Practitioner Research at the LLEI

Orientations to guide the subproject: The voices of the LLEI realities: life stories and experiences.

Micro Projects (Students’ research projects emerging from their educational contexts)

Research Macro project 2:Understanding and

characterizing EFL in the LLEI: experiences and phenomena in

the pre-service teachers’ educational contexts.

Research Subproject 3:The voices of the LLEI realities: life

stories and experiences.

Research Subproject 4:Understanding English teaching and learning

contexts in EFL education.

Research field 2:The Study of the English

Language and its contexts

Figure 1. Adapted from the Research frame at the LLEI.

Contextualization at the LLEI

ObjectiveThis sub-project aims to carry out narrative inquiry in English teaching and learning research through specific perspectives defined by the B.A program: Life-stories, autobiographies and experiences in English teaching and learning.

In words of Barkhuizen, (2014), “the strength of narrative inquiry lies in its focus on how people use stories to make sense of their

experiences, p. 17.”

Narrative inquiry

As other research perspectives, narrative inquiry embraces a set of components to fulfill the requirements of a formal and rigorous research study.

Narrative inquiry is pertinent in the field of English learning and teaching (ELT) because “it helps us to understand the inner

mental worlds of language teachers and learners and the nature of language teaching and learning as social and educational

activity, p.17.”

Narrative inquiry

Defining my research statementWhen doing narrative inquiry in ELT, researchers should consider the existence of three key features that in terms of components are defined under the constructs of: (a) cross-time identity, (b) context and (c) affect.

• Experiences that take place over long periods of time in multiple settings.

Cross-time Identity

• The setting that shapes transformations while living the experience of English teaching and learning.

Context • Feelings and emotions that shape the narrative of participants and give the researcher the significance of experiences.

Affect

Defining my research statement

Justification of the subproject at the LLEI• Pre-service teachers will grow up through the research exercise

and the interpretation of the voices of ELT contexts.• Pre-service teachers could change their view and acquire a critical

understanding of English teaching and learning from the voices of other teachers and participants.

• The reflections, conclusions and findings of the pre-service teachers will contribute to the research field of English language and its contexts and the research construction at the LLEI.

Writing the justification of my projectA solid justification of a narrative subproject involves arguments that…• Explain why it is relevant and significant to collect the narrative of

participants in regards to English as a foreign language and/or ELT. • Relate the importance of the research for the (a) subproject, (b) the

macroproject and © the research field. Findings and conclusions contribute to build the research at the LLEI and its CAU.

• Describe the impact of the project on your professional development and reconstructions of yourself as a pre-service teacher.

• Explain the relevance and contributions of the research in the region and context where you carry out the project.

Literature review Narrative research looks for a revision of literature, pertinent and coherent with the investigation and the purpose of it.• Some references:

– Connelly, F.M., & Clandinin, D.J. (2006)– Polkinghorne, D. (1995) – Barkhuizen, G. (2014). – Barkhuizen, G. and Wette, R. (2008) – Pavlenko, A. (2011)– Shkedi, A. (2005)

Writing the literature review of my project1. Definition of the type of narrative and its relation to the project you carry out. Include

citations and authors that could be pertinent for the type of narrative inquiry. 2. Establish a dialogue between the authors you selected, the participants of your project

and your own voice as a researcher. 3. Keep in mind the recommendations below:

The literature review is not a summary or a list of authors and citations. It is definitely your critical construction in regards to your project and what authors have stated about narrative inquiry.

It is not a list of isolated concepts or definitions. Make explicit your critical point as a researcher and pre-service teacher. Therefore,

your own reflections based on the understanding of theory are essential to support the literature review.

Writing the literature review of my project

Research design: Methodological aspects

Narrative inquiry

Biographies/Autobriograhies

Multiple narratives

Life-stories

Sources of data collection

Figure 1. Sources of data as doing narrative research: Multimodal data collection. Barkhuizen, (2014).

Oral elements

Written elements

Visual elements/

Multimedia materials

Sources of data collectionIn order to collect data, researchers can use:

Field notes of the shared experience Journals for biographies and reflections from the voices of participants. Unstructured interviews and their transcripts Observations in the research context Photographs: taken by the researcher or taken by the project participants

after giving basic instruction. Storytelling about lived experiences or biographies, including

autobiographical writing. Narrative frames from the methodological procedure stated by

Barkhuizen, (2014).

The process of data collection and data analysis

Data collection

Establish a friendly relationship with the participants. Narrative inquiry implies permanent interaction for data collection.

As collecting data…

Guarantee trustworthiness:-Different sources of data to contrast data.-Photographs, video-recordings, digital narrative.

Stimulate data collection…Revisit data collection to stimulate and guide the participants to the narrative you require in regards to findings and the research objective.

Narrative frames

Data analysisAccording to Barkhuizen (2014) , the theory of narrative inquiry and its nature shares the same approaches framed by the qualitative research. Thus researchers commonly analysis and interpret data under the characteristics of the qualitative research or as we agreed on the B.A program under the descriptive research tradition.

• Content analysis• Thematic analysis• Grounded theory

Data analysisAccording to Barkhuizen (2014) , the theory of narrative inquiry and its nature shares the same approaches framed by the qualitative research. Thus researchers commonly analysis and interpret data under the characteristics of the qualitative research or as we agreed on the B.A program under the descriptive research tradition.

Narrative research teachers• Martha Bonilla• Vivian Ibeth Chitiva• Ángela Sarmiento• Sandra Milena Rodríguez