narratives, virtual environments and identity semiotics: an exploration of pre-service teachers’...

E–Learning

Volume 5 Number 1 2008

www.wwwords.co.uk/ELEA

103 http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/elea.2008.5.1.103

Narratives, Virtual Environments and Identity Semiotics:

an exploration of pre-service teachers’ cognitions

SHARON Y. TETTEGAH, EUN WON WHANG,

KONA RENEE TAYLOR & TIMOTHY J. CASH University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

ABSTRACT The current study explored text-based and animated narrative vignette (ANV) social simulations to specifically examine pre-service teachers’ social cognitions and personal identities. The personal and social identity and narratives of a sample of eight randomly selected elementary pre-service teachers were examined in depth out of 44 pre-service teachers. Content analyses revealed that ANV social simulations provide a psycho-educational outlet to engage in reflective cognitive processes that can engage pre-service teachers in expressions of joy and healing related to positive and traumatic events from their childhood school-related experiences. This article discusses how ANVs can provide a way of learning about personal and social identity through a critical examination of self using ANV social simulations as reflections of past school experiences.

Everyone has a story to tell. For any moment in our lives we can tell a story. Some experiences are more meaningful than others and have a significant impact and profound effect on our lives. It is within these moments that we examine the narratives of 44 pre-service teachers’ reflections of their school experiences. In this article we provide an overview of codes and themes that were generated from the experiences of pre-service teachers. Eight pre-service teachers’ stories were explored to provide a thick description of their lives. Specifically, we focus and describe insights into the minds of eight pre-service teachers by presenting lived experiences through text and still images through animated narrative vignette (ANV) social simulations.

Narrative as a Social Simulation

Narratives are a powerful means of improving and understanding social systems in an ever-increasing technological society. They are also a powerful tool for the storyteller or narrator in creating and recreating the self in human culture (Bruner, 2002). Bruner (2002) further argues that not only do narratives provide a reflection of reality, but they also explain how the world is constructed. He points out that:

In dealing with narrative reality ... we like to say that literary fiction does not refer to anything in the world, but only provides the sense of things. Yet it is the sense of things often derived from narrative that makes later real-life reference possible. ... Narrative, including fictional narrative, gives shape to things in the real world and often bestows on them a title to reality. (p. 8)

It is well known that stories and narratives are a part of human culture. Humans use narratives to pass on personal histories, such as folk tales, and situate values in order to understand and make sense of how things are connected in the world.

So, what is a narrative, this expression that provides the voice of the absent? It has been argued that narratives are structured stories with a plot, setting, and characters, selectively representing events in a time–space configuration. Polkinghorne (1988) finds that narratives ‘can

Sharon Y. Tettegah et al

104

refer to the process of making a story, to the cognitive scheme of the story, or to the results of the process’ (p. 13). Narrative statements, whether oral or written or animated, are central to this article as objects and subjects from the lived experiences of pre-service teachers.

Although narratives have existed for a very long time orally, within the media of print, audio, and video they have found their way into a new arena of virtual environments, or object-oriented two-dimensional and three-dimensional spaces, which are deployed over the Web through the use of ANV social simulations (Tettegah, 2005, 2007). In the case of the pre-service teachers, their ANVs serve as a ‘glimpse’ into their previous school experiences. With recent advances in information technology, Web-based communities and mediated virtual spaces have created possibilities for staging narratives, both face-to-face and across distance and time, through various media. In this article, we acknowledge the long history of digital storytelling (DST), encompassing all types of stories presented in multiple formats. However, our work differs from DST because we focus on text and animated forms to engage vignettes specific to the school context.

Narratives for Exploring Self

Individuals constantly communicate with the ‘self’ when interacting with others or other objects, and therefore recreate the ‘common coin of our speech’ (Bruner, 2002, p. 63). Persons express, hide, or manipulate the self, and it is the self that ultimately manipulates and constructs one’s life. Bruner & Kalmar (1998) define ‘self’ as a product of one’s ‘intrapsychic and interpersonal acts’ which is produced through one’s experienced world, but at the same time can produce another experienced world for humans (pp. 317). Individuals can express the self in many different ways, but typically they tell their ‘self’ and other ‘selves’ through a type of story (Bruner & Kalmar, 1998; Day & Tappan, 1996; Tappan, 2005). Leary & Tangney (2003) note that a key element of self is the capacity for reflexive thinking, ‘the ability to take oneself as the object of one’s attention and thought’ (p. 8). Such a sense of self is very much tied up with the ‘story’ of what one has experienced and what one has done (Kihlstrom et al, 2003).

Therefore, self is one’s individual product that is constantly changing throughout one’s life, both unconsciously and consciously. We should keep in mind that ‘telling others about oneself is no simple matter’ (Bruner, 2002). We must understand that defining one’s self can be enlightening for some individuals; however, is not an easy task for everyone. The stories of our lives that we construct for others can be influenced by our own preconceived notions of the audience’s expectations. Allport (1961) wrote: ‘It is much easier to feel the self than to define the self’ (p. 128). One of the pre-service teachers in this research reflected on the development of self in her narrative. Li-leng described her unconsciousness of self-identity by recalling:

It’s funny to me that as I look at all these words that describe me, they are not things that I think about on a day-to-day basis. All these traits are things that I became aware of at different times in my life, under different circumstances.

Once a person starts putting together words and images to create a narrative, the words and images become a novel that is built on one’s self, and is heavily influenced by that person’s culture, gender, ethnicity, class, family, and so on. In the case of the ANVs and social identity exercise, we provide the perceiver with a glimpse of our understanding of these pre-service teachers’ personal and social identity and culture through their words and ANV social simulations. Instances in this article reveal the ability for us as the perceivers to step into the thoughts and minds of eight out of 44 pre-service teachers through their pactes autobiographiques – in other words, written and animated autobiographies appropriate for a public self-telling and used to understand how the pre-service teachers situate themselves and others in a school context remembered from their past (Bruner, 2002).

As one tells stories about one’s self, one starts to think of oneself as a victim, hero, witness, or participant (Schafer, 1992). In other words, one starts to view oneself from a different person’s point of view and tell stories that hold certain meanings for one’s self. Thus, such incidents could have been affected by one’s self, or one’s self could have been affected by the incidents. In this process, one can express feelings or discover underlying meanings that one was not aware of by telling the stories to others, and thereby engaging the perceiver and listener. Öberg (1997) gives meaning to such stories in the following way:

Narratives, Virtual Environments and Identity Semiotics

105

Psychologists studying narrative are challenged by the notion that human activity and experience are filled with ‘meaning’ and that stories, rather than logical arguments or lawful formulations, are the vehicle by which that meaning is communicated. ... Within a narrative, a narrator will use certain codes for particular effects. It has been argued that everything within a narrative has a particular function or serves a purpose; nothing is every superfluous. (p. 45)

Such an approach is the so-called ‘narrative approach’ (Day & Tappan, 1996). According to Day & Tappan (1996):

‘narrative’ approach focuses on the centrality of words, language and forms of discourse – particularly narrative (story telling) – in human life. It privileges language as fundamentally constitutive of meaning, and assumes, therefore, that (moral) thoughts, feelings, and actions are semiotically and linguistically mediated, and thus socioculturally situated. (p. 68)

Narrative and Analysis

Narrative analysis in humanities and social science disciplines has a long tradition. Narrative analysis is an important element of understanding human behavior, which is applied to social sciences, humanities, and science in various ways. Recently, narrative constructions have developed separate traditions in the human sciences and arts. However, there are some areas that are shared across disciplines. One such instance of sharing occurs, in particular, with the use of ANVs to understand identities that are situated within a social context in a virtual environment.

Semiotics and ANV Simulations: reflecting cognitive processes

An individual’s narrative can be transmitted in different ways using different types of media. According to Bruner & Kalmar (1998), narratives often condense into images and metaphors that correspond to the features of a story. Narratives, therefore, can be represented in different forms. Both storyteller and audiences will go through different cognitive processes depending on which media are chosen to deliver the story. Ryan (2005) argues that the story itself will not lose its ‘essential properties’ although media is changed from one form to the other. Ryan (2005) emphasizes that ‘narrative is not in essence a language-based artifact, but a mental construct which can be created in response to various types of signs’ (para. 1).

The reason for searching for other media besides language-based narratives is that with language, translation of certain problems can be somewhat vague in the process of understanding (Rogers, 1999). Rogers further discusses the primary benefits of ‘dynamically transformed representations’, such as animations, as explicitly integrating multiple representations. Such benefits imply flexibility and plasticity over static representations, helping to visualize and understand the problem that needs to be solved with fewer cognitive inference steps to reach the conclusions. Prior research by Bauer & Johnson-Laird (1993) explains the benefits of visual images as ‘reducing the [cognitive] load on working memory and to speed up the process of inference’ (p. 373). Moreover, compared to reading or listening, animation motivates sharing one’s narrative since it is efficient and provides a clearer way to express and infer the main ideas for the audience.

Riva et al (2004) discuss the role of virtual reality as ‘a communication interface based on interactive 3D [three-dimensional] visualization, able to collect and integrate different inputs and data sets in a single real-like experience’ (p. 3). In such a context, the role of virtual reality corresponds to that of the ANVs in virtual environments. In fact, inside the animated world is what we refer to as a ‘virtual reality environment’, with the exception that we use two-dimensional images. Additionally, Rogers et al’s (2002) study reveals the benefits of mixed realities in the context of play and learning as ‘richer experiences, prolonged interest and more reflection’ (p. 685).

The Web-based ANVs analyzed in this research portray critical understandings about pre-service teachers’ perceptions, cognitions, and life histories of a particular event in time in their lives during a school experience. This research presents the most relevant and diverse approach to the intersection of Web-based technologies, simulations, and narratives. For the purpose of this article, the pre-service teachers’ narratives give us continuity and context, and help us to understand not only what their world was like, but how they situated their place in the world during a K-12 school-related experience (Glassner, 2001).


106

The ANVs the pre-service teachers created for the current study were interactive two-dimensional visualizations that have the potential to motivate one’s narrative sharing. Tettegah (2005) notes the following for the usage of ANVs:

The goal of using animated narrative vignettes is to provide a human computer interface with a focus on pedagogical content, multimedia, collaboration, and dialogue that will enable educators to discuss, reflect, and also develop a better understanding of bullying, victimization, multicultural, anti-oppressive, and social justice-teaching practices and competencies. (p. 380)

Although Tettegah identifies particular pedagogical uses of ANVs, the focus of the current article is empowerment using ANV technology to communicate and understand the interaction between semiotics, social identity, use of computers, and Web-based technologies.

This article provides an analysis of narratives in a media-rich technology environment that displays pre-service teachers’ cognitions and perceptions related to social justice discourse and school-related experiences. Additionally, the ANVs are deployed in a virtual environment over the World Wide Web. Within this article, we discuss how ANVs are a new way of learning about personal and social identity through individual critical examinations of self as reflected in past school experiences. To discern (ascertain) self in the narratives, certain codes needed to be discovered and analyzed by examining pre-service teachers’ cognitive representations of self through multiple types of media. Specifically, social identity exercises, narrative text, and ANV simulations were examined to represent pre-service teachers’ journey from text, to the development and deployment of visual images of the participants’ identities that are situated in past school experiences through self-theory and self-narratives (Bruner, 1987, 1990, 2002; Botella, 1994; Tettegah, 2007).

Method

Participants

Forty-four pre-service teachers (43 women and one man) enrolled in an educational technology course in an elementary education teacher certification program at a Midwestern university participated in this study. The data was collected during enrollment in the technology course during the spring semester of 2004. For the purpose of this study, we coded all 44 narratives and ANVs from the pre-service teachers, and then randomly selected eight participants for further in-depth analysis (see Appendix A). The eight participants were randomly selected by drawing names from a spreadsheet. Eight were selected so we could provide a thick description of their social simulations. Only eight were chosen because we wanted to present a deeper understanding of a few rather than providing a cursory discussion of all 44 narratives. The eight participants’ social identity exercises, text-based narratives, and ANV simulations were analyzed in depth using grounded theory methodology.

Procedure

Participants completed an online demographic exercise related to their personal and social identities as part of their assignments for the course (see Appendix B for the exercise). After completing the exercise, all students were asked to write a personal narrative about a real event that happened to them during their past or present school experiences which affected them as a learner. Based on feedback provided by the teaching assistant, each participant revised their text-based narrative. The participants were then instructed to create a script, followed by a storyboard, and finally an ANV social simulation. Participants used Microsoft Word to develop the written narratives and scripts, Adobe Photoshop for their images, and Microsoft PowerPoint for development of their ANV social simulations.

Materials

Social identity exercise. Participants were instructed to complete a personal and social identity history exercise (Tettegah, 2002, 2007) from a set of questions (see Appendix B). Questions were presented


107

asking each participant to identify his or her gender, race, class, ethnicity, and ability/disability. Open-ended questions followed which asked specific questions regarding each individual’s first awareness of gender, race, class, ethnicity, and ability/disability. Each participant responded to the questions in a story form and posted it to an online discussion forum. Participants read each other’s identity exercises and posted responses to each other. Narrative. The participants were instructed to write a personal narrative, based on a school-related experience, using Microsoft Word or similar word-processing software, and then submit it online. Each participant received feedback on his or her first submission of the narrative from the teaching assistant, and then revised it to fully describe the event and provide more specific details of his or her personal experience. After the revision, participants were instructed to script the revised narrative, again using Microsoft Word, and then sketch a storyboard as a basis for the ANV social simulation. Animation. Two different types of commercial software were used to develop the ANVs. Adobe Photoshop was used to create characters, layers, and backgrounds for the participants’ stories, and Microsoft PowerPoint was used to put characters, dialogues, and backgrounds together to finalize the animation. Participants spent several weeks learning how to use Adobe Photoshop, and some expressed that this step was the most difficult. The reasons these software programs were utilized, rather than some of the more current free online animation programs, were multiple. The first aspect was that our university was concerned about software that was on outside sources (i.e. online), thus Microsoft was the only animation software available for the pre-service teachers in the college. Also, in 2003 when the animations were developed, there were few animation sources available online, and, when online resources are used, the user has less control and there are often compatibility issues. Overall, the primary reason Microsoft programs were used was because they were available, compatible, and acceptable.

Data Analysis

The methodology for this research employed a grounded theory approach by organizing, coding, generating categories, testing emerging categories, and searching for hypotheses and explanations from the narratives (Strauss & Corbin, 1990; Charmaz, 1995, 2003; Marshall & Rossman, 1999). Participants’ text-based narratives were subjected to a ‘line-by-line’ content analysis (Marshall & Rossman, 1989; Charmaz, 1995, 2003). This involved the research team, consisting of the principal investigator and two research assistants, examining each line of the 44 narratives. After careful examination of each line, emerging themes and codes were discovered. Each narrative was coded by the research team. Coding of the text-based narratives involved an iterative process. Questions emerged from the narratives, such as: • Who did the pre-service teachers focus on, what aspect did they focus on, and what period of

their lives did they narrate? • Was it a positive experience? • Was it a negative experience? • If there was a problem, with whom did the problem occur? • Was there any disclosure to another adult, parent, or family member?

We also found many narratives expressed some type of emotion. Since each narrative was different, a coding schema was developed which looked for the focus of the story, grade level, family involvement, mood of the story, and the subject or object of each person’s experiences.

Two independent coders were contracted to analyze the ANVs. They were instructed by the principal investigator to code the ANVs based on their observations. They were asked to write down the elements of the simulations through case marking (Bruner, 2002). Case marking of the ANV social simulations involved noting the agents, actions, objects, direction, situation and aspects that involved where and how the events described occurred in the pre-service teacher’s life (Bruner, 2002, p. 33). Inter-rater reliability focused on the use of zero or one. Pairwise Cohen’s kappa for each coded response for the simulations ranges from 0.84 to 0.90, which indicated high inter-rater reliability. Appendix A shows the further information that was found when reviewing all


108

44 ANVs. In our results section, we present each pre-service teacher’s personal and social identity history exercise followed by a presentation and discussion of excerpts from their texts and ANV social simulations.

Results

Many themes emerged when in-depth analysis was done on the eight narratives randomly selected to represent the pre-service teachers’ narratives. These included emotions such as joy, excitement, hurt, and hope, as well as the impact educators had on the eight pre-service teachers. Before focusing on the eight narratives analyzed for this article, it seems important to highlight an excellent example of the importance of narratives by looking at one theme that arose – frustration and eventual depression after an experience in school. This was illustrated in the following excerpt from Jackie:[1]

After living in South Africa for four years I went back to Taiwan to continue my education. I tried many times to skip school. My parents knew after a while that I was going through a rough time and would call in to tell the school I wasn’t going to be there. I avoided exams by trying to cut myself, thinking that if I got hurt I wouldn’t have to go to school. Every time I opened my history textbook I would start crying. I stopped eating. I was extremely depressed.

Thus, some narratives of past school experiences were very emotional and offered a window into the vividly painful experience and bouts of depression of a pre-service teacher.

Another theme which emerged from the narratives revealed the level of influence, both positive and negative, that teachers can have on their students. This was illustrated by Stitler, when a teacher she knew told her: ‘Maybe you shouldn’t fool around so much and concentrate more on your schoolwork.’ Stitler recalled how the comment made by her teacher was a pivotal moment in her life:

She [the teacher] will probably never know how that conversation had an impact on my life. She had no idea that up till that point, every day I went straight to the library after school to study and did not get home until the library closes. Once I get home I would study some more. I worked really hard, but because of all the materials I have missed, it does not show on test results. After that conversation I was very discouraged. I figured that no matter how hard I studied, I wouldn’t get anywhere and no one would know how much effort I am putting into my work. So I started hating school.

This one conversation Stitler had with a teacher not only impacted her immediately, but also had long-term consequences on her attitude and feelings about teaching and learning.

Additional findings illustrated the recollections and thoughts of the pre-service teachers as they described and orchestrated their ANVs. The personal feelings and attitudes of the participants were carefully crafted in the drawings of their narratives (see Figure 1). Figure 1 illustrates screenshots of pre-service teachers’ representations of both their feelings and their identities through the use of the ANV social simulations. The figures represented here, as well as others previously discussed, will be examined in more detail in the following descriptions of the eight pactes autobiographiques.

The Pre-service Teachers’ Pactes Autobiographiques

Li-leng’s Story

Li-leng described her race as a middle-class Asian American female, and further identified her ethnicity as German, Chinese, and Hawaiian. She first realized her gender around the ‘girl toys’ that she disliked and stated that she preferred playing with Lego or digging for bugs with boys. As a child she experienced several incidents of confusion regarding her racial identity as a result of her resemblance to her Asian father, rather than her white American mother. For example, whenever her mother came to the school, people asked if she was adopted. Li-leng clearly thought she was an Asian American, but people assumed she was an Asian. She explained how one of her teachers even told her to mark herself as an Asian.


109

Figure 1. A collection of illustrations of pre-service teachers’ experiences. Overall, Li-leng was not concerned much about these incidents, but as she grew up and became more aware of her identity, such incidents started to bother her sometimes. However, she reflected that she was still able to be open-minded and respectful to others because of her background and experiences. She pointed out that family is very important in shaping views on issues such as race, class, and so on, and her family influenced her to be open-minded. She got to know more about her identity, such as class and abilities, after starting college, where she was exposed to more divergent circumstances.

In Li-leng’s narrative, she chose to share a day when she had to teach four-year-old children during her junior year in high school. Within her narrative, Li-leng described changes that occurred in her mind while taking a teaching class. As indicated below, she initially had no interest in teaching children. She reflected:

I was on my way to my teaching class. During my walk there, I thought about how nice it would have been if I had taken a study hall instead of this teaching class. My advisor had talked me into it. She thought I would make a good teacher, even though I had no idea what I wanted to do for a career. I was only a junior in high school ... Anyway, I was the sucker that signed up for it, and now I had to go teach science to a bunch of 4-year-olds when I could be taking a nap in study hall.


110

Her advisor, an external factor, influenced Li-leng by suggesting she take a teaching class instead of study hall. Li-leng first had a negative impression about teaching children, but after teaching them, she found her talent in teaching and decided to teach whenever she got the chance. She expressed:

It suddenly hit me that I was teaching them. I flashed back to all the boring teachers I had had throughout my life. I wasn’t going to be that teacher. I started asking them questions instead. ‘Do any of you like foods that have apples in them?’ There we go. Signs of life, the children started to yell out answers. Instead of me lecturing, it became more of a conversation. I can do this, I thought to myself ... I thanked my advisor for suggesting that teaching class. And ever since, I’ve taken every opportunity I’ve had to continue teaching.

Li-leng’s ANV depicts expressions of joy by representing herself smiling and having a positive influence on the children in the classroom. The first frame demonstrates a diverse body of students who are not smiling; the next frame represents Li-leng in front of the class showing excitement, with the final frame showing the students responding to their teacher with smiles (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Li-leng teaching children.

Figure 3. Li-leng expressing positive thoughts about wanting to become a teacher.

Li-leng was able to process her emotional changes throughout the procedure of writing her narrative and creating her ANV. Throughout the exercise, she was able to explore how her positive teaching experience shaped her decision to become a teacher. Li-leng described aspects of her social identity in the exercise. She said she became aware of traits that constitute her ‘self’ at different times in her life under different circumstances. The aspect of her life that was introduced in her narrative and animation was one of those times and circumstances that influenced the shaping of her identity and ultimately had a positive influence on her becoming a teacher (see Figure 3).

Melanie’s Story

Melanie described herself as a white middle-class female, with western European ancestry. She said she became aware of gender differences very early, even before she entered school. Upon entering school, she indicated that she became more aware of race and social class as she explained what it was like to grow up in a small town:


111

I grew up in a smaller town that was very diverse. I think that going to a high school as diverse as mine was a big benefit. I have known others that have grown up along with people exactly like them. I think that I have learned a lot more about life than those other people [referring to others in her course]. I think growing up in a diverse society gives one the chance to be more objective about life.

Yet, she commented that even her interactions with a diverse group of students did not extend to understanding individuals with disability. She did not feel that she really became aware of disabilities until she got a chance to work in a classroom with disabled students. She felt her race, class, and gender were never salient. In addition, her disability identity was not salient and she indicated that she never felt ‘like she had ever been discriminated against’, despite the fact she wore glasses. Clearly she believed her disability was more of a factor as she struggled with her personal identity.

Melanie’s narrative illustrated an experience she had during her freshman year of high school in a biology class. The main theme in her ANV revealed a level of confidence and the positive impact a teacher can provide for a student. Melanie realized that she was having problems in biology and went for extra help after school. While getting extra help, she realized:

The whole time she [the teacher] was talking I was listening but still I couldn’t get anything right. I finally got so flustered that my teacher noticed. I’m sure my face was red and I had a rather confused look on my face, almost as if I was about to cry.

Melanie further exemplified this in her ANV by showing the ‘scary’ biology cycle and how she was very upset because she did not understand anything (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Melanie illustrating how she does not understand anything. In Melanie’s ANV she explained how the teacher realized the problems she was having, stopped trying to explain things, and instead ‘sat down with me and gave me a little “pep” talk’. Melanie said the teacher was saying things like: ‘Melanie, you’re a bright student’ and ‘I know you can do this’. Melanie expressed the significance of this as important because the teacher recognized the


112

difficulties she was having and tried to boost her confidence and self-esteem. The only problem was that Melanie still did not believe in herself. In her narrative she reflected on these feelings and how they changed.

When it came time to do a test, Melanie did not have any confidence at first, but soon started to realize that she actually knew more than she thought she did, as illustrated in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Melanie expressing excitement: ‘I know what I’m doing!’ In fact, when her test was returned, she received an A. This complete change and new-found excitement were clearly illustrated in her animation by the ‘I love biology’ shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Melanie expressing ‘I love biology’. This positive encouragement from her teacher and good grade on her exam helped to boost Melanie’s confidence in herself and her abilities, as well as to realize that a positive attitude can go a long way. Her self-efficacy increased tremendously through encouragement from her teacher. In this, we see a positive Pygmalion (self-fulfilling prophecy) effect. She expressed:

Although I wanted to, I never told my teacher that it was her encouragement that kept me going. After this event, I have realized that no matter how much I don’t understand something, I can always learn it. Since then I have tried to keep a positive attitude towards all schoolwork.

Melanie’s narrative illustrates her evolution from being upset and not liking biology to her complete change of heart after a positive experience from her teacher and from her own learning experience. Through the narrative, Melanie was able to share and reflect on her own growth and the maturation of her self-confidence.


113

Eun Jin’s Story

Eun Jin identified herself as a middle-class Asian female and described her ethnicity as Korean American. Most of the descriptions that she introduced in her personal and social identity history exercise were based on her Korean ethnicity. She grew up in extremely diverse environments and she described such experiences as the ‘privilege’ she had. Her parents were the first generation to come to the United States. She described her family as a ‘very traditional Korean family’. Her parents prepared Eun Jin not only for advanced academic achievements, but also for the discrimination she may face living in the United States. She started to notice more differences in race and ethnicity during her upper-elementary school years. Especially, she felt a gap between her parents and her friends’ parents in terms of their ability to help her with her homework assignments. She did not experience any real discrimination until she had to face a small boy she met in McDonald’s. She described how ‘[a] cute little boy, sitting with his grandmother’, started to point at her and called her a ‘chinky’. It was not this boy who shocked her, but his grandmother, who just laughed at the boy’s behavior. Eun Jin believed the adult should have reprimanded the boy. Such an imposed negative attitude and discrimination gave Eun Jin a great desire to better educate children through conversations and other resources, to ‘open their eyes’ to accept diversity in the diverse nation in which they live.

Eun Jin’s ANV focused on a situation with her fourth-grade teacher. She expressed fears and negative feelings towards her fourth-grade teacher through the narrative, as expressions of anxiety are revealed:

I remember he[r] being extremely stern with us. She was a woman that knew she had authority and she seemed to always show it. I regret that fact that being so little, I don’t remember any positive aspects about her. I’m sure she had a lot but from this one incident I can only remember the negative.

She further reminisced about her negative experience with her teacher and her language arts homework. According to her ANV, she expressed her willingness to gain popularity and attention from her classmates by showing her sense of humor (see Figure 7).

Figure 7. I will make the whole class laugh!

It turned out to be one of the most unforgettable incidents throughout her school experience. Eun Jin expressed:

I did, however, come up with one combination that I knew would definitely make my classmates laugh. Being new to the school, I was eager to gain popularity and make friends. I didn’t know what to think, but one thing was for sure. I was more scared than I had ever been of my fourth grade teacher Ms. Colburn. I was on the brink of tears. Eyes watery, I sat in fear. More scared than ever, I began to cry. It wasn’t just tears but I began to sob. Never having gotten in trouble from the teacher, I didn’t know what to expect but the worst.

She expressed the worst fear as her teacher’s decision to send a note to her parents explaining her inappropriate behavior:


114

For me, that was the worst possible thing that I could imagine her doing. My parents had such high expectations of me, and so far I had fulfilled those expectations. I could not bear their disappointment, when receiving the letter. The crying turned into sobbing and pleading.

The expression of negative feelings and fears was revealed through the facial expressions of the characters in her animation. Eun Jin’s perception of Ms Colburn as mean was demonstrated through the image of Ms Colburn as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8. Crying turned into sobbing and pleading. Throughout her narrative she illustrated the strength and support she received from her parents:

My parents ... always had a private tutor during the summers to teach us the material that we would probably learn in school the following year. Always being ahead of other students, my parents would prepare us and teach us of the discriminations that exist or that we may endure.

As a result of the negative experiences she had with her fourth-grade teacher, she was able to form her identity to become a teacher. She expressed: ‘As a teacher, we must also be aware of the language that we use, making sure it is appropriate for the age of our students.’

Jackie’s Story

Jackie was a white middle-class female who identified herself as having Russian and German heritage. She grew up in a large urban city. Her parents divorced when she was young, so she had to move around a lot. Jackie strongly identified with her gender, and stated that she was a ‘girly girl’ who loved to chase boys and wear pink frilly dresses when she was little. Jackie further discussed that she

never really fit into one group; rather, I had a few friends in different groups. I was friends with girls with different races, different classes, girls who did well in school, and girls who did not. I did not care about their personal background; I just cared if they were fun and interesting to hang out with.

While she did not focus on any problems in school, Jackie stated that after one of her moves (into the suburbs), she got asked if she was in a gang because she was a ‘city girl’. This experience, she described, opened her eyes to how ‘stupid stereotypes really are’.

In her narrative, Jackie focused on a negative experience she had in her first-grade classroom. In this experience, she first highlighted her excitement about coloring and trying to find the perfect color for various items within her picture: ‘After drawing the house, I wanted to draw some violets around it. I needed to pick the most exact color purple for the flowers, so I had to see all of my color choices’ (see Figure 9).

This is where her story goes from an excited first-grader drawing a picture to a forever-remembered negative school experience. In order to see all of the colors, Jackie stood up out of her


115

seat and got caught by the teacher, who was not very happy about it. She described her teacher as shouting:

‘Jackie, please sit down!’ Mrs. Shapiro yelled out of the corner. I looked at her with startled eyes as she stared straight into mine. Shrugging back, and flushed, I slowly sat down and reached for what I thought was the violet crayon.

Figure 9. What color should I use? While this initial verbal warning embarrassed Jackie, the excitement of her picture took precedence and she once again got out of her seat. The teacher yelled at her again: ‘Jackie, if you stand up one more time, you are going to be in trouble’ (see Figure 10).

Figure 10. One last chance.

Yet, even after two chances, Jackie once again stood up and this time she really got in trouble with her teacher. Jackie recalled how she was reprimanded by Mrs Shapiro:

‘Alright Jackie, that’s three!’ Her chair flew back to the wall when she stood up. She marched toward me, with her tense face. Her glasses were going to shatter from her piercing eyes. She whipped out her hand, and grabbed my arm tightly. I could feel my classmates staring at me. How embarrassing! She took me over to the other side of the room. (see Figure 11)

This experience greatly affected Jackie. She was very upset and just wanted to go home to talk to her mom. Furthermore, she indicated that she learned a very important lesson from this incident:


116

‘From that moment on, I realized that I had to learn how to be more in control of my actions so that I never get in trouble again!!’

Figure 11. That’s it! (taking Jackie by the hand).

Patti’s Story

Patti identified herself as a white middle-class female. She described her ethnicity as American with German heritage from her father. She grew up on a farm, and it was not until she had to stay with a babysitter that she started to inquire about differences in her personal and social identity. The first thing she recognized was gender difference. Such recognition was solidified with the arrival of her baby brother and a few diaper-changing experiences. The second thing she recognized was disabilities. She was exposed to her grandfather who had a physical disability all of his life. As she grew older, she was also exposed to a child with Down’s syndrome while staying with the babysitter and she expressed such an exposure as a good learning experience for her. Living in a small town, she had not experienced diverse race and ethnicity until she came to college.

Patti shared a negative experience while she was in third grade. She, as a third-grader, was excited to be in Mrs Smith’s classroom, since she had heard exciting things about her class. However, they turned out to be not true. It is noticeable that she used the word ‘bully’ to describe the teacher. She stated:

I soon realized that all my hopes might not be met. Oh, there was laughter, and even candy, but for me there was no fun. I was rather shy and this seemed to annoy the very uninhibited Mrs. Smith. Yet, as her comments intensified they started to feel as though a bully was tripping me and then pointing me out to the entire class. It just so happened that this bully was my teacher, making the intensity of her hounding seeming inescapable.

Patti entitled her ANV ‘Mrs Smith: my not so nice teacher’ (see Figure 12). She further described an incident of getting a C in social studies, which turned out to be the

teacher’s mistake:

I approached her desk later and quietly asked, ‘Did you say a C, Mrs. Smith?’ She replied with a boisterous tone, ‘Yes, Patti, a C! What ... you don’t believe that you could get a C?’ I stood frightened and could barely answer with an explanation to my confusion. It was obvious that she was annoyed at my questioning and seemed bent on putting me in my place. Suddenly, Mrs. Smith’s countenance changed. She nervously looked at me and indignantly said that I was correct. She had made a mistake and left out a number of my scores. I had really earned an A.


117

She also revealed the confusion and sad feelings she experienced during that time:

That year made me question my abilities in school. It changed the way I thought about myself as a student. The sad thing is that looking back, I can’t imagine that Mrs. Smith knew what she was doing.

Figure 12. Mrs Smith: my not so nice teacher. Patti’s sad feelings and frustrations were also shown in her animation (see Figure 13).

Figure 13. Time for Miss SMARTY PANTS to leave.

She pointed out that Mrs Smith ‘created an even bigger gap between us as students when she could have been encouraging us to work together’. Her frustration was expressed well in both her narrative and her ANV.


118

Felicia’s Story

Felicia was a white middle-class female who indicated that even though she had Swedish ancestry, she never really thought about it until she was older and had to do school reports on geography and history. She first became aware of the differences between gender, race, and social class in elementary school. Yet, the school she went to was primarily white and middle to upper class. Felicia indicated that in her school, teachers treated everyone equally, but peers were very critical and judgmental of issues relating to class. She also indicated that she thought her peers had the biggest influence on her social identity.

While Felicia’s social identity did not reveal any self-confidence problems, her narrative highlighted both confidence issues as well as the impact educators can have on their students. In her narrative, she was worried about not doing well in her freshman English class in college. She indicated that she did not know what the problem was because she had done well in high school, so she was concerned about a meeting with her English teacher. In the beginning of her narrative she saw ‘visions of her [the English teacher] wearing all black and preparing to torture me, her next victim, with evil remarks and snide looks, her red pen dancing over my paper as she got enjoyment from bringing me down’. This concept of the teacher being out to get her is further illustrated by Figure 14.

Figure 14. Evil teacher. Thus, initially, Felicia placed the teacher in the role of ‘evil’ and indicated that she was

nervous and insecure about my work, especially in this class, because I did not know what anyone was expecting out of me. I had always done well in high school, and I couldn’t figure out why she was so hard on me.

These statements imply not only a lack of confidence, but also a placing of blame on the teacher for her bad grades.

Yet, when Felicia actually met with the teacher, she was happily surprised with what her teacher had to say:

I slowly opened the door and stepped inside. As I observed her dark red sweater that reminded me of the devil ... ‘Hello Felicia, have a seat.’ ... She was holding my paper, which seemed like a death certificate rather than a paper I had written. I had no idea what was coming next and I prepared myself for the worst. ‘I am very impressed with the improvements in your writing,’ she said. Had I imagined that or did those words really come out of her mouth? ‘I can tell how hard you have worked and your efforts show in your writing. Congratulations.’ She handed me my paper, and the only marking of the red pen was an A on the top of the first page.

Thus, the scary experience was really one of surprise and happiness. Felicia’s teacher told her that she had improved a lot and was doing much better, and should be more confident in herself and her work (see Figure 15).


119

Figure 15. Be more confident. Felicia indicated that the teacher taught her that anything she put her mind to she could accomplish, and even influenced her future direction of concentrating on elementary education in language arts (see Figure 16).

Figure 16. Everything went great.

Ultimately, Felicia was able to see that she needed to be more confident and not so judgmental, and that teachers can have a huge influence on their students. Felicia reflected: ‘I realized that I can do anything if I put my mind to it. It was one of the best lessons I ever learned in school.’

Courtney’s Story

Courtney described herself as an upper-middle-class Caucasian female. She described her ethnicity as a mix of German, French, and Swedish. Similar to other participants, such as Li-leng and Patti, Courtney first recognized gender differences. Throughout her descriptions of herself from her social identity exercise, being a female seemed to be a challenge for her at times. Courtney expressed: ‘Even at a young age (around 3 and 4) we knew the differences between boys and girls, and I definitely did not want to look like a boy.’ She mentioned that sometimes it was difficult to make her voice heard, and she also had to confront some challenges as a result of her gender. Religion greatly impacted the shaping of her identity as well. While on a mission trip to Venezuela,


120

she realized that tremendous economic and cultural differences existed throughout the world. She recalled that it was around late junior high and early high school years that she experienced differences between herself and others. At this time, she became more conscious of her identity and the implication of identity for her daily life. While experiencing differences, she enjoyed learning more about them. She thought she was blessed that she did not have to face any discrimination or persecution, besides gender-equity issues.

Teachers’ teaching methods and approaches influenced Courtney while she was a kindergartener. She pointed out that she disliked her male gym teacher:

I’m not sure what about him made me dislike him, but from the moment Mr. Wills started to approach us with his list of instructions, I became frightened and really did not want to participate in gym any more. Mrs. Hillenbrand’s room had been warm and welcoming, and in comparison the gym was big and cold and Mr. Wills, the big, strong, male gym teacher, was yelling at us about wearing the right shoes.

Courtney’s fear of the gym teacher was depicted in her animation (see Figure 17).

Figure 17. Mr Wills, the big, strong, male gym teacher.

Her uncomfortable feelings towards the opposite gender during her childhood also manifested themselves in the description of her identity in the personal and social identity history exercise. It is noticeable that Courtney mentioned several challenges she faces as a female: ‘at times it is difficult to make my voice heard because I am a female ... However, at times simply being a female, as well as having set beliefs, can be challenging.’

Such feeling as a part of her ‘self’ seemed to have influenced her during childhood to fear the male gym teacher, as she pointed out in her narrative. She felt a lack of security and comfort when around him:

Not really sure of why it was I didn’t want to play, but just knowing I did not, I started to cry ... Soon enough the class was done and Mrs. Hillenbrand came and picked us up and led us back to the security and comfort of her classroom.

Courtney’s depiction of Mr Wills compared to Mrs Hillenbrand is demonstrated in Figure 18. She illustrated distance between herself and Mr Wills, while representing closeness between herself and Mrs Hillenbrand.

A negative experience with one teacher shaped her future learning style. She showed how one small incident can influence and change a child throughout his or her life: ‘In any case, from that point on, I have never really enjoyed gym class. I also have found that I tend to learn more in environments that are quiet and comfortable.’ She also described how she would like to approach students as a teacher: ‘I also now know that I want to approach my students in a calm and gentle manner, so that they won’t feel intimidated or scared like I did in Mr. Wills’ presence.’


121

Figure 18. Thank goodness Mrs Hillenbrand is back.

Elizabeth’s Story

Elizabeth described herself as a white middle-class female, who grew up in the suburbs. In her personal and social identity history exercise she noted that when she was younger she did not think or realize anything about the lack of diversity in the town she grew up in. She expressed: ‘In my young mind, I thought everything around me was what the rest of the world was like.’ This changed in high school when, as part of her church’s youth group, she went out to repair low-income people’s homes in the United States. She felt she was able to experience differences between white people from different geographical areas, as well as Native Americans, which both greatly affected her. She mentioned:

After these couple of experiences I really began to see how much diversity our community lacked. I am very grateful that I finally got to see outside of our little ‘bubble’ because it made me appreciate everything so much more.

In her narrative, Elizabeth focused on change and making a big life decision. Specifically, she decided to change her major from architecture to education. Her narrative started out with her experience in her architecture class, discussing how she and her fellow classmates disliked the course. While speaking with her classmates she started to question them:

I asked both of them how they were and if they had completed the required readings for the day. We all laughed together because we knew, that out of the three of us, no one probably had read. No one enjoyed this class at all and we all really dreaded coming at all.

As Elizabeth and her friends continued talking, two of her friends told her they were dropping out of architecture (see Figure 19).

Initially, it seemed to really surprise Elizabeth that her friends were even discussing dropping out. Yet, after the teacher began lecturing, Elizabeth really started to think about what she wanted.

Elizabeth showed in her narrative that as she sat in that class, bored to tears, she could not imagine doing another four to five years of this. This was illustrated by both her written account of the event and her ANV (see Figure 20). She expressed:

I mean, since the age of 12, I had always had an interest in architecture and had seen it in my future. But this definitely was not what I thought it was going to be like ... I kept remembering all my memories from the past summer working at my day camp. Those kids in the camp had really made an impact on me.

The more Elizabeth thought about her life and what she really enjoyed doing and what she actually wanted to be, teaching seemed to be the choice for her.


122

Figure 19. You’re dropping your major?

Figure 20. Could I really be a teacher? She further discussed that ‘the more I thought about it, I really felt like it was what I wanted’. This was a life-altering moment because she was making a major decision that would affect the rest of her life. Yet, the more she thought about it, Elizabeth realized: ‘It had taken a horrible lecture, a conversation with a few friends, a summer full of wonderful memories to make me finally realize what I wanted for my future’ (see Figure 21).

Figure 21. New beginning.


123

Thus, Elizabeth’s narrative was used to illustrate a monumental point in her life when she completely changed her major and the focus of her life. There is also a sense of her becoming more aware of whom she is as a person and more confident about what she really wants out of her own life.

Discussion and Future Implications

According to one pre-service teacher (Jackie), she was able to process the negative experience she had with her teacher throughout the procedure. Through the process of writing the narrative, scripting, storyboarding, and animating her experience, she was able to engage others with a mental map of her experience, and was able to explore how her experience shaped her decision to become a teacher. Follow-up conversations with the pre-service teachers indicated that the identity exercise and ANV social simulations provided them with a means to process and explore some traumatic and joyous events in their lives in a therapeutic way. In addition, users may gain new insights into themselves and others while working on ANVs, and acquire skills through the process (Tettegah, 2005, 2007). There was a feeling by most of the pre-service teachers that the process was very meaningful and it allowed them to express themselves through interactive multimedia in a creative manner.

While working on the social identity exercise, participants had a chance to think and reflect on who they were, where they had been, and how their identities had been formed in a cultural context. While going through the process of writing the narrative, scripting, storyboarding, and animating their experiences, they had an opportunity to think of the most influential school experiences, either negative or positive, that they had had during their years in education. Revisiting the same incident several times during the iterative process allowed the participants to reflect on a past experience and how it shaped their own self-identity. In addition, the exercise also provided the pre-service teachers with an opportunity to consider how a chosen experience enabled them to become better educators. One of the students further elaborated that to become a teacher who can truly understand and embrace each child’s differences, it is important for a teacher to know his or her self and identity in a firm and sound way.

For some of the students, writing a narrative was a better vessel to depict their story, while ANV social simulations were better for others. This was highlighted when reading the participants’ narratives and then watching their ANVs. In some narratives, the emotion of the event was much clearer when viewing the animation. For example, in Jackie’s written narrative, the true depth of her feelings was not as easily conveyed to the reader as it was when watching the ANV, where the facial expressions and setting provided a much richer context for the narrative. Yet, some of the pre-service teachers were unable to convey the same meaning in their ANVs. This normally seemed to be caused by a lack of detail or when their written narratives included too many side stories and too much action to be effectively rendered in their ANVs. Thus, for a good animation, one’s narrative should be organized and well structured in order to focus on one specific incident.

The findings from this study may help teacher education program faculty prepare pre-service teachers in understanding how their own identities impact their decisions in a teaching and learning environment. As illustrated in this article, an overwhelming theme in these narratives was that of self-confidence. Self-confidence seemed to play a role in almost all of the narratives, where the main theme was normally the process or incident that occurred which helped the pre-service teachers realize the necessity of having more confidence in their abilities. Along with self-confidence, another major theme was the role of the teacher. In some of the narratives, the teacher’s role was very positive, encouraging, and full of praise, while others, such as Li-leng’s experience, focused on the teacher telling them to be more confident in their abilities. Yet, unfortunately, there were also negative experiences illustrated in some of the narratives that had very long-lasting implications for the students’ learning, feeling of self-worth, and conceptions of the school environment.

Overall, these narratives help to illustrate that teachers have a major impact on their students in a variety of ways through visually produced knowledge that begins with experiences that are shared and observed through narrative a narrative process (see Figure 22). By using the ANV technology, pre-service teachers will be able to relive and recount some of their influential


124

moments as students, which should, in turn, lead to a more empathic understanding of their future students (Tettegah, 2005, 2007; Tettegah & Anderson, 2007).

Figure 22. Narrative process as visually produced knowledge. Diagram by S. Tettegah.

Note

[1] Pseudonyms are used for the pre-service teachers in this article to protect their identity.

References

Allport, G.W. (1961) Pattern and Growth in Personality. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Bauer, M.I. & Johnson-Laird, P.N. (1993) How Diagrams Can Improve Reasoning, Psychological Science, 4, 372-378. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1993.tb00584.x

Botella, L. (1994) Constructs and Narratives: toward a contextualist constuctivism. Paper presented at the Second Biennial Conference of the European Personal Construct Association, St Andreasberg, Germany, April.

Bruner, J. (1987) Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bruner, J. (1990) Acts of Meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bruner, J. (2002) Making Stories: law, literature, life. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux.

Bruner, J. & Kalmar, D.A. (1998) Narrative and Metanarrative in the Construction of Self, in M. Ferrari & R.J. Sternberg (Eds) Self-awareness: its nature and development, 308-331. New York: Guilford.

Charmaz, K. (1995) Grounded Theory, in J.A. Smith, R. Harre & L.V. Langenhove (Eds) Rethinking Methods in Psychology. London: Sage.

Charmaz, K. (2003) Grounded Theory, in J.A. Smith (Ed.) Qualitative Psychology: a practical guide to research methods, 81-110. London: Sage.


125

Day, J. & Tappan, M. (1996) The Narrative Approach to Moral Development: from the epistemic subject to dialogical selves, Human Development, 39(2), 67-82.

Glassner, A. (2001) Interactive Storytelling: people, stories and games, in O. Balet, G. Subsol & P. Torguet (Eds) Virtual Storytelling Using Virtual Reality Technologies for Storytelling. International Conference ICVS 2001 Avignon, France, September 27-28, 2001 Proceedings, 51-60. Berlin: Springer.

Kihlstrom, J., Beer, J. & Klein, S. (2003) Self and Identity as Memory, in M.R. Leary & J.P. Tangney (Eds) Handbook of Self and Identity, 68-90. New York: Guilford.

Leary, M.R. & Tangney, J.P. (2003) The Self as an Organizing Construct in the Behavioral and Social Sciences, in M.R. Leary & J.P. Tangney (Eds) Handbook of Self and Identity, 3-14. New York: Guilford.

Marshall, C. & Rossman, G.B. (1989) Designing Qualitative Research. Beverly Hills: Sage.

Marshall, C. & Rossman, G.B. (1999) Designing Qualitative Research, 3rd edn. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Öberg, P. (1997) Life as Narrative: on biography and aging. Uppsala: Sociological Institute, Uppsala University.

Okazawa-Rey, M. (1997) Personal Cultural History Exercise, in E. Lee, D. Menkart & M. Okazawa-Rey (Eds) Beyond Heroes and Holidays: a guide to K-12 anti-racist, multicultural education and staff development, 66-67. Washington, DC: Network of Educators on the Americans.

Polkinghorne, D.E. (1988) Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences. New York: State University of New York Press.

Riva, G., Botella, C., Castelnuovo, G., Gaggioli, A., Mantovani, F. & Molinari, E. (2004) Cybertherapy in Practice: the VEPSY updated project, in G. Riva, C. Botella, P. Legeron & G. Optale (Eds) Cybertherapy: Internet and virtual reality as assessment and rehabilitation tools for clinical psychology and neurosciences. Amsterdam: IOS Press.

Rogers, Y. (1999) What Is Different about Interactive Graphical Representations? Learning and Instruction, 9, 419-425.

Rogers, Y., Scaife, M., Gabrielli, S., Mith, H. & Harris, E. (2002) A Conceptual Framework for Mixed Reality Environments: designing novel learning activities for your children, Presence, 11, 677-686. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/105474602321050776

Ryan, M.L. (2005) Media and Narrative. http://lamar.colostate.edu/~pwryan/mediaentry.htm

Schafer, R. (1992) Retelling a Life: narration and dialogue in psychoanalysis. New York: Basic Books.

Strauss, A.L. & Corbin, J.A. (1990) Basics of Qualitative Research: grounded theories procedures and techniques. Newbury Park: Sage.

Tappan, M.B. (2005) Domination, Subordination and the Dialogical Self: identity development and the politics of ‘ideological becoming’, Culture and Psychology, 11, 47-75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1354067X05050743

Tettegah, S. (2002) Computer Mediated Social Justice: a new model for educators, Tech Trends, 46(5), 27-33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02818305

Tettegah, S. (2005) Technology, Narratives, Vignettes, and the Intercultural and Cross-cultural Teaching Portal, Urban Education, 40, 368-393. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042085905276376

Tettegah, S. (2007) Pre-service Teachers, Victim Empathy, and Problem Solving Using Animated Narrative Vignettes, Technology, Instruction, Cognition and Learning, 5, 41-68.

Tettegah, S. & Anderson, C. (2007) Pre-service Teachers’ Empathy and Cognitions: statistical analysis of text data by graphical models, Contemporary Educational Psychology, 32, 48-82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2006.10.010


126

APPENDIX A

Negative (n = 44) Positive (n = 44) Anger/ upset

Anxiety/ nervous

Fear Guilt Regret Unhappy Happy/ excited

Confidence Pride

7 14 2 2 1 6 23 8 5

Note: most of the students’ stories are tallied in multiple categories.

Table I. Emotions expressed in narratives.

Problem associated Teacher Self Peer School personnel Life in general Total

12 16 6 1 8 43 Table II. People who were associated with problems in pre-service teacher narratives.

Teacher experience Focus Positive Negative Learning

experience Personal

issue Peer-related

issue Count 15 11 3 8 7

Table III. Focus on the problem.

Grade level Primary/ elementary

Middle school

High school/ secondary

College

Count 23 1 14 6 Table IV. Grade level.

Overall Positive Negative Count 27 17

Table V. Overall experience.

Disclosed to parents Yes No Count 10 34

Table VI. Disclosed to parents.

APPENDIX B

Personal and Social Identity History Exercise

By Sharon Tettegah

You will complete a variety of exercises that focus on diversity and multicultural education. The objectives of this activity are to develop a personal history by reflecting on your past and present experiences, and how your identity has been shaped by various institutions (family, education, religious and community, etc.).

In this particular exercise you will explore your personal and social identity in the following areas: • Gender • Race


127

• Class • Ethnicity • Ability/Disability

Before moving on to the activity, it is best that you have an idea of what the above constructs mean. Please note that race, ethnicity, gender, class, and disability are all social constructs. • Gender identity refers to one’s psychological sense of oneself as a male or female, which is very

different from biological sex. Biological sex refers to your anatomical and physiological characteristics determined at birth.

• Race/Racial identity refers to physical characteristics, in particular skin color and ancestral heritage. Racial categories include ethnic groups.

• Class refers to a social category based on income, education, wealth, status, or power. • Ethnicity refers to smaller social groups based on characteristics such as a shared sense of group

membership, values, behavioral patterns, language, historical base, and ancestral geographic regions.

• Ability identifies whether one has full use of one’s cognitive, emotional, and physical capabilities.

Write down on a piece of paper your gender, race, ethnicity, social class, and any disability you may have. Post it online and include your responses to the questions below also in your postings.

As you write and before you post, keep in mind the following questions: • What is the first time you remember having an awareness of your gender, class, race, ethnicity,

and ability? • How old were you when you became aware of your gender, class, race, ethnicity, and ability? • How did your gender, class, race, ethnicity, and ability, discrimination, oppression, and

prejudice affect you and others’ lives? • What are some major influences in your families, communities, and schools which affected your

social identity? • What does it mean to be a female, person of color, able, white person, or lower social class, etc.?

Post your answers in a historical story form online in your discussion forum. Start a discussion thread on personal social identity. After reviewing other postings, what similarities and differences do you notice?

From the discussion, reflect on: • How did schools and other social institutions support and promote oppressive practices? • How, if at all, did your experiences influence your view of yourself as an individual? • How have your experiences shaped your views of others who are from social groups different

from your own (race, gender, class, ability, and ethnicity)?

Please post your responses in our discussion forum under personal identity. (Modified and adapted from Okazawa-Rey, 1997)

SHARON TETTEGAH is a faculty member of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the Math, Science, and Technology Division at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She also holds appointments at the Beckman Institute and the Department of Educational Psychology at the UIUC. Correspondence: Sharon Tettegah, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Math, Science, and Technology Division, University of Illinois, 1310 S. Sixth Street, Champaign, IL 61820, USA ([email protected]). EUN WON WHANG, KONA RENEE TAYLOR and TIMOTHY J. CASH are graduate students in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

narratives, virtual environments and identity semiotics: an exploration of pre-service teachers’...

Documents