuesta se decantó por el perdedor: el paradigma interpretativo. Gran error, sin ser consciente de lo que había hecho, había firmado prácticamente mi expulsión del paraíso, traducido en un sistemático “No” a poder publicar en las revistas adjetivadas como de “impacto”. La verdad es que en aquellos momentos, eran otros tiempos, mis necesidades no iban por las publicaciones, mi objetivo se orientaba a hacer la tesis doctoral, que me permitiría alcanzar el grado de doctor. Ni yo supe, y nadie me hizo ver, la importancia de publicar para poder aspirar a elevarme en el escalafón universitario. ¡Igual que ahora!, que algunos tienen en su currículum colaboraciones y publicaciones de investigación realizadas cuando sólo eran un simple embrión en el útero materno. Pero desde lo fácil que es mirar hacia atrás, tengo que reconocer que me faltó un mentor que supiera orientarme en esos primeros pasos como docente universitario. Alguien que me dijera que mi condición universitaria era la de PDI (Personal Docente e Investigador). Yo, en esos momentos, era prácticamente un noventa por ciento docente frente a un diez por ciento investigador. Siete largos años estuve como Sísifo cargando la pesada piedra de la 64 E. Rivera - Reflexionando en Torno a la Investigación Educativa tesis doctoral. Lo comparo con el mito de Sísifo porque, coincidiendo con Camus (1942), podría decir que, a efectos de investigación, la tesis fue un esfuerzo absurdo (como tantas otras cosas que realizamos en post de nuestro desarrollo profesional). Reconocida con Premio Extraordinario, no generó ni una sola publicación, evidentemente la culpa fue mía, pero quiero hacer mención a este aspecto para que puedan tomar conciencia de hasta qué punto no exageraba cuando hacía mención a la desproporción de mi perfil docente e investigador en esa etapa de mi desarrollo profesional como profesor universitario. A efectos prácticos me fue de gran utilidad, ya que me abrió la posibilidad de consolidar mi status y optar a una plaza de Titular de Universidad. Además me consolidó en una línea y metodología de investigación en la que aún me sigo desarrollando, a pesar de las dificultades que tengo para poder publicar en revistas de prestigio, mayoritariamente gobernadas por unos consejos de redacción y unos revisores que presentan un alto grado de escepticismo, ante todo aquello que venga plateado desde modelos cualitativos o enfoques holísticos. Despertando a la realidad. Defenderse sin claudicar Evidentemente la necesidad hace virtud. Cuando el listón de la universidad se eleva para dirigir tesis, cuando la posibilidad de impartir docencia de posgrado pasa por tener (no por normativa pero sí por necesidad de acreditación) tramos de investigación, cuando descubres que los colegas reconocen tus conocimientos, pero les cuesta contar contigo para una propuesta de posgrado oficial, ya que no aportas tramos a la solicitud. Ante la pérdida evidente de status en mi trabajo, inicio el tránsito por las etapas del duelo que describe Kübler-Ross (2006). En un primer momento lo niego, esto no puede ser posible. ¿Cómo no me van a dejar dirigir tesis doctorales después de haber tutelado ocho tesis y diez suficiencias investigadoras? Pero si llevo más de veinte cursos de doctorado sobre modelos de investigación cualitativa, no es lógico que ahora me digan que no puedo hacerlo porque no tengo un tramo. Rápidamente, paso a la rabia. De acuerdo, si esa es la norma me parece muy bien; que no cuenten conmigo, que los que tienen tramos sean los que se dediquen a ¿Cuándo se produce mi despertar a la investigación? Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 65 impartir posgrado y a dirigir tesis doctorales. Pero estos primeros momentos no dejan nada más que paso a un tiempo de reflexión que desemboca en una negociación íntima. Comienzo a buscar posibles salidas, soluciones que me puedan equilibrar emocionalmente, pero la verdad es que son difíciles de encontrar. Lo normal es que, situado frente al muro, sin escalas ni herramientas para superarlo, caigas en la depresión, te vengas abajo, bajes los brazos y decidas que, si no me quieren como investigador, tampoco me van a encontrar como docente. Es el momento de la amenaza (luego nunca se cumple, porque tu ética y tu compromiso no te lo permite), pero al menos lo piensas y lo expresas en los círculos más íntimos. A partir de este momento me voy a dedicar a hacer lo mismo que aquellos (no todos) que tienen brillantes currículum de investigación, pero que pasan de la docencia como de la peste. Pasado el tiempo, cuando la depresión comienza a remitir, inicio el camino hacia la aceptación. Analizo el problema, busco con objetividad las posibles soluciones y comienzo a buscar nuevamente el equilibrio perdido. La verdad es que comienzo a aceptar lo inevitable, los tiempos cambian, cambian las prioridades y hay que saber adaptarse. No quisiera que interpretaran a partir del párrafo anterior que me he vuelto un adicto a la publicación de impacto, ni mucho menos, creo que es un modelo perverso y totalmente injusto con aquellas áreas del conocimiento (como la mía), que no pueden adaptarse al modelo experimental porque su objeto de investigación difícilmente puede partir de hipótesis previas y en muchas ocasiones ni tan siquiera de objetivos de investigación. Nuestros sujetos son personas, no muestras ni poblaciones, y las variables independientes son los atributos que a fuego lento han ido marcando el contexto en el que están viviendo sus experiencias de aprendizaje. Y nosotros pensando que podemos controlar todas las emociones, sentimientos, teorías y creencias que han ido construyendo. Mucho me temo que para ello debiéramos ser dioses en vez de investigadores. Pero continuemos con el relato. ¿Qué pasó a continuación de pasar por mi duelo investigador? Ni más ni menos que lo que tenía que pasar. La reflexión me llevó al análisis y este provocó en mí la necesidad de reafirmarme en mis principios como investigador, que viene a ser lo mismo que permanecer fiel al paradigma en el que creo, a pesar de ser 66 E. Rivera - Reflexionando en Torno a la Investigación Educativa consciente de las limitaciones a que me tendría que enfrentar. Continué dirigiendo tesis doctorales; el único inconveniente ha sido tener que justificar mi capacidad investigadora ante la Comisión de Doctorado con cada uno de los Planes de Trabajo que presento. Bueno, tan poco es para tanto, a pesar de sentirme claramente discriminado frente a colegas que no tienen nada que justificar, porque poseen la “Q” de calidad que otorga ser poseedor de un tramo de investigación reconocido. Eso sí, no he cedido ni cederé a codirigir una tesis doctoral con un colega “Q” por imposición de ninguna normativa. Curiosamente, me siguen demandando para impartir docencia relacionada con el análisis de datos cualitativos en la investigación social en diferentes posgrados oficiales de mi universidad y fuera de ella. Resumiendo, me mantengo en la misma línea y modelo de investigación que siempre me ha atraído. Antes ya lo comentaba. Desde que comencé en el mundo de la docencia, mis inquietudes investigadoras se han orientado hacia el análisis de los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje. ¿Qué piensan mis colegas?, ¿cómo afrontan el reto de la docencia ante sus estudiantes?, ¿cuáles son los sentimientos y creencias de mis alumnos?, ¿cómo mejorar los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje?, etc. El problema es que mis respuestas no las encuentro desde la utilización de investigaciones cuasi-experimentales o descriptivas. Nunca he llegado a creer en la posibilidad de garantizar la validez interna o externa y mucho menos de ofrecer un modelo generalizable y universal. Lo siento, reconozco mis limitaciones, pero me parece imposible poder trabajar en “campana de vacío” cuando los sujetos son personas. Siempre me he quedado con la duda ante un cuestionario si marcar el valor tres o el cuatro, aunque sí hubiera sido capaz de marcar el tres y medio si hubiera existido y explicar el porqué de mi respuesta. Por ello decidí continuar mis investigaciones desde estrategias dialógicas, indagando en el fondo de las percepciones, creencias y teorías que construyen del mundo y sus experiencias las personas que desean colaborar conmigo en la investigación. He disfrutado realizando grupos de discusión, entrevistas, leyendo narrativas de mis estudiantes, las he analizado, descrito, interpretado y, de momento, no estoy por el cambio, aunque sé positivamente que me podría ir mejor en este nuestro contexto universitario1 . Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 67 Pagando el precio de la independencia ¿Cuál ha sido el resultado de mi empecinamiento en trabajar desde el lado oculto de la investigación? Que a estas alturas, con ocho direcciones de tesis a mis espaldas, me encuentro cada día que pasa más contra la pared de la incapacitación investigadora. Todo por no haberme plegado a las demandas del modelo dominante. Evidentemente, soy consciente que en un plazo corto se me negará la posibilidad de dirigir tesis doctorales o impartir docencia en posgrados de investigación. Ante esto, ¿qué puedo hacer? Los consejos que recibo son de diferentes clases. Por una parte, los colegas afiliados a “investigadores indignados”2 me aconsejan que pase del sistema y mantenga mi libertad. Excelente opción, aunque ello vaya en detrimento de mi remuneración económica y mi baño de reconocimiento de ego (la verdad es que no sé en estos momentos qué es lo que valoraría más) dentro de mi clan de investigadores para la mejora de la Educación Física Escolar. Por otro lado, los “cuasi ético pragmáticos”, me aconsejan que ceda lo necesario, es decir, que haga investigación dentro del modelo predominante para lograr el tramo de investigación, al tiempo que mantenga mi línea. En definitiva, que egoístamente renuncie a mis principios en momentos claves, para aprovecharme de los beneficios que reporta la docilidad al modelo dominante y que, una vez obtenido el botín, regrese a mi integridad. Esto me recuerda una viñeta de “El Roto”, en la que vemos en la parte superior la cara de un hombre con una pequeña cara en rojo sobre su frente y que nos dice que "durante años convivió con un tumor que siempre le estaba recriminando todos sus actos y pensamiento", para pasar inmediatamente a una visión de la misma cara con un cambio, en vez de la carita roja sobre su frente, aparece una gran cicatriz en ella y nos dice que " hasta que un día dio con un gran cirujano que le aclaró que aquella gran protuberancia se llamaba conciencia y que se podía extirpar. ¡No sabes cómo ha mejorado mi calidad de vida desde entonces!" Por último, los “pragmáticos orto evolucionistas” lo tienen muy claro; como esto no va a cambiar tienes dos posibilidades, o te adaptas al sistema o pereces, con tus principios íntegros, pero pereces. 68 E. Rivera - Reflexionando en Torno a la Investigación Educativa Provocando la reflexión Ahora le pregunto a usted. ¿Hasta dónde está dispuesto a ceder para poder sobrevivir en este gran teatro universitario, que diría Calderón? Puede optar, o quizás ya lo ha hecho, por la opción moderada; para ello ha de ser un gran actor y saber ofrecer a cada uno lo suyo, la ventaja estriba en que quizás, algún día, si es capaz de controlar su ambición, podría recuperar sus principios. El problema es que, al haber sido tejidos con tantas mentiras, puede ser que ya no sepa diferenciar los unos de las otras y no saber salir del laberinto en el que se ha metido. Si opta por la tercera opción, lo ha de tener claro, una vez más El Roto nos ilustra con una viñeta inmejorable en la que aparecen dos sujetos, uno vestido con chaqueta y una gran corbata y el segundo armado con unas grandes tijeras. El de las tijeras le advierte al otro: "aquí la promoción es por castración" y el de la chaqueta y la corbata le contesta con total seguridad: "no importa, yo quiero llegar a lo más alto". Si opta por la primera y decide dejar a salvo su integridad ética y sus principios, quizás no merece la pena que se la comente, porque si está empezando su desarrollo profesional en la universidad y opta por ella, es probable que dentro de poco le hayan despedido de esta representación y tenga que buscar papel en otro teatro de los muchos que se mueven por el mundo. Ahora me dirá que es muy fácil, desde mi posición de funcionario universitario, apostar por posturas éticas y que le gustaría verme en tu lugar. Tiene toda la razón, pero a cada uno de nosotros nos ha tocado vivir en un tiempo y en un espacio, y, de momento, no podemos cambiar de dimensión y posición. Es su tiempo y su espacio y tendrá que decidir. Lo que sí le puedo narrar es qué opción, de las tres anteriores, van a guiar mis pasos en mi último tramo de desarrollo profesional. Bueno, pues se lo voy a desvelar. Cada día que pasa, pienso que hay que ser más consecuente con tus principios y tu ideología. Por esta razón, a pesar de correr el riesgo de jubilarme y no haber obtenido ni un solo tramo de investigación, creo que merece la pena ser capaz de dormir por la noche, a pesar de no estar operado de la conciencia. Pienso que el paradigma interpretativo y la metodología cualitativa pueden ser de gran utilidad para ayudar a mejorar la Educación en todos sus niveles Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 69 incluido el universitario, en el que muchos piensan que no hay que educar, que con instruir, formar o adiestrar es suficiente. Sabemos, después de muchas reformas y aunque sólo sea desde la experiencia, que las mejoras y los cambios no se producen desde el papel de las leyes y decretos, por sí solos son insuficientes. Las transformaciones vienen de la mano del docente, que al final es quién debe cambiar sus teorías y creencias para incorporar en su cotidianeidad profesional las propuestas de innovación. No nos engañemos, estos cambios no se pueden hacer desde fuera, hay que involucrar al docente en ellos, dialogar con él, convencerlo para que no tenga miedo a ser observado por otros que desean ayudar y no juzgar. La obligación de un docente es ilusionar. Una vez logrado esto, el resto viene por sí solo. Nuestra obligación como investigadores del ámbito educativo es buscar soluciones, colaborar con el docente para que le sea más fácil generar ilusión en sus estudiantes. Abriendo el debate Llegados a este punto, y en situación de desnudo integral investigador, me asaltan una serie de interrogantes (no podrían ser otra cosa desde mi modelo) que deseo abrir, opinar, pero no resolver. Cada uno y cada una tendremos que dar nuestras propias respuestas. Porque no creo en la verdad única, confío más en las visiones poliédricas que se crearan desde cada uno de nosotros, a partir de nuestras creencias, teorías y experiencias vividas. Pasemos a plantear estos interrogantes. ¿Qué entendemos por investigar cuando hablamos desde el campo de las didácticas específicas? Aprovechando mi participación en una mesa redonda sobre investigación interdisciplinar, decidí partir de las teorías sustantivas que subyacían en los participantes del congreso y olvidarnos, por una vez y sin que sirva de precedente, de las teorías formales. Para ello hice un análisis cualitativo de las comunicaciones, de sus títulos y resúmenes. Los resultados del estudio hicieron emerger que las principales preocupaciones se decantaban hacia el contenido específico del área y la formación del docente, tanto inicial como permanente. Fuera de este grupo de escapados y a una distancia muy significativa emergían otras temáticas menores como la 70 E. Rivera - Reflexionando en Torno a la Investigación Educativa evaluación del proceso de aprendizaje del estudiante y, como no podía ser menos, el desarrollo y evaluación de competencias. Claramente descolgados y con una presencia casi testimonial aparecen temáticas relacionadas con la interculturalidad, la interdisciplinariedad, y la atención a la diversidad. Si movemos el foco hacia los modelos de investigación predominantes, descubrimos que se decantan hacia la puesta en marcha y la evaluación de propuestas de intervención y experiencias de aula, quedando fuera de foco y con iluminación tenue los estudios de investigación básica y los trabajos de corte holístico desarrollados desde metodologías cualitativas. Por último, llama la atención que el contexto de investigación más utilizado es el que se corresponde con la etapa de la Educación Infantil, seguido de los tres restantes, Primaria, Secundaria y Universidad en igualdad de relevancia. A partir de este pequeño estudio, pienso que nos enfrentamos a un deseo común: construir herramientas que ayuden al estudiante a mejorar su aprendizaje. Pero tenemos la percepción de que nos olvidamos de lo más importante: para hacer un buen trabajo no es cuestión de tener la mejor herramienta, lo verdaderamente imprescindible es estar motivado para hacerlo. Por esta razón echamos de menos en nuestras áreas de investigaciones que apunten más al corazón y menos a la razón. Propuestas que indaguen por qué estamos fracasando como docentes en la etapa de Secundaria, o el porqué de la apatía generalizada ante los aprendizajes de los secretos de cada una de nuestras áreas. ¿Es posible la cuadratura del círculo? Tenemos la sensación, cuando charlamos con otros colegas, que nos podemos sentir, especialmente los jóvenes, atrapados en uno de esos dilemas de nuestra infancia, en los que situábamos simbólicamente a nuestro compañero de juegos en el centro de una habitación totalmente cerrada, sin agua y sin comida y con cuatro puertas de salida. Al abrir la primera le poníamos ante el problema de una gran piscina llena de cocodrilos; en la segunda, el reto era salir esquivando un foso lleno de serpientes venenosas; en la tercera, la salida sólo era posible si se pasaba un gran foso de tierras movedizas y por último, detrás de la cuarta, nos esperaban una jauría de leones muertos de hambre. La pregunta era simple: ¿por cuál puerta saldrías sin morir en el intento? Sustituyamos las puertas por: impartir una docencia de calidad, publicar en revistas de impacto, mantener los Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 71 principios, especialmente la dignidad y trabajar en colaboración. ¿Por cuál puerta saldrías? La decisión es compleja. La ANECA te dice a la oreja que publiques con impacto, porque en caso contrario quedarás condenado al ostracismo y al olvido universitario. La universidad nos demanda que impartamos una docencia de calidad, porque nuestros “clientes” (comencemos a llamar a los estudiantes por su nombre) cada día son más exigentes e inconformistas. La conciencia, si aún no hemos pasado por el quirófano para extirparla, nos incita a mantener los principios. Y por último, la Sociedad a la que me debo, me demanda que trabaje en equipo, aun a riesgo de que mi hombro sea utilizado por otro u otros para vivir instalados en la comodidad, al estilo de las viñetas de Peridis en el periódico “El País”. ¿Por qué decimos impacto cuando queremos decir promoción?3 El “impacto” se ha convertido en el nuevo becerro de oro de los profesores universitarios en general, y muy especialmente, de aquellos que necesitan obtener el visto bueno del templo de la ANECA. Jóvenes excelentemente formados a los que en muchas ocasiones el “tramo” no les permite ver el bosque, perdiendo el norte y el sentido del significado de ser docente en la universidad. Impactar, en nuestro ámbito de investigación, tendría que significar lograr un cambio real en los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje que se desarrollan en todos los niveles educativos, incluido el universitario. El problema, especialmente el percibido por los docentes no universitarios, es que la investigación es "… un proceso “externo” al aula, cuyos hallazgos poco tienen de aplicabilidad, en tanto que se alejan del núcleo problemático" (Díaz Costa, 2009, p.300). Es decir, al igual que los usuarios de la investigación médica desean una mejora real del tratamiento de las enfermedades, y así poder ofrecer a sus pacientes la posibilidad de lograr una mayor y mejor calidad de vida; los docentes, usuarios directos de la investigación educativa, reclaman soluciones para poder ofrecer una mejor educación a la Sociedad. (Díaz Costa, 2009). La realidad es que, al igual que en el mito de Cronos (Saturno para los romanos), somos devoradores de nuestra propia investigación, cuya utilidad se limita a alimentar nuestro currículum. La única esperanza es la llegada de un “Zeus” que nos obligue a vomitarla y conduzca al destierro un modelo de investigación que sabemos es estéril, en su 72 E. Rivera - Reflexionando en Torno a la Investigación Educativa objetivo primordial: nutrir al Sistema Educativo y ayudar a su mejora. Pero si las razones esgrimidas hasta ahora no se consideran suficientes para acometer un cambio real de paradigma, reflexionemos sobre preguntas claves en torno al impacto. ¿Cómo se logra que una revista sea de impacto? ¿Quiénes deciden y con qué criterios si un artículo es potencialmente impactante? ¿Es garantía de calidad que un artículo esté indexado en una revista de las llamadas JCR? Revisando la indexación de la Revista Electrónica Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado4, me choqué de frente con una exhaustiva justificación de su calidad, pero no desde las estrategias tradicionales, sino desde el análisis de indicadores poco habituales y totalmente en desuso en el global de las revistas. Creo que merece la pena como ejemplo de rigurosidad. Pero además, nos ofrece una visión crítica sobre el impacto, desde la revisión de una serie de artículos y editoriales que pienso no hay que perderse si se desea tener argumentos para hablar sobre el tema5 . ¿Es posible la investigación educativa interdiscisciplinar entre las áreas? Vamos a ser sinceros, es complejo poder opinar de lo que prácticamente está por descubrir. Explicamos el porqué de nuestra percepción. Desde que en este país los gobernantes, porque no el grueso de los docentes, deciden apostar por un cambio de paradigma en la enseñanza no universitaria y optar por un enfoque socio-constructivista, de esto hace más de veinte años, siempre se nos ha dicho que el aprendizaje de los conceptos, procedimientos y actitudes debiera ser alcanzado por los niños y niñas desde la globalidad y el trabajo interdisciplinar entre áreas. A día de hoy, salvo pequeñas excepciones, auténticas cerillas encendidas bajo los focos de un estadio, seguimos anclados en una enseñanza basada en modelos conductistas generados desde el racionalismo cartesiano; lo importante no es el proceso, la reflexión, el análisis, la síntesis, la comparación, la evaluación, la aplicación; lo importante sigue siendo la retención de un conocimiento bancario, inútil, o al menos poco útil, porque no se utiliza para nada, salvo para tener pequeñas satisfacciones y ensalzamientos del ego ante los concursos de preguntas de los canales televisivos. Para alcanzar estos objetivos nada mejor que la atomización del conocimiento en pequeñas dosis, áreas, asignaturas, unidades didácticas, lecciones, Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 73 apartados y sub-apartados. Por supuesto, nada más lejos de un enfoque interdisciplinar y globalizado. Si cambiamos el foco a la universidad, la historia se repite veinticinco años después. La empalagosa y ya cargante convergencia con los modelos europeos nos trae el redescubrimiento del enfoque socioconstructivista para propiciar un cambio radical en la metodología docente. Cambiemos el foco y pasemos del docente que enseña al estudiante que aprende. ¿Para qué? Para lograr desde el descubrimiento y la construcción de sus aprendizajes el santo grial del siglo XXI: ser competente. Una vez más, el mismo problema que hace veinticinco años, los dictados son propuestos desde las altas jerarquías institucionales, no desde el convencimiento del grueso de los docentes. Pasemos a la aplicación y reflexionemos desde un simple ejemplo. Ante la primera oportunidad de trabajar de forma interdisciplinar que se nos ha presentado: la elaboración de los planes de estudio de los Grados, ¿cómo ha reaccionado la mayor parte de la comunidad universitaria? Desde nuestras percepciones, se ha logrado un alto nivel de colaboración entre las diferentes áreas, pero sólo para llegar a un consenso crediticio (lo que hemos venido llamando desde siempre el reparto de la tarta), eso sí, después de un largo debate al más alto nivel académico. Para facilitar la globalización de los contenidos se ha estructurado el conocimiento en grandes módulos de trabajo que facilitaran la convergencia de las áreas en el logro de competencias genéricas o transversales (recuerda bastante a los contenidos transversales de la Primaria y Secundaria). Pero, para no perdernos en la maraña de la globalidad, hemos definido materias, que a su vez se abren, al igual que las bombas de racimo, en asignaturas, mayoritariamente de seis créditos, ya que de esta forma la organización del semestre de treinta créditos y el curso, de sesenta, se antoja mucho más fácil. Basta con una simple división para que todo quede igual a como está ahora: diez asignaturas por año y cinco por semestre. No me queda por menos que aplaudir el excelente criterio pedagógico utilizado. Pero no nos preocupemos, ya que en ciertas materias los acuerdos de reparto entre áreas no han sido posibles. Gracias a este problema se va a propiciar la interdisciplinariedad, traducida, como viene siendo habitual, en tú te quedas con la mitad de los créditos, yo con la otra mitad y al 74 E. Rivera - Reflexionando en Torno a la Investigación Educativa final hacemos nota media para la calificación definitiva. ¿Hacen falta más ejemplos? ¿Investigación Educativa Interdisciplinar? Sí, gracias No es mi deseo dejar la imagen de un desilusionado y derrotado converso arrojado en los brazos de la individualidad. Llevo casi diez años trabajando con mis colegas de forma interdisciplinar, rompiendo tiempos y espacios, derribando las fronteras de nuestras asignaturas y trabajando desde un proyecto integrado: “Formar docentes, Formar personas” (De la Torre, Rivera y Trigueros, 2007, Rivera y De La Torre, 2005, Rivera, De la Torre. y Trigueros, 2009; Rivera, Trigueros, De la Torre y Moreno, 2010; Trigueros, Rivera, y De La Torre, 2006). La intención de la imagen pesimista no es otra, que la de provocar. Despertar su rabia y que, entre todos, cambiemos la mirada hacia otros paradigmas de investigación, quizás no tan rentables para nuestros intereses particulares, pero claramente enriquecedores para la Comunidad Universitaria, la Escuela y la Sociedad a la que nos debemos. En España ya comienzan a aparecer iniciativas en esta dirección, por ejemplo la de la Asociación Multidisciplinar de Investigación Educativa (AMIE)6, que este año celebrará su primer congreso en Barcelona. La escuela necesita reinventarse a sí misma, los docentes son los que tienen que asumir el protagonismo de sus procesos de mejora y nosotros, desde la universidad, apoyar y mediar para que se desarrollen con éxito. No nos engañemos, la transformación de la educación no se va a provocar desde la producción de artículos de impacto. Los cambios tienen que venir desde dentro; la universidad y en concreto nuestras áreas de conocimiento debemos estar ahí. Tenemos que pisar más las escuelas, bajar de nuestras torres de marfil y ponernos el mono de trabajo. Nuestra obligación es poner a su disposición un equipo multidisciplinar que les oriente, apoye y anime a promover el cambio. No hay que inventar nada, porque todo, o casi todo está inventado. Los modelos de Investigación-acción colaborativa (Elliott, 1990, 1993; Elliot et at, 1986; Fraile, 1991, 1995; Kemmis, 92; Kemmis y McTaggart, 1988; Latorre, 2003; Pérez-Serrano, 1990) llevan décadas Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 75 poniendo a trabajar codo con codo a los docentes de todos los niveles. Sólo hace falta un cambio de actitud. ¿Se anima? 76 E. Rivera - Reflexionando en Torno a la Investigación Educativa Referencias Arnold, P.J. (1991). Educación Física, movimiento y currículum. Madrid: Morata. Barrera, J.; Olmos, J.; Rivera, E.; Salazar, S. y Trigueros, C. (1991). Cronos. Fundamentos de la Condición Física para el alumno de Enseñanza Secundaria. Granada: Gioconda. Bautier, E., Charlot, B., Rochex, J.-Y. (2000). Entre apprentissage et métier d’élève : le rapport au savoir. En Van Zantem, (dir.), L’école, l’état des savoirs, (pp. 179-188). Paris: Édition de la Découverte. Berger, L., y Carolyn E. (2002). Composing Autoethnographic Stories. In M. V. Angrosino. Doing Cultural Anthropology, (pp. 151-166). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. Camus, A. (1942/2003). El mito de Sísifo. Madrid : Alianza Editorial. Castillo, S., y Cabrerizo, J. (2006). Formación del profesorado en educación superior Vol. II. Madrid: McGraw-Hill De la Torre, E., Rivera, E., y Trigueros, C. (2007). Creencias y concepciones de la educación física en evolución: el caso de la formación del profesorado de educación física en la educación primaria. Tándem. Didáctica de la Educación Física, 23 , 50-56 Díaz, Costa, E. (2009). Impacto de la investigación educativa en la práctica docente. (Tesis Doctoral inédita). Universidad de Granada, Granada. Elliott, J. (1990). La investigación-acción en educación (1ª ed.). Madrid: Morata. Elliot, J. (1993). El cambio educativo desde la investigación-acción. (1ª ed.). Madrid: Morata. Elliott, J. et al. (1986). Investigación-acción en el aula. I. Conferencia sobre Investigación-acción en el aula. Valencia. Ellis, C. y Bochner, A. (2000). Autoethnography, Personal Narratives, Reflexivity: Researcher as Subject. En N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.). Handbook ofQualitative Research. Second Edition , (pp. 733-768). London: Sage. Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 77 Feliu, J. (2007). Nuevas formas literarias para las ciencias sociales: el caso de la auto etnografía. Athenea Digital, 12, 262-271. Recuperada de http://psicologiasocial.uab.es/athenea/index.php/ atheneaDigital/article/view/447 Fraile, A. (1991). La investigación-acción: un método de análisis para una nueva educación física. Revista Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado , 10, 251-264. Fraile, A. (1995). La Investigación-Acción: instrumento de formación para el profesorado de Educación Física. Apunts, 42, 46-52. Freire P. (1999). Pedagogía del Oprimido, México: Siglo Veintiuno Jonnaert, P. (2001). La thèse socioconstructiviste dans les nouveaux programmes d’études au Québec : un trompe-l’oeil épistémologique? Revue Canadienne de l’Enseignement des Sciences, des Mathématiques et des Technologies, 1 (2), 223-230. Jonnaert, P., y Vander Borght, C. (1999). Créer des conditions d’apprentissage. Un cadre de référence socioconstructiviste pour une formation didactique des enseignants. Paris/Bruxelles : De Boeck-Université. Kemmis, S. (1992). Mejorando la educación mediante IAP. En M. Salazar, (Coord.), La investigación-acción participativa: inicios y desarrollos, (pp. 175-204). Madrid:Popular Kemmis, S., y McTaggart, R. (1988). Cómo planificar la investigaciónacción . Barcelona: Laertes. Kübler R. E. (2006). Sobre el duelo y el dolor: cómo encontrar sentido al duelo a través de sus cinco etapas. Barcelona: Luciérnaga Latorre, A. (2003). La investigación-acción. Conocer y cambiar la práctica educativa. Barcelona: Graó. Pérez Serrano, G. (1990). Investigación-acción: aplicaciones al campo social y educativo . Madrid: Dykinson. Rivera, E. y De La Torre, E. (2005). Democratizar el aula universitaria: una propuesta alternativa de formación inicial universitaria desde la participación del alumnado. Investigación en la Escuela, 57, 85-95. 78 E. Rivera - Reflexionando en Torno a la Investigación Educativa Rivera, E., De La Torre, E., y Trigueros, C. (2009). Formar docentes, formar personas: la formación inicial del profesorado desde una propuesta sociocrítica. Ciclo sobre Complejidad y Modelo Pedagógico . Recuperado de http://www.tendencias21.net/ciclo/ un-centro-para-formacion-en-la-complejidad-de-educadores-ydocentes-dara-continuidad-al-Ciclo_a68.html Rivera, E., Trigueros, C., De La Torre, E., y Moreno, A. (2010). Formar docentes, formar personas: una experiencia transdisciplinar para democratizar el aula universitaria. En L’Activitat del Docent: Intervenció, Innovació, Investigació . (pp. 1-8). Barcelona: CiDd: II Congrés Internaiconal de Didáctiques. Rivera, E., Trigueros, C., y Torres, J. (1991). Condición Física 3º Nivel. Cuaderno de Educación Física para las EE. MM. Granada: Gioconda Sandín, M. P. (2003). Investigación Cualitativa en Educación. Fundamentos y Tradiciones. Madrid: McGraw-Hill. Santos Guerra, M. A. (2007). Enseñar o el oficio de aprender. Organización escolar y desarrollo profesional. Madrid: Mad Schwab, J. (1969). College Curriculum and Student Protest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Stenhouse, L. (1984). Investigación y desarrollo del currículum. Madrid:Morata. Sparkes, A. C. (2002). Autoethnography: self-indulgence or something more? En A. P. Bochner y C. Ellis (eds.). Ethnographically speaking: Autoethnography, literature and aesthetics. New York: AltaMira. Tójar J. C. (2006). Investigación cualitativa. Comprender y actuar. Madrid: la Muralla Trigueros, C., y Rivera, E. (1991). Condición Física 1º Nivel. Cuaderno de Educación Física para las EE. MM. Granada: Gioconda Trigueros, C. y Rivera, E. (1991). Condición Física 2º Nivel. Cuaderno de Educación Física para las EE. MM. Granada: Gioconda Trigueros, C., Rivera, E. y De La Torre, E. (2006). Aprendizaje colaborativo en la formación de Maestros. Una experiencia práctica. Tándem. Didáctica de la Educación Física, 20, 45-55 Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 79 Vasilachis, I. (1992). Métodos cualitativos I. Los problemas teóricoepistemológicos. Buenos Aires: Centro editor de América Latina. Notes 1 Con el permiso de Juan Cuesta, presidente de la comunidad de propietarios de Desengaño 21 2 Los nombres entrecomillados que aparecen en el párrafo son ficticios, aunque están inspirados en sucesos reales. 3 Inspirado en el título de la película: “Por qué lo llaman amor cuando quieren decir sexo”, de Fernando Colomo y Manuel Gómez Pereira. 4http://www.aufop.com/aufop/paginas/view/1/digital 5 Camí, J. (1997). Impactolatría: diagnóstico y tratamiento. En Medicina Clínica. VOL. 109. Nº. 13.; Juan José Ibáñez (2008). Factor de Impacto: Llamando a las Puertas del Cielo (Un Cuento Para Mayores) En http://www.madrimasd.org/blogs/universo/2008/09/14/100874 ; Aréchaga, J. (2009). Las revistas científicas españolas y el fraude bibliométrico. En ElPais.com.;http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/revistas/cientificas/espanolas/fra ude/bibliometrico/elpepusoc/20090911elpepusoc_7/Tes ; Tomá Opatrný, “Playing the system to give low-impact journal more clout,” En Nature 455, 167. 6http://amieedu.org/cimie Enrique Rivera García is Associate Professor at the Department of Didáctica de la Expresión Musical, Plástica y Corporal, Univerisdad de Granada , Spain. Contact Address: Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación de Granada, Campus de Cartuja s/n, C.P. 18071, Granada, España. Email: [email protected] Instructions for authors, subscriptions and further details: http://qre.hipatiapress.com Analysis of the Effects of the Implementation of Cooperative Learning in Physical Education Carlos Velázquez Callado1 1) Departamento de Explresión Musical, Plastica y Corporal, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain. Date of publication: June 30th, 2012 To cite this article: Velázquez Callado, C. (2012). Analysis of the Effects of the Implementation of Cooperative Learning in Physical Education. Qualitative Research in Education, 1(1), 80105. doi: 10.4471/qre.2012.04 To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.4471/qre.2012.04 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System and to Creative Commons NonCommercial and NonDerivative License. Qualitative Research in Education Vol. 1 No. 1 June 2012 pp. 80- 105 Analysis of the Effects of the Implementation of Cooperative Learning in Physical Education Carlos Velázquez Callado Universidad de Valladolid Abstract Our research was oriented to test the effects of a structured program of cooperative learning in Physical Education classes with students in grades 5 and 6 of primary school, with and without previous experience with this methodology. In a second phase we sought to determine how students perceived the received classes for a time later. We analysed data collected during implementation, through cooperative learning, of two teaching units to a total of six groups of students; in addition, a number of interviews, five individual and one collective, were carried out to a total of 10 former students who had left school between one and five years earlier. The results show the positive effects of cooperative learning on students' motor performance, and some social achievements such as a greater autonomy of the students in the learning process, an increasing in prosocial behaviours and the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs. On the other hand, as time went on, the students rated the received classes as cooperative, participatory, funny and useful, emphasizing peer support as a key factor that enabled them to learn in Physical Education. Keywords: cooperative learning, physical Education, inclusive education, motor achievement, social achievement 2012 Hipatia Press ISSN 2014-6418 DOI: 10.4471/qre.2012.04 Qualitative Research in Education, 1 I (1) 81 n the early 90's the implementation of cooperative techniques in the subject of Physical Education (P.E.) was something alternative and rare, limited to occasional cooperative games. At best, it was limited to the implementation of a learning unit focused on cooperative activities but normally with a small connection to the rest of the syllabus. To some extent, it appeared as an island where students experienced cooperation but soon they returned to the immense ocean of traditional methods based on competitive or individualistic approaches for the lessons. As this situation has currently changed, we can state that the number of publications on the use of cooperative practices in P.E. lessons has increased significantly. This fact is contributing not only to facilitate its implementation (Gil & Naveiras, 2007; Fernández-Río & Velázquez, 2005; Velázquez, 2010) but also to its integration as any other resource in the syllabus of P.E. (López-Pastor, 2009; Álvarez, Bernabé & GarciaGarcia, 2010). Nevertheless, the use of planned samples of cooperative learning in P.E. is still rare, in spite of the use of cooperative games aimed at working on different motor skills contents or even in spite of diverse proposals for activities based on team work, (Dyson, 2001). Some teachers wrongly associate group work with cooperative learning even though several authors have clearly specified the differences between both concepts (Marin & Blázquez, 2003; Pujolás, 2008). Other teachers associate cooperative learning with cooperative play considering them synonyms although the differences between these terms have been explained as well (Velázquez, 2004a, 2010, 2012). Cooperative learning is an educational methodology based on working in small and usually heterogeneous groups, in which students work together to expand or hone their own skills and those of other group members (Johnson, Johnson & Holubec, 1999; Velázquez, 2010). We would like to emphasize the key point of the definition, which characterizes cooperative learning and differentiates it from group work: the concern of every member of the team, not only about himself or the task at hand but also concerning each of his peers. Metzler (2011, p. 82 C. Velázquez Callado - Analysis ofthe Effects ofthe Implementation 227) defines it as a methodology in which “students learn with, from and for their peers”. Besides, it is included among the eight models of instruction applied in P. E. which he considers, as he pointed out, more than a model itself; cooperative learning involves a set of teaching strategies implying its own defining characteristics. In recent years, there have been several studies focusing on the implementation of cooperative learning in P.E. that demonstrate their effectiveness in: (a) promoting the integration of students with disabilities (Cervantes, Cohen, Hersman & Barrett, 2007; Grenier, Dyson & Yeaton, 2005); (b) improving social skills and interpersonal relationships (Barba, 2010; Dunn & Wilson, 1991; Dyson, 2001; Fernández-Río, 2003; Goudas & Magotsiou, 2009; Polvi & Telama, 2000; Velázquez, 2004b); (c) promoting students' self-concept (Fernández-Río, 2003); (d) promoting autonomy and teamwork ability (Velázquez-Buendía, 1996; Velázquez, 2004b, 2006); (e) increasing levels of fitness (Grineski, 1993); (f) generating motivation for motor exercise (Barba, 2010; Fernández-Río, 2003; Velázquez, 2006); (g) improving behavior in classrooms (Barrett, 2000, 2005; Dunn & Wilson, 1991; Velázquez & Fernández-Arranz, 2002); and (h) promoting motor performance (Bähr, 2010; Barrett, 2000, 2005; Casey, 2010; Gröben, 2005). Thus, we can say that there is sufficient empirical evidence showing the achievements of cooperative learning in comparison with traditional teaching models based on competitive or individualistic approaches (Fernández-Río, 2003; Goudas & Magotsiou, 2009; Gröben, 2005). The aim of this research was to test the effects obtained when implementing a well-defined program of cooperative learning in P.E. lessons with students belonging to the third cycle of Primary Education, with and without previous experience with this methodology. In addition, we sought to determine how students perceived P.E. lessons based on cooperative learning over time. With all this, we tried to take a step forward in a currently unexplored field of research. The reason was that, in spite of our efforts searching, it was impossible to find any study showing what memories endure from the use of cooperative learning in the classroom after having stopped working with this methodology. Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 83 Methodology Context The research took place in a state school located on the outskirts of a provincial capital town of Castile and Leon in Spain. Data from P.E. lessons which were based on cooperative learning through the delivery of two didactic units taught by a single teacher were collected and analyzed. One of the units, aimed at learning individual and pair rope jumping was developed with students belonging to year 5 at the Primary Stage. The other one, aimed at learning the basics of acrobatic gymnastics, performance of routines in pairs, and the creation of new routines, was conducted for students in year 6 of Primary Education. Implementing the Didactic Units based on Cooperative Learning The didactic unit “rope jumping together” was developed with students in year 5 of Primary Education with no previous experience in systematic cooperative learning. According to Pujolás (2008, pp. 154155) “before introducing cooperative learning, the group must be minimally prepared gradually creating a favorable atmosphere for cooperation, mutual help and solidarity.” In this sense, we followed the recommendations given by León (2002) and a unit of cooperative games and group dynamics was developed before working on cooperative learning. It was aimed at determining the level of social skills and group cohesion among students and presenting the logical structure of cooperative processes. Consequently, the teacher reinforced any helping, supportive or cooperative behavior manifested in the classroom. The unit was delivered through a cooperative learning method named “Learning Teams” (Grineski, 1996), with teams of 4 or 5 students. Here the teacher provides an explanation of the motor skills to be developed, indicating to the students their achievement goals. Then, the students work on different teams in which each member plays a specific role: note taker, supporter, equipment keeper, task manager... In our case, each student played a different role in each of the sessions throughout all of them along the teaching unit. Finally, students were assessed and 84 C. Velázquez Callado - Analysis ofthe Effects ofthe Implementation marked according to the level of attainment of the goals before mentioned and bonuses or penalties were consequently assigned to the teams. A set of teaching resources aimed at promoting the autonomy of the different cooperative learning teams were designed for the instruction of the unit. These were a document of goals and personal duties, a working outline or working guide as well as some control tables. These tables were filled by the team during the lessons in order to meet two objectives: (a) to provide information to teachers about their students’ individual and collective achievements and (b) to promote the different collaborative learning teams to process information together and to make decisions based on the work done. The structure was developed in an initial session, devoted to present to the students the goals of the didactic unit, the line of work and the resources. Then, all of the teams took part in three lessons of P.E. per week: two one-hour sessions and one half-hour session, for one month. The one-hour sessions took place in two different stages. The first was aimed at achieving the goals of individual and pair rope jumping by working in learning teams for 20-25 minutes of actual practice. In addition, they spent 5-10 more minutes to fill the documents. For the second session, the students worked on suggestions for collective rope jumping facing the challenge in a cooperative way either as a whole group or divided into two teams. During the half-hour sessions, the students worked on collective rope jumping. After the first two weeks, students took an individual rope jumping test and two weeks later a pair rope jumping test taking into account that the individual marks affected the group as a whole. Consequently, if the whole learning team could exceed the set goal, they would get bonuses depending on the level of attainment. On the contrary, if one of the team members did not reach the goal, the rest of his team mates would be penalized. Prior to beginning the task, the students were informed that the final mark would depend not only on the results of the jumping tests but also on the work done during the classroom sessions. It would depend on the degree of commitment to the personal duties, on how well the time was used and on their helping attitude within the learning teams. In other words, the process would be valued as much as the result. Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 85 The didactic unit on acrobatic gymnastics was developed, also through learning teams, with students in year 6 of Primary Education who had already worked with structured cooperative learning for the previous year. The unit consisted of ten sessions of one hour per week. The same way as in the previous case, a set of learning resources was also designed including a document for goals and assessment criteria and some worksheets on acrobatic gymnastics routines. They were designed to promote the processes of self and peer assessment within the teams. The first session was again devoted to explain the process and the materials. Then, the second session was delivered. The safety rules when performing acrobatic gymnastics were explained and it was confirmed that the students had understood them. Following, they were freely grouped into pairs and three pairs were grouped together in order to form each of the learning teams. The students worked on creative production of acrobatic gymnastics routines in pairs throughout four sessions. They were always assessed by another pair belonging to the same learning team. After the four sessions this process was assessed according to the number of acrobatic gymnastics routines that were properly performed. Finally, we developed a second part of the learning process through the collaborative creation of collective acrobatic gymnastics routines by the students themselves. The process was evaluated and graded according to the quantity, originality and difficulty of these routines. Prior to the development of the didactic unit, one out of the three teams in each class of year 5 was randomly chosen to decide freely how to group their learning team, providing that it was decided reaching a consensus. In the other two groups, the teacher formed the teams according to diversity criteria in gender, ethnicity and initial level of motor skills. These criteria were combined with elements of socialaffective skills. For instance, children with more difficulties in relating with others were placed in the same group with children who had more pro-social attitudes, while two children with a tendency to be distracted from the task were prevented from being together. The process was the same for the teams of year 6 but in two of the teams the students made the teams freely and the teacher created the remaining teams with the couples who were already formed. 86 C. Velázquez Callado - Analysis ofthe Effects ofthe Implementation Data Collection The research was conducted in two stages. In the first one, we analyzed the teacher’s diary corresponding to the development of the before mentioned two didactic units where cooperative learning was implemented: “rope jumping together” and “acrobatic gymnastics”. This information was supplemented by analyzing the syllabus, assessment tools, qualifications records, student worksheets and notes, thoughts, and statements collected from various student notebooks that caught the teacher’s attention. We also analyzed the diaries of four outside observers (two student teachers who were in their training time and two P.E. teachers) who observed the classroom during the didactic units and who carried out fourteen individual interviews that were made to different students during the unit “rope jumping together”. At the second stage of the investigation, we interviewed five former students, 3 boys and 2 girls, individually and in a semi-structured way. Each of them had finished Primary Education in a different year throughout the last five consecutive years. In addition, a group interview with 5 former student, 2 boys and 3 girls, who had left school two years ago in order to start Secondary Education, was also conducted. Accessibility to families was the criteria for the selection of students. In all cases the procedure was the same: first, the parents were informed about what we wanted to investigate; then, their availability was considered; we asked them to discuss the process with their son or daughter or to allow us to do it. Once the student showed willingness to participate in this research, we set a place, date and time for the interview. Data Analysis In the first phase of the research, the analysis of the data was focused on determining the main effects of the implementation of cooperative learning in P.E. lessons. Taking the theoretical framework as a starting point (Johnson & Johnson, 1999; Slavin, 1999; Velázquez, 2010), we focused on the benefits of cooperative learning in two major fields: achievement in motor development which is characteristic of the area of Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 87 P. E., and achievement in social learning, improvement of social skills, development of social skills... Moreover, affective accomplishment was also considered, such as positive manifestations of a student to succeed in a task with a certain level of difficulty. Thus, we decided to start from the quantitative results obtained in the tests designed to determine students' motor performance in order to assess their motor development, for instance, in activities such as rope jumping and acrobatic gymnastics. Subsequently, this data was supplemented with other information not only on the progress of the children but also on the difficulties that they were overcoming during the learning process. This data was taken from the teacher’s diary. In order to identify the social and emotional achievements, priority was given to the resulting data from the triangulation of the teacher’s observations along with those of the outside observer as well as with data from the interviews with students. The information obtained was supplemented with data from some teams’ assessment tools such as rubrics designed to determine the degree of cooperation or a survey to check the acceptances and repulses within the team. The data analysis began with the identification in the texts of relevant data to the core topic which we are interested in: different effects of the implementation of cooperative learning in the classroom. This was followed by a second analysis of the data, organizing it into a set of emerging categories which facilitated its treatment. The second phase of research focused on the content analysis of individual interviews and the collective ones. They were carried out with former students in order to find the answers to three questions: what do the students remember from the P.E. lessons at school?, how is their perception of the lessons? and what are the differences between the P.E. lessons at school and at high school? Results Effects of Cooperative Learning on Motor Development After the learning process of each of the didactic units developed with cooperative learning, the analysis of the results obtained by the students 88 C. Velázquez Callado - Analysis ofthe Effects ofthe Implementation reveals that, in general, almost all the students achieved the proposed goals for motor development although that does not happen in all cases. The following tables show the results obtained by different teams of cooperative learning in individual and pair jumping rope and in collective acrobatic gymnastics routines. These grades were based just on the results obtained by the different groups in the rope jumping and acrobatic routines performance tests. Therefore, it does not correspond to the final grade of students. As we have already noted, other factors which have to do with the learning process as well as bonuses and penalties obtained by the teams based on the results of their individual members were also taken into account for the final grades. Table 1 Grades obtained by students in each ofthe objectives for rope skipping Group 1 Learning Team 1 Learning Team 2 Learning Team 3 Learning Team 4 Learning Team 5 Group 2 Learning Team 1 Learning Team 2 Learning Team 3 Learning Team 4 Learning Team 5 Group 3 Learning Team 1 Learning Team 2 Learning Team 3 Learning Team 4 Learning Team 5 Individual Jumping Pair Jumping Average 8, 14 7, 53 7, 84 7, 47 6, 37 6, 92 7,41 8,80 7,73 9,02 7,76 8,40 6,27 6,54 7,74 8,40 7, 79 6,81 7,52 7,40 8,96 8,26 6,55 6,20 7,06 9,19 8,68 8,76 3,43 4,69 7,02 7,94 7, 46 6,18 7,34 7,16 8,80 7,83 6,98 7,50 7,40 9,11 8,22 8,58 4,85 5,62 7,38 8,17 7, 63 6,50 7,43 7,28 8,88 8,05 Qualitative Research in Education, 1 89 (1) Table 2 Grades obtained by students in creating collective acrobatic gymnastics routines Group 1 Team 1 Team 2 Team 3 Average Grade 8,17 8,83 5,67 7,56 Group 2 Team 1 Team 2 Team 3 Average Grade 3,50 5,70 7,00 5,40 Group 3 Team 1 Team 2 Team 3 Average Grade 4,50 6,67 6,83 6,00 A remarkable fact is that when students with special initial difficulties performed the tasks, their motor performance was much higher than others with a higher initial ability, meeting the learning objectives. This is the case of Pedro1 , a child with important autistic disorders who started from a seriously impaired motor and social level. In fact, as it is recorded in the teaching diary, in the initial session he could not even lift his feet from the ground to jump the rope, “Pedro keeps on receiving support through verbal instructions. I approach them and I give them directions to enable him to jump without a rope but with his feet together and to do it rhythmically." Taking into account the special difficulties presented by the child, the teacher intervened by adapting the task to make a chance of success possible. The teacher suggested to the learning team that Pedro’s goal could be jumping “the little clock” (a person holds a tip of the rope spinning around at the ground level and another jumps when approaching the other tip) since it was virtually impossible for the pupil to be able to coordinate his arms and legs together. “I give Pedro’s team instructions to make him try to jump “the little clock” which is an easier task that will demand him to lift his feet from the ground at a certain pace. This is the first thing to achieve.”Two weeks later, Pedro managed not only to jump “the little clock” but he also achieved the minimum required jumps, fifteen in a row, without difficulty. Two weeks later, Pedro managed not only to jump “the little clock” but he also achieved the minimum required jumps, fifteen in a row, without difficulty. 90 C. Velázquez Callado - Analysis ofthe Effects ofthe Implementation With respect to pair jumping, we must note that Pedro was able to rise to the same challenge that had been issued to all the students without any curriculum adaptation. The challenge was to skip in pairs more than 15 consecutive jumps performed in three different ways which must have been previously agreed upon by the whole team. Their grade was 8.68. Finally, we must highlight that the higher or lower academic performance of the learning teams did not depend on whether the teacher was the one in charge of grouping the students (groups 1 and 3 in rope jumping, and group 3 in acrobatic gymnastics) or the students freely on their own (groups 2 in rope jumping, and groups 1 and 2 in acrobatic gymnastics). In fact, the lowest motor performance was found in those teams with more conflicts and less commitment to individual responsibilities. Even all the students who were interviewed considered the systematic failure to fulfill several responsibilities during the working sessions as a fundamental reason for the low performance of their teams. Effects of Cooperative Learning on Social development The classroom observations which were recorded in the teaching diary by the teacher and by the outside observers, along with the students’ interviews were analyzed in order to test the effects of cooperative learning on social development. It led us to identify three major achievements: (a) greater autonomy in the learning process; (b) increase of social skills and pro-social attitudes; and (c) inclusion of pupils with special educational needs. Greater autonomy in the learning process An initial tendency to organize themselves individually or in pairs within the same group was observed in some teams. Consequently, it was written on the external observer’s diary corresponding to the first session: “some have not followed the instructions exactly as a team but individually. “ Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 91 Virtually all the learning teams left the individualistic organization as they advanced in working as a team and while the decisions aimed at assisting people with difficulties in the group were increased. These decisions involved in many cases different ways of grouping within the team targeted at reaching the maximum motor performance. Here we have an example taken from the teacher’s diary: “Cristina asks if all the members in her team could advance except for a person who would support Carlos. I answer that they could do it like this as long as Carlos had no lack of support.” Feedback for peers is sometimes considered as a priority even when it is temporary limiting the motor performance: “Miguel jumps backwards while his teammates are watching him. [...]. I approach them and I tell them that several people could jump at once. Yes, but we can control ourselves better like this. “ The degree of autonomy in the teams, and consequently the level of decision making increased as the sessions progressed and as they got used to the innovations of working on cooperative learning. According to the external observer, “waiting times as well as decision-making moments are being decreased as the sessions go by” which allowed the different teams to increase the working time on motor skills. Increasing pro-social attitudes Most students tended to support each other, especially when someone expressed any difficulty with the task. The type of aid given was aimed at verbalizing the partner’s mistakes, giving directions, suggesting solutions or introducing facilitators. Thus, with regard to Hector’s difficulties, “Elena tells him that his problem is that he goes very quickly.” There was also frequent positive reinforcement of any achievement as well as encouragement to cope with difficulties. This fact was noticeable to the external observer who wrote in his diary: “motor skills acquired as a team do not limit the progress of the individuals. On the other hand, individual motor skills are always improved not only due to their own personal satisfaction but thanks to the general reinforcement of the team too.” It is also remarkable that in most of the groups very few conflicts appeared and, what is even more important, they learned to find consensus solutions to them. It is stated in the interview to Guadalupe: 92 C. Velázquez Callado - Analysis ofthe Effects ofthe Implementation - Have you found any kind of conflict during the sessions? - Yes, I said that we had to jump five times in a row with 15 hops graded or more in order to move to the next one. However, Rocío and Quetzalli said that just three hops. - And how did you solve it? - Well… finally, four; neither what Quetzalli and Rocío said, nor what I said. Inclusion of students with special educational needs Pedro was included, by elimination, in a group of three girls with a high degree of pro-social attitudes which undoubtedly contributed to the achievements of the child. Some students expressed in a remarkable way the little confidence that his partners had in Pedro’s ability to skip the rope, “they believed that he would not be able to jump”, “I think it was either because he jumped incorrectly or because he did not cooperate. Well, he was sometimes uncooperative but he has finally jumped properly, like everyone else.” From the first moment, Pedro had the support of his team and they made him assume his personal duties starting with the role of equipment manager because “Rocío says that it is the easiest task and that it is better to start there before playing another more complex role. He is the first one to pick up the ropes and to give them out.” A remarkable fact was that the celebration of Pedro’s achievements was the same as the collective ones. Positive reinforcement became the engine of learning and this fact was written down by the teacher in his diary:Pedro is trying to skip forward supported by Rocío, who does not stop encouraging him. When he performs a leap, Rocio runs to me to tell me, “he has taken a leap forward!” They try “the little clock” again with his feet together. He got it. [...] Rocío comes up to me in order to show me a sheet with the leaps of their group. She comes with Guadalupe and says, “Look how well Pedro is doing!” Good news! The external observer also highlights the “improvement of all the students in certain motor skills for jumping, rhythm as well as jumping in and out from the rope. The improvement of Pedro was very specially stressed,” noting that “I feel that the positive reinforcement of the team is particularly beneficial Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 93 to him.” Pedro's achievements in rope jumping helped him to be accepted by his peers for the rest of the motor activities that took place after the didactic unit “rope jumping together.” Effects of Cooperative Learning on Affective Development The main effects of cooperative learning on the affective level are found among those students with lower motivation to motor exercise. After the learning process supported by their peers, they achieve goals that they initially doubted they would be able to do. We have just mentioned, for instance, Pedro’s success in rope jumping. These results helped to promote the child’s proper motivation and the acquisition of a sense of motor competence that he expressed in his essay at the end of the unit: At first, I thought the task was too much. I could not cope with the small rope. When I tried the long rope, I leaped for the first time in my life. The second one was backward with the small rope, thanks to the help that I received when I jumped in pairs and alone. And I have already mastered the long rope. It is the last frontier, here we go! Thus, there was a child with special difficulties who established a relationship with his peers and finally, he was able to participate regularly in all the activities suggested during the lessons although his participation in the P.E. lessons with his previous teacher had been merely sporadic, limited to very few specific activities. And finally... what's left? We have analyzed the short term effects of cooperative learning, but what is still engraved in the students’ memory after working with this methodology as time goes by? We interviewed several people trying to answer this question. The students interviewed had stopped working with cooperative learning when they moved to Secondary Education, having worked with this methodology in school. Most of the former students who were interviewed emphasized among their memories, didactic units developed through cooperative 94 C. Velázquez Callado - Analysis ofthe Effects ofthe Implementation learning and other aspects that have to do with cooperation, friendship or fellowship. Consequently, what is most remembered by Carmen (5 years)2 was that “most of the times we were grouped among those who were in class”. She stressed that the P.E. lessons helped her to “make friends” and that “apart from doing the exercises, it was more about being opened to the rest of teammates.” This view is shared by Roberto (4 years), who said that he learned in the classroom “to collaborate with peers, fellowship as well as all the juggling exercises and the skipping rope”, contents of which Ernesto (3 years) also kept good memories “I remember a lot the circuits we did, juggling ..., the skipping ropes are really lively memories to me and I had a great time during these lessons too.” Carolina (2 years) stresses among all the things that she learnt “the team work”. It means that “we always have to say what we believe and listen to each other.” The mutual aid was spontaneously highlighted as a learning element in the classroom by the students during the collective interview: Can you remember what the teacher used to do when someone had any difficulty with the task or couldn’t do anything? (Ana) – The teacher helped him. (Rosa) - Or two partners helped him. (Andrea) – The teacher asked his friends to help him so they said “do this, you have to be like this”. (Ana) - That's what you used to say so much. What is what I said so much? (Ana) – Well, what I’ve just said, that you told us to help each other. And did it work? (Various) – Yes, quite well. (Martin) - I had not ever done a somersault and now I can do it. It is true that it is something that I could not do but you helped me and, as we were all together, now I know how to do it. Alejandro (1 year) also highlighted that the teacher was not the only one who “was trying to help” with the problems of a partner but “all of us helped”. For example, if he could not jump the rope, those of us who Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 95 were better at jumping taught him how to jump in and out from the long rope and you [the teacher] were also one of us.” The P.E. lessons at school were defined as funny, participative, cooperative and useful by all the interviewees. Consequently, Martin (2 years) reinforced that the lessons let “everybody play.” It was not like football, in which just some people were very good at and others really bad. They were intermediate games that everyone can do” Carmen (5 years) described them as “funny and relaxing” stating that “all of us always enjoyed going to class.” Roberto (4 years) was even more enthusiastic considering it “very funny” and declaring: “I've never been in a P.E. class like that.” Carolina (2 years) chose the adjective “cooperative, because we always had to collaborate with each other” and Alejandro (1 year) considered that the lessons were helpful because “there are games where some of the skills needed are now required at high school”. Big differences were identified by all the students when comparing P.E. at school with P.E. at high school in Secondary Education. The first major difference that was quickly verbalized has to do with losing the sense of entertaining lessons. With regard to this, Alejandro (1 year) complained that at high school “games are hardly ever played, exercise is everything and games were in school. It was better than at high school, much better, because you did the same as in high school but playing.” A second distinguishing feature is related to the structure of learning. Ernesto (3 years) stressed that lessons at school “were all cooperative practices while, at high school, everything is more individualistic.” This idea also emerged during the group interview, in which students linked this individualistic learning approach to a greater difficulty to learn, compared with the cooperative approach that they had known in school: (Rosa) – At the high school elasticity is much more emphasized and everything is harder. A bigger effort is required. (Martin) - It is not a challenge where you are supported. The thing is that you have to do it and you are going to do it because you have to do it. If not, then you fail. In school you are supported and at high school you have to do it so you do it. 96 C. Velázquez Callado - Analysis ofthe Effects ofthe Implementation (Victor) - In high school everything is more serious. You have to pass and if not ... you fail and, well ... in school you could fail too, couldn’t you? But it is more difficult because your classmates and your teacher are helping. Don’t your peers and teacher help you in high school? (Victor) – They do but not so much. Everything is more serious, more difficult. The idea of associating the training at high school with a higher level of demand with respect to that one at school, also emerged in individual interviews. So Carolina (2 years) noted that “high school is more demanding, for example, the Cooper test is more strict.” While steady running was just a learning content in the school, it was assessed in high school, so that “here we practiced several sessions before the final one. There, instead of practicing five or six sessions to calibrate ourselves and get fit after a time, we just have one or two sessions.” In fact, students do not relate the level of demand with a higher learning but rather with a higher importance of the physical condition, mainly aerobic endurance and, as already noted, with a lower number of motor training based on games. Carmen (5 years) emphasized, for example, that at high school lessons “are running. You’re given a few minutes and you have to run and we rarely have fun. There is no freedom to do things you've never done.” Discussion According to the theory of cooperation and competition (Deustch, 1949), a person will tend to compete, cooperate or work individually depending on how this person perceives the relationship between his goals and those of others. Following this theory, the first step in getting people to cooperate would be to create a positive interdependence of goals. In other words, his objectives must be linked together so that he can only achieve them if the rest of the people also reach theirs. This theory was prompted by Johnson and Johnson (1989, 2009) who renamed it as Social Interdependence Theory and it was applied to the educational field by developing the conceptual approach to cooperative Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 97 learning. The starting point to promote cooperation among equals is the same, the need for a positive interdependence of goals. Yet, it is indicated that this is a necessary although not a sufficient condition to guarantee it. The results of our investigation agree with Johnson and Johnson (1989, 2009) since the motor and social achievement were not guaranteed in all the cases, in spite of the positive interdependence of goals, but also even in spite of interdependent resources, roles and rewards. It does seem that, broadly speaking, students were more motivated and made bigger efforts when they could contribute something to the group or when poor performance affected other members of the team. Nevertheless, this was not the same in all cases, which leads us to believe that there are other individual characteristics such as some personality traits, motivation, pro-social behavior, responsibility... that influence the performance of the teams. This would reinforce the results of investigations of León (2002, p. 297) who advocated “the importance of social skills, negative self-verbalization and, above all, certain styles of interpersonal behavior on cooperative learning.” Further studies should be aimed at determining which of these variables have a greater effect on the positive or negative result of students when working on cooperative learning. The fact that the teacher was the one who formed the learning teams was not a determining factor in the performance of them. We could observe that in the case of teams which are built by affinity but their members fulfilled their responsibilities, their performance is higher. By contrast, it is really decreased when the affinity grouping generates playful or distracting situations from the task. However, most researchers consider the groups which are formed freely by the students themselves the least recommended option (Gavilán & Alario, 2010; Johnson, Johnson & Holubec, 1999) since “students will tend to choose their peers depending on their ethnicity or gender and they will have less willingness to respond as individuals “ (Cohen, 1999, p. 89). There are other risks such as a team consisting in the students with more difficulties without resources to help reciprocally (Kagan, 2000). Another risk for those teams made of friends could be the lack of opportunities to socialize with others (Putnam, 1997). Then, should the 98 C. Velázquez Callado - Analysis ofthe Effects ofthe Implementation teacher be the one who builds the groups even though this was not a determining factor in the performance of them as we observed in our study? Perhaps the most suitable thing is the balance in which, not only the interests of students are considered but also the way children are gathered in order to avoid the risks before mentioned. Some proposals are given in this sense. For instance, Marín and Blázquez (2003) proposed the educator to be the person in charge of forming the group after a sociometric testing that allows him to combine variables of friendship along with others of heterogeneity. According to another proposal, the students are who group freely themselves as long as the group meets certain conditions set by the teacher (Velázquez, 2010). In our research, the groups which obtained the lowest yields were those teams in which some people were distracted from the task, were joking with their teammates, did not assume their responsibilities, were not able to regulate their conflicts and rarely reflected or made decisions aimed at solving the problems that arose. All this leads us to identify individual responsibility as a determining factor to success in cooperative learning, an element that is fully recognized by the leading names in the field (Cohen, 1999; Johnson & Johnson, 1999; Kagan, 2000; Slavin, 1999). Such individual responsibility seems to be facilitated by the development of specific materials for the work of students through cooperative learning as well as the assumption of specific roles by them, although it is not a guarantee. Furthermore, promoting time to reflect on the work done is also recommendable what Johnson and Johnson (1999) called group processing. Our study showed that interpersonal conflicts were rare when the group had sufficient social skills and there was a concern for everyone, especially for those who had more difficulties. Moreover, in the case of any conflict, it was solved thanks to dialogue and agreement. All this contributed not only to the inclusion of students who had been initially marginalized but also to the motor achievement of those with lower initial ability in the proposed task. This suggests that pro-social attitudes of the students are another factor that contributes towards a high team performance. The clearest example is found in the group that worked with Pedro, the autistic child, who reached the second best results in the jump in pairs when the child was initially unable to lift his feet from the Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 99 ground. Social skills are considered by Johnson and Johnson (1999) as one of the fundamental factors for success in the cooperative learning processes, in addition to what they call promotive interaction “that happens when people encourage and promote the others’ efforts in order to achieve activities in favor of the objectives of the group” (ibid., p. 125). These factors are also considered by other authors (Dyson, Lineham & Hastie, 2010; Gavilán & Alario, 2010; Gillies, 2007; Putnam, 1997). Understanding pro-social behavior as without altruistic motivation” (Garaigordobil, 2005, p. 44) and even when it is not exactly mentioned in the alluded works, the conjunction of these two essential factors of cooperative learning with social skills and promotive interaction are not exactly the same, to some extent, but they have a lot of similarities with it. The different learning teams, in which their components showed prosocial attitudes, took their individual responsibilities, reflected on the work done and how to improve it. In addition, they had enough cognitive resources and social skills to support the learning of their peers, providing feedback that leads them to correct their mistakes. Besides, they far exceeded the motor goals as well as other social achievements. Among these remarkable achievements were the greater autonomy in learning, an increase in social skills and the inclusion of students with special educational needs or more initial difficulties to achieve the task that was intended. The achievement of apparent unattainable motor goals with the support of their peers increased the motivation of these students towards physical exercise and the acquisition of a sense of motor competence. All this confirms other researches in the field of motor skills that shows that, as long as the required conditions are fulfilled, cooperative learning is effective not only in terms of motor performance but also emotionally and socially speaking (Bähr, 2010; Barba, 2010; Barrett , 2000, 2005; Casey, 2010; Casey & Dyson, 2009; Dyson, 2001, 2002; Dyson, Linehan & Hastie, 2010; Fernández-Río, 2003; Goudas & Magotsiou, 2009; Gröben, 2005; Lafont, Proeres & Vallet, 2007; Polvi & Telama, 2000). Finally, our study explored the perception of P.E. classes based on cooperative learning that endures in the students’ memory as time goes by. In this sense, the students identified the cooperative learning 100 C. Velázquez Callado - Analysis ofthe Effects ofthe Implementation approach as a distinguishing factor between P.E. lessons in school and those in high school working mainly on an individualistic approach. A second distinguishing feature was the entertaining lessons and positive classroom atmosphere in which they worked, in contrast to those that they were currently working on, more focused on the development of physical fitness, which they described as serious and demanding. They stressed the importance of peer support as a key factor that enabled them to learn in physical education. Finally, all students who were interviewed described the P.E. lessons at school as funny, participative, cooperative and useful. This leads us to conclude that students keep a pleasant memory of the P.E. lessons based on cooperative learning and that they are aware of the fact that they helped them to develop motor skills but also to interact with peers. In any case, we could not find any studies to compare our findings, therefore, it should be viewed with caution awaiting further research to be developed in this regard. Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 101 References Álvarez, J. C., Bernabé, R. 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México, D.F.: Secretaría de Educación Pública. Velázquez, C. (2004b). Desafíos físicos cooperativos: una experiencia de aula. In C. Velázquez, V. M. López Pastor & R. Monjas (Coords.), Actas del IV Congreso estatal y II Iberoamericano de actividades físicas cooperativas. Segovia, 5 al 8 de julio. [Cdrom]. Valladolid: La Peonza. Velázquez, C. (2006). Aprendemos juntos a saltar a la comba. Una experiencia de aprendizaje cooperativo en Educación Física. In C. Velázquez, C. Castro & F. Vaquero (Coords.), Actas del V Congreso internacional de actividades físicas cooperativas. Oleiros, 30 de junio al 3 de julio. [Cd-rom]. Valladolid: La Peonza. Velázquez, C. (Coord.) (2010). Aprendizaje cooperativo en Educación Física. Fundamentos y aplicaciones prácticas. Barcelona: INDE. Velázquez, C. (2012). Putting cooperative learning and physical activity into practice with primary students. In B. Dyson & A. Casey (Coords.), Cooperative learning in Physical Education. A research-based approach (pp. 59-74). London: Routledge. Qualitative Research in Education, 1 (1) 105 Velázquez, C. & Fernández-Arranz, M. I. (2002). Educación Física para la paz, la convivencia y la integración . [Cd-rom]. Valladolid: La Peonza. Velázquez-Buendía, R. (1996). Iniciación a los deportes colectivos: las hojas de registro como instrumento para facilitar el aprendizaje cooperativo y la coevaluación. Un enfoque de la enseñanza para transmitir a los estudiantes de Educación Física. In Actas del III Congreso Nacional de Educación Física de facultades de educación y XIV de escuelas universitarias de Magisterio . Guadalajara, 26 al 29 de junio (pp. 391-399). Guadalajara: Universidad de Alcalá. Notas 1 Throughout the text we will use pseudonyms to identify the different students. 2 Along with the pseudonym of a former student is included, in brackets, the number years that has elapsed since leaving school. Carlos Velázquez Callado is Ph D. Candidate at Departament of Music, Plastic and Body Expresion. Universidad de Valladolid, Spain Contact Address: Facultad de Educación y Trabajo Social, Paseo de Belén s/n, Valladolid (CP 47011). Email: [email protected] of Instructions for authors, subscriptions and further details: http://qre.hipatiapress.com ¿Cómo Investigar con Estudio de Casos? Beatriz Carramolino Arranz1 1) Departamento de Pedagogía, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain Date of publication: June 30th, 2012 To cite this article: Carramolino Arranz, B. (2012). ¿Cómo investigar con estudio de casos? Qualitative Research in Education, 1(1), 106108. doi: 10.4471/qre.2012.05 To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.4471/qre.2012.05 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System and to Creative Commons NonCommercial and NonDerivative License. Qualitative Research in Education Vol.1 N.1 June 2012 pp. 106-108 Reviews (II) Rodríguez Rojo, M. (2012): ¿Cómo Investigar con Estudio de Casos? Santa Cruz de la Sierra: CEDID-FIFIED. ISBN: 978-999-54-55-56-9 La presente obra surge como el “grano de arena” que el profesor emérito Dr. D. Martín Rodríguez Rojo aporta al programa de maestría y doctorado que se viene desarrollando en Bolivia desde el año 2008. En ese momento se planteó la iniciativa de formar a profesionales de la educación procedentes de diferentes países de Latinoamérica con el objetivo de alcanzar la maestría y doctorado. Esta acción tenía un carácter práctico y proyectivo, pues quienes han adquirido el grado de doctor son quienes están ayudando a formar a sus compañeros desde en sus respectivos países. El libro pretende ser una guía para la realización de Estudio de Casos para formadores y profesores en formación. Escoge esta metodología de investigación por su cariz globalizador, integrador de diferentes ciencias sociales y por su carácter socio-crítico y emancipador, con el propósito de repensar y mejorar las realidades socioeducativas de los diferentes países latinoamericanos a través de su estudio sistémico y de la búsqueda de transformación y mejora. De cualquier modo, es un ejemplar valioso para cualquier profesor, profesora y personas en periodo de formación de máster o doctorado, pues nos encontramos ante una síntesis pragmática de los fundamentos y principales pasos que hemos de seguir para realizar un Estudio de Casos. No pretende ser un manual dogmático, si no una referencia para comprender en qué consiste un Estudio de Casos y una orientación 2012 Hipatia Press ISSN 2014-6418 DOI: 10.4471/qre.2012.05 Qualitative Research in Education 1, (1) 107 práctica para estimular al lector en la organización de su investigación, permitiendo la flexibilidad de elección de principios y procedimientosdesde los que llevarla a cabo. Está basado en obras de autores referentes del campo del paradigma socio-crítico, la metodología cualitativa y del Estudio de Caso tales como John Elliot, Robert Stake, Stephen Kemmis, Karl Popper, etc. La guía, escrita en castellano, se presenta de forma sintética (el libro contiene 100 páginas) pero contempla el contenido más relevante de la temática abordada sin que el lector eche en falta ninguno de los pasos principales de un Estudio de Casos. Introduce el libro con el origen de la obra y la estructura y contenido que integrará a lo largo de él, situando al lector ante la intencionalidad y fundamentos de esta guía. Refleja las generalidades del estudio de caso, planteando su definición, características y enfoque desde los que puede partirse, a la vez que sugiere la lectura de obras de autores relevantes para la ampliación de la comprensión conocimientos. Prosigue con la exposición organizada de cada una de las cinco fases que integran, desde la perspectiva del autor, los Estudios de Caso: Fase Preparatoria, Fase de Planificación, Fase de Trabajo de campo, Fase Analítica y Fase Expresiva. Distribuye el contenido de estos pasos en 12 sesiones de Máster de naturaleza teóricopráctica, incluyendo contenido científico de cada uno de ellos ilustrado mediante ejemplos prácticos. La magnífica capacidad sintética que el autor ha demostrado en la obra permite que el lector recree una idea global de la metodología de Estudio de Casos y transmite un estímulo transformación positiva de las realidades socioeducativas mediante investigaciones basadas en esta metodología en las situaciones en que sea oportuno. Son de destacar los cuadros que el autor presenta a lo largo de la obra, en los que ejemplifica cómo presentar el contenido de nuestra investigación de forma clara y ordenada, permitiendo al investigador organizar el Estudio de Casos visualmente, de modo que facilita tener presente el esquema general, los objetivos, las categorías y los aspectos principales de la investigación. El importe de este libro está íntegramente destinado a la asociación creada por los doctorandos Latinoamericanos que se formaron al iniciar el proyecto en 2008 (Centro de Estudios Doctorales en Interculturalidad 108 B. Carramolino - ¿Cómo investigar con estudio de casos? y Desarrollo - CEDID) con sede en el Edificio Universitario de Ciudad de la Alegría, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Puede solicitarse el librocontactando con el autor: [email protected] Beatriz Carramolino Arranz Universidad de Valladolid [email protected] Instructions for authors, subscriptions and further details: http://qre.hipatiapress.com La Evaluación y Calificación en la Universidad. Relatos Autobiográficos Durante la Búsqueda de Alternativas Gustavo González Calvo 1) CEIP León Felipe, Consejería de Educación de la Junta de Castilla y León, Spain. Date of publication: June 30th, 2012 To cite this article: González Calvo, G. (2012). La evaluación y calificación en la universidad. Relatos autobiográficos durante la busqueda de alternativas. Qualitative Research in Education, 1(1), 109111. doi: 10.4471/qre.2012.06 To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.4471/qre.2012.06 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System and to Creative Commons NonCommercial and NonDerivative License. Qualitative Research in Education Vol. 1 N. 1 June 2012 pp. 109-111 Reviews (II) Sicilia Camacho, A. (coord.) (2011). La Evaluación y Calificación en la Universidad. Relatos Autobiográficos Durante la Búsqueda de Alternativas. Barcelona: Hipatia Press. ISBN: 978-84-936743-4-2 La presente obra, vinculada al ámbito educativo universitario, constituye una valiosa selección de narrativas autobiográficas en las que, con un lenguaje claro y sencillo, un grupo de profesores llevan a cabo un análisis crítico respecto de la evaluación tradicional en la enseñanza universitaria y la manera en que ésta dificulta la búsqueda de un clima democrático dentro del aula y un equilibrio en las relaciones de poder que se asocian al proceso de calificación. Del análisis de los diferentes relatos se extrae la convicción de que son la evaluación y la calificación dos de las herramientas del proceso de enseñanza/aprendizaje que de forma más clara evidencian y condicionan las ideologías docentes. La obra se presenta en dos partes, si bien no formalmente diferenciadas, y se estructura en torno a diez capítulos. El primero de ellos, la evaluación: una encrucijada para el profesorado, supone el repaso crítico a 35 años de ejercicio profesional y la evolución en el proceso evaluador a lo largo del mismo. Espejos deformantes, fragmentos incompletos: reflexión sobre la evaluación desde la biografía muestra tres momentos vitales clave para el autor que le llevan a reflexionar acerca de las posibilidades y limitaciones de la evaluación. El tercero de los relatos, la autoevaluación en la formación de maestras y maestros. Narrativa, experiencia y reflexión de un aula universitaria, plantea que partir de la autobiografía del alumnado resulta útil para conocer su trayectoria previa en el momento de su formación 2012 Hipatia Press ISSN 2014-6418 DOI: 10.4471/qre.2012.06 110 G. González Calvo - La evaluación y calificación a universidad universitaria y en su proyección como futuro docente, al tiempo que recoge el vínculo que se establece entre la práctica de autoevaluación y autocalificación con el proceso de enseñanza/aprendizaje democrático. De la auto-evaluación a la co-evaluación analiza la reelaboración que lleva a cabo la autora de las prácticas desarrolladas por FernándezBalboa al considerar la autoevaluación como un limitante del progreso democrático en el aula. El quinto relato, del naufragio como docente metódica al encuentro creativo de la docencia. Reflexiones en voz alta acerca de mi práctica docente, la corporeidad y la búsqueda del ejercicio de la democracia, refleja el punto de inflexión de una profesora de Educación Física en su modo de abordar la docencia y el paso de ejercer una metodología y evaluación autoritaria a otra democrática. Miedo a la libertad y autoevaluación: gobernarse a sí mismo plantea las experiencias de un profesor asociado en su primer año de docencia y su convicción de que la autoevaluación desarrolla personas responsables, libres y autónomas que requiere mucho de docente y discente. En flexión, reflexión y genuflexión ante la evaluación universitaria: de cómo la evaluación nos informa y la calificación nos deforma, el autor presenta en tono irónico cómo la evaluación mitiga el desarrollo de una actitud reflexiva, crítica y participativa del alumnado. Análisis de un proceso de formación inicial del profesorado basado en la autoevaluación muestra las implicaciones de la autoevaluación en el desarrollo de una asignatura optativa de los estudios de Magisterio y los conflictos que genera entre alumnado y profesorado. Libertad, autonomía y formación de sujetos en el proceso de autoevaluación y autocalificación narra la intención del autor por dotar de voz y autonomía a los estudiantes dentro de su propio proceso de aprendizaje mediante la autocalificación y las limitaciones sociopolíticas a que se ve sometida. El último capítulo, un relato sobre la incertidumbre y los prejuicios que irrumpen cuando se pretende incluir la voz del alumnado en la enseñanza universitaria, plantea los dilemas mediante las narrativas del yo a que se enfrenta una profesora novel universitaria cuando decide cambiar su modo de abordar la docencia y la evaluación de la asignatura que imparte. Qualitative Research in Education 1, (1) 111 Estas narrativas autobiográficas evidencian las inquietudes del profesorado por ser capaces de llevar a cabo un proceso de cambio en el sistema tradicional de evaluación. En mi opinión, compartir estas reflexiones puede ayudar a otros educadores, no sólo del ámbito universitario, a replantearse el tipo de evaluación que llevan a cabo y las implicaciones que ésta supone, abriendo el camino que conduce a buscar respuestas al tipo de profesional que somos y el que queremos llegar a ser. Gustavo González Calvo CEIP León Felipe gustavogonzalezcalvo@gmail. com