Capitulo II. La interpretación de la Jurisdicción en los Sistemas de
2.2. La jurisdicción en el Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos
In rereading the transcript, I discovered statements that seemed to be stories that were even less fully formed than the set previously identified. This intrigued me so I collected, sorted and carefully considered them to see if they shed any more light on what kinds of stories are possibly still lingering on the edges of the group interview. I began by being sure that they were not whole stories that I had missed in my initial reading of the story. To do this, I created a chart (see Table 5) similar to the one used to evaluate the sequence of events in the other stories. While these stories did not necessarily need other components, they did have to have a complicating action because as Bruner states “For there to be
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a story, something unforeseen must happen” (2000, p. 15). Additionally, statements were rearranged because often the participants did not tell the parts of the story in the sequence indicated on table 5.
None of these stories had complicating actions; therefore, they are not considered actual stories. However, they could have been expanded to more fully formed stories. Therefore, I classified these as partial stories and considered them separately from the more fully formed ones to see if there were consistent themes and presentation of ideas.
Consistent with more fully formed stories, these partial stories often do not offer a resolution to the dilemma presented. Resolutions to the story dilemma occurred 17% of the time as opposed non- resolutions of 75%. It wasn‟t clear in “Show No Fear” whether the dilemma was resolved or not. In the more fully formed stories, problems were resolved in 33% of the stories and not resolved in 57% of them. While the there were more story resolutions in the more fully formed stories, the other overall
characteristics of these partial stories, such as tone of frustration, are consistent with the more fully
formed stories. These characteristics will be discussed more fully in subsequent analysis of the stories.
Next I looked more closely at settings, characters and story topic in the more fully formed stories to find what was revealed.
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Table 5: Events Depicted in Partial Stories (Table continued)
Partial Story Story beginning
Establish who and what action is taking place
Complicating action What happened as a result Story conclusion Donna: it didn't happen
Who: university teacher
When/where: during university class on campus What: teacher didn't deliver on promises Personal experience; horror story; learning to teach
problem was not solved
she was promising us things that were going to happen
then they didn't happen til we all found ourselves kind of screwed because we needed things that were going to be offered
Donna: We go crazy
who: beginning teacher, unidentified other when/where: in unspecified classroom what: how beginning teacher's actions are affected by others
personal experience; optimistic story; instruction problem not solved
When I'm in my class by myself, we go crazy but
when if
somebody's there, I feel more
reserved.
Cheryl: It's hard
Who: beginning teacher
when/where: in classroom related to field experience
what: certain students are hard to control
personal experience; horror story; management problem not solved
I like the fact that I only have three kids to a group
. But those three
kids, you have to constantly get on them and say pay attention. Wesley, stop trying to shoot me with your pen
It's hard
Alice: same things over and over
Who: beginning teacher
When/where: in classroom related to field experience
What: observation isn't as good as other things personal experience; optimistic story; learning to teach
problem not solved
Once I'm there like a few hours
the same things just happen over and over again, no matter how long you're there.
I'd rather talk to the teacher and talk to someone rather than just sit there and
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Table 5: Events Depicted in Partial Stories (Table continued)
Partial Story Story beginning
Establish who and what action is taking place
Complicating action What happened as a result Story conclusion Cheryl: no way to keep up
Who: beginning teacher When/where: at the university What: workload was too heavy
personal experience; optimistic story; learning to teach
problem solved
because I had too many hours and there was no way I would have been able to keep up.
I had to drop math methods
Cheryl: show no fear
Who: beginning teacher, classroom teacher When/where: in classroom related to field experience
What: classroom teacher gives beginning teacher advice
personal experience; optimistic story; learning to teach
no problem stated
I had went on an observation
and the teacher told me, “Show no fear.” Don't let them know that you're scared.
Cheryl: had a rough day
Who: beginning teacher, mom When/where: after field experiences
What: mom allows beginning teacher to vent personal experience; optimistic story; learning to teach
problem solved
Like usually when I leave (the teaching experience)
I've had a rough day, I call my mom. I tell everything to my mom and she says, okay, you're better now? And I say yeah
Cheryl: He doesn't check it
Who: beginning teacher, university teacher When/where: during university class on campus What: university teacher doesn't go over work with students
personal experience; horror story; learning to teach
problem not solved
like for instance,
with Dr. Smith, he doesn't explain it a lot, like he wants you to figure it all out on your own.
But if it's not right when you figure it out, he doesn't check it. He doesn't go over it with you.
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Table 5: Events Depicted in Partial Stories (Table continued)
Partial Story Story beginning
Establish who and what action is taking place
Complicating action What happened as a result Story conclusion Alice: nothing to do with nothing
Who: university teacher
When/where: during university class on campus What: doesn't make sense why she's telling story personal experience; horror story; learning to teach
problem not solved
in one class she stopped us in the middle of stuff to tell us stories that have nothing to do with nothing.
We don't know why she started talking about them.
Sally: binders and binders
Who: beginning teacher
When/where: during student teaching at a school What: does lots of work that isn't reviewed appropriated experience; horror story; learning to teach
problem not solved
She had binders and binders of paperwork from the university to fill out.
She said she had to spend all of her time doing this paperwork and they didn't even look at it.
Hannah: completely emotional
Who: beginning teacher, university teacher When/where: during university class on campus What: university teacher tries to help beginning teacher
personal experience; horror story; learning to teach
problem not solved
One girl gets really completely emotional about it and she's talking and she's fussing.
Our classroom management teacher tries to tell her how she can talk to her teacher.
Alice: the argument
Who: classroom teacher (?); university teacher When/where: on visit to school
What: classroom teacher questions need to do paperwork
appropriated experience; horror story; learning to teach
problem not solved
we learned from my cousin who works in schools, she sort of got into an
argument with the teacher from the university who came to observe her student teacher.
Why were they doing so much paperwork, useless paperwork?
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Setting
Not surprisingly, the stories most often took place in classrooms (76%). The rest of the stories took place at the university or in a non-school setting. Since beginning teachers are most concerned about their own teaching and feel that working with children is held as the best way to learn to teach (Britzman, 2003), it is not surprising that most of the stories these beginning teachers told occurred in a classroom setting. It is also possible that the way I worded the question could have elicited these
responses as well. The question that elicited the initial stories was “If someone asked you to describe the most important teaching experience you personally have had or that someone else told you, what story would you tell?” Other questions I asked in the group interview that initiated stories include
What other stories do you have about teaching?
Are there any stories that you hear other students in classes tell about classroom
experiences?
Do any of your college professors share stories about teaching with you in class?
Do any particular stories stand out?
What are some of the other stories in science? What other stories are you
hearing there?
Do any of the teachers with whom you work with in the schools ever share
stories with you?
The surprising thing about the location is that two of the stories took place at the participant‟s home: “What Works” and “You Don't Know What You Know.” It is possible that more stories of “things I learned outside of the classroom” could have been elicited if the researcher had chosen to pursue it. This idea surfaces again in the contextual analysis and will be explored more thoroughly there.