Culturalhistorical and discursive tools for analyzing critical conflicts in students development Ann

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Cultural-historical and discursive toolsfor
analyzing critical conflicts in students
developmentAnnalisa SanninoUniversity of
Salerno, Italy

• 16º InPLA - Intercâmbio de Pesquisas em
  Lingüística Aplicada
• Minicourse 2nd-5th of May 2007, São Paulo

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• Introduction
• a journey
• through my teaching experience at the University
  of Salerno

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Two starting points

• The meeting for welcoming students to the
  2003-2004 academic year
• My class on Psychology of Learning and Memory

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Two modes of involvement

• passionate
• vs rational approach to studies

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A contradiction rises and hits the instructor

• students wanting to make their life as easy as
  possible, and then choosing the hardest
  evaluation mode

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The contradiction is recognized as an opportunity
for change

• The instructor becomes
• a teacher-interventionist-researcher

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2. Theoretical framework Cultural-historical
activity theory (CHAT)
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CHAT

• brings subjective human experience into
  connection with the external material world
• promotes transformation in the subject and in
  her way to operate in the world

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In this inquiry CHAT is used for

• exploring the developmental potential of the
  identified contradiction for both my students and
  myself as a teacher
• promoting transformation in my students and
  myself as a teacher

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What is the nature of the transformation in the
subject I aimed at as a teacher-interventionist-
researcher?
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Transformation aimed at

• Learning how to deal with critical situations,
  i.e., situations in which the subject faces the
  impossibility of realizing internal necessities
  that would fulfill her expectations in life
• Using Vasilyuks (1988) terminology and key
  concept
• promoting the process of experiencing, i.e.
  promoting or reinforcing engagement in struggling
  against impossibility, in order to realize
  internal necessities

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Transformation aimed at

• Learning how to deal with critical situations,
  i.e., situations in which the subject faces the
  impossibility of realizing internal necessities
  that would fulfill her expectations in life
• Using Vasilyuks (1988) terminology and key
  concept
• promoting the process of experiencing, i.e.
  promoting or reinforcing engagement in struggling
  against impossibility, in order to realize
  internal necessities

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Contradiction (Ilyenkov, 1977) a key concept
used in CHAT to interpret critical situations

• Mismatches
• through which activities
• renew themselves

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Conflict (Vasilyuk, 1988) a key concept used
in psychology to describe critical situations

• The individual surrendering in face of
  contradictory motives that, in the given form,
  cant be subjectively solved

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An example of the individual surrendering in the
face of contradictory motives
Student
University teacher
Nourishing intellectual interests
Being a productive academic
Being a successful student
Being a caring teacher
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Difference between conflict experiences and
contradictions
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Difference between conflict experiences and
contradictions
Shift to exploring the roots of conflicts
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Transitional object (Winnicott, 1974 Leiman,
1999) a key notion used here to conceptualize
the shift between action level of conflict to
activity level of contradiction

• Objects to which individuals are
• attached to and, at the same time,
• struggle to separate from

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Learning to shift from the level of conflict to
the level of contradiction

• Individuals becoming conscious of being
  transitional objects for themselves
• and internalizing their transitionality as both
• a weakness and as a strength

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An example of weakness and strength of being
transitional

• Weakness Students shaping themselves as
  potentially competent professionals are also
  exposed to live through conflicts in the
  university in a more painful way than other
  parties, which already have the economic and
  professional security that students aim at
  achieving through their studies
• Strength Students, because they are not bound by
  any permanent position or economic tie, have the
  potential to turn their conflicts into
  developmental initiatives

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Processes of experiencing

• as both processes of life and processes of
  acting upon life

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The intrinsic autobiographical nature of
experiencing
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3. The setting of the inquiry
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• My class of Psychology of Memory and Learning in
  the Faculty of Education at the University of
  Salerno
• 128 students, future elementary and kindergarten
  teachers

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4. Methodology
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Turning the class in an object-oriented
intervention

• for understanding and re-designing unfolding
  critical events in the students life at the
  University

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Using pragmatic discourse analysis

• for studying discourse as it occurs in
• these specific teaching and research-intervention
  situations as a pragmatic phenomenon

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Redefining autobiography by focusing on its
transformative potential
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Main phases in the intervention

• Making introspective inquiries and
  autobiographical texts on the students
  experiences of communicative critical events

• Working on common tasks to share each others
  perspectives, build new knowledge about the
  critical events, and develop innovative solutions
  for the future

• After experimentations with the new solutions
  the day normally reserved for the final exam is
  spent evaluating the innovations carried out
  during the intervention, and for future-oriented
  joint accounting

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Students read each others autobiographical texts
When the conflict experiences they wrote about
involve directly others present in the class,
participants work on their respective texts
during separate sessions of the intervention
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5. Analyses
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Some conflicts and ways in which students live,
recognize and work them out individually

• conflicts stemming from difficulties in the
  choice of University
• ending up at the university because of the lack
  of work outside
• conflicts with professors during classes or oral
• examination sessions
• extreme representations of the professors

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Few excerpts

• Antonia, February 2004 (excerpt from the
  interview during the final exam) () When you
  are 32 years old you want to work. Instead of
  waiting outside, at least we get here another
  academic degree, and all these titles may give us
  more chances to work.
• Livia, December 2003 (excerpt form the text of
  her speech during the second intervention in the
  classroom) When you go to the exam you see the
  professor as a God, somebody to be afraid of,
  because you know he can harm you thats why one
  is afraid to go to take an exam. Thats at least
  what happens to me. We should learn to see the
  professor as a person, and be aware that he can
  make you pass or not.

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The emergence of an intermediate level between
the level of conflict and the level of
contradiction, while the students confront each
others autobiographical texts
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The emergence of an intermediate level between
the level of conflict and the level of
contradiction, while the students confront each
others autobiographical texts
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The emergence of an intermediate level between
the level of conflict and the level of
contradiction, while the students confront each
others autobiographical texts
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The emergence of an intermediate level between
the level of conflict and the level of
contradiction, while the students confront each
others autobiographical texts
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The emergence of an intermediate level between
the level of conflict and the level of
contradiction, while the students confront each
others autobiographical texts
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The emergence of an intermediate level between
the level of conflict and the level of
contradiction, while the students confront each
others autobiographical texts
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A step toward the level of contradiction

• Conflict-contradictory experiences emerged during
  the last phase of the intervention

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• Students articulated differences between this and
  other classes
• Students recognized developmental tensions that
  pushed them through the class in a stimulating
  way
• Students articulated future-oriented accounts on
  the basis of what they have learned

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Few excerpts
Angelica The class developed on the basis on
what actually the students already knew, and was
built on that, instead of imposing itself on the
basis of what the ideal student has learned
before. Marta The way the class has been
organized pushed us to study and motivated us,
but, also, we experienced this sparkling tension,
between curiosity and fear, when coming to the
class we said Lets see what she will bring us
today! Alessia I have decided to ask other
professors to do the same as you for their
classes, especially the most complex ones,
because this way to carry a class has lightened
our work load without penalizing learning.
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6. Discussion
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Two main steps in the progression of the
collective work
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a. Change in the nature of the tools through the
process of the intervention
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b. Flow in the subject-object positioning
during the class and the intervention
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b. Flow in the subject-object positioning
during the class and the intervention
Students Teacher
The intervention as an historically recursive
self-reflective event
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• c. Conflicts occurring as actual daily worries
  for students, which justify their questions often
  considered as inopportune or impertinent by
  professors
• d. Being transitional and amplification of the
  subject sensitivity in regard to possible
  developmental resources available in the
  environment

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6. Conclusion
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a. The beginning of a definition of zone of
proximal development in this setting

• paraphrasing Vygotsky (1987, p.209)
• this study allowed to measure the distance
  between the actual level of this students
  development, as determined by their capacity to
  deal alone with the conflicts related to their
  university experiences, and the level of
  potential development, as determined by their
  capacity to work on these conflicts in
  collaboration with other students and the teacher

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• b. The exploration and concretization
• of the connection between
• students conflictual experience with the
• material contradictions
• in the context in which
• they live

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c. The challenge for faculty members to become
promoters of transformations in the subject and
in the university engaging in first-person
inquiries as teacher-interventionist-researcher
becoming models of change-oriented agent for
students, future teachers who will have to deal
with analogous conflictual-contradictory
experiences in their future professional life
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For contacts

• Annalisa Sannino
• University of Salerno
• Department of Education
• Via Ponte Don Melillo
• 84084 Fisciano (SA)
• E-mail ansannin_at_unisa.it