Action Research: Finding Self While Finding “Other”
Question: Do Mexican students understand the global impact of their regional art, the
importance of environmental awareness and the empowerment potential of English
language proficiency?
Secondary Question:
Does understanding of one “other” culture inform ELL/ESL cultural curriculum
development and delivery?
What makes a great teacher? Are they born? Are they made? Do master teachers hold truth?
Do they “tell” this truth to their students? Schools in the United States come from a tradition of
what is called instructivism- teachers told their truth- students memorized the truth of their
teachers. This worked very well until the student moved to the next teacher, with a different
contextual journey and therefore a different truth.
Currently, many schools in the United States have embraced constructivism – teachers deliver
multiple (and hopefully divergent) data points – and students construct their OWN truth.
Which theoretical approach will help our schools across the United States meet their AYP bench
mark. Yes, the field of education is equally prolific at inventing their acronyms as any other
profession field. AYP= Annual Yearly Progress.
What Comes Next?
As the United States approaches the Caucasoid tipping point, purportedly projected to be in the
next 20 years, the reign (some would characterize as terror) of the Western European cultures as
power brokers will come to a conclusion.
FACT: Approximately 65 percent of the population are visual learners.
FACT: The brain processes visual information 60,000 faster than text.
FACT: 90 percent of information that comes to the brain is visual.
FACT: 40 percent of all nerve fibers connected to the brain are linked to the retina.
FACT: Visual aids in the classroom improve learning by up to 400 percent. (Author)
Paradigm Worldviews
The Fascinating Deconstruction of the History of the Paradigm Charts.
Back in the olden times, during my doctoral training, I read many, many books on the history
and philosophy of education (yes, back in the days when scholars did their research by reading
ink on paper). As I journeyed from book to book, from writer to writer, from scholar to scholar I
kept reading what looked like the same teaching and learning models, strategies and techniques
but identified by different names.
As I dug deeper and deeper I came to realize that the different terms DID describe the same
teaching and learning models, strategies and techniques. Why does the field of education keep
creating new words to describe the same teaching and learning models, strategies and
techniques? Do you detect a repeating refrain? I did ; /.
The answers are quite simple, really. Yes, there are TWO answers. 1.) Ph.D. candidates, in order
to earn the degree, must discover new knowledge. As the old saying goes, “ There is nothing new
under the sun”. So… how do you discover new knowledge which is not there? I know that you
smartie students of mine have already guessed the answer. Yes! You are correct! That aspiring
new scholar creates a new word to discover an old practice! 2.) Subsequently, when that new
scholar joins the “academy” they are motivated to supplement their salary (yes, my dear reader,
college professors make less money than a 2nd grade teacher who has been in the class room for
the same length of time).Professors have only one thing to sell - knowledge. People are not
inclined to pay for something they already have so…. you guessed it….. they create more new
words to describe their newest magic bullet which will save our educational system!
Coming to the realization that many of these words were synonyms did not help me all that much
as I struggled to organize the plethora of data focusing on how people have historically gone
about teaching and learning.
Finally, I started to organize the theories, theorists, research models, theoretical bases and the
methods, procedures and techniques employed by these different paradigms/worldviews and the
infamous Paradigm Deconstruction Charts were born. I did sell the use of these charts to Allyn
and Bacon for $10,000.00 so I guess they thought them useful. I DO feel a little guilty about this
development but I allow myself a little chuckle reflecting on the fact that my effort to organize
the creation of all the self-serving linguistic excess allowed me to sell THAT knowledge ; ) Is
this poetic justice? Let’s look that up. Whoops, I mean ask Dr. Google.
A particularly insightful deconstruction summary of the 3 P's Mike Ofstedal:
“ Using definitions from the Paradigm Deconstruction Chart (Bridges, n.d.),
empiricism would now not be directed toward objective truths, but instead
directed toward truths that are evident to any particular culture and any
time in history; and for all intents and purposes cease to exist in its current
form. The interpretive paradigm would now rule as the overriding ethos of
thought, as integrating our culture and social interactions as the basis for
knowledge would be so ingrained in our young people, it would become the
unquestioned norm. The critical paradigm would still be present, as it would
serve to hold the interpretive paradigm in check, and always strive to see the
underlying aspects of any cultural decision or thought”.
Three Educational Paradigm Models
As organized by me over the last 25 years:
Empirical/Analytical Paradigm. Also called: Objective - Quantitative - Deductive Normative - Positivist-Authoritarian This worldview believes that you can explain-predictcontrol. Scientists see the world from this perspective. 1. Cause and effect is real and can explain
the world 2. Research is context-free 3. Believes in detached role of observer 4. Uses statistical
analysis 5. Generalizes from the specific 6. Reality exists and can be predicted 7. Investigation is
neutral 8.Theory and Practice are separate 9. Subject / Object relationship 10. Aristotle, Locke,
Hume
Interpretive/Symbolic Paradigm Also called: Qualitative - Subjective - Inductive Existentialist - Non-Authoritarian This worldview is idiomatic and believes in nonstatistical
interpretations of events. It values individual or specific observations and seeks to understand
rather than to generalize into absolute truth. 1. Attempts to understand 2. Believes the world is
contextual 3. Observer-participant 4. Holistic inquiry 5. Reports out with narrative description
6. Believes realities are multiple social phenomena 7. Believes investigation is context laden 8.
Believes theory and practice are interactive and specific 9. Subject / Subject relationship 10.
Anthropological approach- ethnography
Critical Paradigm This world view attempts to reveal the tacit values that underlie the
enterprise or hidden agenda. 1. Looking for underlying assumptions 2. Looking for internal
contradictions and politics 3. Advocates social action 4. Believe society is controlled by power
5. Believes reality is contextual 6. Believes self-reflection is the beginning.
See Attachment A for the complete Paradigm Deconstruction Charts.
Stage One
Question Design: What do Mexican middle school students recognize as “art”.
January 2012
Subjects:
Mexican students: three females, eleven males- 12-14 year old. Eight travel by water from
pueblos of less than fifty people. Teacher: Senor Gerardo Mejia Hernandez at Escuela Boca de
Tamatlan.
Location:
Boca de Tamatlan
Boca de Tomatlán is a Mexican fishing village of
around 340 people. The village is situated on the
mountainside, the Horcones river and the Boca
Bay.
The Horcones River reaches its maximum width
during the rain season, flowing abundantly and
forcefully. The beach serves as port to
watertaxi's heading towards Las Animas,
Quimixto, Majahuitas, and Yelapa (beaches only
accessible by sea).
This year, with the help of a philanthropist recruited by
Gerardo Mejia Hernandez, students from the beach
towns accessible only by water have the opportunity to
attend school in the water taxi, using the newly built
dock.
Boca de Tomatlán is a stop on the highway connected
to the southern coastline. If you continue south on the
highway, you would drive into Las Juntas y los
Veranos, and further ahead, at El Tuito, both rural
towns . A visit to El Tuito, approximately 28 kms
distance from Boca de Tomatlan, is like traveling back
in time.
The Researcher:
Barbara Bridges employs reflection and investigation of social phenomena to create
historiographic/ record keeping art works. She has experience and a passion for developing
curriculum which encourages collaborative creating which builds community across cultures.
She employs a style of art making she calls “Recordari” from the Latin “to remember, call to mind
(re-restore and cor, genitive, cordis heart), understood by the ancients as the seat of judgment and
memory”. Barbara is a conceptual artist, working in many different media to create art works to be used
as a focus for curriculum delivery.
Barbara's relationship with teachers, students and schools began in Maine where she started
teaching art in 1976. She has worked with teachers, artists and students since that time in
Maine, Mexico, the Caribbean, and in Minnesota.
Barbara founded the Sandy Point Art School from 1980-1990 and organized and led a
workshop at her cottage and studio in 2008. Participants: Doug Boughton, Past-President,
International Society for Education Through Art; Kerry Freedman, NAEA Higher
Educator of the Year, Past-Editor, Studies in Art Education; Mary Ann Stankiewicz,
NAEA President (2003-2005); Laurie E. Hicks, Founder/Editor The Journal of Gender
Issues in Art and Education; Pat Stuhr, Department Chair, The Ohio State University;
Madelynne Engle Conceptual Sculptor, US Embassy, Hilton Collection, Monsanto, E F
Hutton, Bank of America, San Diego, California and me! More information:
http://www.bridgescreate.com/fellowsb/
Dr. Barbara Rogers Bridges is also a professor at Bemidji State University –Minnesota
*Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota
*Designer and past-director of the unique distributed online learning DLiTE program, a K-8
teacher licensure program http://www.bemidjistate.edu/academics/dlite and secondary
FasTrack Initiative. http://www.bemidjistate.edu/academics/dlite
* 1998 Higher Art Educator of Minnesota
* 2008 Higher Art Educator of Minnesota
* 2008 Art Teacher of Minnesota
Objective:

The students will reveal their level of English language proficiency and their
current level of awareness of selected art works by participating in a circle game
using the preceding images.

The students will reveal their level of understanding of visual metaphor by
creating their own personal metaphor symbol.
Procedure Part 1:
Researcher worked with the principal and teachers of Escuela Boca de Tamatlan
to plan an action survey to identify the level of English language proficiency and
level of awareness regarding Western European, Mexican regional and national
and industrial design objects.
Image 1 Zero students had ever seen this painting or knew of Frida Kalo but
DID identify it as art.
Image 2 All students knew what this was, 2 of the males had one, zero
identified it as art.
Image 3 Zero students could identify this as being typical art of their region. but
DID identify it as art.
Image 4 Four of the males and one of the females could name this art work but
not the artist. They did not know where it was painted but DID identify it as art.
Image 5 One male could identify this as the famous Geicko. Four males and two
females identified it as art (because it had a frame- they agreed).
English Proficiency:
The English Teacher, using observation of this lesson with and previous gpa
estimates the class average for comprehension of the learner objectives of this
lesson was 75%. The class was conducted in English with Spanish translation
where it was needed.
Procedure Part 2
Snappy Launch:
The teacher will show her necklace of power objects collected to represent experiences
in Latin American locales over the last 30 years.
The teacher will show a picture of her personal symbol and the symbol of Bob Masla,
Creativity Workshop Leader:
Discussion follows on the relationship of B in terms of researcher names and bees
pollinating flowers , as teachers pollinate their students with knowledge. Masla
discusses the importance of the mariposa (butterfly) in Mexican culture. Students are
interested in the transformational characteristics of the mariposa. Is metamorphosis
part of THEIR life?
Materials:
Images 1-5
String
Markers
Paper
Students create their symbols.
Anticdotal Data.
The students found it difficult to identify a
symbol which would be meaningful to
them inan abstract way. Researcher
needs to make home/village visits to get
an idea regarding personal relevance.
The girls were completely engaged with
the necklace and researcher sees this as a
possible motivational strategy as a prelesson.
Students need an image based English
drill program. Researcher needs to fins
one.
Conclusions:
Working with Gerardo Mejia Hernandez, researcher will:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Identify an image-web-based Spanish-to-English drill program and send to the
Escuela.
Design a personal symbol lesson focused on student life world.
Design a lesson focused on the Huichol art of the region.
Design a environmental lesson focused on a specific issue at the escuela.
Design an installation lesson which includes the regional art, environmental issue
important at the school and including personal symbols.
6.
References
Author Visual Impact, Visual Teaching: Using Images to Strengthen Learning
Corwin Press; Second Edition (February 15, 2009)
Attachment A
EMPIRICAL / ANALYTICAL PARADIGM
Also called: Objective - Quantitative - Deductive - Normative - PositivistAuthoritarian This worldview believes that you can explain-predict-control.
Scientists see the world from this perspective
UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS:
1. Cause and effect is real and can explain the world 2. Research is context-free 3.
Believes in detached role of observer 4. Uses statistical analysis 5. Generalizes from
the specific
6. Reality exists and can be predicted
7. Investigation is neutral
8.Theory and Practice are separate
9. Subject / Object relationship
10. Aristotle, Locke, Hume
TYPES OF RESEARCH MODELS:
Developmental - experimental psychology - people respond mechanically
Epistemological - knowledge origin is from without - common goal - known text
(universitas)
Experimental - natural science - true knowledge
THEORISTS:
Socrates
questioning”
Teacher leads the learner to the answer by using “artful
Mortimer Adler
All members of the species have the same nature, perrenialist
Aristotle
Teacher instructs learner
Albert Bandura
People develop behaviors by observing others- behaviorist
Warren Bennis
Knowledge is testable by scientific method
Alfred Binet
Developer of the IQ test.
Benjamin Bloom
Bloom’s Taxonomy - Six progressively complex levels of cognition
Auguste Comte
Men should recognize the overriding authority of science
René Descartes
Modern school of mathematics
William Glasser
Control theory is about fulfilling the needs of the individual
Marian Edelman
Children will model what they see
Erik Erikson
Eight stages of psychosocial development
Fredrich Hegel
Students must conform to institutional order and laws of
reason but believed in self-consciousness –
laid
foundation for social philosophy
E. D Hirsch
Core knowledge exists
Thomas Hobbes
Cause and effect- geometry and physics answer questions
without human nature
David Hume
All knowledge comes from experience
Ayn Rand
Objectivism is a complete, systematic, integrated system of thought
Bertrand Russell
Reality grounded in mathematics - Principia Mathematical
Lawrence Kohlberg Theory of moral development influenced by Jean Piaget and John
Dewey
John Locke
Ivan Pavlov
Knowledge is publicly verifiable, measurable
Conditioning
Jean Piaget
Five stages of cognitive development
B. F. Skinner
Behaviorist, Operant conditioning and schedules of reinforcement
Edward Thorndike Law of Effect, Law of Readiness, Law of Exercise
Lev Vygotsky
Scaffolding- private speech
Edmund Husserl
Principal founder of phenomenology
THEORETICAL BASE
Assimilationist - majority rules and absorbs less powerful cultures
Behaviorist - all behavior is a response to stimuli - predictable -B.F. Skinner (Pavlov's
dog)
Objectivism - complete, systematic, integrated system of thought
Rationalist - human reason is starting place for construction of knowledge - Descartes
Empiricist - knowledge foundation of human experience
Determinist - no random events - determined by past behaviors and events
Essentialist - hard work, mental discipline, core of knowledge - 3 R's
Structuralist - believes there are societal universal structures
Perrennialist - underlying principles of existence are constant- we can pass on a body
of
knowledge - Edelman
Positivist - logical - the what - quantitative study of human phenomena - Comte
Realist - concepts exist (not just names) knowledge and values are independent of
human mind -Aristotle
METHODS / PROCEDURES / TECHNIQUES
1. Nomothetic (General laws) – agree on general truths
2. Survey Verbal or written questions administered to subjects
3. Experiment - A test measuring an effect.
4. Randomized Sampling - The selection of subjects using a random system
5. Pre/post Test - A test given before and after the treatment.
6. Statistical Analysis Correlational studies - one variable’s change is affected by
change
in another variable
7. Correlational Studies - One variable’s change is effected by a change in another
variable
8. Use of Control Group, i.e. a group that is not given the treatment.
INTERPRETIVE / SYMBOLIC PARADIGM Also called:
Qualitative - Subjective - Inductive - Existentialist - Non-Authoritarian This
worldview is idiomatic and believes in nonstatistical interpretations of events.
It values individual or specific observations and seeks to understand rather
than to generalize into absolute truth.
UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS:
1. Attempts to understand 2. Believes the world is contextual
3. Observer-participant
4. Holistic inquiry 5. Reports out with narrative description
6. Believes realities are multiple social phenomena
7. Believes investigation is context laden
8. Believes theory and practice are interactive and specific
9. Subject / Subject relationship
10. Anthropological approach- ethnography
TYPES OF RESEARCH MODELS:
Hermeneutics - paths have fallen together - knowledge from within - study of text
Anthropology - study of culture and social characteristics - Mead
Phenomenology - classify experience at face value - how individuals make sense of world , prereflective
Phenomenological Human Science - study of essential meanings of life world –van Manen
Symbolic Interaction - focus on the world of the subjective and the meanings and symbols that
represent them - no suggestions for remediation - the now
THEORISTS:
Max Van Manen
Phenomenological Human Science, practice, reflection
Immanuel Kant
German philosopher and founder of Critical Philosophy; made
first decisive break with empiricism
Jerome Bruner
Students construct new ideas by integrating new material
Noam Chomsky
Students understand the world through the arduous process of
controlled inquiry
John Dewey
Grandfather of Pedagogy – Progressivism. Relies upon the use of
scientific method to solve problems
W. E. B. DuBois
Every argument rests on an unproven postulate
Elliot Eisner
Qualitative research
Frederik Frobel
Free self-activity, discovery play.
Howard Gardner
Spatial,
David Johnson
Maxine Greene
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
is
Multiple intelligences Linguistic, Musical, Logical,
Kinesthetic, Intrapersonal, and Interpersonal. Roger and
Cooperative Learning
Purpose of education is for teachers and students to create
meaning in their lives
The common, natural man, Emile, original nature of man
good but corrupted by society
Margaret Mead
Anthropologist - individual experience of developmental
stages could be shaped by cultural demands and expectations
Daniel Golman
Emotional Intelligence
William F. Pinar
Cultural character of the curriculum
Jean Paul Sartre
Existentialism - emphasizes the ultimacy of human freedom
Carl R. Rogers
Client-centered therapy-humanist
Martin Heidegger
Metaphysics – relativist - social critic - educated in
phenomenological tradition of Husserl
Abraham Maslow
The father of Humanistic Psychology Hierarchy of Needs
Maria Montessori
Education is not what the teacher gives; education is a
natural process spontaneously carried out by the human
individual
THEORETICAL BASE:
"Eastern Thought" -starts with the inner world - reaches to the outer world of thought
Voluntarist - humans exercise free will
Ethnographist - in-depth analysis of a specific cultural situation
Constructionist - believes in intact realities, students develop own frames of thought
Relativist - everything goes, meaningless
Reconceptualist - lived experience (lived experience)
Anti-Positivist - knowledge origin from within- people respond to given situation
Pragmatist -anticipated consequences-informed judgment-becoming (not being) application.
Progressivist - learning is rooted in questions developed by the learners -Process not Product Dewey
Naturalist - don't disrupt just record and understand axioms: 1. realities are multiple, 2. knower
and known are interactive, 3. no generalizations, 4. inductive, no cause and effect, 5. inquiry is
value bound, always biased
"Native American Thought"- connection to nature - cyclical oneness
Nominalist - abstract theme - only can name things, never real
Existentialist - reality in the lived experience - Sartre, Kierkegaard
METHODS / PROCEDURES / TECHNIQUES USED FOR RESEARCH
1.
2.
3.
4.
Role play
Interview
Participant observation
Probing
5. Scenario
6. Script taping
7. Case study
8. Descriptive Research
CRITICAL PARADIGM This world view attempts to reveal the tacit
values that underlie the enterprise or hidden agenda. Click here for a lecture on
Semantics... Critical Theory discussion
UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS:
1. Looking for underlying assumptions
2. Looking for internal contradictions and politics 3. Advocates social action 4. Believe
society is controlled by power
5. Believes reality is contextual
6. Believes self-reflection is the beginning
TYPES OF RESEARCH MODELS:
Post Structural Analysis - looking for underlying assumptions
Literary Theory
Archaeology - looking for historical implications
Cultural Criticism - critical sociology or anthropology
Discursive - explore organization or ordinary talk
Hermeneutics - study of known text
THEORISTS:
Karl Marx
Henry Girouix
Basic reality is material- knower and known are in a
continued process of mutual adaptation
Critical Theorist –all things are power and politics
Friedrich Nietzsche
Existentialist - facts do not exist, only interpretations
Soren Kierkegaard
Existentialism – believed in religion, indirect communication
Jean Paul Sartre
Existentialism- a philosophical approach that
emphasizes the ultimacy of human freedom.
Paulo Freire
Brazilian educator – phenomenologist , students must
construct knowledge from knowledge they already
possess
Conscientization’ - consciousness-raising
Jurgen Habermas
Most eclectic modern Marxist - speech act theory, hermeneutics
Michael Apple
Educational critical theorist –criticizes education as
factory
model
Lev Vygotsky
Scaffolding- private speech.
THEORETICAL BASE
Feminist Critique - feminist/gender issues
Neo-Pragmatist - concerned with language
Neo-Marxist - maintain most issues in our lives are economic/historical
Critical Theorist - looks at underlying assumptions - contradictions - improve society,
synthesis of philosophy and a scientific understanding of society - Habermas
Reductionist - way to understand is to relate to small independent parts
Deconstructionist - analyzes internal contradictions (Norris, Benjamin) language
theory
Social Reconstructist - focus is to improve society - Girouix
Post Structuralist - looks at underlying assumptions - no universals - Foucault
Postmodernist - never generalize - each case has its own peculiarities - coming to
know is centered on self - role of social critic is to play language game - exchange
symbols
Post Positivist - if knowledge exists, use science to describe and find out WHY data
appears as it does
Humanistic- humans are born free and good but are enslaved by institutions,
individuals are not objects to be measured - Rousseau
METHODS / PROCEDURES / TECHNIQUES
1. Rhetorical Close Reading - read for multiple levels of reading
2. Decentering - to move from the center of focus of inquiry - look at relationship
not subject/object
3. Coding/Decoding Text or Verbal - look for code - WHY they use the word
4. Case Study - a snapshot - focuses on an individual or group
5. Text Analysis - underlying meanings
6. Reflection