Running Head: NARRATIVE INQUIRY AND THE DEVELOPMENTAL WRITING CLASSROOM

Narrative Inquiry and the Developmental Writing Classroom Janet Kirchner University of Nebraska

NARRATIVE INQUIRY AND THE DEVELOPMENTAL WRITING CLASSROOM

Abstract Developmental education is increasingly under attack as more and more people outside of education become worried about the growing numbers of students who enter college unprepared for college work. Research in developmental education often analyzes the success rates of various programs and curriculum changes. However, such research often misses the complexities of the issues involved. Narrative inquiry is becoming used more and more often in K-12 settings as a way to show the faces behind the numbers. In my paper, I show how narrative inquiry can be used in the developmental writing classroom to shed light on issues students in the developmental writing classroom face.

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Narrative Inquiry and the Developmental Writing Classroom Introduction Jose walked into my office a few days after our academic quarter had started. He wanted to drop the English class he was in and drop a level below it to take my Beginning Writing class. I have ideas, he told me, but I cant put them down on paper. I need help. I signed Jose into my class, and the first few days, he listened quietly. When directed to write, he might write a sentence or two. After class, he would tell me what he wanted to write. Im a thinker, he said one day, I worked all of my life, but Im a thinker. Since he was so frozen in writing, I told him to write in his native language, Spanish, for now. He returned the next day with notebook pages filled with Spanish. The next day, he began to write in English again. Jose was a Mexican-American in his 50s, coming to the community college because his ill health made construction work difficult, and he needed work that was not so hard on his body. He wanted to be a counselor; he wanted to help others because he knew he had a lot to offer. On paper, though, Jose would be considered one of the growing numbers of community college students taking developmental coursework, courses that are offered at the community college to prepare students for college-level work but do not offer degree or transfer credit. A typical developmental writing class may include speakers of other languages, returning adult students, students who had little schooling (Joses schooling ended in 8th grade), students with

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learning disabilities, along with students who paid little attention in school. Developmental courses offer such students a chance to go further with their education and fulfill their career goals. Developmental education, though, is under attack. Due to low success rates, organizations outside of education, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are getting involved, pushing for more research-based approaches to solve the problem (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2012). Colleges across the nation are experimenting with new approaches, such as summer bridge programs, accelerated learning, and learning communities (Bailey & Cho, 2010). While approaches such as acceleration seem to have improved success rates with higher level students, the results are not as promising for students with low incoming test scores (Jenkins, Speroni, Belfield, Smith Jaggers, & Edgecombe, 2010). Research that studies success rates of varying curriculum and program approaches can be helpful to colleges as they decide how to re-envision their developmental programs. However, one danger is that the human element can be missing in such research. Would a student like Jose, a brilliant man, but one with little formal academic training and little experience in English, be successful in an accelerated class? As a man in his 50s, would he be comfortable in a co-hort with 18-year-olds? Research methodologies that focus on numbers do not paint the full picture of the students in developmental writing classrooms. Narrative Inquiry One methodology rarely used in the study of developmental education is narrative inquiry. Though narratives are used in many fields, including the humanities and social sciences,

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in education, the focus of narrative is to inform teaching and learning. As a developmental writing instructor for the past ten years in the same community college, I am in the position to offer a view of developmental classrooms that seems missing in most research. Major decisions are being made about the fate of developmental students by people who have never been in a developmental writing classroom and have never talked to developmental writing students. When describing similar attempts at reforms in K-12 education, Gay (2010) wrote, These programs attempt to deal with academic performance by divorcing it from other factors that affect achievement, such as culture, ethnicity, and personal experience (p. 13). This is the case with developmental education as well; administrators make reforms without consideration of the students within their programs. Stories often have a power that statistics do not have. Narratives of teachers lives, such as Ashton-Warners (1963) Teacher, Paleys (1979) White Teacher, Hoffmans (1996) Chasing Hellhounds, and Roses (1989) Lives on the Boundary shed light on classrooms and the people within them that traditional research studies cannot. Connelly and Clandinin (1990) define narrative inquiry as both phenomenon and methodpeople by nature lead storied lives and tell stories of those lives, whereas narrative researchers describe such lives, collect and tell stories of them, and write narratives of experience (p. 2). Though stories are central to narrative inquiry, the inquiry is not simply a matter of telling stories. Stories are told as a way to look closely at theoretical and practical problems, as well as a way to illuminate cultural issues with schooling and learning (Schaafsma & Vinz, 2011). The Phenomenon

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Critics of developmental education are right that many students who begin in developmental coursework never graduate or earn a degree (Vedder, 2012). However, common assumptions, such as that they are simply not college material (Vedder, 2012) show a lack of understanding of the people in developmental classes. Students in these classes come from a wide variety of backgrounds, but they often have one thing in common: little experience in the academic environment. Some of my students grew up in refugee camps where schooling was limited at best. Other students grew up in abusive home situations, where they rarely went to school but eventually got their GEDs. Some students grew up in working class cultures where work was valued over academic pursuits; many of these students took as many vocational (or shop) classes as possible. Other students were rebellious in high school and simply skipped their classes. Some of these students barely graduated, while others went back later for GEDs. Now, they are ready to change their lives. Many returning adults might have been good students when they were in high school, but now are nervous about the shift from the working world to the academic world. I am interested in studying the shift between the worlds my students are experiencing as they enter the developmental writing classroom. How do students with little schooling experience negotiate the classroom experience? What background experiences do they have that make schooling difficult for them? These are questions I plan to work from, but unlike other methodologies, narrative inquiry often begins with the stories rather than the questions. In describing narrative inquiry, Shaafsma and Vinz (2011) wrote, Stories are often the beginning of the inquiry. What can be learned from narrating or reading them? Research grows out of the telling, questioning, and rendering of narratives (p. 3). Narrative inquiry can be helpful in examining the day-to-day

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work of teaching and learning and in gaining multiple perspectives on the way we and others experience education (Shaafsma & Vinz, 2011, p. 12). Joses story, for example, can show how one person, thought of as a number by many outsiders, experiences the shift from a life of hard labor to classroom life. His story and many like it are not often told, except in briefest terms. Participants For this study, I plan to focus on one Language Skills class of 16 students. Students in this class have tested into the first level of developmental writing and have to take up to four classes before taking transfer-level courses. Students testing into this class have test scores between 10-12 on the ACT or a comparable score on the COMPASS. I will be studying the students transition to college, whether it be from high school or the workplace. Of the 16 students, I will seek 4-5 volunteers to share their writing as part of the study and participate in semi-structured interviews. Researcher-Researched Relationship Narrative inquiry is unique in its emphasis on long-term relationships between researchers and participants. The researcher is not a distant observer but usually a participantobserver with strong connections to the people and place researched. For example, in Phillions (2002) narrative inquiry into the Bay Street School, she described her work as in friendship with the community, the school, the people in the school, the parents, and Pam and students in her class (p. xxiii). The researcher is often a part of the study itself. According to Pinnegar & Daynes (2007), this change in relationships between the researcher and the researched is the first turn toward narrative inquiry. The relationship is not between one who is studying and one

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who is studied, but it is a relationship in which everyone will learn and change from the experience (Pinnegar & Daynes, 2007). Along with this change in the researcher-researched relationship is a concern with temporality. In more traditional research methods, the participants and interactions are often thought of atemporal or static (Pinnegar & Daynes, 2007). In narrative inquiry, however, researchers consider that events and people always have a past, present, and a future (Clandinin, Pushor, & Orr, 2007). In Phillions (2002) narrative inquiry, for example, she wrote about the history of the Bay Street School as a way to connect herself to the schools past and to become a part of the schools future. For my own study, I will include students in my own classrooms. As their instructor, I am already tied to them beyond a researcher-researched relationship. I have worked for the college for the past ten years and have no plans to leave, so in this sense, I am a part of the college and a part of the students lives. Though I may have a student for only a quarter, I plan to follow at least three students beyond the quarter that they are in my class. Rather than a researcher-researched relationship, I plan to offer tutoring/advising for those who participate in the study beyond the classroom. My hope is that the relationship will benefit all of us as they continue toward their goals, and I learn more about their experiences to present to others. Data: Field Texts According to Clandinin, Pushor, and Orr (2007) data in narrative inquiry are called field texts. Common field texts include field notes, journal records, interviews, story-telling, letter writing, autobiographical and biographical writing, as well as other data sources such as class

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plans and newsletters (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). Many of these types of data are common in ethnographic studies as well, but the researcher is more of a participant in narrative inquiry. For example, field notes in narrative inquiry are an active recording, where the researcher is expressing her personal practical knowing (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). This is not merely an exact recording of events as if tape-recorded, but the researchers interpretation cannot be divided from the description of the events. For my own research, I plan to take field notes at the end of each class period studied. Rather than tape record, I will write quickly after the experience. Likewise, I plan to journal regularly to further interpret the events that have taken place in my classroom. Through journaling, I will work toward making sense of what has happened (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). In addition, I plan to use unstructured interviews to add student voices to the story of the developmental writing classroom. Unlike structured interviews where questions are preselected, the unstructured interviews will allow a more natural conversation to take place. Along with student interviews, I will also use student writing to help paint the story of their lives but also the story of the writing that takes place in the classroom. Through their own writing, students can tell much of their own stories. In using field notes, journals, unstructured interviews, and student writing, my work will take what Pinnegar and Daynes (2007) call the second turn toward narrative, the move from

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numbers to words. Authors like Lincoln and Guba (1985) and Denzin and Lincoln (1994) likewise have discussed the limits of capturing experiences with numbers. Joses writing, for example, paints a picture of one students experiences with discrimination, experiences that led him to eventually decide a new career. The writing tells a piece of his story, but it also shows the types of writing difficulties ELL students face: I been working in construction, must in road construction that building construction. In must of my jobs I get the wrong foreman, I allways do my job, but the foreman never give me the chance to do something where I can earn more money or have more hours. One time I was working for a construction company, there was me and two others working together and the foreman. The company sometimes did not provide any water, so I have to bring my own water, I have to use my own tools, I was only getting pay eleven dlls. For hour and the tools there were expensive. Me and the other two persons we were working together and helping each other, but sometimes the foreman put me to do something by myself were there was a job for two persons or maybe three persons. The other two persons they were earning more that me and we were doing the same work. I dont think that the foreman should have preference for anybody. I was the older person and have more skills and experience on construction jobs and machine operator, but still the foreman did not give me the chance to do something more productive. Must of the times the foreman give more over time to the other two persons that me, he give them the opportunity to learn other skills and drive the machines more that to me, the other two person they were younger that me, I am older and my body dont respond the same that when I was young, so the foreman was harder on me that the younger persons. In conclusion I think that companies should teach there foreman how tread there workers, depends on there skills and age that way the workers will perform better and more productive. For me as an instructor, this writing shows an amazing amount of growth. At the beginning of the quarter, Jose struggled to write a couple sentences. By the end, he had written a complete essay with a purpose, details, organization, and a conclusion. For outsiders, though,

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this piece of writing may solidify their resolve that some people do not belong in college. Jose may well get to a point where he becomes overwhelmed by what will be required of him in his academic classes. However, telling his story reveals a person behind the number of students ill-prepared (Vedder, 2012) for college. Generalizability According to Pinnegar and Daynes (2007) another quality of narrative inquiry is the shift from the general to the particular. Many people look to research for generalizability, and quantitative research often implies that what works in one place can work in another. In developmental education, many journal articles refer to best practices based on research. The research I plan to conduct, however, is based on a particular place and a particular time. Cargers (1996) work, for example, traces her experiences tutoring one Mexican-American eight grader. In following through his eighth grade year, readers see the struggles he and his family face in negotiating an educational system that was not set up for him and his needs. Carger tutors the student, Alejandro, but also gets to know his family and become a part of their lives. The focus on the particular can shed light on bigger issues, in this case on the way the school system leaves children like Alejandro behind. In his Foreward to Cargers (1996) work, Ayers wrote: Seeing Alejandro as whole, as a person of thought and feeling, as a growing, striving individual, points toward a reasonable starting point for an education of purpose for him, even as it helps us see the problems built deeply into the social structures, the institutions, the schools we have created (p. ix). Likewise, I hope that my work describing the students in my classroom will add to the understanding of students many frequently ignore.

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Place Much of the work in developmental education, whether qualitative or quantitative, is based in urban settings (Wilson, 2007; Jenkins, Bellfield, Smith Jaggers, Speroni, & Edgecomb, 2010; Rose, 1989; Bailey & Cho, 2010). However, the issues faced by students in urban settings are not likely the same as those in Midwestern suburban settings. Few outsiders, though, know what life is like for students transitioning to community college life. As a safe zone for refugees, the town that my community college is in accepts people from all over the world, and many of these new residents come to the community college to learn English and/or re-train for new careers. In the same class, I can have students from Sudan who were lost boys with little formal education and students from Sudan who were doctors in their own country. Along with refugees, the same class can have students from rural areas; these students may have rarely left their town of 120 and can feel very overwhelmed by their new situation in the big city. Societal issues, such as poverty, homelessness, domestic abuse, and substance abuse, are not unique to urban areas. My classes are full of students who have faced one or more of these issues. The place of my study will be the community college classroom, but this place cannot be separated from the college it sits in and the community that surrounds it. Textbooks in developmental writing often assume a typical college student, but the diversity of experiences in any one classroom is wider than any textbook can address. My study will help researchers, administrators, instructors, and community members to see one what life is like in one place, one time.

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Ethical Considerations According to Elbaz-Luwisch, Teacher knowledge is deeply personal, so research that studies teaching from a narrative perspective has no choice but to go in close (p. 376). Unlike many participant-researchers, as the instructor of a class, I have power over students grades; the relationship is more than a tutoring relationship. Would students feel comfortable saying no to being a part of the research, considering I am their instructor? How comfortable would students be about having their teacher write about their experiences? How much would they want the outside world to know about them? How do I balance my roles between teacher and researcher? If I am to create a trusting relationship between the students and myself, what boundaries must be in place? Can I be a teacher, researcher, and friend at the same time? Even though I plan to write about my class as a whole, stories that tell specific lifeexperiences will be only from those who have given informed consent. As I get to know my students, I will ask for volunteers to be interviewed and to be a more long-term part of the study. For those who would like to be a part of the extended study, I will meet with them beyond the length of the course to help them with tutoring and advising. I will make it clear that to be a part of the study is entirely voluntary. Another issue is that once the research has been completed, how much is shared with the people researched? Narrative researchers such as Horsdal (2012) give a copy of the story to the interviewee, who has the full right to revise, accept, or reject the story altogether (p. 80). Other researchers, like Josselson (2007), may give the interviewees a summary of the work but do not encourage their participants to read the work. Josselson (2007) works to write about the

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people in her studies with great sensitivity, but realizes that participants might still have a hard time with how they are portrayed in the research. According to Josselson (2007), An ethical attitude requires that we write about other people with great respect and appropriate tentativeness and that we recognize that what we write may be read by the person we are writing about (p. 553). Conclusion Narrative inquiry can be a powerful methodology in teacher research. As a method of professional development for classroom teachers, narrative inquiry can help teachers see their students and classrooms in a new light. In telling these stories to others, there is further opportunity for professional development and for connections to be built between teachers within schools (Yonemura, 1982). When shared beyond the school studied, stories can shed light on educational challenges in a way that numbers cannot show. Narrative inquiry methods allow for the possibility of transformations and growth (Clandinin & Connelly, 1994, p. 425). In my conversations with Jose, I know that I grew in knowing more about him and his life. At the beginning of the class, Jose barely said a word. When he read an essay for his class near the end of the quarter, one of the young female students told him, Wow, you just blew my mind. The class was all impressed by what he had to say, and he smiled all the way back to his seat. Through student sharing of stories, students were able to grow and transform. In sharing their stories with a wider audience, I hope to add to the literature on developmental writing and transform current understandings of students in developmental writing courses.

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References Ashton-Warner, S. (1963). Teacher. New York: A Touchtone Book. Bailey, T. & Cho, S. (2010). Developmental education in community colleges. New York: Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. (2012). Community colleges and remedial education. Retrieved from http://www.gatesfoundation.org/postsecondaryeducation/Pages/community-collegesremedial-education.aspx Carger, C.L. (1996). Of borders and dreams: A Mexican-American experience of urban education. New York and London: Teachers College Press. Clandinin, D.J., Pushor, D., & Orr, A.M. (2007). Navigating sites for narrative inquiry. Journal of Teacher Education, 58 (1), 22-35. Clandinin, D.J., & Connelly, F.M. (1994). Personal experience methods. In N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research in the social sciences (pp. 413-427). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Connelly, F.M., & Clandinin, D.J. (1990). Stories of experience and narrative inquiry. Educational Researcher, 19 (5), 2-14. Denzin, N.K., & Lincoln, Y.S. (1994). Handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Elbaz-Luwisch, F. (2007). Studying teachers lives and experience: Narrative inquiry into K-12 teaching. In D.J. Clandinin (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology. (pp. 357-382). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice, 2nd edition. New York: Teachers College Press. Hoffman, M. (1996). Chasing hellhounds: A teacher learns from his students. Minneapolis, MN: Milweed Editions. Horsdal, M. (2012). Telling lives: Exploring dimensions of narratives. London and New York: Routledge. Jenkins, D., Speroni, C., Belfield, C., Smith Jaggers, S., & Edgecombe, N. (2010). A model for accelerating academic success of community college remedial English students: Is the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) effective and affordable? New York: Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University. Josselson, R. (2007). The ethical attitude in narrative research: Principles and practicalities. In D.J. Clandinin (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology. (pp. 537566). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Lincoln, Y.S., & Guba, E.G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Paley, V.G. (2002). White teacher. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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Phillion, J. (2002). Narrative inquiry in a multicultural landscape: Multicultural teaching and learning. Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing. Pinnegar, S. & Daynes, J.G. (2007). Locating narrative inquiry historically. In D.J. Clandinin (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology. (pp. 3-34). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Rose, M. (1989). Lives on the boundary: A moving account of the struggles and achievements of Americas educationally underprepared. New York: Penguin Books. Schaafsma, D. & Vinz, R. (2011). Narrative inquiry: Approaches to language and literacy research. New York: Teachers College Press. Vedder, R. (2012, September 16). Column: College is not the place for remediation. Lincoln Journal-Star. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com Yoneumura, M. (1982). Teacher conversations: A potential source of their own professional growth. Curriculum Inquiry, 12, 239-256.