Session Information
25 SES 04, Inclusive Pedagogies and Children's Rights
Paper Session
Contribution
The purpose of my doctoral thesis was to develop participative pedagogy and teaching methods in order to support pupil participation through action research. One of the aims was also to develop teaching methods which support pupils’ to find their voice in learning. The development work was implemented in a class of 5th and 6th graders. Finding one’s own voice was evaluated on the basis of pupils’ ability to express themselves in their mother tongue or dialect, present their thoughts and emotions, examine their relation to and viewpoint of the object of learning, and viewing both themselves and their environment critically from different angles. The results suggested that the process of finding one’s own voice was best supported by narrative learning.
The purpose of this action research initiative is to find out how participative pedagogy and narrative teaching methods developed, could be implemented in educational practises with the first and the second graders. That brings the study methodologically close to Kurt Lewin’s and Lawrence Stenhouse’s ideas of what action research is about: developing theory and practices simultaneously in a classroom by teacher-researcher. The data is gathered in a teacher training school in Finland between August 2009 and May 2011 and analysed by using narrative methods. A total of 21 pupils and 8 teacher students participated in the research. The data is gathered in a co-operation with a teacher-researcher who also had a role of a mentor of the teacher students during their teacher training period.
Participative pedagogy is based on constructivism both in terms of its learning concept and its epistemological assumptions. In addition, it includes features of participative education, experiential learning, investigative learning, and critical pedagogy. The narrative teaching method is based on a viewpoint in which pupils’ became storytellers: learning is expressed by creating different kinds of narratives of learning topics. Narratives have varied from a written fairytale into a scene play, a picture book or a research report written according pupils’ own research findings. During the school year each pupil produces narratives alone, with a pair and in a group.
In this research finding one’s own voice is also related to the concept of agency: pupils’ rights provide a provocation to think and practice differently, but also to be able to affect on a school environment and take initiatives. The third viewpoint of participation is pupils’ right to take part into the process of evaluation by evaluating both his / her own learning but also teaching methods used.
In this paper I will present a theoretical model to participative pedagogy and narrative learning. I will also discuss how the theory has been implemented into educational practices. I will also present how pupils’ agency was supported through practises developed and how this development work could be seen in international dimention.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Bolton, G. 2006. Narrative writing: reflective inquiry into professional practice. Educational Action Research 14 (2), 203–218. Edwards, D. & D’Arcy, C.2004 Relational Agency and Disposition in Sociocultural Learning to Teach. Educational Review, 56, 147-155. Emirbayer,M. & Mische,A. 1998. What Is Agency. American Journal of Sociology,103, 243-259. Freire, P. 1972. Pedagogy of the oppressed. London: Penguin Group. Gresalfi, M., Martin, T., Hand,V. & Greeno,J. 2009.Constructing competence:an analysis of student participation in the activitysystems of mathematics classrooms. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 70, 49-70. hooks, b. 1994. Teaching to Transgress. Education as a practise of freedom. New York: Routledge. Ledwith, M. 2007. On Being Critical: Uniting Theory and Practice Through Emancipatory Action Research. Educational Action research 15 (4), 597-611. McNiff, J. 2007. My Story Is My Livind Educational Theory. Teoksessa D.J. Clandidin (toim.) Handbook of narrative inquiry: mapping a methodology. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 308–329. Niemi, R. Heikkinen, H.L.T. & Kannas, L. 2010. Listening to polyphony in the classroom: reporting action research through multiple voices. Educational Action Research 18 (2), 137-149. Nuthal, G. 2002. Social constructivist teaching and the shaping of students’ knowledge and thinking. In J. Brophy. Social Constructivist Teaching. Advances in Teaching. Volume 9. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Ltd, 43–79. Onega, S, & Garcia, J.A. 1996. Narratology. New York: Longman. Roth, K.J. 2002 Talking to understand science. In J. Brophy. Social Constructivist Teaching. Advances in Teaching. Volume 9. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Ltd, 197–262. Walker, M. 2007. Action Research and narratives: Finely Aware and Rich Responsible”. Educational Action Research 15 (2), 295–303. Wells, G. 1999. Dialogic inquiry: toward a sociocultural practice and theory of education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Winter, R. (1998) Finding a Voice - Thinking with Others: A Conception of Action Research. Educational Action Research 6 (1), 53-69.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.