Modalidades de contratación laboral

CHAPTERS FIVE, SIX, SEVEN AND EIGHT

INTRODUCTION T O CHA PTERS FIVE A N D S IX

The following two chapters provide an account of the w ays in which tutors and students made sense of their experiences as they reflected on their engagement in teaching and learning practices both in the classroom and i n clinical prac tice. Extracts from both interviews and journals are used to allow the p articipants to ' speak for themselves'. Discussion and interpretation of the data are guided by the theoretical and m ethodological positions supporting this research and outlined in Part Two.

Because New Zealand is a small country with only fifteen polytechnic schools of n ursin g (each with an i ndividual course ) and a relatively s m all, mobile tutor population, indepth description would e n able tutor identification. Middleton ( 1 987 : 1 9) identified this as a methodological and ethical problem in a country with a population as small as that of New Zealand. Anonymity was guaranteed at the time of initial negotiation with the participants. Therefore only sufficient description of the context and the participants as will allow the reader to make sense of the data has been included here.

As described in chap ter four the third year course was divided into six to eight week m odules with specific clinical placements relating to each module. There were alternate classroom and clinical periods of two to three weeks each.

The principle of student-centred learning which permeated the curriculum design w as tran slate d i nto practice simi larly i n each module. S t ude n ts were given "packages" of workbook-like material to complete usually by the end of the module

although sometimes these were to be completed before the student went out to the clinical placement. In addition some of the classroom sessions were voluntary.

A s discussed i n previous chapters, there were social and structural constraints, to w h i c h both tutors and s tude n ts referred and which prevented them from fully realising their educational and practice ideals . These constraints, which were both m aterial a n d c o n c e p t u a l , aro s e i n p art from the educationa-l-contex t of the polytechnic and the practice context of clinical agencies, and in part from the school of nursin g ' s organisation of curriculum, pedagogy and evaluation in the third year course.

As will be shown in the research account which follows, tutors and students were constrained by the c urriculum (which was organised i n modules with designated s u bject, clas sroom and clinical h ours within the modules), the order i n which students moved through the m odules, tutor access to clinical areas and so on. The tutor - studen t relationship was similarly constrained by practices and procedures e x i s ti n g i n the polytech ni c and the clinical agencies. These constraints related m ainly to hierachical relationships and the emphasis on specific knowledge and competency acquisition. Evaluation of the student's progress largely re sted on previously established criteria to meet the requirements of the polytechnic and the Nursing Council of New Zealand. The requirements to u se specific written forms of evaluation , and to keep written p ersonal files for each student, for example, were c o n s trai n ts re ferred to by both tu tors and s tudents. In the clinical agenc ies constraints m ainly related to organisational factors such as time lim its, tasks and procedures, i ndividual workloads, staffing levels, the dynamics of the relations of power between health professionals, and the over-riding demands of doctors (refer also p64).

As w i l l be show n i n c hapter fi ve, throu ghout the period of this research tutors became i ncreasingl y reflexive as they explored the inconsiste ncies be tween their intentions and their actions through critical dialogue and journalling. Although they were unable to fully penetrate (Willis, 1 977) the ideological and hegemonic basis of their day- to-day practice and engage in transformative action during this study, in many instances tutors increased their abi lity to engage in ideology-critique and to reflect on ar(dl.s for change.

Tutors experi enced a di sj u n ction between the social s truc tures of te ach i n g and professional practice. The principles, practices and procedures of the polytechnic often prevented tutors from maintaining their nursing focu s and skills. And those of

the cli nic al setting often prevented them from providing students with the kind of educational experience they thought necessary. Moreover, m anifest in the protocols presented in the next two chapters , are tutors ' understanding of the attitudes, values and beliefs about nursing education held by their peers in the clinical setting. Tutors generally e xperie nced the s e as being con tradic tory to, or confli cting with, the attitudes values and beliefs held by those in the education setting. In this w ay, the data demonstrates that tutors "worked in two worlds " and moved betwe e n two professional cultures.

Chapter six provides e vidence of the ways in which students were able to di stance the m se l ves from their educational experiences through the research processes of critical discourse and journal ling. They spoke about those aspects of their education w h i c h w e re p e rso n a l l y a n d profe s s i o n a l l y fru s trati n g to t h e m i n t h e s a fe environments of group interviews and personal journals.

U nlike tutors, s tudents e xperienced a con tinuity of s ocial structures between education and practice. They discussed and reported ways in which they learned to act i n accordance with w hat they perceived was expected of them. And students complied with those prac tices, p rinciples and beliefs w hich they perceived to be desired by those i n education and practice who had the power to determine their future. Where these expectations were incompatible, students generally reported complying with the requirements of the clinical agency because it was here that they h ad to dem onstrate their compete nce as a student n urse . The value p laced on ' prac tic e ' as s u pe rior to ' th e ory ' i n the c l inical a g e n c i e s re i n forced their understanding of what it meant to be a student nurse. I n this way, their educ ation can be construed as inculcating them into a professional culture.

B oth tutors and students experienced similar tensions between social structures and i ndividual agency and were engaged in producing and reproducing professional nursing culture. Their individual consciousness of themselves as professional n urses can be seen to be socially constructed within institutional contexts where structured power relationships are well established.

Tutor protocols are labelled with the tutor pseudonym and the interview number (for example, Ann Inr l ) or the tutor pseudonym and journal entry date (for example, Ann 2/5 ) . Student intervie w protocols are identified by class (for example, STU 3B 1 ) and journal entries are iden tified by student number and date (for example , Stu24 2/5). The interviewer's comments are typed in bold print and different speakers during group interviews are identified by brackets such as { _{or [.}

CHAPTER FIVE

TUTOR DISCOURS E

This c h apter is primarily to do with tutors ' experiences , but some extracts from stude n ts ' interviews and journals have-been included to presen t a-more complete picture. E xcerpts from interviews and journals, unless specified otherwise, are representative of themes which emerged from the data rather than individual tutors ' views. Each extract is representative of many extracts which could have been chosen

to illustrate the panicular point being m ade. There is no attempt to create an indepth /

profile of individual tutors but rather the intent is to identify themes which emerged from the examination of all interviews and journal entries of these tutors teaching i n the third year o f a three year comprehensive nursing course . These themes are: the experience of reflexiviry,· reproducing cultural knowledge ; and classroom and clinical experience .

Tutor discourse reveals the extent to which their thoughts, intentions and actions were e m bedded in dual cultures - a teaching, ' polytechnic ' culture and a nursing

culture experienced both in the school of nursing and in the clinical agencies. There

appeared to be similar s tructural constraints in the polytechnic as there were in the clinical agencies ( e . g . refer p l 6; p 1 8 9 ) so, for the most part, this duality was managed smoothly, obscuring the processes of reproduction of professional culture. However, when tutors experienced a disjunc tion between knowledge, beliefs and values in the education setting and those in the clinical setting, they were more willing to engage in ideology critique.

T H E EXPER I EN C E O F R E FLEXIVITY

This theme highlights the ways in which tutors used the research process to ground their current experiences in the past and to talk about the future. All tutors referred

to their own nursing education experiences as having influenced the ways they think about and approach their work as tutors. Their reflections on current experiences and what they expected to be able to do i n the future were developed as the research progressed.

The past

In the following dialogue this tutor reflects on her own educational experience and contrasts it with what she thinks should happen with the students she teaches:

Like, not being nasty - I don' t think that I do anything that the tutors did with me - you see, because I always felt talked down to .. .I always felt a bit p atronised and I became v ery quiet - I was very quiet in class - probably like some of our students here. And I just did my own thing in the end. I did what I thought they wanted.

A n d you h a ve descri bed that as negative experiences?

Yes.

Are they rea lly posi tive though? Because you 've learnt from them. A n d you do different thi ngs because of them? It might have a ffected t h e w a y t h a t y o u i n t e ra c t e d w i t h other peo p l e, a n d t h a t you wou l d n ' t wan t to do to other people what had been done to you. Yeah. B u t I use my psych tutors as role models, because there were very positive things like - there were lots of role p lays and things. Yeah, I suppose when you look at it they are - they are very positive. But I . . . think that if I hadn' t come tutoring I wouldn' t have thought they were positive. I think if I had responded to my clients like these tutors responded to us I would have been at fault... honestly.

Lyn Int 2

Lyn was able to reflect on the conditions of domination she experienced as a student

and expressed her inte ntion to avoid perpetuating them as a tutor. However, at the time of this research tutors engaged in socio-political actions which did perpetuate

the social structures and conditions of domination, even though they knew that these same structures lim ited both their teaching and nursing practices and constrained

stude n ts ' choices . They were well aware of this contradiction and its practical effects on their practice and on students' experiences but could see little alternative to it. In this interview the tutor explains her own attempts to "use the system" as a student and her inability to act now that she is a tutor.

... (students) do pick out different traits in how a tutor will handle things. Yeah, and they use the system a little bit which is good, you know, that shows some knowledge, some insight.

Did you do the same as a student?

Oh yes. Very true - in the end you know - you knuckle down. You fight the system and then you make the decision to knuckle down, when it's only you know, half way there, you knuckle down and you fi nish and you just ge t there. Just did what was expected and kept a low profile and hated it. Hated being really put down. I was always very conscious of it, I don ' t think you say i n front of the client - and that h appened to me a couple of times and I hated that. I would feel so ashamed (if I did that), because if I'm not happy about what a student's doing, I will wait until they ' ve come out of the room, and out of the area.

A re tutors sti l l doing that to stu dents?

Oh I think they probably are.

Are you able to say anything?

Oh, you know , maybe I ' m not strong enough in myself or confident enough in myself in what I'm doing yet to be able to do that. And the people who are like that are very strong people.

What is i t in t he system that allows them to be strong?

I think that in some way it is good, you have this individual authority and power. B u t it is too muc h . We are not as sessed. Like i f the students do evaluate us - we don ' t act on it, or they don' t see us acting on it - so they don' t see any change, so after a while they get to think, you know "Why bother"? And I don ' t think we are judged enough by our peers.

Lyn lnt3

Later in this interview the personal (rather than structural) explanations the tutor gave for her inability to act were explored. The tutor explains here that in common

w i t h all t utors s he is " trying to survive and feel secure " in rapidly changing

education and health care institutions.

It i n terests me t h a t people h a v e a personal ex p l anation for not bei n g able to act. Yeah. Like you said " Oh well I'm not strong eno u gh " , t h ere's something wrong with me a n d I can ' t con front this person, or I can't mention i t.

Yeah I think there ought to be a way, that' s right. You know there ' s som e t h i n g w rong, a n d you ' ve g o t t o change i t . . . You've�ot t o be carefu l sometimes, people are very territorial and I think people are stanin g to feel a bit threatened in the system at the moment about - you know, all the changes that are happening, and I'm busy trying to survive and feel secure -

It is fairly political I think.

Lyn Int3 Thus person al explanations ('not strong enough; not confident enough') were given for what were essen tially socially produced constraints in their day to day practice. This prevented tutors from realising how such constraints could be overcome. The present

Through dialogue and journal ling, tutors began to further uncover some of the

understandings they had about the socio-politico-historical dynamics of the contexts of their practice . This process of critical self reflection through emancipatory

discourse e n abled some tutors to see themselves as active (or at least potentially

active) participants in challenging and changing the constraining conditions that were a pan of their day-to-day lives.

Although they had pre viously realised that there was a structural basis to the dis-

ease they felt with the ways in which they were "forced" to teach, they now realised

that this was something they could act upon. As Carol explains:

The opportun ities for teaching nursing practice in the clinical areas abound and a t the moment I feel as if I'm only just tapping into them. I

would c hoose to conc en trate my energies here . . . once back at the polytech ... after extremely busy weeks in the clinical area I find it hard to motivate myself when there are no immediate goals to achieve .. .

Carol 22/ 1 0

I n t h e followi n g j ournal entry Robin e xplains that s h e h a d been unaw are o f

individual student's backgrounds and the relationship of their individual learning

needs to the content and processes in the module. There was l ittle in the overall

orga n i s ation o f the co urs e w h ich would h ave encouraged h e r to take this i n di vidual i s ti c s tance in her work . Robin saw this i n formation i n term s of "problems" alerting her to the knowledge and skills that i ndividual students might bring with them to the module. This extract also demonstrates one of the ways in which the interview and journal were used to faci litate posing new problems rather

than hunting for solutions to unexamined and taken-for-granted questions. The tutor

engages in what Freire ( 1 973) calls "the pedagogy of the question" rather than the

"pedagogy of the answer", and is willing to critically exam i ne assumptions she

holds about her teaching.

Judith discussed my j ournal with me yesterday and provoked me to t h i n k m o re a b o u t w h e re o u r s t u de n t s are at p e rs o n a l l y a n d professionally at the beginning of the module. This prompted m e to