An Autoethnographical recount on the development of research

By Luzkarime Calle

GETTING

STARTED…

“Come on in” – Lourdes said, as she opened the door to her office.

“Is it true you are choosing professionalization for your masters?”- She asked.

Her question took me a little by surprise. I had applied for professionalization but my real intention was to do research. I explained that to her. She seemed relieved.

“Then, I guess I’ll be your tutor” – She said

“So, what is exactly what you want to do?” – She asked. I had already seen the question coming.

“Well…” – I replied. “I want, or better, I need to develop the curriculum for my mom school, so I would like to do research on the field of curriculum design while I do it”.

“OK” – Said Lourdes, pausing for a moment. “I’m thinking you could work on the curriculum design but focusing on your professional development and your role as the designer. What do you think?”

“I like the idea” – I agreed.

“All right! Time to get started, then. Tell me about your context” – She requested.

“Well, the school’s name is Gimnasio Valle del San Jorge. It’s a preschool and primary private school in Planeta Rica – Córdoba. It has a population of 204 students, whose ages range from 1 to 11 years old. It has 5 levels in preschool and 5 in primary”.

“Aha. And why do you think they need an English curriculum? I guess Planeta Rica is a small town”.

“Yes, it is. However, the school was constituted in the year 2005 with an emphasis in English but at the moment, it lacks a formal English curriculum. Therefore, the administration is aiming at introducing major modifications in order to follow the original principles, philosophy, mission and vision of the institution. On the one hand, it lacks an English curriculum, and on the other hand, the teachers’ language level and methodological background are not good enough. So my mom wants me to take over and lead the project, design the curriculum, and prepare the teachers”

“I see” – She said. “Well, I guess we can work with that, we can focus your research on your personal and professional development”.

“Yes. Because I’m actually worried about my being able to design a good curriculum and make the right decisions for this specific context, with the background and knowledge I have and bearing in mind that I’m not working in the context. I mean, I really don’t know if I am prepared to perform such a daunting task”.

“I see. It would be really interesting to look into the way you sort out the task and how what you know and your experience, and of course the context, influence the decisions you make. Now that I think about it, you can do research on the way your cognition; that is your beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge influence the curriculum development. Chris did something similar. Why don’t you start by checking the literature on teacher cognition, curriculum development, and teacher development? I guess it’s a good place to start”.

“OK, that sounds great” – I replied, feeling excited about the topic. “I’ll start working on it”.

“Don’t forget to write the reviews and pay attention to the state of the art; that is, find out what has been and is being done in the field. Read Chris’ and other people’s theses in order to have an idea of how they have approached the subject”.

“OK”- I said.

“Great! I will send you some bibliography. And, if you find something interesting, e-mail it to me too. We’ll meet again in two weeks to share what you have found”. She paused for a moment. “And, for our next session, bring a draft presentation of your research problem, and start thinking about your possible research questions, and initial objectives”

I left her office eager to look into this topic that seemed so interesting and that I knew so little about. The last assignment, on the other hand, worried me a little. I would have to work hard if I wanted to keep up with my tutor’s demands – I thought.

BUILDING ON THEORY

AND MAKING DECISIONS…

“So, did you find anything interesting?” – Lourdes asked.

“Well, yes… many things”. I replied.

“Fill me up! Who did you read?” – She inquired.

“I’ve been reading about the three topics you suggested. I read Borg and Woods, for teacher cognition; Smith and Gillespie, Connelly and Clandinin, and … Hoban for teacher development and teacher education; And, for syllabus design, I found Nunan, Richards, Johnson, Markee, Diamond, Brown, and Nation & Macalister”. I answered, reading from my notes.

“OK”. She said. “Do you have the reviews?”

“Some of them”, I said. “I hope to have the others ready by next session”.

“Perfect”. She replied. “Please send them to me”.

I did just that, and when she finished looking at them, she asked: “What about your research problem? Did you prepare the presentation?”

“Yes”, I said – “But I’m not sure yet”.

“Let’s take a look!” She encouraged me. I showed her my presentation, in which I included an overview of the context, the problem, and the initial questions.

“Let’s stop here!” – She said. “I think your question is OK. I would suggest, though, changing the ‘HOW’ to ‘TO WHAT EXTENT’. How is probably hard to measure. And the word affect… I’m not so sure… It has a negative connotation to me. Try to find another one, like influence maybe?”

“OK” – I agreed.

“Now, let’s see what sub questions we can derive from here” –She moved on. “We need to think about some questions that allow us to reach the answer to the general question”. She started rereading my question. “Why don’t we break it down a little? Think about teacher cognition. It relates to teachers’ beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge. So let’s try to come up with sub questions that address each one of them and the connection between them and the curriculum”.

After discussing for a long while, and brainstorming, writing, editing, and rewriting, we came up with the initial final version for the research questions and a first version of the objectives for my research.

“And don’t worry!” – Lourdes added after I had saved the document. “You will probably be changing your questions and objectives even the day before you submit your thesis for revision” – She joked… or at least I hoped she was joking.

“Now, you need to start thinking about the approach to research that you will use. So, the first thing I want for next time is a chapter in which you explain the different approaches and methods, qualitative, quantitative, descriptive, etc”. She stopped. “There are also some decisions you need to make as to what is the most appropriate method for your study and what type of instruments you will need to use in order to collect data that allow you to achieve each specific objective”.

“What do you know about the state of the art?” I was expecting the question, so I rushed to answer.

“This book” – I said, showing her Simon Borg’s Teacher cognition and language education – “and the article: Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of researchon what language teachers think, know, believe, and do” – I read from my notes. “They both were great because in them, Borg gives a review of what has been done in the field of education and teacher cognition. So they really helped me contextualize the topic and see where I can head for”.

“And … where is that?” She asked.

“Well, he exposes relevant information about 64 studies he found about teacher cognition, and provides insights into the fields that have been researched the most, namely grammar and literacy instruction, specially reading. He says, let me see…” - I looked through my notebook- “Here, ‘teacher cognition research has concentrated on giving answers to four main questions: “What do teachers have cognitions about?, how do these cognitions develop?, how do they interact with teacher learning?, [and] how do they interact with classroom practice?” (p. 81). I read literally from my review.

“Ok. But you said you had found some possible paths for your research”. She said in an inquisitive tone.

“Oh yes. He provides some possible directions for further research on teacher cognition. He considers more needs to be done in contexts such as primary and secondary levels, in state schools, where EFL learning processes are more representative and, preferably, carried out by non-native speakers”.

“That’s interesting! It’s a gap that you can fill”. She started looking for something in her computer. “Why don’t you read about inner circle and outer circle? I think it is Kachru who has written about that. You may want to include something about it in your rationale”.

I took notes, asking her for the spelling of the name.

“So…- I continued – I also found that most of research in the field has focused on the connection between teachers’ cognition and decision making in classroom processes. Little was found regarding the role of teacher cognition during the design stage of an English curriculum. I think this is another gap I could bridge with my research”.

“Great! This is what it’s all about. I guess we’re on the right track”. She affirmed. “Keep on reading and I’ll see you next time to discuss your research approach”.

“Ok”- I said. “Thanks a lot”. We said good bye and agreed on our next session.

CHOOSING

AUTOETHNOGRAPHY...

Lourdes and I couldn’t see each other in the next following weeks. But, we shared emails of the initial versions of the methodology chapter. I made a literature review about qualitative and quantitative research. I decided to go for a qualitative approach to research since human behavior analysis is qualitative in nature. When we saw each other again, I had already made important decisions regarding the focus I wanted for my study. She had told me to get ready to share them with her.

“It’s good to see you again” She welcomed me in her office.

“Yes, you too” – I replied.

“So, I can see that you already chose autoethnography as the method for your study. It’s the same method Chris used in his. Tell me everything! What did you learn? how are you planning to apply autoethnography into curriculum design? Is it coherent with your objectives?”

“I think so” – I replied shyly. “First of all, I have to say that I have fallen in love with autoethnography. It has totally changed my perspective about research”.

“Aha… and why is that?” said Lourdes, she seemed interested.

“I’ve been reading about the way autoethnographic researchers find a way to discover cultural patterns and phenomena by analyzing their personal experiences and recounts. I have found that they use mostly narratives to collect information and publish their findings. I find it fascinating”

“Wow, but you seem to be really into it. That’s good! But, before you go on, tell me how do you frame autoethnography in qualitative research? What does using autoethnography entail? And more specifically, how are you going to apply it into your specific study?

“Ok. Autoethnography is an approach to research that has its roots in ethnography. Ethnography is considered to be a branch of qualitative research because its aim is to describe and understand the behavior of a particular social or cultural group. Therefore, autoethnography is also a qualitative method for research. Basically, autoethnography emerged as an alternative research method, in which the researcher merges autobiography with ethnography to produce narratives about experiences in social sciences. Many authors have been working and publishing their work in an autoethnographical manner. For example, Carolyn Ellis, Artur Bochner, Margot Duncan, among others. What I find most interesting about autoethnography is that it recognizes the subjective nature of human behavior research. According to Ellis, Adams and Bochner (2010), ‘autoethnography is one of the approaches that acknowledges and accommodates subjectivity, emotionality, and the researcher's influence on research, rather than hiding from these matters or assuming they don't exist’- I read from my notes- “In my study, I am going to focus on my own mental processes in order to understand phenomena that is common to a cultural group; that is, English teachers and novice curriculum designers. As the subject of study is myself, autoethnography is likely to be the appropriate method for my research”.

“Well, you have convinced me, at least” – She said. “However, I know that autoethnography has been criticized for lacking scientific rigor and even validity”.

“Yes, I know… and it worried me at first, too” – I replied. “However, I read an article that addresses the issues of reliability, generalizability and validity in autoethnography. The authors say that autoethnography is accepted as scientific as long as the writer has credibility, the story he tells is believable, possible, coherent and useful; if the readers determine that the story reflects their experiences or the experiences of the people they know; and if the author is able to illustrate unknown cultural processes. I think that, if I am able to choose and design appropriate data collection instruments that allow me to discover and illustrate processes that can be generalized to our cultural group, my research can be easily accepted as valid”.

“I agree with you. So, let’s talk about your instruments” – She said. “Do you have anything in mind?”

“Yes. Before I read so much about autoethnography, I had thought about using some instruments suggested by Borg in order to look into teacher cognition. However, I found some instruments that are used specifically for autoethnography. Some of them are verysimilar to Borg’s but under a different name. So, I decided to go for the ones proposed by Ellys, in autoethnography”.

“Ok. Let me see what you have” – She said, turning to my side to look at my computer screen. “We need to make sure that we can use at least one instrument to collect data for each of the specific objectives. And then, find a way to triangulate all the information. I guess all the instruments you chose are going to help you take introspective records of the process you will be going through. I’m thinking that first, you need to write a biography, where you describe your life as a learner, language learner, teacher learner, in-service teacher, then when you did the ‘especialización’, etc. All of this will give you information about your beliefs and experiences, which is going to be used to identify your cognition, which is your first objective. And I suggest that you also write what you believe about education, learning, language learning, etc… Now, you need to come up with some kind of a template for each of the instruments. Do you already have any idea about that?”

“Aha” – I said – “I chose to use three instruments mentioned by Ellys: Reflexive ethnographies, personal narratives, and artifacts. Reflexive Ethnographies allow the researcher to record the changes she has had through the investigation. So, I can record the different stages of the development of the curriculum and everything that happens from the beginning until the end. Ellys says that the researcher should have like a continuum, starting from her own biography and going through the different stages carried out”.

“So, that one is good for objectives 1 and 2. Identifying your beliefs and knowledge and linking them to your experiences and the curriculum design. What about the personal narratives?”

“I’m planning to use personal narratives to describe what I know and believe about education, language learning and teaching, teacher development, etc. as you had suggested in one of your emails. According to Ellys the goal of personal narratives is to write meaningfully and evocatively about topics that matter and may make a difference. In this case, the topics I will write about are the main theoretical tenets of my study”.

“I see… and the last ones you mentioned… the artifacts?”. She inquired.

“Yes, I wasn’t quite sure about what Ellys meant by that. So, I did some research and I found that this term is increasingly being used in ethnographic research” – I looked through my notes and started reading – “Florou, Tsalapatas, and Alimisi (2010) claim that artifact collection is increasingly part of ethnographic studies. They state that collection of artifacts ‘is a secondary data collection strategy which typically includes unofficial documents, official documents, objects, etc. which provide insight into the lives, experiences, and perceptions of the subjects’. I still don’t know what kind of artifacts I can collect, maybe you can help me with that”.

“Ok, let’s see…” – Lourdes went back to my objectives table that she had on the screen of her computer. “Well, your last objective has to do with the relationship between your context and the curriculum design. So, I think an important artifact is the different drafts of the curriculum that you will be writing and modifying…

And then, you write notes about those modifications in your narratives. Also, the official documents you are going to analyze, such as the PEI, the English program, or whatever they have at the school in this moment. And finally, you can ask your mom, the coordinators and the teachers to give you written feedback on everything you design, to know their perspective and to make it suitable for the context”.

“Aha… That sounds good! So… what’s next?” – I said, worried about the answer to the question.

“Well, first, let’s draw a table to match the research objectives with the instruments that you chose and the purpose of each of them. Then, you need to design the instruments, which is your assignment for our next session”

“Ok” – I said. We immediately started to complete the table. I guess we were both happy with the results.

General ObjectiveEstablish the connection between curriculum developer’s beliefs, assumptions and knowledge about education and language learning, and curriculum design.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES INSTRUMENTS PURPOSEIdentify designer’s beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge about education and language teaching and learning

Autobiography template

Personal narratives

Discover possible traits of teacher cognition that might have influenced my teaching practice, and hence, the development of the curriculum

Record, prior to curriculum design, my conception of education, language learning and teaching, teacher development, and curriculum design.

Establish the relationship between designer’s beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge about education and language teaching and learning, and her experience as a language learner, teacher and curriculum designer.

Reflexive Ethnographies

Discover the mental processes, and the changes experienced during the development of this project

Establish the relationship between the institutional context and the decisions made in the curriculum development.

Artifacts: Document analysis

checklist Drafts of curriculum

Identify contextual factors influencing curriculum development

Record changes made during the process and the connection with teacher cognition

“I guess that’s all for today” – She said. “I think it was a very productive session”. Don’t forget to start working on the design of your instruments. Try to send me drafts via email before we meet again”.

“Ok, I will. Thank you!”

SETTING OFF THE PATH

FOR RESEARCH…

I sent Lourdes drafts of my instruments as we agreed on our last session and she gave me feedback. We realized that the first step for the design of the curriculum was to conduct the needs analysis, so I also designed surveys for teachers and students, interview questions for administrative staff and teachers, and a survey for parents. And here we were now, discussing the next actions to take in this exciting journey.

“I think you are ready to start collecting your data. I am pretty happy with your instruments”- Lourdes said.

“Thank you” – I replied. “I’m traveling to Planeta Rica next month;I’m planning to start the needs analysis. The idea is to have finished writing the autobiography and the personal narratives by then so that I can start recording data on the reflexive ethnographies”.

“Sounds good!” – She said. “Is there anything else you want to ask me or tell me?”

“I guess not”- I said. “Oh yes! I’ve been complementing my state of the art… so I was trying to find autoethnographic studies in the field of education here in Colombia and it was really hard. I only found a Colombian man who has published autoethnographic studies but he lives in Spain, his name is Manuel Velandia. I wrote asking him if he had information about other people in Colombia doing autoethnography and his answer was negative. I also wrote an email to Carolyn Ellys, and she gave me the same answer, although she does know that some people in other Spanish speaking countries are using it in education. She doesn’t know of anyone applying it in the field of curriculum design, though. She gave me a website where I can find more information, so I’ll check it out ASAP”.

“Great! I think you’re going on the right way. I guess I’ll see you in two weeks!”

“Yes, ma’am” – I said. As I was leaving her office, I started thinking about all the hard work that was ahead. “I have no idea what I am getting into” – I said to myself. “I guess there’s no way back now!

…The end