Stories from service
A SOCIOCULTURAL ANALYSIS OF HOW
STORIES ARE USED AND TRANSFORMED IN
COGNITIVELY CHALLENGING REFLECTION
CHRISTOPHER G PUPIK DEAN
CPU@GSE.UPENN.EDU
Purpose and Significance
 Democratic practice
 How can SL be political?
 Talking about public issues & public actions – engaging with
others across difference to collectively solve public problems
 Cognitively challenging reflection:
 An important part of service
 Opportunity to develop the civic practice of discourse around
public issues and public actions
 Need more detailed analysis of this practice
Study and Methods
 Qualitative study of a 10th grade service-learning
class in an independent Quaker school (Eastern
Friends School – EFS)



Tutoring 1st graders in public school
3 month class
Privilege
 Ethnographic participant observation
 Participant observation on all service trips
 Video recording of all EFS based classes
 Interviews: pre, post, critical incident
 Review of student work
Analysis
 Qualitative thematic coding
 Initial review of all data:
A priori coding (Miles & Huberman, 1994)
 Sociocultural themes (Cole & Engeström, 1993; Engeström,
1987; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998)
 Open coding (Strauss & Corbin, 2008)


Selective coding

Stories about others
Telling Stories
 Stories from service were tools to explain their
experiences like:


Academic disparities
Teacher practice (curriculum & discipline)
The transformation of stories
 Particular stories persisted, but changed… how?
 In class:

Teacher challenges


weak or focusing
Supporting and counter examples
From other students
 From class activities

 In service:

Observations through:

Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) (Lave & Wenger, 1991)
 Allows engagement across difference to work on common practice
 Without it, stories are still transformed, but maybe not in the ways
we hope.
The cases:
 Learning without LPP (talking about):
 Parents of the 1st graders – do they care about their children?
 Learning with LPP (talking about and working with)
 Teachers of the 1st graders – are they good teachers?
Parents
 Initial stories:

During class reflection Naomi shared:

there was this little girl, her name was [Alison] and the teacher asked
if she had done her homework and she said, she said she had it, but
her mom wouldn’t help her do it, so I just took note of that (Class
video, 9/14/2012).
 Culminating stories

This became a tool to explain struggling students


Naomi: especially for the [students] who were behind, you could really
tell that their family wasn’t helping them that much (Interview,
12/6/2012).
The story did not maintain its original form.

Naomi: But there were some kids that said, ‘oh yeah my mom helped
me with my homework’ (Interview, 12/6/2012).
Parents
 Process of change: In class - Teacher
 Teacher (counter):

Scott: I only have two kids, but to try to find time to read twenty
minutes to this one and help that one with homework, I mean
something simple like that, it is very taxing (10/27/2012).
Parents
 Process of change: In class - other counterexamples

Echoes (supporting):


Jessie: I mean, I know, like the one girl had said that she didn’t have
her homework because her mom wouldn’t help her the night before,
and that’s kind of like, I would never think that my mom or any mom
would kind of ignore and neglect that for homework, I mean, like, it’s
school, it’s important, especially at a young age (Interview 9/20/2011)
Other stories (supporting):

Tania: I know we were talking about Halloween, cause it was like the
day after and one kid, I was like, oh, did you go trick-or-treating? He
was like, yeah, but, I was like, who did you go with? He was like, I
went alone. He’s like, 7 years old or something. I was like, you went
alone? He was like, yeah, my mom was out and my dad couldn’t go
and he was tired or something. And so I was like, oh, just like, I was
not expecting that at all. (Interview 12/13/2011)
Parents
 Process of change: In class - other counterexamples
 Waiting for Superman (counter):
Rae: “In Waiting for Superman, you see how much the parents
love their children and how much they will do for them, how they
will… like, Francisco’s mother was taking him to reading
specialists, trying to make sure he wasn’t getting behind”
(10/27/2011).
 Naomi: there are a majority of kids in our class that have said “my
mom hasn’t helped me with my homework, I wasn’t able to do it
cause I didn’t understand, my parents wouldn’t help me,” so
family does play an important role in a child’s education and the
sacrifices they would make, or, unfortunately wouldn’t make”
(10/27/2011).

Parents
 Process of change: In service
 Very little opportunity for direct contact (no LPP)

Max: I didn’t really see too many of [the parents]. A couple of
them walked in late. Other than that, a lot of them looked like they
were tired. (Interview, 12/8/2011)
Parents
 Final stories: caveats added
 Rae: I know that some of the kids who asked for help from
their parents and didn’t get help, those were definitely kids
who were struggling more than other kids. And then there was
this one really good reader… and she was so good… and she
was like, I practice a lot with my mom. (Interview 12/12/2011)
Parents
 So what?
 Story from service
Used as explanatory tool
 Had staying power
 Supported by echoes and further stories
 Challenged by a counterexample  added caveats


Students had very little direct access to the parents

What about the goal? Practice of engaging with others?

Without LPP: Talking about rather than talking/working with.
Teachers
 Focus of stories about teachers:
 Curriculum
 Discipline – initial thoughts
Hugh: Our teacher was mean. (Class video 9/14/2011)
 Guy: the teacher is very uptight about what the kids do and I think
it is hard for them to learn when the teacher is like that cause the
teacher is always screaming at them and she said to them: you got
bad grades on the test, get all these letters soaked into your head.
She shouldn’t really do that when they are only in first grade. It is
not the right way to say it. (Class video: 10/12/2011)
 Max: She seems to be very controlling, she is very… she is that
kind of person. She doesn’t let the kids get out of line. (Interview,
10/19/2011)

Teachers
 Discipline – concluding thoughts
 Darren: I have come to the conclusion that she does care a lot
about all of her students. Although she may raise her voice a
lot, and not correct them in the right way because they are so
young, she does know each of the kids learning abilities. Every
time she knows who needs help with certain things and who
comes in late for breakfast, things like that. I am glad the
students are getting good attention. (Written Reflection
11/2/2011)
Teachers
 Process of Change: In class – teacher
 Scott: Um, maybe she could have said it in a nicer way, I don’t
know, but, you know, …. (Class video 9/14/2011)

Guy: I was working with some kids and she got upset at them,
like, because they were not sitting properly even though they
were trying to learn, so, uh, I mean, I don’t think it is the right
thing to do, but I understand she is stressed out” (Interview,
10/27/2011)
Teachers
 Process of Change: In class – teacher
 In class:
 Scott: I am curious of this theme of interaction, cause I know,
you know, um, the one classroom, […] the teacher kinda lets
the kids give you a hug and stuff, and then there is another
classroom and they are like “No Fun!” [laughter] (Class video
9/28/2011)
 Interview:
 Joseph: I have heard some of the teachers are nice, and then
some are mean, like, that is what Mr. Scott was saying, like,
“No Fun!”, that is what some of the teachers are saying.
Teachers
 Process of change: In service

Bringing in detailed stories:
Fernando: Um... teacher seems a little strict, like she's gotta... I mean
with good reason, she's gotta keep her class or twenty some kids, 1st
graders, in line and has to get their breakfast together and the
{course} and some of them are working with us while others are
working with her and, uh, I can see how it could be pretty chaotic.
And, uh, yeah, it definitely shows with how she's pretty stern with
them... but... she's nice. (Interview 10/18/2011)
 Rae: Instead of punishing them when they did bad work, she kind of
praised them when they did good work… so… which I thought was a
good method, like she had these little stickers or cards that you
handed to, like, a kid when they did a good job, and at the end of the
day, if they had, like, four or five cards, they could pick a treat or a
present out of, like, or a little surprise out of like, she had this little
chest and it had colorful pencils and stickers and that sort of stuff.
(Interview, 12/12/2011)

Teachers
 So what?
 Stories transformed through dialectic between:
In class discussions (driven by teacher)
 Detailed observations from service
 KEY

 What about the goal: discourse across difference?
 LPP allowed greater engagement as partners
Conclusion
 Cognitively challenging reflection allows for
development of practice of engaging with others
across difference when there is dialogic interaction
between service experience and reflections.

What representations are available to students?
Parents:
 Stories from students, Waiting for Superman
 Teachers*:
 Detailed observations of teachers teaching
 LPP is critical component

*changes not linked to larger discussions of teachers
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