Autoethnography - Carrie M. Dattilo

Autoethnography

Carrie M. Dattilo The Schoolof Education, Johns Hopkins University Multicultural Education

Rationale

The Mess

Artifacts

Autoethnography

Thread of Change

References

The Mess

South Hamilton Educational Services Commission operates three out of district placement alternative high schools. Results of the 2023-24 school climate survey suggested that students do not feel that they have a voice in how and what they are being taught. Furthermore, data from my needs assessment indicated that students did not feel their voices were heard when they were accused of breaking the school's code of conduct. Finally, during my walkthroughs of the three schools, the majority of interactions I have witnessed have been controlled by the adult.

Why is this an area of focus for me?

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Rationale

Purpose

Autoethnography

Validity

Considerations

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Autoethnography

According to Adams et al. (2017) autoethnographies ulitize the researcher's personal experiences to respond to "cultural texts, experiences, beliefs, and practices" (p. 1). Wall (2008) adds that this research method "gives voice to personal experience to advance sociological understanding" (p. 39). Although both definitions speak to how I will frame this study, Wall's (2008) definition highlights my goal of using my voice to deepen understanding of this "mess."

"Autoethnography begins with a personal story" (Wall, 2008, p. 39). I come to this authoethnography with a personal experience of the silencing of students as well as 13 years witnessing similar actions in my district.

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Validity

Cho and Trent (2006)

Cresswell and Miller (2000)

A transformational approach to validity assumes that positivist notions of validity are not absolute and that validity is determined by a researcher's ability to shed light on areas of concern to marginalized communities and by the actions that come out of research. Because this autoethnography attempts to shed light on the lack of student voice, this approach aligns with this work.

Member checking has been utilized throughout the multicultural education course as I engaged in written discussions with my colleagues. In addition, this validity procedure was utilized in offline and in-person discussions related to the viewpoints expressed throughout this autoethnography.

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Considerations

Consideration of Representation, Presentation, Performance, and Objectivity (Wall, 2008)

• Although I bring my experiences to this autoethnography, I recognize that I cannot know or understand every perspective. Whenever possible I will indicate places where I cannot represent others.
• Although I want to present myself as honest and aware of my positionality, I recognize that this is not always possible and that I will need to accept that this is my story, not the story of every student in the schools.
• Instead of creating a character to tell this story, I will attempt to be authentic. However, as noted by Wall (2008), I am telling a story that happened in the past which always brings subjectivity.
• According to Wall (2008), autoethnographers may tend to try to be objective; however, due to the nature of this work, objectivity is impossible. Although I will attempt to note areas where I cannot be objective, this is not the primary purpose of this type of research.

Positionality

• White woman
• Middle-upper middle class
• Superintendent of Schools
• 13 years in the district
• Experienced being silenced by teachers as a student

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Purpose

I have been employeed at SHESC for 13 years and over that time, I have spent a significant amount of time in all of the schools. Additionally, I conducted my need's assessment within these three schools. This provides me with insider knowledge of the culture of the district and its schools and enables me to provide insight outsiders may not have. In addition to knowledge and experience with the focal schools, I experienced being silenced by teachers early in my own academic journey. Because of this, the purpose of this autoethnography is to use my insider knowledge to, as Adams et al. (2017) notes, tell my perspective as to why student voice is not integrated into the alternative high school programs.

Other pieces of the puzzle that I am unable to speak to:

Staff Perspectives

Student Perspectives

Students' cultural experiences

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Artifacts

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Passage from Spencer (2008) When I began this program, I identified Bronfenbrenner and Morris' (2006) ecological systems theory as the theoretical framework for my dossier. As I continued researching my problem of practice, I decided to shift to Spencer's (2008) phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST). This passage stood out to me while I was selecting artifacts due to the focus on vulnerability and its role in transformational learning. Using the PVEST model to help staff better understand their students' vulnerability and resilience might not only bring about a shift in their frames of reference but also encourage them to listen more to the students. Spencer's theory is based on the idea that all humans respond differently in different situations based on their perceptions of their prior experiences. By viewing behaviors as coping mechanisms that can be productive in one context and unproductive in another, we can move away from taking a deficit approach to defining behavior and move to an asset-based perspective (Milner, 2007). My hope is that as teachers become more familiar with the framework, they will realize that the only way to understand their students is through listening to their stories. As teachers become more comfortable giving up power in the classroom to listen to students' points of view, they will become more comfortable giving a student a voice if a disciplinary concern arises. Instead of the current practice of punishing first and asking later, The educator and student can work together to identify the reasons a behavioral choice was made, what elements of that behavior serve the student in various contexts, and work to develop or fine-tune productive coping mechanisms when the student is in a similar situation in the future. Asking "how" questions, as indicated in the figure, can deepen both the student and educator's understanding of the student and behavior.

Artifact 7: PVEST

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Artifact 8

Passage from Equity Audit I selected this passage from the equity audit as the final artifact because I learned so much about myself and my research as I reflected on my positionality. Perhaps most importantly, I have come to acknowledge all that I do not know and all that I cannot know. Banks' (2015) work was pivotal in these realizations. His discussion of the importance of awareness prompted me to take a deeper look at my assumptions when it comes to my dossier on student engagement and my district's yearly goal of including all voices in our decision-making, no matter what our role in the district. Sometimes, I am so pro-student that I forget that there are staff that have been silenced or who may be intimidated by this process. Their voices need to be heard as well. Although I am pro-student, I am not a part of their culture or their community, and even though I can spend time with them and listen to them, I cannot truly know what it is like to be them. All I can do is listen and take what they are saying at face value. I might hear things with which I disagree or hear suggestions that I do not want to take, but I must always remember that this is their education, and they deserve a voice in their own journey.

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Artifact 6: Power Dynamics

Passage from Session 4 Discussion Looking back at this response, I can see how simplistic I made the proposed activity seem when, in fact, teachers would need to be prepared to release a great deal of power to participate in it. Throughout this course and while completing this autoethnography, I have thought a lot about my assumptions, positionality, and power. Due to my position, I have the power to mandate instructional strategies and professional development topics. I know mandating without buy-in never works, so I choose not to take this path. Even so, when I propose initiatives, I recognize that whatever buy-in I see may not be authentic. Administrators and educators who may like the ideas we discuss may not have the time in their day to truly engage in the transformative learning that would be needed to fully implement strategies. The teachers in my district are amazing educators who truly want to do right by their students, but they are also used to being in control of what takes place in the classroom. The activity I proposed cannot take place without the release of power, and I cannot assume that all of the educators are ready to do it. The transformative learning and critical pedagogy discussed by Wink (2011) and Taylor (2017) takes time. Throughout this summer, as I was engaging in the course material and planning for the beginning of the school year with my team, I tried to keep this learning at the forefront of my mind. As much as I want to move our district forward in utilizing a democratic pedagogy (Wink, 2011), I have to realize that I cannot ask educators to immediately release their power. Instead, I need to provide transformative learning experiences (Taylor, 2017) whenever possible and recognize that SHESC educators each come to our classrooms with different values, beliefs, and perceptions.

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Artifact 5: Best Learning Selves

Passage from OECD (2022) This brief passage asked all of the questions that I believe educators need to be asking themselves every day. When I reflect upon what brought me to the field of education and why, after 27 years, I am still a steadfast believer in public education, it comes down to my belief that every child deserves an educator who will work with them to reach their potential, increase their self-efficacy, and learn to use a critical lens when forming beliefs and making decisions. How do we get to know our students well enough to provide the best instructional opportunities that will help meet these goals? When I think about different learning theories, one thing many have in common is the need for educators to understand their students. One cannot work with a student to find their zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978) if they do not know the student. A student's opportunity to learn (Gee, 2008) is limited if the educator cannot work with the student to identify their affordances and assist the student in using them to benefit their learning. So, although increasing student voice may be causing teachers to lose power, it is also allowing teachers to know students on an entirely new level which will increase learning opportunities.

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Artifact 4: Critical Pedagogy

Wink (2013) Engaging in the Wink (2013) readings this semester put a name to the work we are trying to do in my district. This passage opened my eyes to how, despite our goal of increasing student voice and agency, we are focusing too heavily on the theory and not the practice. Again, I was faced with the need to reflect upon my positionality. Just because I had experience in a democratic school for the majority of my elementary school experience does not mean that everyone else did. I am able to model the pedagogical strategies used in my elementary school, and I realized that I was assuming that everyone could use these strategies. As I type this, I realize how naive that assumption was. Wink's discussion of the merging of theory and practice and the subsequent activities she shared was transformational for me. Since reading this, I have already had the opportunity to utilize some of the activities with my administrative team and am planning to include them in my applied project.

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Artifact 3: Limited Knowledge

Passage from Self-Analysis Reflection One of the classrooms I visited on a recent walk-through was engaged in what, at first glance, appeared to be an activity that provided students with the opportunity to use their voices. The teacher was discussing persuasive writing and how it could be used to write letters to local politicians to advocate for policy change. I was thrilled, but then the teacher put the assignment on the board. The students were to write a letter to a republican representative explaining why a bill he was supporting would hurt their community. An activity that had the potential to promote student voice turned into an activity that pushed the teacher's political agenda. Later, when speaking with the teacher, he explained that "obviously, all of the students felt the same way as he did about the bill." He assumed that they shared his political beliefs, and maybe many did; however, as I wrote in the self-analysis reflection, his one-sided belief limited the students from engaging in critical pedagogy. The incident ended as well as can be expected. I spent a great deal of time with the teacher, and he left our time together with a plan for moving forward. I credit this to the time we were able to spend discussing this issue. I also credit the teacher. He was open to feedback and engaged in a process of transformative learning because he really did want to give students a voice. His assumptions were the only thing holding him back. When I wrote the reflection, I was focusing on work were are doing in the district to limit exclusionary discipline tactics; however, looking back, I can see how, given additional information to consider, transformation can occur. Perhaps I am making assumptions and not giving the staff enough credit and, given the opportunity and more knowledge, they will be able to transform their practices as well.

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Artifact 2: Frames of Reference

Passage from Taylor (2017) When I think back to my first-grade teacher, I now realize that her frames of reference were based on her experiences, influences, and training, or what I now know as her microsystem and macrosystem (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). Now, working with educators who have similar frames of reference due to their own experiences, I have to create space and opportunities for reflection. As I read this passage, I was able to reflect upon the importance of providing staff with not only the time for reflection but also facilitators who can help them revise their frames of reference in order to shift their pedagogy. Unfortunately, in today's educational climate, finding the time and willingness to engage in this work will be difficult. I recognize that this work is important to me; however, it might not be important to all of the educators with whom I work. Taylor's discussion of meaning schemes demonstrates the impact of deeply held beliefs and values on one's behaviors. After engaging in this reading and many others throughout the course, I am left wondering not just how to create the time for this work but how to get staff buy-in.

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Passage from Pedersen (2020) I started first grade at a Catholic elementary school. I was one of those children who could not wait to put on my uniform and begin learning; however, my attitude toward school quickly changed. Every time I would talk, the teacher would tell me that my job was to listen and answer questions only when asked. I had an inquisitive mind and wanted to ask questions. When I first read this passage, Pendersen's discussion of reasonable opposites struck me and brought me back to my early schooling. In my first school, there was no room for examining assumptions. The teacher taught, and the students learned. By the middle of second grade, my mother moved me to a new public Montessori school and I quickly learned that there was more than one way to learn and more than one way to teach. We were given a choice and voice. The teacher facilitated conversations in which two different assumptions were tested against each other, just as Pendersen describes. It wasn't until I read this piece that I made the connection between set ways of thinking and student voice.

Artifact 1: Does everyone have a voice?

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Threads of Change

Restorative Cirlces

Student and Staff Focus Groups

May, 2024The Mess

The Change

Although I am still focused on shifting to a less punitive discipline system, I have realized that is a distal goal. First, I need to work to create transformational learning opportunities for staff that will, hopefully, increase buy-in and decrease the fear of giving up power to allow students increased agency.

Cho and Trent (2007) discuss "catalytic validity" as determining the degree to which research subjects are empowered. By using restorative circles throughout the high schools, students will be empowered to raise their voices whether it be in a easy conversation starter or an issue impacting them personally.

Pragmatic validity, as described by Cho and Trent (2007), examines the power behind the study results. As I continue on my quest to increase student voice and provide staff with transformational learning opportunities, members of my team and I will have regularly scheduled focus groups with staff and students separately to discuss progress and findings and achieve pragmatic validity.

Many educators in the three alternative high schools in my district work under the assumption that a strict, no-tolerance mentality is the only way to change what they see as student misbehavior.

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References

References Page 2

Adams, T. E., Ellis, C., & Holman Jones, S. (2017). Autoethnography. In J. Matthes, C. S. Davis, & R. E. Potter, R.E. (Eds.), The international encyclopedia of communication research methods (pp. 1-11). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118901731.iecrm0011 Banks, J. A. (2015). Researching race, culture, and difference. In J. A. Banks (Ed.), Cultural diversity and education: Foundations, curriculum, and teaching (6th ed., pp. 137-159). Pearson. Bronfenbrenner, U. & Morris, P. A. (2006). The bioecological model of human development. In R. M. Lerner & W. Damon (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Theoretical models of human development (pp. 793–828). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Cho, J., & Trent, T. (2006). Validity in qualitative research revisited. Qualitative Research, 6(3), 319-340. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1468794106065006 Cook-Sather, A. (2020). Student voice across contexts: Fostering student agency in today’s schools. Theory Into Practice, 59(2), 182–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2019.1705091 Creswell, J. W., & Miller, D. L. (2010). Determining validity in qualitative inquiry. Theory Into Practice, 39(3), 124-130. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip3903_2 Fuhr, T. (2017). Bildung: An introduction. In A. Laros, T. Fuhr, & E. W. Taylor (Eds.), Transformative learning meets bildung (pp. 3-16). Sense Publishers. Gee, J. P. (2008). A sociocultural perspective on opportunity to learn. In P. A. Moss, D. C. Pullin, J. P. Gee, E. H. Haertel, & L. J. Young (Eds.), Assessment, equity, and opportunity to learn (pp. 76–108). Cambridge University Press.

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References

Lee & Manxon. (2014). Comparing Values. In M. Bray, B. Adamson, & M. Mason (Eds.), Comparative education research: Approaches and methods (2nd ed., pp. 194-220). Hong Kong, China: Comparative Education Research Centre. Milner, H. R. (2007). Race, culture, and researcher positionality: Working through dangers seen, unseen, and unforeseen. Educational Researcher, 36(7), 388-400. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X07309471 OECD (2022). Trends shaping education 2022. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/6ae8771a-en Pedersen, P. (2000). The rules of multiculturalism. In A handbook for developing multicultural awareness (3rd ed.; pp. 23-41). American Counseling Association. Spencer, M. B. (2008). Phenomenology and ecological systems theory: Development of diverse groups. In W. Damon, R. M. Lerner, D. Kuhn, R. S. Siegler, & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Child and adolescent development: An advanced course (pp. 696–740). John Wiley & Sons. Taylor, E. (2017). Bildung: An introduction. In A. Laros, T. Fuhr, & E. W. Taylor (Eds.), Transformative learning meets bildung: An international exchange (pp. 17–29). Sense Publishers. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press. Wall, S. (2008). Easier said than done: Writing an autoethnography. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 7(1), 38-53. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F160940690800700103 Wink, J. (2011). Critical pedagogy: Notes from the real world. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

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